Current Active Servers

[Tsagoth]

Open Server
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Nergal

Standard Servers
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Aruru - (win pending)
Irkalla - Ends Jul 24
Burrows - Ends Jul 25
Mareth - Ends Jul 27
Mammetum - Ends Jul 29
Ninhursag - Ends Aug 1
Ningal - Ends Aug 4
Nisaha - Ends Aug 6
Nanna - Ends Aug 9
Utu -
Apsu -
Atargatis -
Belitlli - Ends Aug 25

[JetJaguar2000]

Hahaha, oh come on, someone just won Aruru? Literally an hour after I start building my first Solar Core Tap? Awesome.

Guys, this is silly, and sadly totally expected. Someone reaches the win condition with no warning and that's just it? Game Over?

I don't know if anyone else cares, but in a game where you have to wait patiently for a WEEK for something like Graviton Physics to finish researching, to have the game just end without any warning or anything is a real downer. What the heck was the point, then?

EDIT: Let me clarify what bothers me about this. Aruru (and probably any server) was big enough that it was entirely possible to play through the last month without ever encountering the eventual winner. Even if you had encountered that person, it's still entirely possible you'd have no idea that they were about to win. To have the win come out of nowhere is really disappointing, since there was no build up, no way to know it was coming, nothing you could do to prevent it. This means the vast majority of players are just going through the banality of managing their empires for a month with NO pay off whatsoever. I get that somebody has to be the winner, but this is silly.

I think there was a discussion a while back about adding leaderboards or something. I had suggested changes to foster "micro-competition" so that those of us who have no chance of winning outright can still feel some sense of accomplishment after investing a month+ in to the game. We've now seen the absurd reality come to pass, so I really hope you work on something like that very soon.

[VanderLegion]

Hahaha, oh come on, someone just won Aruru? Literally an hour after I start building my first Solar Core Tap? Awesome.

Guys, this is silly, and sadly totally expected. Someone reaches the win condition with no warning and that's just it? Game Over?

I don't know if anyone else cares, but in a game where you have to wait patiently for a WEEK for something like Graviton Physics to finish researching, to have the game just end without any warning or anything is a real downer. What the heck was the point, then?

EDIT: Let me clarify what bothers me about this. Aruru (and probably any server) was big enough that it was entirely possible to play through the last month without ever encountering the eventual winner. Even if you had encountered that person, it's still entirely possible you'd have no idea that they were about to win. To have the win come out of nowhere is really disappointing, since there was no build up, no way to know it was coming, nothing you could do to prevent it. This means the vast majority of players are just going through the banality of managing their empires for a month with NO pay off whatsoever. I get that somebody has to be the winner, but this is silly.

I think there was a discussion a while back about adding leaderboards or something. I had suggested changes to foster "micro-competition" so that those of us who have no chance of winning outright can still feel some sense of accomplishment after investing a month+ in to the game. We've now seen the absurd reality come to pass, so I really hope you work on something like that very soon.

Hey, you've got me beat. I'm about an hour away from finishing graviton physics :P

[SG7]

To have the win come out of nowhere is really disappointing, since there was no build up, no way to know it was coming, nothing you could do to prevent it.

The win does not come from nowhere. Only few people could win the game. And you should know it well. I met them all…

For the sake of the argument what would you do knowing that that person is Raven, FINBit, SG7rex, Vander or Veri? What would you do in the last few days differently? Would you attack his well-guarded homeworld? Would you start destroying his outposts, or trading routs? If you are economically weak you stand no chance. If you are powerful the war is not always the best option...

[JetJaguar2000]

The win does not come from nowhere. Only few people could win the game. And you should know it well. I met them all…

For the sake of the argument what would you do knowing that that person is Raven, FINBit, SG7rex, Vander or Veri? What would you do in the last few days differently? Would you attack his well-guarded homeworld? Would you start destroying his outposts, or trading routs? If you are economically weak you stand no chance. If you are powerful the war is not always the best option...

Exactly, which is why I'm starting to realize this game is way too half-baked to be fixed any time soon. I think I'm done for now.

And again, your experience means nothing to me. You've said you play 10 hours a day. I am NEVER going to play 10 hours a day. I only had any interaction with one or two other people on Aruru, all in my home sector, and I was playing some amount every day. So you tell me, how should I "know it well?"

The way the game is designed right now, it caters completely to the handful of obsessive players who are willing to play hours a day. I guess you guys find that kind of thing fun, sending out streams of colony ships as fast as possible, managing hundreds of planets, etc. I don't think that's fun. It's hardly even a game! It's just a race based on who is willing to be the most obsessive about it. If you don't play that way, you either quietly lose when one of these guys hits the win condition, or you get knocked out if some nerd-level player targets you (which just happened to me on Ningal). Either way, you have NOTHING to show for literally weeks of babysitting your empire.

I wish you would stop posting all your personal experiences as if they are representative. For every one person who plays like you, there are probably dozens that play like me, and we end up with squat, or just as fodder for some guy who is taking days off from work to move ships around. I'm just telling you, it's stupid, and lots of players will leave because of this.

I understand that you think the person who is most obsessive should win, and that's fine. The problem is, if this were some other MMO, I wouldn't care if you are spending hours of your day playing, because it wouldn't really effect me. But this is purely a PVP game. When people are playing like you, it is shutting out players like me, and it's annoying.

And maybe this is the expected way to play, but hell, this is an iPhone game! Nobody is going to come in to this expecting to have to spend every free second of their day managing their outpost ships.

[VanderLegion]

While I understand the complaints about people who only play for a short time every day not standing a chance against someone who plays for hours a day, complaining about the win coming out of nowhere or having nothing to show for weeks of babysitting your empire make no sense at all. That's how the game is set up, you should have known that going in. It's a game with potentially over a thousand players, and at least over a hundred on every server I'm on, where only 1 person can win. It doesn't matter how far the game is in regards to play time, you'll still have nothing to show for it if you don't win, that should come as no surprise. I could understand wanting to at least see progress that other players are making so you have an idea if they're getting close to winning, but that won't change the fact that you'll have nothing to show for your work if you lose.

And the problem with changing it so that players who only play a few minutes a day have as good a chance at winning as those who are willing to devote hours is that it basically would require it being changed so you CAN'T play for hours at a time, you'd have to essentially artificially limit what you can do in a given amount of time. I HATE games that do that. If I've bought a game, I want to be able to play it as much as I want. And a game that won't let me play more than 10 minutes a day or something is one that I'm quite simply just not going to play.

[ChickenHawk07]

^ Very well put Vander. And sorry Jet about the dismissal from Ningal. Oh, and I haven't taken any time off work for this game or for that coordinated strike against you. Hell, I did that while tending a brushfire. This is the type of game where you can do that, which is why I love it so much. And I'm totally with Vander on the fact that if I buy a game, I want to be able to play as much as I like. You limit me, I'm out. And I completely disagree with you that you HAVE to play this game 100 hours a week to be successful. If you were smart about your defenses, your HW and Colony planets wouldn't have been easy pickings. I only lost 63 battleships taking your Homeworld. Next time you play, I suggest loading up your Colonies and HW with multiple Orbital Defense Systems, ESPECIALLY if you don't plan on playing very often throughout the day.

On Irkalla I might sign in once every 4 days, just to make sure my Research Queue is still operating properly. Yes, I've lost a bunch of outposts because of it, but my core worlds are fine and I'm just waiting for Interstellar Commerce to finishing researching.

It's all about how you approach the game and what you expect to get out of it. If you expect to win, you and a lot of other people are going to be sorely disappointed. If you're playing because you enjoy this type of game, you're going to be happy no matter what happens.

[JetJaguar2000]

In my post, and previously, I mention adding features that support "micro-competition" within the broader "there-can-be-only-one" game winning competition. Leaderboards would be the simplest, most uninteresting example. Of course I know going in that I'm not going to win the whole thing, but if there were leaderboards I could at least measure my results against my friends (or enemies, or neighbors) and have some feeling of "well, at least I beat that guy this time." You said it yourself, it's a game of hundreds of players. Does it seem at all reasonable or fun that one guy gets a "Congratulations, you win!" message, and 149 just get "You lose, try again next time!" after 2 MONTHS of playing?

Another dead simple example would be to have a large number of "awards" handed out at the end of the game, hopefully designed in such a way that the game winner doesn't get all of them. Even stuff like "Built Most Small Harvesters Award: JetJaguar2000!" would give me something to smile about at the end of it all.

As to your point about artificially limiting game play time, it's not an artificial limit if that's how the game works. If you refuse to play games that you can't spend hours on at a time, that's another issue. I think they could change the mechanics in a variety of ways that make the game slightly more "turn based" on top of the fundamentally realtime gameplay. There are also enough games being launched that if you somehow ran out of stuff to do in one game, there are plenty more to keep you busy.

[ChickenHawk07]

I'm a total achievement whore, so if you give me medals or achievements, all the better! I'm definitely into the idea of getting rewards (even just digital symbols on this forum!) hell, add a special chime like the Xbox "Achievement Unlocked" and I'll be even more hooked that I already am.

I know they're actively working on a better combat mode. Apparently all combat will play out over a timespan of 30 minutes. So it will no longer be instantaneous and people will be able to call out for reinforcements or help or retreat. I'm sure you'll get a lot of what you're hoping to get. I know they have pretty much solved the land grab issue with some kind of orbital that limits the amount of planets you can control at one time. So upgrading that will be necessary in order to build more colonies or outposts. (not sure about outposts)

[ChickenHawk07]

Oh and there sort of is a basic "Leaderboard" in each server. Clicking on someone's name in the War status portion of the game and clicking on "Details" gives you their score in that server. (usualy delayed). compare to your score by doing the same thing and you can judge how well or poorly you are doing.

[JetJaguar2000]

^ Very well put Vander. And sorry Jet about the dismissal from Ningal. Oh, and I haven't taken any time off work for this game or for that coordinated strike against you. Hell, I did that while tending a brushfire. This is the type of game where you can do that, which is why I love it so much. And I'm totally with Vander on the fact that if I buy a game, I want to be able to play as much as I like. You limit me, I'm out. And I completely disagree with you that you HAVE to play this game 100 hours a week to be successful. If you were smart about your defenses, your HW and Colony planets wouldn't have been easy pickings. I only lost 63 battleships taking your Homeworld. Next time you play, I suggest loading up your Colonies and HW with multiple Orbital Defense Systems, ESPECIALLY if you don't plan on playing very often throughout the day.

On Irkalla I might sign in once every 4 days, just to make sure my Research Queue is still operating properly. Yes, I've lost a bunch of outposts because of it, but my core worlds are fine and I'm just waiting for Interstellar Commerce to finishing researching.

It's all about how you approach the game and what you expect to get out of it. If you expect to win, you and a lot of other people are going to be sorely disappointed. If you're playing because you enjoy this type of game, you're going to be happy no matter what happens.

I get that you are a fanboy of this game, but give me a break. You seriously think I don't understand the concept of defending my territory? It's true, I was "dismissed" because I had crappy defenses. That was mainly because I was focusing on RO collection and gambling that you wouldn't betray me, both of which were obviously bad choices.

But regardless, with you being a Trader and playing more than I did, I never would have had a chance even if we weren't allies. There was no "coordinated strike." You just built a bigger fleet than I could, sent it directly to my homeworld, and it's Game Over for JetJaguar2000. You aren't really that naive to think that makes for a balanced, fun game, are you? There isn't a number of defenses I could build that you wouldn't be able to overrun. (On a side note, another gameplay fail: being able to have your homeworld knocked out in one strike, regardless of how big your empire is otherwise, but that's another discussion)

The game right now is not a game. It's purely a race to see who can build a colony-killing fleet first. There are no interesting strategic or tactical decisions that lead up to this outcome, it is entirely about claiming as many worlds as possible, which means meticulously ordering probes and outpost ships around, which is boring and caters to the guy willing to sit there and do that.

Once again, I am willing to concede that maybe this game is not for me, if that's what it's about. At first I thought this game was going to blow Starbase Orion out of the water, but now that I've played through a couple of games, I realize it is much less strategic and interesting. That's a shame, because it seemed to have a lot more promise than that.

[JetJaguar2000]

Oops, double post.

[VanderLegion]

Once again, I am willing to concede that maybe this game is not for me, if that's what it's about. At first I thought this game was going to blow Starbase Orion out of the water, but now that I've played through a couple of games, I realize it is much less strategic and interesting. That's a shame, because it seemed to have a lot more promise than that.

I never expected it to do that, they're pretty much two completely different types of games, both 4X but vastly different implementations. Also, I'm too big a fanboy of SO for anything else to replace it without being SPECTACULARLY good (and a similar style game, or else I'd probably just play both, as I am with Empire). I still think Empire has the promise to be a really good game, but it does still need some work...

[ChickenHawk07]

It was a coordinated attack Jet, as Pasrons and I both began attacking your colonies in concert. It took planning and timing. That's another thing that makes this game so awesome, the political back room deals that go on. I had been feeding him into on you for a long time. Try to find another game on iPhone that gets even remotely close to this one, and I'll pay for your wasted $2. And yes, I say you don't know how to defend your colonies. You and I only had a loose alliance, no Protection guarantee or trade routes were established. So for you to ignore Defense Orbitals and Advanced Orbitals, which cost Zero RO to produce, was foolish. The game offers so many possibilities. There's a warlord out there in Ningal, Alzalhimer, or something like that, who has almost 2,000,000 points. You had something like 500,000... So it's obviously possible to be successful as a warlord.

[JetJaguar2000]

It was a coordinated attack Jet, as Pasrons and I both began attacking your colonies in concert. It took planning and timing. That's another thing that makes this game so awesome, the political back room deals that go on. I had been feeding him into on you for a long time. Try to find another game on iPhone that gets even remotely close to this one, and I'll pay for your wasted $2. And yes, I say you don't know how to defend your colonies. You and I only had a loose alliance, no Protection guarantee or trade routes were established. So for you to ignore Defense Orbitals and Advanced Orbitals, which cost Zero RO to produce, was foolish. The game offers so many possibilities. There's a warlord out there in Ningal, Alzalhimer, or something like that, who has almost 2,000,000 points. You had something like 500,000... So it's obviously possible to be successful as a warlord.

Dude, you don't get it. I'm glad you have come up with a narrative about back room deals and political intrigue that makes you happy, but the reality of the game is not nearly as interesting. Either you or Parsons could have destroyed me singlehandedly at any point, because you both were playing more than me, and at least one of you was a Trader. You say you were feeding him intel about me for a long time? What intel? All my systems and activities were plainly visible to anyone with a probe, no secrets there. You say you only lost 63 battleships attacking my home world -- I didn't even have 63 battleships in total! There was absolutely nothing interesting that happened during that game. I was mostly sitting around waiting to see how much RO I could generate with rank 9 in AMC.

The gameplay is so linear and predictable you can literally plan out your timeline on paper before the game starts, and that's it. The only variable is whether you will spend the time to optimize your expansion management so that you hit your milestones faster than the next guy.

Anyways, whatever. Clearly you find that fun and "intriguing." I find it annoying and banal.

[ChickenHawk07]

SMH.... It seems we've lost you to the darkside...

[catswift]

Open Server...

You missed Mammetum.

[ravenzachary]

The win does not come from nowhere. Only few people could win the game. And you should know it well. I met them all…

For the sake of the argument what would you do knowing that that person is Raven, FINBit, SG7rex, Vander or Veri? What would you do in the last few days differently? Would you attack his well-guarded homeworld? Would you start destroying his outposts, or trading routs? If you are economically weak you stand no chance. If you are powerful the war is not always the best option...

Congratulations, SG7. Well played. The mistake I made in this game was prioritizing maxing out Advanced Materials Collection over aggressively climbing the Science Skils Tree. I have twice your point score right now, but you played the Researcher role the way it was supposed to be and will win because of it.

Learning for future games - if you are Researcher, go for Graviton Physics as fast as you can and start collapsing stars. You'll likely have enough Rare Ore by that point, anyway. Advanced Materials Collection is still important, just don't lose time maxing it out.

Do we think Warlord and Trader are balanced with Researcher for winning conditions?

[countermind]

I would think it would be easy for a warlord to slow down a researcher - all you have to do is kill Solar Core Taps as he makes them. Trader, not so sure.

[ChickenHawk07]

Wow, congrats SG7. Didn't realize it was you. Very cool.

[Wrath]

What am I missing? Why are people congratulating someone for winning? Why is the win listed here as "pending"? Are there judges who have to review, it's not automated? Why is the Aruru server still active and gameplay continues like normal if someone has already won? Will we only know who wins and when the game is over by coming to the forums? What if we prefer to have a spoiler alert? Man, I have never had so many questions about a game in my life, lol. (At least Magic 2013 was released for iPad today so that's one game I can play where I know what I'm doing, heh.)

[SG7]

Regarding the winner - let us wait for an official announcement.
Win pending is a normal warning spoiler. For example: if one got 5 artifacts they have to be held for 24 hours. If someone kills enough home worlds they have to be held for 24 hours. Since any type of win is allowed:
http://www.zarksoft.com/cms/showthread.php?531-Win-progress&highlight=conditions
24 hours pending win is perfectly fine announcement in this game.

[mischmi]

The game right now is not a game. It's purely a race to see who can build a colony-killing fleet first. There are no interesting strategic or tactical decisions that lead up to this outcome, it is entirely about claiming as many worlds as possible, which means meticulously ordering probes and outpost ships around, which is boring and caters to the guy willing to sit there and do that.



Im with you. Nothing interesting happens. Just building a big fleet researching an claiming homeworlds. got 2 in mammetum and owning most of the sector. now im just waiting for research to finish. no interaction with other players. empty channels. its getting boring after one month as nothing really happens. maybe ill try another server but i will not buy another month this time. ill give it another try in some months

[SG7]

The game right now is not a game. It's purely a race to see who can build a colony-killing fleet first. There are no interesting strategic or tactical decisions that lead up to this outcome, it is entirely about claiming as many worlds as possible, which means meticulously ordering probes and outpost ships around, which is boring and caters to the guy willing to sit there and do that.
Once again, I am willing to concede that maybe this game is not for me

That is very simplistic, shallow and ultimately false view of the game. The game is a race for win but not who can build a colony-killing fleet first. Limited resources, limited number of objects which one can build force smart player to optimize his decisions along the path to the victory. Just building a colony-killing fleet will not guarantee you the win. Do you have to use probes? Yes! Should you expand if you can? Yes!
Is that boring? Is working 8 hours per day boring? Is driving the same car for 5 years boring? Is raising your children for 18 years boring? Is having same parents for 50 years boring? It may be… for some people but not for all.

[ChickenHawk07]

That is very simplistic, shallow and ultimately false view of the game. The game is a race for win but not who can build a colony-killing fleet first. Limited resources, limited number of objects which one can build force smart player to optimize his decisions along the path to the victory. Just building a colony-killing fleet will not guarantee you the win. Do you have to use probes? Yes! Should you expand if you can? Yes!
Is that boring? Is working 8 hours per day boring? Is driving the same car for 5 years boring? Is raising your children for 18 years boring? Is having same parents for 50 years boring? It may be… for some people but not for all.
Well said! And true.

[JetJaguar2000]

This is the last statement I'm going to make about the game here:

I think your view of the game is distorted by the amount of time you have put in to it. Like ChickenHawk, you have invented a narrative about how the game plays that is far more nuanced than the game itself.

You are practically making my argument for me. Because of the timed nature of everything you can do in the game, you can more or less plan out your entire strategy before the game even starts. The only variables introduced by the game itself are your initial proximity to resources, which arguably just averages out over the course of a game, and whether you start near one of the other aggressive players. The latter is rendered pretty meaningless too, because of the "winner take all" nature of combat and colony killing. Either you build the bigger fleet and you win, or they do and they win.

I doubt there has been any protracted wars between the "serious" players. I think you guys play with this mentality of avoiding all conflicts you aren't guaranteed to win, on the basis of "mutually assured destruction." I think you would argue that there isn't actually anything worth fighting for in the game; the trick, as Raven posted all those weeks ago, is to just claim as much space as possible without pissing any other "serious" players off. The clueless chaff, like myself, you can just steamroll in to oblivion. I know that I have evidently wasted time in pointless battles when I should have just been looking for more empty systems.

Anyways, again, I concede that this game might not be for me. The experience is so homogenous that it becomes frankly boring. There are not enough interesting variables. It's like playing a spreadsheet. I think you will find that most players will come to the same conclusions. We're one month in, and the game has already been "min/maxed" by you and a handful of others. I really think most people are not interested in playing like that, but time will tell.

[Tsagoth]

The win is pending because I messed up the server. Due to other issues, a file was damaged and I rebuilt it incorrectly. As a result the criteria for winning were invalid for the given system, and could not be satisfied. I have since corrected the file, but due to the previous error the server is stuck with two different sets of criteria, so it recognizes neither. Hopefully I will be able to resolve it soon.

[Tsagoth]

You missed Mammetum.

Arrggh. Thanks

[zarkwizard]

We are working on a server ranking list. Although I will be the first to admit coming out of the gate it was our main focus, but as with all things sometimes focus changes.

I'll be the first to take the hit for the notification system issues. We just had other things we ended up focusing on for priorities. The biggest was an overhaul on the game mechanics. Getting the game balanced and solid is our #1 priority, and if we have to give away free play time to get all that sorted that's what we'll do.

Hind sight is 20:20, and while I am sure we wish we could go back in time and do things differently we certainly would have taken a few different roads, but alas we are here. Some of the ship types didn't balance out like we thought they would, nor did some of the ore collections. We had no idea some of the game would be as unbalanced as it is. It's tough to make those discoveries when you only have 100 keys to hand out and then only get 20 people that even log in and play. While things might seem okay, they will never compare to having 100+ people in a single game.

We have no intention of wanting anyone to feel jaded or robbed, and that's why I'll tell you now all accounts will continue to get free time till we make it right. Obviously it's in our best interests to make sure we get there if we want to start making money. See my post about coming changes and what the plans are. Your input is very important to us. Now is the time to get some of your feedback and thoughts in before we lock in design and changes. Be sure to read the post : http://www.zarksoft.com/cms/showthread.php?839-Future-changes-and-thoughts-For-1-0-8

[Balian]

I would like to add that I've had over 500,000 in under a week as a warlord jet... lol. Also who needs to spend 10 hours a day? Your I device has a built in timer/ alarm system, just take a few sec to set one, log back in and in a min or less ever couple hours you can advance rapidly without much effort.

[romars]

Just curious about Mareth server, any win pending? Or how is the win progress of orher players?

[Imperial Aegis]

From what I have seen Hijinks has 5 collapsed stars and continues to build more SC Taps. My guess is that victory should happen soon.

[ravenzachary]

From what I have seen Hijinks has 5 collapsed stars and continues to build more SC Taps. My guess is that victory should happen soon.

I think I just won Irkalla this morning. Waiting for admin confirmation.

[ColonelKendric]

We already know that those 2 dollars will restore those 2 hours of your life. I'll add another 2 dollars and gift you an additional day to the remainer of your life.

[Cerberus]

Way to be an ass Colonel. The game is broken and pointless to play, especially PAY FOR. There are week old threads sitting unanswered everywhere, with their main paying player base demanding answers on gameplay and win conditions going ignored. The sooner you realize you just threw your money away while they use it on their vacations, then we can actually have a conversation. Until then stop trolling, time=money and the 2 dollars doesnt mean a thing, its the hours of free time that are worth more and irreplaceable, lost forever. The only 2 servers i was playing on are gone forever. OH BOY! I really want to start over a 3rd time and just blidly hope that the server im paying to play on doesnt disapear,,, or maybe I'll actually get further this time only to find out ive collapsed 10 stars and I'm still at 0% complete towards winning!

[ravenzachary]

Cerberus, no one is taking vacations. They are fixing things.

[Wrath]

Cerberus, I don't think Colonel was being an ass - if anything, Zemus was being one, since he spammed so many threads on the forums yesterday with the same thing over and over. Somehow Zemus thinks getting a $2 refund will give him back the hours of life he lost, which sadly, it won't. The developers have been very responsive overall. They have waived fees and are working on fixes. I'm guessing the next client release changelog will be even longer than the first update was, which is to say, quite extensive.

[Seldon]

Way to be an ass Colonel. The game is broken and pointless to play, especially PAY FOR. There are week old threads sitting unanswered everywhere, with their main paying player base demanding answers on gameplay and win conditions going ignored. The sooner you realize you just threw your money away while they use it on their vacations, then we can actually have a conversation. Until then stop trolling, time=money and the 2 dollars doesnt mean a thing, its the hours of free time that are worth more and irreplaceable, lost forever. The only 2 servers i was playing on are gone forever. OH BOY! I really want to start over a 3rd time and just blidly hope that the server im paying to play on doesnt disapear,,, or maybe I'll actually get further this time only to find out ive collapsed 10 stars and I'm still at 0% complete towards winning!

oh cerberus, it seems that you have lost the last two hours of your life ... and "lost forever"!!! oh god! I just wander if you can survive this drama! i'll stay awake tonight for that!!! ...listen man, it's a game! i lost my game too, but don't make all that noise: i played and have fun and relax...but game=time wasting!!! if you don't want to waste your time better go to work!

[Cerberus]

oh cerberus, it seems that you have lost the last two hours of your life ... and "lost forever"!!! oh god! I just wander if you can survive this drama! i'll stay awake tonight for that!!! ...listen man, it's a game! i lost my game too, but don't make all that noise: i played and have fun and relax...but game=time wasting!!! if you don't want to waste your time better go to work!

Not sure where this mysterious "2 Hours" keeps coming up from you guys. But No, your right, everything is great and critisism isnt allowed i guess :rolleyes:. Let's just keep downplaying the amount of time spent or the amount of issues, or the amount of unanswered threads. I honestly didnt mind the spam by Zemus, the state of this game needs to be addressed and any new players lurking in the forums that read that the better. That way they can make a better decision and be better prepared for things that will go wrong.

Also. If Dev response is so great, why are simple posts about win conditions being ignored? I check daily hoping for dev clarification and all I see is frustrated paying customers bumping threads over and over. Whats the point in playing if we dont even know how to win or why collapsed stars arent counting towards progress? Yeah Its a game Seldon, and while a time waster, some might actually play to win, this is a strategy and a conquest game after all, so I dont think I'm too off base to assume not everyone plays it to kill time but to also take it seriously enough to want to put time in to win.

[ChickenHawk07]

You both are correct. So let's just leave it at that. So far no one was been charged more than the initial $2 for the first month. The Devs have repeatedly said they will be waiving as many months as necessary until the game is up to snuff. I do agree with Cerberus that time is money. And it definitely sucks to lose it outright. Three servers being lost completely is not acceptable. However, as I have said in the past, this is basically an Open Beta right now. The beta they held before was more of a closed beta and not representative of the actual gaming experience. Both we, the players, and the Devs have learned that the hard way. We with our time, and them with their time AND money. $2 is nothing. Imagine not being paid for your job for 3 years. That's basically what they're going through right now. And they will continue to be put in that position until they get the kinks worked out. The more new players see THAT, the better.

And on the subject of unanswered threads, there are three people running this game and forum right now. Do you want answers for a win condition that 1 month from now will NE completely invalid? The game play and style are being changed as I type this. I personally want them working on getting the game
Right, rather than replying to multiple threads about the same thing.

[VanderLegion]

And on the subject of unanswered threads, there are three people running this game and forum right now. Do you want answers for a win condition that 1 month from now will NE completely invalid? The game play and style are being changed as I type this. I personally want them working on getting the game
Right, rather than replying to multiple threads about the same thing.

While I do understand and want the devs working on the game, answering questions is important too. Especially if you look at the current state of the game as an open beta. Beta testers need to know what's going on at LEAST as much as players in a live game do. And I know they're changing the combat system and it sounds like most likely pretty much the entire game for travel etc, but I haven't heard anything about the victory conditions themselves changing, which means it's still important to know how they work. And while not having to reply to multiple threads about the same thing, not replying to ANY of them is almost as unacceptable as losing servers. I haven't seen a single good answer on victory conditions (whether PK for sure is required to win as warlord as Tsagoth said in one thread when elsewhere they've said otherwise and a non-warlord got a warlord victory on aruru indication it's not the case, trader victory condition impossibility, collapsing stars not getting progress etc), still no firm answer I've seen on whether you should be able to make multiple trade routes with a single opponents planet, or any indication of whether it's even being looked at, pretty sure there's others as well...

[ChickenHawk07]

I stand corrected on that issue. You bring up very valid points.

[VanderLegion]

Hopefully they're just too busy fixing all of those things to get on here and answer and 1.0.8 will take care of said questions :D

[Cerberus]

You both are correct. So let's just leave it at that. So far no one was been charged more than the initial $2 for the first month. The Devs have repeatedly said they will be waiving as many months as necessary until the game is up to snuff. I do agree with Cerberus that time is money. And it definitely sucks to lose it outright. Three servers being lost completely is not acceptable. However, as I have said in the past, this is basically an Open Beta right now. The beta they held before was more of a closed beta and not representative of the actual gaming experience. Both we, the players, and the Devs have learned that the hard way. We with our time, and them with their time AND money. $2 is nothing. Imagine not being paid for your job for 3 years. That's basically what they're going through right now. And they will continue to be put in that position until they get the kinks worked out. The more new players see THAT, the better.

And on the subject of unanswered threads, there are three people running this game and forum right now. Do you want answers for a win condition that 1 month from now will NE completely invalid? The game play and style are being changed as I type this. I personally want them working on getting the game
Right, rather than replying to multiple threads about the same thing.

Thank you ChickenHawk for not flaming and offering a very constructive and well thought out response. I dont mind beta testing then as I can see the potential this game has down the road.

I completely agree with what VanderLegion said. We can all agree the losing of servers is bad. But it wouldnt be as bad if there was just a bit more communication on this forum. Let us know what we are getting ourselves into, people on here wouldnt be so frustrated if we openly knew we were basically paying to beta test and be the pioneers of this game in its early stages. Dev's, please take like 5 minutes and sticky a current and up to date post on win conditions please. If we are truly beta testing then let us help you, If we know more about the game mechanics we can properly play and test this game.

[VanderLegion]

Another idea: It might be worth removing the subscription fee for new players for now so more people don't come in and pay 2 bucks then get pissed off if something else happens down the line before updates get pushed out with the various incoming fixes/changes? That way people could still get on and try the game out, but you might end up with less angry players in the short term. Maybe it could just be set up so new players get however much free time is already being applied to existing ones, but still have the option to buy subscriptions that'll add it on to the end?

[ChickenHawk07]

You really can't fault the Devs for the failure of the "closed" beta either. Apple only gives out 100 Keys and of those 100 Keys, only 20-30 people consistently played in the beta. This game is truely something that has never been attempted before on an apple mobile device, or any mobile device for that matter. So it's important to keep that in mind when filing complaints. And believe me Cerberus, I was one of the first people to freak out when Aruru was Coldstarted on accident. The Devs learned from that mistake and no Server since has been Coldstarted. Unfortunately now they are dealing with another loss of gameplay data (and time units per player). I'm hopeful the Devs will learn from this mistake (be it buying larger HDD platters, or never buying Seagate Enterprise HDDs) Whichever the case may be, I'm confident they'll make sure it never happens again.

Of course there will always be more unseen issues which arrives. Hopefully they have the player base and the income to get backups for their backup RAIDs.

[ChickenHawk07]

Another idea: It might be worth removing the subscription fee for new players for now so more people don't come in and pay 2 bucks then get pissed off if something else happens down the line before updates get pushed out with the various incoming fixes/changes? That way people could still get on and try the game out, but you might end up with less angry players in the short term. Maybe it could just be set up so new players get however much free time is already being applied to existing ones, but still have the option to buy subscriptions that'll add it on to the end?

I'm not sure that's even possible the way the game is set up. They already had to rewrite their code twice to get Apple to sign off on the release of this game. If it is possible, that would definitely help ease the worries of new players. I'm hoping this game does amazing, makes the Devs a lot of money and in turn makes Apple a lot of money. That way, Apple may be a little less stringent on future games of this scale and allow for proper beta tests.

[ChickenHawk07]

Oh and yes Devs, PLEASE post a sticky on how the CURRENT game Victory conditions work. We might as well know how the current system works, before learning the new system.

[VanderLegion]

You really can't fault the Devs for the failure of the "closed" beta either. Apple only gives out 100 Keys and of those 100 Keys, only 20-30 people consistently played in the beta. This game is truely something that has never been attempted before on an apple mobile device, or any mobile device for that matter. So it's important to keep that in mind when filing complaints.
Oh, I understand that, and it makes sense for some things. For instance the trader win conditions - it'd be hard to test and balance correctly with only 20-30 players in a beta test. That's one of the things that's quite understandable and I'm sure will get fixed. Same for server issues from the influx of players when the game went live etc. Something like the object count limit not working...is something I'd think someone would have noticed, given that I found it probably 10 minutes into the game...


I'm not sure that's even possible the way the game is set up. They already had to rewrite their code twice to get Apple to sign off on the release of this game. If it is possible, that would definitely help ease the worries of new players. I'm hoping this game does amazing, makes the Devs a lot of money and in turn makes Apple a lot of money. That way, Apple may be a little less stringent on future games of this scale and allow for proper beta tests.
I believe IAP prices at least can be changed without republishing the app (I'm not sure about that, and not necessarily what I'm suggesting). I know they can add time to our existing subscriptions (as they have been), I'm basically just wondering if they could set it up server side so when a new character/account is created it's given 30 days free time or whatever (basically like the month free people wanted originally). I understand why they didn't do a month free trial in the first place (and I agree, 2 buck subscription vs 2 buck game with a month free, works out about the same), but it might be worth it until the next update comes out if it's possible.

[Wrath]

This game is truely something that has never been attempted before on an apple mobile device, or any mobile device for that matter. So it's important to keep that in mind when filing complaints.
Well, that seems debatable, actually. For example, I'm currently playing another game which has been around since 2010 that is not only available on iOS devices, but also Android (with everyone playing against each other)... it has (many) multiple servers of games going simultanteously... thousands of players on each server... it has a large map... it has resource gathering... building of large armies... battles.... upgrading.... chat... alliances... leaderboards...push notifications... in-game email... etc. All of which function as they should, and with screen tabs which are easy to read and figure out. Of course, it's not space-themed, but still, you have to admit that all similar functionalities (plus some) are there, so it is possible and has been done before.

Why is why I have hopes that this game will eventually evolve and get the wrinkles worked out and become quite awesome. :)

[ChickenHawk07]

Well, that seems debatable, actually. For example, I'm currently playing another game which has been around since 2010 that is not only available on iOS devices, but also Android (with everyone playing against each other)... it has (many) multiple servers of games going simultanteously... thousands of players on each server... it has a large map... it has resource gathering... building of large armies... battles.... upgrading.... chat... alliances... leaderboards...push notifications... in-game email... etc. All of which function as they should, and with screen tabs which are easy to read and figure out. Of course, it's not space-themed, but still, you have to admit that all similar functionalities (plus some) are there, so it is possible and has been done before.

Why is why I have hopes that this game will eventually evolve and get the wrinkles worked out and become quite awesome. :)

I suppose it's possible, but I wasn't aware of another game out there that had a monthly fee without IAP freemiums. There's one that I think I might have seen (something like middle ages or knights and magic... I don't know). In the end we don't (well, I don't) know if the game you're referencing is a Port. If they simply ported a PC game over to an iOS and Android platform it isn't the same as building a game from the ground up to run solely on an MMO's Monthly subscription base. It could be a ground floor game, but I somehow doubt it, unless they're a major developer.

[ChickenHawk07]

Oh and Vander, Zark just posted in the Future Changes thread and said they're converting everyone to free status. But I think that only address everyOne who has already joined and paid their $2. But in the end, it should work out the same for n00bs as well. They'll pay their $2 just like the rest of us and then convert to free status until the game is running as intended. If someone really feels slighted, they'll just have to get Apple to issue them a refund

[VanderLegion]

Oh and Vander, Zark just posted in the Future Changes thread and said they're converting everyone to free status. But I think that only address everyOne who has already joined and paid their $2. But in the end, it should work out the same for n00bs as well. They'll pay their $2 just like the rest of us and then convert to free status until the game is running as intended. If someone really feels slighted, they'll just have to get Apple to issue them a refund

I saw that. My worry was just getting a bunch of angry people who pick it up and pay for it then start ranting or leaving bad reviews because of known issues. Either way, we'll see. Looking forward to the incoming changes :)

[ChickenHawk07]

^ Yeah, the sooner the better.

[Kanina]

Is Nisaha down? cant seem to log in?

[Jason Proulx]

What the hell is this I just pay for the game and the only open server is aurur and it doesn't let me join it? So I am paying for a game I can't play?!?! Fuck this you lucky bastards were able to rip me off but that's all you get is $2 I'm going to Order&chaos, it's better then this steam pile of crap. Although if there would be permanent servers like ogame where you build up and try to become the best of the best out of millions of others then I'll pay the fee to play due to the graphics and fairly neat play style, but temporary servers till some one wins and start over, fuck that.

[Enforc3r]

Lol @ Order & Chaos...

[Jean Arnaud]

New servers have a designated start time so that all players who register start at the same time (this game is a marathon to victory and only one person can win). Go play on the tutorial server for a few days to get the hang of this game until Aruru starts. A new server launches at least once per week.

Once Aruru starts, you will be able to join it and work on your empire whenever you want (24/7) until someone wins. You can also play on more than one server at a time (not literally at the same moment, but at concurrently during their play period). This game is not a persistent world MMO like world of warcraft where we all hug and kill dragons together, it is a competitive game.

Given your post here, though, maybe we're better off without you...

[Jason Proulx]

Once Aruru starts, you will be able to join it and work on your empire whenever you want (24/7) until someone wins. You can also play on more than one server at a time (not literally at the same moment, but at concurrently during their play period). This game is not a persistent world MMO like world of warcraft where we all hug and kill dragons together, it is a competitive game.

Given your post here, though, maybe we're better off without you...

Hey, I got into the tutorial server and played around for a few hours before work and you have a fun game here but I'm not to happy with the race to the finish aspect of the game seeing how I work for the majority of the time and theres the kids so your right when you said I probably don't belong here. I thought it would be more like Lords&Knights or Ogame type of play style with a better interface and a few more interactive things to do. Your discription in the store doesn't say that the play style is more of a race to win and I think you should make it more clear so you don't get pissed off people like I was. If I had known it was like that I would never have purchased it.

[VanderLegion]

Hey, I got into the tutorial server and played around for a few hours before work and you have a fun game here but I'm not to happy with the race to the finish aspect of the game seeing how I work for the majority of the time and theres the kids so your right when you said I probably don't belong here. I thought it would be more like Lords&Knights or Ogame type of play style with a better interface and a few more interactive things to do. Your discription in the store doesn't say that the play style is more of a race to win and I think you should make it more clear so you don't get pissed off people like I was. If I had known it was like that I would never have purchased it.
While it's a race to win, that doesn't mean that you won't stand a chance with working and having kids. Theres been a couple of games now I believe where people proved you could win without sinking a ton of time into it - something like limiting themselves to 5 or 10 minute periods of play a few times a day and nothing else, and still managed to win.

[Jason Proulx]

While it's a race to win, that doesn't mean that you won't stand a chance with working and having kids. Theres been a couple of games now I believe where people proved you could win without sinking a ton of time into it - something like limiting themselves to 5 or 10 minute periods of play a few times a day and nothing else, and still managed to win.

I guess I read to much of others posts of gameplay and thought it was more of a time consuming game even though wait times are slow. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try an actual server when they get one running so I can see for my self how fast things pan out before end game.