Astrophysics technology is killing newcomers

    • Astrophysics technology is killing newcomers

      Hello, i have been 10 years out of game, and mainly i found that Astro is a Newcomers killer.

      Why?

      Because the learning curve of playing this game is even harder now, you have to build astro to build planets. Don't think as veteran players, think when you are new... before you just created colos and make 9 planets, then started raising them, you built fleet, got killed sometimes but your production was good so if you lost like 100m in fleet and your produ is 30m (fast unis) it's only 3 days... and with high production you have the "illusion" that you have a great account.

      Examples:

      my account in Yildun, with all officers 3 weeks playing

      Production 28.595 (16.370 / 5.934 / 6.291) Daily Points Gained

      My friend accounts (he is newcomer), both are miner accounts, i never farmed too

      Production 9.012 (5.387 / 2.422 / 1.204) Daily Points Gained

      what's the difference?

      He is stucked with 5/6 planets... i will have nearly 9


      Also he will be farmed and make him quit if not build defense.


      Solution:

      Start with 9 planets unlocked to colonize, but when reach astro 17 you will be able to build your 10th planet and so on... Remove the 1 to 15 astro requeriments to build planets

    • Instead I think Astrophysics is one of better change in ogame. You have a more progressive development of account and you have to make more choices on what you should do before and after. Unlike before that the development was standard ......... you did all the colonies in a short time and only then did you think to do something else, the only strategy.


      I think the two big problems are: on one hand the shop made at the beginning of the universe and the other wanting everything immediately (which is why you want the fast universes).

      In your example, the different that I see is that you are a better player and so you are able to developen account faster that your friend . This don't sound a fault of Astrophysics . If then the motive is that you started in different moment, is it is obvious that you are more developed than him.

      Then you had focus in the fact you are using officiers, while you didn't say if also your friend use them .......... so if he don't use, is obvious that you have more production --> faster to increase Astro --> more planets --> more production

    • New players might not think about the preferable order of mines and astro, let alone compute the amortisation of both cases depending on the next mine and the number of planets. If you want to be efficient that is how you need to think. There might be a motivation issue for new players if they compare themselves with experienced players. In my opinion a learning curve is a good way to keep the game interesting.
      In case of the old system there was still a way of playing efficiently by means of an optimized mines' build order. Whether it's a good thing to keep players interested in getting more efficient and dropping the easily demotivated, that don't put much thought into getting better at the game..good question.

    • By getting active and asking you why your production is so much higher and how they can improve their playstyle. By informing themselves on the forums and putting thought into their account setup. It's a thing you don't get without actively searching for it. Of course it's a question of game design. We could also have page upon page about efficiency and other tips in the tutorial, but that might as well make it so boring that they loose motivation anyway. If they don't become active they won't last long anyway. Might seem harsh but if they don't want to engage with the game, do they think it's just about clicking on icons to raise their stats? Then games like Shakes&Fidget, or BattleKnight might be more interesting to them. If I were a game developer I would also want the player to put effort into improving his gameplay. Taking the player by his hand and explaining everything upfront does not necessarily keep him in the game longer.

      €: Of course in case of your friend, you might wanna give him some tips and help him with how to progress more effectively.

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Lilith ().

    • the first 4 or 5 colonies should be obtainable way easier.
      combine it with the tutorial. e.g. get to met10 crys 7 deu 3 on your mainplanet and receive a planet slot
      trade some ressources with a buddy and get a slot
      find an alliance with at least x members and get a slot
      get a total met40 crys 30 deu 20 on all your planets combined for another slot

      or just give new accounts a few planetslots from the beginning

    • Lilith wrote:

      By getting active and asking you why your production is so much higher and how they can improve their playstyle. By informing themselves on the forums and putting thought into their account setup. It's a thing you don't get without actively searching for it. Of course it's a question of game design. We could also have page upon page about efficiency and other tips in the tutorial, but that might as well make it so boring that they loose motivation anyway. If they don't become active they won't last long anyway. Might seem harsh but if they don't want to engage with the game, do they think it's just about clicking on icons to raise their stats? Then games like Shakes&Fidget, or BattleKnight might be more interesting to them. If I were a game developer I would also want the player to put effort into improving his gameplay. Taking the player by his hand and explaining everything upfront does not necessarily keep him in the game longer.

      €: Of course in case of your friend, you might wanna give him some tips and help him with how to progress more effectively.
      I think that's true, but for that you need people that want to play the game. It's kind of a balance. If you have people wanting to play the game, you want to educate them so that they need to learn, so that the game poses a challenge. But to demand that from them you have to be in a position where you can do it.

      I don't think the game is in a position where the flow of players (and the energy to keep playing for players that have been here years) is strong, so may be this suggestion is not out of logic.

      Not an easy task, but I see the point of OP, and I think that OGame might be in a position where it would be convenient to ease the first phases of the game so that it might attract more player (and give them energy to keep playing). Of course, related to that is not only the mechanics of the game, its a huge amount of variables. As an example, communities that are far from alive, if boards were alive they would attract more players because it would be a nice environment; huge differences in points at the beginning of the game too (old players know that after a few months the differences are not huge, but if as a new player after ten days of playing you see someone that has twenty times more ships than you, more planets, more mines, it removes all energy you have because you feel it's impossible to overcome that).

    • Minion wrote:

      old players know that after a few months the differences are not huge, but if as a new player after ten days of playing you see someone that has twenty times more ships than you, more planets, more mines, it removes all energy you have because you feel it's impossible to overcome that).
      you know hat this is at 99% effect of shop and not about Astrophysics.

      I put a question . If tomorrow instead to start with 1 planets and then +1 colonies about level of astrophysics (as now) , you start with 7 planets and then always +1 colonies as now, what will change ?

      In theory in both cases 2 players always start from 0 points and if they played in exactly the same way, they had the same identical skill and they also had the same identical luck, after 3 months they should have the same points in both scenarios .... ...... with the difference that in the second case, the development of the account is faster, so more mines, more ships ........