Metaverse Suggestions Thread

from Stardock Forums
Starting a new thread on how to make Metaverse better. I was thinking it would be good to add some simple features that would make Metaverse more meaningful and encouraging for all new players. Things like:

- Best Rookie - Top Ten First Submissions
- Top Ten Players this month (or week)
- Add some special credits and honours on the Player detail page. "This player was ranked XXX highest in [type of game] last month". It would basically try to scan and find the best relative submission or performance for each player and report that there. If we had many different types of scores measured, each player woould have better chances of getting at least some merit in the Metaverse.

Also how about displaying some other interesting detail, like the year when each game was finished.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh goody, I get to repost my idea in an apropriate place ;)

Funding for the metaverse has long since run out from what I have read. Getting ANYTHING new put in there is not going to be an easy task.

I suggested that the powers that be, provide a link so that the metaverse can be run, operated, upgraded and wotnot by player donation. Donations would not be required to utilize the board, but those players that wanted to keep this most excellent endeavor going for a long time to come, could do so, by opening their wallets. There could even be a special medal for those that chose to do so.

Here is your medal, now all you need is a chest to pin it on.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
We have two donations already, US$20 each from Cotal and myself.

Save our Metaverse! :D
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe we can have a list of Metaverse change requests. Stardock can then attach the engineering hours needed for each request and their man-hour rate. Donations could be collated from players to fund those requests. :P
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Improvement suggestions.

a) Simplify registration and submission. It should be impossible to get confused or submit under the wrong id. Maybe add a metaverse control webpage. Your computer sends stardock your registration id (both galciv and drengin). It sends back details of ALL games submitted from that id and what names they were assigned to. You can then re-assign them if required.

b) Metaverse customisation. A player should not have to look at the top 25 automatically if that's not what they want. Players should be able to customise metaverse to display their id and surrounding players. Perhaps allow players to hide/reveal other players by empire. Perhaps automatically just show tiny games or easy difficulty.

c) Auto-story. Converting the scoring details into a short story for each game. You could click on someones score and see HOW they won. What order they researched techs in. Which races they defeated, what ships they built , etc. Not only would this give valuable information to other aspiring players, but it would also add to the flavour of the game. Perhaps just provide these details to the player giving them the option of writing the story themselves.

d) GNN weekly updates. Unless you read the individual empire threads in the forum you tend to be unaware of what's happening with the metaverse. A daily or weekly GNN news bulletin associated with what's been happening on the Metaverse would be nice. Which empires gained new recruits. Which players raised ranks. Largets increase in positions. Largest drop. Any empire rank changes. Any promotions.

e) New ranks / medals to be implemented. The ranks above commodore need to be implemented. New medals could also be implemented to diversify players. These should be of types that are unlikely to all be held by the same player. Medals for champion in tiny, small ... universes. Medals for champion position with easy, hard, ... settings. Only the best such medal should be held. If you are champion on gigantic and on large, then champion on large should be released to other players.

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Opps,

and how did I forget

f) Support for competition games. Games which can be downloaded by many players, only played once, with score and details of playing strategy uploaded.

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe Stardock can sell a Metaverse Xpack. Buyers could access all kinds of cool functions as listed above.

And those mentioned earlier by Stardock - Clicking on a player on the Metaverse and AI will play according to the player's strat.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Sounds terrific to me. This game is a little rough in places, but has huge potential too no question about it. Can we truly make it happen? Add Metaverse subscription option to generate the funding required? One critical factor would need to be top service level requirement so we can all trust it and get any problems quickly and reliably resolved.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
We need a new poll.

Who will be interested to pay for a Metaverse add-on with many new features and functionalities?

1) Most absolutely
2) Maybe
3) Never
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
How about allowing upload of a little player graphic too? Scale it down to 96x96 or smaller for regular citizens...and maybe allowing more estate for Veterans and higher ranks.

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
To promote smaller and younger empires, we also need to highlight the Fastest Climbers this Week. Counting the Top Empires by the last 30day performance could also be interesting. After all, there is the Season Start end Season End in all sports isnt it.

Any other empire level improvement suggestions most welcome here too.
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Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
How about every single point that you submit to be counted in your score and also how about your score never being degrated and how about if you make it to the top 25 keeping forever your 25th position medal not loosing it when someone gets on top of you on the list.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
How about every single point that you submit to be counted in your score and also how about your score never being degrated and how about if you make it to the top 25 keeping forever your 25th position medal not loosing it when someone gets on top of you on the list.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
How about every single point that you submit to be counted in your score and also how about your score never being degrated and how about if you make it to the top 25 keeping forever your 25th position medal not loosing it when someone gets on top of you on the list.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm a pessimist (I think I've stated it already some where more than once LOL ) but also a pragmatist! (I wish I could be a Hypnotist too or better still a Philanthapist . . . hehe!) Hu! Anyway . . . Assuming we all don't wake up one day and the whole 'shabang' is gone, we have to perhaps look at things 'we' can do within the 'confines' of our existing memberships, mabye its not as limiting as one might think.

It seems pointless to say Stardock should do this or change that when its obvious for whatever reason (buget restrictions or what have you) this ain't going to happen anythime soon (? then again who really knows whats going on or is just around the corner?). Quite simply I see mabye three courses of action . . .

a. One of us writes to Stardock directly and ask a few simple questions (including 'how can we help-out?' and is 'Allien abduction more likely to happen if I play too much Galactic Civilization?') . . . . I don't know about you but I'd hate to annoy them especialy if thier flat-out with something, simply not interested or have infact have themselves been abducted by aliens as an ironic twist of cosmic karma (this would explain alot)?

b. Another alternative is exercising some patients and faith in the hope that our pleas will be answered, SD are rolling in money and we're all just a bunch of neurotics . . . for all we know a huge upgrade may be in the works, ready to be applied with the official release of the expansion? Drool . . .

c. Thirdly, As Pointus said 'Just enjoy ourselves while it lasts'. Who knows? Mabye just until tommorow or mabye until our kids are playing 'Universal Civilizations' and were to old and fraile to get into the virtual reality suits . . . hehe! Osteoperosis sux!

From what I've read and observed it seems Solitair best described our forseeable future in regards to the metaverse (or at least I think it was one of his/her? posts I'm having a flash back too . . .) Which was . . . 'We've only ourselves to turn to right now'.

I have never seen a community like this one before! Hardly any real flamming goes on and no psycotics to speak of (or at least their undetectable or well medicated . . . I know I am . . . opps . . . hu!).

Everyone seems keen to contribute even when confronted time and time again by the confused or disgruntled new poster (e.g. 'Oh look there's another 'Newbie' posting a thread on 'Whats a Space Shark? or whats CTD mean? or 'Weraz me darn Metaverse score!'. Or my personal favorite 'Heya! Is the Trade Routes button supposed to do that!')

The stories and web sites people contribue and create are a futher testiment to the vitality of our forumers. So I ask what more can we do?

Myself, Ray and probably a few others are keen to try and throw some money at the current situation. I can understand that's just not an option for most people but what interests me even more is to know whether or not thats an option at all?

Would SD accept a substancial donation in return for some Metaverse improvement? Would they consider this un-ethical? Would such an offer embaress them? Would such a proposition perhaps even offend them?

So who's up for a little reconiscence? This sounds like a job for a Jedi or admitedly mabye even one of those courageous pirates! Us wizards we just like to stand at the back . . hehe . . you know . . . someones gotta gaurd the rear!

Disclaimer - If I have said anything that's offensive or stupid it's because I have been know to be both at particular times of the lunar cycle . . . and NO I'm not a werewolf! Hoowwweeelll! LOL
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Well wrote, Cotal. We've got good people here. We should try to do what we can to help everybody. :HOT:
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Thats rock on Cotal. I for one has been asking bucket loads of things here - with the distant hope that one day, one of them, perhaps and with some great luck of course, would even see the light of the day. WHOA - What a great thing that would be :D :D :D At the same time I realise the chances must be about 0.001% though. Like you, I wouldnt like to take one minute away of the critical time those guys are putting in to enhance this product.

Yeah, asking is cheap!! Whats more, this game and environment interestingly seems to put a spin on things, and you suddenly become very creative and idea rich - even when usually not so. NICE! In my normal life I'm usually the top moaner :sniff!: :sniff!: :sniff!:

What real can we do though? One answer is more open interfaces. If there was some way to submit your scores to some other server, managed by a group of known and approved members (veterans?). Then we could hopefully offload Stardock from this more mundane activity of what is basically running a great webservice free of charge.
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Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Stardock seems to be working hard on their US Election Campaign game. *shudder* I think that one is solely for the American masses.
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
How about every single point that you submit to be counted in your score and also how about your score never being degrated and how about if you make it to the top 25 keeping forever your 25th position medal not loosing it when someone gets on top of you on the list.
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Because if you want to stay on the list, you should be submitting games. That is why I suggested a "Hall of Fame". If your good enough for it, you can get in there. With Re-activation possible. No score degradation once you get entered in the HoF. Thats why :)
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Hall of Fame would be cool. With this arrangement in place, we would be recognising both the new talent and the Household Names ;-). A true win-win for all.
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Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
As far as having people pay seperately to access "advanced" metaverse features, I think that this would be a bad move. I personally would pay it, however, I fear that it would fragment the GalCiv community which most of us agree is one of the best ever. Also, it would be contrary to one of the original selling points of the game: to get full access and participation in the metaverse.

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
#18 by Citizen couslee - 8/16/2003 2:46:38 AM

How about every single point that you submit to be counted in your score and also how about your score never being degrated and how about if you make it to the top 25 keeping forever your 25th position medal not loosing it when someone gets on top of you on the list.



Because if you want to stay on the list, you should be submitting games. That is why I suggested a "Hall of Fame". If your good enough for it, you can get in there. With Re-activation possible. No score degradation once you get entered in the HoF. Thats why



That is a good idea, I will say the top 100 players to be in the Hall of Fame, and then if you stop posting game for a x period of time, your name could be remove from the active list and like you said to have the option for reactivation.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I personally would pay it, however, I fear that it would fragment the GalCiv community
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As would I, but a valid point.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
The motivation behind that suggestion is to provide funds for Stardock to work on the Metaverse. But it's a good point.
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
I do like some of the ideas in this thread but would also be against anything which would turn the metaverse into an elite membership as oppossed to trying to increase contributions.

I'm not sure what is to be gained by a hall of fame? The best players / empires are already recognised by their ranks, scores and medals. What more is required? You don't loose your ranks when your score degrades (just your metaverse placing). The same recognition could be achieved with further ranks being implemented and medals being maintained (if held for a x days/weeks).

The idea of empires reaching a target score and then being disbanding (but with a hall of fame) is also interesting. Not sure that many player would like this though. empires are a community and having that community split every time it gets to the top could be off putting.

As for paying for metaverse support, I like the aim, have no problem with the concept, but not sure if this becomes elitist. Having player X given extra medals, ranks or honour could make other players feel left out. I'm also not sure how Stardock would view this. Would they really want a metaverse subscription seperate from Drengin? How would they manage it? Would it start placing extra demands on them?

Perhaps when Stardock finally receive fees for commercial sales they will have some spare resources that they can spend a few days upgrading the metaverse with. I think we should focus on having a clear list of desires, aims and requirements by then, so that their job becomes easy (implementation and not wasting time trying to get consensus).

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
I can appreciate your POV. But I don't think a medal of honor for donating at least something would be elitist, any more than the other medal currently used.

I don't see any commodore only clubs or lieutenants have to ride in the back of the bus signs. ;)

Besides, and I know this might piss off some ppl, but if your enjoying the metaverse, and feel guilty because you know you could afford to chip in a bit, TFB. If you can't, then of course that don't apply to you.

I think having a funding option for them to do the work on the metaverse might prompt more/faster improvements. What they improve it completly up to them.

This is not a new idea. I know of another game that has a donation supported matching server. works fine. (SEIV, iirc)