Status of Beta?

General discussion for the game Anacreon
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6cef
Commonwealth Pilot
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Greetings all.

Just wondering what the status of Anacreon and its online beta are. Seems like it's up, and there are 40 listed players, and I've gotten several messages form what look like active players, so something is going on. But is the game "live" in the sense that people are playing? Is it even worthwhile for a new player? Existing players have millions of units at their disposal while new players have orders of magnitude less. Is there any development happening in the beta universe, or are the game features frozen as is for the course of this game?

Any info appreciated. This online version is a real diamond in the rough. Hope to see it continued to be polished.

-Colin
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catfighter
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Yeah, people are still playing, but it seems that a lot of the oldest and the youngest have dropped out. Most of the galaxy is already colonized; there are a few pockets of free worlds left, but they are quickly filling up. One of my friends started and was lucky enough to spawn right in the middle of such a pocket, which happened to be right next to one of my clusters so that I could help/protect him. When I started I thought I was doomed because I had only enough room for a medium-sized cluster, but I realized that I was comparatively lucky to get so much space.

But that's pretty much the state of things: unless a preexisting empire helps you, (which is how I got started) it's going to be nearly impossible to grow anywhere.

Guess there's always Alpha though, since only four people are playing it, but is it time for an Anacreon Gamma server?
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NIGHTHAWK620
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catfighter wrote:Yeah, people are still playing, but it seems that a lot of the oldest and the youngest have dropped out. Most of the galaxy is already colonized; there are a few pockets of free worlds left, but they are quickly filling up. One of my friends started and was lucky enough to spawn right in the middle of such a pocket, which happened to be right next to one of my clusters so that I could help/protect him.

But that's pretty much the state of things: unless a preexisting empire helps you, it's going to be nearly impossible to grow anywhere.

Guess there's always Alpha though. Only four people are playing it.
I was in alpha and at the time I had must of the universe but, that may have caused the rest of the games alpha and beta to freeze a lot. which may be due to the fact that both games are on the same servers. So I quit alpha and when to beta. Game play was or became faster on beta. I asked George if it changed cycle time on beta when I quit alpha, so far I don't believe I got a response yet.
NH620
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Yeah, the game has no clear end state or win condition. I think it would benefit the game to have:
  • More easily accessible metrics (leaderboards, etc.- who is producing the most chronimium? What is the single most heavily defended world? Who has the fastest rate of expansion? Who has attacked the most other players and who has played nice?)
  • Temporary objectives and events; these would not have to be elaborate; something like "Mesophon worlds will trade Stinger-class jumpships for Sirius-class gunships on a 1:1 basis for the next 24 hours", or "A fleet carrying 5,000,000 units of chronimium has crashed on an undetermined, uncolonized barren world somewhere in XXX sector."
  • Clearly defined cycles where players knew when the game would end and a new one would begin, with winners and losers determined based on specified metrics.
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