Splitting the universe

[JonnyBGood]

This is a post I made in a thread on PD. I thought I'd give it its own thread here to see what people though

All free players/all players who select "are you a new player who'd prefer a bit of experience outside the mainstream universe" go straight out to cluster 200. Once they reach a certain score they are given the option of moving into the mainstream universe, once they reach another score above that they are forced to move into the main universe. This means that new players start off in a less intense playing-field, galaxies won't get pointless inactives who never even login after the first couple of days, medium-low galaxies won't waste resources they can ill-afford on exiles. Conversely it also means they're not going to jump into the irc-related section of the game straightaway so might potentially lose interest before they get really into it, plus they miss out on scans a bit (I don't think a huge number of those players get scans normally though). To be honest I don't think this will happen though, the fun part of the game likely to keep people, ie attacking, will still be open. If you couldn't be bothered logging in a few times a day to attack you're probably not a PA player.

Opinions? Slight alterations? Outright rejection?

[jt25man]

It's a good idea, but the new players that could potentially be beneficial right off to the galaxy would be put here also. Such as the ones that sign up and then actually join IRC and are eager to learn and play.

Other than that, how are we expecting them to learn, teach themselves? Most of the new players are clueless and don't know what to do, or where to go for help unless someone points them in the right direction. Perhaps we would allow them to join Alliances as recruit only and not count towards any of the alliance stats until they graduate over to the big universe, then they could get that training without affecting the target alliance's stats.

[Gate]

The only bad thing I can think of, straight off my head, is that the universe is small enough already. Will making it even smaller significantly damage the game?

On the other hand, if this leads to a long term growth in players, then the point is moot.

[wakey]

Its a bad idea imho. Anything which reduces the numbers in the main universe leaves the weaker players/groups even more vunrelable. We already have problems where certain galaxies regulalry get double and triple booked due to the reduced number of galaxies without making things worse.

Your just drive the less hardcore players away for good as even in a war game its not fun having mass waves on you most nights and in turn kill alot of alliances that service the newer players

[JonnyBGood]

Well, I've been an advocate of reintroducing the quest system, so I'd view that as how to bring them up to speed. Beyond that the option to move obviously comes into play. I'm not sure how many brand-new players dying to spend 4 hours a day minimum on irc are out there. Any that are I'd imagine know people ingame who could just tell them "don't click on that button".

They just have to show the willingness to do the simple things.

[wakey]

Another thing to remember, we had a system simerlar to this a few rounds back and I'm sure we will all agree it was largely a flop

[Heartless]

I already see alliances abusing this.

- join the c200 universe and grow safe and sound until your members are forced or able to join the "real universe"
- when said alliance joins the real universe the other alliances are already weakened because their universe is smaller and the alliances have fought their first battles.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by wakey

Its a bad idea imho. Anything which reduces the numbers in the main universe leaves the weaker players/groups even more vunrelable. We already have problems where certain galaxies regulalry get double and triple booked due to the reduced number of galaxies without making things worse.

But this wouldn't really change anything. Most of the players my suggestion would serve are those who sign up, get bashed and quit. These players aren't serving as targets anyways so the point is moot.

Your just drive the less hardcore players away for good as even in a war game its not fun having mass waves on you most nights and in turn kill alot of alliances that service the newer players

Who sends these mass waves? Seriously here. Occasionally I see decent roid planets in small gals with five waves of inc but these are the players I'm proposing moving out the main universe.

Originally Posted by Gate

The only bad thing I can think of, straight off my head, is that the universe is small enough already. Will making it even smaller significantly damage the game.

I don't really envisage more than 500-800 players out there (fyi there are currently 800 planets below 200k score out there and 500 planets with less than 120 roids).

[robban1]

well atleast we will not see the damn freebe farmings that is common nowadays, ex, noobs sending 15k fi to a zik with loads of thives and beetles or beetles only to ziks

i have seen it so much this round im about to throw up dammit

are the mh's on vac or something?

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Heartless

I already see alliances abusing this.

- join the c200 universe and grow safe and sound until your members are forced or able to join the "real universe"
- when said alliance joins the real universe the other alliances are already weakened because their universe is smaller and the alliances have fought their first battles.

I considered that myself. Personally I'd ask alliance HCs how they'd exploit it if it was introduced and then how they'd counter the exploits they can think up. That said I'm not entirely sure if you actually would grow faster outside the main universe.


One potential counter would be to make roids worth less out there so their growth would be slower. Then once they move into the main universe their roid count would be adjusted to suit their resource income. This way the planets out there would grow slower (but it's not exactly like they're going for #1) but won't come into the main uni roid-fat as hell.

[Heartless]

Originally Posted by robban1

well atleast we will not see the damn freebe farmings that is common nowadays, ex, noobs sending 15k fi to a zik with loads of thives and beetles or beetles only to ziks

i have seen it so much this round im about to throw up dammit

are the mh's on vac or something?

The farmers will just keep whining, story-telling and threatening Jolt with law-suits until they get reopened by el big boss. Also, I doubt that it would stop then - the shipfarmers would just sign up with the considered option; it might lower the amount of ships farmed though.

[ChubbyChecker]

I still think that putting new players in galaxies with experienced players is the way to go. Things aren't working great in that regard atm but I think the best way to fix that is to tweak the exile system rather than trying to lump all the new players together in a separate area.

[furball]

Seems like a reasonable idea to me, but open to abuse.


The handicap that I'd create is to stop anyone in it joining an alliance or carrying over the score earned in the free universe to their new alliance. Any good?

[Makhil]

The idea will work if we also introduce non playing planets (roids + PDS) because no matter how you look at it, we need more planets. (and tbh non playing planets would still be more active than half the universe )

[aestuos]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

One potential counter would be to make roids worth less out there so their growth would be slower. Then once they move into the main universe their roid count would be adjusted to suit their resource income. This way the planets out there would grow slower (but it's not exactly like they're going for #1) but won't come into the main uni roid-fat as hell.

So your gonna put newbs in gal with other newbs and make thier roids worth less? serioulsy that would make them leave, i know there not going for no 1 but its like your punishing them for being new not only do you go in a crap c200 gal but your roids arent good

n00bs need experienced players to help thats the only answer

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by aestuos

So your gonna put newbs in gal with other newbs and make thier roids worth less? serioulsy that would make them leave, i know there not going for no 1 but its like your punishing them for being new not only do you go in a crap c200 gal but your roids arent good

This makes absolutely no sense. They're going to be in a separate universe where everyone's roids give the same resources. If everyone's fleets are halved it doesn't make a difference.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by furball

The handicap that I'd create is to stop anyone in it joining an alliance or carrying over the score earned in the free universe to their new alliance. Any good?

The second point would probably work. Considering the current system you just take as the base point the tick they leave the other universe at.

[furball]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

The second point would probably work. Considering the current system you just take as the base point the tick they leave the other universe at.

Sounds ok to me, I take your point over joining alliances. I think it will be punitive enough without preventing them from joining alliances.

[Furious]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

This is a post I made in a thread on PD. I thought I'd give it its own thread here to see what people though



Opinions? Slight alterations? Outright rejection?

throw em in at the deep end...best way to learn.

There are plenty of alliances that will look out for new players.

[GReaper]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

Well, I've been an advocate of reintroducing the quest system, so I'd view that as how to bring them up to speed. Beyond that the option to move obviously comes into play. I'm not sure how many brand-new players dying to spend 4 hours a day minimum on irc are out there. Any that are I'd imagine know people ingame who could just tell them "don't click on that button".

They just have to show the willingness to do the simple things.

Some good points.

Many games have a tutorial mode to show a new player how to get started, a typical example of this is EVE. Any complex game needs some sort of tutorial to give the player some idea on how to play it, Planetarion is fairly complex for attacking other planets. I've posted something asking for something similar to a quest system over a year ago, which is basically ideas for the implementation of training galaxies, a sort of tutorial or quest system to introduce them to the game.

I don't mind helping new players who have a genuine interest in playing the game, but there needs to be some way of preventing players from joining the universe if they only login once a week or don't even login every again after they've seen the game. A starting universe would be ideal for this.