Hnestly, I dont want to blame all that has been done at first pace. = Do not consider this as a flame.
On the other hand I would like to get into the changes done as much as I can.
So far I came to conclusion which I recently wrote ...
Panama Jack wrote:
Let me answer this one first.
You talk about how things are static and people just build big defenses to keep their planets. This is because planets make a HUGE amount of money as they are. Your suggestion for interest would make it worse. People would be fortifying their planets and sectors even more. It wouldn't make the game more fluid or mobile. This is why we REMOVED planetary interest years ago. It made things even MORE static as people made huge defenses no one ever had a hope of breaking. BTW, there is a dignitary that can boost credit production but it doesn't boost by interest.
One of the things I don't like is how quickly planets make money but Tarnus likes it this way.
I think it should be a little harder for planets to make money. As a counter to the HIGH credit production on planets we added high value commodities to make trading more viable and so people could trade and make as much money as owning planets.
I played on local server, which had pretty common setting and did not noticed such defences as today. That was because of one simple rule. Once they found you, it was just a matter of time before the planet is gone. Sometimes even minutes ... So it was not about the hudge, everybody stopping defence, but about the hideout itself, its reasonable defence, cloaking and placement ... further more also about logs, spies, tracking opponents, probes and keeping there status under control.
Panama Jack wrote:
One thing that experienced players know is that defenses in this game are NEVER a sure fire protection. There have been players who have had what appear to be impregnable defenses go down in flames. This is because we have added all kinds of ways to break a players defenses to the game. Some players just don't know how to use them effectively yet. It's a learning experience. We know the game is complex but we try not to make it TOO complex just challenging. There are a bunch of easy to play browser games that require little thought and we would rather be a thinking players game.
Actually that was the game I enjoyed few years ago ... move and think two steps ahead. We were not glued to planets and if we did not lose all of them in one day, we could easily rebuild them elsevere, where we had enough conficence in few days hideout. The interest of app 10%-13% of few thousands of Trillions made a good profit for fast and reasonable upgrade. First upgrade we done was cloaking ... usually arround 500 according to the opponents ships ... and the rest of techs were reasoneably high in order to make the planet to work the way we wanted. So changes made past three years would make a bit different behavior to us rather than destroing that planet ....
Still works that known planet is lost planet ...
Panama Jack wrote:
And you can lose credit QUICKLY in the game. If you store credits on your ship and your ship is destroyed you can lose way over HALF of the credits on the ship. And with planets you must invest credits into the tech on the planets to be able to create larger credit amounts faster.
There are new Probes that can take down players and some coming that can take down planets and defenses. Probes are underused in the game except by the few players who have figured out how useful they can be.
Spies have been made far, far more useful than ever before. Spies used to be almost useless. About the only reason anyone used them was to try and keep enemy spies off their planets. Now spies are HARDER to detect, HARDER to get rid of and easier to get onto an enemy ship without them knowing. Some players are capturing planets just to fill them with spies and nothing else. When someone takes the planet again they will usually get a spy on their ship. I know some players who have spies on MANY enemy player ships and know where they go at all times and where all of their SG sectors are located. They are just waiting for the right moment to use the information.
We culd lose majority credits fast even before ... but we were able to regain them back if we got the chance ...
Panama Jack wrote:
Now there I think you are thinking of a different game or one that someone set up that was set up using grossly outlandish settings. The amount of money for a 500 tech is so far out there, and has always been too high to achieve, no one could even get ONE tech level at 500.
Thanks to interest it was possible ... usualy only cloaking was 500 or wery close ... it assured long use of the planet ... no visible defence ... many good players just passed by ...
... now got tears in my eyes ...
Panama Jack wrote:
Actually it has been this way for years. We have been tweaking things to make both trading, attacking and building all pretty much even. Trading has almost always had the short end of the stick until recently with the addition of all the new commodities. We think there is a pretty even balance between attackers and builders now. It could still use some tweaking but that will come with the addition of a couple more probes and the Build and Research.
Well before I quit playing .. it was more about luck and strategy ... turns were useles at some point of the game, because we did not use them as much as they grown (10p5). Now turns come into account ... and heavy defences seems too.
Anyway ... I will try to get more deep into the game after what you wrote ... and I am looking for the upcomming features even more. Thank you for your time spent.
Panama Jack wrote:
I know B&R has been mentioned for YEARS but we are finally to a point in the coding where B&R will be a reality. So much of the game required a rewrite from the ground up and considering how much code is in the game it was a huge task. Especially for part time work.
We should have a beta for B&R up later this year and you should see things become even more fluid and mobile than you can imagine. All new weapons and defenses. Things you have probably never thought about being in the game.
Looking forward and going to study the system, how it changed ower the three years I was not in AAT ..