Posts by Kaldor

  • Can we have a vote to change server settings in Dorado ?


    This is something I've thought would be interesting to implement on a larger scale (to give smaller ranked players bigger eco buffs). I've never thought about it too much past the idea so don't really have too many thoughts on implementation although I'd have thought rankings may be a better idea to base it off?

  • Universe Speeds & Why we choose them.

    It's that time of the game when mergers are upon us. Every couple of years the community ends up in a place of "plenty of disagreement" over what should happen. This time around I've said what I feel & well everyone else has as well & we're at a stage (if you're reading this later) where we're in the middle of the merge phase. If you want to read up on the community's thoughts on the merge look no further than this thread:


    Petition to add a x1 fleetspeed target uni to .org merge


    A conversation I think that should be had, & should've happened before, is a discussion on why players choose certain speeds. To me it seems to be a pretty simple equation. More free time = higher speed. Less free time = slower speed. Everyone will have their nuanced take on this & their own reasons as to why they've chosen to play in "x" universe. However, & with the merge phase in progress, I think a discussion should be had on why players feel that they can't play a higher speed. Again, this seems pretty obvious to me like I suggested above but what mechanics of the game are specifically preventing players from playing in different server settings?


    To me, the problem is a pretty obvious one & always has been. Deathstar speeds in higher speed universes enable moon destructions to happen much quicker than what I've always referred to as a "good night's sleep". This seems to be a pretty obvious block on why a lot of players wouldn't dream of taking their well established accounts & fleets into faster setting universes. Perhaps there are other reasons as well (apart from the obvious faster flight times of speed ships in higher speeds).


    Anyway, if anyone is reading this that is, I thought it'd be good to discuss what mechanics could potentially be amended that could enable more players to at least explore the idea of playing in higher speed universes.

  • Petition to add a x1 fleetspeed target uni to .org merge

    Quote from piink

    We will run server setting polls in the future again, but not right now. There are still several countries that have to go through merges and we are not done with the EN merges yet.

    The merge item was in the shop for a few days shortly after the NL merge happened, but had to be removed due to some of the restrictions not working as they should. Once these restrictions are fixed the item will be available in all servers that were already part of merges, but there is no release date yet.


    As bad as this merge phase is for some players there's going to be a merge item available sooner or later. I hope everyone gets a free item when it does get released but at least know that when this comes you'll have the option to migrate to a universe of your choice (providing you meet the criteria (which will apply to 99.9% of players here)).


    One more thing I'd like to say is voting will be an option in universes you're migrating to now. Like I said before this will offer some sort of a potential solution to some players but you'll need to keep in mind that those players who were there to begin with chose that server for a reason (something I eluded to in my prior post about the situation now). Keep in mind their situation as well.


    It's sad to see many players have chosen to quit/delete their accounts but for those who haven't, know that sooner or later that merge item will provide a get-out for you. In the meantime I'd suggest at least trying your new settings & to offer support/voice to solutions to problems that this may cause. This is something I've talked about numerous times before but things such as deathstar speeds in faster universes. Maybe there'll be something that can be done to suddenly make faster universes more accessible for x1 players etc.



    TLDR: The merge item is coming :check: & think about potential fixes that could make a faster universe more playable for you (talk about them).

  • Merger into Dorado

    Players have been able to move into target universes regardless of account size & whether or not they'd become top ranked in that universe.


    This appears to be another issue. Please send in tickets &/or feel free to send me a message on the boards or on discord (find me in the official discord server). We can have a quick chat & see if there are any obvious issues that can be resolved with an announcement of some kind & without the need for tickets/delays etc.

  • Petition to add a x1 fleetspeed target uni to .org merge


    I've cleared my inbox so hopefully players will be able to start conversations with me again.


    As far as which discord server is concerned, the official one:


    https://discord.com/invite/FXX…Widget&utm_medium=Connect

  • Petition to add a x1 fleetspeed target uni to .org merge


    This is exactly the issue really. x1 is a place where everyone can come to have an attachment to the game whilst being able to maintain a professional, social, & family life outside of the game. This for a lot of people is virtually impossible to do without some very exceptional circumstances ingame where you can't be crashed because of size or because of ingame politics. That's something that's simply unattainable for the vast majority of the x1 player base regardless of which community you're talking about.


    Personally speaking I strongly see the value in maintaining a x1 fleet speed option for the community. This is especially so for the players that started accounts in newer universes outside of universe 1 (as far as .org is concerned). They started those accounts, they started playing gifted accounts, & they invested a lot of time & in some cases a lot of money on DM to set themselves up in this climate. Playing OGame is sometimes very much like an investment & for every player out there, they need to know what they're investing in & if that climate is going to be stable. As far as x1 players are concerned, the number 1 important factor in that investment is that the universe their account is in remains as a x1 universe.


    The speed settings for the economy in a universe are also important (as demonstrated by the sheer gap between Dorado players & the rest of the x1 community & their respective servers) but as long as the fleet speed factor is there everything else becomes secondary. Some players will be in the fortunate position of being able to adapt to a speed change but this is something that no x1 player should be forced to tolerate. There's a whole sub-community, playstyle, etc. attached to x1 play within every larger server community & that's something that should be maintained as a priority. The same can be said for players in other speeds as well but I'm sure every x1 player will agree with me when I say keeping x1 at x1 is critical.


    As far as the other speeds are concerned, there are adaptations players can make such as x4/x5/x6 & perhaps x2/x3 (those players would have to comment on this in more detail except to say as a speed player I've seen most players can interchange between x4-x6). The final point I'll make though is x1 offers a lot of things that a player with an otherwise busy life can appreciate & use in a way that makes them be able to still play & appreciate the game. Those are firstly, the slow flight speeds for a regular hit but more critically & secondly, the slow time for a MD to cross a system. With those RIP speeds at anything over 7 hours, this allows a player to have a respectable (& medically healthy) night's sleep without losing their destructable points in ships. Perhaps something could be done about the speed of deathstars in faster universes that could aleviate some of these concerns? That's something that should be explored further but is also a discussion for another time as the mergers are upon us.


    What can be done?


    In terms of what "can be done" in theory to help? Like I said before, some sort of assurance about a merge item & giving everyone an item for free upon release would go a long way to solving some of these concerns. The only issue then would be how long would players have to wait to finally return to their desired universe settings?

    Secondly, something to consider is setting votes. I haven't crunched the numbers entirelly but I have a feeling that if every x1 player in group 1 went to Zibal, the number of active players from x1 would have enough voting power to change Zibal to a x1. Obviously that would screw over those who chose x2 to make a home in deliberately for x2 reasons but it'd at least be sort of democratic?


    Thirdly, refer to what I said earlier about fixing MD/RIP mechanics/speeds in faster universes. This is a longer discussion but is something certainly worth exploring in my opinion.


    Fourth, I think a lot of players here have talked about making Dorado an option for group 1 as well. The argument against this would be that it'd push the Dorado players further down the highscore list & the problems that comes with that. The counter-point would be to look at the players coming from universes like Mensa, Galetea, & Pasiphea that'll be doing that now anyway. Dorado was screwed from the get-go being x1/x1 & as much as I'd like it not to be screwed in my opinion you may as well give Virgo & Aquarius players that option as well if the damage of adding Mensa, Galatea, & Pasiphea is already done (which it is).


    Finally, simply just give Aquarius, Virgo, etc. (other big x1 universes outside of universe 1) a postponment & wait for the other universe mergers which would allow them to go to universe 1 (which is what 99.9% of those players would probably want anyway). This skirts the problem of those universes unbalancing everything because they wouldn't be disturbing any balance when thrown into universe 1 which is a very balanced universe.


    The merge dilema


    As has already been stated by other teamlers GameForge got a couple of really big problems with mergers (EN)


    1. As most players would've probably realised by now there are way too many universes for the current team to be able to "properly" maintain. Simply put, we can maintain them at the moment but we have the issue of running into workload issues etc. which I'm sure a lot of the players here will have witnessed (think ticket response time etc.) Reducing the number of universes allows us as a team to be more productive in the long run.


    2. The mergers have to be balanced enough in terms of points etc. (I know... speed settings > points for most players but I'm providing a different perspective on this). GameForge doesn't want to have scenarios where big accounts come into younger universes & kill them off near-instantly. On a points to points comparison this would be a fairly obvious outcome if GameForge threw Virgo straight into Dorado for example (using the x1 scenario). It's what also ended up happening when Rigel was a target universe in prior merge phases for other x1 universes. I'm pretty sure most x1 players who've been around for a while know exactly what I'm talking about.


    There are a lot of solutions which have been provided for these issues (including mine above, taken from this thread & the community at large) but I think it's important for players to think about this when they think about why GameForge chooses merges the way they do.


    My ideas


    On a personal note, & if I had the ability to decide what happened, I'd exclude Dorado from the merge entirely (treat it as a young universe) & merge the other x1 universes in groups 1 & 2 together. I flip-flop on whether or not Pasiphea should be excluded as well due to the point/rank differences compared to the other x1 universes, but that's neither here nor there.


    The end result of this would be the existence of an extra 2 universes for the team to manage. Speaking as a team member I don't think this is too hard to deal with & it has the added bonus of satisfying the vast majority of x1 players in these universes. This 3rd group could then be included in the next merge phase to be merged straight into universe 1 (thereby removing the extra universe). The alternative is dozens of vmoded accounts which won't be played again.


    Here's a stomt:

    https://stomt.co/mRvzN


    piink if you're reading this thread & happen upon this post any comments to the thoughts or any thoughts about the other players' ideas would be most welcomed by the community. You know that anyway :smile2:


    If you read all that, congratulations & sorry for the long text :blink:

  • Petition to add a x1 fleetspeed target uni to .org merge

    Quote from Nixian
    Quote from Kaldor

    As good as it is for Dorado to become a target it's still going to get squashed by Mensa :mellow:

    mensa is the least of our troubles


    https://docs.google.com/spread…HkQWz_po/edit?usp=sharing


    I don't see any of those players choosing to go to x1 unless they're in x1 already and/or have other ties to x1 and want to "retire" from the fast lane. I do envisage a majority of Mensa & Galatea players moving in though.


    It's still an issue though regardeless & to be honest the minute I saw Dorado announced as a x1/x1 I and I think a lot of people knew it's fate was going to be something like this.

  • Petition to add a x1 fleetspeed target uni to .org merge

    I think the better question to ask right now is this:


    Is there a merge item coming? Yes or no?


    If there is... will everyone get a free item to start with?




    I hope the answer to both of those is a firm yes & personally would hope for some re-assurances sooner rather than later seeing as a few hundred players are being merged in the coming days. I think you'll find a decent proportion of the community would make different decisions if they knew for certain what those answers were. We don't particularly need to know the details of when a merge item would be coming because I'm sure like most large updates dates can change etc. Just let us know officially "if" it's going to become a thing?