Is This The End?

[Dogma]

Great post, but one problem I see with the forcing thing is we tried that at one time and we found that new people seem to want to run their own state and nation as they choose. Forcing people into a nation didn't work out too well, we had newbie training nations and it was a flop. I agree that the most fun part of this game is the community. A few of us have been around 8, 9 or even 11 years.

But I would like to hear some of your ideas on how to make that happen without making new players fell forced to do something differently than the way they desire.

[MAGGIO]

last night late into the morning I started really doing some research on new members, when they start, when they stopped playing, and WHY.

so far I found that players who did not join a nation left. those who got in a nation stayed. those who left had mixed strats, and mixed upgrades. surprisingly from the states I looked at NONE started their own nation. I will continue to monitor adn make notes, but WE WILL find out why people are leaving and WE WILL make those adjustments needed to keep them around based on FACTS. I wont have enough data to really say THIS IS IT or THAT IS WHY for a few more weeks.

but from what I am finding, states who do not get interacted with and brought into the fold of a nation are a much higher risk of quitting.

right now, confederate has some really good posts, has his finger on the button. we need to figure out a way to get new guys in volved with out forcing them to go one way or another.



an idea i had was a purgatory nation that new players were placed in temporarily and could leave at anytime. that nation would be run by admins to lend support, and monitor progress. automatically gernerated PMs would be in place to give instruction (to reduce typing) (its called "canned answers") Player can leave at anytime to join a new nation, other nations can actively recruit players, the nation protected against war, and the state is booted after X days of training. Sort of like a voluntary boot camp.

this possibly would not work if we had hundreds of players, but it could work wiht our small numbers and we can see how it goes.

gtg will expand later

[Confederation]

A good way to do that is lessening the idea that it's desirable to be alone and making playing as a nation more fun by having more activities done by the actual nation.
The way the nation works now:

>You are labelled as a group.
>You have certain bonuses.
>Your army can be supported by nation army.

My main idea about this is giving more perks to nations. Not just calculated bonuses but on how the game is played.

1) Permanent Nations

When you sign up you pick what country you want. No other option. No passwords too. Pick Nation A, B, C or D.
If you want a private password protected nation. You can probably pay a donation.
History has shown that when humans are forced together in groups for no reason they often go their separate ways.
Threats are always a uniting force. Which brings us to this.

2) Terrorist States

Make a terrorist nation. There will be 50 terrorists. The size of terrorists do not depend on the size of people. (Unless one person is too big, then terrorists will start targeting him, making people think twice about being on top.)

Say at day 4 terrorists range from $50m - $400k.
Day 8 - $100m - $20m.
Day 12 - $150m - $50m.
Etc.

People would have to keep up to not get hit and to fight back. (Don't make it too hard so people won't give up, just challenging.)

Will people just hit the terrorists instead of people? No.
Terrorists will be strong militarily and have less land. 40% less than normal.
Those that attack more will be hit more.
Those that have big land will be hit more.
Those that are always attacked or small will not be hit more.
(This is the great balancer)

3) Nation Attacks

Here's another thing to put people together. If you are a big state and your nation army sucks. You can be affected by nation attacks.
Can only be done during war and can only be done once every 12 hours. Nation Army assualt units vs Nation Army defence units.
No specialized attacks/ bombing runs/ air raids. Just plain old standard attack. Takes away 5% of the nation's land.

I also have some more ideas about the detailed implementation, but this is just a generalization. Opinions are well appreciated. We're a team.

[Confederation]

To add more. I don't think that having a nation strategy is good. It forces people to do stuff a certain way.

Making a nation self sufficient will encourage people to have pure strats as a state but mixed strats as a nation.

[Dogma]

A good way to do that is lessening the idea that it's desirable to be alone and making playing as a nation more fun by having more activities done by the actual nation.
The way the nation works now:

>You are labelled as a group.
>You have certain bonuses.
>Your army can be supported by nation army.

My main idea about this is giving more perks to nations. Not just calculated bonuses but on how the game is played.

1) Permanent Nations

When you sign up you pick what country you want. No other option. No passwords too. Pick Nation A, B, C or D.
If you want a private password protected nation. You can probably pay a donation.
History has shown that when humans are forced together in groups for no reason they often go their separate ways.
Threats are always a uniting force. Which brings us to this.

2) Terrorist States

Make a terrorist nation. There will be 50 terrorists. The size of terrorists do not depend on the size of people. (Unless one person is too big, then terrorists will start targeting him, making people think twice about being on top.)

Say at day 4 terrorists range from $50m - $400k.
Day 8 - $100m - $20m.
Day 12 - $150m - $50m.
Etc.

People would have to keep up to not get hit and to fight back. (Don't make it too hard so people won't give up, just challenging.)

Will people just hit the terrorists instead of people? No.
Terrorists will be strong militarily and have less land. 40% less than normal.
Those that attack more will be hit more.
Those that have big land will be hit more.
Those that are always attacked or small will not be hit more.
(This is the great balancer)

3) Nation Attacks

Here's another thing to put people together. If you are a big state and your nation army sucks. You can be affected by nation attacks.
Can only be done during war and can only be done once every 12 hours. Nation Army assualt units vs Nation Army defence units.
No specialized attacks/ bombing runs/ air raids. Just plain old standard attack. Takes away 5% of the nation's land.

I also have some more ideas about the detailed implementation, but this is just a generalization. Opinions are well appreciated. We're a team.

More good ideas, but with some tweeking think can be GREAT ideas. lets keep this going...

[Hedge]

good ideas and i have been playing this game on and off since 2001 and i still the big thing we dont have now is an irc chan

[Confederation]

What's an irc chan?

[Ace]

As for the previous suggestion about community and nations, how about next set we take a poll on who would like to lead a Nation( Leaders should really want to do it and be online alot) and players that just want to be members(not as active) of a nation and play. Then after the poll players and nations could be divided up equally. And those that dont want to go along with experiment, to better the game, well their citizens will be raped and pillaged to death!

I posted this in the wrong thread. And nobody has to be forced to join,. It can be on a volunteer basis, just until everyone gets to know one another on a personal level and how much fun it is to strategize.

[zardozr]

The answer seems obvious to me, we need to change how rounds are won. Make it so it is nations that win instead of individual players! Also, change it so that instead of a set ending date a nation has to reach a certain power and then stay above that power for a set amount of time in order to win.

If we did these two very minor changes it would force people to work together and it would force action into the game once nations started getting close to the power goal. (and action is always a good.thing)

[Confederation]

I agree with that. Great idea.