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Mr President
08-23-2011, 23:35
There will be a couple of changes for next set.


Sanctions- will be removed from the game. I was hoping for better use of them but they just are not used at all. However I have another idea that I will let you in on shortly.

Bank Limit -

This will be raised, but only if you invest the tech for it. There will be a new tech for banking and as you invest tech, the bank limit rises for your members. The bottom line will still be 50B for those who do not invest or not in a nation, but if you invest and max the tech, the max balance goes to 82.5B.

We will test this for one set and see how it works and then make adjustments from there. I'm not fond of raising the limit, but this should give a boost to the techer strat which is good.

Following Sets -

Trade Embargo! Instead of Sanctions that made it so you couldn't attack or be attacked by that nation, you will now be able to place a trade embargo against other nations. This will make it so nobody in your nation can purchase their goods off the market till the embargo is lifted.. They simply won't show up in the available goods section. There will be no tech involved and you do not need to be part of the UN to do this. It is another tool for diplomacy outside of war. I like this idea as it effects both parties. The nation members trying to sell their goods will have a harder time moving them, but yet, if you keep them in place for too long then your own people may begin to get ticked as they can't supply their own states. But if used properly, this can be an effective tool.. This could also be used to start wars :)

I have the test version up and I'm working out the kinks. So far it's working well but I won't have this done in time for next set.


Nation Overview-

When you click on a tag from the nation scores to view the nation overview, you will be able to conduct all of your foreign affairs from that screen. This will also give more information. It will show who this nation is at war with, has trade embargo's with and other things. This whole section will be made to offer many more changes that will be headed our way.

Nation Flags - Each nation will automatically receive a nation flag. You can change this to what you would like, but if you don't there will be a default flag given for your nation.

Member pictures- Each state receive a default picture. Again, you can change this to what you would like but if not the default will show. The defaults will be leaders from history.

Newspaper - There will be a in game newspaper that will give more detail about global events. It will also have a section where you can write your own article if you wish. Each day there will be a new paper.

Stock Market- This one is still taking me some time, but nations will have an option to invest in a NW Stock market. Supply and demand as well as a few other secret values will dictate the prices of the stocks. Each stock will be based on the goods we sell and buy within the game.


These are just a few of the things that will be implemented in the game over the next few months. One other important thing to mention is, around the end of September the construction of my new house will be complete and I'll be moving. As exciting as it is to move into a new house, there is a bad side........... The house is way out in the country and I will not have cable internet any longer. I will either need to live with satellite internet or hub it off my phone or simply buy a card for my pc.. None of these choices excite me all that much. So what that means is, between moving and settling into the new house as well as limited internet access, my activity for the game will be very limited. Tnova will be taking over as the main admin till I get settled and up and running. I will still be able to log in at work, but again that will be limited. If he runs into trouble he will be able to contact me and I'll make arrangements to get on as soon as possible.

I would like to make some more changes on the attacks.. This will be the last set for a few sets that I can make these adjustments.. So if you want to see them adjusted you best make your suggestions before the end of this set or else you have to live with them for while :)

Our game is still moving along. We are still growing. Not rapidly but we are in positive growth. Thank you all for your continued support and helping us stay alive. We may be small but we still have one of the best online game around.

MAGGIO
08-24-2011, 00:46
I like how you forced the use of bombers. I think that alot of things should be stripped from the game. You know more than moat what is used and is not used. I think a simple version of the game may be more attractive.
I think that all strata should be constant net gaining not some net gaining like indi and some stocking like casher. If you have to sit on your resources to gain an advantage then an adjustment needs to be made. Raising the bank level only slows the market. Sitting on food and money puts to much drag on the economy. I think decreasing the bank and increasing the production of cash food and tech would be a better move. I think that there needs to be less clutter in the navigation too and what is left needs to be organized by most used. Attack build and refuel should be the first three buttons on the top left for example.

Coming back and playing a few turns makes me realize how extremely difficult the site is to use and his overly complicated all the options are. Just not jumping out to me as fun. And none of that has to do with the difficulty or effort to actually play.

Sorry for misspelling im on my cell.

MAGGIO
08-24-2011, 01:07
If you really want to spice it up simply let the attacking state keep all the land buildings and units on all attacks and ops.

Also why can't there be a quick two or three line description of each strategy and have new or all states joint a game run or AI nation based on which strategy they choose that they can leave at any time. All these one man nations are silly.

MAGGIO
08-24-2011, 01:13
I was looking at another huge game online the other day called age of empires online. I took a look at there forums and it really make me wonder why these forums are so complicated and split up into so many categories. I think combining cats and reducing it to 5-8 sections with 2-3 mostly being used may make the forums more attractive and much easier to read through. General. Nation-wars game. Suggestion/help and admin announcements are really the only ones needed.

MAGGIO
08-24-2011, 01:25
Maybe a more website feel on the homepage containing several parent pages which would have a lot of the general info like manuals quick start etc... but then when you got into the actual game you would only see playing options. Seems like some of the side navigation although important to the website is not so important actually in the in game navigation.

I admire how you have added tried and removed things.

If there is ten nation leaders and 100I players then 90%your of the player base has no interest in quite a few of the intricate options that cost countless hours of implementation.

For busy guy like most all these options just seem to take away from the simplicity of the fun which is burning turns. Its just possible that you have been designing a game for the few hardcore rather than the more abundant casual gamer.

Can I just burn my turns build my army and kill something already?

MAGGIO
08-24-2011, 01:42
What is the point of adjusting and reducing the time it takes items to reach the market. I assume to speed the economy because of less players. But then you increase the bank and promote saving protected money. Then for some reason farmers can just sit on food with no depreciation.

I say reduce the bank promote spending not saving and increase revenue earned per casher building.

I also say increase food production slightly. Raise they min market value. Raise the max price sold. And make it so the harvested crops expire or rot if not brought to market.



I know tech has been around forever but once the nations are maxes out the tech market dies off. Why do we even have it. Declare your nation a strategy type. Hand out the bonuses on day one and get rid of tech the recharge strategy and research turns. Every nation will have the same tech bonus based on declared tech type regardless of size.

Mr President
08-24-2011, 10:22
Maggio I haven't seen you post so much in a long time. You make some valid points... One of the things you mentioned is making the harvested crops rot after a certain amount of time. In order to be fair we would also have to do something of the same sorts to the Indy strat. As for the navigation, I agree that it is too large and confusing. There are a few things I will be combining. I think we should have more options on the page rather than the menu.. Kinda like I'm doing with the nation overview where you can do all your foreign affairs from that page instead of having a whole separate section.

MAGGIO
08-24-2011, 13:35
i just got a fresh POV by coming back and trying to figure things out again. It was no offense intended, a lot of the ideas are good ones, but only for the true game heads. I think one of the main reasons for player loss is just the fact that 10 years ago we had less to do, and not many of us are out of school, have more kids etc... We still want to have fun and play, but its just so complicated.

One of the most successful concepts of all time is the First person shooter games. YOu get on, kill a few guys and then get on with your day. Should be pretty close to NW, you get one, burn through your turns and get on with your day. I dont think the day to day game play should take more than 15-30 minutes for the average user.

I try to keep it as simple as possible and it stiil takes me forever. I go on, buy my food, open a new screen for all state scores, and then I go down about 20-30 states and start LG people. then in another screen i destroy, build, and refuel and REPEAT. I do that for about 20-30 minutes a day and let me tell you, pretty ****ing boring after a week to two. It makes it real easy to "forget" to log in and use turns.

The game is too complicated in several aspects. You could strip away 20-30% of the hardly used options and hardly viewed pages and it wouldnt skip a beat.

Just giving my first impressions after several months off as a guy who has not interests in running a big nation or dealing with anyone else politics. I kinda feel like this may be the persespective of a noobie, and/or of a player that the newnew smell of the game has worn off.

There is sooo much to do, but only very few people can do it. This game has moulded into a specific feature set based on the few who remain playing it.

I am using wordpress for my CMS on my websites more and more often. I could work with you to update the actual website to hold alot of the content you currently hold ingame, and then when you log on in game you only see ingame action options. Just a thought.

Mr President
08-24-2011, 13:36
Also, I do plan on reducing the size of the forums and combining a lot of the sections. As stated, some of the ideas I mentioned above are future plans and will be done on a "as time allows" basis. The main focus needs to remain on what we already have in game and making sure that everything is set and working the way it should. We need to encourage members to give me feedback. I always here back from the same few people when I ask for it. Though I'm thankful they do this, it would also be nice to get other peoples opinions as well. So please, even if there is no thread about a topic you wish to give feedback on, make one and offer it.

Menu clean up is a must as in time there will be some new themes that only the middle part will scroll and the menu and logo will remain fixed. So having a smaller menu will help with that.

Calvin74
08-25-2011, 19:14
Can you build a format where there are no pictures?
I much prefered the old layout where building pictures didn't clutter things up and the old overview is still far superior to the new on with pictures. I am not sure what benefit there is from having pictures next to the buildings other than to take up space. To me the layout of the destroy buildings page is easier to follow and understand.

This is the 1st time i have actually looked at the new overview and i do like some aspects of it however i think the layout of the old one is better and we could just add a row or a column to put in the new stuff:)

Mr President
08-25-2011, 20:40
I like the pictures.. It adds a little color to the game. And to answer your question no I can't make a separate theme that doesn't have pics.. So we either keep them or you get everyone else to agree to remove them and I will :)

However, I would like some suggestions on the menu.. How can we shrink it? Do we add links on other pages? Like when you go to the main screen there are a few links at the top like the help menu ect ect.. Please list some ideas and I will be more than happy to work on it.

MAGGIO
08-25-2011, 23:41
well you know how the server is set up. in the top layer of the server we install wordpress or some other website CMS. We put alot of the blobity blah content on that level. Then you log into the game and now we are in the "game" folder. Here we only have game action items. attack, build, yada yada. and ovcourse we have the "forum" folder. Ill dig in a bit more shortly

Mr President
08-25-2011, 23:52
I use to love the two screen login option. The first screen had all the information and then after you clicked play, you got nothing but game controls. WoW use to have it where it showed server info and stuff. We did that here in the beginning and people complained and wanted to just go to the game.. I think if we combine a few things that will help a lot. Like having the destroy link at the top or bottom of the build page. Getting rid of the GDN and TDN as nobody uses them anymore. Basically just cleaning it up some.

MAGGIO
08-26-2011, 01:44
I crunched the numbers and you can email me at johnmaggio@msn.com and i will email you back the excell chart, but here it is. I poored through millions of page views for 2011 and this is what I got. I have your email but dont know which one you want me to send it too.

Take Action covers +/- 60% of the page views
Your State covers +/- 24% of the page views
Your Nation covers +/- 10% of the page views
The World covers +/- 6% of the page views

went from 46 to 35 links. I have notes on what to do with each link.

I think the part you will not be happy with is that many of the features you spent countless hours on and are really cool concepts get EXTREMELY little viewership



Take Action



Attack



Refuel



All State Scores



State Search



Build



Destroy



Expand



Spy



Cash Turns



Research Turns









Your State



Your Overview



Home News



Bank



Publick Market



Black Market



Tax and production



Upgrades



Saved Intels









Your Nation



Nation Scores



Global News



Join/Create



Local News



Members



Nation Forums



Headquarters



Nation Cbox



Recruitment






The World



Global Events



Global Overview









Account



Preferences



Chatbox



Bonus turns



Change State



Forums



Log Out

MAGGIO
08-26-2011, 01:49
this new forum theme is the best one yet. The new game theme matches pretty good. The new website or home page should match. TAKE ALL OTHER THEMES DOWN! You have a brand and it all must match. They will get over it trust me, and new people wont even know the difference.

MAGGIO
08-26-2011, 01:56
1. change admin announcements to Announcements and put it first.

2. Merge Gaming and Spam Forum with General and put General Second. Public polls is split up into spam, game and gen, but I would merge it with Gen.

3. Leave introduce yourself its popular and make it 3rd.

4. Merge HoV, P Recruit, N Recruit, Strat Board, and W&R with Nation Wars Discussion and make it 4th.

5. Make Suggestions 5th

6. Change Forum H&B to Support and make is 6th.

Reduce the three main cats to one cat, and call it a day.

So it will be 1 category, 6 sections, 4500 threads, and 73000 posts ;)

MAGGIO
08-26-2011, 02:05
what we are really really lacking is a good graphic artist that can design bad *** game images. Designing images is not my strong point. Like the image in the header of the forums for example. I could not do it, but many graphic artist would think its a walk in the park. We have never really had a kick *** website because we have never really had a graphic artist to help on a professional quality level.

MAGGIO
08-26-2011, 02:19
Pretty Pretty Please

on the spy screen and attack screen pleeeease put on that page what each attack is and what it does and what units do what etc...

and FOR GOD SAKES MAN reduce the number of spy ops. Combine the intel ones into one or two super ops, and then list out the offensive ops by definition on that page.

First thing a new guy wants to do is push buttons and see what does what. You coudl save alot of lives by just explaining on that page so Calvin and Max (jokes) dont get their panties in a bunch.

Mr President
08-26-2011, 13:00
Nice Suggestions Maggio.. Thank you.

Mrmcjoey15
08-27-2011, 18:29
I like this thread its like the WWMD thread all around good stuff keep up the good work gentelman