| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 02:37 pm 
In the near future there will be four ways for anyone to obtain gold coins in Simcountry.
1. Purchase gold coins from Simcountry or extend your account.
2. Win Game Awards
3. Win Game Level Awards
4. Win War Level Awards
Exchanging gold coins for game money will become the domain of the game. Gold coins will be exchanged at a fixed rate.
Game Awards, Game level Awards and War Level Awards will all increase and the number of gold coins that can be won by good players will become much higher.
The gold coins market as we know it now will cease to exist.
This change will bring us back to the situation when good players used the money they earn, to build their economy, extend their empires, purchase weapons and fight wars.
Winning awards was and will become a major challenge with much higher rewards for the winners. |
| Crafty | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 03:21 pm
Andy, how do you expect me to continually make 270GC every r/l month to maintain my empires and enterprises.
And I wish to expand with another ent, so thats 300GC a r/l month. No.1 on a world would get me roughly 250GC over 6 months, and 30GC every 3 month for membership - about 50GC income r/l month then if my math is right. A shortfall of 250GC every r/l month, presuming I can win 1st place that is. The math is about the same for monthly smaller awards for 2nd or 3rd place.
Please explain how you intend to arrange the purchase of GC for SC $.
Thanks Crafty |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 03:56 pm
Please read the text of the previous message.
There will be no purchasing of gold coins for Game money at all. It is not one of the four ways to get gold coins.
Players will decide how many gold coins they want to spend, how many they can earn with awards and how many to purchase. This will help them decide how many entities they want to keep active in the game.
We expect that awards 2 to 8 or so will become more significant. |
| Crafty | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:12 pm
My apologies Andy, but your text clearly states:
Quote:Exchanging gold coins for game money will become the domain of the game. Gold coins will be exchanged at a fixed rate.
From which I presumed there would be a way to to buy GC for game money.
|
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:21 pm
Crafty, this might be your solution and you are welcome to have your choice.
Your position is that we must allow you to win enough gold coins each month to keep whatever set of empires you want.
The truth is, that you need to decide how much interest you have in the game and how much you are asble and willing to win and contribute to keep an account.
The choice is yours.
Your reaction is exactly what convinces me that management took here a great decision. |
| Brandon Gil | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:29 pm
I think he wants to limit the size of empires so new player can grow and more room for new countries. New players can then make a small empire as well 2-3 slaves and make the world go round. I am sorry Crafty for your potential downsize, maybe the Gamemaster can compensate older expansive players for their downsize. |
| Dj | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:42 pm
I don't believe this is right you shouldn't have to pay cash for something you worked years to get. I mean he's paying for his account why make him pay more to be able to play the game how he enjoys it? That's not gonna help new players prosper its gonna push the older ones away and then eventually the new blood you will get will see how this effects them then they to will leave. |
| Laguna | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:48 pm
That's -2 now. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:51 pm
Some players will have a chance they did not have for a long time. Awards will be larger and they will be able to fight for them, and will have a great reason to.
Some accounts will downsize. There are some long time players who have huge amounts of gold coins, including crafty and we expect them to complain a lot because they have large accounts.
without getting into too many details, it may be a year before any of these accounts will run out of gold coins even without winning any awards.
some could run for years.
Larger awards, (we had them in the past), will make great competition. |
| nix001 | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:01 pm
Will I still be able to trade my Nukes for Gold? |
| Aries | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:22 pm
I am concerned about recent top finishers and the upcoming February winners who wont be able to complete for the higher rewards. The February finishers should not be in the dark nor penalized for accepting an award that would put them on the sideline when larger awards become available. The higher awards should be available in February and/or the lifting the blackout periods for recent winners should be considered. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:25 pm
The only change is the assumption that you can always exchange your game money into gold coins.
You can trade products on space stations and on the portal market as before.
nothing will change.
There is no intention to change anything.
Instead of automatically trading the surplus of your country into gold coins, you will be able to use the surplus in other ways.
Some may be economic, war or you could develop assets and sell them for gold coins:
1. Develop countries and sell them
2. Make nukes or other weapons and trade them.
3. Same with any other product.
That part of Simcountry will be extended.
In addition, the mission game which is coming closer, will have mission that will deliver both gold coins, and other assets that will help in many ways. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:30 pm
What about the winners of awards in the previous month?
The awards will start increasing in March. The main change will be in having larger awards in the slots following the number one winner.
More details will be published in march, also some numbers on awards for mainly the higher game levels and war levels.
We would like to make an effort to get the higher monthly awards distributed among more players. |
| Aries | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:37 pm
I did mention recent award winners as my concern and asked about blackout periods which would include them. Is there an answer available for this? |
| James the Fair | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:38 pm
Andy so you're saying I won't be able to exchange my game money for gold coins with other players anymore? how do you expect me to get a load of gold coins all at once?
I would have thought implementing a SC$ money limit and gold coins limit per account would have done the trick.
I have an enterprise and a country to sell as well and with this new update thats coming, I might not even be able to give them away as the players won't want to pay extra upkeep in gold coins for them once they buy my enterprise and country. This is bad for business.
If this is the case then, I hope you'll implement some other ways of how to earn some gold coins than the 4 options you mentioned. How about earning 10 gold coins every time I win a war against a C3 country for example? as this would the war game side of it alive. Or is that part of option 4? |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 05:56 pm
The awards system will stay the same only numbers will start to increase.
there is no reason to make changes to the past or make it more complex.
Awards went up in the past and down too. It is part of the game. |
| Gaz | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 06:05 pm
Edited - Nvm |
| Borg Queen | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 06:22 pm
Andy, I beg you or any other GM to read my post to the end before answering, thanking you in anticipation.
I understand why you dont want people to trade GCs if there are more GCs distributed from Game Levels and so on.
I understand WC3 is an Corporation that wants to make money, nothing bad about that, thats what managing a Corp is all about as we know and I see there is a problem if you can make accounts for gaining GCs through Game Level Awards and then trading it for SC$ and closing the account while making a Net-Profit on the GC side.
But why not implementing a possiblity that the players can only trade GCs they bought and not those that are awarded?
You could give players an option to instead of buying 90 GCs directly to an account that they can buy something like an 'Asset-Package' that they can trade with other players and which can be exchanged into 90 GCs at any time. Would be like the asset trading between players we had some time ago but instead of letting the player produce that Asset-Package, it would be only buyable from the game but tradeable for SC$.
This way Players cant trade awarded GCs, just as you want it with the new update, also it would sustain the ability for players to gain GCs with good gameplay, as the players want afaik.
Would that be a good reasonable compromise with which WC3 could be happy and maybe more important would also keep the players happy?
If you're not sure about if players would like it or not you could put it up for vote.
If someone of the other players (new and old) read this please tell if you like it or not |
| Aries | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 06:30 pm
Another question. The goal of the higher awards is to increase competition. Will the implementation of this push many worlds to or past the 30 GC threshold that puts those players out of awards contention in following months?
Four worlds, all but fearless blue, currently award less than 30 GCs for a finish less then 1st. Assuming worlds pass the 30 GCs and 2nd-8th place finishers on each world receive this, 28 players could be subject to the four month blackout period every month.
If the awards levels are simply changed and the blackout criteria isn't, this will decrease competition and the awards will change to a "next one up" system. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 07:28 pm
Borg,
There is no problem of gaining gold coins from awards and using them in whatever way in the game.
We also do not want to have two types of gold coins and make it complex.
We do want players to make an effort to get gold coins. Reach high scores, win high game levels or war levels etc.
We might add more war and game levels and extend the numbers of gold coins won each month.
Game money won each day in your countries and enterprises should be used to improve your position in the game and increase your chance of winning awards.
It should not be used to purchase gold coins. Just too simple.
We do not know if people will purchase more or less gold coins from simcountry but they will certainly look deeper into what can be done with the money they have and play the game more. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 07:52 pm
We will publish details later.
There will be more awards and higher ones.
More players will be able to reach them.
To prevent big empires and some rich players from taking all the largest awards each month a new system will be implemented.
A score penalty will depend on what you won and that penaly will wear off in time. There will be some additional factors. Depending on how excellent you are, you could reach a high score despite a penalty.
A score page will show components of the score, including the penalty and the results of your efforts will be easier to track. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:06 pm
We do not accept the logic of some veterans who own huge numbers of gold coins and want to preserve these and never make a real effort to win a competition.
We agree that it will become harder for some very large accounts to win everything they need but there is no need for that to happen.
There is no need for anyone to be able, nearly effortless to keep a huge account with a major foot print on all our servers.
Some of these accounts make 5T per real day. This is equivalent to 125 gold coins per day or 3750 per real month. There are larger ones.
many make more than 1T per day or the equivalen of 750 GC per real month.
Why would you make an effort to win an award?
The challenge is long gone.
There is now a huge gap between the haves and the have nots. The gap will not be closed but everyone will be playing again if they want to gain gold coins. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:11 pm
Andy
Why did you delete my post?
I didnt say or do anything wrong if i did can you please state and show what i did? i was only asking a Question |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:19 pm
We are here to explain what the plan is and how this change will be implemented.
This is not a discussion about a design of anything in the game.
Please ask questions if you have some, about how this is going to work but we are not interested in any text that might suggest that it is an open issue for discussion.
We have announced this change and will be available to answer questions and provide as many details as are known at this time.
more details will become available later.
The feature will be implemented later in March. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:25 pm
So becuase i was stating a suggestion my opinion?
Infact i believe i was discussing the topic at hand. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:35 pm
This is not about you supersoldier. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:44 pm
I understand that Andy
But I was discussing the topic on hand, I've done nothing wrong. I will further discuss this topic with the player base as I'm allowed to. If I do something deemed wrong by W3C please let me know and I will correct it. Otherwise let's call this water under the bridge as I do feel as if I'm being censored and badgered.
I do agree and like the increase is GC for score awards |
| E is Easy 0 is like 0 | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:49 pm
If we can supposedly win awards, then why are we only allowed to win once a month for having best enterprise/ceo. I thought I was going to win 4 awards for around 800 gcs for my empires/enterprises. I have been actively trying to win awards. Doesn't matter as apparently you can only take your highest one?
Pretty lame and a massive wasted effort for me.
If those are the only ways to get gold coins, I'm done when I run out. There's no way I'll be interested in paying for my 3 enterprises and 3 empires if I can't even be given a shot to win awards in all of them.
Andy, are you trying to shrink your consumer base? |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:52 pm
which was what my "post" stated
we can only gain 1 award. I like the increase but I was curious on how this new system and ranking will work. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:54 pm
Yes you can win the highest one. This has been the rule for a long time.
We have tried to make sure awards go to more people and prevent several excellent players from sharing all the awards between them.
Also the new system will try to have awards go to many players. we will however increase the volume. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 08:59 pm
As I said before, we will add a penalty component to the score.
The penalty will be zero by default and will become negative once you win an award.
the highest awards will push the score down a lot and make it very difficult to win in the next month, or several months.
The penalty is a better solution because the old system never looked at your account in the first months after the award, the new system will compute your score and if you are excellent, you might win despite the penaly and as it wears off in time, you might get closer to the top again. |
| Arccuk | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:35 pm
Forgive me Andy, after reading this thread I am confused. Maybe I'm reading it wrong be several of your statements seem to be contradictory, leaving me with several questions. Please try to answer them all if you can.
Is it or is it not going to be possible to buy GC's for SC$? ( I asked this again as you never really answered Crafty, rather just commented on your distaste to his reaction)
Is space station trading now NOT going to be based in GC's? If not can i have a refund for the 3 docks I just bought?
Is direct trading for GC's still going to be possible? If not how will Shuttles and the previously mentioned "space fighters" going to be traded?
Is population still going to be available for sale and allowed to be sold?
I have more questions, but these few are the most pressing for me and my future plans. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:48 pm
I described the ways you can obtain gold coins.
purchasing them fro game money was not one of them.
This was in the initial text of this discussion.
in the discussion, I said nothing else will change. It is very clearly stated.
you really need to read the previous.
there is only one simple change and it is stated clearly. |
| James the Fair | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:49 pm
If this is the main way to earn gold coins through rewards, won't there be at least be any minor ways of earning gold coins instead such as winning a war against a C3 country and not conquering it for example? as the current system does not award you for winning a war against one and not taking that country. As for me I always take it since it's got money to be taken in it but nothing rewarded when I decide not to take it. |
| Crafty | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:52 pm
Well, my post got deleted too.
|
| Crafty | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:55 pm
And again. |
| James the Fair | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:57 pm
Don't think about leaving Crafty i'm kind of getting to like you on this game. I'm sure they're could be another way this. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:58 pm
Crafty what did you do?
Sure I'd expect me to have deleted post from time to time but what did you do???
Plus Arruck made a longer post then I did and his stayed...
FAVORTISUM! |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 09:58 pm
Winning a war against a C3 country will earn you more gold coins than it does today.
War level increases will deliver higher awards.
If you mean a war that keeps you in a low war level than no. Such wars do not increase any risk for you and there is no need for an award. |
| Crafty | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:00 pm
What happens when a player reaches his/her max war level and can no longer reap GC that way Andy? |
| Laguna | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:00 pm
Go take a break. Your day is over. |
| James the Fair | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:03 pm
Yes thats what I meant but conquering a C3 country at war level 3 awards me 3T in game cash and yet theres nothing awarded for choosing not to conquer a C3. So in that case then whats the point of that option? I might as well take it everytime then. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:07 pm
Crafty,
I made clear that we are not looking for anyone to place rude statements about how much he hates this or that while sitting on a huge stash of gold coins.
If you have questions on how it will work out, you are welcome.
There is no need for any discussion on the move itself as it has been decided by the people who design, make and run this game and company.
It is in fact a small change that will make playing more interesting.
It comes before more fundamental changes that will introduce missions and change the dynamics of Simcountry. |
| Arccuk | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:09 pm
Please restate the one and only simple change that is to be implemented to remove all ambiguity
Thanks |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:13 pm
James
Please go to the voting page i posted an idea that says instead of taking the nation. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:13 pm
You mean you want us to copy messages we place in this track and place them again?
why don't you just read the text?
you expect others to read what you write while not willing to read? |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:21 pm
Why don't you start a vote for gold coins without any war at all.
you will win many gold coins when you win and increase your war level.
fighting the same war level over and over is not a real challenge and I can believe you suggest it.
Winning harder wars are worthwhile and will be awarded. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:22 pm
Andy
I think your a little to upset.
No one is being rude. Why dont you talk a break we're not trying to be rude we are only trying to dicuss the update and be contructive about the current issue stated by W3C. |
| Josias | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:22 pm
sounds like they made up their mind.
so, questions.
when will this happen?
when you say that the awards will increase in march, would that mean these next round of awards we are almost to, or next month?
will you continue to favor war levels, and lack-of-war-protection? how much farther are you going to go on that?
will their be adjustments to make "peaceful mode," easier. (personally i don't think it should be, but its still a question,)
can their be an interim time where we can spend game cash for registration?
and, maybe not a question, (because i think i already know the answer,) will their be compensation for the assets in countries we can no longer keep registered? allot of people have put allot of effort into countries on multipul planets, in good faith that the system worked this way.
and lastly, this change is going to usher in the era of multis, as they'll be the only ones able to have the GC to maintain multi-planet empires. what about multis?
and how about moving pop via direct trading? |
| Arccuk | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:24 pm
i have read several times. I guess I'm stupid or slow.
I still don't see what the one change is.
is it the exclusive removal of the GC trading market completely?
neither space or direct trading is not included in the "4 ways to get GC's" in your first message. are you saying these two routes to making GC's are still going to be available?
|
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:29 pm
There are several experienced players here who are making suggestions as how to not implement this change or find alternative ways to gain many gold coins at little risc.
It is time to stop this and realize where simcountry is going.
most players will benefit.
The game will become more challenging for everyone.
All the suggestions made here, and mainly the ones we removed were soaked of self interest and not in the interest of the players in general. |
| Laguna | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:35 pm
I made a post with no suggestions. In fact, what I wrote was something like: "I realized where the game was going, so I allowed the bulk of my account to cancel." I gathered the clues with the changes to the cash market. I was, if you can't see it, giving the example.
What exactly is wrong with you? Nevermind. I don't want to know. You are getting obnoxious.
What I do know is that you need to take a rest. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:39 pm
Out of respect for laguna |
| Laguna | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:41 pm
Enough with the flaming, Super. Edit your post. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:44 pm
Done, out of respect for you laguna |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:45 pm
Josias,
The only change is the removal of purchasing of gold coins for game money.
No other changes.
The awards tonight are awards for February.
The change in awards will take place with the awards for March, after the change in the game takes place.
Arccuk,
Trading remains. if you feel that selling nuclear weapons for gold coins is a way of gaining gold coins, then yes. there are more ways.
Nothing changes.
all trading remains unchanged.
Super,
There is a limit to what we take and we have removed players from the forum before.
please stop telling me how this game should work.
You should realize that the more aggresively you try to make us change, the less seriously your comments are being taken.
We are learning a lot from our players but recently I learned nothing from you. |
| Crafty | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:54 pm
Sigh, I was never rude or disparaging. I merely ask questions. I point out that the rewards for war levels are limited, unlike the ongoing score awards which I cant win every month, and I get told not to be rude.
I regularly play to win awards, notice my chase on two different worlds and a couple of CEOs today to achieve 1st place. It is entirely un-called for to say I am lazy and resting on a pile of GC.
Thats my last on it. I hope all of us can be more reasonable tomorrow. Good night. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:55 pm
(Not being aggressive)
Andy
I understand there is a limit, infact i believe youve banned me a few times which we have dicussed. And i have in the past apologized for my actions, im not above admitting or apologizing if i relize i have made a wrong choice.
You should also know people are the most agressive when they are the MOST passionate. I Enjoy this game very much, you know i have advertized and brought a good amount of players, and educated a good amount of players.
I want this game to do well if i didnt i would have stayed for 4years.
If youve learned nothing from me then thats both parties issue, I know im hard to work with and agressive in nature. Thats who i am and my lifestyle. Im not above stating that.
If i make a suggestion im only posting a suggestion and giving an idea, you are to do with it as you please. Ive only posted suggestions that i believe would help or ive posted problem that most players also complain about.
Im not trying to be rude in this message im trying to tell you what im seeing and feeling. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:58 pm
Laguna,
I am sorry to say this here but you are rewriting history.
You did not cancel your countries until they bankrupted.
I happened to see it because it was a large account and it went down quickly. cancelling before bankruptcy would probably have saved most of the assets.
You did not extend the account and was a visitor on the chat with an expired account.
People were asking me to fix this bug.
I don't understand the need to show that you knew it all in advance. |
| Borg Queen | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 10:59 pm
If there is an increase of the GCs won for Game Levels reached, will it be a retroactive one? Meaning the Players that allready have reached higher game levels will get the difference or will it just be for Game Levels yet to be reached? |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:03 pm
Super,
Thanks for this.
You know we are open for suggestions but they must be suggestions. The decisions are taken at the W3creative office.
This one is a change we did not expect established player to love but is it not as bad as it looks. It is in fact a great improvement.
It is also very specific and will be implemeted. |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:10 pm
The change in awards is linked to the change in the gold coins exchange.
Currently, gold coins are being bought for cash as is in the current system. There is no need to go back or do you expect us to go back and also cancel all the gold coins for cash transactions in the past months?
Nobody want that. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:16 pm
Thanks Andy
You and I do have sorted past. We can be agressive but you know i do have respect for you and the GM's in general. I Lead 13Men i understand how hard that is Let ALONE!!! having to deal with all of us at once.
Please dont think i dont understand that.
You know when we the players all have Questions on these updates its not becuase he are angry but becuase we are unsure. Everytime something changes do you not get Nervious?
One thing players and myself feel is disconnected from you in general.
(not being mean just stating)
when we come on and bring up suggestions or a discussion we are attacked, post deleted, and edited. ( Which is also OUR fault aswell, im not blaming only you)
When that happens we feel attacked and become agressive which leads you to be agressive back, which leads us to what we have now.
Several years ago we had Jozi Chats where we had more communication and chances to share ideas. Right now we dont have that communication and we dont feel as we are being listened to.
Andy if the GM wants i will PERSONALLY help you guys, i dont mean to attack or be rude. All we want is more help and communication. If you where to come into chat for 30mins a day and answer Q players have i would BEAT ANYTHING that players would be much more happier.
All we want is communication and more info form the GM.
When you brought up mobile units we wondered costs, units, troops numbers? We only got half the info which cuased specualation which leads us to post ideas and get these issues of mis-info.
If you like im in chat and i like to work with you to see what we can do. You want player insight and i want communication.
Im not being mean i ONLY want to help |
| Andy | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:18 pm
Crafty,
I am sorry if I over reacted but your text included descriptions of our decision in terms we consider unacceptable on our forum.
I never called you lazy but did suggest that you are one of the players with very high assets who could go on for a long time with no need for gold coins.
We should all look at how this is for beginners who are unable to offer 90T for 2000 gold coins and who see this as a hopeless place where they will never be able to compete.
we are determined to give them a fighting chance and an interesting game. |
| Borg Queen | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:24 pm
Not what I ment, but ok.
Do you allready have some roundabout numbers on how the awards will change?
And will there be implemented more high Game Levels or will those allready in the game be splitt up?
Meaning for example Instead of lvl 1-16 right now and 1-25 then will those additional levels be harder to reach then the lvl 16 before or will lvl 25 equal former lvl 16 so there will be more lower levels to reach?
Just asking as when you want to reach Game lvl 5 Peaceful or lvl 7 Full Game now you need to get an enterprise which does increase the money you have to pay (RL-Money) by 50%, if you buy those at the best rate (36$ for the 9 Month Package + 1/2 of the 36$ GC Package for the remaining 180GC you need in those 9 months for your enterprise) and at the moment you reach those levels quite fast |
| Laguna | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:29 pm
This isn't supposed to be about me or anyone, but to set the record straight.
I didn't say I cancelled them. I allowed them to get cancelled (didn't pay registration). It is slightly different, practically the same, but don't confuse them.
By bankrupt do you mean having the maximum in debt, but still having Qs in assets? My LU empire was another bankrupt empire a month ago. It is rather amusing how bankrupt means 44,394.23 GC in the game.
I knew my account better than you. I knew how I could milk for every last gold coin in it. Still I didn't, because I didn't care. And you do see I didn't care, because I allowed my account to expire for awhile. But that isn't the reason why I'm still flagged as a visitor in chat; that happened the day you removed me from modship in the forum - months before any of this.
Point: I allowed most of my account to get cancelled and - to give your bit - to get mismanaged.
If you still think you are right, publish the numbers for my entire account the day most of it got cancelled. If you still have a bone to pick with me, you know my e-mail. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:39 pm
We should all look at how this is for beginners who are unable to offer 90T for 2000 gold coins and who see this as a hopeless place where they will never be able to compete.
Andy i AGREE!!!
Ive always been for new player aid. The problem is players who have been here 4years and had Q have done this over years and these new players want to be instantly stimulated to these higher levels.
Maybe awards are nice but they should be relective.
Highest Education index?
Highest Health index?
Highest Welfare?
Biggest Army(manpower)?
Biggest Army(manpower + Q)?
Smallest Army(manpower)?
Smallest Army(manpower + Q)?
Biggest Economy(Most productions made in SC$)?
Country with most income?
Do this for Everyone in 4 sections
Players who have been here 0-90Days(3months),
People who have been here 3-6months, 6months-12months, 12months +
Dont just give top 3 countries but give these awards. See the awards i just suggested encompass everyone and give 40people per world coins. Then on top of that have hall of famers for these catagories, which save to there profiles and countries pages. If someone sees this person in reconized they might strive to be better to compete with this person. |
| Andy | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 12:11 am
We do not have any more details now.
will publish later.
laguna,
I don't need to have this discussiuon but I don't think you should place high handed messages and make it sound like you know it all in advance.
Some more content will help too.
If you claim to know about the game, constructive responses and constructive criticism will help.
I have urged you to do so in the past, and so did my predecessors, including the call for criticism and there were times you did.
The awards system will not be made more complex and rewarding single indexes does not make sense, it will create education systems nobody needs that will eat money for ever. It should be balanced and the score is OK on balance.
In any case, these new players are not served with a gold coins market where players offer huge amounts of game money to purchase numbers of gold coins these new players see as out of reach. |
| Borg Queen | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 12:28 am
I think the thing Super was aiming at is that the problem for newer players will be to get any awards at all if there are enough experienced players.
And a problem I see is that if you dont get any awards and lets say you are a quite new player but have an empire and two enterprises as you want to compete with older players you have to pay more then twice of what you have now in RL-Cash (of course in comparison to buying those extra GCs you need for the enterprises through the direct trading), what could be downturning for those new players. But that is one of the things I'm looking forward on how W3C solves it. |
| James the Fair | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:02 am
Yeah i've seen your idea on the voting page Supersolier and I agree with you, declaring war on C3s to win and gain gold coins instead of taking it's country and cash is what I was talking about here, but maybe not award you with that many gold coins like your suggestion says as the direct trading market would be flooded with them. All i'm asking the GM is only to give us a few coins for winning C3 wars as every penny counts as its certainly going to be now.
'It comes before more fundamental changes that will introduce missions and change the dynamics of Simcountry.' Andy
I would certainly like to hear more about doing these 'missions' what you have got planned. I know another online game called 'The West' and has missions in it but it's not like you have to do them though, which I presume will be the same in this game?
Anyway as my last posting here I just hope a lot of new functions will make up for this great loss, since I can't buy the population, upgrades and boosters like I did, especially for the larger players though. |
| SweetPea | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:08 am
Andy, my only problem with this is the supply side. About producing goods that sell for GC, you aren't taking into account the inability/difficulty to get GC in the first place. This new change will likely make players hold on to their GC tighter. If gaining GC is going to be difficult, spending for goods and populations to expand is going to slow because no one will have coins to spend in a discretionary fashion.
Not to nag, but this feels like a forced reset, regardless of how long it takes or how it is presented. Once all avenues of rewards are exhausted what will players have to do then? Pay out of pocket, or reset your account in order to be eligible for awards again.
If you want to get rid of GC, then just switch every good or service to a denomination of cash in the gc equivalent, and gold coins go away, no harm no foul.
You can't keep rewarding dedicated players with a swift kick in the nuts and expect veteran players to express how good it feels. Saying that vets complaining about a sore groin is evidence of a great move, is shocking.
Every avenue of income has been cut off; inactive raiding, population selling, country selling, virtual asset exchange and so on.
War is remarkably expensive despite the reductions in costs. I know what your response is to this claim. However, when costs are compared to the drop in incomes as well, there is little change except the many features that will drive players to add additional costs like weapon upgrades and mobile units.
________________________________________
I'm going to make an assumption about this and other moves, and then present an alternative that if you care discuss further, can be done through email.
Assuming revenue is the issue for the game atm, you are going about increasing that revenue the wrong way.
W3C wants to increase revenue, period.
The game has to be more fun, more profits, more war, less restrictions and more avenues of income. It is all 1's and 0's! Reducing numbers so much isn't necessary toward the end profitability and revenue.
It appears the strategy is to increase the amount of revenue per player to the company. You could achieve many more memberships by reversing exactly what you are trying to accomplish.
Would you rather have 20 players paying 75$ or more a year on average to play, or would you want 1000 players paying 50$. This is basic.
You could make this game far more attractive to old and new player alike, and I have proven it in many ways with some degree of success as far as playing the game to produce a real profit through asset exchange. w3c can replicate the same result, by allowing players to do more for less. It would actually keep older players at home and add a real incentive for free accounts to go premium.
I don't want to tickle anyone's mind specific ideas, but I would be happy to place them in an email for you if you want to discuss it. You have 3 problems- revenue from customers, Keeping vets happy and in the game and free player to premium conversion. These can all be solved quite easily by taking another approach. |
| aggrocragger89 | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:09 am
A better option might be just to simply raise registration fees.
Andy:
You said this
Quote:In the near future there will be four ways for anyone to obtain gold coins in Simcountry.
1. Purchase gold coins from Simcountry or extend your account.
2. Win Game Awards
3. Win Game Level Awards
4. Win War Level Awards
Option 1 is to pay more money to simcountry.
Options 3 and 4 are limited to a one time achievement.
Option 2 requires extreme skill to earn enough gold coins to come close to breaking even. If I understand you correctly, your score is then penalized so you will have more difficulty winning awards for the next few months. You will thus have no way of paying your registration fees unless you then purchase gold coins from simcountry. This option really is only available to the best premium members. The winners will then have enough gold coins to maybe pay for their registration fees, while those who don't win will not come close. |
| SweetPea | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:12 am
Membership costs don't need to be increased. PERIOD.
What needs to be increased is FUNABILITY, and in a big way.
The most recent changes have hampered funability. Increase this aspect, and more people will not only play simcountry, but they won't mind paying to play, and vets won't mind staying. FUNABILITY is probably given the lowest priority when these changes are being introduced, and the result shows. |
| Andy | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:20 am
Beginners do not have many countries and they do not have an enterprise.
They have one or two countries and they receive many gifts in gold coins, money and population during the first weeks.
using these assets, and having a profitable country as these countries are, they will be able to develop quickly.
Reaching game level 2 and 3, with the extra bonus if they become full members, they will have 90 gold coins more. we see this taking place all the time.
At that stage, a lower award could be within reach and winning the following game levels is also not too difficult.
we will test this scenario and make sure it is possible. |
| Gaz | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:25 am
Very well said Wendy. +1 |
| Andy | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:36 am
We do not want to increase membership fees at this time. That is not the issue.
The aim is mainly to get people play the game instead of chasing the gold coins exchange.
Win them if you can.
We are also not looking for any suggestions on this.
I think it is quite clear. We are making a very small change in a single feature the rest will not change at all.
Fun is good.
Playing is more fun than sitting there, watching your countries make a profit each month and shout if it goes down a bit.
There will be more playing, and the mission game will add continous functionality with missions going on 24/7.
Any suggestions as to what kind of missions will be fun are welcome.
Please spend your precious time to make useful suggestion we can all enjoy.
Missions will be taken care of by mission vehicles/or units, that will move freely but not cross water without transportation.
what they do, or discover unerway, what kind of rewards, surprises, gold coins and special capability certificates is partially defined but a lot can be added.
so be constructive and come up with some ideas.
Advanced missions will have more capabilities, will be attacked underway to inherit their troves or missions and the missions might be aggressive in nature.
Everything is open.
The technology is close to ready, now the mission definitions. fill in the data. The servers will have to be upgraded before we go live with many simulatanous missions. |
| Jiang Hu Warrior | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:44 am
2 |
| SweetPea | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:46 am
I was under the impression that this was an economic and country/empire simulation game.
Missions, etc, is going to make the game a strategy/shooter? |
| James the Fair | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:50 am
Andy you can delete this message but I just want to tell you that i've just posted a mission subject on the suggestions page, I hope you appreciate it. |
| Stephen Ryan | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 01:56 am
If members purchase gc with there own hard earned money then they should be able too spend it whatever way they wish ie buying game money the coins are still being purshased from w3creative. |
| Josias | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 02:38 am
well tell us more about missions, it sounds like we can gain GC amoung other things, and that we can repeat them? sounds allot like an updated version of C3 raiding, with maybe less conquest oriented goals. like when cuntry resources are introduced, obtaining an Oil resource might provide like 50 professional soldiers, 50 tons of oil, 10 gc, and amybe 1T cash, in addition to controlling the oil resource?
something like that? |
| SweetPea | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 02:49 am
Pointless, tiring, burdensome, confusing, frustrating, astounding, shocking developments.
You guys are creating an enormous workload. |
| Stephen Ryan | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:04 am
I been playing this game for over ten years how about a long service leave entitlement. |
| Lord Lee | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:18 am
I don't understand. |
| Madoff | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:24 am
If someone suggests that this game has become a "gold coin merry-go-round," the post gets deleted.
The powers that be do not want this game accused of being a gold coin merry-go-round.
Therefore, I have learned my lesson.
I formally apologize to the community for yesterday implying that this game is a gold coin merry-go-round.
I will no longer refer to this game as a gold coin merry-go-round. |
| Lord Lee | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:30 am
"Exchanging gold coins for game money will become the domain of the game. Gold coins will be exchanged at a fixed rate."
This is very confusing Andy because the above quotation of what you wrote means we can trade game money for gold coins. |
| Lord Lee | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:34 am
Will it be possible to exchange our game money for US Dollars then? |
| Jackseptic | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:49 am
do the changes ever stop ?...wheres the game i signed up to play only 2 short years ago ? |
| Serpent | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 04:57 am
Its like this guys and gals, The GM's want to change the game. They have been making changes, for many of us we feel some changes for the better, some not.
But its apparent they want to make some drastic changes and each of us will have to ask the question that Andy said earlier... and I quote...
Quote:The truth is, that you need to decide how much interest you have in the game and how much you are asble and willing to win and contribute to keep an account.
They say these are changes that will definitely happen and are not open for discussion. So no need to try to change their minds, wont happen. So with this new version of the game they envision we will have to
Quote:decide how much interest you have in the game and how much you are asble and willing to win and contribute to keep an account.
Who knows, maybe we will like this new version of the game better, I suppose we will have to wait and see. |
| NiAi | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 06:25 am
""Exchanging gold coins for game money will become the domain of the game. Gold coins will be exchanged at a fixed rate."
This is very confusing Andy because the above quotation of what you wrote means we can trade game money for gold coins. "
I take this to mean that you will be able to spend your GC for game money. Only W3C will sell you game money. It a single way street, you cant sell game money to GM or anyone. Thats how i interpretet the game change. Not sure if its a good or bad change yet. Its does take the game back more to its roots pre-GC era, which i'd enjoyed. |
| bigsatanloaf | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 06:55 am
How does exchanging SC money for gold coins disadvantage newer players?
I understand that experienced players have surplus cash to buy gold coins, but does it necessarily disadvantage newer players or just encourage them to raise profits and do the same thing?
I'm a new (premium) player, and sincerely do not understand how this change helps. It seems easier to make money than to compete for best president.
I look forward to hearing more about missions, and hope they don't all involve the war game, which doesn't interest me. Inasmuch as the game is a simulation, the vast majority of countries use modest armies as a deterrent to outside aggression. We all know the single superpower exception to this general rule.
Suggestion: missions involving research and technology. A flu pandemic rages throughout a world or continent or subcontinent and whoever invests enough to develop the vaccine is rewarded with coins and/or cash and/or exclusive right to build corporations that produce and distribute highly valuable vaccine.
I also agree with W3C that it is awkward to exchange SC cash for gold coins instead of investing it in the game. If the overall cost is roughly the same, but the incentive is to invest SC cash in our countries/enterprises instead of buying gold coins, then I think W3C made a great decision.
Much love & respect. |
| Borg Queen | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 09:10 am
Andy, about missions:
In my impression the really only missions that would fit in the game are missions like: Get your Welfare index up to 135 for 6 months or conquer country xxx in the next 6 months and the like.
Indiana-Jones style missions like: Set up a Science-Trek to explore the Maja-Treasures on Continent xxx would be not really fitting in my opinion as it would be watering the concept of empire and enterprise managing but acceptable.
About the point you mentioned in your original post:
'This change will bring us back to the situation when good players used the money they earn, to build their economy, extend their empires, purchase weapons and fight wars'
I got a question: Will there be the possibility to buy population or countries with SC$? At the moment the only way to use the SC$ you earn in the long run is fighting wars because when you have good-exellent indexes there is almost no money to invest in infrastructure/economy. And extending your empire by waring C3s doesnt help your other countrys for quite some time as you cant transfer population until they reach 20m pop which takes quite a long time when you dont buy population.
I'm just wondering as I used the SC$ I earned to buy GCs to increase population=build up economy and also bought countrys=extend empire so at the moment I only hope I wont be limited to war with my SC$s earned. |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 09:25 am
Andy
I have an honest suggestion for you.
My last post was about warring C3 for cash you stated there was very little risk. Why don't we do this?
keep war levels up to 10 as is
but war level 11 you can completely. Randomize it!
let's say in 1 scenario its 40inters and 25helis, scenario 2 is 50helis and 15 inters?
Change it up every war would be different have it pick a number between 1 and 50, each war is a different amount of units no war is ever the same, inters, Helios, lords, defence units, number of stealth, even garrison sizes randomize them.
MAKE them different. On top of it set a timer say you have 120mins to win the war. With a timer and a totally unknown set of units players would war without knowing what is needed ahead of time meaning if they fail they lose a lot of weapons and ammo (simulating some risk).
The reward 150 or 200GC per war.
if I had to fight a randomize war it be different each time I'd like it I'd find it fun and worth while. |
| Josias | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 09:34 am
andy,
in preparation to this, how many gold coins could i expect to gain via awards, and mission? as in, how much of my stuff should i be expecting to cut? i'm already trying to firgure that part out. their are things i don't need, and things i do. how much stuff should i expect to cut? |
| Stephen Ryan | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 10:38 am
Just slice ur account back too a main lol |
| Tom Fitzpatrick | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 02:04 pm
Ok, I'm going to go out on a limb here and be the heretic of the group, change can be exciting and I'm looking forward to watching the changes in player behavior ripple through the simulation. My one concern could be account downsizing en masse, however the creative team view this as an acceptable risk and I trust their judgement.
My Question is more to players, after these changes you won't be able to transfer SC$ profits into gold coins, so what will you spend your huge surpluses on? The ultimate answer will be intriguing, particularly for CEO's who have reached their Corp limit and can't reinvest their profits in more corps, and, not being a nation, can't spend it on the well-being of their citizens.
So I pose the Question to u, the Upper Class and Wealthy of the SimCountry Solar System, what shall you do with your wealth when amassing Gold Coins is no longer an option? |
| SweetPea | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 02:14 pm
Nothing, as it happens now. There isn't much worth doing but if this is an economic simulation, profits should be able to be accumulated for when you do want to do something. It might be war, it might be populations or a new country.
It is strange that the lure of this game is(or was when I registered) to build up assets and and possibly turn them into a real asset, through conquest or through a sound economy. Now that whole concept is flipped on its head. Not a consideration of this is taken into account when decisions are made. The impossibility of this being a two way street definitely poses a problem for me in the sense that this prospect of gold coins going away essentially ends that possibility that originally lured me into the game. |
| Crafty | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 05:22 pm
Yet another thing to point out here -
These missions: They are going to need special units right, what are we going to need to buy these units? GC? to possibly gain GC from these missions one is going to need GC to invest. OK, a few of us can probably afford that, I just spent many GC on mobile units, but the new player?
These missions are hardly going to open up the game for new players are they, in fact they will just be the domain of GC rich players I would guess, using them as a way to gain more GC to maintain their huge accounts. I dunno...
I mean, as a stand alone part of the game, they sound pretty cool to me. They could well introduce some 'funability', and that is what the game needs and the GM wants. Great, but will they help involve the new player? I hope it is worked so it does.
It just all seems like the bad old days of Labour politics in the UK. Penalise the rich so they up and move to other tax zones in an attempt to close the social divide. Are the poor any better off? no. One needs to concentrate on making their lot better than reducing others. |
| SweetPea | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 05:47 pm
I don't think the missions will be fun at all. It completely changes the dynamic of the game I thought we were playing. I thought I was playing an economic/nation simulation game. If I wanted to go on missions, I could join my kids on COD or something like that. Truth be told, missions seem like we are making this game more of an AI type game. It started with c3s that fight back, and now missions. All singular modes of play. It will diminish community and promote self reliance. Community was necessary to play this game successfully even if you played solo. |
| Josias | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 07:51 pm
you know, vets are a dying breed in SC
my only real complaint/question. this change of removing the GC market. Is really gonna give multis a hay-day, as they can pay 12 dollars, gain all the game and war levels they can, and then use any of a variety of methods for transferring the GC. and the guys with one account, wont be able to do that.
so, with this feature change, the multi/sharing issue really needs to be addressed. please. |
| Rick | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 08:42 pm
To quote William Bendix in "The Life of Riley"..."What a revoltin' development this is"
Considering Andy's statement from the first post...
"This change will bring us back to the situation when good players used the money they earn, to build their economy, extend their empires, purchase weapons and fight wars."
Playing the game in the above manner renders large account over time.
That is exactly what I've been doing for the past five years. Consequently I have a large account, 7 CEOs and 23 countries across all worlds.
It's been a real challenge, time consuming, and requires you to adapt and pay attention to detail.
And it's not easy, it's anything but easy.
At the end of the day, the game is a lot of fun and a challenge, worth every penny I've ever put into it.
The players are fun, what a collection of "characters".
Perhaps there are large accounts, and then there are LARGE ACCOUNTS. Maybe a real problem exists there, I don't have a clue.
Guess we will just have to wait and see how it shakes out. I do totally agree with Wendy, hope that it doesn't turn into a mission driven game. |
| Rick | Friday, March 1, 2013 - 08:50 pm
Reconsidering the "missions" aspect.
If they were simple enough and cheap enough and aimed at lower level players, it may help quite a bit at integrating them into the game. |
| T Mac | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 01:32 am
To answer NiAi's questions, gold coins will be able to be exchanged for game coin. The inverse of this equation is not true. You cannot exchange game coin for gold coin. It does not, as you suggest, say that you can exchange sim coin for the gold coin. It does say that the rate for exchange from gold to sim will be standardized. |
| seven_devils | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 02:58 am
*throws a shoe at T_Mac.
You have totally lost me wif all that coin talk! lol |
| Putter | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 05:51 am
i dont know what took place here, or opening up old wounds or what not. i left, i did, until i see improvment i will come back. but when i see this in the first few comments of this thread i almost died laughing bbut then i got real sad, i saw this same argument the day i was kicked for voicing my opinon on the way things are ran. this is old news. ..." Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 04:21 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crafty, this might be your solution and you are welcome to have your choice.
Your position is that we must allow you to win enough gold coins each month to keep whatever set of empires you want.
The truth is, that you need to decide how much interest you have in the game and how much you are asble and willing to win and contribute to keep an account.
The choice is yours.
Your reaction is exactly what convinces me that management took here a great decision."
so basicly he's telling you to "PAY UP" your a long time player, now, pay up! but, you didnt expect that did you? you spent buildind HUGE emipires across several planets, YEARS in the making... now TRAPPED.. all this time "MONTHS and MONTHS" what to do.... delete half your great empire? or buy it with real money?... for as long as you want to keep it no matter how much your empire creats.. hmmm, i had a huge empire across several planets, one single county now.. free by the way. checking in now and again hoping things will change, same "SH^&" differnt year. It was a great game |
| Putter | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 06:03 am
its just numb sculling seeing the GM's responces, seriously... we are smarter then that. Opps, should i phrase that as a question? or will this be deleted also? |
| Putter | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 06:16 am
and this is a forum where we discuse, at least i thought. not to delete ones thoughts, it is a forum. unless its swearing or races or what not, if its directed at the game, its relivant. |
| Putter | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 06:41 am
let the players talk amongst them selves in freedom. paying members. respect us. |
| Tom Morgan | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 07:32 am
Wow. Just wow.
Why must the game continue to change? |
| SuperSoldierRCP | Saturday, March 2, 2013 - 06:38 pm
Andy why?
I was accully supporting you in that last post.
*sigh*
(wonders if it got read) |
| Jackseptic | Monday, March 4, 2013 - 03:32 am
so true putter |
