Officers in OGame

[Highlander 0]

There is a very interesting discussion going on in the OOF about a test on Portugese servers of a new feature called "officers". Officers Discussion Thread

 

Here's the skinny from the post by Amakir:

 

We will be introducing *Officers* to OGame Portugal.

 

The first country where this will be tested is portugal and official activation will be on thursday.

 

*Officers* are 4 new features you will be able to purchase seperately to take full advantage of them. So you are free to get 1,2 or all of them for a certain price.

 

These are as follows:

 

*The Admiral:*

The Admiral provides you with 2 more fleetslots.

 

*The Engineer:*

After a battle, there will be a 85 % chance of destroyed defense units being repaired; normal quota is 70%.

 

*Geologist:*

The Geologist provides you with a an extra mine production 10%.

 

*The Technocrat:*

The Technocrat raises espionage technology by 2 levels while spying and being spyed upon. Researches will be completed 25% faster.

 

 

Each Officer can be ordered seperately.

 

Some of you may now fear that these changes will upset the game-balance in significant ways and players will be able to actually buy a better ranking. This is not the case. If you look closely at the officers you will notice, that we already thought of that at initial coneption of this new feature and that even if you buy all four of them, you will not be invincible.

 

What you can´t buy is the ability to play OGame.

 

A player who is not at least a bit versed in tactics will not reach topscores, even with all 4 officers.

The other way around, a tactically brilliant palyer can still rule the universe without them.

 

Two more fleet slots will only do good to players who know how to use their fleets.

 

Better Mines make better farming, but not if a player knows how to save.

 

Each player is still subject to the same risks as everone else, with or without officers.

 

 

This will be a test on ogame.com.pt wheter this will be accepted or not.

Further informations if this feature is going to come international or not will be release as soon as we have some results from ogame.com.pt .

 

I first thought that this would be pretty neat until it dawned on me that when they say purchase they didn't mean spend metal, crystal and deut, they mean with real currency! I am certainly not surprised at this as it seems to be profit driven, but this could very easily be the hargringer of death for OGame as we know it.

[erialc 2]

I think you are right Highlander and this totally unbalances the game

 

If it's implemented I think it will be a case of R.I.P Ogame for a lot of people...and surely they can find another way to generate income without screwing up the game

[Llama8 8]

But... more... mines....... Must.... resist.......

[Highlander 0]

I'm seriously considering retirement now that GameForge has added this element to the game. I'm convinced that it will do no good to the game and will create a very unbalanced player structure. Too bad... they lose...

[bhj 24]

hmmmmm.......

 

Officers:

You may hire a Fleet Admiral, Engineer, Geologist or Technocrat now

 

Alliances:

 

Automated circular mail for new members, mebers leaving, or members being kicked.

 

Minor alliance menu improvements

 

Missiles:

 

Free missile slots indicated when constructing missiles.

Total number of interplanetary missiles indicated when firing them at galaxy overview

 

- large numbers will be shown with a "." seperator.

 

Example:

previously shown as 10000000 => now shown as 10.000.000

- coordinates hyperlinked at all menus

 

 

Management has decided to give the test at portugal a try here as well, as there are a lot of people who accepted the officers there.

The development at OGame.org will be tracked and evaluated by the management.

Management has decided to give the test at portugal a try here as well, as there are a lot of people who accepted the officers there.

The development at OGame.org will be tracked and evaluated by the management.

maybe in portugal but def not in the .org community but I guess they dont care about that

Dislike 978 92.53%

Like 56 5.30%

Unsure/No-opinion 23 2.18%

[cyclops 15]

I don't like this new game feature especially the geologist and the technocrat!!

[Ankhanu 0]

I've already sent gameforge a request to cancel my Commander.

I may delete my accounts as well... not certain yet.

[Ike 1]

Hmmmm. I am not sure (if I were still playing) if I would particularly care. Of course there are three pieces to this. The actual usefulness of the officers. The one-to-one advantages of officers. The commercial aspect.

 

First: The officers seem to generally be useful, but I know I would not pay for them, anymore than I would have been willing to pay for Commander. I enjoyed oGame, but felt no real need to pay for it. It was enough for me that I bequethed so many hours to it that paying on top of that seemed out of the question. Commander certainly gives people an advantage, and that is paid for with real money. I am not sure how different Officers are to Commander. I think that Officers would be most useful to the more powerful accounts. Two extra fleets slots that would normally cost 10s of millions of res is a big deal, etc.

 

Second: There seems to be very little tactical advantage to Officers. Meaning that if I decided to attack someone, the fact that attacker or defender had any or all officers would make no real difference to the outcome of the battle. Having more fleetslots very occasionally would have allowed me to make a serious attack or avoid one, but it only occurred a few times in a year. You can always send more probes, and how quickly defenses rebuild is only really an issue if you are grinding down turtles. Production bonuses just mean better farming! Of course, there will be individual instances where there is a more noticable effect, but I don't see it in most cases. It seems as if it favors turtles a bit, not sure that that is good, either for turtles or the Unis as a whole.

 

Third: It concerns me that oGame is becoming less free and more commercial at a time when the .org Unis appear to be shrinking in popularity. The possibility that this will continue and/or increase the exodus is one that I think they should take very seriously. Of course, it is fortunate that this is one of the many things that isn't my problem! I suspect that they are watching closely to see who votes with their wallet. If they can increase revenue (even if it has the long-term effect of killing the game), they will probably go forward. If 20% of the Uni buys officers, it puts pressure on the others to do so as well.

 

Just my thoughts . . .

[bhj 24]

well the pepps are angry thats for sure hers some of the new sign poping up on oof

 

 

 

 

 

theres a petition out there to (5875 Total Signatures)

 

apparently this goes straight to GameForge

Originally posted by G19-Fanatic

EVERYONE GO HERE

http://www.gameforge.de/contact/11,0,0,0,2.html

 

COMPLAIN directed to them

Spam them if need be

With enough ppl complaining, something will be done

 

 

stupidest idea EVER

 

this sentence you see quite frequently in the officer thread as well "This account will be deleted on ...." what are GF thinking with ? thats what iam wondering

 

[Yaga 1]

craaap is this bad .. very bad. My ogame interest just hit a reinforced steelwall

 

 

.. I dunno folks .. I got bad thoughts running through my mind atm ..

[da bx 0]

the point is useless why u want to pay fro something to be added and not you're skills or play regular engineer get 10 % increase in defense rebuild so turlte would have less losses and more losses attack thier my point unfair and why change the game play to money to get higher and not just the gameplay

[Anestty 0]

I think people will buy and use it, and I think its here to stay.. (I wont be using it) I would say that GF is a business, and like all businesses it exists to make as much money as it can. They are not fools and would have done the math carefully, with models from other Uni's where it exists used to project an outcome. This sux, but I fear its here to stay.

[Ubersolider 0]

It's paying to cheat. That's what it is. I don't like it. and the petition is just getting more and more sigs as we speak. (over 6300 already!)

[Ankhanu 0]

I simply disagree with being able to pay for an in-game advantage over other players. If they had set this up as being paid for with res or what have you, in-game... these things would be awesome; I'd definitely save res for, say, the Geologist.

However, thats not what they implemented; instead it's cold hard cash... of course that makes a lot of sense, they are a business, after all. The profit potential is pretty good on this. That is if enough people STAY with the game to keep it vital and viable. I mean, tonnes of people have cancelled their Commander subscriptions and/or deleted their accounts. That plunges profits from both Commander sales and from advertising.

 

The difference between Commander and Officers is that Commander, really, didn't give an in-game advantage. The building queue was the closest thing to a real advantage, but, even then, construction still cost as much, still took just as long and didn't result an any better an item than would have been created without it. Commander was basically a "thank you" from Gameforge for supporting the game, "you gave us money, here, have slightly better organizational set up". Officer, on the other hand, changes game dynamic... and I don't like it, even though I'd love to have them active on my account.

 

Just a crappy deal, IMO and changes the spirit of the game.

 

I've requested a cancellation of my Commander and I'm still deciding whether or not to delete my accounts. I'll give it a few days though.

 

It would free up a lot of my time I could better spend on school work and such.

Edited February 17, 2007 by Ankhanu

[bhj 24]

well as this is something they can make money from my guess is it will stay even if it looks like everyone is against it

.org poll

Dislike 1688 94.35%

Like 65 3.63%

Unsure/No-opinion 36 2.01%

.de poll

Schlecht 3130 94.48%

Gut 140 4.23%

Weiß nicht 43 1.30%

petition 8667 Signatures

 

they say it a "test" but personaly I think that is a load of BS

But we can allways hope that this company starts to listen to its customers soon...

 

a few more signs has poped up at oof as well (even a "sheep"ish one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so a toast all (live long and prospere)

[OMGSTUFF 2]

It doesn't bother me that they're doing this... it bothers me that they're doing it in an EXISTING UNI. It's an interesting idea for people who want to pay to be better... so why not start that in all new unis from now on. What I don't get is how they think, even if 10% of people sign up for the officers, is how they'll make money in the long run. 50% of people quitting is a lot more ad revenue lost than a tiny 5 or 10% signing up for officers. Bad idea and definitely bad planning by Gameforge.

[Ankhanu 0]

Not to mention all the Commander accounts that have been canceled.

I mean, I play a game that has the ability to pay to get advantages, but, it was understood from the beginning that the game was set up that way, which makes it easier to deal with.

That said, the game dynamic is FECAL MATTER! because of it I don't know why I bother playing it.

[gintukas 0]

I dont care too much about those new things. only thing sucks, that it comming in the midle of game.

 

I think, that game is giving some advantages because of unlimited time what you can spend for game - thats the main thing - if you are able to play 24h per day is one thing, and if you able to do it just 4h per day thats another thing and no features will make that equal,but it was set up this way, and everybody new about it from beggining

 

few of us playing imperiaonline, and everybody need to take 6 h off the game (I like that thing (6h off))

[trd 0]

here are a couple sigs I made cause I was bored

 

 

 

[Guest gogoblender]

HAHAHA

Trd, damn that's so fine man

And my take on this is is....k ffirst off...it was a MAJOR no no to do this whilst we're all playing a game that we have decided to commit to and that we had expected would remain a FREE game.

Big no no and that alone is enough to really get me sore.

Now, the question of whether it's right or wrong I'm going to say that I think it's a matter of taste about the kind of game we want to play. But I"m pretty sure I'm not interested in paying for a browser game...yet, lol.

And them sticking it into my game during the middle of it is pretty lame.

 

GameForge dropped the ball.

 

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. DAmn, Trs...those sigs are fine looooooool...!

[trd 0]

glad u like gogo. I got bored and sick and sleep deprived so never sure what is funny. they are pretty easy to make, just got gimp and pirated images. hillary will be the end of the USA.

 

here is another. I had been waiting years to use this picture my friends took to protest the implementation of a swipe card entry system at work in scotland. I am sure that is the ass of dutch friend and believe the hand is british.

 

[Yaga 1]

Just did a check on the OGame Pillory to see if there was someone to raid and found this:

 

Thu Feb 22 2007 22:51:50 Nameless Neko Gameforge Sun Jul 9 2034 23:51:50 Inappropriate planet names/insults via planet names

 

Seems like they are giving bans (removal more or less) to those who throw crap at gameforge/officers in planet names. Guess it was only a matter of time before this happened.

 

Ive said it before; if youre going after people who have officers, I suggest you do not use this as an official reason as it probably means a one way ticket to permanent ban.

[Ankhanu 0]

Nah man, they've been doing that crap for months.

[Guest gogoblender]

It's an interesting debate...but I really don' think you can ban someone for crashing someone for any reason other than bashing, right?

Which means too much bashing and a bashing done for illegal mechanisms...that of too much.

So far, there not a single reason, I don't think, for ogame to ban someone for a "wrong" reason

I feel pretty sure that, if they actually come out and say that crashing people for the "wrong" reasons is now a reality and if they want to get into that can of worms, this would really make a lot of people look the tneire concept of ogame.

gogo

[bhj 24]

one thing is definitely true Theres a lot of pepps thats dont like officer all over the world

 

Bosnian & Croatian Herzegowina

Protiv 320 89.39%

Za 28 7.82%

Nemam misljenje 10 2.79%

 

Brazil

I completed{completely} disagree 59 78.67%

I disagree with inferiorof little worth, of inferior quality, {some} points 10 13.33%

I Aggressed{Agree} with the idealsexamples, models, {idea} 4 5.33%

I completed{Completely} indifferent 1 1.33%

I may be, {esteja} incompletesketchy, unfinished, unaccomplished, {incompleto} |

I aggressed{agree} but I think it is incompletesketchy, unfinished, unaccomplished, {incomplete} 1 1.33%

 

Denmark (didnt find a pool in denmark but I found a thread

Link)

 

French (you dont even haveto understand more frecch then I do to understand what they think)

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

 

German

Schlecht 6128 94.86%

Gut 236 3.65%

Weiß nicht 96 1.49%

 

Italian (used babelfish on this one)

Link

 

Originally posted by felix silvestris

The Italian Forum is down because all the mods in sign of protest against the officer were

resign.

 

Actually there is an emergency forum not controlled by GF :D

http://ogame.emergenza.forumfree.net/

This is an important step in order to obligate the GF to change attitude in our comparisons.

Please advise all Italian Player present in this Forum

The strike incoming......

 

Netherlands

zeker niet 389 93.73%

mag ingevoerd worden 19 4.58%

geen idee 7 1.69%

 

Polish

Jestem przeciwko temu pomyslowi 4234 81.08%

Pomysl mi sie podoba 847 16.22%

Nie mam zdania 141 2.70%

 

Russian

Categorically against 447 68.56%

If they introduce in what first from the new uni that not against 89 13.65%

I will wait thus far they will introduce, I will look that this it will leave 60 9.20%

To me nevertheless 33 5.06%

It is unambiguous after, I will take to itself 23 3.53%

 

Spanish

Link

 

it looks like the org officers discussion thread has gone awol but there is still a few around such as this one

 

quite a few new signs has been made as well hers a small sample