Planet Baen: Web Game for free eBooks

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Boredom @ higher levels: What have you all expected? That's a browsergame folks :-) I can't imagine any other reason to play it than the free books. It's themed advertising with giveaways.

I'm fine with that; I'm concerned that the higher levels become "giveaways based on 3 minutes/day at the site, bypassing all the advertising."

[Freeshadow]

Hmm apart from the fact that these periods will due to energy needs exponential growth get far longer than 3 days I have ab idea to prevent bypassing... Still making new players happy. Methinks I should finethink it and post @ the bar.

[kaleissin]

So: redeemed a fifth book today by adding allies 24 and 25 (24 million bucks *poof* ). I'm still level 15, and well, I'm thinking of taking a break. Just levelling up is boring.

So to recap: level 15, population 116K, bliss 236K, food 144K, energy 1739K (-8K), military 256K, bucks per cycle 1939K.

Still never been in the red on food, how is that even possible?

[Blue Tyson]

Signed up, then read that better to use your baen ebooks webmail, so signed up again.

so the real me has no space BlueTyson and is level 2.

[orlok]

Anyone else notice the change in cycle timing, an hour and a half later than it used to be, and also that the planetbaen.net home page is now a welcome page for IIS7, whoever they are?

[cromag]

They say they were down for server patches and a minor game upgrade at 1:00 PM Pacific (4:00 PM Eastern) time. I guess that might have had a bearing on the cycles. The gift requests have a new color now and are a lot easier to read.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by orlok

Anyone else notice the change in cycle timing, an hour and a half later than it used to be, and also that the planetbaen.net home page is now a welcome page for IIS7, whoever they are?

Internet Information Server presumably. MS webserver.

[koland]

Originally Posted by kaleissin

So: redeemed a fifth book today by adding allies 24 and 25 (24 million bucks *poof* ). I'm still level 15, and well, I'm thinking of taking a break. Just levelling up is boring.

So to recap: level 15, population 116K, bliss 236K, food 144K, energy 1739K (-8K), military 256K, bucks per cycle 1939K.

Still never been in the red on food, how is that even possible?

If you run natural population growth and don't surge food (I need to surge energy pretty much all the time, just to keep up), eventually you run out...


p.s. Send Bliss!

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by kaleissin

So: redeemed a fifth book today by adding allies 24 and 25 (24 million bucks *poof* ). I'm still level 15, and well, I'm thinking of taking a break. Just levelling up is boring.

Yes. I'm debating how much to bother. I'm level 17; I plan on getting to 20, and adding the 3 more allies to get to 25, and then seeing if I can arrange a holding pattern. (I don't think that's possible; if you have negatives in energy/food, you eventually bleed off enough bliss to start losing money; if you're positive, your pop grows and you eventually fall into negatives.)

So to recap: level 15, population 116K, bliss 236K, food 144K, energy 1739K (-8K), military 256K, bucks per cycle 1939K.

Level 17: Pop 243K (been pushing it), bliss 251K, food 245k, energy 3895k (-6%), military 8k, $/C 4645k.

No idea how much the differences are different styles of play vs. assets having higher surge values at higher levels. At L17, Thorium Reactors surge for 20,500 energy each.

Still never been in the red on food, how is that even possible?

I've deliberately allowed run my food down at times, because the low-food bliss cost is easier to manage.

Guess what? 300k+ energy deficit takes a long time to fix. I've got another two cycles of *only* energy surges.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Guess what? 300k+ energy deficit takes a long time to fix. I've got another two cycles of *only* energy surges.

I think I can climb out in one or two more - I had to start redeeming bliss gifts, though, as I ended up over 800K in the hole!

I may have to sell off or move my cryocombs, as I accidentally surged one, instead of energy, while still down (and didn't have enough surges to bump up food, so double whammy the first turn on bliss).

You might try very low negative on food, to turn off growth, but not enough to bleed bliss (if that even works). Otherwise, surge a set of ansibles once every few days.

[Kralik]

Was something changed regarding the number of allies for a free book? I read something like 10 earlier in the thread, but it looks like it will be 20 for me. Each one gives 5%. How would you get another book at 25?

I started a few days ago but it's going to take quite a while to be able to gather the 1 million Baen bucks (total) needed for 20 allies.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Kralik

Was something changed regarding the number of allies for a free book? I read something like 10 earlier in the thread, but it looks like it will be 20 for me. Each one gives 5%. How would you get another book at 25?

It was 10 when they started; they decided that was too easy and shifted it to 20, 25, 29 and every 4 allies after that.

I suspect they'll need to change that (or find other ways allies are useful) because the cost becomes too much to bother with.

[ATDrake]

If the point of moving the alliance redemption goals is to keep things from being too easy, they could implement a waiting period of "new alliance negotiation".

Leave the first 20 at the regular exponential doubling cost, but tier the bucks required after that and allot people "negotiation points" which will they will need to build up and apply in sufficient quantity to buy a new alliance. Say you get X number of negotiation point per cycle depending on your level or your number of preexisting alliances. Then you apply them to a chosen prospective ally like surging or taking a whack. But you have to do it gradually because you won't have enough points in a single cycle and need to keep coming back until your alliance is paid in full.

And if your prospective ally stops playing or someone you know joins, you could transfer the built-up points with a "negotiations ceased" penalty.

More allies & higher levels would need more bucks and points, but not at the current unscaleable doubling cost. And if unused points expire like surge points if not applied by end of cycle, then it would keep people from hoarding and cashing in all at once and reward players who more regularly checked into the game, even if only a few minutes per day.

[Kralik]

Thanks for the clarification.

Do the "whack protect" items actually do something to prevent/protect against whacks other than provide resources?

Also... I found that I can't get rid of a insta-pop tent (Tech level 3, can't be upgraded) since I was at level 4 before I realized how to consume drop package assets in city core upgrades. However, I don't think I'll really need the extra grid space. I've been slowly consuming project assets by upgrading my city core and the only thing that I really need is more energy. Is there something better I could be doing with all of my empty squares that I'm missing? Fill them with high bucks per cycle items?

[DHNightshadow]

Look out! There are new assets on the ways, and a few city cores. But they don`t have alle the numbers there. I think they are for the higher levels.