Turn-cost planetary combat

[Renshaak]

Reason:  Current planetary attack rules have done little to make it harder for higher players to wipe out planets of lower players while making it virtually impossible to have meaningful PvP among more closely matched players.  This is driving away players who might otherwise hang around to become worthy opponents.

Proposal: 
1.  Reset turn per attack costs to 10/20/40 for planetary combat.
2.  Define a power measure that better ranks players' combat potential (CP) or total value.
3.  When attacking, multiply the base turn cost (BTC) by .2 * Attacker Potential (ACP) / Defender Potential (DCP), with 10/20/40 being the minimum cost regardless of the outcome.  Giving:  Turns to Attack = BTC * MAX( 1, .2 * ACP/DCP).

The .2 coefficient keeps the cost from rising too quickly and keeps an attack at base cost so long as the defender is at least 1/5th attacker's power.

Example A.  Player X has a Combat Potential of 12,000,000, Player Y has a combat potential of 2,000,000.  Cost to player X to raid the planet resources would be 24 turns = 20 * .2 * 12,000,000 / 2,000,000 = 20 *.2 * 6 = 20 * 1.2.
Example B.  Player X has a Combat Potential of 200,000,000, Player Y has a Combat Potential of 4,000,000.  Cost to conquer the planet would be 400 turns = 40 * (.2 * 200,000,000 / 4,000,000) = 40 * (.2 * 50) = 40 * 10

Notes:
I suggest that the "Combat Potential" be based on something like credits and include all available sources at the time measured.  This would include not only reserve but credits on planets and secret base plus the purchase value of active AND reserved fleets.  This will reduce some of the power games that can be played to make someone who is vastly more powerful drop in rankings just to obliterate the planet of someone who is otherwise insignificant to them at a lower cost.

[ninjastrike40]

good idea. Good for early round planets, but when someone has the most combat potential and hes trying to conquer a guy that has the lowest CP out of people who have planets or a guy with really low CP then wouldnt that be a bunch of turns? This idea is really good if the battle is like MJ V.S. Tony or Spayed V MJ because then it proly be not a lot of turns. Other wise itll just be the guys with the most CP taking on guys that have a lot of CP so they dont have to use a bunch of turns on trying to conquer a lower guys planet.

[Cameron07]

Sounds good.. but i still dont know... taking peoples turns happens enough on the server anyway.. thats why interactives were added... but say mj takes my planet and i cant see mjs stations so i take tims as payback its going to cost me alot of turns just to hit their alliance.. something needs to be done but i dont think this is it

[Renshaak]

good idea. Good for early round planets, but when someone has the most combat potential and hes trying to conquer a guy that has the lowest CP out of people who have planets or a guy with really low CP then wouldnt that be a bunch of turns? This idea is really good if the battle is like MJ V.S. Tony or Spayed V MJ because then it proly be not a lot of turns. Other wise itll just be the guys with the most CP taking on guys that have a lot of CP so they dont have to use a bunch of turns on trying to conquer a lower guys planet.

That's actually the whole point--allow players who are roughly at each others level to go at it while protecting the less experienced from getting frustrated and leaving because they are treated like missions.  A LOT of players leave because their ships keep getting wiped out and after weeks of trying to scrape together the resources, someone far stronger comes along and wipes out their planets (and stations) just in case there might be something good or just because they can.

[Spayed]

but ren, everyone who plays at the top was wiped when they first started... thats kinda how you learn.

[ninjastrike40]

but ren, everyone who plays at the top was wiped when they first started... thats kinda how you learn.

A lot of people at the top, including yourself spayed, had already mastered the game when planets and staions came along.

[Renshaak]

but ren, everyone who plays at the top was wiped when they first started... thats kinda how you learn.

A lot of people at the top, including yourself spayed, had already mastered the game when planets and staions came along.

you're right, Spayed, but so are you ninja.  IMHO it still boils down to how many people never stuck with the game because the frustration with the learning curve was too high.  Of course, we'll never know.

[Spayed]

and all of us had to learn new things when they came into the game...

but do we really want people that whine cry and quit when they lose to be playing this game?

[Renshaak]

and all of us had to learn new things when they came into the game...

but do we really want people that whine cry and quit when they lose to be playing this game?

You already had me whining -- I just took too long to quit (or at least go on sabatacle).

That's a pretty broad generalization.  Sure some probably were whiners.  Others just decided to not invest the time if the deck seemed that stacked.

Anyway, don't you want more whiners?  Once they get up to your level it can be that much sweeter to take them out

[jalfwhite]

I fully agree with Ren on this. there is nothing more annoying that watching a planet youve been working on for weeks and weeks be lost to someone that you  can't do ANYTHING to. It completely ruins the fun of the game when your investment is less than the average mission the other player does 100 times a night. Putting a increase in turns cost to attack the lower players planet would still allow you to take it but you would really WANT to take it for the cost not just cause you can or to be mean and raid someone down to nothing. If Emi really wants more players to stay and donate he needs to do something like this to help balance the game. Otherwise the "core vets" are going to keep drving off 2/3 of the players that come and possible donations.  I wouldnt even be sad to see it where a player of a certain CP plain out couldn't attack a Much lower players planet.

[TNTTony]

The REAL issue is whether emi will actually do anything about it

[Spayed]

and there are much bigger problems then this...

nebs being the main one. all u f**k**g loki noobs hide in nebs all day its f**k**g ridiculous. the only thing we can do is take your planets, come out of your nebs and fight and maybe your planets will be left alone...