I think the 64 player map is not very good because, as the top players start to emerge near the end of the game they have difficulty attacking and interacting with each other.
I have tried a few alternatives here in the office, but I’ve not been happy with anything just yet.
What do you guys think of this design. Each point is a player start.
The idea is that each player starts in a cluster of 4 players, then there is a larger jump to another cluster of 4, then there is an even larger jump to the rest of the map. Inspired by the twin rings game from a few months back.
I’ve made this new design live, the next 64 player game that will be created (after the current game is full. still 20 slots) will use this new map kind.
When I get back from vacation in another week or so, I’d be interested in playing a turn-based version (10/6 hours) … probably 16-user since 64-user games are a HUGE commitment.
YEah, I just logged in. Woops. oh well will make a nice change!
Edit: Just thinking some more, its going to add a whole new weird dimension to the game. What Ive seen in the big games is that you get large clusters of allies expanding out through AI dropouts, but I think making these allies will be much harder when you can’t see exactly where all the AI’s are in relation to the real players.
Also, when players start to get big, it could be hard to find where the other big players are and there could be all kinds of fun trying to get them to into contact with each other.
Will be interesting to play out I think. Might be nice to have a few extra levels in Scanning to start next time though, I can see exactly two stars to get to from my starting location…
I’m still working through the “Honey TODO List” after being out of town for several weeks, but I’m now up for playing a turn-based game.
Looking at the default game creating parameters, a few things I’d suggest tweaking:
16 users … maybe down the road we can do a 64’er
Premium ONLY is nice just to reduce the number of AFK’ers … plus more challenging
Enable Formal Alliances
Dark Galaxy Enabled - scary
Not too many stars and reasonably close together - start the fighting soon!
Stronger home worlds and more starting cash to jump start (?)
Trade with Scanned Players ONLY - makes diplomacy very challenging!
“reasonable” starting Scan/Range for a Dark galaxy … but maybe make research on them expensive to “keep” the darkness?
Maybe start Weapons at Level2 for more earlier fighting, but make Weapons Research more expensive to balance it with other techs.
I would strongly recommend 24 ticks/production and 6 Tick Jumps/4 Turns/Production with maximum Turn Wait time of 10 hours … which hopefully will keep the game moving and also move the production time so fair to people in other time zones.
That’s my two cents - other may want to chime in … and let us know what you decide to do.
Other than the usual players near AFK/quitters having an advantage and the galaxy seeming a little TOO spread out, it’s a fun game with the scan trade on. Forces you to research scanning/range and go out in order to trade.
Yeah, I’m finding the game too slow and not really able to keep up with the bigger fish. I expect some goliath is going to come knocking on the door any minute.
