I was just thinking, for some of the more popular ideas, why not have an open beta

Have it run for same time as express - Taking into account the ideas. It can be tested thoroughly and if it works, implimented.

Dont know if thats what express is already but I thought i'd throw it out there.

That'd be cool -- test a new idea each reset.

I'd be all for that.

we kindof test ideas in express but it's hard to *really* get an idea of what it will do without enough people and enough time and a full market.... if we had like 300 people who wanted to play an open beta then that'd be cool.... but then we're probably just fragmenting other servers...

i so would play in the beta

there definitely should be a beta test server

there are a host of great new ideas which have no place to go on this site

the genuine concerns about market size and the soft tender hearts of netters can be addressed with a single heretical idea

allow bots, unlimited bots on the beta server

u have programmers who want to test their bot abilities
encourage these players rather than banning them
let them run their bots on a special server and allow the enhanced war and spy capabilities that are being discussed to be loosed on bot countries so the netters dont cry

what if the beta server would just like never end and rules could change at any time, from week to week, even day to day. no one would jump a country and stop playing, since someone would just come along eventually and chem it to death. so maybe it would be a mostly war server with tons of countries to test crap out, make it a 5 country limit or something to be able to get some good feedback

or even a 6 month server... and inactive countries should get deleted after a month of no playing... :P

unlimited countries beta server, all you have to do is tell llaar about it, then you can test whatever you want =p

Seriously, an unlimited server would entertain me greatly. =)

*digs through the trash*

HERE is my KING OF THE HILL SERVER idea!

Server ends when only one country remains.

No protection, no GDI, nothing. WAR WAR WAR, KILL OR BE KILLED.

Obviously, some people might group up together, but that's discouraged, and if Game Mods sees that people are running kill runs, they get ModKilled.

Would be interesting to know who's best at solo survival.

That still encourages players to run bots. What is going to stop them from testing this out on a already established server?

Are you suggesting that people aren't already doing it?

They just fail at it though.

a king of the hill server is a great idea

obviously u have to have some rule where five netters with no offense couldnt reach a stalemate

it could be like a poker tourney where some timing mechanism forces the action

say u take one set of express
make it king of the hill
starting sunday at noon u automatically double every countries' offensive forces and u keep doing that every four hours until u have a king

as to the problem with bots

the admins are totally missing a golden opportunity

u have bright guys who want to build bots
refine them, tweak them. improve the game
this imaginative energy should be channeled and harnessed
not thrown in the trash and treated with disdain

open a server with bots allowed
llaar says they will just be fodder for veteran players
so what?
let them improve their bots big blue eventually won