In all honestly, VIP ruined the game. There was a lot more conflict back in the day when you had to manually check every system you and your family were in. It would be practically impossible to check every system some of the families had anymore. Half the fun used to be trying to sneak into a system or 2, and then war a war. Now it takes just 1 VIP in a family to make sure everything is safe, and the rest of the non-vips can see this as well. Since the VIP can post all this info for everyone, it doesn't give him an advantage, but I think something should be done to map function. Would be interesting to play a round or 2 without these functions and see what happens. It would put a lot more importance on plists and gathering intel on a family.

He's completely right

Down with VIP!

> ~Killas~ wrote:

> Have one galaxy where the VIP map functions are disabled

+1

And if you really wanna add features, heres 1
http://www.imperialconflict.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=161034

i do think there is some truth to the game having become somewhat formulaic because of tools like yama and mapgen.  It's one of those things that seemed really awesome when it was first around, but really it has taken a lot of the challenge out of working with one of the more interesting elements of the game: the map.

I don't know what the solution is, but I think simply removing it might do more harm than good at this point unless something a little more balanced can take its place.  I'm thinking a special op that gives you lists around the proximity of a target, with a result that varies based on whether or not the planet is explored, how many wizzies or agents the owner has, etc etc.

Again, it's all about balance.  I think VIPs need some benefit but this is a good example of how too much benefit can drastically change the way the game is played.  If/when certain things in the game become too easy, they become less interesting.  No challenge is no fun.