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Domination: Earth

Hey Dan


Irrelevents

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So, true to form, the discord has been a Hot Mess since we read the update. There's a Lot of discussion about the direction of "progress" and also a bit of debate about the future of the game as the "Spirit of the Game" has come up again; I feel like these are not two truly distinct things.

So the matter at hand, and what i think will ultimately decide much of the conversations going forward, is what kind of game is this Really? What Exactly do you want this to be?

We know it's a little bit travel game, we know it's a little bit flag your area game and we know it's a little bit "i can fight you because I can see you" game. Invariably, players have been disappointed because there are elements of gameplay that they're trying to incorporate into this game and it's not following what you've envisioned. So.. maybe we need to straighten things out.

I'm not going to speak for anyone else here, this is not the combined  query of the discord chat, this is My question: What exactly is the nature of this game? My understanding, as it is Right now, is that it's really a glorified travel tracker with some war mechanics added on. That it's purpose is really Not to be played often, that it's something that is supposed to be mildly amusing if you happen to find yourself Far away from home.

I'm not calling you out, I'm genuinely asking because i think that myself and several other players have a different view of this game or are expecting something different to have happened, and it's not fair to you if I feel some way because -I'm- coming from a mistaken view (like i had before writing this).

Invariably, the problem of late game playability is going to follow this. exact. topic.

I'm trying to get everyone on the same page before we start again.

(Glad to see you've had some time to make updates recently, hopefully you don't need 2 jobs anymore! And I hope you're dodging the Corona like a Fat man dodges Cardio!)

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Hey @Irrelevents,

I think it would be wrong for me to impose my view on who should play the game, why and how often, it's quite a subjective matter.
There's no restriction on playing often and I am constantly trying to come up with new ideas and features for DE to be usable more frequently, in various life situations and even from home.

However, the underlying message is actually super simple: to progress further you have to travel (not necessarily far, at least get out of your house. Coronavirus situation excluded, of course).

We are not a "Civilisation" kind of strategy, we are not a global asset trader simulator, we are not an MMORPG with fast-paced non-stop raids demanding constant attention and yes, we are purposefully different from others and are a bit of an "MMO travel log".
But it doesn't mean I want the game to be boring or unplayable more than once a day. The only thing I'm trying to exclude from it is cheating and having ways that make land capture via real-world travels a "feature for newbies" (and the endgame that involves no travel whatsoever).

I could pretend that the trade issue didn't exist and turn the other way (as it did seem to provide "hours of fun" for some), but as with all cheating, eventually the "results" catch up with you in the form of upset victims (i.e. the genuine players who just cannot beat the person utilising unfair strategies) and the game loses its player base, which leads to losses on all sides for me.
So I do have to enforce game mechanics that make cheating & exploitation of core rules close to impossible, as otherwise relevant checks and investigations waste way too much of my time that could be much better utilised.

For instance, last week was actually supposed to introduce a set of new combat-related features, enhancing the interactions with our Ai (and its difficulty) and adding new ways to spend peacekeeping points. I'm sure that would be been lots of fun, but none of it happened thanks to the situation with land trades reaching a critical point and me having to spend several of my evenings investigating the involved parties and trying to come up with a solution instead.

So in the end people not following our initial core rules and trying to come up with "unofficial" ways to play from home leads to us actually not having any new official ways to do that.
You can see why I'm displeased with the situation, right?

I'm really getting tired of in-game cheating though and the spiralling side-effects, so the next couple of releases are likely to continue focusing on that aspect; I intend to  address the situation with Fake GPS abuse next, which unfortunately is also still happening and is a hot topic in our office.

But after that I am hopeful that the game will start growing in other directions feature-wise and as always, I am open to all new ideas as long as they involve at least a little bit of travels.

That's pretty much it!

P.S. I am doing alright personally; only have 1 full-time job currently, which frees up some evenings / weekends to work on DE. Unfortunately, it's still not ideal as this means I sacrifice time with my son and wife in favour of building DE, which makes the whole cheater investigation subject even more frustrating. Oh well! :)
I hope you managed to stay away from the virus and the associated fallout too! ;)

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Hi Dan; What I think is strange is that the drone thing is really about not leaving the house and this screwed the arguments above up, but well maybe that is just me... but it seems strange in combination with this above (especially since drones can land outside of basis areas you own).

This is unlimited by travel point, while the trade and upgrade part above really does require quite a lot of travel (and thus does fit the main point of the game; being get out and travel)

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3 hours ago, The one true king said:

Hi Dan; What I think is strange is that the drone thing is really about not leaving the house and this screwed the arguments above up, but well maybe that is just me... but it seems strange in combination with this above (especially since drones can land outside of basis areas you own).

You must have missed the initial announcement of drones; I believe I mentioned that this feature has been added exclusively due to the COVID-19 lockdown as it is the only time in history when we encourage people not to travel and stay home.

After the lockdown is over you will hardly see any drones at all and their influence on your overall success will be minimal; you won't be able to rely on their drop chance to advance so it'll be more of a "nice surprise" than a core strategy.

I would like to emphasize that drones have been added only due to the lack of anything else to do in the game without travel (which confirms my point that land trading was never part of the equation; removal of real-world travels was supposed to be a bigger deal than removal of high-level trades) and because I've received a number of complaints regarding the conflict of our game's objective with the COVID-19-related restrictions. Having people fined or sent to jail because they were playing "Domination: Earth" is not something I want on my conscience. 🙂

But this is exactly why you cannot upgrade existing lands via drones and can only capture 1st level flags away from yours current position; it does not overpower any particular land and only affects one leaderboard (unique lands). Also as opposed to the trade exploit every single player of the game (veteran or a complete newbie) has exactly the same chances and benefits provided by drones; these items do not make the game harder or easier for a particular group.

I hope that makes sense, but if not simply remember that they will be gone soon, if we're lucky the whole pandemic situation is a one-off event. 😉

 

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5 hours ago, Mr. D said:

(drones ) ...only affects one leaderboard (unique lands).

 

I just want to add that currently as is this is not completely true. They also affect the bases established leaderboard. It has now in my mind become a p2w leaderboard as people are popping drones down in places they have never been and/or has no intention to visit and upgrading those lands to bases with the use of unobtanium which requires mainly real money. And yes I know their rarity right now is temporary but people are getting them left and right and are making them into bases. Rarity is temporary but bases are permanent.

I do however understand the motivation behind this and am happy if this helps to keep the servers up. I'm just letting you know that you have maybe unkowingly(?) introduced a p2w aspect to the game.

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4 hours ago, ValarMorghulis said:

They also affect the bases established leaderboard.

Hmm, that is true... perhaps outposts should be excluded from that list since they're not exactly bases as such and there's little sense in tracking places you haven't been to / don't intend to visit. Let me think about this some more!

As for the overall concept of remote upgrades, I didn't expect it to be as popular as it appears to be currently, but I don't think we should introduce any limits to it just yet: without any sales the game will die (software licenses alone cost hundreds of dollars per month) and our sales aren't actually that great currently. I'm doing my best to limit the "2w" aspect of any "p" features I add, but as you can imagine if there's no value in what we're offering for sale then no one will spend money on it.
It is a tough spot to be in, but there's just no way around, I'm afraid!

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9 hours ago, Mr. D said:

Hmm, that is true... perhaps outposts should be excluded from that list since they're not exactly bases as such and there's little sense in tracking places you haven't been to / don't intend to visit. Let me think about this some more!

As for the overall concept of remote upgrades, I didn't expect it to be as popular as it appears to be currently, but I don't think we should introduce any limits to it just yet

Not counting those bases in the leaderboards sounds right. That would bring it back as a legit leaderboard again. 🙂

And no need to change or worry about remote upgrades otherwise. I atleast don't see any other problem with them as they don't give too much of an advantage to be OP or push p2w too much but still gives a incentive to support the game and helps you to keep the game up. 😁

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As someone who has used the new Exploration Drones to create new bases in distant places (Mt Everest, Bouvet Island, etc.), I totally agree that such Outposts should not be counted in the leaderboards. While it is a nice feature, that should not substitute actual real-world travel for statistical purposes. I will say that these outposts do globaiise the game somewhat, but I think that a good thing.

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My 3 cents on the Military Outposts:

1) Military outposts should not be taken into account in the Base Number leaderboard.

2) To avoid them blocking player in the future (eg. in contending in the mentioned leaderboard), it should be possible to convert them into full bases upon visiting physical location, ie. manually leveling up any land in base range above lv5 (this would also add another future strategy for drones, when you're close to a gap within your base network you can first create a military outpost there for UBT, and then convert it into base). This is just a draft suggestion, but really some option to convert MO to base should be available.

3) Military outposts should be easier to differentiate on the global map. I'd suggest using borders only (perhaps even dashed) without the filling inside.

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4 hours ago, Олег Поленин said:

2) To avoid them blocking player in the future (eg. in contending in the mentioned leaderboard), it should be possible to convert them into full bases upon visiting physical location, ie. manually leveling up any land in base range above lv5 (this would also add another future strategy for drones, when you're close to a gap within your base network you can first create a military outpost there for UBT, and then convert it into base). This is just a draft suggestion, but really some option to convert MO to base should be available

I've had exactly the same thought myself yesterday. Once outposts are no longer part of the leaderboard there will undoubtedly be a way to convert them into real bases, sure. ;)

Will see if any of that can be included in the next release!

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