you'd be surprised

I agree that lower numbers of players will lower the challenge, but thats kinda the idea.

on the sink or swim idea : what you're saying is that it depends on luck, right? 80% of the new players end up in lowranked fams that get farmed to bits and leave the game. 10% ends in higher ranked fams, and dont do too well due to not being tutored, but tough it out and hope for a better round afterwards. If they dont leave even then due to being mocked, looked down on, or meeting outright hostility in their own fam due to being a newbie. Most of those getting through such a round leave the next round, after randoming into a lower ranked fam and yada yada yada ... leaves 10% that end up in good fams AND have the luck that someone is willing to invest time in them, and those stick around. Hopefully, coz even those have their problems, as dixie's post indicates.

The rate at which IC loses new players is astounding due to all this, and i think a less challenging yet friendly and tutoring-focussed galaxy might definitely turn this around. And im not expecting even 25% to stay even then, but im pretty sure whatever the percentage of players staying will be, it'll be better than the less-than-5% we have now.

so?

And i think many new players would stick around for quite a few rounds before trying their hand at the 'real' work... and im pretty sure a lot of those playing now could do with a thorough refresher course too

nah the neverending galaxy idea would work counterproductive, just like virgo did, as the tutors cant teach by example. Should be a semi-regular, soft-core (term property of the Zarf Beeblebrix' Headcase company) galaxy, with real (yet tuned-down) wars and a ranking

Edit : and it doesnt matter what the galaxy is named, as long as it's exclusive (no other galaxies at same time) and purely intended for tutoring purposes

posted this in response to another thread in community allready, but i'd like to turn it into a topic here. I think it is sorely needed really.

I think PW should become the real training galaxy. To this end, it should be kept apart from MW. Play in one and you cant play in the other. This will prevent PW from becoming an outlet for all the experienced players. If necessary, open another 'real' galaxy so those players can play 2 galaxies at a time if they are so inclined, but make sure that if you're in PW, you cant play anywhere else. Then, allow 2 or 3 experienced players to be drafted into PW fams together as tutors. This drafting shouldnt be done through VIPs but by applying for a tutor position in PW with the mods. If tutors do well they can remain in PW, if they are just there to screw around, they get kicked out after one round. Also, make PW 'stay in fam' for 3 consecutive rounds at a time to provide some continuity. This would make PW the learning galaxy Virgo never was.

its a figure of speech banksy, i could hardly post 'its been tons of fun cybering with you and mentioning IC as a sidenote once in a while'. Oh wait ... now i did, didnt i?

J/K

the problem is, the best thing i can come up with without getting hypocrit, is : "Imperialconflict.com, the best outdated space game online, if you like being looked down on by an incestuous small community of old players and dont mind the bad attitude in the forums."

and thats putting it nice so it might sell

I would make stefan an offer to buy IC. He would refuse it. I would then buy me a tank, park it in front of his house, aim the cannon at his lazy chair, and offer 5$ for IC. I would then hire some people to overhaul the game, make it awesome, and ban some of the people that annoy me most.

On a more serious note : aside from buying me a house here and somewhere in the sun, i would put most of such a huge amount into trusts. A smaller trust would be for me personally so i can spend the rest of my days playing games in luxury, the larger trusts would be used to set up a non-profit organisation (providing free lodging and food to people living on the street, right here in this so-called developped country) which would get a hefty yearly allowance out of those trusts, and have some friends run it for me (and pay them quite handsomely for doing that).

> Arby3 wrote:

>

That's exactly my point. What is honorable to 1 is not the same for all. For the most part, honor does exist and is followed. The social aspect of the game demands it. What sneaky move you do 1 round may bite you in the ass the next. The worst rounds are the ones when a top family plays without honor and there is no way to penalize then. Maybe the Tokassi will eventually invade IC and set everybody straight.

They did actually, with the help of the striking traders and some magical disease. They killed everyone. Nothing changed

The only thing that sort-of protected smaller fams in the past, was that there were a shitload of families with a lot of players in each family. All the top fams (and there were a bunch of them, not 3-4) were keeping an eye on each other, and if you screwed up, you got pwned. In those days, fighting back as a small fam, even against all odds, could very well pay off, coz if you succeeded at weakening the big fam in any way, the other big fams would jump on them immediately. These days however, with the low number of players, and the low number of small fams, fighting back is simply out of the question, noone will come to your rescue, just accept the farming.

The question we need to ask ourselves, actually, is if we need some artificial code of conduct to prolongue the death throes of IC, or if we should finally get honest with ourselves and switch off the life support. This game doesnt need a small upgrade here and a patch there (which are, lets be honest, leaving the game ever more buggy), it needs a complete overhaul that brings it into 2012.

Wendy, TBO was able to land 4 OHs in a row on me in hardcore galaxy. That should say enough in itself (considering TCO > TBO), but for math purposes i'll add he had around 30k wizs at the time, while i had 200k+. Yes he was pax and i was rev, but even then it was 51k vs 180k+ after racial bonuses/penalties. So the only reason i could think of for him succeeding so easily was that the penalty for large empires now also provides a bonus for smaller empires (as he was nearing getting killed off with only a couple planets and a couple 10k nw left, and i was sitting on 2.5k planets and several million nw).