Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

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973 days, 7 hours, 11 minutes ago

Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick?

I always seem to end up in a "race" rather than a "fight".

In one sector I am playing I have by far the largest military, however I will lose because factions at the opposite side of the map quit, allowing my opponent to gobble up territory quickly that I can't reach in time.

By the time you reach the later stages of a game, where only two powerful factions remain, one faction only needs to take his half of the map in order to win. The two factions rarely have to fight each other, rather they just have to take the weaker factions nearby.

I think it would be more appropriate if one faction had to take two thirds of the map, instead of just half. This way the two most powerful remaining players must fight each other, rather than dance around each other hoping to grab enough easy planets to win.

What do other players think?

973 days, 7 hours, 1 minutes ago

commander koski

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

oh, that gaming experience is easily fixed - I have two suggestions:

1. gain rank to get into higher difficulty modifier games: less droppers and easy prey and the game is not won with a race but all the planets are taken soon and then the game really begins. Some higher senior officer games are 0 ally games so you really need to work to get those planets.

2. join a die hard game - no droppers equals nobody gets easy planets and no race.

973 days, 6 hours, 51 minutes ago

commander koski

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

Actually when I play classic games which usually have "min rank: none" I prepare for droppers: you need to support races on the other side of the map to slow down your worst (fastest) opponent there where you can't reach plus most importantly - try to gain control of the centre of the map so you can reach anywhere on the map and strike against that guy who is about to race to victory. You need to locate empty areas and foresee which players might drop or are easy prey.

It is very different to compete in a crowded space than in an empty space - for example, the latter might require a carrier race to build a plethora of little warships capable of winning a probe or Falcon etc.

973 days, 6 hours, 43 minutes ago

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

People dropping only exacerbates the problem. The real problem is that the victory conditions allow one player to win without fighting his main rival.

I think players should have to clearly be the most dominating faction in the sector before they are declared the winner. As it stands, a player only has to grab enough planets and hold them for five turns. It doesn't matter if he is outgunned by a far superior force and has no chance of holding the planets for much longer than 5 turns.

973 days, 6 hours, 40 minutes ago

commander koski

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

Yes Zoojump, if there are more than 2 strong players, then you have multiple main rivals and a longer (better?) game. There are games that have lasted for several years with lots of active fighting.

973 days, 6 hours, 0 minutes ago

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

I agree that when there is a third powerful faction then this is much less of a problem.

973 days, 4 hours, 33 minutes ago

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

@Zoojump, try a zero ally game... There X biggest won't be able create a alliance to end the game quick. Although you can prepare yourself to fight in a "ally" game eventually... ;)

In a _true_ zero ally game without vassals there would most likely be around 4 candidates for the win instead of 2 alliances. It makes a big difference even though there is 4 players playing for the win in both cases. Which one would be more interesting game to play?

- Admiral Thrain -

972 days, 21 hours, 32 minutes ago

challengespaceyard

RE: Does anyone else feel that the games end too quick? I...

I also currently have a fix proposed, while waiting for queue sizes to increase for the Matchmaking Pool.

I will not be as harsh as Die Hard, but here is what Matchmaking Pool proposes:
* Players who do not finish for any reason are suspended from the queues. Usually, the maximum is 6 weeks, but drops before turn 5 are instead assigned 8 weeks of suspension
* If a slot is freed because a player abandoned a game, Matchmaking Pool will attempt to find a substitute from the pool of queued players while also adding a 1-cycle extension to the turn clock (if able)

-CSY