How about a maintenance cost? Small but draining deuterium enough to make moving after over-building (towards infinity) awkward!

Have to allow scrapping too though.

Gotta agree, infinity (effectively) sized forces ain't real.

Walshy wrote:Dont like it.

There are ways to beat that player.

Perhaps there are other solutions, why not offer some constructive criticism if you don't like this idea?

Actually RJ once said it himself, if you are the fastest producing player, (or has the biggest fleet), there is no need to fleet save.

i.e. if you have a fleet that is going to cost you 10 million deuterium per day to fleetsave, but because you are the biggest, you just saved that 10 million. ALSO, other players won't ever be able to reach half your fleet size because it would be too expensive for them to fleetsave. Hence the top fleet will always be the biggest.

If you disagree, please explain to me how you can beat that fleet? (And don't say ACS attack, because we are talking about a force that is larger than entire alliance combined. Also his alliance won't just sit and watch.)

Fleet saves are both a deuterium cost and artificial means of avoiding features of game imbalalnce due to zero maintenance and the consequent lack of dissincentive for overbuilding.

DOI: Just broke 10k and before started a fleet save routine (took a coupla days off) got hit by 2 players each with over 800 Battelcruisers and elite cargoes: I think you'll probably see how I might feel rape isn't too strong a word!

If you ask me you got an early teaching of the importance of fleet saving and knowing to cover for ur daily mining income. always know if you are getting hit for profit it is you who is doing something wrong not likely the other way around.

try to sort out the daily havits of fsing and trying to keep a clean planet when u go offline for the day.

"A good fs a day keeps the raiders away!!!"

FS is a tool to protect smaller players from effectively limitless growth in bigger players. Not the funnest game feature, most would agree, but necessary with mechanics as they are.

Anytone not optimising their game by the rules as they stand, can expect to get what the rules allow all players to do.... Only anything going to be a great game needs balance. Balance is a tricky adjustment (anyone fiddling with a game design will know). Any discussion to help improve game play balance and retain a playability for all players has to be a good topic for discussion. Things have to remain good for smaller players or your newbies ain't gonna stick around to feed player numbers.

No perfect solution is likely to materialise at one (I dislike tac destgroyer missiles as a concept). FS is flawed on several counts too:
1. If you cannot come online when FSing times out, you can be zero'ed over and over. (Real life issues intervene with me, perhaps too much to let me play this game then?)
2. FSing's not exactly fun!
3. All that FS deuterium use is for what exactly again? Oh yes to allow biggest players to run away from the majority of players at the top of the league. (Some balance that!)

I happen to think a maintenace cost is a nice balance mechanism. Not had much feed back on that though.

richtoven wrote: 3. All that FS deuterium use is for what exactly again? Oh yes to allow biggest players to run away from the majority of players at the top of the league. (Some balance that!)

To be fair, richtoven has a valid point to make here.

Yes, one should not have a fleet larger than current deuterium output levels can sustain for fleetsave.

However, this is a very real drag IG. Casual players should also feel welcome. Few new players might find all that interesting a game where they must spend half their time calculating what to ship where, when, for how long, and at what cost. Frankly, this is a huge investment of time and energy to defend against players with fleets so huge that they themselves need only log on for seconds on a mere periodic basis to raise cain.

Game balance should balance time and energy needs between all, and a deuterium cost parking fleets may do that.

If Interplanetary missiles targeted factories?

1. Biggest players most vulnerable (cost-impact) who are pretty much invulnberable as is, (without making them unfairly punished for size either).
2. More interesting to have misssile options as Fleets seem to do the job for less cost-losses as it stands.
3. Only big players would really need abms; opens a new play dimension for them, at a level when they may become jaded with exiting depth.

Howzat?

(Do we need a new thread 'Balance' to take this debate on?_

I've stopped playing but like the engine: I was looking around again: shame no more ideas being kicked around here

if we had missles capable of bringing down miners mines, fleeters nanite's, and turtles...well idk ill get back to u on it, the flame and complaint department would be 100 times bigger than it already is.

suggest a decent idea, and it will be discussed.

Honestly!? you guys are arguing over how long it takes to fs properly?

really???

all it takes to find 1 point to where u want to send ur fleet out. and u dont even have to find the system first.

just select all the ships and set speed to 10% or 20% or 30% which ever is convenient and find systems that fits ur fs time. then just go to that system and find a target around there for fs point.

if u tell me it takes u more than 10 mins i must say u are just lazy bunch and mentally challenged.

learning to fs properly is a very important skill that is a must to survive in this game. with ur fleet or ur resources if u do not have an impenetrable turtle shell.

every games needs for u to learn few of its HOW TOs ZE requires u to learn to fs. if u cant learn just buzz off and find a puzzle games.