Enterprise of the Harkonnens Round Rap up

Universal News
1

Hello Uni.

Well it’s been almost 20 years for me and this game…wow beta’s were a long time ago!

I’ve taken a long break and thought I’d give it a try again.
Well back to the long break I will go when this round ends.

It seems the Uni has changed and mainly for the worse IMO.
Sure there have been some improvements but I’d say they haven’t kept up with technology.

My main problem is probably the game play aspect. We used to have a lot more people, thus more family’s. The family’s were tight and helped police each other. There was a code of honor and it was enforced. If not by the game by the family’s, heck we even made a guardian council to make sure there were no vultures in fair wars.

But this round was not like that at all. No morale rule means the top 4 family’s now have a NW of 24 million each or more each and the bottom 6 or HALF of the galaxy has combined. That in itself is s concern but the real issue is I have had all of those top family’s come at us a lot! What the heck is that. We have been in a long term war with a fairly sized opponent. And these family’s need to Poach us? That was not allowed and should not be.

Then there’s the lack of Fleetreadiness. I’ve been witnessed to huge planet players attacking small sized players dozens of times and they seem to never run out of morale. I my self was close to 200 planets after starting late in the round and took tons of retakes from small players and not once did I run out of the ability to attack more and I should have lol

I loved this game for a long time and spent many a hour on it. I want the best for it but I fear that it will go to less and less players as the fun runs out when there is poor sportsmanship and a lack of rules that allow those action.

Good by MW

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Agree with most of what TheEnterprise has to say.

As far as I’ve seen this MW round, the game has very much turned into Imperial Economics, with bullying the smallest becoming the most common ‘war’ tactic. Perhaps EOR action will change my opinion, but I am not too hopeful on that.

I’ve said it many a time, the #1 deterrent to keeping new players is the broken NW/Morale attacking limits. Without that being fixed, there is zero chance of the game prospering ever again.

Also, I think the main reason that so many vets have left over the years is simply Tick Fatigue. They’re no longer willing to forego sleep just to check on their planets and fleets. Their life outside the game has expanded and there are fewer and fewer hours left in the day to spend on gaming. A slower paced galaxy would be a nice way to draw both old vets and new players into the game as part of a more casual gaming atmosphere.

I also highly suggest surveying the retired player base to gather a better consensus on these opinions.

Regarding the ridiculous strict core strategy being employed nowadays. We saw that one coming a long time ago but definitely wish that more had resisted that urge. It suffocates gameplay and reduces player interactions. At this time, the only workable solution I see to it is to prohibit all attacking at the start of a round, perhaps for the entire first week or even two weeks, thereby giving everyone a chance to explore widely. Shared systems is what made wars fun. A less-advanced map display is what made it much more possible to sneak behind enemy lines. Both of those gameplay tactics are basically eliminated nowadays.

The poaching of warring families is not an admirable trait by today’s players. The lack of story-telling in the Uni News is another thing the game seriously lacks in this age. Reading the long-winded tales of war was such a fun part of each round.

@TheEnterprise and I both started playing IC back in Beta 3, but he has played a lot more rounds than I over the ensuing years. We were fortunate enough to be members of both the Harkonnens and the Tortuga Nebula Thugs. Being part of such fabled families, it was expected that we help smaller families and coach new players each round. That imperative seems to have drifted by the wayside in this era as well.

It is too bad that the days of the Donut Rumble and The Alamo War are long past. Those were fun rounds!

We are mean
We are fierce
We are bloodthirsty
We are HARKONNENS

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Agreed with all comments above.

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if there are only arround 10 families then u cant help anyone and u will somehow have a fight with every other fam during the round. but u can keep things fair, that depends on the leaders. but the top 2 fams werent farming alot this round, could have been worse :slight_smile:

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Hello folks, I wanted to take a moment and respond to some of the issues that you brought up @TheEnterprise.

I think a lot of the points that you made are very valid and are a concern of Pie and the current mod team.

First off welcome back from the break that you took. I have been playing this game a short time myself but am happy to see a lot of the older folks returning.

Now to some of the points that you made.

  1. Code of honor is definitely something that this game is missing. But I do not think it stops with just that. I think an overlying structure to how you play the game is needed, not just an honor system, but who plays what roles and how those roles interact in the game. Pie and I have had a few different discussions on this during IC radio. It is a known issue and is something that Pie and the mod team are working on addressing.

  2. The moral and attack formula is a huge issues, and it is currently one of the top items from a developmental stand point on Pies list. I know he has a few other items he is working on as well, but how attacking and morale works in this game is a priority, as it funnels into so many other aspects of the game,

I know that this kind takes your post in to two larger points, but that is how I read it.

I would ask that you give Pie and the mod team time to continue addressing these issues. If you didnt know I do a podcast every week with Pie about the state of IC. One of our biggest topics the last 4-5 weeks has been the discssion around honor, game play, attacking, and races.

I would ask that you stick around for another round or two and see what changes can be made. Or maybe take a round or two off and then come back and see if its better. My goal since I started being involved int he community has always been to grow the community so I never want to see someone leave.

If you have your own ideas on how to improve these aspects then please post in the ideas forum. A lot of the development work is based on what ideas are getting votes.

I hope this helps a little, my family has been bottom 3 all round so I know the struggle that is there to find the fun in the game

2 Likes
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I’m not sure I would call your fam’s prolonged and excessive use of spells particularly fair but hey ho :stuck_out_tongue:

Next round can’t come soon enough :slight_smile:

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I agree with alot of the things Terror mentioned.

Did there not used to be a networth limit on being able to attack people? and a planet count consideration to morale? That tended to keep the larger net worth players fighting each other and the smaller family’s fighting amongst them self’s. Way to easy to just wipe a planet and then expo it. Im no saint i did this to many people this round and it just sucks to be honest as there is nothing you can do to stop it.

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its nice to hear others also push these subjects, for a long time i’w pushed to change the game more in the direction of how it used to be, and constantly met with the words as nostaliga etc to defend the newer changes. to me MW is not fun no more, not becouse of the players but how the game is played, infra race and bigger fleet wins, most of the strategic elements are more or less gone. smaller teams or SS gives alot more value for times spent, and i truly hope to see SN with quezian race back soon as i doubt any bigger change will happen anytime soon.

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well daddyfat, its called war, but for sure its not farming. also i asked ur leader only for 70 planets which is a very cheap disount offer, u have 1000+ planets. so it was in ur hands to stop at any time but u decided to fight and i can understand it :slight_smile:

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you did Zero, but i came from an era where giving away 1 planet is not acceptable. If you want them, invest your personal time and come get them :smiley: (and im sure you will) not going to give you a free pass to get 70 planets for 0 effort.

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tbh i would never buy a NAP 1 week before eor, as i said, i can understand u guys :wink:

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Exactly, i looked up when the round end was going to be as soon as you declared war :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: i

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I get that it’s war and having cpffs on probably 20% of my planets at one time was bound to happen being an attacker in the middle of it - but I’m not sure you guys needed to flatten literally every banker in a random family that had probably 10x smaller economy to start with.

The economy was never going to be a threat to your fam, if it was even remotely competitive by all means I’d understand going spell galore on both sides - but there’s literally 0 that can be done to prevent or recover from it and it has driven players into inactivity.

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not sure how to answer that, pls dont make me feel bad now, i tried to keep it fair in general, with only little fams arround us i did not allow farming to happen even it made my fam shaking their heads. i guess for being fair to so many others to some u have to be hard. from PoC i can feel he got a desire to have a better next round, others will go inactiv, that depends on peoples spirit, right? my fam was bottom 3 the whole last round, i joined late and from that we wanted to play a better next round

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It’s all good - if it’s not enforced by game mechanics it’s always going to be subjective as to what is acceptable during conflicts.

The onus is on the formulas that determine morale, spell resistance etc… to protect players or families that have no strategic way of defending themselves. I appreciate this is incredibly difficult to balance and not going to happen overnight. As I understand it, there are changes coming so we’ll see what next round looks like.

You’re right about spirit and inactivity - I just hope that changes are made soon enough to capture the wider returning audience.

For now, I’m going to save up for the next few ticks so I can afford to send a retal :joy:

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I remember the 35% rule. But good families abused it and would use the small nw attacker to sneak in during war and then explode at any given time.
That’s the counter argument to the 35 rule right? Something like that?

Maybe I’m just too high right now but what if you bring the 35% rule back? Not family nw but individual player nw. BUT implement it so that " if that attackers nw jumps over a certain % let’s say 2000%? Or whetever. A significant nw jump is what I’m saying, then that player cannot do any attacks for 3 days? 2? Giving that other family a chance to remove that player. Unless a fam has declared war on that family, then that player could attack that particular fam.

But lets be real the abuse was coming from players sneaking into multiple systems and then attacking them.suddenly. if it’s a war then a suprise like that is expected so the rule shouldnt apply imo.

Anyways as I’m typing it I’m thinking I’m just high :joy:

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For someone called ‘God of War’ you sure do seem to want to protect the homogeneous planetary systems. The small NW attacker was the best counter move that small families could initiate against larger, more well-funded foes. It helped provide balance to the game that is long lost in this ‘let’s just unleash nuclear hell and obliterate all planets not ours’ gameplay nowadays. Plus it was just plain fun.

p.s. Despite playing in two legendary families, the lopsided wars are not what I remember years later. Neither is victory what has proven to be memorable. The wars my family – my friends – battled resolutely despite slim odds, THOSE are the ones that stand out. We may not have won. Many might even say we lost. But we fought till the end, ran through our whole bag of tricks, and when that wasn’t enough, developed new tactics to fight against the dying of the galactic light.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

~ Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953

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Big families used the expo into a families ore and jump the attacker I remember Whiteshadow used this every round would take your family then make you pay for a nap

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It was a far better choice to have than to just get smoked by someone 100x your size that happens now. Why the 35% rule wasnt implemented the round after it was removed will forever amaze me. This game has been stripped of the protections in place for the average player, and they need to either be put back or supplemented in some other ways.

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How is the average player protected if very experienced players can enter your systems without you being able to do anything about that?

I read this thread and something that bothers me a lot is how all of you romanticize “the way things used to be”. Honestly, back in the day everybody was also complaining, about Fleet Readiness, about 35% rule, about honour and NAP breakers.

Honestly, I’m not sure when you played, but having been around pretty much since the beginning: NAP breaking is as old as the game, the same goes for vulturing, and gangbanging and other dirty tricks. Yes there used to be a council kind of thing, and sometimes they would do something about that, but plenty of times not.
People got a bad reputation, yes.

I’m not saying this are perfect now, far from it. What I am saying, is: it’s a different time.

Yes I agree. It seems you guys have been the target of a bigger fam, I don’t think that goes for the entire galaxy though, but the Imperial Economics is absolutely true.
I believe the most popular tactics these rounds is to ingame NAP everyone, and just go wild on infra.
Ingame NAPs provide you the assurance you cannot be attacked (unlike the oldskool style NAP’s, where you just have to trust the other parties pinky promise not to attack).

Yes, and I believe this is highly related to the crazy number of NAP’s people make. If you can’t NAP more than a certain number of fams, others are bound to infiltrate your core.

Hence: I think would resolve most of these things is: place a limit on the number of ingame NAPs.