You could start new accounts in a training galaxy - a small non pvp galaxy filled with lots of resources - thats how the galaxy was when i started, now it been heavily mined - and there wasnt that much PvP really early on - everyone was just focussing on getting started.

They could play there for a fixed amount of time -  then the account gets transferred to SOWARS - obviously any base they built doesnt come with them - but cash, workers and ore would.

This has the advantage that it reflects what the galaxy was like when the first players started - lots of mineral around, and also keeps them safe from getting nailed at the outset - so they can learn the basics if they need to.

Also - for alts - well, you need to play abit to get an advantage from that time - so its not a free gift that could be overly exploited.

I like the idea - its a big project though.

I had suggested it a couple months ago -and put up a poll -  and sent Emi emails ... and bumped it .. so it was probably the post immediately next to yours ..

Id like to make a suggestion regarding the loss of segments from attacks on SOWARS.

Segment destruction from attacks carries a large real life time loss, and Im not sure its justified on SOWARS.  Id also like to see the reward for a successful attack increased - this promotes more combat.

My suggestion is this, for regular attacks - reduce segs loss to 5%, and the attacker gains 5% - with no destruction of segments - they are all retained in the game.  For boarding attacks - make it 10% loss, and all those go to the attacker.

I think if the people hiding in Neb actually came out to play - then the total number of segs in the game could almost remain stationary - due to destruction from combat. 

At the moment destruction of segs represents quite a loss of time - the penalty for losing an attack is often the loss of their lead ship or more - which is already a heavy penalty.

Theres a few people who are always in neb on SOWARS.  Clearly they are not losing any segs to attacks, but I could land attacks on them easily and take segs - if they werent in neb all the time.

*Emi* - can you please sort this issue out.  Its real clear who they are - but Im not going to list names.

Using an alt - or a friend to neb you so you cant get attacked .. well, if its not against the rules it should be.

Help me, noobs are beating on me .. ?

At the current energy cost for Defense it is in no wise worth adding to a ship.

Needs something.

My personal preference would be this - any new player starts with a Commander who has an XP level as if he had been created at the start of the game.  Comes along with all that CP.

If you put this in - then you should automatically advance anyone who's commander is below that level up to that level.

THey wouldnt have the cash etc to spend it all on tech etc, and turns would be a constraint, - but at least they can hide and get some segs and so on - and if they spend wisely they will become competitive fairly quickly.

Alts exploiting that - well  - so what.

My favoured solutions are (in order);

1. Remove all +turn items.
2. Give a random selection of items.
3. Give only one item per mission.
4. Make plus turns items extremely uncommon - like 1,000 times less in my opinion - to the point of non existance.

SOWARS in particular should be a game of skill - not, "who can spend longest at the keyboard".

Im still very concerned about the turns reward - I think maybe its something that needs to be viewed differently on WARS than from the normal server. 

If the turns results arent removed or SERIOUSLY adjusted, the playing field wont be leveled - it will be horribly skewed - in favour of those having both high encrypt ratings and lots of playing time available - so one of the reasons I was advocating this would get dumped on its head.  Namely that the amount of playing time available shouldnt differentiate players - but rather their skills and capability for descision making.

Overmind - you cant make a case for the turns issue by saying lower players can use extra turns to catch the top players.  Its the top players that will have the higher encrypts and access to the huge turns results - they will be the ones to benefit from it immediately - your logic is - er - illogical. 

Once your encrypt level is high enough - if the mission spawn rate is good you could easily find the turns missions and just keep increasing turns to cap - and never run out - I think that would be a disaster - no, Im sure that would be a disaster.

I had always assumed the multiplyer would not apply to items - maybe that is a good solution- just have the mission yield one item - not 10 - really, I think it would be a cluster of ducks to have 10 times turn rewards as they are now. 

Also, the amount of missions that people are going to do is going to drop - not sure by how much - but I would suggest after this goes live - the rate of mission respawns will need to be reviewed and reduced.

Reduce to one item reward - or remove turns + items please!  Also, mission spawn rate may need to be reduced.

I for one am ONLY going to use the 10X multiplyer.  I love this idea EMI   The turns problem is an issue that will kill it though.

OK!  This is perfect Emi - drop down box and select.

The increase to turns cost might be a bit over the top though - maybe 50 turns is more reasonable?

However - I love this solution - this really should make the game competitive.

One reservation though Emi - I think the issue raised about turns + items is a valid one.  It might become an issue at high encrypts where the turn reward is enough to allow you to find the next highest turns reward mission and so on, and just cap out your turns.  Might be an idea to remove turns rewards maybe?

Personally I think all turns rewards should be removed - including Black Holes - turns are the leveler of the playing field, the resource that restricts everything - shouldnt be able to buy them, beg them or win them in my opinion. 

All other resources act on a slider of diminishing returns, but 1 turn is as valuable today as it will be in 6 months time, probably more valuable - turns rewards really should be reconsidered ...

Ive never used a counter attack on anyone - they always expire on me - so that wasnt a counter Cameron - I would have picked you up on Intel.

I'll shorten my response after having more time to think about it.

There is a problem with the current missions, so a solution needs to address that directly, either by removing them - or changing them.

I dont believe adding something new will fix it - even though what your proposing is good in itself, it doest alter the fact that theres a problem with the current missions that still needs to be addressed.

Could I firstly say - thank you Emi for listening, giving your time and starting a process to make what I think may be one huge improvement for your game.

I am 1000% for increases to mission turns/seg rewards, because theres issues that it creates for players, and for the game - and I thought long and hard about what I would say here - I do NOT want to try  throw up any uneccessary roadblock on what I see as such an important step forward.

However - that said - Im not sure implementing the solution as presented will actually address the core issues.

A major issue is that if people click, click and so on for hours - then they get a powerful edge over others who cant spend that time.  If you leave in normal missions and they raise encrypt level faster than these new missions then you havent really changed anything - the competitive edge is still with the grinders due to better items.

This is exacerbated further if you put a limit on the number that people can do - what options are left when you hit your cap?  Er .. hello grinding ..

I think everyone should be able to spend all thier turns in say 2 to 4 hrs or so.  That way its the decisions and strategies on spending turns that becomes important - not the endless clicking.  As I said - Im sure the stated solution wont solve these issues.

And - for people who enjoy spending time on this game - well - its not like the actual clicking time is all that you spend - I can say theres endless hours in ship design, budgeting and planning - or maybe theyd just rather do something else entirely.

So;

A simple solution would be to remove the old style missions entirely.  Give the new missions the same encryption rate increase - otherwise Derflinger and Co. (thats you Broken, Overmind, Chrys and Skull ) would never be caught for encrypt levels.

Also no limit to the number a player can do - and plenty enough for everyone to spend their turns on missions if thats how they want to spend them.

However - if you cant see it in your heart to just toss aside the old missions;

Then;

- the encrypt multiplyer for the new missions really needs to be EXACTLY the same - so no-one can raise encryption faster than someone else (or we are all grinding again .. )

- enough new missions so people can spend their turns as they wish (or we're grinding the old ones again ..)

- and no limit to the number they can do in a day ( or .. yeah .. guess you got the picture now eh .. )

The only advantage then of normal missions would be more items - which most people have more than they can use anyhow - so if you ran out you might do normal missions for a bit to restock. 

But the ginding would stop.

********************************************

Emi - please have a look through and consider the issues Ive tried to raise.  Hopefully the facts speak for themselves.

I hope you can see what I am trying to bring to your attention.  Once again - thankyou for listening to us.

Sliding scale suggested format.

Base the scale on mission level.

Missions 1 to 250 - 5 turns, 250 segs
Missions 251 to 500  - 10 turns, 400 segs
Missions 501+ - 20 turns, 750 segs

BUMP BUMP BUMP >>>> Please Emi - OMG ... please make some increase.