Originally
posted by
Sov:
What I propose is a new easy mode netgainning server for those who want to be in an Alliance but do not want to participate in the heavier and more advanced aspects of Alliance gameplay. I would title this server "Easy Clan Server" which would provide a clear differentiation from the Alliance Server and further promote the Alliance Server as a more elite and advanced playing environment.
The truth is many smaller Alliances do not have the motivated and/or knowledgable leadership to thrive or grow on the Alliance Server.
Not to bust your chops or harp on your idea... an Easy Clan Server? "Promote Alliance Server as a more elite and advanced playing environment?" Many smaller alliances do not have the motivation and/or knowledgeable leadership because most of the larger alliances farm them thin, defeating any real chance of those who've played any other servers and know the ropes to display any skill. And for those new to the server, most outright quit after having their All Explore country farmed down repeatedly, making any attempt to continue playing futile if not aggravating. Then you get those who after suffering such repeated behaviour decide to strike back out of their frustrations with being reduced to nothing more than an easy landfarm, and in turn get killed. Some of those people outright quit the game and never come back, which means the player base loses one more player... now consider how many times this can happen in any given set and how many tags just decide to hang it up, or how many people just say "fluff it, I'm done." and quit. Then you have the other possibility of one of these guys deciding to become an untagged suicider. Push someone too far, and eventually they'll find a way to push back.
Originally
posted by
Sov:
Essentially the main difference for this proposed server would be the inability to kill countries which would be achieved through changes to special attacks and a civilian minimum floor. These would be the key differences for the server:-
- Countries can not have less than 100 civilians and therefore civilian kills cannot be achieved. Returns from special attacks would reduce to zero once a country hits 100 civilians.
- Returns from all special attacks reduced to 25% of normal, thus reducing the effectiveness of ABs, BRs, NMs, EMs and CMs in terms of harming a country.
- Land can not be lower than 20 acres which means that a landkill cannot be achieved.
This would allow the more casual playerbase to netgain peacefully whilst maintaining the social aspect which attracts them to the game. There are a number of Alliances who exist only for the social environment that has been created and the harsh nature of the Alliance Server is harmful to the existance of those Alliances.
This part sounds all well intentioned and all, but it's still not going to motivate everyone from wanting to war... This would all but make a kill impossible, and effectively make completely crippling a country in this server the only means to effectively ruin someone's set. You kill a country down to 100 civilians, this ruins their PCI... which would cripple any casher. You farm a country down to 20 Acres, any strategy like a Casher, Farmer, Techer, Indy, et cetera would be rendered ineffective, regardless of the amount of tech or cash on hand... And because the explore rate doesn't reset because some jerk-off farms you or nukes you until you're *only* 20 Acres, you're only going to get fluff for your explore rate meaning any chance you'd have in recovering any land to salvage your set would be a waste of time, you would be better of deleting your country and restarting with a brand new country.
Originally
posted by
Sov:
It would create an all new political playing field as Alliances seek less harmful ways of enforcing and establishing their policies, which in turn could aid in the development of better leadership skills within the playerbase.
Yes, it would create an all new political playing field. All this would serve is instead of someone worrying about their country being killed, they'd need to worry about having it completely crippled and rendered useless to continue playing. This in and of itself would cause some to quit in frustration.
Originally
posted by
Sov:
Whilst this will mean that Alliance Server will lose players and tags, I do believe that in the longterm it will be more productive for the game in general as it would encourage some of those small and casual Alliances to thrive and increase player retention. This would also promote and encourage the maintanence of healthier and stronger tags on the Alliance Server and provide an additional recruiting base for those tags.
I don't believe for a minute that this would cause the loss of players in Alliance Server as there are those who already play on every server as it is. This new server would be a great place for new players to start, but as far as promoting the maintenance of healthier and stronger tags... Just from my perspective, it sounds more like trying to establish one bloc of players/tags as being better than the rest of the server and trying to establish Alliance as being for elitists only.
Originally
posted by
Sov:
A new server would be attractive for more active players to play additional countries which would also lead to the creation of other new tags. This may in time encourage the creation of newer tags on the Alliance Server as players from that new server look to step up and play in the more advanced setting of Alliance Server.
While this part of your idea holds some merit, this effective creates some forgone conclusion of the idea of playing on one of the already established servers like Free For All or Team where clans are allowed. This new server idea would effectively create some disillusionment, as players would go from this new server to Alliance Server, where they'd had it easy there to fniding that unlike this new server... the rules would be quite different. The game mechanics would he drastically different, and instead of worrying about getting their population trimmed down to 100 civilians or 20 acres before someone stopped hitting them, they'd find out that all it would take is for someone with a higher SPAL or tons of Warfare tech to kill them with ease.
Originally
posted by
Sov:
Pros:-
- Additonal advertising revenue for the game.
- Expansion of the playerbase through creation of a more casual gameplay environment.
- Higher player retention for the game overall.
Cons:-
- Slight decrease in playerbase on Alliance Server, at least in the short term.
- Time and effort to create the server and manage thereafter.
It is important that this Server would be distinguished as an easy server as to promote a more elite status for the Alliance Server and a "next step" for propsering tags and ambitious leaders.
Let's tackle the pro's first. Realistically, as far as increasing advertising revenue, this is the only 'pro' I can see coming out of this. Expanding the player base? Sure, if virtually every new player of this game starts with this server first before deciding which one best suited their tastes, but in all reality you'd more likely have the same players from the six servers we currently have playing in this one, along with some of the new people who happen to come across this game. As far as higher player retention? Sure, if everything was made easier, it might make it more fun and attract more people to play in this new server... but, alas... Any accomplishments made in this server would always be chalked up to it being an 'easy' netgaining server, and because of the elitist mindsets in Alliance Server, any comparisons would be met with the fact that this new server was made for the 'unskilled' or the 'uninitiated'.
As far as the con's, again with something I stated above, I do not believe anyone would outright stop playing Alliance Server just because a new server was established where anyone can have an easy time netgaining. If anything this new server would be a great place for players to test strategies and that would be it, nothing any player accomplished in this server would be considered on par with a similar accomplishment an any of of the other servers as it's an "Easy Mode" server. It would be like me bragging about a $9,223,372,036,854,775,808 Networth country on one of the Alpha servers.
