Planetarion Forums

Zimra · 15 Dec 2006, 19:06

After reading through the forums for a few weeks, I've come to notice a lot of posts where people refer to the lack of new players in the game, or about changes bringing in less of them, or them being scared away and so on and so forth. Anyway, I thought some of you might appreciate the opinion of a new player to Planetarion.

Well, strictly speaking, I'm not exactly a new player. I played about 1/3rd of a round before the game went p2p, purely to bash on my classmate. I didn't take any active part in my galaxy, didn't take an alliance or really follow much of anything other than the burning desire to build as many ships as possible just to trash that arrogant bastard. I still found the game fun then though.

Now having played through most of this round (from tick 200 onwards) I have found that game is still indeed fun. The best part for me was the galaxy I ended up in, it was a great social experience, I made a lot of new friends and a couple of enemies(but let's not get into that). I hope to keep contact with them in the future because I plan to continue playing. I also joined an alliance, F-Crew, as no other alliance would accept me since my brother was in F-Crew and they were all afraid of security leaks. I know I could have lied to them, but I'm too honest for that. I love the teamwork that goes into an alliance, everyone rushing for the defence calls, working together on attacks. I also loved picking my own attacks when F-Crew set them up. It was a great learning experience and helped me get a much better idea of what kind of person would make a good target and which ships to use and so on. My favorite race is Xan, I'll go for hundreds of cheap units over small amounts of expensive ones any day.

Anyway, although the game is hugely fun I think the round lasted a bit too long. Even though I started late, I still burned out near the end. My life got in the way, I'd usually come home from work and all the decent targets would have been picked up and thus I'd have less enthusiam for picking crappy targets day in day out. (I know I could have found my own, but as I said, not enough time)

That brings me to my problems with planetarion. To do okay/good at the game you don't really need to be active that much, but to actually make a dent you basically need to be near or on the computer 24/7. Which is fine with me, I don't mind not doing too great, first round after all. With the XP system, I basically had to pick a huge planet to land on or all I'd be accomplishing would be getting roids with little to no impact on my score at all. Because of work, I would rarely if ever get a chance to target the big guys, and thus ended up with a very medicore score. I managed to keep up a consistently decent number of roids, though, and if I didn't keep sleeping in and crashing then I would have had one kickass value at the end. It would be nice if there was a way to compete without being as active as the best players, but I'm not going to be as bigheaded to suggest that I can fix this just by wishing it was so, or that by complaining without an actual solution that the problem will mystically go away. I say fine, leave it as it is, I still find the game fun. That might be just me though, I don't need to win or even try to win to enjoy the game. Laugh at me for having a crap score, and I'll just be happy I'm having a good time. So the game rewards people who have obscene amounts of free time? More power to them, it's better than sitting at a bus stop all day shouting out lurid comments to all who pass by.

Anyway, in short, I love the game, I had fun, I plan to continue playing and hopefully the game will get better. My only gripe with the new updates is that it looks like fi/co fleets will kick ultimate amounts of ass in-cluster, especially zik fleet catches. Also the buddy pack shrinking, I won't get to play with any of my new friends

. But that really should be in another topic, right? I can't fit everything I want to say in here, and I've probably forgotten half of it, but I this should be good enough for now.

Hope you enjoy the opinion and at least recognise that one person has joined PA and likes it, pays for it, and plans to stay.

The Real Arfy · 15 Dec 2006, 19:18

Hey, first of all let me say welcome into the PA community, its always nice to see fresh faces popping up now and again.

As you say, the game has gotten more fun and I'm sure you've read the 'controversy' regarding the changes. Its nice to hear the opinion of somebody not a regular on these boards, so don't get too worried about voicing your opinion there as well. If you ever need to regain some respect, just say something demeaning about Kargool or MaxMilliaN, that will get you in everybody's good books

I think alot of people forget that PA is still a game and its one of the few games where you don't need to be majorly active to get a good planet rank. For example, counter-strike. If you play for 30 minutes a day, you're most likely going to be losing 9 out of 10 shoot-outs against somebody who plays 5 hours a day.

I'm not sure if I've even addressed your points tbh, as I've had numerous beers and all I can think about atm is spelling correctly and typing coherently.

Anyway, welcome, enjoy your stay, I'm glad you like it here - we'd appreciate your input on other parts of the boards too!

lokken · 15 Dec 2006, 19:30

What an excellent first post.

I'm glad you enjoyed planetarion. From reading all I can say is that there are people who are probably as active as you, doing better. I think if you learn to manage your activity better and maybe get more aggressive, you'll do better than you are now.

As for the buddy pack issue, I kind of agree, as I don't find playing in a galaxy without my friends in it as much fun as I do with them in, but then I don't really mind/care overly as I've got plenty to talk to on IRC anyway.

The Real Arfy · 15 Dec 2006, 20:03

Actually thats a good point, you should probably not buddy pack with your current friends at the moment. No disrespect meant but you're probably not able to hold up and maintain a strong galaxy (which is kind of the main aim of the BP) with your lack of experience - hell I doubt myself to do that.

Going random will give you the chance to meet another 9 or 10 (or 24 lol) people, and thats how you do well in Planetarion: knowing people.

Zimra · 15 Dec 2006, 21:46

Thank you both for your replies and for the warm welcome. You're already showing me what I think is one of PA's strong points, which is the community.

I agree I could have done a lot better with my level of activity. You picked the right word with being more 'aggressive'. I was definately very lax and I could have done a lot more with the time that I had. Havoc was a whole different story entirely. Havoc rocked and I had one hell of a time playing it. If only I hadn't been working so much, lol. I think I finished at around 16mil (from about close to 2mil, which I ashamedly admit was my score at the end of the round proper) I don't think the Havoc score was that bad, being Xan and only launching 4-5 times a day. Really shows what could be done if the finger was pulled out. What I really loved about Havoc was the amount of Galaxy team work it produced. My gal was defending all over the place and we ended up somewhere in the top ten at the end, I think.

Now I'll probably get smacked by someone for this, but a lot of the gal's aren't very new player friendly. It's perfectly understandable, who wants someone who doesn't know what they're doing in their galaxy. Gal's are in it to win. Sure you can teach them the game and tell them what to do, but they're not going to be anywhere near as effective as someone who has been playing a few rounds. I managed to secure my place in my gal by purposefully staying up late and reporting a hell of a lot of incomings before anyone else could. Sneaky, but it worked. I learned quick and even if my score wasn't huge I could chug out the defense to my gal/alliance like it was nobodies business. So I had that going for me. What I seem to see a lot is that people never really get this chance. But then, I never see many new players log into IRC 5 minutes after signing up and start trying to make themselves useful. So it's a fault from both parties, although the new players really don't have a good idea of what should be expected of them. And it is a lot to lump on them.

As to a solution? There are lots of ideas, but none of them turn out that well. Be more lenient towards them? Okay, but face it, a lot of them are still going to suck. A good new players guide might help, but all of that information could be a bit more overwhelming. Galaxies strictly for new players? Sure, but that could detract from the experience of the game for them. My gal was pretty decent and had some good players in it, and I loved the experience. Plus it would be a lot harder to pick up the game as quickly.

Anyway, I'm getting off point. Wrong thread for those kind of thoughts. I think you're probably right about not going BP, it'd be a lot better to meet new people. I can still talk to my friends whether or not I'm in the same galaxy as them. Maybe even help a few of the new players get into the game before they get scared off.

Thank you for listening!

Tomkat · 15 Dec 2006, 22:23

I completely agree with your opinion that the round was too long. I also got burned out, and simply bored of doing the same thing again and again. It was only in the last week my activity then increased (and I managed to almost double my score in XP from some very lucky attacks).

I think round length should be 1/2 to 2/3 the size.

I'm glad you enjoy the game, and it is refreshing to see a new player who's willing to learn.

Lastly, well done on F-Crew for taking you in. This "security risk/leak" thing is stupid in my opinion, and is holding the game back.

Cessess · 17 Dec 2006, 10:42

Hey there mate

Hello everyone! I am one of the players fortunate enough to exile into the galaxy Zimra is talking about. I also started this round, around tick 300 or so, after playing before p2p but being restricted because of the lack of a credit card

. Anyways, it is like Zimra said, our galaxy was maybe not the best (Around rank 12 when I exiled into it, then fell to 30 - dont blame me!), and the score drop might incline that we were not as experienced as the rest of the top galaxies. Although, for me the round went a bit better than for Zimra (No offence mate), and that may just be the fact that i got into Omen in the middle of the round and that I was zik. As you said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zimra

As to a solution? There are lots of ideas, but none of them turn out that well. Be more lenient towards them? Okay, but face it, a lot of them are still going to suck. A good new players guide might help, but all of that information could be a bit more overwhelming. Galaxies strictly for new players? Sure, but that could detract from the experience of the game for them. My gal was pretty decent and had some good players in it, and I loved the experience. Plus it would be a lot harder to pick up the game as quickly.

I think what made my score this round was the fact that i actually did get alot of help when I started. Ptraci in Insurrection was kind enough to take me in, and all the great people there taugh me how to get back into the game. I know for sure that without insurrection I wouldn't have ended up where I was. This so called training alliance is a good thing I believe, and although not fighting in the top seems like a necessity in this game. It took me alot of time and effort (and a little luck) to be offered a place in FO this round, which I am also very thankful for (Thanks Wish

). What I maybe would recommend would be encouraging new players to come on irc in some way, showing them the recruitment section on the forums, and help them find a suiting alliance. Also, if they want to get good at this game, it seems they have to spend some time to get used to it. I heard that some of the galaxies just exile people out before they even get a chance to prove themselves, which is kind of sad, but i guess some peoples' wish of winning is so strong that it can't be helped. Also, we had alot of fun in our galaxy which i think was one of the reasons I am still staying here. My first galaxy apparently was a mix of very experienced players and total newbies, thus the activity on irc was rather limited when the oldies didn't talk at all, just idling, and the new ones did not come on irc. I dont really know if I added an opinion, i guess i'm just enforcing Zimra's points... Wanted to get a post on the forum too though

Exode · 22 Dec 2006, 04:09

In my opinion it is great to see new players (returning or not) into this game! Your opinions are definately needed as the older guard may not see the problems you are facing...

Thumbs up from me and keep up the great work

Juice · 22 Dec 2006, 13:51

This is my second full round of PA for many years, and i agree with what Zimra has said the game is a lot of fun, sometimes to the point where your real life takes a back seat. Joining F-Crew was the biggest help for me as everyone want's to help and show the new keen players the ropes.

I'd just like to thank the HC's of F-Crew for all the help and patience they have with us new guys.