Forums / Miscellaneous Discussions / RIP VU?

Used to be more fun, all improvements that were made ruined the game pretty much.

RIP

Its in no way dead. Its got a solid base of players.

ZeTa does listen to people. Thats what the problem is alot of the time. Example this whole GT idea.

Although yes, alot of large petitions have never been done. ZeTa obviously thought they were bad/unnessecary to implement.

Hmm...when I saw RIP I thought it was about Retard Insertion Point...the kewlest KD ever! 

People who has started so far...

Fantasia: 219
Mantrax: 91
Zetamania: 195

That was like 1-2 days after the era started...how many people do you think started since then?

don't you bring RIP into this thread...the Retard Insertion Point is the bestest (I luv spelling)  Kingdom ever created...well at least our banner pwns the living *beep* outta anything seen before ;)

hmm weirdgrivi posts so i have to have a look,

I'd agree that its not as fun as it was, but there is still something to VU, not dead yet, just a little ill.

Imho i agree with Osi.

Zeta doesnt paly this game (as far as I am aware), yet he makes suggestions and when all the vets dont support it but the newer palyers do he implements it.

When 3 man kingdoms were put in it took a few eras of 90% of the VU community to get rid of it.

Zeta doesnt listen to the older players if anyone at all. We had a good nubmer of people supporting walls and a few otehr good dieas this apst era, and what did he put in? GT increase... thats not gonig t ohelp the game that much.

Zeta needs to start listening to the older players to make this game better. When i started playing this was a war game with multiple people fighting on multiple fronts with multiple factions of players. Now it is 2 or 3 groups of kingdoms fighting each other, and ocne they kil lthe otehr its jsut a farm fest the rest of the era.

If  I wasnt so addicted to the game I'd seriously consider quiting.

Lol, same....

LOL just looking at the amount of players from the 28th we're fine..

Just so that you understand my dilemma when making updates...

If you like a game, you will not like when it's changed, that's why it's hard to make new updates as whatever it is, it will most likely be disliked by the vets.

When you have played a game for a while you get used to it's flaws and everything seems obvious. That's why new players opinion is important too, as they look with new fresh eyes.


What I think needs to be done to attract more players to the game - is to make it  more casual. So that you can play it for 15 mins during lunch time and still do good. You should also be able to spend hours every day on it, but it should not give such an advantage.
Also it needs to be more friendly, you shouldn't be able to loose something (that took 20 days to build up) in only one or two days.
That's hard to do though, without taking out the fun... Many players seems to like the 50% rule in Zetamania and lesser worlds though.

if my KD was able to build walls, me being highly inactive since the era started would have meant me NOT losing tons of cities which took me...the "20 days" to build up in a mere few amounts of ticks...and guess what...this IS happening on Zetamania...and yes...that 50% protection thing works like "a charm" if you get banged up OOP by everyone the same size of you...and we're all stacked up on 1 big heap of OOP-mayhem due to starting locations...GOOD JOB!


so don't go "I prefer to listen to the new players because they have a fresh view on things..." GO AND FIX THE DAMN GAME SO THAT IT IS ACTUALLY PLAYABLE BY THOSE WHO ARE UNABLE TO BE UBER ACTIVE FOR ONCE!!! as you apparently intended the updates to have as an effect...

Demonic Shezmu Report 11/4/2008 7:10:38 PM

if my KD was able to build walls, me being highly inactive since the era started would have meant me NOT losing tons of cities which took me...the "20 days" to build up in a mere few amounts of ticks...and guess what...this IS happening on Zetamania...and yes...that 50% protection thing works like "a charm" if you get banged up OOP by everyone the same size of you...and we're all stacked up on 1 big heap of OOP-mayhem due to starting locations...GOOD JOB! so don't go "I prefer to listen to the new players because they have a fresh view on things..." GO AND FIX THE DAMN GAME SO THAT IT IS ACTUALLY PLAYABLE BY THOSE WHO ARE UNABLE TO BE UBER ACTIVE FOR ONCE!!! as you apparently intended the updates to have as an effect...

I am pretty much in the same boat, being the same KD...There is horrible spacing...HORRIBLE....I cannot spend every minute on here...and it IS giving an advantage to the other KDs who are.  I would be better off sticking to RPing...it probably has a better chance of being fixed

i agree with zeta and zero lol

See, this is what happens

We say something about the game
Or, make a good suggestion

Admin makes a post!
Then.. it gets bumped..
Bumped again..

And nothing happens
Its just crap, ask Hanky I've been wanting to quit for like 5 eras
But this game has got an addiction
--
How many times have I banged on about Walls ?
Every time it gets ignored
Then when Trog uggestion GT's should increase with Mil sci
Admin sucks his *beep* and adds it?

Please, you should not be trying to get loads of new players
But you should be trying to keep the ones you have first

~Rev

ZeTa, imho. 3 man KDs was the best idea you've ever come up with. I'll praise you for that any day of the week. The 50% rule, another good idea for ZeTa and lesser worlds. Removing arma, very well done. Removing walls - thats not completely bad, i think its got some good points to it.

However, there are a few well needed things to implement.

More difficult things to try and think up, such as new spells. Like heal.
And taxing KDs.
Alot of easier things are needed too though, like an outbox or putting all ingame politics at the end of the era into a new "History" forum - where you can't post. Only look at the threads.

Some things I disaprove of though. GT thing this era.
And some others, anyone want to help me out. Lost some steam when looking at Essen's idea for stats.

VU Admin Report 11/4/2008 6:00:17 PM

Just so that you understand my dilemma when making updates... If you like a game, you will not like when it's changed, that's why it's hard to make new updates as whatever it is, it will most likely be disliked by the vets. When you have played a game for a while you get used to it's flaws and everything seems obvious. That's why new players opinion is important too, as they look with new fresh eyes. What I think needs to be done to attract more players to the game - is to make it  more casual. So that you can play it for 15 mins during lunch time and still do good. You should also be able to spend hours every day on it, but it should not give such an advantage. Also it needs to be more friendly, you shouldn't be able to loose something (that took 20 days to build up) in only one or two days. That's hard to do though, without taking out the fun... Many players seems to like the 50% rule in Zetamania and lesser worlds though.

Ive seen many great games destroyed by massive updates, and if this happened to VU, it would completely ruin it for everyone. Like Osi said, walls would make it more casual, but also more slow and potentially monontnous. There are always ways to counter this though, it would take awhile to figure out everything, but thats the way to do it, slow. Rushing into things can only cause problems.

Three man Kingdoms was an interesting concept, and fun for a bit, but it was one of those "huge" updates without much notice. Thankfully it must have been very easy to reverse and everything continued on as normal afterwards. And the 50% rule, seems pretty dumb when you have someone who joined VU, started a city, and quit. Right in your core. All you can do is plunder him until there is nothing left, and it becomes annoying. But making it so that when they attack you it defeats the rule, helped it alot.

So really, VU needs to shift its course just a little bit, and progress slowly in the right direction if it wants to be oh so very fun (even more so ofc). Some little things are always nice though, maybe some new graphics? To compliment the new map? : )

Agree With Elsin :)

Though

Wall should return!

As most above, I&nb*beep* also addicted to this game. It used to be a quite a pleasant addiction. Unfortunately now its getting to be a chore and an effort of will to make myself login as often as is needed now.

1) BRING BACK WALLS!!  With walls you can actually take a few ticks off and maybe have a job, or a life, or watch a movie, take a shower, whatever...the way the game is now you have to be uber active to have any hopes of doing well, and its slowly evolving(devolving) to the point that being super active is no guarantee to any success.
 Walls had 2 major flaws, they could be dropped across rivers or mountains into other Kd's area's, which was crazy(and yes, I myself used that to great effect so no flaming), and the tic tac toe grid of several huge walls crossing each other was a problem.
 We should of just addressed the wall problems rather than just getting rid of them. That changed the whole game dynamics and the bleeding loss of players started.
 I have 2 suggestions to fix that:
>>>Make it so that walls can ONLY be built with a army in place just like the cities are now spawned. The wall can be a max length of say, 2 to 3, maybe 4 ticks travel distance for a scout to move. Wherever the army is is where the city portion of the wall is. Simple enuf fix there. This fixes the wall dropping across blocking terrain(rivers/mt's).
 As far as limiting the wall size, their are several things to consider. I'll address one possible fix... Make it if you want a long wall you must first build the first small wall/city, then you must move an army to the end of the first wall and build another wall city that extends the wall another few ticks. This way it takes time to build a long wall, no superlong walls just instantly appearing. And more importantly, this makes a long wall harder to defend as you have several entry points at the cities. Much like a long wall in rl, the defense would have to be spread along the length, not all in 1 city with half the map blocked off. This would get rid of the long stalemates as people probe your wall looking for the weakest entry point.<<

Alright Zeta im going to break down your post piece by piece and try and be polite as possible.

"When you have played a game for a while you get used to it's flaws and everything seems obvious. That's why new players opinion is important too, as they look with new fresh eyes."

I have palyed teh game for a while (since era 10) not as long as otehrs but stil lfor a while. I liked the game back a while ago. But, I don't like teh game NEARLY as much as I used to and i keep hoping for that update that will make teh game better again, but every year I am dissapointed.

"What I think needs to be done to attract more players to the game - is to make it  more casual. So that you can play it for 15 mins during lunch time and still do good. You should also be able to spend hours every day on it, but it should not give such an advantage."

This is just improbable the way the game mechanics are. Logically wit hthe style of the game someone who is more active will do better. (someone said this already earlier) but if you put back walls it will make it more casual so you dont need to log on about every tick.

"Also it needs to be more friendly, you shouldn't be able to loose something (that took 20 days to build up) in only one or two days."

It would make the game more realistic but a lot slower. Maybe people would like an idea where the minimum amount of prep time to attack is 5 ticks? (dont make that an update unless people agree haha)

"That's hard to do though, without taking out the fun... Many players seems to like the 50% rule in Zetamania and lesser worlds though."

the game was really fun back i nthe days of walls and none mass naps i think the community of VU and the game mechanics have fallen and thats what makes the game less fun.

Auspice - What you've been smoking must be strong huh

Auto-Attack? I mean seriously
Auto-Town Attack ? Why play this game ?

One of the things that makes this game unique is the fact you can change your movement when ever you want
---
Auto

Problems ;

1. Alright till your NaP buddy's Naz Slaughter your army to *beep* just because of Auto
2. Alright till your army passing through your NaP's kingdom goes crazzy and takes all the cities because you got held up and couldn't get online to change it
3. Why play this game? Its unique the way it is, Why not Auto-Build too huh? Why not just set it to do what you want, come on next week ?
   Seriously, -50% of players via Auto
4. I don't like the idea, imho Auto = Fail

Yea unfortunately Killstone playing that way won't win you eras, or land you in the top 10 very often.  It's better to farm up to 200k land fast and outproduce everyone around you.  But that's the game - one of economic pressure.

As for Auto, there could be options to turn it off so that you don't accidentally attack NAPed allies.  With a better relations system you could set your armies to only auto-attack those you are at "war" with.  To clarify, I meant things you encounter should auto-battle, having to be online at the tick to click first is silly.  You would still have to set waypoints and divide armies up to make strategic attacks.  I'm not talking about your troops just going off blindly on their own. There should also be options to auto-merge approaching allied armies (and this shouldn't stop all movement...another detriment to the less active).

The strategic aspect could be improved with more unit types, more terrain advantages, and more choice in buildings.  Right now the economic side is simply about maxing income per building.  It's not intuitive but gaining land that is less than 40% productive than your current average production actually diminishes your troop production capacity.  I would move to a system where buildings produce troops directly on a square root function, and the choice is in what type of troops a town is making at a given time.