Re: WHERE HAVE ALL THE ALLIES GONE?
Bushtarion's Situation has been predicted and foretold by more then a handfull for a very long time now. People bashed all who said it, saying "No it wont happend like that, no how can you know that ? Your just being foolish" There are tones more of responses simular to this that has been made to all that for ages has tried to warn about the decline before its reached critical levels. Most new changes now are just as Blackwolf said, "Cream changes" some age 5 Changes are however good. It brings the game into a "New Age 3", the only problem with Age 5, is that it stil does not offer any new gameplay options.
No new Routes (adding a single new route or branch is to more hassle and trouble for its worth) Replacing a few units can happend but the game cant go on with the current unit, route and devolopment structure anymore. The current playerbase are majority players that has been around since later parts of age 3. And since then they have experienced really all the routes, because face it or not. Rounds are decided by a handfull of routes so learning those kinda gives you the overall view of the game. And honestly rebuilding routes and units from scratch is not a hard thing. Azzer goes on about ballance being the issue. But if he would leave a "Few current units" intact in the new structure. Ie Shock Troopers, Gardeners, Terrorists or perhaps a few other "Key Longterm" units. And use them as referance, hell getting overall firepower etc listed on a aceptable level for each unit aint hard. Espesialy when a new unit structure (i did suggest one yes) combined with a new targeting system (suggested that also yes no need to mention it.) The ability to differance and ballance units would be alot easier then it is today. And instead of trying to fix whats broken really beyond hope, its much better to build something up from almost scratch. And go at it from a logical approach.
If i where to take this further i could use the Unit and Route structure i was making that never got a offical response as base for a good approach:
5 Routes: Each route would have a Special Trait, in my suggestion Military Stood for Agression, Crime for the Thievery, Diplomacy for "Nonviolence", Robotics for Protection and last Terrorisim stood for Dirty play. Generaly each route would be based around their theme much more so then today. And when ballancing them in one would start from this perspective: The game is based around Alliances, so its asumed all Alliances has altest 1 of each route in their alliance so Ballance is based around teamwork. The rock paper scissor except in this case it would be based in a Square. Military strong vs Robotics, Robotics strong vs Dipomacy and Diplomacy strong vs Terrorism. Crime is not part of the square as its in the center, its both weak vs all. But able to support all other routes aswell. Basicly its not a standalone route and is generaly weaker then the others but got alot of support options for other players and the alliance they belong to. Using that Square format is much easier to ballance then our current 17 long line of uneven rock, papers and scissors. So ballance aint the hard part, no the hard part is making Azzer decide "It needs to be done" and make him also realise he aint the right person for the job. He can code like a Master in my eyes, but he cant ballance if his life depended on it. In this game its his fatal weakness, its good he has however listened to alot of player opinions on this over the years, but towards the end of Age 3 he started wanting to do it himself again and things started going downhill again. Most good changes now are not his, but player imput so its good he is listening again.