Author Topic: Change in Time Pool  (Read 3442 times)

JPierreD

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Change in Time Pool
« Topic Start: July 10, 2011, 10:16:42 PM »
Well, this thread is based on much said in this thread, specially this:

Quote
In eRepublik V1, one of the things I liked most was the "2 click" concept. It was figure of speech, of course, but the idea was that if for any reason you had very little time for a while to be as active as normally, you'd be able to keep up with just 2 clicks (one to work, one to train). If you came back you'd find many more options, like in this game most of them socially-related (planning, plotting, organizing). That was putting to practice one concept I saw in the starting page of Battle Master: that you'd be able to play the game spending just 15 minutes a day without getting way too behind. Currently I don't believe such to be truth in here. You can only pool 12 hours with the Warrior Noble, and only 16 hours with the Adventurer or Priest, instead of the 16 and 24 hours you'd need if you were to log in once a day.

Basically it's a personal opinion that many games fail in demanding excessive time from its player base, and not allowing them to take a break from it without cutting their progress. It does make more sense in a commercial game, in where you are stimulated to keep playing no matter what (and usually consuming their products in the process), but it doesn't as much to a game that proposes itself to be able to be played in 15 minutes a day without substantial loss.

The idea is to make things easier to the "2 clickers", with less loss for not being able to log in both turns per day. If you do log in twice a day, the benefits are obviously there, but if you don't, you'll still be able to keep up much better than right now.

So, basically the suggestion is to change the time pools from 12 hours to 16 (for Warrior and Courtier) and from 16 to 24 (for Adventurer and Priest).
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Chenier

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #1: July 10, 2011, 10:18:59 PM »
I agree with the idea behind this, but this would totally wreck balance imo. Two-turn moves would become inexistant, and invading armies will become quite unpredictable as they will be able to mass large ammounts of hours to instantly travel to any adjacent region, regardless of travel times.
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Telrunya

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #2: July 10, 2011, 10:34:47 PM »
Don't we already have the Colonies for that? It's made for people that can't log in as much.

JPierreD

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #3: July 10, 2011, 11:53:58 PM »
Chénier: That can be solved, for example not letting a unit travel through more than one region per turn.
EDIT: No, that is a bad idea, actually that one character cannot travel more than 12 hours per turn. Things would remain the same on that matter, and there wouldn't be possible abuses from it that don't already exist.

Telrunya: I mentioned that on the linked thread. The idea is not only for people who'll never be able to log in twice a day, but for those who'll only be able to log in just once a day for some time, like in a half-active period (college tests, lots of work, holidays), instead of the current active/inactive separation. It would be a way to smooth the border between both of those.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2011, 12:09:45 AM by JPierreD »
d'Arricarrère Family: Torpius (All around Dwilight), Felicie (Riombara), Frederic (Riombara) and Luc (Eponllyn).

Telrunya

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #4: July 11, 2011, 12:48:53 AM »
I don't see the problem. I just had my last exam + birthday and spend most of the time on very low activity. In that timeperiod, I got a Vice-Marshal position, was elected Ruler and RTO'd a region to become Lord with a third Noble. A 16hour timepool won't solve any problems, as Battlemaster already perfectly handles such issues. Colonies is for those that consistently cannot log in twice a day, the rest of the Islands can perfectly handle periods of lowered activity.

Chenier

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #5: July 11, 2011, 05:01:23 AM »
Chénier: That can be solved, for example not letting a unit travel through more than one region per turn.
EDIT: No, that is a bad idea, actually that one character cannot travel more than 12 hours per turn. Things would remain the same on that matter, and there wouldn't be possible abuses from it that don't already exist.

Telrunya: I mentioned that on the linked thread. The idea is not only for people who'll never be able to log in twice a day, but for those who'll only be able to log in just once a day for some time, like in a half-active period (college tests, lots of work, holidays), instead of the current active/inactive separation. It would be a way to smooth the border between both of those.

One could cap travel at 12 hours per turn, but it would still make it easier, overall, to travel great distances between regions. And priests and advies could instantly travel a region or two away more.

Strategists will adapt to there being more hours. For example, I'd make sure my army replenish their hour cap before moving out, therefore giving them 4 more hours of looting upon their arrival than they otherwise would have had. That's 4 extra hours of looting per character per refit cycle. Just something to consider.
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vonGenf

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #6: July 11, 2011, 11:28:01 AM »
I've been logging in only once a day on weekdays for over a year now, and I'm doing fine, thank you. I try to shun marshal positions, that's it.

Following armies is troublesome, sure, but increasing the time pool will not help with that.

The problem with "15 minutes a day" is that it can get impossible to read all messages, not the hours your character get.
After all it's a roleplaying game.

Revan

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #7: July 11, 2011, 11:38:12 AM »
Strategists will adapt to there being more hours. For example, I'd make sure my army replenish their hour cap before moving out, therefore giving them 4 more hours of looting upon their arrival than they otherwise would have had. That's 4 extra hours of looting per character per refit cycle. Just something to consider.

There won't be more hours. Just a higher hour cap. So what's been suggested will simply play havoc with the pacing of BM. Having armies wait around to stack up hours before every engagement doesn't sound any fun to me. Of course, you could always increase the number of hours per turn along with the cap, but then you still have the same relative problem. I feel like we're trying to fix something that isn't broken here.

Chenier

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Re: Change in Time Pool
« Reply #8: July 11, 2011, 01:01:08 PM »
There won't be more hours. Just a higher hour cap. So what's been suggested will simply play havoc with the pacing of BM. Having armies wait around to stack up hours before every engagement doesn't sound any fun to me. Of course, you could always increase the number of hours per turn along with the cap, but then you still have the same relative problem. I feel like we're trying to fix something that isn't broken here.

The hours don't pop out of nowhere, that is true. These 4 extra hours of looting (or other stuff) will be taken from the period before you enter the enemies' lands, meaning that the intervals between attacks will be about one turn longer than before. In other words, the predicted effect of such a change would be that armies would fight slightly less due to a refit time increased by 1 turn but that every strike would deal slightly to moderately more damage due to everyone having 4 more hours worth of actions every attack. This is because armies usually cannot remain to loot for a very long period of time, as after they win battles they are damaged and the enemies' refitted troops could likely defeat them in the next battle if they remain, so those are 4 hours worth of actions that could otherwise not have been taken.
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