The struggle for Troops production is real.

__________________________
We have wings on our backs and we have horns on our heads, our fangs are sharp and our eyes are red, we're not quite demons or the one that fell, so choose to join us or go straight to hell!

Loyal as any dog.

Game is too slowed pace which makes sence when it was created.
Nowadays it's just too old, too slow.

Just to throw some more ideas into the mix:

I think new players these days need competition. I just entered the noob arena and have found it to be a solo venture. Skylords was not meant to be a solo game and as such things like buildings attack/invisible ships are useless for a new player. I have another new player in the noob arena with me and the only interaction we've had is a little scuffle in the BZ. That was very fun, the idea of hunting down another player and burning through uranium. Having to maintain uranium supply on your ship with the help of a transport.

Now that that is over Skylords (at only day two) has turned into a monotonous experience where I am left just harvesting my planets with no purpose. Because I've played before, I know that there will be more difficult competition in the real arena. But for a new player who has never played this game before two weeks in the noob arena is like drifting through an empty void. Also judging by the recent news and certain on the forums it seems like even once a new player enters the real arena there is very little competition now days.

I noticed that Skylords now has an alien invasion system to help stimulate activity. Maybe we could expand that to the noob arena, and even increase the capabilities of these invasions. Maybe an AI player (such as the aliens) could actually put up a challenge for players instead of just SPC planets. It could be an intergalactic raiding force of sorts. We could have this AI carry out attacks on a player scaled to their stats or empire size. An example would be having the AI attack planets and homeworlds of players. While the initial harassment could be no more than an annoyance, maybe taking out some turrets or only capturing a couple production planets, a player may find ignoring the raid to be devastating to their empire. Again the harassment could be scaled to each individual player so a new player fresh into the real arena might get pirated or have a couple production planets taken, while a multi-hw veteran could receive considerable damage to their homeworlds or even have chains followed. This new or improved AI could also be capable of harassing players in and out of the BZ with ships. Currently there is not much danger in looking for the warp to find planets so the 1 in 3 chance of finding some planets to go after is really unbalanced. By having an AI searching the BZ for ships to destroy we could actually have exhilarating dogfights even when not many players are online to oppose you.

These are just some initial ideas I've had after being back for a couple days, especially seeing the game through the perspective from the noob arena. I will continue to expand and critique these, let me know if you have any criticism.

__________________________
Previous Aliases:
JR Scovill
Future SL Ruler
Reaper Of Souls
Reaper Of Souls2
ReaperOfSouls90
RosReborn

I feel that the probing tutorial is really good but could be expanded with a picture or a visual representation.

It's really good, but I feel that a visual representation would help with how it works. It says to scan +1500 or -1500 on all axis (x:y:z), and there are eight axis combinations and eight systems to be found (meaning the chain of planets can be replaced).

Maybe the starting planet in the center, and 4 dots forming a cube around the planet to represent each probe.

- - - would be the back left bottom corner of the cube
+ + + would be the front right top corner of the cube
- + - would be the back right bottom corner of the cube
+ - + would be the front left top corner of the cube
+ - - would be the front left bottom corner of the cube
- - + would be back left top corner of the cube
+ + - would be the front right bottom corner of the cube
- + + would be the back right top corner of the cube.

So it's like probing in every direction from a system. The tutorial gives 8 systems which lets you get rid of the chain and keep one planet in the center of all the captured ones, surrounding the other planets if all planets are obtained.

__________________________
I've escaped the narcissists gaslighting campaign.

It's been a few weeks.

I really really really really really think that newbie missions should be updated to include training an assault ship.

I tried this game several years ago but never could get any "activity" because I didn't understand why training an assault ship was necessary as a newbie or why I'd "waste" the 1.5m troops to do it.

But one trained assault ship would let a newbie go hog wild with activity and would let them take resources from planets to expand quickly.

I think the tutorial should have this in it. It would give a new player something to do and a way to grow quickly, and would probably promote aggression instead of passive gathering (a mindset that I was stuck in the first time I tried this game several years ago) since taking resources from SP planets builds wealth quickly at a very low cost (and a small up front cost). It'd also encourage players to attack planets with less than 2m defense on them without having to worry about losing a large amount of troops, such as production planets that belong to other players.

-And maybe an emphasis on not going click crazy and crashing a trained assault ship by accident q.q

I hope that this is a good suggestion.

__________________________
I've escaped the narcissists gaslighting campaign.

As a newbie, training an assault should happen naturally while capturing nearby spc planets and gathering the 5k per resource, If you're training a ship lower than 500k capacity it's a waste of troops, if you're training without any planet to capture with 500k+ defense that is player owned, then you're wasting troops. Newbies don't need trained assaults, especially not while still in the newbie arena.

Perhaps a real arena ship training guide, similar to newbie missions, but for once players enter the real arena.

You say one trained assault would let a newbie go hog wild, but as a newbie you should be focused on building up defensive resources to create a homeworld that won't be destroyed right away when you lose immunity. (This isn't so much an issue with the current level of activity)
A crashed assault with any number of troops can be particularly devastating early on in the game, because it takes a while to gather defensive resources, and capture planets, and not leave chains, etc.
Please don't take this as me being overly critical, none of it was meant as an attack.

__________________________
We have wings on our backs and we have horns on our heads, our fangs are sharp and our eyes are red, we're not quite demons or the one that fell, so choose to join us or go straight to hell!

Loyal as any dog.

Not a problem, though I do disagree (and I'd like to think that my activity and placement from last round should support my reasoning explained below).

I trained an assault ship while in newbie arena after capturing all the planets in 3 days (and waiting while sucking my thumb to exit newbie arena for the full two weeks, I followed the newbie arena instructions to the letter), and still built my planets defenses in time before exiting. During the immunity period I did, indeed, go "hog wild" and attacked every SPC I saw while spreading out to more desirable planets and building my homeworld's defenses. I had a "defendable homeworld" by the time my immunity ended.

In all honesty, having the trained assault ship straight out of newbie arena, from my viewpoint, is one of the main focal points of my activity. Not having a trained assault ship would have reduced my interest in playing the game since my activity would have been reduced to "log in, harvest, capture a few planets, log out."

But this may have to do with me having a different view of the game (and again, this is coming from a "newbie" ).

-Suggestion still stands, though I can agree that having a bonus mission to train an assault ship during immunity would be better than in newbie arena.

My suggestion is meant to keep newbies interested in the game instead of passive gathering (since having a ship to capture lots of planets is literally 80% of my activity and harvesting/"building defenses" comprises of very very little of my time playing this game, not because I don't do it but because it takes 30 minutes a day or every other day to do) and losing interest. Were it not for my ability to actually attack stuff to get loot, my interest in the game wouldn't be as high as it is now (this is the focal point of my suggestion, newbie arena, in my opinion, doesn't promote "growth" in the real arena and promotes passive play instead. Passive play doesn't promote interest in the game).

The main goal of my suggestion: To keep newbies interested in playing the game. Passive gathering and a passive mindset aren't what keep people interested. I hear suggestions of promoting competition to keep new players interested, and this is one of the best ways to do it IMO due to how many points can simply be had from just clearing nearby planets, hunting aliens, and hunting for x20's to keep.

__________________________
I've escaped the narcissists gaslighting campaign.