Greetings everyone, I have had an idea, influenced partially by someone else and by part of the community wanting to change how vmode works, about how ogame works in normal speed universes and faster ones, involving the quality, competition, and universe's lifespan. I believe changes to vmode shouldn't even be considered until something like what I'm about to suggest happens.
Lets imagine we are talking about developed universes, with big accounts. In classic ogame, fleets run at x1 speed. You send deathstars to destroy someone's moon and see their fleet, and it will take a lot of hours to reach your target. Since we are at x1 speed, the target can come online and, (A): arrange a way to defend his moon; (B): recall his deploy, which will result in his fleet being invisible and safe to return even if the moon destruction is successful, therefore negating any attempt to get a blind recall.
Now, how would this situation go in a fast universe? Let's talk about what seems to be trending now regarding those universes, x6 fleet speed. In the same solar system, deathstars can arrive at a target's moon in under one hour! Little over an hour to systems nearby. In this time, 99% of players, if offline to sleep at least, as routine, will not see the deathstars coming. The safest way to fleetsave is to deploy, because your fleet comes back invisible, but in a fast universe, your fleet can inevitably be seen if your enemies want to take you down, and if you are not one of the top players with enough fleeters to back you up and face the other guys, you have almost no chance to keep your fleet. Your recall will be locked and you will be recycled.
I want to emphasize the "almost no chance to keep your fleet" part, and go through an underdog's options:
(A): You deploy your fleet, and let it fly for the same number of hours you are offline, then recall it for when you can receive it. So let's imagine a character: His name is John. John wakes up at 6am. He gets ready to be at work at 7:30am, where he works for 8 to 10 hours, to then return home at 4 to 6pm. John used to play with his fleet shortly after he got home, when his fleet landed, but now he can't, because he needs to deploy his fleet when he wakes up in order to be able to recall it and safely receive it again the next day. John is extremely persistent, all his friends quit the game because they kept getting their moons destroyed and their deployed recalls locked and they realized there was no way to build a fleet in a fast universe unless you are untouchable. John has been considering this alternative more and more, as, just like his fleeter friends, he doesn't find it in himself to be a miner. Very few of his friends still have their fleets, but they only play on and off of vmode because they have no sustainable way of combining their lives with a fast universe without losing their fleets or damaging their lives. Universe dies. New fast universe opens. More players quit the game in the meanwhile;
(B): You set alarm clocks during your sleep to check on the game, and inevitably you will damage your life, regardless if we're talking about a person who is used to not sleeping much. Fake activity will save you for a while, but sooner or later, your enemies will see through it and take their chances at losing a few deathstars to call your bluff;
(C): Cheat. Have someone you trust to share each other's account, someone that is awake and online while you are not, be that someone with a night shift if you work days and vice versa, be that someone from an opposite timezone. I had to mention this unfortunately, because I've seen it happen, for the exact reasons previously mentioned - keeping a fleet in a developed fast universe without damaging your life. Time is a very powerful weapon in ogame. An enemy who is always online "cannot be touched", and is not taking any risks, therefore, having a very unfair advantage, and being extremely annoying to play against.
Getting to the point of the suggestion, and the suggestion itself: Fast universes and normal speed ones are extremely different in a lot of ways, therefore, they should work different not only in speed, seems only logical. I'm trying to abstain myself from giving out my own opinions, but this seems to me as this should be top priority for gameforge regarding ogame.
Change the way deploys work in fast universes:
Change the way deploys work, by, just like in ACS defend or Expedition, adding time options, but in this case, of extra recall deploy flight, it shouldn't be exactly the same, hourly options (1h expedition, 2h, etc), because the attackers could simply make an attack every hour until they hit the jackpot. It could be a small percentage of flight (0.5 to 5%), or a choice of seconds or minutes, for example:
(1): A 10 hour deploy was made. The moon the deploy was going to was destroyed. Fleet exposed. The option of extra 1% recall flight time was selected at launch. The 1% of the total flight time (in this case, 6 minutes, reason why percentages under one percent should exist if you choose to go with an option of percentages, because, in a long flight, with percentages from 1% onward, the attacker would have time to attack, receive his fleet and try again, if he is in the same system, rendering this change useless) was added to the total of the recall flight;
(2): You chose to add 37 seconds of extra recalled deploy flight to your fleetsave. You recalled your deploy. Your fleet was returning at 09:12:02 pm, now it's returning at 09:12:37 pm.
This way, the attackers would have to guess which extra percentage was chosen or which extra seconds/minutes were added, making the hit much harder to get this way.
You can make it cost extra deut, or you can make it free. Just please don't make it cost dm. This way, people could build big accounts in a fast universe, players would stay longer, universe would live longer, would give smaller players a bigger chance to catch up with the top fleeters, bringing more competition into the game, maybe more players would return to the game if this change is well advertised, as many players are exclusively fast uni players, and some only enjoy classic ogame. Both are different, both should be treated differently, and this seems like a major aspect that should be different too.
Assumptions about what is the minimum fleet speed to be considered a fast universe or worthy or this change, and the details of the suggestion, I leave to the people in charge.
Update: Wouldn't be a bad idea to make this unlockable by a combination of researches, so that only at a certain stage of the game it becomes usable.
Lets imagine we are talking about developed universes, with big accounts. In classic ogame, fleets run at x1 speed. You send deathstars to destroy someone's moon and see their fleet, and it will take a lot of hours to reach your target. Since we are at x1 speed, the target can come online and, (A): arrange a way to defend his moon; (B): recall his deploy, which will result in his fleet being invisible and safe to return even if the moon destruction is successful, therefore negating any attempt to get a blind recall.
Now, how would this situation go in a fast universe? Let's talk about what seems to be trending now regarding those universes, x6 fleet speed. In the same solar system, deathstars can arrive at a target's moon in under one hour! Little over an hour to systems nearby. In this time, 99% of players, if offline to sleep at least, as routine, will not see the deathstars coming. The safest way to fleetsave is to deploy, because your fleet comes back invisible, but in a fast universe, your fleet can inevitably be seen if your enemies want to take you down, and if you are not one of the top players with enough fleeters to back you up and face the other guys, you have almost no chance to keep your fleet. Your recall will be locked and you will be recycled.
I want to emphasize the "almost no chance to keep your fleet" part, and go through an underdog's options:
(A): You deploy your fleet, and let it fly for the same number of hours you are offline, then recall it for when you can receive it. So let's imagine a character: His name is John. John wakes up at 6am. He gets ready to be at work at 7:30am, where he works for 8 to 10 hours, to then return home at 4 to 6pm. John used to play with his fleet shortly after he got home, when his fleet landed, but now he can't, because he needs to deploy his fleet when he wakes up in order to be able to recall it and safely receive it again the next day. John is extremely persistent, all his friends quit the game because they kept getting their moons destroyed and their deployed recalls locked and they realized there was no way to build a fleet in a fast universe unless you are untouchable. John has been considering this alternative more and more, as, just like his fleeter friends, he doesn't find it in himself to be a miner. Very few of his friends still have their fleets, but they only play on and off of vmode because they have no sustainable way of combining their lives with a fast universe without losing their fleets or damaging their lives. Universe dies. New fast universe opens. More players quit the game in the meanwhile;
(B): You set alarm clocks during your sleep to check on the game, and inevitably you will damage your life, regardless if we're talking about a person who is used to not sleeping much. Fake activity will save you for a while, but sooner or later, your enemies will see through it and take their chances at losing a few deathstars to call your bluff;
(C): Cheat. Have someone you trust to share each other's account, someone that is awake and online while you are not, be that someone with a night shift if you work days and vice versa, be that someone from an opposite timezone. I had to mention this unfortunately, because I've seen it happen, for the exact reasons previously mentioned - keeping a fleet in a developed fast universe without damaging your life. Time is a very powerful weapon in ogame. An enemy who is always online "cannot be touched", and is not taking any risks, therefore, having a very unfair advantage, and being extremely annoying to play against.
Getting to the point of the suggestion, and the suggestion itself: Fast universes and normal speed ones are extremely different in a lot of ways, therefore, they should work different not only in speed, seems only logical. I'm trying to abstain myself from giving out my own opinions, but this seems to me as this should be top priority for gameforge regarding ogame.
Change the way deploys work in fast universes:
Change the way deploys work, by, just like in ACS defend or Expedition, adding time options, but in this case, of extra recall deploy flight, it shouldn't be exactly the same, hourly options (1h expedition, 2h, etc), because the attackers could simply make an attack every hour until they hit the jackpot. It could be a small percentage of flight (0.5 to 5%), or a choice of seconds or minutes, for example:
(1): A 10 hour deploy was made. The moon the deploy was going to was destroyed. Fleet exposed. The option of extra 1% recall flight time was selected at launch. The 1% of the total flight time (in this case, 6 minutes, reason why percentages under one percent should exist if you choose to go with an option of percentages, because, in a long flight, with percentages from 1% onward, the attacker would have time to attack, receive his fleet and try again, if he is in the same system, rendering this change useless) was added to the total of the recall flight;
(2): You chose to add 37 seconds of extra recalled deploy flight to your fleetsave. You recalled your deploy. Your fleet was returning at 09:12:02 pm, now it's returning at 09:12:37 pm.
This way, the attackers would have to guess which extra percentage was chosen or which extra seconds/minutes were added, making the hit much harder to get this way.
You can make it cost extra deut, or you can make it free. Just please don't make it cost dm. This way, people could build big accounts in a fast universe, players would stay longer, universe would live longer, would give smaller players a bigger chance to catch up with the top fleeters, bringing more competition into the game, maybe more players would return to the game if this change is well advertised, as many players are exclusively fast uni players, and some only enjoy classic ogame. Both are different, both should be treated differently, and this seems like a major aspect that should be different too.
Assumptions about what is the minimum fleet speed to be considered a fast universe or worthy or this change, and the details of the suggestion, I leave to the people in charge.
Update: Wouldn't be a bad idea to make this unlockable by a combination of researches, so that only at a certain stage of the game it becomes usable.
At the same time, research bonuses such as Hyperspace Drive 15 are still supposed to reflect on how quickly the mission reaches its target. 