The Development Multiplier.

[Bobbin]

The Development Multiplier is a great thing, however, i don't think that it's doing everything it can right now...

It's great for helping those that start late in a round yes, however, the damage it does to smaller players is immense... It makes developments very hard to afford...

What i suggest is that we make the development modifier a sliding scale.

It effects those at the top most, those at the bottom least.

The way i would do it is this:

You split the playerbase into 10 different grades. Each representing 10% of the highest score in the game.

For example... Say the highest was 100,000 (keeping the numbers small here)

Grade A would be: 100,000 - 90,000
Grade B would be: 89,999 - 80,000
Grade C would be: 79,999 - 70,000

And so forth...

now most of the playerbase, from my reckoning would fall in around the Grade D/E slot. These players would have the Development modifier Stay exactly the same as it is now.

For every 1 band above this the development modifier would raise, by another say 5%
and for every band below... it would drop... by say 5%.

The development modifier would still effect everyone who plays, and the advantages for those starting late in a round would still be there, however, it would not cripple those low ranking players with little land or funds.

[Cyrus]

true it hurts smaller players rather than bigger players, however the smaller players would then be able to afford the same tech's as the bigger guys, which i find absurd because people put ni the time to get big so they can tech faster. its the price you pay for not being able to grow fast.

[Azzer]

Problems with your system would happen at round starts, when everybody is at very similar scores and it doesn't take much (perhaps a single land grab) to shoot to or from the top 10 right to/from the middle rankings. So player A might be at middle rankings and start his first dev for much cheaper/much earlier than player B who is in the top 10, but in reality they are no more than perhaps a single land grab from eachother or similar.

[Bobbin]

Then maybe base a system off income rather than score...

At the moment i do feel that it needs some work, and It does hurt small players far too much...

[BlackWolf]

I think multiplier needs work but as Azzer said... it would be abusable like that.
I might consider of starting later only to first get easy acres from less active people & bots and cheaper developes and shoot to top on 3rd week or so.

[Cyrus]

well the mutiplier fits its purpose, its so that late starters can develope quicker to catch up with the people who have been playing from round start.

[Bobbin]

well the mutiplier fits its purpose, its so that late starters can develope quicker to catch up with the people who have been playing from round start.

Yeah it does. It fits it's purpose fine, However, it then tips the scales on something else..

[rooney]

i think that of it fell faster it would be fine. maybe twice as fast? cos atm 2/3 way into round it is still at 1.3 ish. even ppl starting late dont pay the base price and starting later then 2/3 into round ur not gonna accomplish anything anyway.

[Enrico]

Yeah, I think the dev modifier could be set higher at start of round, maybe as hig as 3.5, but then drop faster than today (twice as fast maybe?). I think by midround the dev mod should be around 1.0.

The number of active players greatly influence the total number of devs done, and thereby the dev.mod, maybe a factor dependant on the number of players registered could modify the rate the devmod sinks?

[Davis]

This has been suggested many times before, i think the whole system should be demolished, i mean sure it helps late starters but now they get the bonus cash, and extra land/units, that should be more than enough to get them on their feat IMO... The develop multiplier doesn't do near what it is meant to do which i believe is to slow down developments for the higher ranked player base, atm it effects everyone the same, thus IMO giving the higher ranked people an advantage, because me having a meagerly 800 land VS. my pnap at 2k, well he is developing faster than me thus getting him better units making it easier to get more land and more units and develop even faster, where me i have to spend 2X if not more time saving up while losing land and yeah, it just is IMHO a stupid system and should either be completely taken out of the game or changed dramatically.

[DarkSider]

Problems with your system would happen at round starts, when everybody is at very similar scores and it doesn't take much (perhaps a single land grab) to shoot to or from the top 10 right to/from the middle rankings. So player A might be at middle rankings and start his first dev for much cheaper/much earlier than player B who is in the top 10, but in reality they are no more than perhaps a single land grab from eachother or similar.

That would only apply for first 1-2 days when you start geos and privates/officers. The costs and eta are not that big so the diference between the 2 won't be so signifiant.
But atm the multiplier just helps the top detach from the smaller alliances much easyer as the costs for developements + defence required for smaller players pushes them more and more behind. It was suggested before and i hoped it will be implemented that multiplier drops much faster so those that buy their punit as robo don't have just 2-3 weeks to play with them before the developement it's free to develop anyway.
Another solution could be individual multiplier developement/each unit so it's much easyer to estimate a good starting developement and decrease in cost with each developement started of the unit. Maybe adjust the multiplier depending on popularity of the routes too to make it more balanced.