[Poll] Week of 17DEC18 Server Reset

With the balance issues that have cropped up, and the large balance patch on 17DEC18, there has been a lot of talk about resetting the server so we can start over with the new balances in place.

Without a server reset, the Genari faction has a distinct advantage in ship tiers and captain/officer stats/perks that they would normally not have so quickly, and puts Sol players at a significant disadvantage in the short term.

A reset will also allow the balance changes to be tested from ground zero, and see how the growth curve evolves. It will also show any additional imbalances that may need to be tweaked as progression evolves.

Please vote, and leave a comment as to why you voted the way you did.

The poll is open for 3 days, and the suggested reset will be 22DEC18.

This was put up for @Dalwin since he was giving a lengthy speech on some stats, and wouldn't have put this up for days

 

I voted to not reset the server. I believe we should finish out the war and just flesh out as many issues per war as possible.

 

This is early access and as such I believe we owe it to the community who has yet to join to test out the server with the new changes. It's why there is Early Access in the first place.

 

I love this game and i absolutely want it to be a success and gather great numbers of people.

I think a server reset would be good for the longevity of the game since people will feel that they will start from a clean state and any issues with imbalances that we had will be forgotten. The constant crying from both races about imbalances has truly decreased the fun i had from the game (and the friendliness of the community) so i believe that a reset will push all that back to the past.

My only wish after the reset would be for the exp gains to be boosted so we wont have to endure the long grind at the beginning. Make it x2 or x3 times more than we currently have. This way most people will reach the same state within 3-4 days instead of 12 and they wont feel that they "lost their progress".

Edit: after a big high lvl ship fight we had with the sol a few hours after this post i ve decided to change my vote to not reset the server. Looks like the recent balance changes helped the sol in a way that we may have more equal and epic fights the next coming days so in a sense they may catch up.

Still if people vote to reset i will support their decision i think both options are viable at this point with positives and negatives each.

 

Lemme just tell it this way:

Sol had huge advantage through first few days I played: No such topic.

Genari learned how to fight back against odds? Patch drops.

Now we hear Genari have advantage despite fact that for most of time I play this game, Genari struggled against Sol, even pre-patch.

 

No reset in my opinion. Players who worked for their Xp earnings would have to start again.

 

I have to admit that though I was in favor of a reset two days ago, now I am thinking it is better to postpone that for at least a couple of weeks. I think those expecting to see this cycle played out completely may be disappointed. It all depends on how severe the balance issues are as we progress. There are still some big items that I think need to be tested before we want a clean slate anyway.

All corvettes except for the 3 starters are really supposed to cost 10x what they do now and having them discounted has greatly distorted the game.

Something has to be done about the way AI sector defenders can be used as a liability against the team they are supposedly supporting.

 

I think a reset should be done but not this early after patch. 4 days to test balance changes is not enough to highlight everything. Also even if Sol is behind, it is part of the early access to test what a faction can do when behind (all thingd balanced ships otherwise).
Voted no only because of the date

 

If the current patch balances the game then the state of the current war will not balance as the inbalance is already beyond what a balanced game state can recover. Unless there is a totally artiafisal system to hold back leading players

 

If after 10 days of live server, a losing side have no way to turn the tide and campaign is already decided, I have a big fear about the long term game viability (unless server poping up every 2 weeks...)

 

I vote for reset and more nerfs.

Keep server resets and nerfs coming until Sol hand down wins, then the game will be balanced....

 

Hi,
i vote to reset server.
thx

 

Strangely enough, I find myself agreeing with infested. Whether the server gets reset or not, XP should be higher for everyone. It's a really really slow XP grind right now, and it should be higher by default whenever the game is finished.

Also, I would like to add that there really needs to be a counter for how many captures you have until you get a point for each level of crew. It would help make things clearer.

Some other random ideas I've had over the past hour or so are to:

1. Make slow-capture/auto-capture an actual mechanic. It would speed things up. Maybe it could be used to defenders advantage. For instance maybe it could be triggered only if the territory touches 3 ally-owned territories and no locked enemy territories.
   
   
2. Could we maybe get crew points if we fully defend an allied territory? Or at least a reduction to the number of defense points needed to count toward one capture point.
   
   
3. It might make sense to lower the number of capture points for higher level crew points. Maybe make adept 2 capture points, then the next level up 3, then 4, ect. The scale on what's needed for higher crew points is really bonkers right now.

Maybe I misunderstand the way defense points work, but, that just reinforces my point about needing a little bar to be able to see them .

And, finally, your forums need some work. It might be worth it to have a dedicated suggestions post. Additionally, a cool feature would be a quote button. Better organization is needed here. I'm not advertising for Starmade, but the Starmade forums/website has really good organization. It's sort of designed around getting the community involved around suggestions and discussion. (https://starmadedock.net/forums/)

 

I believe that we should continue with this season until the end. I believe that there are many needed changes to make this game more accessible to new users, and that we should give the developers time to make those changes. I also believe that there will be many additional pain points identified over this season. This would cause others to call for a reset as we get further in the game. I think that getting as much as possible out of this season will make the next better for everyone.

 

I'm assuming balance changes are going to be a regular thing. Not sure why this is an argument in favor of a server reset. If we wipe people back to 0 at every balance change, that's not going to be much fun.

There's always going to be some sort of faction imbalance. Again, I'm not sure why that is an argument in favor of a server reset. When there are 4 factions, this should be balanced a bit better since the underdog factions can informally team up against the winning faction and put more pressure on it. With two factions, there will always be one at a disadvantage. The balance changes and server reset might change the current situation where Genari is dominating Sol (I'm Sol) and change why the Genari got to such an advantage. I'd be really surprised though if after two weeks there wasn't a similar situation where one faction had a clear advantage. The reset and the balance changes may fix who gets the advantage and why they have the advantage but someone is going to have an advantage (and it may be even larger than the current one).

If the argument is that the current situation makes it hard for new players to join, contribute, and have fun then I completely agree. I don't see why the server reset is necessarily going to fix this. A server reset will help the people who join in the immediate aftermath of the reset, but that's a short term fix. It's been two weeks since the server launched. If new players can't join, contribute, and have fun within 2 weeks of a server launch and it takes months (years?) to get a tier X ship then there are some other issues at play. Tier 3's have been getting continuous nerfs. It's harder and harder to find a fun and rewarding way to play a tier 3. Smaller sectors make the relative power of a ship more stark. A tier 4 in a 6 sector map shifts the power to a much smaller extent than a tier 4 in a 4 sector map. Smaller map sizes hurts makes tier 3 mobility much less of a factor. The huge hull and shield increases for tier 4 and above is a major nerf for tier 3. It's like what an effective 33% damage reduction? This is compounded by the fact that kills and damage are the main drivers of XP and the XP gain for attacking AI players is minuscule. Hard for a new player in a tier 3 to earn XP. Hard for them to due anything useful or fun.

Yes the current map situation is not great for new players. The current situation where Genari tier 3's attack options are limited by being against the Sol defense line and any Sol ship that wanders into Genari territory gets a turn or two of earning 1 xp a shot at AI ships before a souped up tier 5 Interdictor III forces them to flee or kills them. However after a reset, a different map situation will emerge and in two weeks new players will continue to be disadvantaged but in a different way.

There will always be new players joining and they will be at a disadvantage. I'm all for adding content for new players so that they can contribute, earn XP, and progress. Resetting might fix new players being crushed by high tier ships with lots of officer points for a week or so, but eventually we'll end up in this situation where there isn't much to do for a new player and hard to make an impact on a map. If a server reset will help the long term viability of the game, I'll all for it but there has to be better arguments for it than what I've heard.

 

I think you may have convinced me to change my vote. I wonder if T3s might need to be a little bit more glass-cannony than they are right now. Deal a little bit more damage... Same for the lower tiers. And, same for both the Sol and the Genari.

Edit: I think I might wait to change my vote for after the patches that should come today.

 

To asuage some folks, what about a x2 weekend (or week) to help get people back to where they were?

-That just means those who are online all weekend get a lot more, and it still has people who grinded for the whole week losing all. -Vesuvius