The State of SMR 12/15/2011
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The State of SMR 12/15/2011
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Jester-
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Post The State of SMR 12/15/2011
As of right now, this round of SMR seems mostly dead. I know we've kicked this bucket 200 times, but maybe we should bring up another brainstorm. I don't want to see any talk related to certain alliances though. We need to build a game anyone can play how they want, but not totally lose play-ability. I'm hoping my map will move us in the right direction, but honestly we also need to bring more community into the game besides IRC chat.
I think an alliance and/or global shoutbox would be cool in game.
Xdx Thunderdome idea would be cool to waste time on.
Trading rework - I'm not sure on this one, but I feel like trading needs to be modified somehow. I've said this before, but maybe make ports change goods once or twice a day. The ports would stay the same, but the goods would be randomized on every port. You could still make routes by busting ports, but your route would change. The goods would change automatically on galaxy maps so you could download the new smc/mgu/lazy trader and start trading again. I think this would bring a new dynamic point to the game that would keep traders and hunters interested. This would bring in some much needed randomness.
I think other random risk/reward benefits needed to be added as well. Say SMR credits used for Bonus Time. This would be a global effect. Say 1 SMR credit for 5 minutes of bonustime. This would be a global effect where you could get say 2x cash/exp traded and 1.5 more tph? Obviously benefits could be changed/reworked as long as the effect is global.
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RCK
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Some changes and additions will hopefully be coming into place for next round in the new year.
Additionally we are still actively working to recruit both a designers for new home/interface and graphics packages.
As for your points,
Jester- wrote:
I think an alliance and/or global shoutbox would be cool in game.
I could be wrong... but didnt you used to be able to post to a wall in the bars? Seem to recall doing that way back when.
Jester- wrote:
Xdx Thunderdome idea would be cool to waste time on.
Interesting idea, I'm not sure what i think... making it into a gambling ring might be entertaining.
Jester- wrote:
Trading rework - I'm not sure on this one, but I feel like trading needs to be modified somehow. I've said this before, but maybe make ports change goods once or twice a day. The ports would stay the same, but the goods would be randomized on every port. You could still make routes by busting ports, but your route would change. The goods would change automatically on galaxy maps so you could download the new smc/mgu/lazy trader and start trading again. I think this would bring a new dynamic point to the game that would keep traders and hunters interested. This would bring in some much needed randomness.
Couldnt agree more that it needs some randomness... for something that the game is supposed to revolve around, trading is mundane and boring.
Remember that old doss game (think it was doss) that would show random requests for things? Forget what it was called... anyway, basically in SMR it would equal out to port X is requesting good X and will pay X. Good way to add some things to the mix.
Jester- wrote:
I think other random risk/reward benefits needed to be added as well. Say SMR credits used for Bonus Time. This would be a global effect. Say 1 SMR credit for 5 minutes of bonustime. This would be a global effect where you could get say 2x cash/exp traded and 1.5 more tph? Obviously benefits could be changed/reworked as long as the effect is global.
We're currently reviewing some of the usages of SMR credits, though its still being debated.
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silverx2
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
My personal thoughts on the matter.
this game, in its current form just doesn't work.
Two main focuses are Fighting, and trading. Breaking these down you come to the following conclusion
Trading is the grind part of the game. I would include planet building here as it involves repetitive action, with the ultimate goal of better enhancement of the action part of the game.
Fighting is the action part of the game. This includes raids(planet/port) hunting, fleet combat. This is the most dynamic, exciting part of the game, and parts of it have the primary focus of griefing the grind portion(hunters killing traders)
You also have creating mine fields, which is a passive aggressive style of game play which i would define as antifun. By that i mean, it negates the fun aspects of the game and promotes passive play, an example would be Lets go bust some planets, wait the planets are 18 sectors deep with 4 billion credits worth of mines, i guess we will just clear those. Team a clears the mines, team B reseeds and builds the field. everyone wastes turns nothing gained, only some credits the grinders grind is lost.
What i would like to see is a wholesale Revamp make over of the game, Change almost everything about it.
(why hasn't this happened yet)I think trading should be dynamic based on galaxy. example The human galaxy is vastly short on ore so they are buying it at a huge price over the other galaxies, at the same time the quasar galaxy has a surplus of ore and are selling it wicked cheap. What this does is provides HUGE gains to traders who take a risk and opens up their Static trade patterns. This should result in more players in neutral space which SHOULD result in more interaction.
(outrage incoming)I think Mines should be removed, or only able to be placed in specific ranges when it comes to planets. Ideally this means its easier to get to planets, which means players have to actually interact which each other. Actively attack and defend planets, instead of letting mines do 80% of the job.
(highly unlikely to happen)Create a new technology to replace the hunting aspect of mines. Tractor beams. When initiating combat, the beam will keep the target in the same sector for X amount of shots. the more guns you have, the less amount of shots it holds on for, additionally there is a turn cost associated with it. Automatically times out after 5 seconds and only usable once every 5 minutes. I would say 2 shots for < 4 guns, 1 shot for 4 > guns. This gives hunters a better chance at a reward. would need a way for traders to queue up leaving the sector so it does it as soon as the beam breaks.
Large scale combat is to put it mildly, a :o. Id love for a way to take a more strategic way of planning a battle, and then seeing it enacted in game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6P6U#t=68s
That video shows how in GSB you create your fleet, Lay them out, give orders to specific ships, and set priority for targets/range and then you send them out to fight. Id love for SmRealms to have that type of micromanaging. Say a giant fleet battle is about to start, or any sort of raid. before you hit fire your leader/admiral like person gets a layout of all the players in sector you lay the ships out, give specific orders and then let it happen. I think that would be really enjoyable over the "everyone move on 3 and then fire till your dead" current mode of fighting.
Currently Smrealms is still for all intents and purposes, the same exact game we were playing over a decade ago. The game has not evolved beyond adding a race and updating the technology behind the game(page refreshes, ajax, etc) The fact that the game is still going i think is more because of nostalgia then anything else, if thats what you want to continue doing that's fine, but getting a large player base will never happen in its current iteration.
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Blade
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Great idea, would really shake trading and hunters up if the ports were to change goods!
one of the better trading times in Diaspora was relying on friends and the alliance to work together to get port information on who was selling what and how much profit you could make.
Same goes to maybe the idea of involving the federal HQ's and Undergrounds more by helping the with the war effort by needing certain supply for more gain or extra bonuses in some form.
Make the game more dynamic and you will have a strategy game that once again needs thinking, cunning and skill!
Maybe posted before in some aspect but the best post I have seen in a long time, well done Jest!
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Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:18 pm Report this post Profile MSNM/WLM ICQ WWW
Page
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
silverx2 wrote:
(why hasn't this happened yet)
Pretty much boils down to time and motivation, my plan is do dynamic trading through the use of missions that are offered at ports to either deliver good to another port or to bring certain goods back to the current port.
silverx2 wrote:
Large scale combat is to put it mildly, a :o. Id love for a way to take a more strategic way of planning a battle, and then seeing it enacted in game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6P6U#t=68s
That video shows how in GSB you create your fleet, Lay them out, give orders to specific ships, and set priority for targets/range and then you send them out to fight. Id love for SmRealms to have that type of micromanaging. Say a giant fleet battle is about to start, or any sort of raid. before you hit fire your leader/admiral like person gets a layout of all the players in sector you lay the ships out, give specific orders and then let it happen. I think that would be really enjoyable over the "everyone move on 3 and then fire till your dead" current mode of fighting.
This isn't really right for SMR as it would take control out of the hands of the majority of the players involved in the battle. However having each person needing to fire for themselves would mean that op leaders could plan out tactics but the implementation would be left to individual players, so they would still have the same fulfilment if they pull off their piece of the job rather than being a hands off pawn (which is similar to what it mostly is atm once you actually get IS - you only gain a small advantage from firing first compared to the advantage you gain by having a ship advantage)
Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:45 pm Report this post Profile
silverx2
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Page wrote:
silverx2 wrote:
(why hasn't this happened yet)
Pretty much boils down to time and motivation, my plan is do dynamic trading through the use of missions that are offered at ports to either deliver good to another port or to bring certain goods back to the current port.
I didn't mean for that to imply blame on you, or anyone so much as the age of the game, and relative fact that nothing has changed for trading, You have done awesome things and i'm thankful for all of them.
Page wrote:
silverx2 wrote:
Large scale combat is to put it mildly, a :o. Id love for a way to take a more strategic way of planning a battle, and then seeing it enacted in game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6P6U#t=68s
That video shows how in GSB you create your fleet, Lay them out, give orders to specific ships, and set priority for targets/range and then you send them out to fight. Id love for SmRealms to have that type of micromanaging. Say a giant fleet battle is about to start, or any sort of raid. before you hit fire your leader/admiral like person gets a layout of all the players in sector you lay the ships out, give specific orders and then let it happen. I think that would be really enjoyable over the "everyone move on 3 and then fire till your dead" current mode of fighting.
This isn't really right for SMR as it would take control out of the hands of the majority of the players involved in the battle. However having each person needing to fire for themselves would mean that op leaders could plan out tactics but the implementation would be left to individual players, so they would still have the same fulfilment if they pull off their piece of the job rather than being a hands off pawn (which is similar to what it mostly is atm once you actually get IS - you only gain a small advantage from firing first compared to the advantage you gain by having a ship advantage)
Understandable, but surely we can do something to add a more skill based component to the fighting other then rehearsing getting 12 people to move one sector at a time at the same time.
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RCK
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Page wrote:
silverx2 wrote:
(why hasn't this happened yet)
Pretty much boils down to time and motivation, my plan is do dynamic trading through the use of missions that are offered at ports to either deliver good to another port or to bring certain goods back to the current port.
Maybe one of these days we can use $ to motivate you ;)
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Holti
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I like the idea of ports changing goods, I've played several games where this occurred (TDZK, SEI). I also like Page's idea of mission based motivation, too, which is unique ( I have not come across a browser based space trade game that did this).
This round made it very clear that planets/planet galaxies need more benefits to be attractive. One idea would be that owning planets gave you better access/control over things like high end racial weapons and/or ships.
Another thing I think would add to the game dynamic would be to have more interaction between races, make politics even more important than just having access to their ports/weapons.
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silverx2 wrote:
I didn't mean for that to imply blame on you, or anyone so much as the age of the game, and relative fact that nothing has changed for trading, You have done awesome things and i'm thankful for all of them.
No I know, but it is at the end of the day what it boils down to, there are loads of great ideas all over the webboard and in-game RaF, heck there are probably even more great ideas sat in various peoples' heads, however a lot of that is bottlenecked on how long it takes to be coded into the game.
For RaF the figures are 63.66% open, 16.34% rejected and 20% implemented which, imo at least, is actually a reasonably good percentage of implemented requests to open requests.
Basically like I'll always say, if you can find things that can make the game interesting without requiring any/much coding then those are by far the best things, since that avoids the bottleneck. The draft round was a great example of this, it required a little coding, but really not all that much, and whether or not you think it worked out in the long run it still caused a lot of excitement and a lot of people did come back to try it out, because it was different from the standard and brought some new excitement back into the game for a while at least.
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Azool
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Jester- wrote:
Trading rework - I'm not sure on this one, but I feel like trading needs to be modified somehow. I've said this before, but maybe make ports change goods once or twice a day. The ports would stay the same, but the goods would be randomized on every port. You could still make routes by busting ports, but your route would change. The goods would change automatically on galaxy maps so you could download the new smc/mgu/lazy trader and start trading again. I think this would bring a new dynamic point to the game that would keep traders and hunters interested. This would bring in some much needed randomness.
*cough*1.5 style trading*cough*
But seriously...1.5 had a cool trading system IMO. In case people don't remember it, here is how it worked: The basics were the same, buy and sell goods; however, when you entered a port, there was a chance that the port owner would tell you about a special offer (ie port 1234 is buying luxury items at 4x normal price. or port 1765 is selling circuits for 7x normal experience) and it would last usually for 2-24 hours(I think). 75% of the time these would become globally announced (there was a link on the left hand side that showed all the global special offers), and 25% of the time, you were the only person that was told (there was a special section in the link on the left panel that showed only offers that you knew of). So it added some risk (if there was a 12x money gain for luxury items, you can bet hunters were waiting close by), but you also had the chance to get a special offer that only you knew about, so you could potentially make a ton of exp in a remote part of the universe where most hunters wouldn't be able to find you. Hopefully that makes sense....if not, I'm sure there is a long post about it somewhere here on the MB that I could dig up if people are interested.
Jester- wrote:
I think other random risk/reward benefits needed to be added as well. Say SMR credits used for Bonus Time. This would be a global effect. Say 1 SMR credit for 5 minutes of bonustime. This would be a global effect where you could get say 2x cash/exp traded and 1.5 more tph? Obviously benefits could be changed/reworked as long as the effect is global.
This is a really neat idea (the global effect). It makes the SMR credits desirable, but it doesn't give an advantage since everyone can benefit from it. But I think we need a larger player base to make it work (otherwise the people with credits just wait until no one else is on and gain all the benefit)
silverx2 wrote:
(why hasn't this happened yet)I think trading should be dynamic based on galaxy...
1.5 had a very similar trading system (see above). So technically it has happened. It just got reverted *glare at everyone*
silverx2 wrote:
(highly unlikely to happen)Create a new technology to replace the hunting aspect of mines. Tractor beams. When initiating combat, the beam will keep the target in the same sector for X amount of shots. the more guns you have, the less amount of shots it holds on for, additionally there is a turn cost associated with it. Automatically times out after 5 seconds and only usable once every 5 minutes. I would say 2 shots for < 4 guns, 1 shot for 4 > guns. This gives hunters a better chance at a reward. would need a way for traders to queue up leaving the sector so it does it as soon as the beam breaks.
1.5 also had items that were similar (gadgets). We had a tractor beam one, as well as one that traders could use that would let them escape from a hunters first shot. There were requirements to get the gadgets (like you had to have 50k exp before you could get the escape gadget, and you had to have 5 kills to get the tractor beam). I think there was a total of 15 gadgets or so.
silverx2 wrote:
Large scale combat is to put it mildly, a :o. Id love for a way to take a more strategic way of planning a battle, and then seeing it enacted in game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6P6U#t=68s
That video shows how in GSB you create your fleet, Lay them out, give orders to specific ships, and set priority for targets/range and then you send them out to fight. Id love for SmRealms to have that type of micromanaging. Say a giant fleet battle is about to start, or any sort of raid. before you hit fire your leader/admiral like person gets a layout of all the players in sector you lay the ships out, give specific orders and then let it happen. I think that would be really enjoyable over the "everyone move on 3 and then fire till your dead" current mode of fighting.
I like the idea as well. If we can figure out a good way to implement it, I don't think many people would necessarily oppose it.
silverx2 wrote:
Currently Smrealms is still for all intents and purposes, the same exact game we were playing over a decade ago. The game has not evolved beyond adding a race and updating the technology behind the game(page refreshes, ajax, etc) The fact that the game is still going i think is more because of nostalgia then anything else, if thats what you want to continue doing that's fine, but getting a large player base will never happen in its current iteration.
Time to be a broken record :) but 1.5 had some pretty major improvements IMO. It certain had plenty of bugs and flaws, but there were a lot of really neat ideas that could be integrated with the current version. *more glares around at everyone* ;)
Blade wrote:
Same goes to maybe the idea of involving the federal HQ's and Undergrounds more by helping the with the war effort by needing certain supply for more gain or extra bonuses in some form.
Hmm, there was some version of the game that had this...oh yeah, it was 1.5 :)
Blade wrote:
Make the game more dynamic and you will have a strategy game that once again needs thinking, cunning and skill!
I called it SMR 1.5
RCK wrote:
Maybe one of these days we can use $ to motivate you ;)
I waited for that boat for a long time :) I'm sure Page knows not to count on that
Holti wrote:
This round made it very clear that planets/planet galaxies need more benefits to be attractive. One idea would be that owning planets gave you better access/control over things like high end racial weapons and/or ships.
Planets in 1.5 (while largely unimplemented) did this. There were (I think) 7 types of planets. Each one gave you different benefits (some made your main lander stronger, some acted as bonders, some allowed your ships to be more powerful if you landed on the planet for x amount of time [charge up your ship before a bust!], etc)
Holti wrote:
Another thing I think would add to the game dynamic would be to have more interaction between races, make politics even more important than just having access to their ports/weapons.
I like that too. Any ideas for what could be added?
I really think there were a lot of good ideas that we tried in 1.5 (and certainly some not so good). If we really want to add some new features I think that the 1.5 board (if it still exists on here somewhere, maybe it was the beta board...really not sure) is a really good place to look to at least get some ideas of what can be done.
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The State of SMR 12/15/2011
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The State of SMR 12/15/2011
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Freon22
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Sorry Azool I have to make a post on 1.5.
1.5 had super ships.
1.5 had super exper level players
1.5 had way to much money
1.5 had planet problems
1.5 had a missing Azool to fix these problems.
There were other problems also but no point in going to far.
On a good point 1.5 was different, it was fun until the players got super ships. I like the mining rocks, trading was good, some of the gadgets were good others were not so good.
The main thing that caused 1.5 to fail is you left after you coded it and was not here to adjust and balance it.
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Harry Krishna
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SMR is a pretty simple game in that there are only a few main activities that players can do.
1) Making money and spending money
It's generally agreed that trading is a means to an end. It may be exciting for some, but most find it boring. Yet, trading is the only way for most players to make money. I would like to see other ways of making money. Risky stock markets, better casino games, bank interest, missions that pay cash and which don't involve trading, port ownership that pays dividends, etc.
On the flip side, when you've busted your ass making big money there are only a few things to spend the money on: ships, guns, UNO, CA, planets. The solo player can buy a different ship and keep fitting it with guns, UNO, and CA. The team trader sees his money funding the ships, guns, planets of his team mates. I would like to see other things to spend money on. We could cultivate the concept of the vastly wealthy space merchant, and a wealthy trader should have fine things to show off: exclusive castles on planets or at HQ, expensive cars, special luxuries, rich clothing, bling, etc.
2) Ship to ship combat
I think this is where most people find the biggest thrill in the game. Yet combat has evolved into a numbers game where the fleet with the most ships often has the advantage. I would be in favor of changing the code so that fleets don't fire together. Ships would target and fire on each other individually with some "splatter" hitting other enemy ships by some chance if there were more than one enemy ship. Try it for a game or two and see how it works.
3) Building planets and minefields
If planets were safer places to park, players would use them more. Bigger maps would increase the turn cost of busting. Making mid-level planets bite harder. I liked some of the planet mods that were in the 1.5 game but it wasn't clear how they worked. Maybe revisit this idea?
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Blade
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I agree with Freon, 1.5 had the potential, but no one to balance things out fix bugs and change the things that needed to be changed. It had to much to quickly and badly put in place.
No offence Azool like I said had great potential, but it was in a very closed beta stage IMO.
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RCK
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Side note, yes the threads on 1.5 are still around, though I have them buried somewhere on the forum.
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RCK
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Harry Krishna wrote:
SMR is a pretty simple game in that there are only a few main activities that players can do.
1) Making money and spending money
It's generally agreed that trading is a means to an end. It may be exciting for some, but most find it boring. Yet, trading is the only way for most players to make money. I would like to see other ways of making money. Risky stock markets, better casino games, bank interest, missions that pay cash and which don't involve trading, port ownership that pays dividends, etc.
On the flip side, when you've busted your ass making big money there are only a few things to spend the money on: ships, guns, UNO, CA, planets. The solo player can buy a different ship and keep fitting it with guns, UNO, and CA. The team trader sees his money funding the ships, guns, planets of his team mates. I would like to see other things to spend money on. We could cultivate the concept of the vastly wealthy space merchant, and a wealthy trader should have fine things to show off: exclusive castles on planets or at HQ, expensive cars, special luxuries, rich clothing, bling, etc.
Dont think I've ever seen that mentioned before... which is odd... but a good idea. Need the morning coffee to kick in before I can think of anything else..
Harry Krishna wrote:
2) Ship to ship combat
I think this is where most people find the biggest thrill in the game. Yet combat has evolved into a numbers game where the fleet with the most ships often has the advantage. I would be in favor of changing the code so that fleets don't fire together. Ships would target and fire on each other individually with some "splatter" hitting other enemy ships by some chance if there were more than one enemy ship. Try it for a game or two and see how it works.
Quote:
Only way I could see to do this, would be to drag out fleet combat. So essentially give every person on each side a chance to pick there targets. All ships would need to be 'locked' somehow at the point fleet combat was initiated as well as a time out being implemented were if you do not chose someone within say 10seconds your choice is randomized. The opposition I can see to this is if you have a 10vs10 situation your taking a battle that is typically over in 20-30 seconds (if the server lags) and resulting in a battle that last 2 mins for 1 round of battle. Dont know about everyone else, but a slightly longer battle might have its perks. Though if 10seconds is to much time or not is hard to say.
Harry Krishna wrote:
3) Building planets and minefields
If planets were safer places to park, players would use them more. Bigger maps would increase the turn cost of busting. Making mid-level planets bite harder. I liked some of the planet mods that were in the 1.5 game but it wasn't clear how they worked. Maybe revisit this idea?
I've been thinking of this for years.. just never have time to look into it :)
I'll try to find the old planet related topics for 1.5 on the forum sometime soon ... hopefully...
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Jester-
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Planets are definitely to flimsy at level 0. It takes forever to even make them safe to land on for one night. Even at level 20, 4-5 ships in hunters can usually bust it.
I like all the ideas going around. Hopefully we can find a way to modernize the looks (graphics packages) and bring in some new balancing factors. I still love the dynamic trading parts of it (like Diaspora). Also combine that with mission trading for even more bonuses. This would make trading more exciting.
Good stuff, keep it up.
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Jester- wrote:
I like all the ideas going around. Hopefully we can find a way to modernize the looks (graphics packages) and bring in some new balancing factors
Working on it.... finding someone within our limited budget is difficult.
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Blade
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Then find someone who will do it well.
Offer them a contract of rights. Meaning if it passes the ok of all admins then goes live you do a BIG advetisement compaign, and make sure you have something people will play and something at least 30% will pay for (Like Torn and the "donator") the guy you hire gets a % of the money made for a certain period like 6 months.
That way you get someone who is serious, they will know it needs to be good to make money. If they refuse that sort of contract then find someone else, games like these do not have the money to pay people out right. But maybe pay him a small amount/wage while he is doing so once he releases something of quality then move on to the % of money made after the release?
Dont start paying anyone until they have something to show they are working though!!
That is how I would do it.
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RCK
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Blade wrote:
Then find someone who will do it well.
Offer them a contract of rights. Meaning if it passes the ok of all admins then goes live you do a BIG advetisement compaign, and make sure you have something people will play and something at least 30% will pay for (Like Torn and the "donator") the guy you hire gets a % of the money made for a certain period like 6 months.
That way you get someone who is serious, they will know it needs to be good to make money. If they refuse that sort of contract then find someone else, games like these do not have the money to pay people out right. But maybe pay him a small amount/wage while he is doing so once he releases something of quality then move on to the % of money made after the release?
Dont start paying anyone until they have something to show they are working though!!
That is how I would do it.
Currently we are recruiting via odesk and vworker neither offer a system like that, though existing systems are based on approval on both sides before any exchange of $, so yes we get proof before purchase kind of thing.
Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:28 am Report this post Profile MSNM/WLM ICQ WWW
Azool
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Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2002 2:42 pm
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Freon22 wrote:
Sorry Azool I have to make a post on 1.5.
1.5 had super ships.
1.5 had super exper level players
1.5 had way to much money
1.5 had planet problems
1.5 had a missing Azool to fix these problems.
There were other problems also but no point in going to far.
On a good point 1.5 was different, it was fun until the players got super ships. I like the mining rocks, trading was good, some of the gadgets were good others were not so good.
The main thing that caused 1.5 to fail is you left after you coded it and was not here to adjust and balance it.
I don't disagree. My whole point is that the game (1.5) had many really cool aspects and they shouldn't be dismissed just because 1.5 overall wasn't a hit. I think there are a lot of things that could be brought from 1.5 into the current version
Jester- wrote:
Planets are definitely to flimsy at level 0. It takes forever to even make them safe to land on for one night. Even at level 20, 4-5 ships in hunters can usually bust it.
What were everyone's thoughts when we started the planets at higher level (NPC owned)?
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The State of SMR 12/15/2011
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Harry Krishna
Beta Test Team Leader
Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2003 9:39 am
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Azool wrote:
What were everyone's thoughts when we started the planets at higher level (NPC owned)?
As I recall, the NPC planets were randomly constructed which didn't play well with the 1.5 concept of designer planets, i.e. you had less control over what type of planet it could be. Having mid-level NPC planets to bust and take over is one way to give players a head-start at having a secure home.
Raising turret accuracy a little might help sharpen baby planet's teeth as well, and provide a smidge better protection to all planets. Even level 70's aren't that safe from a fleet of 12-14 ships.
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Azool
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Harry Krishna wrote:
Azool wrote:
What were everyone's thoughts when we started the planets at higher level (NPC owned)?
As I recall, the NPC planets were randomly constructed which didn't play well with the 1.5 concept of designer planets, i.e. you had less control over what type of planet it could be. Having mid-level NPC planets to bust and take over is one way to give players a head-start at having a secure home.
I was referring to 2 (maybe 3) games ago when we started planets at level 15-35, but you had to bust them before you could claim them
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Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:43 pm Report this post Profile ICQ WWW
Azool
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Here are some of the ideas from 1.5 that I could find with a quick forum search (from the 1.5changelog)...Not sure if everyone has access to that forum, so I'll just quote here
Quote:
New Trading: There is a x% chance that when you visit a port you will be informed of some special deal by the port owner (Alskant have a higher chance). There is also a y% chance (Alskant have lower chance) that this deal is announced publicly as well (under the new "Trading" link on the left panel). The deal that you are told of is to buy or sell goods at a certain port for increased profit and experience. If you look under the trading link you can see other deals that you can also participate in. Be wary though, hunters can also see these deals. The safest deals are the ones that you are told by the port owner that don't appear in the main trading link.
Quote:
Added some basic mining stuff. Mines will act somewhat like mobile ports with a limited life span. To mine asteroids/colonies you need to have special mining drones (5 types, some of which can be bought at the HQ hardware shops). Depending on your combinations of drones you can get a range of resources per second based on your drones. The resources collected can be anything from normal tradeable resources to planet resources to special items that the government wants.
Quote:
Added EMP weapons. EMP weapons decrease an opponent's maneuverability while still providing some damage. The EMP part of a weapon and the damage part of the weapon are separate and can hit separately (or 1 part can hit while the other misses).
Currently, effects last only during that combat round.
Quote:
Added Shield Regen Stat - Your shields will regenerate over time based on the number of points you have in this stat.
Quote:
Created different planet 'types' with various buildings for each.
Quote:
Added gadgets. These are useful in changing the tide of a battle as well as making you a better trader or helping to protect you more.
Gadgets: http://www.azool.us/baalz/gadgets.htm
Gadgets/Special Items: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9365
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Jester-
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
I liked planets being busted first. It also made them usable early on when you actually busted them. It's a good start to a solution for sure.
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JettJackson
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
Jester- wrote:
Planets are definitely to flimsy at level 0. It takes forever to even make them safe to land on for one night. Even at level 20, 4-5 ships in hunters can usually bust it.
I have mentioned this on several occasions and it was denounced.
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Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:17 pm Report this post Profile
Kard
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Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2002 9:53 pm
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Post Re: The State of SMR 12/15/2011
I stopped playing because this round is completely geared towards fed hunting. I dont like fed hunting, so ill wait for a round where I can build planets, bust planets, and have it mean something. Where if I trade, that money is need for gal building and sieging. Where deaths and kills matter.
I have no interest in a stat padding round.
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