Hello Everyone,
I have been watching the planet count slowly creep higher. We have rarely discussed planets as a dev team. Our brief discussions have essentially centered around hoping player activity balances the ecosystem. This has not been the case. I am reaching out to you to help with ideas, knowledge and suggestions for us to discuss as we delve into this. I am opening it up and will bring all ideas etc. brought to my attention here to our next dev meeting. No matter the idea please share.

To help get your thoughts moving:
How many planets is too many?
Do we even need to stop them spawning?
More or less planets better or worse?
Resources on planets when they spawn?
How do Aliens and new players affect planet count?
Anything else you or anyone else can think of.

Thanks in advance!

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I am here to help in anyway I can! Let's have fun!

Way too many planets, I like it around 5k

I personally feel there is no reason to continue to have them spawn when there's not enough activity to counterbalance them.

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Ten percent of nothing is, let me do the math here, nothing into nothing, carry the nothin'...

Honestly I think the massive recruitment drive and the 5-10 daily new players have inflated the number of planets by a lot. Much more than the normal spawn rates have. Having all those extra systems spawn with new players increased the planet count dramatically. I'd like to say there could be some kind of timer on new player accounts. They auto-spawn into the real arena after a month, so maybe if a player spawns into the real arena with only one planet and after one month in the real arena still only has one planet their SPC's are deleted, leaving only their original planet, green, and local SPC? That clears up the clutter of about 7200 planets a month and gives new players two months to decide if they're going to actually try the game. As for the players who already joined and helped us reach 48k planets, I guess you could retroactively scan for players who've passed 2 months since account creation and if they have 0 points and 1 planet oblit their 8 nearby SPC systems.

A less radical idea, would be to have a variable spawn rate or just a hard cap. Below, say 5000 planets we'd have the current spawn rate, between 5000 and 15000 would be the current spawn rate halved. And we could cap the spawn all together at say 20000-25000 that would act similar to resource gathering once a planet hits 16700000. I feel like this would solve our current dilemma, as well as have safeguards in the future for any given scenario.

I can't imagine changing resource amounts or defenses being a viable option as it's already a lucrative activity hunting SPCs in terms of resources and ship experience. And changing points received per capture might have a negative effect the game/competition. The only obstacle that I have is just how tedious and time consuming it is to i-flight everywhere to capture all of them. But thats just the game and I don't think we have the dev team to address any major changes like that.

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Previous Aliases:
JR Scovill
Future SL Ruler
Reaper Of Souls
Reaper Of Souls2
ReaperOfSouls90
RosReborn

Why so many plants here - I will tell - planets are just useless now.
Now most of us are just too lazy to capture planets without any reason. Planets become useless when you are near your limit. Only thing you get for capturing SP planets are points. Actually not many points...

Zerohours - my idea to make game "more live" and use this "overflow of planets":
Set planet limit for player way higher than we have now, for example 100 or 200, even without any limits would be something interesting. Just imagine...

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If Fortune turns ass to you - kick that ass...

I imagine the increased production from massive planet limits like that would make homeworlds start dropping like flies. But with so many innactive's littered around the universe I don't think that's a bad thing. Once those homeworlds are gone there will be no other target than the active players, which in turn could create much more competition.

Providing a higher limit that you'd have to pay for would be one way to drain more credits from the game. Upping the planet limit to 100 would more than double the current maximum credits you can spend on upgrades.

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Previous Aliases:
JR Scovill
Future SL Ruler
Reaper Of Souls
Reaper Of Souls2
ReaperOfSouls90
RosReborn

Planets are dropping! Slowly but we are 300 planets lower than yesterday! See the Capture Contest for an update on that contest!

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I am here to help in anyway I can! Let's have fun!

I 3rd zyx and RoS comments. Even if you just done a 2-3 month 100 planet limit for a "trial" to see the effects that it has. That would be interesting and fun!

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A True Underdog

Stronghold

Will it help or hurt activity? Will it be overwhelming? Will it be balanced?

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I am here to help in anyway I can! Let's have fun!

Hmm I'll try to be as objective and honest as possible in my analysis of possible outcomes.

1. To increase the planet limit, if only to 100, I can see having a positive effect on the number of troops/energy coming into the game. It is inefficient to produce anything other than troops or energy with production points so we'll just stick with those two. With an increased supply of troops and or energy into the game I imagine a few things would happen.
1A. We would have more assaults being produced to go towards taking down more inactive homeworlds (as the universe mostly exists in a state of peace at the moment among active players). Given the unfathomably high number of inactive homeworlds that is currently impossible to put a dent in, I think this change is healthy for the game. Those homeworlds hurt activity because it provides an easy source for points and resources as we know there will be no one putting up a fight for them. Likewise, there will be no retaliation for capturing them. Similar to choosing to spar with a punching bag rather than another boxer. The punching bag puts up no fight and there is no one to hit you back. Whereas the boxer will be exchanging blows with you. Once we are able to clear out all the homeworlds, players will be more inclined to attack each other which increases activity through competition. Kill or be killed as it was in the good old days.
1B. It allows those who wish to be more active to be able to do more with their time than the current production (planet) cap facilitates.
1C. With more troops/energy coming into the game we might see larger supplies ending up on the market and with more supply but similar demand economics 101 would suggest a lower cost as well. (Continued in market segment)

2. The market impact this could have would be a double edged sword.
2A. With a lower price per unit on T/E and more of it on the market we could see more transactions, as theoretically more people would be able to afford it. I would suggest looking into the market history over the last couple of months when Troops and Energy started hitting rock bottom prices. Did the number of transactions increase? Also did the amount of time it took an offer to be purchased decrease? I’d imagine both of those are true as I personally felt enticed to purchase more and even purchase credits when I did not have the credits to cover the cost. More people using a free market leads to a healthier market with more stable prices.
2B. With a lower price on troops we’d have to rely on the increase in transactions to make up for the fact that fewer credits will be changing hands on each individual trade. Because of this people who want to sell troops and energy for credits would have to sell more to achieve the credits they desire, but with an increase in production that wouldn’t be as big of an issue. This also means it should take longer to reach the credit cap as you get less credits for the troops you sell.

3. The increased planet limit could increase the value of the credit.

__________________________
Previous Aliases:
JR Scovill
Future SL Ruler
Reaper Of Souls
Reaper Of Souls2
ReaperOfSouls90
RosReborn

3A. It provides more monthly upgrades to spend credits on. Increasing the limit to just 100 gives players another 1250 credits worth of upgrades to sink from the game. And because this change does not directly produce more credits, other than possibly increasing credit sales because of better market prices, this leads to an increase in the value of the credit and a decrease in the number of credits stockpiled.
3B. If people could afford it, they would be inclined to purchase the max planet count upgrade to remain competitive with others who would have a much higher production rate had they not purchased it. Increased credit value also could increase the desire to compete for the credits, as clans and individuals would want to compete for those top spots for more credits to spend on even more Troop/Energy (or resources if necessary).

4. The increase in planet limit could be overwhelming and have negative effects for those who cannot be more active.
4A. Because it would increase production for those who have the time to manage it, people who do not would be unable to compete directly with them and could feel overwhelmed by just how much less production they are able to sustain. This could lead to more clan activity as these people would have to rely on each other to compete with very active targets, however this could also make some lose interest in the game. I personally don’t see this as a very likely outcome because there are plenty of players who still sit at the 25 planet limit and are semi-active.
4B. With more planets and increased production, those who have the time to be more active will be able to fortify themselves faster with higher defenses and more homeworlds. This could lead to an increase in homeworlds and higher defenses of those homeworlds. However, it is restricted to only the most active players and not quite the epidemic we see currently with all the inactives.

5. In terms of balance, any time a single variable is changed without another you will always either be unbalancing a balanced system or balancing an unbalanced system. I see the current planet limit as being unbalanced given the state of the game. Active players are unable to make any real progress towards clearing out inactive players and the market is in disarray due to the limited supply. So I see this as balancing an unbalanced game. Back in 2006 we had a lot of people actively playing which provided X amount of production being pumped into the game, X amount of credits being spent for upgrades, and X amount of defenses being destroyed due to capture. These variables drove the market and the competition. However, ten years later in 2016 we have only a fraction of the active players which gives us only a fraction of those variables, while still having the same market mechanics and roughly the same number of homeworlds out there left behind by the inactives. Therefore, overall I think an increased planet limit, and consequently an increased production is a change that could lead to a more balanced game.

I think the real question that needs to be addressed is: How high should we raise the planet limit? That I am not entirely sure of, I suppose we could do as GR said and try some trial and error. Starting with say 100, then see how that goes for a few rounds, and adjusting up or down accordingly.

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Previous Aliases:
JR Scovill
Future SL Ruler
Reaper Of Souls
Reaper Of Souls2
ReaperOfSouls90
RosReborn