Proposed Gordo Solution

As those below me stated - most disagreement seems to be coming from people who aren`t even going to feel the negative consequences of the plan as laid out by bad wolf. I`d say just go with it, let`s roll them out. I`m not at all worried about the little imbalances an update like this causes when it`s working to fix a major imbalance.

Like the e class update - if anything in an update is op, we fix that later with minor rebalancing.

Tbk as always, very insightful.

Ren, if anything I`m more in agreeance with you.

It`s funny how a game with only 40 active players is so concerned about balance, I would think getting more people to play or not losing the one`s that do would be a higher priority. Anyway i vote to implement BW`s suggestions and get it over with . . . rather than upsetting people about something that may or may not happen. I like the way the last updates were rolled out with little speculation and expediency.

I think at this point, it would be best to just let whatever is going to happen, just happen. We can talk about kinks later on, but for every good suggestion I have seen, there are four bad ones that follow.

Bring it on.

Interestingly enough, maybe a handful of people currently have that amount of land... And now that artis are about twice as available, perhaps it`s not out of the realm of balance to do something about setting some sort of limitations.

And if people really want a paid, they will find a way to pony up 7 bucks.

Yup, see after thought it just seems way better to give more incentives to newer empires than to punish old ones. Do that buff c3s and c4s virals just took a pay cut in maru upkeep so even an explorable c4 viral deserves the buff

take away land all together ? make it like old uc was ... :D

As a caveat I neither:

- Have over 150k land
- Buy gordoes for paid
- Capping land would not affect me in any way, nor would it make me more likely to cluster

Something that is clear missed is that for Guardians and economies which use Tax as a main income ( including myself)

Hoarding is an unfeasible method if you have limited time to build and fight like I have.

The solution to any problem when I wish to change the mindset of an audience should be punitive but reward based. Therefore the problem is not the gordoes or the gordoes empires, it is simply making the modifier for clusters (c-2, c-3 and c-4) much more desirable

These modifiers can then be increased depending on the number of clusters/ planets that you have ( Again difficult to code this is a manual fix )

I say this in good faith based upon my experience of this game and business, that retrospectively reducing an empires land will have a damaging effect on many loyal players of this game

Finally :

I applaud Archangels simple logic.

The key is to invent new projects that people can do once they reach maximum research and are forced to dig. i can think of a multitude of ideas:

- Researching a new ship
- Research the enables you to alter a planet modifier or income stream
- Research a project that enables you to find information about other empires
- Research a project which releases a server wide event ( Plague , releases NP’s at various PR’s , again I know admins have to do this but I am sure there are many volunteers who could play NP’s myself included)
- A research modifier which makes you eat 1% less food per time or increases your loyalty etc

Individually some of these ideas may increase imbalance to some extent, but should time spent on this game seriously be punished in what I believe would be a detrimental update that actually will have little POSITIVE effect on the game ?

- To satisfy what I feel is the minority of empires who feel that this system is “unfair.” A concept which I myself do not particularly understand. When JuMaster was around the girding formula was much easier. In order to placate the heaving masses who did not want to spend as much time building an empire of such stature and land the formula was made more difficult.

I believe the third point made for a more satisfactory solution.

As the negative effects of limiting an empire would negate those like TBK and KoB amongst many others who are willing to pay considerable sums of money to quickly increase the land on their colonies.

Is this unfair ? No I do not believe so.

Simply put are the admins and Stephen trying to run a business or a charity ?

There seems to be very little business insight in many of the suggestions provided. Solely that games are a business, where you can become as good as others through either:

- Time spent
- Money

This is a working business model.

So my solutions/comment in regard to the first suggestion namely :

If you have less than 125 planets, then you may only gordo to 150k land. Updated Point: Existing empires would have their land reduced. Agreement so far: Sibi, Raist, TBK

Either :

- Make the gored formula much more difficult , so therefore the work needed increases
- Change the modifiers on U Class planets which exceed a particular land size ( difficult to code this involves a manual monitor and fix)
- Better still in line with the random cluster %age add to land, make the MODIFIERS for clusters much more desirable.

First of all I just want to say it is really refreshing to see that so many updates are happening and my thanks to the admins who do this unpaid. My hats off to you.

I have watched the discussion go on with much interest, for many of us we have been waiting for updates since 07/08.

Some of the die hards that I see here have continued to play this game out of love for its simplistic design, multitude of permutations and ability to endlessly seek a better empire to to UW.

This has led to some fantastic rivalries and levels of skill. I have a multitude of points to add to this discussion as I have read through most of the posts carefully, while bearing in mind how much I actually value that players input, mainly based on time spent actually playing the game and engaging in the process.

1. I run a technology and consulting business and I always say to our consultants when they seek to change something or give advice they should ask themselves 1 simple question

“ What is the outcome I am seeking to achieve ?”

So my question has to be what is the purpose of having a maximum land cap on players who choose to have less than 125 planets ?

Is it to :

- Make the game fairer to younger/ newer empires who would naturally be at a significant disadvantage anyway due to the time spent on the game, thus penalising older empires who for years have helped to keep the game going
- To even the playing field for all empires, in that case what then is the point of continuing to play if I know at some point all I can do is dig pointlessly with no end in sight , particularly if you are a Guardian or do not wish / have the support to do a UW

And Sibi has a point that its not only the land that is a problem. If the land is reduced then the empires that has recieved bous loyalty over the years should have this reduced to the maximum you can have (Around 5000 for non guards and around 3800 for guards.

I honestly dont think the land on existing C2`s should be adjusted. Its part of the game that these have been made... I would suggest that the option that more can be build is removed and then let that be it.

if theres going to be a cap on land then i want a refund for all the gordos i have bought as at the time of purchase no such update was planned.

Sorry for posting from my slow account... its Sibi btw.

Now I will try to ask this without sounding too bitter because I totally agree with nerfing the massively gordoed empires, but since all this balancing is being done to ppl who have played the game following normal game mechanichs because they have an unfair advantage over hoarders, how about those who recieved extra loyalty from admins?

How is, for instance, a guard with 5k loyalty on his planets a fair competitor since they now will have a significant advantage in income with the new land cap?