I have been instructed to open a discussion about a specific issue of the battle engine. The development team has its findings ready and wants to hear the playerbase opinion before proceeding in changes.

So far, there have been some issues with the battle engine. The top issue is the following:

*In every battle, there is a possibility that you will lose 1 of your strongest ships even in the most easy battle you may encounter. This seems to be only viable when your fleet can hit as hard needed to destroy this ship. Here is an example to understand:

If you attack with a big fleet and a deathstar against a small fleet, if your fleet can kill alone a deathstar, there is a small possibility that the reflected damage can take off your deathstar.

We must take into account that this happens only in battles that seem to pose some interest. Little defending fleets do not seem to even initiate a battle and attackers wins.

Question is if we should remove this from the battle engine. Take in mind that this opens the way for lots of strategies. Here are some (we will avoid to list them all):
-Firstly, the knowledge of this fact itself, gives some kind of bonus to the older (experienced) player. As a famous ad once claimed; Separates the men from the boys.
-Secondly, it gives a bonus to all weaker player as an unexperienced strong player (who for example is stronger because he plays one month more) loses big ships to this issue constantly. This gives a bonus to the newer players so they will be able to catch up faster.
-Thirdly, the attacker is forced to pick his attacking fleet carefully, not just send everything he has against someone.
-Fourthly, it balances win-losses (even in this bizzare way) and prevents in this way someone from overdominating everyone else just because he managed to build deathstar (for example) first.


Please try to give your best responses here. Try to take in mind as many variables you can. All responses will be taken in mind. Feel free to request specific information or to highlight any other issue of the battle engine.

well i'll start i guess on my view of the overall points of fact..

First ..it has been my observation over the last 12 years of any online game that the more the programmers try to "allow" for new players to catch up the easier it is for the 'older' players to advance even further.
Zorg Empire has been around long enough now that the gap from top to bottom is only gonna get bigger...the 10,000 point barrier is all but obsolete now.The unfortunate thing i see is the new players do not visit the boards often enough as there is LOTS of great tips and ways to learn from others misfortunes.
If you go down the scoreboard you'll notice a large portion of active player population is above this mark and therefore open to attacks from us stronger players...the only way to allow for some closing of the gap is to increase said protection in a way that slows the attacks for profit of larger players while allowing the smaller players to advance.
This style will also force everyone to not only build fleets but advance their building points as well so that once they reach the top they can continue to advance thru their own planets. This will help in the long run the little guys from quiting due to the fact they have become a stronger players farm.

Second ..they options presented will become moot if/when Battle sim is operational as it will help the new players as well as old to know what a battles outcome might be and therefore can prepare to dodge or send the correct amount to defend.

If a new player finally gets to a point where he has 1 deathstar...puts it into an attack..there will be no way for the battle generator to know he is new or old player...now he loses that RIP to a large shield dome...you did nothing to help the new player to advance and catch up with old players...so leaving the generator as is would not be a good option

Third and Finally...ALL Online games...and noone can prove different on this...are time sinks...the player who can invest the most time for the longest period of time..will ALWAYS be at or near the top.

Fix the engine to reduce or eliminate the damage coming back at attacking fleets from its own fire...increase said 10,000 protection level...and get the battle sim in place so Everyone can keep what we build longer.

just my 2 cents..hope you enjoyed the read

Gumppy

I don't have a big problem with leaving the possibility of losing big ships in an attack. In any battles, things can happen. I would prefer it if it could be reflected in the battle sim when it is implemented.

As far as fleeting, I think the percentage of debris is just fine. It is part of the flavor of the game and I would not want to see that changed.

As far as the 10k cap, I would not really want to see that changed either. There is an eco-system and manipulating the cap would hurt players in the middle and lower part of the eco-system and I don't think that is good.

I think its fine the way it is. Its such a powerful ship (slow, but powerful) that the rip "glitch" evens things out. you cant just make a bunch of rips and go attacking everyone, it makes you weigh the pros and cons.

corbeil wrote:I think its fine the way it is. Its such a powerful ship (slow, but powerful) that the rip "glitch" evens things out. you cant just make a bunch of rips and go attacking everyone, it makes you weigh the pros and cons.

I think the cons of the RIP are it's speed, and people over-estimate them. It is quite simply easy to take out an RIP. Just send a bunch of Destroyers.

I think this backfire thing is quite silly in my opinion. Maybe it's just from a higher ranking players perspective but i don't see the reason to keep it. There is no benefit from it. For example, a hit i made earlier:

Attacker Loss: 8.015.000 Defender Loss:70.843.850
winnings Metal:54.866 Crystal:24.215 Deuterium:41.288
Debris Metal:18.005.760 Crystal:15.155.250

The backfire effect decimated a bunch of my BS, making the hit almost pointless to have gone for. That was supposed to be 0 or almost 0 losses on my end. It makes no sense to keep it really, it's just limiting peoples targets.

-Istalris-

I think that if reflection is going to be kept, then you need to make players aware of how strong the reflection is.

In my opinion, the reflection is both pointless and illogical. It doesn't provide balance, because the lower level players are going to be the most ill affected when that ship they've been saving up for is destroyed, where the stronger players can just make another one. It mitigates the want to build those stronger ships... it's simply overall unnecesary.

I agree, the reflection doesn't do anybody any favors. I think that this is being overthought, and its making attacks pointlessly risky. I mean, it's space, so the distances involved would probably mean that the explosions and enery given off by your fleet disapate long before they can destroy a planet sized ship like a death star or anything else. The thing about percentages is that it can be a 2 percent chance that something will happen, but it happens every damn time, because there is a chance. Considering the cost of the death star, I think too much has been done to prohibit their use due to the designers being worried about them being "too powerful". They are impotent weapons. Too slow, too easy to destroy, and more likely to blow itself up when being used than to destroy the enemy. I understand that it makes the game interesting to have that chance, but when its the odd chance that it will WORK, it gets a little ridiculous.

reflected damage makes using rips pointless. I would like that removed.

I agree, the reflection will hurt smaller players a great deal more than higher ranked players. I know I can afford to loose 1-2k BS in a big battle but when a smaller player has a handful of BS and they attack an inactive and lose a crap load of BS from both in-experience in battle and reflection, it hurts their growth. Also, most experienced players wont use RIPs in battle because we all know that losing 1 of them can render the whole battle pointless. Newer players wont have this experience and will send their 1st RIP along and then lose it.

I also agree with the point that newer players dont read the forum that often. I think a good idea would be to send random hints from the boards to all players in-game to coax them into using the forums. I know there are a few new guys that have never even looked at the forum. A lot of player will quit because they dont know how to play and keep getting hit and never even come to the forum for help or support.

As for noob cap, I think this could be lifted to 50 or 100k. It will hurt those just above 100k but there are ways around that if they are smart enough.