the whole problem with Josey's proposal, is that it assumes that no one will engage.
The sad reality is that people ALWAYS engage.
Further, that it gives drivel a veneer of legitimacy.
It is, as they say, the old paradox of tolerance.
I should have commented on this detail. You are correct Drow. People will always comment but ultimately TFMOIs will prevail and good will triumph over evil.
How long to you think people will engage with some, unless to rake them over the coals, if that person is engaged in racism?
That wouldn’t last long.
Except that TFMOI's don't prevail, nor does good triumph over evil.
we have example after example of this being the case.
If it did, Racism would no longer exist in any form.
nor would sexism.
nor would a massive number of problematic issues, because we would have reasoned them out of existence with TFMOI's (TM).
The reality is that the world simply doesn't work like that, much as we wish it did.
We still have neonazis in the world, who spout the crap Hitler espoused, and hail him as a hero, and people lap it up.
We have politicians who literally blame "dem others (insert chosen ethnic, religious, or other minority group here) " for basically everything, and they get swept into the one place they shouldn't be, power.
Because rational debate etc doesn't work. It requires both parties to be rational.
You actualy come to a GAME forum to spew all that??
Also - is me pointing out that someone attacked my wife breaking the rules, but said person attacking my wife... isn't? LOL
Ya'll and your mental gymnastics!
If someone breaks the rules on discord then you should message a discord moderator if you feel so inclined. It sounds like the messages were already deleted? I understand that you didn't appreciate what was said to you, but how is spreading it around helping? If it was a horribly offensive thing in your eyes then the best thing to do is not to repeat it any further. In any case, I think that you've made your displeasure well known at this point. When a message is deleted then that should generally be the end of it. Otherwise players will bicker endlessly about personal issues.
I can see the disconnect here, so let me clarify.
I'm not terribly hurt by the stupid things cult leader Leto says. When I get under his skin he tends to break character and lash out, saying some pretty terrible things, but I'm not easily offended, so it's ok.
The purpose of repeating it here, as well as mentioning that he supports doxxers, and covered for cheaters, is to continually remind people that Leto isn't the guy he purports to be. He likes to play this 'good guy' persona on the forums and with everyone, but it's so fake and ridiculous. He's overly nice and loving and caring. But again, if you watch closely, it's all an act. Hence the 'cult leader' title I give him.
So the reason I keep mentioning what he said about my wife isn't because I'm that hurt over him slandering my wife. It's because I want people to know that Leto is actually kinda a fluffty person, not a really good upstanding individual he claims.
And Ko - I know I sound like a broken record. I'm sorry bro, it's necessary though. For instance, Tan didn't know about any of this stuff prior to me repeating it all on the forums this time. I gotta keep putting the info out there to make sure it disseminates fully.
No one cares....we come here to play a dam game not to hear about personal conflicts.....take that shiat to GT or any place that someone may care....I am so damn glad i don't do the Discord thing.....sounds like a bunch of power hungry, crybabies, and little biatches hang out there......Thanks Biden
Drow - I don't know why you're so determined to prove me a liar, when I've shown time and again to be honest.
Leto did delete his messages.... If you don't believe me, go through the chats on EE discord from that time yourself. You can see us talking to Leto, without his messages being there, lol.
You're gonna make yourself look bad bro. I don't tell lies.
Also - is me pointing out that someone attacked my wife breaking the rules, but said person attacking my wife... isn't? LOL
Ya'll and your mental gymnastics!
Why would you even want to play a game that shows both you and your family total disrespect?
And to continually bring up the subject, to show others that it happened in the past, show signs of your mental disorder. Mebbe seek mental health to deal with a game or just find another, more friendly game.
I could summarize this, and other of your post, as a person just seeking relevence but I won't.
Highlights are sooo overated. You can have all the highlights you want but, if you don't have your method sleeping with you, you won't wall an extremely fast kill (Sov, see what I did there?).
Most alliances have a method to see your online times...most killruns are targeted when you are not online. Remove that capability and ya just might see more walling.
Yes but, in another way......violators shoud be banned from posting for 7 days.....that would be lost bonus and the rest of us won't have to read the Bullshiat....
Might just create some good ole Alliance/Clan trash talk.
All the fluffing about 1A should be moved to GT so that Alliance AT could possibly be overall positive for new players.
Celphi, I’ll offer to let you retal my country after you and DD talk and green light it.
You know where to find me when it’s time. All good with me, I’ll take the heat for it. Even though you’ve kinda treated us like crap recently, I’ll offer an olive branch and use my country as a sacrifice.
Coalie, pull down your skirt. Your 'giner is showing.
some folks are getting tired of the constant changes over the years. Old folks don't like spending a lot of time playing this game anymore due to real life catching up to them.
K.I.S.S. Establish a server that incorporates all of your new changes and a server based on the original earth 2025. I would bet we could get some youngin's (a new generation) to bump up the player numbers.
It is primarily the old players looking to change the game to fit their current life style.....you are not going to bring in new, young players like that.
No sense in being stupid if you're not going to show it. BH is a prime example.
You play on a server where everyone is netting and no bots to cuddle up to.
Play the dam game like you are supposed to and get some defense.
A bunch of crybabies and you wonder why the game can't grow.
"Anyone keeping track?"
Hell, have all the multies you want.....just admit that you did it and you will not get banned from this "game". Hell, you will be a self-proclaimed hero and post never ending BS on all the boards.
favorite strat.... hit the bars around 10 or 11pm. All the drinks have already been bought and the drunk guys are a little sloppy. The women are getting a little loose. Move in and get mine.
I have been logging in here quite a lot in recent times and have thought a lot about whether I should return to the game. Along with that I have thought hard about how I would revive the game and more than that, try and give it a future. For me I think about rebuilding SoF but then I look at the server and it becomes a question of the value of the time investment.
Here are some brief ideas I am happy to put forth for you all to ponder on and possibly consider. Keep in mind that these ideas are with a longterm goal of growth in mind...
- Introduce "Bad Weather"
One of the biggest aspects of warring is walling, but the problem is not everyone can be online 24/7 to wall. I have been known as one of the harder to kill players in the game, but it is very draining in my older age to go without sleep. In fact it is one of the things I dread about the game.
I believe it would be a positive for the game if a player has an option to select an 8 hour period of the day where their country cannot attack or be attacked. That means any player willing to wall have an 8 hour respite and also any player who does not wake to wall has a fair opportunity to level the playing field against the guys who will wall 24/7. There will always be those players who do not take up the 8 hours.
If that player is attacked during this 8 hour period the attacker would be greeted with a message along the lines of "Your Generals refuse to attack due to bad weather. They advise that the weather will improve in ** hours."
You can change your 8 hour period but any changes will take 24 hours to become active.
- Introduce clan incentives based on number of members
You want to encourage clan/alliance leaders to recruit more people and you want to reward them for making their clan bigger. They should not be overpowering bonuses, but ones that are enough to encourage clans to grow. For example you could boost restart bonuses for clans with more than 15 members by 5%. If the clan has 20 members then that could become 7.5%. If the clan has 25 members then that becomes 10%. etc etc. I have other ideas but not the time to go into them. But I will note that history has shown warring tags have always been the ones more inclined to recruit heavily for obvious reasons.
- Forget new UIs and out of reach projects like AI overhauls. Keep it simple.
Do small UI improvements and other slight changes but forget the blue sky projects that go nowhere, utilize the resources you have better.
- Advanced vs Normal Servers
Make it easier for new players to come into the game with simple server choices. Such as:-
Easy Primary Server - Basically how Primary Server is right now but with bots. You need to make the server feel more populated for newer players.
Advanced Primary Server - Think of the old 1B server back on Swirve. Basically same rules as Alliance but no clans. Let people coordinate ingame and learn how to relate with other players. Maybe no bots, but this would need to be considered. It is a step to Alliance but also introduced the social aspect back to Primary which is something that really drives people to be active in the game.
Easy Alliance Server - A server designed more for netting rather than warring. Basically make it so a country cannot be killed, for example special attacks are nerfed and a country can never drop below 100 civilians.
Advanced Alliance Server - Basically the server as it is now.
Easy FFA Server - Can only run a max of 5 countries, for those who do not have time to run 16. An easy stepping stone into FFA as 16 countries is quite daunting for those who are used to only running 1.
Advanced FFA Server - Basically FFA as it is right now.
- Create a standard EE staff forum handle
If someone is posting in an official capacity regarding an admin or mod action as EE staff it should be as EE officially and not as an individual. Remove the personal side from the forum mods and admins.
- Promote the game immediately
Use the large database to begin emailing all past and present players to invite them back to the game. Encourage current players to invite people back to the game. Promote the game through all avenues to the Earth2025 community. There is a big opportunity to really kick this game back into gear in 2025 but you want people to come back to something in a healthy state. I know if I came back I could get SoF back to 40 members in 2 sets if I put in the effort by myself.
There are a ton of other things I would also do but perhaps I might post about those another time. The fact is the admins need to stop thinking about this game as their side hobby and consider it as a business and run it like one.
slagipoo....how long will you let this thread go sideways???
The two smartest people to ever walk earth have given you two perfect options.
Pick one. Rehashing old stuff is why most folks lose interest.
Yes. That is long dealt with :)
Now I have ran over another bunny :(
Shes got a taste for blood now....next its stray cats and the neighbors dog. Do you stop to examine your kill? Take pics for later. I would. Its cool Gal. No judgement (except hell where you're going for murdered bunnies and a dog).
Still avoiding the elephant in the room......
We have strayed from the original Earth 2025 and with each passing change (intended to increase player base), the player base has declined.
I am not into this whole community thing. I just come here to play a game. How are we supposed to recruit new players into a community that just wants to spend a few minutes/day hitting bots. I have recruited folks that won't stay for more than a day or two. They say it is too boring. Even online Chess matches require strategy. Chess requires offense and defense and sometimes you lose.....but like EE, you get to restart.
Make a server that leans on the original Earth 2025 and let's see what happens. Too many of you old folks no longer want to play that style of game. Real Life keeps you busy. Changes made to fit your current style of play will only result in the same old players from set to set.
Think aboout it.....old timers only return for war then leave when it goes back to just hitting bots.
As someone that has financially contributed to the game (EE Patron next to my name), I have a small stake investment in the game.
slagpit,
I vote to free Chevs unless there are evidence that points to why he should incur as lifetime ban. All I see is "he said she said hearsay" on why he was banned. You want to attract more players to the game, seems counter-intuitive to ban existing players. Especially one that keeps the game interesting.
From what I've seen from Chevs since he returned to the game, he hasn't done anything that I considered to be atrocious in nature enough to incur a lifetime ban.
Why couldn't you just make a country and fight him instead?
Just because you wasted your money, does not give you a better stake in this game :P
Just shows that you met the game quota under the ADA.
I'll be a bit argumentative again. When exactly was this golden age of player to player interaction? I first played on alliance around 2004. I remember alliances heavily pacting out and most countries doing all-X or only hitting untagged countries. I also remember land:land becoming the standard retal policy. Players themselves are the ones who were always pushing for less interaction. Just look at what happened to the team server. The last time I looked there was essentially zero landgrabs. Some clans even boasted about their 1:kill policies.
We aren't advertising because we don't have a good enough product yet. A few folks were kind enough to answer my question about what makes the alliance server special and they said that playing with friends is fun. But that's just a property of the server. Nearly any multiplayer team-based game will have that feature. No one said "it's fun to play with your friends to compete for average NW", "it's fun to win a war with your friends", or "it's fun to create a new clan with your friends and to politically outmaneuver other clans". That's a big problem in terms of player retention.
I think that when players advocate for chaos, they imagine themselves being on the giving end of chaos and other players being on the receiving end of it. In many cases that's only going to be fun for one party.
IMHO, the golden age was probably 1998-2003ish. The game saw several changes during that period as did the player base. The culture on the server started changing around 2002 with many wanting a heavy focus on netting and by this time every major alliance had turn by turn strats that proliferated throughout the community.
It was fun to be a part of an alliance, help it grow and help teach and protect the members
It was fun to make a landgrab and message the untagged country to join your alliance
It was fun to check the retal boards
It was fun to be a part of kill runs
It was fun to try different things while building your country, not quite knowing how it would turn out
It was fun to hunt multi's
It was fun to diplomatically interact
It was fun to build a better site than your competing alliances
It was fun to war for a cause, to die and restart as quickly as you could
It was probably fun to hit the top ten =)
Oh and it was fun to spam the AT boards
Fast forward to today and many of those things either don't apply or have been minimized. Time "in-game" has always been pretty minimal, especially after start up in peace-time. Maybe 20 mins a day if your researching bots to hit, likely no more than 10 min to run your turns. I'm sure we spend more time on our Discords, clan sites and the AT than we actually spend in-game.
I still enjoy the alliance server, mostly for the interaction with my alliance mates. I've found myself bored after using up my turns and played FFA server to fill in the gap. I use the express server to try out new builds and strats to use on alliance. 1A is a unique server, with aspects I don't think you can really get on the other servers. Some of the changes have been for neccessity due to the dwindling player base, some have been cultural made by the player base and some things haven't really changed for 25 years (for example, I use a strat from 2001 that works pretty well with just a few minor tweaks).
From the dev's point of view I'm sure the question is how do we drive more traffic to the site? If the "game" only takes 10 mins a day to play how much more traffic are you going to get even if you double or triple the current player base. Incorporating the tools, clan hosting and additional functions into the game will likely drive more traffic to the server AND as a result more players. If recruiting emails pointed them to join at clanx.earthempires.com vs , or checking stats at an earthempires link vs eestats.com, how much more traffic could be driven to the site.
I think you're on the right track, keep asking the questions. We are NOT ready to let this game die
The elephant in the room......
We have strayed from the original Earth 2025 and with each passing change (intended to increase player base), the player base has declined.
I am not into this whole community thing. I just come here to play a game. How are we supposed to recruit new players into a community that just wants to spend a few minutes/day hitting bots. I have recruited folks that won't stay for more than a day or two. They say it is too boring. Even online Chess matches require strategy. Chess requires offense and defense and sometimes you lose.....but like EE, you get to restart.
Make a server that leans on the original Earth 2025 and let's see what happens. Too many of you old folks no longer want to play that style of game. Real Life keeps you busy. Changes made to fit your current style of play will only result in the same old players from set to set.
Think aboout it.....old timers only return for war then leave when it goes back to just hitting bots.
This has become a Sanctuary game.....you can admit to cheating and not get banned from the game and still allowed to spew your BS on AT forums......Thanks Biden
-Go back to the original concept of Earth2025 ( the more changes that were made, the more folks left)
-No bots
-This is the Alliance Server and not a solo server
-Make a minimum player number to recognize a "Clan". First 5 days of set to achieve or leave
-Remove all outside tools
-Slow down Kill Runs
-Two options to consider....restart @ 50% of all losses OR restart at zero and let your alliance FA you back into the game as was done the original Earth 2025
Suicidal, way to come in an stain a heart felt message.
Thanks mods!
Earth 2025 and empires has been in my life since college, going on 24 or 25 years or some crazy number like that, and I left for a bit, and being back now feels like I never left!
Thanks for your hard work, even though you banned me for 24 hours for digging up an old post. :)
, or checking stats at an earthempires link vs eestats.com, how much more traffic could be driven to the site.