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thot you were resetting?

I'll be the 5h 24/7 halc if I don't slow down. I'm glad I waited for 4 years to start playing this game before I ranked past content, it will still probably happen.

I have some sympathy for those at the very top with few BT targets, but that is balanced by the knowledge that ranking to that point is an active choice, it does not come by surprise or accident.
Perhaps from base energy donations, perhaps from hardcore NPCing, perhaps from constant base battling... choices have been made which provided some benefit or fulfilled some desire.

That is not to say people don't have the right to play and rank as they wish, but rather that there is a clear price to pay for our choices.
As a result, I don't think game mechanics should be drastically altered for everyone to cater for those choices in what is a tiny percentage of the player population.

The problem really is that at the top everyone is an outlier, with 4 x Rank 3000+, 1 x Rank 4000+, 1 x Rank 5000+ and 1 x Rank 6000+.
That minute percentage of players at the very top of the rank leaderboard will almost invariably have played the game for longer periods of time, through 1000s and in cases many 1000s more ranks.
For those extra ranks they have enjoyed inherent advantages in terms of AP collection, PvP, NPCs, bases and ship growth.

As a result, opening up the nearest 100 ships to those outliers would be extremely unfair to the 50 people who are not even on the Rank leaderboard yet, for example.
To be honest, I suspect even the nearest 50 would result in severe and clearly unfair mismatches.

If something must be done, I suggest the addition of a "BT Guarantee":
Draw the next highest ranks into the BT pool of those few players for whom less than 10 BT targets exist.
Limit it to say the top 15 nearest ships in rank.

This is undoubtedly still a very limited pool, but at least it allows the possibility of a full BT while to some degree balancing that with some small semblance of fairness for those who haven't chosen to rank high enough to actually qualify to be in that BT pool.
At the same time it leaves the vast majority of players alone.
This seems slightly more fair than changing the entire mechanic to suit the choices of the less than a handful of players that have ranked high enough to prevent their BT from ever having 10 potential targets.

It is always going to be unfair to those that have not chosen to rank out of range of the BT and have not enjoyed the benefits of all those extra ranks.
Because of this, I believe that inherent unfairness should be limited as much as possible.

Pretty much everything Diego said. Ever notice how 90% of the complaints come from the handful of people who made the conscious choice to auto-rank past much of the content and virtually all the other players in the game? It was a choice they knowingly made; it turned-out to be a poor choice; and now they want the game "fixed" to accommodate them.

If there is one thing that threads like this prove its that controlled ranking, with a purpose, has proven to be superior to continually auto-ranking just because you can. Someone que SenatorHung who has been championing this idea since before I began playing..... Nearly 2 years in and still plenty of content, opponents, etc ahead for me. So, I'd like to thank all the complaining players for proving Senator's point.

I agree too.

The game is easy to split to 3 groups per rank:
1-200 -> should be the source of new players, but it is rather "shark tank" where reset players prevail, not new players
201-2200 -> fairly well filled with content
2200+ -> willing ranked over the game content.. it was not so far back, when Namalak did the same, he was not the first and yet people repeat it. Few, very few...

That said, until the category 1-200 ranks situation is not solved to secure long term addition of new players, there is no logical reason to ask Dan to create content for few, who willingly ranked ot of content. Great achievement, but your decision folks! You can do just the same, as Namalak did - reset a be great player within the game content.

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Yeah mate, I do get where you are coming from. I even offered a suggestion which I think is less unfair.
However it still comes down to a conscious choice: for example, dumping lots of energy into base/s to level it/them up, possibly for personal satisfaction or CTP, or both.

I do have sympathy, like I said, but your suggestion was just way too unfair to those who hadn't chosen that path, in the full knowledge that every unit of energy adds 1 unit of XP.

Your suggestion would be extremely constrictive to literally every other player playing the game who has not reached your rank:
Rank 1300 would suddenly only be able to target the 100 players closest to them in range... so only Rank 1300 pretty much, give or take a rank or 2 maybe.
Rank 2000 would pretty much only be able to target Rank 2000, plus or minus maybe 50 or 100 ranks at most.
At the same time, the very highest of ranks could happily hit those many, many 1000s of ranks lower. What the...?
In the case of the Rank 2000, they may well be able to be targeted by the very highest ranker in the game while they were limited to only people their rank.

It's simply and very obviously unfair.
It would be completely and utterly unjust in every way to absolutely everyone who is not among the very short list at the very top of the rank leaderboard.
The conscious choices of 3 or 4 players shouldn't impact every other player in the game to that degree, robbing them of the BT range that has already been enjoyed by those highest rankers.

As I suggested, I'd have no problems with a modest BT Guarantee, but even that would be unfair to the players suddenly able to be targeted by the 3 highest rank ships in the game.
Just much less unfair than your 100 closest ships suggestion, which is radically unfair to those in the top 100 and drastically constrictive to everyone else playing the game.

the energy requirements for bases was intended to encourage GROUP effort, not solo efforts like yours or Namalak's. the more effort put into a legion's base, presumably the more loyal folks get to that legion. the idea of 'selling' energy to push a base higher was likely not even on Dan's radar (as also happened in the case of planet trading). you gained ctp for your actions .. which you used to buy choice planets.


that lack of PvP targets was the predictable result, but you still took that path. so now you must face up to the consequences. you gained the benefits of your choice planets, at the cost of PvP capability. to me, that is a poor trade.off, but a completely valid choice to make.

I have to agree totally with Diego and Senator. You made tons of ctp and whatever else to rank bases for people. Then could use that for planets, your own base etc. To me anyone ranking millions of e into bases seems pointless unless you either don't care about losing other game content or just want the trade off insta reward. Like growing old, once you get there you can't go back--- this is why so many people don't speed through hundreds and thousands of ranks. I sped through missions then had to try to recover. I paid the offset price and now am about where i want to be.

There is always the reset. Plenty of people have sold off planets and items, come back with tons of ctp and credits and rebuilt. You could do same...plus with all the acquired knowledge, next time around much easier and planned. Or....live with consquences of whats done is done and play within confines of whats left.
I am totally opposed to widening the pvp range. Hells bells, even now the crying is huge and the level differences are huge. Im level 1680 and see people 500 ranks plus below me. Some can fight back, most have no shot...how much more so as you rise in rank?

I have to agree totally with Diego and Senator. You made tons of ctp and whatever else to rank bases for people. Then could use that for planets, your own base etc. To me anyone ranking millions of e into bases seems pointless unless you either don't care about losing other game content or just want the trade off insta reward. Like growing old, once you get there you can't go back--- this is why so many people don't speed through hundreds and thousands of ranks. I sped through missions then had to try to recover. I paid the offset price and now am about where i want to be.

There is always the reset. Plenty of people have sold off planets and items, come back with tons of ctp and credits and rebuilt. You could do same...plus with all the acquired knowledge, next time around much easier and planned. Or....live with consquences of whats done is done and play within confines of whats left.
I am totally opposed to widening the pvp range. Hells bells, even now the crying is huge and the level differences are huge. Im level 1680 and see people 500 ranks plus below me. Some can fight back, most have no shot...how much more so as you rise in rank?

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Reset

well, if what you suggest is unfair for too many others...and changes would affect such a small target population, and there are alternatives both up front (dont do it) and post hoc, sell stuff and reset....then i guess the question is what is left?

also seems doubtful dan would spend a lot of time to help .001 % of the player base...what exactly are you looking for from pvp? seasonal medals? blues for the current daily, etc? I can see where that would suck at your rank, since you have no options, but it still would seem less fair to everyone else.

Does bigger hit smller sure? But there are plenty of smaller who are strong. That said, 60% or someone's range is huge already. I mean for a level 5000 that would be a 2000 level difference in rank!!!!!! If the counter argument is you say your ship is weak relatively , then what do you gain..the ability to click for 30 minutes to get 1 badge?

You say its UNFAIR just because you ranked up bases? YOU are the one who did it. No one had a gun to your head. Even if it was all altruistic it was still a choice. OMG, its like you say i should be able to do whatever i want then everyone else should accomodate my playstyle.

As far as bases, the idea is everyone chips in and it takes time. You think cause people cant get past a level 7 base they wil throw up their hands and quit??? REALLY? The gain from 7-8 or 8-9 isn't so huge as all that. For mid and high rank players they earn their ap from hourly income anyways and low ranks are glad just to have the boost. If the game shrinks, and it has, it aint due to that. The monte hall, gimme free stuff quick and easy, then inflate things so im relavant again approach has all the luster or a bloated rotting apple.

I would further question why pvp is more important to you now? If you spent literally months doing bases and leveling up so much, for whatever reason, you didnt stop to think i should collect some badges along the way? Much like how we all quit seeing some elites as we rank, this should have been part of your planning.

No one wants to bag on you.. Your approach and tone though draws it out. If you can't accept level and even discourse then want to accuse others of being mean, then maybe you need a wake up call.

Not to pile on..... but yeah.... constructive criticism.... reset and make better choices this time.

You want it both ways, you want to reap all the rewards from ranking so much, planets, ctp, etc, etc, but none of the negatives. The game doesn't work that way. Surprise, there are consequences to your actions/choices. If you aren't willing to accept the consequences don't rank out of all content/opponents just because you can. Just a thought.....being as you want Dan to "fix" the game for such a small minority of players.....does that also mean you'll be giving back all the CTP, Planets, TOs, etc, etc you earned along the way from choosing this playstyle?

Here is a better idea:

How about you start crying and threatening Dan to boycott his GP's till he fixes what ever is that you asking for .. You just nvr know it has worked in the past for you ..

Give it a cry... I mean try.. please .. and you will do all of us a favour

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not our fault if you played the game badly.

as for deleting the topic, i think that goes too far ... that should be reserved for plainly abusive topics. if a mod wants to lock it, fine, but this topic should remain available so we can point others to it so they can learn from the OP's mistakes.

This. All of it. Do you really think that somehow many, many other players couldn't be at or near your rank by now, if they chose? You chose one path; the vast majority of players chose another. Now you want to go back and alter the rules so that those who made wiser decisions are punished while those who knowingly made poor decisions have the impact of those decisions lessened/altered? Any even semi-serious player knows the consequences of speed ranking. You chose to ignore the consequences, you want the rewards that go with the high rank, yet you also want none of the negative consequences. Yeah, that seems fair to the vast majority of the player base.

Edit: As far as being blind to what doesn't concern me....nope, not at all. You have an issue with the game and want it changed to your advantage. The issue you have with the game affects probably less than 1% of the player base. If Dan is going to invest his time to tweak things it should be working out something to aide in low-rank retention. Also something that doesn't affect me; but affects a far, far larger percentage of the player base as a whole than just "the chosen few".

I have to agree with Hallucination's post. 40% with a minimum of 100 players in range is not a bad idea at all.

As for being unfair to the 50 people not ranked? Not really. As other people posted, there are stronger and weaker ships of all ranks. A rank 5k player is often not significantly different from a rank 1500 player in strength. Besides, we are only talking PvP. If you aren't halc'd, you can be killed by anyone, any time you aren't online, as long as they want to spend the time to do it.

This suggestion wouldn't change the game play for anyone involved below him. It would only allow some of the upper ranks to actually continue to enjoy the game as THEY wish to play it. That's the good thing with GL, you can play it lots of different ways.

Freelancer
EotS