Originally
posted by
BlackHole:
Slagpit - I'll say this, and I imagine everyone will disagree with me.
I think one of the biggest issues with any team/alliance servers is the utilization of outside tools. It creates barriers to entry that limit new players from coming to the game and competing/enjoying it. If there is any goal whatsoever, to grow this game with new players, rather than to limit the bleeding of old, I think it's something that needs to be considered.
In particular, bot assisted kill runs that take 10-20 seconds, and stonewalling by getting alerts via IRC pinged to your phone, are hugely problematic. They so overwhelmingly favor only the most hardcore of players, and the game becomes not a test of skill, but a test of who is most available, most frequently, and which side has more turns with more frequently available people.
I would love to see those outside tools removed from the game, so that information had to be figured out on the fly, making kill runs more challenging. I also think it'd be amazing if there was a cap to how many attacks could be done in a period of time, making it so that kill runs had to be done over half a day or more, giving people a chance to respond. Additionally, the penalty for dying is very high. I think being able to get back into the fight quicker would limit the downsides of being killed, while also increasing enjoyment in the game, by being able to play/compete again more quickly.
All of that said - I do not expect many, if any, to agree with these opinions. So feel free to ignore them :P
Used to do 30 second killruns without bot assistance, just calling breaks by hand. (That said, we had a lot more players to work with back in the day)
IRC pings aren't particularly hardcore, and walling used to be an art form, knowing just how many turns you could run, to ensure that you stay alive but don't immediately give away that you're online, or knowing just how much military to buy that it could be a chat runner's mistake, rather than being obvious you're online.
of course, the immediate stop of a run was simply to buy up big, then send a love message to someone trying to kill you lol