First let me say that I have been playing for several years and that I don't post often because I see that most communication here is either aurgumentative, highly personalized, or generally non-productive to successful game play. I also know there is a place in the forums for suggestions but feel that placing this here as close to the time of the possible issue will get more results than suggesting it elsewhere. Please either read this and discuss it in a civil manner or move on. I don't want your opinion on anything other than this topic anyway.

Here goes:

Anyone that has played this game competitively understands both the advantage and disadvantages of spammer ops. We also understand the need to have new colonies and new blood enter the era during play. What is clear to me at this point is spam colonies are hurting the game play when entered into after 1500-2000 ticks depending on the end tick.

Here is my suggestion, BD needs new players but how can a new person evaluate the game at the end of a round? Also, how can a player or alliance react to the sudden addition of players (spammers) when it is impossible to tell who is where? This is a game and therefore the laws of physics and time are not always possible to make realistic. For example, the addition of a rebellious colony that hates you that just showed up within 1 tick and built spams to take your ops or shield out is unrealistic. If you left them there in a secure area then that is your fault.

To eliminate bad new player experiences and eliminate the sudden arrival of spammers, I suggest we LOCK the server for new colonies after 3/4 of the round. Also, after that time, there would be no deletions of old colonies so the conquers would not necessarily dry up.

Lets face it, how would a new player really learn to enjoy the game when everyone else is closing the round anyway. In additon, this would force them to build in a competitive era so if they are new, they can learn and grow like everyone else. It also eliminates the exposure of new players to some often heated broadcasts that may deter from the excellent play that is availible here.

Just a suggestion but I would appreciate some thoughts. Keep it clean and maintain civility. The era in this world would have locked at tick 2000 and new players would have seen the suggestion to build on a more appropriate server. There shouldn't be a method for countering tactics and strategies that involves the possible "gray" area for this long. It has been over 3 years for me and this issue needs to be fixed. I have no problem with new players nor is this directed at any person, it is a suggestion to correct moving forward. Please don't focus on this era alone and I am not making comment on what is right or wrong about what was done to ARM. This is about improvement not blame.

Thoughts?

suggested by Michael himself... got shot down mercilessly by everyone...

viewtopic.php?f=75&t=15047

Fair points from a lot of people and thanks for the link. A few modifications/ possible differences:

1) Colonies don't disapear or delete
2) Later in the round when more spammers are usuallly used
3) Good points about the entertainment / watchers. Maybe people could join as observer only (no attacking) until Havok with a warning that players are observer only. There are ways to make that work.
4) Admin would increase the random wreckages to account for lost opportunity to active players. Maybe small resource boosts for shorter durations like are there when protection is turned off.

Of course no change will please everyone but again I REALLY appreciate the civil feedback and hope we as the players could agree to something.

Note: I joined E1 this era just before tick 1800 and have been fine (30+ conquers, ranked up to 200 and increasing, with a great view of ARMT's new relocation) so I agree that it is possible to join late and have a great era.

That still doesnt stop them from making spam colonies though. They can just make the earlier. And To be honest it'll just make them stronger giving them time to build up their spam until needed. This already happens aswell. There is no way to stop spam colonies. It just one of those things like op farming. You can't stop it no matter how many restrictions you put on it.

Random, that is an excellent point. In the original post, I could only address this by saying this moves the point from impossible to a strategic point.

See, if an alliance leaves an op that can spam that close, it would be their own fault. Of course, your right about this rule not stopping spammers but it would reduce the occurances and with the near instant creation rule in place today, there is almost no way for someone to account for the current system either strategically or tactically. I've played eras that we have surrounded ourselves with ops to make it more difficult to spam, some people use camps, etc. There has to be a change we could suggest as players.

We all hate this enough to see it through and I know there are plenty of smart people playing this game. This was a pain when I stopped playing last year and it is unfortunate that it still exists now that I have returned. The best part of this game is the people unfortunately, sometimes it's also the worst.

I understand this. But what this is doing is taking away a strategic play. Agreed its not a very happily looked upon way to do things but it is a way to do it. So granted I don't like it, others may see it as a way to get that advantage over their oppenent. So I can see where it comes into play.

I said this quite a lot on that link... and I'll just repost this again.

This suggestion is stripping out people's freedom to join in a game. Ofc, some of them are spammers, farmers, and those who are used to cheat. But the majority of them are new players who want to try out the game (and probably doesn't know joining late = no good) or decent to good players who just want to watch the game. Stripping off people's right to play the game is not a good idea.

Plus, allowing ppl to join (and not attacking) but not deleting colonies will make the server clogged up with inactive and non-attack-able colonies. Plus, people will be using this to make a non-attackable-colonies field instead of the old camp field. Which is a bad idea.

Though there is some validity to what you say, a key flaw in your post is that you assume 3/4 of the era is tick 2000. This is not the case. It actually depends on the era, the alliances etc.,

Given this fact, locking a server randomly, wouldn't be the right thing to do. People should be free to enter, and build whenever and wherever they please. Not every new person is serious, not every new person evaluates the game. You cannot really classify colonies as "spammer" colonies. What if a person wants to join at tick 2000 and legitimately play the game? Would that amount to "spamming" if he joins and spams another alliance for resources, infrastructure?

Thing is, anything inconvenient is considered as "hurting the game" in BD these days. People need to lighten up a bit and expect these things. Spamming is playing the game. Period. There are no reasons like "just to spam". If a player has control of his colony, and if "spamming" is his objective, he should be able to. Who is anyone to stop him? Whatever, tick he may join, wherever he may plant his colony?

Added to that is the dearth of outposts, which you can raze for resources, conquers for income etc.,

Although I could see why you want this implemented its just one of those things that will not happen.

aister, I agree with the points you've made but would you consider the most important which is that for a new person to enter as you put it, "=bad".

As players, we want new people to join and enjoy so they can be opponents and allies moving forward. A compromise would be the observer and havok colonies. We all know that you have to bring your big boy pants if you want to play on E1. New players don't know that yet. I hope you don't think I'm shooting it down because I think this is a good topic and appreciate the points. I can't think of how to stop the dead colony barriers. Any thoughts on how that could be resolved?

Allen, to your point, the 3/4 era rule would assure that it is closer to the end than the beginning and was the best thought I could come up with. Also, I don't think that everyone that is new is a spammer, I think this rule would help new players just as much as increase the competativeness of the existing players. We have all had new player messages that are overly emotional when they get dominated in the first tick out of protection. This wouldn't stop that but it would make them more competitive than they currently are.

Mainly, I think we can all agree that for a strategy game, there could be a change to improve that element. My suggestion above is only intended to start a player focused discussion on how we would do that. Having the developers and admins change the game is fine but we are the consumer here and we all know that BD could improve. None of us like the current rule or the way it is arbitrarilly enforced. It's too gray and we all suffer if that continues. I've won some eras and lost some eras. I also think that newb outposts for resources and income would need to be suplemented with wreckages because lets face it, sometimes you get a freebie and sometimes your enemy does. That is a good random process so we should continue it.