[Community Proposal] How to Improve OGame and Keep Both New and Veteran Players

    Hello everyone,

    OGame is one of the best-designed browser games out there – simple, strategic, and long-lasting. I’ve been playing it for years and always find myself coming back. However, after server merges, many of us lose motivation to continue. Why? Because we no longer feel progression – instead, we end up with a target on our backs from much stronger veteran accounts.

    Instead of this being just criticism, I would like to share a few suggestions that could make OGame more enjoyable and sustainable for both new and old players.

    Main Issues:

    1. Merges break the balance – new players instantly become “small fish” in an ocean of long-standing, overpowered accounts.

    2. Lack of meaningful progression – after a certain stage, the game stagnates. The only way to grow is by investing huge amounts of money or endlessly farming, all while risking losing everything in a single attack.

    3. Casual players have no chance – those who play for fun quickly give up because stronger players constantly attack them without any possibility of defense.

    Suggested Solutions:

    • Advanced Noob Protection

      Introduce a scaled protection system based on points – for example, a player who has 70% more points than you should not be able to attack you. Exact percentages can be debated, but the idea is to give casual players a chance to develop their accounts without being crushed repeatedly.

    • Motivation Through Astro Technology

      • New universes could provide stronger early-game motivation, e.g. 4 levels of Astro by the time of the merge. This way, players would know they’ll gain 2 additional planets, keeping them engaged.

      • Veteran players could receive 1 Astro level per year – small, but meaningful progression without requiring P2W spending.

    • Balanced Expedition Maximum Find

      Currently, with Lifeforms it’s possible to reach 600m max find, but how often does that really happen and what is the true impact? If the maximum expedition find scaled with account points, all players would feel steady progression – both casual and hardcore.

    Conclusion

    The purpose of these suggestions is not to “give away” progress, but to create a balanced system where both new and old players have a reason to stay. If a casual player realistically needs 150 years to reach 30 planets, it’s clear most will quit long before that. But if there’s a sense of shared growth, OGame can thrive for many more years.

    :thumbsup:

    :beware::beware::beware:

    Quote from Sekula

    Lack of meaningful progression – after a certain stage, the game stagnates. The only way to grow is by investing huge amounts of money or endlessly farming, all while risking losing everything in a single attack.

    You don't lose it all in single attack. Thats why you have space dock. Unfortunately many people don't understand that for F2P players it is far better to have lower DF like 30% then higher because space dock % is corresponding to it. But again, you don't lose it all, you can always get around 20-30% back, even 37%+ if you play lower DF% universe.


    Quote from Sekula

    Advanced Noob Protection

    Introduce a scaled protection system based on points – for example, a player who has 70% more points than you should not be able to attack you. Exact percentages can be debated, but the idea is to give casual players a chance to develop their accounts without being crushed repeatedly.

    Any noob protection should take only military built into consideration and not points. In my opinion that should be a big MUST in case any kind of rework of noob protection comes in the future which i doubt... Also % based protection can't work because ogame is not in scale like that...Difference between 1mil points and 10mil points is nowhere close to difference between 100mil and 1bil points which is same ratio.


    Maybe i missunderstood but what you are saying is;

    100 000 points player could not be attacked by 170 000 player?

    10 000 000 could not be attacked by 17 000 000 player?


    Seems absurd but maybe i got it wrong xD


    Quote from Sekula

    Balanced Expedition Maximum Find

    Currently, with Lifeforms it’s possible to reach 600m max find, but how often does that really happen and what is the true impact? If the maximum expedition find scaled with account points, all players would feel steady progression – both casual and hardcore.

    Hmmm i don't understand the point of this because if you decide to play as disco and go fully in that direction your maximum expo find will be scaled with your account points :confused:. As you invest more into lifeformse the more points you have the larger findings become... If we deduce that you are trying to say that expo finds should grow outside of lifeform techs and increase as your points increase then people with higher LF techs will also be able to earn much more compared to F2P players since they are naturally higher in points already with all their investment done into higher yields :confused::confused::confused:


    Quote from Sekula

    The purpose of these suggestions is not to “give away” progress, but to create a balanced system where both new and old players have a reason to stay. If a casual player realistically needs 150 years to reach 30 planets, it’s clear most will quit long before that. But if there’s a sense of shared growth, OGame can thrive for many more years.

    OGame will never be balanced unless they remove packs and merchant. As much as i like what you wrote about astrophysics because everyone likes to have more planets i will just tell you that if planets become easier to get for everyone you will only see larger disbalance in points then you have now. Think about why is that, im sure you can reach a conclusion by yourself with a bit of thinking :wink3:


    This game is boring, it has no animations, nothing moves flashily over the screen in supersonic speed which kids these days tend to enjoy the most since they get instant gratification from it. This game is for old dudes and some "younger ones that have old dudes mentality" :biggrin:


    I like your enthusiams though, don't let my "negative" rumblings stop you from having a good debate in case someone decides to jump in and chat a bit :dead:

    I completely agree with your points. Server merges are one of the biggest reasons many players lose interest – it feels like all your progress suddenly becomes meaningless when you’re placed next to accounts that are years ahead.

    The point is not that you literally lose everything overnight, but that after merges, some guy with 25M Battlecruisers shows up and you have absolutely no way to defend yourself. From his perspective, you’re basically the same as an inactive player – just another farm target. This is what kills motivation. It’s not about being lazy or not wanting to grind, it’s that the power gap becomes so huge that active players are treated like free resources instead of competitors.

    There really needs to be some common ground when it comes to scaling noob protection. The strongest players shouldn’t be so overwhelmingly dominant that they immediately crush the motivation of anyone starting a new account on an old universe. Otherwise, what’s the point of a merge if someone who used to be top 10 ends up not even in the top 200? At the very least, there should be some kind of protection that scales with account strength, giving newer or weaker players a bit of security from those who are far stronger. That way, the game remains competitive instead of discouraging.

    As for expedition scaling, sure – it makes sense that the more you invest, the more you get back. But realistically, look at how much it takes to reach Astro 35, 36, or even higher. For a free-to-play player, reaching those levels is basically impossible – maybe in 10 or 20 years. That’s where the game pushes you toward spending big money. If expeditions scaled with the top player instead, then even free-to-play players could feel some meaningful progression. It wouldn’t just be a system that rewards only the biggest spenders, but something that keeps everyone engaged.

    Regarding rewards for Astro, it’s just a small boost for other players coming into an old universe. It would also be nice for veteran players to feel some recognition from the game for being loyal for years. I understand that the developers need to make a living, but logically, it would make sense to target a lot more players, not just the 40–50 who are constantly active. If you look at alliances, the same core players just move from one universe to another – basically the same group of people playing all the time.

    As for the part about 3D graphics, if that’s really what you want, go play something like EVE Online or a similar game.

    :beware::beware::beware:

    Ive read through all of this and agree with alot of it, Just to keep it simple and put in my 2 cents worth....Me and ALOT of others I know would love to see a uni without packs !!

    Alot of players think DM killed the game, I dont think it did, it has its place and GF need to earn some money right. But packs surly have made this game the number 1 pay to win browser game.
    I just merged Ceres to Fafnir...Soon as we got there top players bought a crap ton of pack and build 10s of thousands of rips and millions of other ships. I played for friends and fun for over a year on that server and in a matter of 2 weeks all my hard work was laid to rest, Account went into v mode and will probably stay there....The wallet worriers win again.
    And Im not the only one, lots friends playing this game have quit for the very same reason, Very sad


    Anyway, that just my little bit on all this :-)

    I read it as well, and I felt the same, to the point I am as well on the verge of perma vMode.

    Like Maverick Ceres - Fafnir there was excitement of the merge, soon enough, it fade away when people packed res with ease thousands of fleet giving no chance to other more casual players. Making the effort of casual players that de facto is backbone of the community useless, and forcing sooner or later to vMode or quit the game.


    The problem for OG about this topic is the fact that if they implemented a solution must reflect to all servers, because as we know all servers end up sooner or later in Uni1.



    --- Packs ------

    I also agree to Maverick that DM do not kill the game, it is the only way to OG to capitalize on their platform and it is completely logical for them to have a profit. But I agree also about the packs, and I think they can live alongside....


    The best way in my case is to revise the number of packs available set a CAP and with a timer of 2-3days (like you did recently for timed events packs),

    I think the main issue is the value of the pack and the DM cost.


    The cost of the pack instead of going on daily production of all planets that would simply increase the discrepancy from big player to smaller... a ratio similar to the outcome of explos (and not up to 100.000.000 but have the scale in the order of billion points with an hard cap)


    I am trying to explain my suggestion, I don't know the purchase history of players, the volume of transaction and so on, but I think 1 or more of the following suggestion would negatively or positively impact revenue ( do the math :P)

    a pack for a small player, cost a lot for small amount or resources, for a big whale the very same cost granted much more resources, due to the difference of production capabilities, even tho, the cost fleet or other things are the same.

    making the value of 1DM x Million resource completely unbalanced even further in time.


    have a fix value of DM x Million resource might be a solution

    Or an incremental/decremental cost in DM for the packs (for instance can be set as cost based on points player vs avg points of active players. )

    Also incremental cost in DM from a single pack of multiple purchase. 1 pack 50.000DM, pack number 2 55000DM and so on (of course you can even offer bundle rebate to save DM or "special offers" exactly like you do for the purchase of DM itselves to capitalize further and in a specific period)

    So a big whale will still have access to packs but would cost more and more creating a "natural cap", considering certain wallets around in here would be interesting and smaller players may pay much less for the packs...


    ---Merge---

    I think also in the merge (to get in line with the person who open the topic) a welcoming "package" to the people who meged in. TBD the type.

    this thread turned out to be somewhat ''wall of cry'' for ogamers. i came from long pause back. my first instinct was, register in universe one, and play my game. why should i bother if another dude has 25,000 or 250,000,000 BC or RIPs? you cant play correctly? get recycled, you deserved it. this game was far more aggressive in old design. nowdays if you need ress and cant buy resource packs, well send expos, easy as it is, like going to get food, no more need to hunt for it, just visit groceries store and pick what you like. progress in ogame has become so easy. in old days, you had to bleed for it.


    i had multiple chance to get top 15 account as gift in the universe i play atm. i refused. i like hard way, build my account from zero, work for rank, fight vs odds and struggle. in my universe #1 has +200mil points. I have barely 8mil. so what? persistence wins in the end.


    I support merges, cause without em, you would have 5 active players per emptu universe. idk why you think you deserve to be merged with similar point/fleet/eco strength?


    if it was me, i would mark your universe as exodus one, give you 2 months to decide where you wanna go and give you option any older universe then exodus one and be done with it. if i could choose now. i would settle for universe one, for two main reasons, it has 9 galaxies and its 1x fleet speed. everything else is more or less irrelevant for me.



    what i absolutely NOT support is:


    Advanced Noob Protection - just forget it, either learn to swim or get drowned.


    Motivation Through Astro Technology - your points are calculated by amount of ress you spent. now you want to get 4 levels of astro for free? most important tech? just no.


    Sekula


    you said you want ogame to be balanced. whole point of it is, not to be. it would make game boring as hell, when hardcore and casual players would be on same height or equal in progress.


    as much there is lot of hate towards ress buying and DM ''abuse'' you all forget, it keeps those players playing the game. top dog get crashed, what happend in old days? instant vm and quit. nowdays top dogs actually rebuild more often wia insta building and buying resource packs.

    Display Spoiler

    Look at the player numbers and tell me how you expect to win the 'vets' that have left close to a decade ago?

    They probably don't think about this game anymore and moved on with their lives.

    Two new generations were born during this time to, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha, they probably never heard of this game and if they have, they are clearly not interested in it.


    oGame dug it's own grave once they introduced DM, thousands of players left overnight and what we once witnessed as thousands of players active IN A SINGLE SERVER, you can't even get 100 players on at the same time after a week of a new uni opening. I open .org and you have 10 servers combined that can't even reach 50 online players atm, how pathetic is that?


    The game isn't 'dead dead' but it's pretty bloody dead in my honest opinion. It's a shell of what it once was. There's no going back to the glory days, Nada, Zilch... It's a sad state of affairs. I wouldn't mind this game going permanently offline either. Player interaction, big alliances, CR posts and rivalry, making trades with players, different types of alliances for fleets/miners.

    The list goes on, there's none of that anymore.


    Maverick F-14 How can you claim DM didn't at least MASSIVELY impact the player count??? Where you there when it happened back in the 2010's? It cut the playerbase in half overnight. and within a month it lost around 70% of the players.

    I get the DM discussion to keep this game alive 100%. But they sacrificed greed for longevity. Clearly.

    We need some community project (not GF related) like a fan project and make a new game, can be browser game, can we a 3D game can be a 2D game. New technologies kept coming and Ogame is still like a rock in a pond on the bottom of it. So lets grab some genius ideas, and we can start slowly developing! Once it gets rolling more people will come aboard and we have the potential to make something we would all like, basically 2025 ogame with no P2W (no packs), keep some of the good stuff, make item auction for players (like WoW auction, not ogame) where explorers will find items and sell them, discoverers will sell their artifacts etc. There is so much that can be done but sadly in ogame nothing is being done. Just milk the whales till it dies off completly which it is over the 20 years im playing this game on and off i know what TheCunning is talking about. Even on off servers like balkan we had 3-5k people on a server thining down to 500-750 in a year of existence now 500 on a new EN server is a dream hahahaa.

    Lets unite our little heads and we can do much!

    "How you gonna listen when you always talking? Walking a different walk than the one that you barking"