Reducing required activity/contactability & whining from being zeroed

[Spiky Spoon]

I like this idea, as some of us can't get online in work, it would significantly help players like me out =)

 

[Zaheen]

Bump nfire:

 

[Dark_Angel]

Thumbs up.

 

[Max]

I liked the idea the first time it came around and I like it now as well. It certainly looks like a fantastic way to keep a lot of fun killing in the game AND reduce contactability, so it solves two problems in one.

Let's finally stamp out this contactability requirement once and for all people

Give polos a chance.

 

[Dax]

I liked the idea the first time it came around and I like it now as well. It certainly looks like a fantastic way to keep a lot of fun killing in the game AND reduce contactability, so it solves two problems in one.

Let's finally stamp out this contactability requirement once and for all people

Give polos a chance.

I still don't like the idea of people hiding behind a game mechanic to this end.
I've proved the sleep mode system can be horrifically abused when I played Puppet Masters {and got rank 1 sleeps}. I was only killed when my computer broke, by which time I'd given a bunch of people in what was a rank 24 alliance grow to a very competent level of being able to take care of themselves, as well as topping rank 73 in a round with 23 full alliances when I had 172 land.
Sleep mode is not the answer to saving this game.

 

[tobapopalos]

It sounds good, but I'd miss the killing. Know that rush or thrill you get after a good battle, where you've done good damage and (almost) zeroed someone? Would significantly reduce the fun of attacking if a couple ticks later you hack your target and he's back to 80% of his original strength. Which can also mean that if you take more damage than 80% of his troops' worth, you actually lost that 'thrilling' battle. You couldn't *ever* kill someone successfully, either he's on 80% insurance/injuries or he is online and can send out. The game is fun because you can kill stuff. Don't take that away.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having more land & troops in the game, but I'm not sure this is the way to go (or at least, make it not as extreme).

This is pretty much my opinion.

PS: When was the last time anyone saw Maxi around? I miss him

 

[Iamsmart]

IMO, now that contactability is here, no matter what changes you do, if it gives you a little bit of an advantage still (which it always will), the people who are contactable mainly are still going to be contactable, the people who aren't still won't be

That being said I didn't actually read the idea, i just read the title and skimmed a couple comments.

Edit: Skimming it, I don't really see why these kinds of ideas are necessary. Sleep mode is fine. You don't die while in sleep mode (at night usually) and get barely any income. It keeps your potential ~week+ work alive in exchange for less growth. don't change sleep mode.

If you want to change insurance or something, do it in the actual game. If people don't want to be contactable, i doubt they're going to be on for any ENTIRE 8 hour period. So what, are they supposed to hit this sleep mode? But that doesn't mean they don't want to pop in and out during that 8 hours (or 16 hours, for the entire day). But then they can't do anything.

Don't like it.

 

[Dark_Angel]

imo the pros here far outweigh the cons. Nothing is more important than boosting the size of the playerbase and making the game more enjoyable to play.

At the moment, the necessity of contactability to succeed playing Bushtarion is one of the biggest, most off-putting aspects of the game. As a result of the lack of new players we have an ageing playerbase - The average player has more going on in their lives than in times gone by. Put simply, contactability is not a luxury most people can easily afford - those who can, win.

Remove the requirement for contactability, or at the very least significantly reduce it, and we'll see an influx of casual players who don't want to put their lives on hold for a game but would like the opportunity to do well.

You shouldn't have to play a game "hardcore mode" to have any chance of success. Bush is demanding that of those who want to do well, and, judging by the enormous drop in active players, people aren't responding well to that.

 

[Iamsmart]

I just don't agree with 'if we make certain changes that remove contactability the playerbase will get bigger'

How do you figure? I don't see a thousand people randomly joining the game because they heard "OMG, BUSHTARION NO LONGER NEEDS CONTACTABILITY." Yeah, that's realistic.

 

[Dark_Angel]

I'm basing my argument on the fact that I no longer play bush as my lifestyle no longer agrees with my phone going off at 3am. I thoroughly enjoy bush, but I like to enjoy success when I play a game, especially one as time consuming as bushtarion. Without contactibility, that is not really possible.

Put simply, I doubt I'm alone in this particular boat.

 

[Dark_Angel]

I'm basing my argument on the fact that I no longer play bush as my lifestyle no longer agrees with my phone going off at 3am. I thoroughly enjoy bush, but I like to enjoy success when I play a game, especially one as time consuming as bushtarion. Without contactibility, that is not really possible.

Put simply, I doubt I'm alone in this particular boat.

 

[Zaheen]

I just don't agree with 'if we make certain changes that remove contactability the playerbase will get bigger'

How do you figure? I don't see a thousand people randomly joining the game because they heard "OMG, BUSHTARION NO LONGER NEEDS CONTACTABILITY." Yeah, that's realistic.

Yeah, but look on the other end of the scale...

People come onto the game, ask around - speak to someone people, get continuously bashed around round after round, and decide that they don't want to stick around because it would mean plastering their mobile phone number on the politics of alliances.

Lame? It is whether they win or lose, and most of the time it's lose.

 

[saint1d]

I'm basing my argument on the fact that I no longer play bush as my lifestyle no longer agrees with my phone going off at 3am. I thoroughly enjoy bush, but I like to enjoy success when I play a game, especially one as time consuming as bushtarion. Without contactibility, that is not really possible.

Put simply, I doubt I'm alone in this particular boat.

Absolutely bang on comment DA, this is exactly how I feel. I enjoy playing the game, yes it is time consuming to try and play it successfully.

The only reason I still have an account is this strange loyalty/addiction that I have. I have land there to be stolen and quite often I'm an easy target, but if it wasnt for me having played the game for so many years, and not being a new player, I wouldnt be creating an id and the land wouldnt be available.

Bear in mind that this game is very tricky to get to grips with when you first start, add to that being bashed continuously unless youre prepared to hand over your mobile number to complete strangers so that they can call you up during the night, and you have a recipe for not bothering to continue playing.

There are hundreds of games out there, how many need players to be 24/7 contactable? I dont pretend to have the solution to the issue, but at least I understand that the issue exists.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Bump.

I still think this is an excellent idea that really merits further consideration. Can we have some more pros/cons on Polo's original post?

 

[Dax]

I did suggest a few ideas of my own for insurance, and gave it a minor test in a PW. The concept on the whole was successful, making land important (as was the original ideal for Bushtarion), rather than troops - As you could always rebuild faster with more land.
Being killed is in essence unavoidable - Unless you are at the top. Even contactable people die sooner or later.

I do agree with this idea, though. There is a bit more to be thought about, such as getting a programmer who can be bothered to make it happen to volunteer (as Azzer has said there will be no more changes to the game apart from troop stats and basic world settings).