4) Add a storyline. yes, a storyline with quests just for the player, it may get him/her interested . also, encounters should be more than just battles, but right now i'm still thinking about that.
I like that idea, one HUGE thing I look for in my MMOs is a story, as it makes it more interesting, and makes grinding a little less tedious if you know you're working towards something, even if it is just the next part of the story.
And, emi, should you wish to take up a storyline, I'd be more than willing to write/help write/supply parts/ect for it.
For those of you that thinks this game is so simple, tell me that you know the formulas and methodolgy to design all different types of ships, that you know battle strategies and that you know how to gain in ranks in the game. Then also tell me after that, that you have the time to invest to do all of the above to do well in the game. Some of you still think that the "TnS Mk2 1" pships are the best pships out there because they have 3,000 weapons and that more weapons must be better as opposed to the FP that you get per credit cost.
I am now 81 in rank not playing the game and could easily be 20-30 points higher if I wanted to be. I would be lucky to be top 200 with the same power ranking a year ago when all the good players used to play.
Most of you guys are noobs who don't know how much you don't know about the game and think that because you're high in the ranks that you're doing well. Doing well in the game is all relative. The only top player still playing now is Losted and with J-Bomb ahead if her, I know that there is no way that she is seriously playing.
I think that with all the other games out there and other things competing for our precious time, a game where you get ahead mostly based upon time that you spend pounding away on missions is, no matter ow addictive it is in the beginning, is bound to fade away.
The thing that first attracted me to this game was the battling as I hated losing and I spent a couple hundred dollars doing that, but it took me a long time to learn the intricacis of the game how to get ahead and then I didn't have the time needed. As for ship desigining, someone had to give me the formulas to make efficient ships that I then had to couple with research and know-how to start designing decent ships, something that was also very time-consuming and I think that Sir Emi did good by putting in the multipliers for equipment so that you didn't have to make the same design multiple times.
Anyway, unfortunately, I don't know that there are too many people still playing the game from the glory days still here to leave their opinion.
One thing that may be helpful is if Sir Emi could contact people who tried the game and quit within a month to get their feedback as to why they quit.
The main attraction of the original SO was the fact that it took SKILL and only skill to get a higher rank. There was NO galaxy, NO missions, just you, your ships, your alliance, and a good couple hundred players trying their hardest to pound you into dust. And back then, losing your entire armada could end your game for that round if you didn't prepare right, but if you did, recovering was a 2-3 day process. You could also not log on for a few days, and not really be too far behind. Now, even a day of not logging in can put you too far behind to ever catch up, and even the greatest player to ever walk the earth will get beat by someone who can grind missions all day.
For those of you say we need to make SO more flashy....you're superficial...and stupid. Flashy can attract attention, but if the substance is poor, you won't keep their attention (unless they're shallow too). Soem of the greastest games of all time have horrible graphics nowadays, and only decent ones back when they came out. Take The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Most people consider it one of the greatest games ever made. It's graphics....no where near all that flash or amazing. They were good back then, but it was the gameplay that kept people playing. I STILL go back and play it over and over, because it's fun to play, not looks good. In a game type like this, graphics would only be a major hinderance.
Basically, to save SO, the following MUST be done:
1) Complexity MUST drop, there is just WAY too much going on now to possibly keep up in the average amount of time the average person has to play/is willing to (4-5 hours). Be this splitting some of the features to just certain game types, or whatever, something has to be done to fix it.
2) A better tutorial MUST be made, and should be incorperated into the gameplay. One big problem is just trying to figure out how to play now. having a manual in the upper right hand corner to click on does little, as most people nowadays hate reading and don't learn well that way anyways. Basically, just like at the start of all games, you need something that walks you through how to do what IN GAME, with little pointers saying click here, ect. And leave the ability to turn it off in the commander options area only, so you have to look for it to turn it off. People will go through the how to play stuff if they think they have to.
3) an SO Classic server MUST be created. Back in SO's golden age, right before the missions were released, we had HUNDREDS of active players, approaching the thousands, we were in the top 10 of game rankings. Since the missions update, we've lost countless vets, and our recruitment numbers have plummited to nearly standstills. Basically:
a) Remove missions, galaxy, market, everything that came from the mission update onwords.
b) Upgrade what an alliance actually IS, while it did work decently in SO's golden days, ally supporting needs to be incorperated somehow, even if it is just helping with credits (obviously, thier must be a range restriction on this, otherwise masive abuse will ensue)
c) Alliance wars need to have joint attacks. You officially declare a war on an alliance, it informs both alliances (one easy way is to make all people in that alliance turn red in rankings), then both alliances can have thier members combine forces to attack high rank players in enemy alliance (In old SO, top players could anniliate entire alliances on their own without fear of being destroyed, that needs to be remedied). This could easily be a seperate attack option, called team attack (or something similar) which allows you to select 1 fleet, and pulls that fleet from being destroyed. Then a 24 hour (roughly the standard amount of time people took to log in at least once) countdown starts, and up to 10 people can add a fleet to the attack, and once the countdown expires, the attack is executed. To prevent abuse, power can be limited to at least 2x your own or something, so no high rank players can join up with a really low guy to blast him into spacedust.
4) No more turn donations, as in SO,Classic that would be MAJORLY abused. Worse than it is now. Turns are your life in SO Classic.
5) Lower or remove the rewards for taking top 10 in SO Classic. Anything over $25 would almsot ensure a skilled player will take a top 10 spot again, which means no competitiveness, which means people will quit again.
6) This one is optional. Maybe up the rewards for PvP in SO Classic, to make it seem more worth it. Like, maybe keep the item update around, but make it if you do over a certain % of damage to a commander, you get a random item, and the stronger the commader is, the better the item. But if you attack someone weaker, you get no items. So like, 2x you'd get a decent item, 3x a good item, 4x a great item, 5x an amazing item, ect. This would encourage risktaking as well. This of course, would not apply to joint/team attacks in alliance wars, to prevent abuse.
As for a name for the new SO Classic, as it would ned it's own name and server, I like the following:
Battle Universe
Galaxy of War
Spacedust
Star Fighters
Interstellar Conquest
