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Roland Gunner
Greenhorn
Joined: 26 Sep 2011
Location: Seattle
Status: Offline
Points: 55
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 08:30 |
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I like throwing random unpopular ideas out there, so I'll fire away once again..
I would be in favor of a new server only if it ran on a different rule set. The simplest example would be to just turn the speed up. If Illy offered a "speed" server at 10x speed on everything, it would create a totally different experience. 10x all build speeds, 10x Tech, 10x Van and unit movement, 10x everything.
Basically everyone would be able to get to 10 towns in 2 or 3 months and it would end up as a huge "late game" experience. The Devs could use it as a public test server as well, with any unclassified changes coming first on the speed server to test them out before they hit the "live/real" server.
With the increased speed they could also have resets every 9 months or when necessary for testing purposes. Resets (and increased speed) might keep prestige spending down, so they would have to figure out ways to entice prestige spending to keep it viable. Perhaps only allowing access to players that have purchased at least the smallest prestige package on the main server?
I appreciate changing the speed would throw off game balances and limit some of the testing potential, but it would provide some information for at least interface changes and the like.
It's easy to take giant swings sitting on the outside, and I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why this would be a bad idea, but as a player it would be a crap load of fun, especially the first land rush stage. I can only imagine the talks that would happen if they showed the new map a few days before they opened the server.
R.
P.S. The devs have strongly hinted that it is not written in stone (or written at all) that high food sov will always be the best locations for a new town. If Trade V2 ever hits the server with a bunch of new resource types, it very well may alter the balance of the basic resources and we will all be fighting for those great Stone locations.
Edited by Roland Gunner - 30 Jun 2012 at 08:45
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Rasak
Wordsmith
Joined: 26 Nov 2011
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 140
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 08:46 |
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I am against a new server and am still against it.. If you can't find a spot to send a new city you are either not looking hard enough or have too high of expectations. I personally keep looking for a 7 food spot on a mountain that is surounded by dolmans that have high food. I've not found it yet.. but i keep looking. It's kinda like finding a lover. If at first your expectations are too high, lower them just a bit and see if you find your match. When I go spot hunting I find all the 7 foods spots close to the area I like and pick the best of em. There really are more than enough spots left. When all the 7 spots are gone I expect 6 spots will hold us over. When those are gone there will be 5 food spots (basically everywhere). You can compete with a veteran that has 7 food spots if you only have 5 food spots. The diferance being you'll have to outsmart him a bit... which isn't hard if the person you are trying to outsmart is Rill/Ryelle or Rasak ... watch out for The_Dude tho.. that guy abides.
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Rill
Postmaster General
Player Council - Geographer
Joined: 17 Jun 2011
Location: California
Status: Offline
Points: 6903
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 09:32 |
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I would be willing to try out a sped-up version of Illy. I doubt I would enjoy it as much, but I'd be willing to give it a whirl.
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invictusa
Forum Warrior
Joined: 16 Dec 2011
Status: Offline
Points: 488
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 11:17 |
Speed server illyriad? I just puked in mouth. As can be seen from my earlier post in this thread and in any thread pertaining to this topic, (there has been a few, created by the same person I suspect) I resolutely stand against any new server at this time or any time in the foreseeable future. The reason for this distaste, if it does not blatantly appear obvious to you, can be read in my mentioned posts and any other posts tossing a molotov cocktail onto the idea of serverizing this last bastion of hope in the MMORTS world.
New server will kill the game.
Expansion would be something to consider for the future. i.e. send settlers or exodus a maximum of 10 cities to either the misted lands or the rift which would randomly place you in a "fog of war" continent or an extremely hostile NPC environment respectfully, for example. I think the groundbreaking move for the devs would be to make any expansions accesible and transferable from/to elgea.
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...and miles to go before I sleep.
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Rasak
Wordsmith
Joined: 26 Nov 2011
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 140
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 17:33 |
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A sped up server would have its downsides too tho. Imagine taking 3 days away from the game and coming back to all your cities gone.
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Rymal
Greenhorn
Joined: 15 Sep 2011
Status: Offline
Points: 51
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 17:37 |
Rorgash wrote:
a new IG continent or land mass yes, NO NEW SEPARATE WORLD.
that's all i have to say, long time game, building empires and lots of people around is whats good, splitting things in half making the world half as active is always a bad idea.
Adding a new landmass with some sea between then, needing ships to travel between would be totally awesome and could create some great wars between them as well as possible trade with having exclusive items on each side, players setting out to explore and settle the new lands, keeping the newbs in the newb ring because maybe you have forgotten but without 100k pop players within 400sq you aint getting any res help. |
We must let Illy "ferment" (had to put that in there -- I'm the person with all the "wine" cities) and change to a new form as a natural process of the game. In the meantime, I do think an additional continent such as described here would be a wonderful way to let more players into the game. Protect them from "us", let them grow, and then, there could be innovative and exciting interactions in the future between this continent and the new continent.
I'm finding that the lack of obviously-prime spots has made it necessary for me to think more about what I want each city to do, to specialise. It requires us to play on a higher or different level.
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The optimist sees the glass to be 1/2 full; the pessimist sees it to be 1/2 empty and the engineer sees that the size of the glass needs to be changed!
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Rill
Postmaster General
Player Council - Geographer
Joined: 17 Jun 2011
Location: California
Status: Offline
Points: 6903
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 18:23 |
I have heard there is a new server already running. They are just keeping it hidden from existing players to protect the new playerbase from our newb-protecting, civillity-enhanced, rational-dialoguing ways. They have done this by the simple expedient of renaming the game. On the new server, the game is referred to as Sicklicus.
What is the new server like?
When a new player starts, instead of sending resources, other players immediately bash him/her over the head with clubs. Someone has already hacked the server to get the players' IP addresses to allow this to happen.
On the new server, there is constant spamming of global chat with advertisements for male enhancement products.
On the new server, the top alliance is called Ravenous! and they have already claimed every 7-food square on the continent. Anyone else settled on a 7-food square is automatically sieged.
Edited by Rill - 30 Jun 2012 at 18:57
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The Duke
Forum Warrior
Joined: 22 Jul 2011
Location: Indiana
Status: Offline
Points: 464
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 19:37 |
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Why have a new server with new rules and i different set of players? Why speed the game up? Your taking out part of what is great about this game, It takes time to get to a position among the juggernauts here, and with the amount of time it takes this tends to run off the average troll. On top of that The ppl and the community are what kept me here in the beginning. I think the best option is to just add more land to what we have currently. This keeps us all on an even playing field and doesnt change game mechanics
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"Our generation has had no Great Depression, no Great War. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives."
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dunnoob
Postmaster
Joined: 10 Dec 2011
Location: Elijal
Status: Offline
Points: 800
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 20:14 |
Cleopatra wrote:
I happen to be one of those noobs who is trying to find a spot on the map to start building up in, and I have to tell you that if I were going to have to pick a fight with someone who has been playing for 6+ months in order to get a space to build, I wouldn't even bother trying. |
You could try to capture the town of a suspended player as training. Getting rid of inactive commanders and runes is no rocket science. Of course don't bother before you got the required research at about 10K pop after 3 months.
Cleopatra wrote:
Yes, there might be some room in the game for people to diversify their strategies, but the new players are not going to be the ones coming up with those strategies. |
Almost everybody says you should get a 7 food square near a decent 10+ food special square. Unsurprisingly, when I looked for a place to settle six months ago, all those squares were taken, or in the harmless range of an existing town, or isolated, i.e., unsuited to settle a cluster. Therefore I picked 6 food jungle squares (less than 25 res plots) with two river towns before water sovereignty existed. So far it works, admittedly the potential sovereignty is poor (books+bows+books+bows+...). Coming up with new or at least unusual strategies is the only way new players get a chance here, if they don't want to wait until older players with nice squares leave the game.
Do not follow all (wannabe) rules of established players, some of these rules are only intended to protect the establishment. Examples, do not send "are you active" mails to inactive players when you want all their saddles, send a T2 spy, watch Illy Stats, make sure that they are really inactive, and go for it before everybody else reaches the same conclusion. Do not send "can I settle at x|y" mails after you spent weeks to find x|y on the map, unless x|y is near to somebody who might raze your settlers as soon as they arrive. Untested variant, just build more settlers, and try to settle until it sticks. Settlers are relatively cheap, but building them is slow.
Cleopatra wrote:
Even after we have played for the 6 months it takes to get to vet status |
There are lots of players who don't manage to get 100K pop with a top 200 score in six months, apparently your definition of vet is not very ambitious.
Cleopatra wrote:
The population caps of the newer players will be capped at smaller levels than the levels of the people who got here first. |
Yeah, don't worry about sovereignty before you have any level 20 spots, and don't worry about ten towns before you have eight, or similar...
Cleopatra wrote:
The map is too crowded and there isn't any good areas for new players to start out in. |
Possible workarounds, join an alliance and settle near their towns, claim sov 5 in the harmless range of an inactive player, capture existing towns, and so on. Maybe meet my jungle commanders when you try to do what I did in the same jungle, that would also solve your PvP issue.
Please consider to post more than one reply, or start new threads, I'm sure that I missed or skipped many interesting points in your long article. Above all, this is a serious war game.
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Subatoi
Forum Warrior
Joined: 01 Mar 2012
Status: Offline
Points: 380
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Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 20:47 |
Cleopatra wrote:
The people who want to encourage PvP are the people who are ready to PvP. But those players ALREADY have good spots on the map, so it isn't them who would be bearing the brunt of this encouragement.
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There is an alliance that has about eight or so member, all under one thousand population that want to PvP, in other words your statement is FALSE
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