Midshipman-melee. ...

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1977 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes ago
View ville kauppinen's profile
ville kauppinen
Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
Midshipman-melee.

http://play.planets.nu/#/sector/81771/events
Turn 6, 8 players dropped.
Turn 8, total of 12 players dropped.
Turn 11, total of 17 players dropped, 1 joined.
Turn 40, grand total 24 players dropped or resigned.

Of course its good for the winner but even the educational purpose is little bit vague to play such dropfest.

How about letting more experienced players enter these games and give them some sort of achievement penalty, say you cannot earn more than 200 points per game or something ?

Like in mentors and midshipmen, best way to learn the ropes would be a giant melee with both new players and experienced ones.

And these games would NOT eat a slot from experienced player.
1977 days, 20 hours, 4 minutes ago
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geofoxy
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
I'm against that. I started my 'career' in a game like that and I learned a lot. Having lots of space gave me the time to try things and make mistakes and recover without giving an experienced player the chance to kick me out.
And I think you learn one of the most valuable lessons on NU: your ally might drop and vanish.
If you stick to the game, you might win. Tenacity, anyone?
Btw, I've seen worse games than that. Most planets colonised, shiplist full, 6 players still alive with a resonable planet count.
1977 days, 19 hours, 57 minutes ago
View ville kauppinen's profile
ville kauppinen
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
If put considerable achievement penalties or even zero achievements for above midshipmen I doubt the main goal would be to kick the new players out.

I guess even totally new players would stay more interested if there are lots of action around. And above midshipmen could always fight a) with each other b) give some challenge to good new players (who usually have played the game back in the day).

And as an added incentive if more ranked players could quit/die without tenacity penalty he/she/it would be a good slotfiller and do something worthwhile without risking any of his ratings.

Like said, with enough achievement penalty or zero gain it would root out the players seeking for quick gain in rank.
1977 days, 19 hours, 54 minutes ago
View ville kauppinen's profile
ville kauppinen
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
... or add that above midshipman cannot actually win. Anyway, I think the training games should be more or less the main sandbox tool but we'll see. Haven't heard how to actual mentors and midshipmen -games are doing.
1977 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes ago
View emork the lizard king's profile
emork the lizard king
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
First: Congrats to Cliffilein for winning this game! The following should not at all diminish your victory.

I also stumbled over this game. 1300+ achievements points for a solo win in turn 66. An experienced player can't join such achievement boost games - even in a race new to him. He more likely has to fight hard for 100+ turns to get 600 points for n close alliance victory. This means that after one won game the experienced player probably can't join senior games but the inexperienced can. Weired! And the leaderboard race is less attractive when such shortcuts exist.

That's why I proposed to reintroduce the difficulty modifier. Votes are welcome.

http://planets.uservoice.com/forums/136520-general/suggestions/5737502-re-introduction-of-a-diffculty-modifier
1977 days, 15 hours, 38 minutes ago
View ville kauppinen's profile
ville kauppinen
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
I'm more of a ladder guy. There are several players at the moment playing only one race and without doubt when all those 8 are finished they'll be (Rear-)Admirals, regardless of performance.

Well, unless they die in every game. Odds are that playing 8 games you'll end up (ally-)winning at least one.
1977 days, 15 hours, 13 minutes ago
View emork the lizard king's profile
emork the lizard king
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
Well, with a good difficulty modifier you won't be rear admiral even if you have won 5 easy going games.
1977 days, 14 hours, 56 minutes ago
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mule
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
VK, I could not agree more and this is why I have so little regard for NU ranks in general. I agree that many beginner games can provide valuable "learning experience - as against experience POINTS. And ditto for playing solo training games and the like. But providing points leading to rank for such activity? Ridiculous!

And I DID vote for the Difficulty Modifier.
1977 days, 14 hours, 40 minutes ago
View ville kauppinen's profile
ville kauppinen
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
And for little off-topic:

Solo victories should be encouraged for. At the moment in almost every game players (myself including) are going for allied victory. Why ?

Because it just is much more convenient. But it also kills part of the game - when everyone looks out for themselves the diplomacy and balance of power is prone to shift (and temporary alliances or cooperation forged) a lot more than now.

For example http://play.planets.nu/#/sector/78533 - Klingons are looking tough. Why ? Because lot of players thought this is usual 2-ally game and played like it would be. Evil Bird-Crystal-Privateer combo struck the poor Borg and few underperformers + droppers allowed Klingon to thrive.

We'll see how it ends but 0 ally games seem to provide much more interesting turn of events.
1976 days, 13 hours, 56 minutes ago
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genocidal
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
It will end in Hot plasma fire!!!
1976 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes ago
View tom n's profile
tom n
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
To add to VK's second topic about "Solo Victories should be encouraged", has anyone suggested lowering the victory bar for that? As it is now, I see where I need 200 planets vs teaming up with a good player, combining our different abilities, and then attaining 125 planets each. It's too easy of a choice to go for the latter and forego the added multiplier.

If that "200" were lowered to one third of the Echo Cluster "167", I think more players would at least consider going for it alone.
1976 days, 13 hours, 48 minutes ago
View ville kauppinen's profile
ville kauppinen
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
Dunno if it would have any real effect; by allying with the 2nd or 3rd powerful you'll avoid lots of fighting and game will end much faster.

I still vote for zero allies and/or fixed turn, they have a tendency to stir the pot.
1976 days, 13 hours, 18 minutes ago
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mule
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
I like the idea of having a different planet count.

1) As Tom suggests, just a lower bar (167) for solo victories.
2) Maybe a game setup choice for custom games?
3) How about a sliding scale based on the turn count? IF we made a rough estimate of it taking 100 turns in an average game for the top player to achieve 200 planets, what would the same ratio be in 50 turns? 100 planets? Of course you would still want some minimum number to prevent the Pirates from just stealing the game too early.
4) And let's not forget making 0 allies the default.
1976 days, 12 hours, 46 minutes ago
View mjs68508's profile
mjs68508
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
I agree with Tom N that the sacrifice in rewards is too small to discourage people from alliance victories.

However, 167 planets is way too few. Instead, I would give:

Solo Victory: 5X rewards

Alliance victory: 2X rewards

This will make people think long and hard about alliance victories.

Right now, the hard solo victory nets 5X rewards, while the 2 player victory nets 7X rewards and the 3 player victory nets 10X rewards.

Team games should be 3X rewards for all players on the team. And, this should include the planet count of all team members together.

On the other hand, we do have max ally = 0 Senior Officer games. So, at least we have those.

Max ally = 1-6 is the guppy pond and is great for learning the game or farming points.

Max ally = 0 is the shark tank where good players can actually get better.
1976 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes ago
View emork the lizard king's profile
emork the lizard king
RE: Midshipman-melee. ...Write Reply
I support the idea of making solo victories count more. In my opinion it's better to do it by adjusting the multipliers and not the planet numbers you need to win. The later comes with the danger of causing bad mood among the community. If you would need 160/170 planets for a solo victory and 250 planets for a 2-player victory than a backstab of the leading player of a 2-player alliance becomes easy and very beneficial. Ugly thing though ...