I've seen a great many suggestions for keeping OGame alive, but many of these would require more programmers working more hours to implement and, perhaps, maintain. I also feel that there needs to be a macromanagement of existing universes to keep them alive, once the right 'tools' (like adjusting the frequency of random events in a given region, or upping the return on DM from expeditions) are established. The problem is, of course, money. Money means dark matter - players need to buy more! But the problem with dark matter is that they will be less likely to buy dark matter if the results are not tangible enough, and the more tangible the benefits of buying dark matter, the less fair the game will be for those players who do not want to pay. So, my proposal is twofold:

1) Create more non-money ways for players to attain small amounts of Dark Matter
2) Create more ways for players to spend both large/medium/small amounts of Dark Matter

The two have to come as a package or else it won't work! If players that choose not to spend on OGame are still able to attain somewhat significant amounts of dark matter and receive tangible benefits from this dark matter, they are less likely to feel cheated by the advantages had by those players who buy dark matter AND they are MORE likely to actually buy dark matter! Dark matter will become a resource that is produced and spent on a more regular basis, encouraging not only player participation regardless of whether more purchases are made, but money flow towards gameforge to expand their operations and potentially deepen the OGame experience with more labour-intensive features. Also good for the economy.

Specific proposals:

Earning Dark Matter:

Expedition Bonus: this is currently being tried right now, and it's not only made me go out and get more dark matter, it's actually made me make sure im going on as many expeditions as I can, which leads to a few more raids too while I'm at it! This could be a regular thing, at 2x, 4x, and 8x - even 16x if they're desperate!

Vassalage: The new invite-your-friends system could be seen as the seed for a more developed vassalage system. Basically, it would allow a higher-ranked player to designate a portion of his income to be automatically transferred to a lower ranked player's home planet. He is then motivated to give good advice, and even help the lower ranked player, because the game will then give him a weekly stipend of Dark Matter based on a formula that multiplies the amount of resource he transfers (perhaps in absolute terms or as a percentage of overall income) by the amount the weaker player grows (perhaps in absolute terms or as a percentage of their overall score)... maybe it should also be possible for him to donate ships to his vassal, to help his vassal go on raids - these ships could never be given back. The stronger player is automatically forbidden from attacking his vassal.

Fleet Destruction: When a player is involved (whether a winner or a loser) in a battle that produces a percentage moonchance, that percentage x10 will be given to him as Dark Matter - maybe this could be explained as the debris field from the souls of all those who died... lol... both players in a battle would receive the same amount. A Moonshot, then, would have the added benefit of giving each player 200 Dark Matter. The dark matter would not be limited by the maximum chance of a moon being given... maybe the maximum DM one could receive from a battle would be 1.000.

Additional tutorial missions.

Other ideas?

Spending Dark Matter:

Research: Each level of Astrophysics could cost a small amount of Dark Matter to research, perhaps 100DM for level 1. With all the other ways of earning Dark Matter, this really isn't so oppressive! It would be necessary, perhaps, to start accounts off with more dark matter, or make more tutorial missions that reward a player with Dark Matter.

Cargo Retrofit: For 25 and 50 DM, a small and large cargo (respectively) could be outfitted with a cloaking device that gives a 90% chance that attacks directed towards them will be redirected towards a non-cloaked ship. This is actually just a slight benefit; considering that in many circumstances each cargo is likely to have far more than 10 shots directed against it per round, it will take a lot of hits. After a battle, the retrofit has been spent. Allows easier resource raids against well-defended planets.

Micro-officers: Shite name obviously, but the idea would be like this: right now you can get a friend point and spend it to enhance the production of one mine on one planet for one day. Why not allow DM to purchase this? 350 DM to enhance the production of one mine (or solar plant) on one planet for one day by 15%... it could get quite addictive! Also, +1 to weapons/shield/armor for one day? +1 to esp tech? +1 to computer tech? (if you fill up your fleetslots and then find yourself under attack, this might be reallllly useful)

Extra Planet Slot: For 1.500 Dark Matter per day, players can have an extra planet slot. This is the real money-maker, right here. When their extra-planet slot runs out, that planet becomes shaded gray and cannot be used anymore - but it still exists! Players who maintain a mobile colony might instead opt to use all their planet slots and then purchase this extra planet slot when they need it for a mobile. Now, what happens when the time runs out on the planet and you have a fleet stationed there? Maybe the fleet could be trapped there! This could be a pain in the ass, or an intentional strategy - nobody could attack that fleet on that planet, because the planet would be out of operation. Or the fleet could automatically be sent back to your homeworld at no deut cost but at a really slow ass speed... perhaps this would need to be unphalanxable. Miners could be affected on a whole other level: They could actually develop this extra planet in advance of their astrotech allowing them to keep it, or they might simply have that extra planet so that when they really needed the extra resources they could just take all their DM, spend it on temporary mine upgrades and keeping this planet operational for a few days to have it send out some resources! They might get in the habit of depending on this planet so much that they actually go ahead and spend money on Dark Matter.

Basically, if you want players to buy dark matter, you need to get them in the habit of spending it - this is why it was a really great idea to allow players to earn dark matter through expeditions, but that might not be enough.

Any other ideas?

ideas? of course not.

but all of your ideas won't work or are stupid (paying DM each day on 11 planets for 3 types of resources)


sorry in advance

in regards to rules about politeness, im not sure exactly what they are for this forum, but there is something that i need to say to marshen, and as it relates to his public behaviour i would rather state it publicly: if you dont have anything to contribute, don't say anything. Really, what was the point in what you've said? I don't see a point to most of your posts. You are not even critical in the useful sense of the word, if you apply critical thought at all to other people's posts it doesn't show through in your own messages. You even posted "TL;DR" in another thread. What's the point? And what's the point in saying "sorry in advance" when 1) you aren't sorry and 2) you aren't going to try to act differently?

Edward, I think we are thinking along the same lines in regards to what needs to happen with Dark Matter: players should be able to earn it in small amounts so they get in the habit of using it and are more likely to purchase it. What I would emphasize is that the methods of earning it should involve sacrifice, either in terms of time or resources. I don't think they should be able to build a space station around the sun that just produces it - that will only further widen the gap between rich and poor and serve to help kill universes even earlier.

For this reasons, it might be important to limit DM from big battles to 1.000 or maybe even just 200, maybe even at a lower rate. But I do think that players should be able to expect some sort of DM income for fleet activity. I acknowledge that my proposed vassalage system gives more DM to the rich than the poor, but it also encourages the transfer of actual resources from rich TO poor, which overall, I think, should serve to narrow the gap between rich and poor and involve weak and newer players in a universe more: powerful players will actually SEEK OUT weaker players to help, will have an active interest in helping them to learn the game and be active players, etc. In another thread you elaborated on a series of quest ideas you had, quests which could be accessed through expeditions. It would take a lot of idea development, but I think there is a lot of potential for DM earning there, too.

Another point on which we differ is that I would emphasize the importance of DM being somewhat useful in small quantities, so that these small amounts a player can earn will provide tangible and immediate benefits, and also so that large quantities of DM can be spent quickly - a player with seemingly unlimited funds might very well opt to retrofit all of their cargos regularly, always have all of their mines running at 125%, always have all other officers/micro-officers running - this would enhance inequality, to be sure, but the extra revenue generated by these few types of players could very well employ a great many more staff who could take on more creative work to enhance gameplay for everyone.

I do agree that earning dark matter as opposed to purchasing it should be a slow process, and I think you would probably agree as well that it ought to be labour-intensive!

HodyCall wrote:

[...]what needs to happen with Dark Matter: players should be able to earn it in small amounts so they get in the habit of using it and are more likely to purchase it.

yep

HodyCall wrote:

this would enhance inequality

thats one of the reason of my dislikes



ps: all the +1 posts are as useful as my last post which you could summarize to "-1"

i give +1 when i see an idea that is expressed quite well already, and i approve of the idea - nothing more needs be said than "yes, i agree with your thinking, this is a good idea" which can be summarized as "+1"

"-1" however, requires some explanation - what is bad about the idea, or the thinking that produced it, how could it be improved, etc.

The topic of inequality is difficult to broach - obviously we need some of it, but not so much that weaker players are demoralized into quitting, leaving an enormous gap between weaker players and stronger players, further demoralizing newcomers, leaving strong players with no farms, killing the universe - the cycle we are all familiar with. But we need some to make it fun, and we need the prospect of being better than someone else to motivate everyone to keep coming back. How to strike a balance is the issue.

I feel that while some of my proposals could create inequality in the short run - insofar as a player that is both intelligent and wealthy can pull ahead of players that are one or the other (or neither) - but preserve the universe for players of all strengths in the long run. The goal of these proposals is, ultimately, to bring more money to Gameforge so that they can produce more tools to work with in order to keep the game alive. It seems you agree with my overall logic in this regard, so, if you don't like my specific proposals, why not come up with some of your own, which can also be built upon the agreed premise?

Anyways, how much inequality is too much inequality? Is inequality the real problem, or is the problem our inability to produce features that counteract the negative effects of this inequality on the retention of weaker players and the lifespan of the universe?

I agree that spending small amounts of DM can lead people to spend more in DM…
But building obviously the game around Premium options, with 20 different ways to spend it, I think it will cause another massive waves of complains… Good luck to sell your proposal to the French community

the biggest problem is that every linear increase such as "30% on mine x on planet y for time z" give the strong players even more strength because their mines produce exponentially more resources!

i think introducing something like that isn't possible until there has been found a solution to close the gap between starters and old players!