I have believed for some time now that the future of gaming, perhaps any business, is diversity of product and service. So, how would Zorg do that and keep its core theme; that being the idea you are a galactic emperor running far flung space kingdom in a dangerous universe filled with other real live people doing the same thing.

Playing the game as is, is not for everyone. Most people simply cannot manage an account 24 / 7 and accommodate the rigorous schedule. In the all the various game of this similar nature, I’d say there are far less than a thousand players of note world wide. So the more gamers Zorg appeals to the more we can draw here and perhaps even add to the total pool.

Expeditions are a good way to start, but they need a rework. It’s been talked about many times, but here are my main ideas.

1. Set up the primary function on a lottery basis. In other words, most mission end in failure. When someone does hit, they hit big and maybe scatter a few small prizes in between.

a. Day one – one hundred missions are sent out with an average investment of 50 LC’s. 50 missions are lost, 45 come back with no gain, leaving 250 LC’s in the pot for the five winner of the day. One mission gets two hundred of them, the other four get five a piece and the rest stay in the pot to build a bigger prize.

b. just like the lottery, the higher the prize grows the more people play.

c. big players can send more missions to improve their chances, but just like in a real lottery it doesn’t matter because they are risking so much.

2. I also think the Expedition function can be used for a deep space mining system. Ships are sent out. Usually they come out ahead just a bit, sometimes they loose and once in a thousand missions maybe you hit big.

Now let’s add a brand new idea from the best minds at FlapperCorp –

The Zorg Battle Bot Arena!

In this idea, a player may invest in his very own robot. Various abilities would have different costs in metal, crystal or deut. These robots would face off against each other controlled by the player in live action, by weight class. That class would be determined the amount spent. That way a 500 unit robot isn’t fighting a 10,000 unit one.

Obviously this would be a whole new script. Winners would see prize money added to their in game total. Destroyed robots would have to be rebuilt to play again.

The concept is simply that the emperors of the universe have found a new way to compete. Wins and losses would be tracked for glories sake.

Zorg Battle Chess –

I once played a game where you spent points to buy different units, then arranged them on a board. Player’s traded moves. When one piece was moved to a space with an opposing player’s piece, they fought. This would be just as easy to do in Zorg, where you spend res to buy pieces then compete against another player.

More More More –

I could go on. Anything from Battleship to poker would be possible. The point is to increase the number of ways in which a player could compete. It someone chose to make the extas their primary method, then so be it. Otherwise it’s just a diversion.

Think of it as an equivalent to jousting tournaments. The culture as portrayed in A Knight’s Tale, essentially showed knights competing like athletes in skills that some of them sometimes used in war.

Some game sights already have a similar idea going; basically a collection of games where individual wins and accomplishments are tracked by your profile. In my opinion, last I checked, none of them had really gotten it right yet. The difference in Zorg would be, rather that playing first person, you are playing through the persona of the galactic emperor you are in the game.

The Civilians –

We all know that within our galactic empires, it’s not just us and the ship crews. In game, workers make our factories productive, provide food, clothing, and everything imaginable to the pixels who populate the Zorg universe.

This can be taken as far as the game wishes. Right now it’s at an absolute ZERO, and I think it would be worthwhile to add it to the game.

My proposal for a very simple phase 1 implementation is as follows.

1. A figure will be generated representing the population of a planet will be created by taking the number of building points on that planet. Let call that number the POP, which can be listed on the header menu. An average planet for me would have a POP of 175,000.

2. These pixel people produce a revenue for the planet of 1 unit of metal per day per each. Split this down so it pays at the same time rate your mines do. It would be expressed as a new line on the resource screen and add to your metal totals just as your mine does. It would simply be a second source.

3. There will be ways to modify both numbers via techs and buildings.


a. Building – Housing sector. This structure adds 10% per level to your POP.

I really don’t feel like doing the math, so excuse me for being lazy. Basically it needs to be structured so your investment is getting paid of within a few days at low level and a few months by the time you get up into the thirties.

b. Tech – Consumer Tech. This tech increases the rate of metal production your pixel people pay in taxes by one percent per level.

Once again, to lazy to do the research, but we can run numbers for a sensible payoff horizon if these stir any interest. Just to mix it up, maybe make them a little on the cheap side, but very long research times.

Ace wrote:You know, I think these discussions about changing the game are almost as fun as the game itself, sometimes. And I agree with the last two about how great this game has become, and how much it has evolved. Now to get to the criticism:

Volpino wrote:First of all, congratulations for the Dev Team, all improvements and changes the last 4 years made ZE one of the best games of its kind.

I would like to see more players online at the same time so I suggest:

1. Events twice a week
The admin could use some of the long inactive or create one or more colonies with moon and maybe some defenses and fleet, send large amount of resources in 3 to 5 waves, set a fix time to start the hunting.
To be fair we need an Event Ship with low fix speed, each attacking mission need to have at least one Event Ship.

2. Moon Shots to lower ranked players under request
that way we can help our little mates to develop faster and protect their fleet and resources more efficiently.

1. I would love to see more people online at the same time, too, but the event Idea just isn't the way to do it. Adding things like this changes the entire aspect of gaming. The amount of resources that it would take to urge people to be online at the same time would be a large amount, and since most active players end up growing larger pretty quick (this would only speed up that progress), the number would have to increase to retain appeal. If this idea was implemented, I do not think the game would be better at all.

Flapper wrote:Again great game guys. The balance you've achieved is wonderful. Now to the point.

1. Elite Recycler - I know what you said about new ships, but I do think this is needed simply because of the many thousands of recs needed now. I also still think it shouldn't be a straight improvement, but an alternative. Make it bigger, but slower and with better fuel effenciency.

2. I still LOVE the idea of a civilian concern in the game. It would take time to develop, but would be a whole new layer to the game. I've made posts on this before, but would be happy to elaborate again on request.

3. I like the ruby cost for instant research.

4. I'll also repeat another of my favorite ideas. That being the ability to purchase extra colony slots. It should be expensive, but would be a great income generator. The cost should escalate for each additional colony.

5. The other Ruby idea someon suggested a while back was ability to buy immunity from attack. Once again, it would be a great income generator and frankly I don't think it would mess up the game much. You'd need a few details for fairness. Certainly no out going attack would be possible when activated either.

6. I don't remember if I posted it before, but a deep space mining ability would be nice. It could come in different forms, but the idea is the same. Send ships out to gather res, just like a mine would. Once again, I can expand on this on request.

7. (and last I guess) I think the expeditions can be a good idea, if set up on a slot machine concept. You are trying to hit the lottery and should not be able to use it as a source of income. Most people will not come out ahead over the long run, but a lucky few might hit it big.

1. That first idea... is actually pretty good. I mean, you couldn't make it as overpowered as the Elite Cargo. But I support this idea.

2. Please elaborate. Do you mean have a "Game suggestions" thread in-game?

3. Already said it, but I'll say it again; I wouldn't care either way if this was implemented. But, if it is, it only seems fair that an option to expand the research quo to three be added.

4. I'm not really a big fan of this idea. I think I agreed with it the first time it was discussed, but as time has progressed, I can understand the HUGE advantage it would give that player over others in the long run. So, for the extra colonies for rubies idea, I for one disprove.

5. "Rubies for attack immunity" I 100% hate this idea. Sorry for the harshness, but this is exactly what I would I would hate to see in a game like zorg. There is a difference between giving players who purchase rubies an advantage, and giving them god-like powers compared to everyone else.

6. Deep space mining would be too much change, yet again. Mines produce plenty enough material, if you need more then you'll have to raid. Don't fix what ain't broke.

7. I don't understand... isn't it already an ability to do expedition missions?

On number two, I think he means the civilians on Zorg Empire planets. Like Earth has Civilians, military, and leaders, Zorg lacks civilians. Sounds like he means Civilian concern as in keeping your people happy. On 7, not really. As it stands now, Expeditions are really risky and give horrible returns. A slot machine builds up it's prize the more people play, I think, but right now it's a craps shoot whether you get anything out of expeditions or not, and the prize never gets bigger or better.

Bump, we are about to start the next implementation era. Probably next week.
So get your ideas up and running everywhere, we want to see some feedback.

i know its been said that zorg isnt adding new ships, but i dont see any other way to spice of the game other than new ships, i like the idea of the general server, and the expedition needs a spice to. maybe you can add the two together. when you go on an expedition you have a chance to find the ships on the general server, but not too much, their would need to be something regulating how much you can find at a time, but not to common to where people can farm it.

well as new ships is almost out of question for unis other than massacre . i and many others in speed would have liked an "elite recycler " 1# carrys more resources #2 is faster . maybe instead the recycler already in use on speed server and others can just be improved on at least one improvement i stated above ?

the ships arnt new but the fact is that these ships were tested back on the tournament server proved that in masses were overpowered, but if you could find fixed amounts by chance in expedition then they can be useful but not overpowered.

In the Future... I would like to see the Alliance Management Rights fully implemented for the in-game forums.. they are cluttered and we have little ability to clean them up. As should be done at all times..finish one task completely..then move on to newer things.

I have an idea. I happen to be red and green color blind. it is very difficult for me to see the cr top line (attacker loss/defender loss). I can't be the only one. I have to have my browser zoomed in to see it. of course this does not apply to our female players as they can only carry the gene(all their fault! lol). It would be nice to have another couple of contrasting colors in the cr. perhaps blue and yellow? or even if it were red and yellow that would work. it is the proximity of the two that adds to the issue, making it nearly impossible to see.Either way, red next to green is my biggest complaint about the game as whole.

Well I know this is about a month too late but I would like again to state that I feel Zorg is missing some kind of intergalactic economic system, I see people pulling the future card and this would be one that it could be definitely pulled on. As we have trade ratios etc. but there should be something more (e.g. new resources/caste system) that can differentiate but also provide a way for sodality. I will provide link to two of my earlier post about my thoughts on this here and here, the former is one that provide a general view of my thoughts and the later a more refined views of them on the economics of Zorg.

Lastly I would like to point in the direction on civilians, most of the ideas I have had about 'layering' Zorg could be applied in this aspect, too. The only thing I am stressing is the economics of Zorg are rather 'bothering' as they do not reflect the views of, nearly, everyone in trying to help the little guys. On the contrast to, for those who have reached the top, only the hours they have put into this game are keeping them here... it's hard to have a rather static game last forever. That is what I fear too many of the new players are realizing and giving up before they get into the game. Also please criticize me and my ideas as you see fit, I would love more opinions.

**P.S. I support the color-blind option too