Notice the part about MS damage... well hopefully it won't be the only one on the list to change overWolf359 wrote:30. AT generating planet IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ADDED!!!!!
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35. Add MS damage to military experience IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ADDED!!!!!
Current State of Affairs:
Now to the issue at hand. People fall into 3 categories, those that want turns to be scarce so they can make as large a profit as possible selling them, those that think more turns "speeds" up the game too much/ those that want the game to go back to how it was also fall in this category, and those that play actively(sometimes too actively) and go through a substantial amount of turns in a normal sitting. The first 2 groups should easily be spotted in this thread by their mindless criticism and should be ignored or if a mod will kindly keep their spam removed.
Currently we recieve 4 AT per turn(or 192 per day) up to 5000. It should be common knowledge that relying on natural turn generation (12 full attacks per day) is not feasable any longer with the pace the game has evolved. Unfortunately the 4 ways in which Forum has addressed this "gap" in turn generation vs. pace have proven incapable of completely solving the issue. The fact that AT are the most consumable of the 3 traded goods on the ingame market has led to quantity per trade decreasing to the point where even using all 3 MT's only gains 1920 AT(only 10 days worth of natural AT growth). The second option is to use the same MT's for non-tradable AT(2,560 which is still less than 2 weeks worth of natural AT growth). 31 hits per day, which is what you can make using all 3 MT's to buy AT and what you earn from natural growth, is not enough to match the games pace. While buying AT for $ via the ingame blackmarket is a way of obtaining AT in sufficient quantities, it is not practical for everyone and is therefore not a viable solution to closing the turn generation vs. pace gap. The last option currently available is trading for turns on the game forums. Unfortunately this is also not enough to close the gap with the result that turns on the forum market creep upward again and again as time goes on. This is good for those engaging in "profiteering" because they can mask their gouging of people as simply an "increase" in the cost of turns. Since none of these ways close the gap, a "new" responsible way that doesn't drasticly alter the games balance should be proposed.
AT Planets Revisited:
Given the headaches and balancing issues involved with the release of the other types of planets, it is no wonder that AT planets were never considered possible. Fortunately now that enough time has passed that most if not all of the balancing issues with other types of planets have been solved, we can seriously consider AT planets as a potential way to close the turn generation vs. pace gap and keep it closed without altering the pace of the game drasticly. The largest complaints against AT planets are that they will result in a "flooding" of the game with turns leading to random massings low AT prices on the forum market and a "quicker" game play.
While it is true that initially there will be some "flooding" in the game, the end results will be a dynamic turn generation growth that more closely matches the current pace of the game. The flooding effect should be no more than we've experienced in the several "tweaks" to turn generation so far. The market fluctuates as the price dips to account for the new source of turns and then unlike those previous times it levels out as people "develop" their own turn generation capacity. There is no dip and then continuous rise past previous prices.
A second common fear is that more turns will lead to random or pointless massings and a general downturn in behavior. Unfortunately for the people who champion this reason, the threshold for people being able to "afford" to randomly mass others is already here. At this point it doesn't matter if a person can only afford to mass 16 random people instead of the 20 they would be able to with turns accrued from an AT planet. A shortage of turns is not holding the moral fiber of the game together.
The third most common fear is that more turns will lead to a "quicker" pace in both game play and game growth. With regards to quicker game play this may be true but some people actively seek out those "live" battles and feel they add a missing componet to the game. With regards to game growth this fear is both false and misleading. The one true limitation anyone has in the game is time. As long as their is a way for people to procure turns outside the personal turn growth(im including natural turn growth and use of own MT's to obtain turns in this) then the people with the most time will invariably push the boundaries of the game. There is little difference if they use 60k turns a day instead of 50k when it comes to opening up a gap between the casual gamers and those in it to "win". Whether its warring or farming or raiding the key is the time they put in, not the turns they bought or generated.
Now that i've dispelled the three most common complaints, lets move on to reasons why AT planets will work. Planets as we all know are non permanent investments, AT planets will be just as susceptible to being taken as any other type given its practical use. They will need large investments in them to be not only worthwhile but also in their defenses. This will, like on other planet types, act to reduce the amount of abuse through extreme planet stats. Unlike the the other planet types originally, AT planets already have a limitation built in. This is of course the limitation only being able to generate and hold(this would be true from a planet generation perspective) 5000 turns. This limit already prevents most of the "common" abuse people would use AT planets for and some of the "uncommon" abuse as well. There is of course some potential for abuse, but then again the only part of the game that can't be abused in some way is the "delete account" button. Another limitation will be that at some point a person will generate turns at a higher rate then they use them. That is unless a person can go through 240k turns a day using all 5k an hour... and if so more power to them... seriously whatever computer is doing that needs more power!!
What this means for John Q Public:
With a decent investment and maybe a merlin or 3, he can reduce the natural "fill" time from 26 days to potentially 1 turn. That of course assumes that he can spen all 5k in a turn. After several months and investments, his turn growth rate should equal his turn expenditure rate or he should be able to easily buy his turn expenditure rate from the market at a relatively stable price. He no longer has to wait with dozens of others for turn sellers who inflate their prices or don't even have turns to sell. He no longer has to set brokers to buy AT's only to have the other person wait hours before accepting. He can now use all of his time to "play" the game at his speed.
What this means for Forum:
With all the underlying pieces there including well established limits, implemtation of the new planet type should be relatively quickly and painless. A previously static section of the game that needed periodic tweaks now runs dynamicly elimanating time needed down the road as well as complaints for said "tweaks". The drop in brokers could potentially reduce load on the system. There would be a reduction in multi's due to being able to get "all" your turns through your main account.(please note im not saying I have or condone multi's, only that there would be less "need" for them) An update that can be percieved to support both larger older accounts as well as newer smaller accounts.
Concluding thoughts:
The time has come to close the gap between turn generation and game pace. Using AT planets provides a dynamic solution to a problem which has only seen static bandaides in the past. Ease of implementation and non-drastic alteration of the existing game pace are important components of this proposal. Provided a well thought out cost to benefit ratio when implemented, this proposal can provide "wins" in several fields that have needed attention, including the main one of strengthing user respect for Admin by addressing their concerns whether they are new or old, large or small.
Thanks,
Wep
PS Constructive comments only please, and please make sure you include reasoning with your comments
Update 1: Due to popular demand and how it will cut down abuse, AT generated by planets should be NON-tradable. In other words for personal use only.
