Comming back to the game after several years of being absent, I find myself farming inactives, fleetsaving resources and just gaining points in Wezn. It is easy, proffitable and rather boring. I would like this to change.
My suggestion is to gradually change inactive players into a partial AI, then making them an actual AI by the time their accounts would be deleated, yet allow the planets to be "conquered" by active players.
The system would work like this, more or less:
Stage 1:
When a player goes inactive for a short time (i), 20% of the resources his/her mines produce are re-directed to a different, inaccesible resource pool. From this pool, an AI satarts building a combination of the highest-tier possible defences the player could build. If the player cannot build defences, the AI builds a level 1 Deuterium synthesiser, a level 2 Robotics factory and a level 1 Shipyard from this pool, as the resources become available, then just masses missile launchers.
Should the player log back into the account, this stops. The player would be greeted with a message explaining that, in his/her absence, some loyal officers took control of the planet to better defend it against raids.
Stage 2:
When a player goes inactive for a long time (I), 40% of the resources his/her mines produce are redirected to a different, inaccesible resource pool. From this pool, the AI uses 20% to build defences as above, while the other 20% are used to tech up to get better defences and build mines, storages and solar plants.
Should the player log back into the account, this stops. The player would be greeted with a message explaining that, in his/her absence, some loyal officers took control of the planet to better defend it against raids.
Stage 3:
By the time the player account would otherwise be deleated, instead of deleting the account, the planet becomes a full AI-Player, and the original player cannot take control of the planet anymore. 50% of the resources produced go to an inaccesible resource pool, from which half are used to tech up, and half are used to build defenses, essentially turing the AI into a turtle planet with an ever inreasing resource price for whomever can break through.
The planet will gain a "Life" counter, which regenerates slightly over time. Every time the defences are broken through this "life" goes down. When this "life" reaches zero, the colony is abandoned by its colonists and the planet slot becomes free to colonize.
The idea is meant to make inactive players more of a feature than an exploitable accident. By making them a more risky, yet more rewarding target to raid, as well as an obstacle to the expansion of older players that must be overcome, even players who have left the game actually contribute to it. Because these are turtles that will never be as profitable as actual players, however, they will not replace PvP interaction.
My suggestion is to gradually change inactive players into a partial AI, then making them an actual AI by the time their accounts would be deleated, yet allow the planets to be "conquered" by active players.
The system would work like this, more or less:
Stage 1:
When a player goes inactive for a short time (i), 20% of the resources his/her mines produce are re-directed to a different, inaccesible resource pool. From this pool, an AI satarts building a combination of the highest-tier possible defences the player could build. If the player cannot build defences, the AI builds a level 1 Deuterium synthesiser, a level 2 Robotics factory and a level 1 Shipyard from this pool, as the resources become available, then just masses missile launchers.
Should the player log back into the account, this stops. The player would be greeted with a message explaining that, in his/her absence, some loyal officers took control of the planet to better defend it against raids.
Stage 2:
When a player goes inactive for a long time (I), 40% of the resources his/her mines produce are redirected to a different, inaccesible resource pool. From this pool, the AI uses 20% to build defences as above, while the other 20% are used to tech up to get better defences and build mines, storages and solar plants.
Should the player log back into the account, this stops. The player would be greeted with a message explaining that, in his/her absence, some loyal officers took control of the planet to better defend it against raids.
Stage 3:
By the time the player account would otherwise be deleated, instead of deleting the account, the planet becomes a full AI-Player, and the original player cannot take control of the planet anymore. 50% of the resources produced go to an inaccesible resource pool, from which half are used to tech up, and half are used to build defenses, essentially turing the AI into a turtle planet with an ever inreasing resource price for whomever can break through.
The planet will gain a "Life" counter, which regenerates slightly over time. Every time the defences are broken through this "life" goes down. When this "life" reaches zero, the colony is abandoned by its colonists and the planet slot becomes free to colonize.
The idea is meant to make inactive players more of a feature than an exploitable accident. By making them a more risky, yet more rewarding target to raid, as well as an obstacle to the expansion of older players that must be overcome, even players who have left the game actually contribute to it. Because these are turtles that will never be as profitable as actual players, however, they will not replace PvP interaction.