Mapping, Spoilers, Making a buck policy questions . . .

[adam__moore]

Some bits and pieces I've been mulling . . .

1. I'm pretty sure I know where a black hole is - how do I go about sharing that info? I could put it inside a SPOILER tag - but the mobile client doesn't respect them in thread view - do I add [SPOILER] or [MAPPING] to the thread title? Does anyone care? Do we need a game-specific thread for maps?

2. Some of us OCD completists MAY, I say *MAY* be using the new screencap emails and a ton of probes to photoshop stitch a giant sector level view map together and be building a system to generate dynamic interactive maps from probe data. (Aside - I may have been involved in some GIS work, once :) What is Zarksoft's attitude to me sticking it behind a pay wall? Actually not really thinking of doing this (the paywall bit) - but I think it might be a useful policy area to explore - and I'd be interested on views as the naming policy is perhaps the clearest and best example of an MMO policy I've read in recent years. Game info and item trading are interesting areas (well, to me, anyway! OTOH my friend is doing a PhD in MMO sociology so it might just be my crowd!)

3. Galaxy 3.0 is pretty much one big black hole - I'd avoid it! No, really - stay away - it's for your own protection!

Adam / Gurion

[Spartanius]

Set course for galaxy 3.0, there be treasure there!

[Cheerio]

Set course for galaxy 3.0, there be treasure there!

funny thing.. this birdie i got has been telling me to go there. i wonder if its a trap?

not sure if i can say anything policy wise, but on a personal level i wouldn't pay for something like that and would tend to be against having pay to give yourself advantages. i think one of the overall aims of this game is to make it casual so that someone who doesn't put in too much in the way of time resources can still be competitive.

[Spartanius]

Oh Adam, about the pay wall the Zarksoft team has said over and over again they are not willing to make users pay anything beyond the subscription cost to play the game or any parts of it. They believe it ruins games to do that when people can pay for advantages and they wanted to make sure this game isn't one of those things. You should be able to do a search and find their posts on it.

[adam__moore]

Just to clarify - this is not about Zarksoft switching to freemium but a third party making money out of assets developed from playing the game - think the ever popular/loved (Infamous is the better term?) WoW Gold Farmers. There isn't the same item market potential as places like EverQuest and WoW but just think about terraforming a system the dropping all defenses to pass it on to somebody - I'd be fairly sure we we all know of some kind of exploitation of in-game expertise / equipment for external gain - so I'm interested in the team's views.

And I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be attractive to anyone in the beta but we're not the whole market, are we?

Oh, and I'd not listen to that bird if I were you, Cheerio - he sold me some beans last month and all I got was a <pun>giant weed problem</pun> in the back yard!

[zarkwizard]

I suppose people could make maps of the place... but there are a few interesting things to keep in mind as far as map "farming"

In a real game the grid is 90,000 sectors with 1500 people. The center portion of the universe will be larger than the current one, and you need to be at least tech level 5 to not be insta-killed. Sure you could take screen shots and piece together a map, there is no mechanic stopping you, in fact with the new screenshot feature you have that ability.

For someone to uncover the whole map you would have to explore it. The map is not kept on the client, and is only updated as something is encountered. Once you leave the game the map is gone. There is no client storage of the map.

If a couple of guys want to take screenshots and piece the map together it's going to take more time that it would to probably explore the stuff yourself. I'm better off telling you some place to avoid, rather than piecing the map together.

Also ever map is different. It's not like this map is the map everyone gets. Every map is a unique map created by "The Big Bang". Each time you play the game the universe and your placement is totally different. I personally don't care if someone wants to make maps and try to flog them in the real world. Sounds like a lot of work.

We have no desire to turn this in to a freemium game, we would really like to move in the direction of a game based on your skill, rather than a game based on who has the most money. What fun would the game be if I could spend a few 100$ and buy my skills up to a planet killer, and then buy ore to churn or 50 PKs in a day, then fly around just destroying people.

Just my 2c on the freemium model and buying your way to victory.

[Spartanius]

What fun would the game be if I could spend a few 100$ and buy my skills up to a planet killer, and then buy ore to churn or 50 PKs in a day, then fly around just destroying people.

Just my 2c on the freemium model and buying your way to victory.

Hmm... you speak from experience don't you lol