Ogame: Lost in Space

Although I had originally intended to expand into other games in this blog, I've decided to continue the next two blog posts by writing about an entirely different problem with the online game OGame (http://ogame.org/) and a possible solution to that problem.

Keeping track of the progress of your fleets.

Expeditions are a relatively new feature to Ogame, and can be accessed by researching the new Astrophysics technology. The new expedition system is also a feature that I believe to have amazing potential, but has sadly not liven up to it. Players with a high enough level in Astrophysics tech may send their fleets out to explore the final frontier, visit places unknown, and explore the vast emptiness of space via going on Expedition missions. Players may have their fleets of star ships explore for a number of hours based on their level of research, and supposedly, the longer your fleets spend exploring, the higher the likelihood that they'll encounter something in their travels. This is a great concept in my opinion, and has the potential for many, many things. Sadly, the amount of things that can be discovered is quite limited and, to make things worse, quite commonly harmful for the player.

When a fleet is sent on an expedition mission, the expedition fleet will randomly experience one of many events. These random events can be broken down into the following:


Combat
The expedition fleet may be attacked by a fleet of aliens or pirates. Combat related events may result in the loss of ships from the expedition fleet, or the loss of the entire expedition fleet itself, and there is no real benefit for partaking in this type of event. If the expedition fleet is victorious in this event, resources are not raided from the defeated, and whether victorious or not, the debris created from this event is lost.

Example: The expeditions fleet reports contact with unknown ships. The sensor readings are not decipherable, but it seems that the alien ships are activating their weapon system.


Benefit
The expedition fleet may acquire new ships or resources. The benefit event is highly dependent on the number and types of ships that the fleet consists of, and the time spent on and between expedition missions.

Example: We met a small convoy of civil ships which needed food and medicine desperately. In exchange to that we got loads of useful resources.


Time
The expedition fleet may be either delayed or hastened on the expedition mission. The amount of Deuterium used by the expedition fleet does not change, and the only real difference between a time related event and that of a nothing event is the amount of time it takes for the expedition fleet to return from the expedition mission.

Example: An unexpected back coupling in the energy spools of the engines hastened the expeditions return, it returns home earlier than expected. First reports tell they do not have anything thrilling to account for.


Special Benefit
The expedition fleet may come in contact with either Dark Matter or a Merchant. Special events are rare, and is often one of the main reasons players partake in expeditions. If a fleet experiences a Dark Matter event, the Dark Matter acquired will not be transported with the expedition fleet, and will instead be automatically added to the player's storage of Dark Matter. Merchant events are even more rare than Dark Matter events. If the expedition fleet experiences a Merchant event, a randomly generated Merchant will automatically be added to the player's Merchant section. If a player already had a Merchant prior to experiencing this event, the new Merchant will take priority and replace the previous Merchant. Outside from Expeditions, Merchants and Dark Matter can only be obtained by purchasing them with real money.

Example: Our expedition took over a ghost ship which was transporting a small amount of Dark Matter. We didn't find any hints of what happened to the original crew of the ship, but our technicians where able to rescue the Dark Matter.


Special Loss
The expedition fleet may be completely destroyed for one reason or another. The chance of obtaining this event is very small, but it is still a possibility.

Example: The last transmission we received from the expedition fleet was this magnificent picture of the opening of a black hole.


Nothing
This one is self explanatory. The expedition fleet may experience nothing of real significance on the expedition mission.

Example: Despite the first, very promising scans of this sector, we unfortunately returned empty handed.


As you can see above, Expeditions have a lot of drawbacks that tend to scare away players in partaking them. As such, I'll address a few possible solutions and ideas in my next blog post to make them that much more better, so stay tuned.

Ogame: Solution to the Star Problem

For this second blog, I want to talk about a solution to a particular problem (as I see it) in the online game, OGame (http://ogame.org/), as I discussed in my first blog post.

The stats of a Death Star with 17 Weapons Tech, 16 Armor Tech, and 16 Shields Tech.

The Death Star is a very powerful ship in Ogame, capable of destroying entire fleets with no losses due to the massive amount of shields, armor, and firepower. Although the Death Star has immense firepower capable of destroying hundreds of ships in a single attack, the real problem is that highly advanced players are capable of using hundreds of Death Stars with no fear of taking any losses at all. Considering how fleet battles are calculated in Ogame, damage tends to be spread out among the number of ships participating in the battle, and Death Stars really require focus fire to destroy these individual behemoths.


The solution to this problem is actually rather straightforward. Why not add a brand new ship that can can be inexpensive when compared to the Death Star and have an incredibly powerful attack that can penetrate the seemly invincible Death Star? Of course, in the name of balance, this new ship would have to have large disadvantages to make up for these options. For one, this new ship should have no Rapidfire, and thus would be incapable of destroying large amounts of ships in a single shot, like what the Death Star could do. It should also be very vulnerable in that other smaller ships could be used to destroy it. It would also have to lack speed, and thus make it more of a defensive platform against the already incredibly slow Death Star. Thus here is my solution:


Star Destroyer

Cost
Metal: 2,000,000
Crystal: 1,500,000
Deuterium: 500,000

Statistics
Structural Integrity: 2,500,000
Shield Power: 1,000
Weapon Power: 200,000
Cargo Capacity: 2,000 Units
Base Speed: 500
Fuel Consumption: 1,000

Rapid Fire
Espionage Probe x25
Solar Satellite x10

Requirements
Graviton Technology Level 1
Hyperspace Technology Level 6
Hyperspace Drive Level 7
Shipyard Level 12

OGame: The Problem with Stars

For my very first blog, I want to talk about a particular problem (as I see it) in the online game, OGame (http://ogame.org/).

OGame is a strategy-game set in space. Thousands of players across the world compete at the same time. In order to play you only need a web browser.

OGame is a great game for casual and competitive players alike, because it's a game that you can actually play for years, with me being at least 5 years in, and it doesn't really take too much time to play. Most online games nowadays require that a player be very active to advance in the game, with some requiring hours of playing to complete a given task. Or worse, they require hours of mind-numbing grinding... OGame on the other hand does not. In fact, you could play OGame by spending as little as 5 minutes every couple of days and still make significant progress.

Although I find that OGame has many great qualities, like just about any game out there, it has its flaws too. One of the flaws I find in OGame is that its not completely balanced, which should probably come to no surprise to anyone. The biggest issue with the game being imbalanced is that high level players have free reign against newer players. Luckily, GameForge, the creators of OGame have taken been listening to the complaints of players and have decided to make changes in how players interact depending on their strength, but what exactly will they do, we won't know until it is released.

Related to that, is a particular ship used by high level players... the mighty Death Star. Death Stars in OGame are gigantic constructs capable of dealing massive amounts of damage against hundreds of ships in a single shot, and take enormous amounts of damage to destroy. The problem with Death Stars is that some of the very high level players have entire fleets of nothing but Death Stars, and these go into the hundreds. Death Stars in large numbers, unlike other ships, usually take no losses due to the amount of armor and shields they have. People have nicknamed them turtle crackers because you can bash other players over and over that have large amounts of defensive structures in place on their planet without taking any losses, and be able to deal huge amounts of damage per attack. GameForge tried to balance Death Stars by making them the most expensive and advanced ship in the game by a large margin, and by making them extremely slow, but the problem becomes that they are used as a tool for high level players to keep less developed players down and from advancing, which often makes them quit the game entirely. This of course, is not a good thing, for the OGame community, and GameForge.

So what can be done about this problem? Rather than nerfing, aka weakening, Death Stars, it may be a better idea to put into the a game a new ship that counters them instead. Something that less developed and casual players can use to at least provide some protection against them. I'll talk about this new ship in detail in my next blog, so stay tuned.