racial technologies.....

[El_Guapo]

So, are you waiting for player suggestions or are you getting the ball rolling on your own?

[Page]

Well I already have an idea that I'm fairly sure would work, but people would almost certainly whine about it.. At the moment it's a slight backburner because I want per-game (/game-type) ship lists for this (so that it doesn't have to affect all games)

[Grey Death]

The problem with balancing them out is the amount of whining that will happen

There will always be whining no matter what you do, when, or why. With as small a player base as we have, ignore them or force them to provide a better answer.

For the whiners: If you don't like something, provide a solution not just an annoyance.

[El_Guapo]

So Page can we get an idea of what you have planed?

[Page]

I'd like to adjust the prices so that the cost of ships actually plays a part in choosing what ship to get, so you balance off usefulness with cost, rather than having everyone always just buy the best ship after just a couple of days have passed (the only time price ever really comes into it atm is possibly if getting an FU/DC).

[El_Guapo]

You could just start all the ports out at lvl 1

[Page]

Well yes, that idea had crossed my mind, however I think people would be even more opposed to that :P

But seriously if you look at the ship list it looks fairly balanced to me if you assume starting with all level 1 ports, because there's a lot of ships that could be very useful if money was scarcer.

[El_Guapo]

To be honest Page, I think you are on the wrong track altogether. Yes you are right that altering the prices of the ships would make it harder to upgrade which would make a lot of the ships actually usefull again. But does anyone want that? Is that going to bring in old players or help keep the ones you still have? Yes the ship list is balanced. Balanced to the point of boredom. Obviously some people were bored with this game otherwise they would still be here. If its still the same game, only harder, you accomplish nothing but hanging on to a handful of old school hardcore players.

You guys can lie to yourselves all you want about the game loosing player base because it "looks old." In reality, people are just bored with it. Especially now that nothing moves. You can continue with business as ussual, or you can spice things up a bit. This isnt 1999, so stop catering to people still living in it.

[Page]

So essentially what you want to do is add more ships to the top end? I fail to see how that is any different in reality, all it is is spreading out the prices such that there is value to more of the ships (although in reality the new ships are more likely to just become the de facto at the end of the day)

[Freon22]

As far as nothing moves? Yelp we have killed every new player that joins to the point that they have quit. On raical ships over the last 10 years we have upgraded them. So that some of them can complete with a FU in a one on one fight but the price has stayed the same. Why pay 44 million for a FU when you can buy a top raical ship for less then 15 million. We have made small maps to have more and easier targets. We have made it so that most of the different techs is available to all the other races.

Most of the changes to SMR over the years have been made to benefit a few at the cost of the other players. SMR needs more players will bigger war ship bring in more players or just make it easier to pod new players.

Trying to change the interface is a must, what is the first thing any new players sees? I know the next thing they see is a pod but that besides the point. And what differents does it really make if some of the ship price goes up, didn't I just read in the Well Done forum about someone making a billion in profits. To be fair I have not looked to see if that billion was made in the current game or over all games he has played. "Overall stats"

I normally play solo so higher ship prices would slow me down more then it would members in an alliance. But if it helps to bring in more players and adds more purpose to each ship then by all mean do it.

[Purify]

You guys can lie to yourselves all you want about the game loosing player base because it "looks old." In reality, people are just bored with it. Especially now that nothing moves. You can continue with business as ussual, or you can spice things up a bit. This isnt 1999, so stop catering to people still living in it.

This isn't true there are many games that look as 'old' as SMR and they have lots of players. Nothing moves because for years nothing was done to add new players and get them to stay. Like any game older players grow up have lives etc move on. But, in most games there is an active drive to get new players to replace the old ones. In this one we had a 'Newbie Help Alliance' where the new players would join but to really play the game newbies had no idea.

Honestly, I think the only way to revive the game is to ignore the old players (as they all have lives now, or, are dead) and concentrate on how to make new people play the game and stay. Changing the interface to brown I do not think will accomplish this but maybe having a series of training missions and computer controlled opponents (like other successful games) cound revive gameplay.

Tinkering ships here and there, is well and good for the players who are still here but it will never 'make things move' again.

[El_Guapo]

[quote="Page"]So essentially what you want to do is add more ships to the top end? [/quote]

That was neither stated nor implied. The thread started out as a suggestion that more ships should have drone scramblers. Add some ships/change some ships, w/e. hell you could have a trade ship with a drone scrambler on it, possibly one of those useless low end racial hunters could benifit, the posibilities are nearly endless. Now I'm making the point that it would be better to change the useless ships than to make it harder to get the same ships you already have. The real losers in your plan would be new players, solo players, mediocre players. Vets know how to pool their money and upgrade quickly and be shooting those semis out of the sky in no time.

Purify, Thats what i'm saying, there is no problem with the way the game looks.

[Page]

If your only issue with a new interface is the colours then you know it doesn't have to be those colours :P
Although it's very useful to have colours that contrast so much with the green because it's made it a lot easier to spot places where things have been hardcoded and to fix them up (trust me a lot of the html for the old interface has improved as a result of this too, since nearly all of it is shared).

And yes El Guapo, vets do know how to pool money and get ships more easily, but by that rationale I might as well make all the ships free so that newbies can get them just as easily.. But that would ruin the point of having something to work towards, as it stands within a couple of days you can easily have the best ship and then what is your aim? Fly around trying to shoot people who are offline in fed? Most people agree that the start is generally more fun and I reckon that is at least partly because you have an aim to work towards