jouldax wrote:This game for the last several rounds has been:
1. Trade locally for a couple weeks
2. Build planets
3. Build a route and mine it so you can trade unfettered
4. Sit in galaxies on super routes until you can get enough to bust a rock
This is killing the game. Lowering initial multipliers won't stop trading...it will force people to trade MORE to achieve the same results, increasing the time people are in hunters, or the mid game which is usually the most active. Also, god forbid you have to plan how to build a route with what's around you. There will be ports in those walled off sections; use one of those as a starting point. PRs have been made easier and it's an aspect of the game that goes largely ignored. And now, with galaxies somewhat near each other, you might screw up each other's routes and, in doing so, force the map to evolve for everyone. You complained last game when Nij had an accidental perfect 7x in their quadrant, and I agreed it shouldn't have gone into the game. I'm sorry, but I don't think trading in racial the entire game should ever give you a chance to come anywhere near the top of the rankings, and that's been expressed repeatedly on these boards and in private to me. People don't even trade if there's a potential hunter on cpl because they've been conditioned by optimal placement of ports near fed and there's nothing in the game now that forces you to switch your strategy to succeed.
TLDR: Same old same old is not working. We need to be trying something different. This was a common suggestion to me going into the next round and I'd like to try it out.
Jouldax how did busting ports go for you this game, you guys had to combine 3 alliances just to port raid and even at that you barely had enough, the expectation that people are going to drop out of the sky or something to be able to port raid is a bit foolhardy. And I am not saying lowering the multiplier would stop trading, I said people won't want to have to trade that much, especially if they are casual players. Really all this does is ;) off both sides for no reason, the casual players wont put forth the effort and the hardcore players will be annoyed in having to trade a ton to achieve minor goals. Plus with out any decent routes in the outer gals all you are going to do is force people to trade racials all game.
PRs haven't been made easier unless this is something I don't know about. If anything they have been made harder due to the port's ability to gain drones infinitely.
Really this is all a bit over the top with respect to planets, I mean you need a port for stocking the planets as well. If you make the port 15 sectors away from the nearest planet, why would someone want to stock and land on rocks. Every single one of these things combines to severely slow the game down.