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Hello @everyone,

I’m back from “vacation” (it was none) and have read most of the things I “missed”.
So this topic here is quite important and I welcome everyone who want to make HWS a better place!
I will start from the past and moving the future along the way.

Taxing PvP space // Offline Protection // PvP improvement

One big topic popped up about PvP space tax: Taxing PVP space

From the originally rhetorical question many other (complains) raised.
Just quick what many don’t understand: taxes are applied on PvP playfields where a lot of campers / action is going on. We learned from history and taxes there is a good way to prevent problems.
It has nothing to do with nerfing PvP but instead give your wars and fights a reason to spend money on (if you still want to camp).

Offline Protection drama

It’s not a suprise that PvP people want Offline Protection (OP) be activated again and even claim and scream that it will fix “all problems” and it’s the best and what not.
Here is the memo: Offline Protection in its current state is a fake protection for people who don’t know better. You, all of you who want it back are exactly the people who know how to exploit these and hide your “offline raiding” intention behind a fake offline protection even though it is exactly the same.
Even more details for people missed the whole memo:
Offline Protection can be exploited by

  1. building bases and what not around the victim (victim = guy logged off and OP is activated)
  2. combat logging = as soon as an attack starts he logs out and either let the intruder die by the blue shield or just coming back later what encourages the 1. point for the attackers
  3. some other sneaky plays like dropping stuff with OP on other bases and logging out aka OP bomb

and probably some other minor things like building turrets outside of OP so they shoot you down if you come close etc.
Some other guys even said we (the admins) should just monitor it and punish the guys who do this! Yeah… right. What about you doing that, hm?
If you willingly give people a reason to exploit they will do it. And if you ban these, then another guys are coming, it’s endless. And you, people who want OP, are also people who know exactly how to cause so much trouble that it is not 100% obvious but causing massive troubles for us to check and what not. But hey, again, why you don’t want to do that, hm? It’s only couple of hours per day, in your spare time. #bitter-irony-off

Good news: a rework is in progress with OP activation delay and other things

PvP improvement

Another idea was to push PvP experience. Kind of an additional reward system and so on. Well in first place your Origin is the PvP reward itself. (see Pirates for living in PvP). If you want that then choose the proper Origin first.
The idea itself isn’t bad but is again not fully thought until the end. Why?
Because PvP at the moment is generally broken. Yes, it hurts but no reason to make it even more imbalanced.

Good news is that it will addressed in Alpha 7.0 a lot.
Also keep in mind that PvE got no massive advantages since they need to visit PvP for travel or resource gaining.
But what I did with the Stargates will be pushed more in the future. Also for PvP playfields. See below.
Other mentioned problems like Bases have no chance in PvP, increase the Class etc. is interesting and needs more investigation. Building bigger bases does not solve the root of the problem but instead shifting some bad things partly away.
This also count for underground turrets. Many don’t understand the root problem. Eleon need to fix the cluster render textures, then this drama is finally over. Till then we have to spend a lot of time to look through this every time.

Cross Server Warp (CSW)

Next complain train is still CSW. Again we do what we can, helping you 100% if you provide all infos we need.

Good news: with 6.5 very soon your ship data gets also transferred! Signals, Fuel, O2, Groups etc.
So stay tuned and it is a really almost seamless experience. I hope we don’t need to tell you of how much improvement this is. Not only for performance, saving the load on the main servers but also for me maintaining 40 playfields.

The last step we would work on then would be to allow OCD transfer over HWS Connect over all servers! So you have 3 OCDs and can push your OCD content from A to B.

These were the biggest things recently. Now let’s continue to the more interesting things - the present and the future.

Season duration of 2 months

Well again some people are just on top of being unrealistic, wishing all the best and more without thinking of the bigger picture but in reality 2 months were set for a reason.
If you look at the moment for example we have a runtime of 12 days and where we are?

  • people already do massive PvP fights
  • people already explored the whole universe
  • some people not even touched their full OCDs
  • I will be struggling to implement hot patches here and there and keep everything organized after a full wipe (Stargates for example).

So again part of this topic are selfish people and other part are not understanding the bigger picture.
Oh and by the way, technically we will have on the 7th September almost a 4 month season since we transferred the credits over etc.
For now I just don’t see the real need to have a 3 month season - in terms of a player and admin perspective.
If we balance things along the way this might change.

New Donation option: Your own Space (Donator Space)

An idea I had the last days is to implement 4 Donator spaces / orbits as a donation option for the main servers. So 4 per server available.
An empty space with asteroids as resources you can choose, Freighters, Alien POIs, Space Drones. Similar conditions as for the Donator Planets.
The big advantage is that they are in the main servers located. No CSW needed, good for parking. Connected to Xeno and Nox Nebula.
Again possible to restrict to players, factions, origins.
Since it is again a higher workload for me to setup and influence a lot of people the price will be 150 € per space per season. (hopefully not something it is sold out instant but instead a way for you to support as a team)

But in the end I ask you - should I implement this as a new donation option?

  • Yes, another good way to support HWS
  • No, I see concerns with that (please comment to have a valid choice)

0 voters

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Overcrowded PvE playfields

As I said we have a long way before our first official season ends. How should we deal with the overcrowded PvE playfields?
One topic suggested to make them PvP instead of wiping them. The opinion on that is splitted in the community. For my part I see pros and cons with that. However as you know I don’t like to operate on symptoms but instead tackle the root problem.
So I have some plans but let’s see what you come up with:

  • Tax the perma PvE playfields straight away
  • Tax the perma PvE playfields when 100+ structures are reached
  • Don’t allow any private structures on perma PvE playfields (only faction)

0 voters

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First HWS Survey

After some time (1 year and four months) we decided to start a first HWS Survey!
It does not cover everything otherwise no one would participate I guess because of the massive data we could ask.
But instead a good reflection about the current meta etc.
We plan to release forms of it more often to have a good feedback from you - since this is why we are doing all of this.

Link to the first HWS survey

(we really appreciate your time doing this - 10 Auto Miner Cores as a reward if you set your name at the beginning! :))

So to sum up big changes are coming but big changes are on hold till Eleon works on them. We do what we can but sooner or later everything has its limits. Especially if you want to tackle the root problem and not the symptoms what I read over and over again from some guys. Only then the game can grow better.

Please leave your Feedback if you like and thank you for playing on HWS!
We hope you enjoy it!

Your HWS Team

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About the Overcrowded PvE playfields.

I think there should be a better option then the three you put as options. Like, only taxing the people that have recently arrived on the planet that has reached its max and who are ignoring the warnings about the play-field. And if they don’t heed the warnings only tax them and not everyone that was there way before them because that makes no sense and is counterproductive.

But i see as the core issue is that HWS only has one permanent pve planet that you can travel to by space. Maybe Detroit but i’m not sure if that planets drone spawning from ground is fixed? So there is your problem. You made only one pve permanent planet when it should be at-least 2 or 3 that you can reach from space. I think it was foreseeable that Ju would be the one planet that would be overcrowded by the mere fact that you made Xion and the other planet on the same system as Ju either pvp or rotation type or both.

Its a great game Rexx and i commend you and the HWS team greatly for having continued to perfect Empyroin Galactic Survival into awesomeness… Thank you Sir and the HWS Team for your hard work. God bless you and thank you very much for your time.

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It’s truly amazing what you folks have done in your spare time. And yes we may moan and whinge at times (all of us players) but it truly is something spectacular.

Welcome back and thanks for all the hard work :slight_smile:
Wise!

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Agree, forgot the option “comment for more options”. Hope people will do so.

I put the three options there since this is what I can do in 10 seconds.
Custom tax system per player, when he arrived, etc. would need coding from @Jascha.
For the future sure doable but just as a feedback for current problems (survive till 7th september)

Yes, it was foreseeable, but hope never dies, you know :wink:

In general I also forgot to ask:
do you like the idea I had with perma PvE planets but only reachable via Stargates?
I think PvE lovers can fully enjoy building but don’t spam unneeded big CVs on the server. What do you think?

Thank you very much! We really appreciate you enjoy it and this motivates a lot! :slight_smile:

Thanks also to you! Glad to hear that! Really appreciate also the positive feedback to tackle the negative ones :wink:

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This season I have had many PvP battles, and have yet to feel that PvP was broken. Certainly PvP is broken if you fly any workshop ship (as many do on the server) and come across a PvP ship. The workshop ship gets owned 9 times out of 10. Lag is less of an issue, even with multiple ships involved in the same combat. People are able to escape, or turn and fight as they choose. I and another from my faction tangled with another ship in a great fight that lasted nearly 15 minutes before he turned and fled after all his turrets were destroyed. PvP works Rex. We need people more involved in PvP on the server, not less. I would love to see large scale conflicts/battles between huge factions. Why do we even have PvE space on a multi-player server? The game has a variety of guns for every vehicle, and players. If people want to camp PvE they should pick another server.

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The PVE play field issue should be resolvable if you go to a system similar to what Trinity had. The stargate idea currently on JU, to the other planets is something I have a problem with, only because I am forced to make SV’s on the intermediary planet and I don’t like adding to the core count… Just to go from JU to peacekeepr where I have 1CV (currently my only CV). In the entire server, I have 2 SV’s, 1 HV, 1 CV. One SV is for the CV to go to CV disallowed planets, and the other is to collect resources on JU. The HV was for mining gold on JU, but you took that away from us, and now it is for when I find promethium meteorites.

As for offline protection? I don’t see any advantage to bringing it back, because as you said… Legit playing with it, coupled with the failure of the PVP system, renders it a greifers tool.

As for your comments about people being selfish? Guess what? That doesn’t improve your arguments at all. I do not engage in PVP, because the system is broken. I do not build large ships, because there is no point to it, other than to engage in PVP. I am more of a stealth player, I would build a ship or HV with artillery, and snipe the enemy turrets off their base while they are not at their base or ship and take their loot. Small ships yields lower losses on my part, but higher gains as well. If this was brought to an end, then you would force large scale groups to roll in on the enemy like the Russian soldiers of WWII, who climbed over the dead bodies of their comrades. There is no gain in this type of combat, the enemy will not have on average sufficient stored resources in any base and to devalue the OCD further, as to encourage in game storage or the resources is not going to help. I would not store more, I would just play less, or play more cheaply.

If you really want to keep the OCD limited and gimped as you have already done, then at the end of the season, up the limit back to 700k, so that we can store up a week or two before the wipe and then redeploy in force in the new season. This in turn would do more to encourage long term play on your server, rather than reducing your servers value to a few specialty ships you sell, and the autominer. To be honest, since you gimped the OCD, I have played less, and am considering looking for other servers, perhaps even learning how to make my own server. AKA, it isn’t having your desired effect on me, and I am sure it is not having the desired effect on others.

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Re perma PvE planets. I feel the PvE status is sufficient attraction in itself, without the planets being resourse rich as well. I think that is the problem with Ju as it is the most attractive planet in the system and naturaĺy drew many players.

I feel the Stargate is a great solution. Though this will become a port with large numbers of parked ships at the portal. Perhaps a big admin core star base/port to accommodate all these ships would be a good idea. Another EGS operation!

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Doing the survey now - great idea. Hope you got some chill time on your break. It seems some people react to changes that negatively affect them (even a tiny bit) as though their lives are being uprooted. I can’t fathom the mindset that allows people to post near-malicious complaints about a game they purchased before it’s even close to a finished, polished product. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this server is GREAT. I can lose 100 ships to bulls**t bugs and would still be grateful because - guess what!! - I expect to lose stuff/experience glitches in an EA game…

People with literally thousands of hours of played time that, including donations, have dropped MAYBE a few hundred $ into the game still complain as though they expect some sort of concierge service or a full-time game butler to address their every need… Have you not gotten your money’s worth already??? I know I have, and will continue to, even if there are a few hiccups now and then. Even if this game dropped off the face of the planet tomorrow and I could never play again, my few hundred hours of played time would’ve been worth the small game purchase and donation.

Thanks again, guys, for a top-notch server. I just feel like it isn’t said as much as is warranted.

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[quote=“RexXxuS, post:6, topic:6616, full:true”]

In general I also forgot to ask:
do you like the idea I had with perma PvE planets but only reachable via Stargates?
I think PvE lovers can fully enjoy building but don’t spam unneeded big CVs on the server. What do you think?[/quote]

I haven’t fully thought through the aspect of stargates in pve worlds and pve space. But i think having three permanent pve worlds with stargates would give HWS some breathing room in terms of receiving new players that can feel safe and ease their way to learning how to handle themselves in pvp. I see too many new players who are asking in global chat where there is a safe space to settle down in, and Ju and peacekeeper west are the only places that come to mind. A bit more of verity would help i would say. I think an easy fix is to make Ju system planets permanent pve and keep space pvp so they don’t just park there. And have one stargate on each of those planets that leads to three different worlds where you cannot make CV’s.

About Homeworld i would make that whole system permanent pvp no rotations. And make Golden Globe have indestructible terrain sense i see alot of potential for exploit with that type of destructible terrain there like turrets clipping through the terrain. I mean i can adapt and have some ideas for a specific base for golden globe in mind but not sure it would work out well if my turrets start shooting through the ground. Sense i have an underground base in mind.

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Options on this Topic - all USELESS. U know why. 3rd option - epic lol. Even ONE man could make Faction, so what u talk about - noone understand?..

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Survey completed. interesting.

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Good survey. Thanks!

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There you go in the survey.
But the balance is important and we always tried to fit the gameplay for everyone even though a bit more in PvP direction. Some seasons more than others though.
Even the hardest PvP guys are chilling on PvE by the way so yeah, it is a never ending work in progress to find the perfect balance.

That is fine and if you play differently it is fine also.
But to explain it maybe the last time since you were the one screamed the loudest:
the OCD nerf was needed for the progress of Empyrion and HWS now and in the future.
It is an exclusive HWS feature, yes. We can do with it what we want, yes.
But still we have the responsibility to grant balancement to every feature since we decided to put our feet on game development.
I am sure you can do the math how many items you can store in 100*50000 slots and I am sure you can see the bigger picture of Class 3/4 structures and your need to spend these items on it.
And if I watch your OCD here in front of me, with hundred thousands of stuff here and there I am not sure if I can decide if troll or serious.
I know that there are gamers out there who only grind and hoard. Like hoard and hoard and never spent. Also in real life. But telling me that I reduce the value of HWS, member leaving of this needed balancement, etc. is a bit too much.
I mean sure, you can go or create a much better server than we do. Maybe then you realize that giving people lazy freedom everywhere does not solve problems but instead will cause big problems in the long run.

There is a reason why we live in democracy and not in anarchism.
(And no it wasn’t only my decision to nerf the OCD)

Well I have the statistics in front of me and 70% is set to private on that planet. Faction has some more depths into it.

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Reason: no need to make faction. Make restriction only for Faction - ALL of them become Faction. What than?

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well?
You have a 10 player big faction ABC.
If you say 1 ship per faction then you have 1 ship ABC.
But currently with 1 ship per private you have 10 ships of ABC members + 1 faction ABC ship.
You see the difference?

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I am basically okay with any of these choices but prefer some to others.

Since It said (please comment to have a valid choice)

Donation Space - Was on the fence with this one, then I fell on the No side. There are a lot of very cool new Freighters in the vanilla game now, I think it would be wrong to restrict them to these Donator Orbits and leave the rest of the galaxy without that aspect of the game. In an altered universe that included more of this content in the public play fields sure that would be a good way to support and a nice advantage, but not in this streamlined build, it would be sort of like when a developer releases a game unfinished and then charges you for the rest of the game in a dlc.

Overgrowded PVE - Voted to tax when 100+. Against not allowing private structures because of the difficulty this presents in coming and going with ships under the structure limits. I don’t go to the crowded pve worlds myself, I just know its a bit of a pain moving within such tight limits with even just a few faction members each with a cv and docked sv. Since it seems like the vote is going that way however I must ask, will these changes apply to the RP worlds since they are perma pve?

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heh. I make 10 Factions ABC[1-10], and allow all my members for 1 Ship/Base per player. U think PvE factions had such family dependence like PvP factions? Right now, Emp had NOTHING for promotion faction-system in game. What gives u faction? Only same TAG. No bonuses, no special abilities. So…

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Agree here!
Background story:
during the 6.0 preparation the Freighters and PVs were totally broken. Since I didn’t want to make risks or fix assumptions I didn’t implement them.
The goal is to bring them back with the next full wipe at last. I have to see if I can do a silent update without wiping the orbits for them. But I think it doesn’t look good. Will test.
At no means I want to force this with the donation. Good point, I would leave the Freigthers out then.
(another reason for 2 month seasons…)

No, as far as my calculation goes the RP planets won’t be overcrowded within two months.

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Another point that I think hurts us all, is the fact that so many want to try and control how others play the game, especially the pvp players forcing the pve players into pvp situations.

When you over control things, and you cannot deny the controlled the freedom to go to other servers, you lose the community. That is why you are seeing people not play, or outright fighting you on the changes.

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For the PVE planet overcrowding. Two things, I think there really should be two PVE planets to spread the load. Second, I voted for the no private structures. However, I’d like to add that I only support that option if you up the faction limits to allow for more HV/SV. 1 CV/BA is fine though.

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