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Topic: ally aid packages

It makes sense that we can't aid allies directly like we can family members, but I wonder why we can't sent aid packages with our fleets.

Imagine that you could send an aid package to an allied empire, but it would require you to send to one of their portalled planets that way their entire empire can receive it.  It would also require a certain number of ticks based on how far their nearest portal is to your nearest portal.  This means, if you and an allied empire both have a portal in the same system, aid between you two would happen after 1 tick, similar to exploring a planet in a system where you already are present.

It would require 1 transport and 1 soldier to send, and the sending party would have to pay a fee/tax to do so, dependent on the amount of aid involved and also on the distance of travel.  If the receiving planet loses its portal or changes ownership before the package arrives, the package goes back to the sender instantly with no refund of the fee.

Week 21, 14    Allied aid package
Our planet 1 at x:2, y:3 received an aid package from Friendly Empire of family 4567.  The shipment includes: 123 Food, 456 Iron, and 789 Endurium.  Thank goodness for allies!

A similar message would appear in family news.

This would further allow allies to help eachother out, but without treating them as just an extension of the family.

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Re: ally aid packages

I like pie wrote:

It makes sense that we can't aid allies directly like we can family members,

Why?

We can trade with other empires in the universe instantly via the Market.

I'm sure trading with our allies can be done instantly too.  With a Fee, ofcourse.

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Re: ally aid packages

It's a matter of balance I think.  I'd be concerned that if this was too easy that allies would be too much like an extended family, although that's definitely worth discussing.

A far as the market thing, the market is for the entire galaxy's use whereas aid is only for the family (currently).  A slight difference, but enough to at least consider distance as a factor.

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Re: ally aid packages

Including distance into something like this, starts making it different to everyone.  You're giving an advantage to those who choose allies closer to themselves (this is in early explo phase), as opposed to those who might be spread far apart.

Anyway, I think theres a few things here, each to be treated as its own thing, for eg:
Allies as extended family - should we even be able to send aid to them?  This is probably the discussion that needs to happen first, before the mechanics of how to get aid to them.

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Re: ally aid packages

Torqez wrote:

Including distance into something like this, starts making it different to everyone.  You're giving an advantage to those who choose allies closer to themselves (this is in early explo phase), as opposed to those who might be spread far apart.

That's kind of the point.  It is already this way in terms of choosing nearby allies for the advantage of having close distance backup.

I'm not sure I understand why this would be a bad thing; in a game about space why shouldn't distance be a primary factor for most elements of gameplay?  Yes it might be "less fair" to everybody but it's also less boring.  If we truly we wanted to be equal for everybody we would have a system layout in which everybody has the exact same number of systems around their home system in the exact same pattern with the exact same resource bonus distribution.

A little deviation from total equality is a good thing imo, but then I suppose the game's current HS placement being fairly uniform compared to how it used to be is reflective of the current way of things. =/

Torqez wrote:

Allies as extended family - should we even be able to send aid to them?  This is probably the discussion that needs to happen first, before the mechanics of how to get aid to them.

You do have a very good point there.  Perhaps this idea is a bit ahead of itself.  I have enough threads going in the feedback forum, so I'll just sit on this for now.

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Re: ally aid packages

Aiding allies should not be able to be done.  Being able to help on each others infra is too much.

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Re: ally aid packages

For some reason or another, I oppose this idea. It will make it too obvious and easy to aid allies.
You might as well half the amount of families and double their size then. This is too much.

On a side note, ever considered all your changes will make the game TOO complex and wont appeal to new players wink

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Re: ally aid packages

To the contrary, I think it is more confusing that we can have allies but can't help them economically.

And halving the fams and doubling their size is a bit of an exaggeration.  Allies aren't permanent, nor do they start in the same area of the map.

I do agree that it would be a drastic change though, and probably not one that is important right now.  Still worth discussing though, and I think Torqez said it well: we should discuss whether or not we even should be able to aid allies before figuring out how to do so.


This idea makes sense to me, but admittedly it is more complicated than it could be.  Aiding allies could simply be a matter of extra empires in your current aid screen.  I personally don't like that idea, but it speaks to his point: we need to answer why before we answer how.  Therefore, this idea thread is a dud for now: we won't be considering this anytime soon.

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