Hi,

I think you could remove the "Active Players" page. It is a good way to see how many players are in but some people will think a negative thing seeing few players, dont you think ?
Sorry for my bad english.

Cheers

Marcos

Should maybe keep the active players page, but only see people in the 3000m range, anyone out of the range u wont be able to see

Active Players Page != +TopList

Here's another suggestion. Remove active players page, and instead replace it with a active buddies page. Not knowing whether notorious pirates are on makes the game more exciting and dangerous, as the main page describes how the universe is supposed to be. The active players list sort of ruins that element of surprise. But at the same time I think it would be nice to know whether your buddies are online so you'll at least be able to find someone to do group missions with.

Or.... We could just keep the Active Players page and those who don't like it don't have to look at it.

Heh. Logic, paedric...logic..

Most people just can't handle it.

Reread my post, paedric. I think Guild Software is trying to invoke the feeling that the universe is a dangerous and unpredictable place. When you've got players knowing when they deadliest pirates are on, they'll simply avoid logging on until they're gone. That sort of ruins the element of surprise and danger, doesn't it? And what's even more questionable is how they're going to fit thousands of players in the Active Players link once the game hits that high of a player count. I believe that's far from being illogical.

Spoken like a true pirate Arolte. :-Þ

Arolte speaks truth. I already advocated removing the sector players list, and I would agree with him on this.

Agreed, it should be taken out.

Sector players list? You mean the menu when you hit 'u' ingame? I don't think it should be completely removed, but perhaps it should only show the bots + number of players in the sector. No names, no nation counts. That way you know someone is there but you don't know who.

This raises an interesting question...just how does your ship know who it's targeting? It's hard to get a visual ID on ships that are so visually similar. The only way I can see that your ship can tell the difference is an IFF-like system, where each ship transmits a signal that identifies it uniquely.

Perhaps identification should be range-limited. If a player isn't within the range of your radar, it registers as "Unknown contact" or somesuch on the sector players list.

The IFF boxes themselves probably can't be tampered with for safety reasons (perhaps they're interlinked with the engines and kill them if they're messed with), but pirates may install shielding to block their transmissions and shorten the ID range.

If you read the changelog (well if you did when it was there), you would notice that the "sector player list" has been changed, so that the names of players who are far away will fade out.

The devs are way ahead of you guys : P

--This Topic Was Originally About the "Active Players" Link On The Left Hand Side of This Post--

It has nothing to do with the "Sector List" (In Game List of the players/bots with in a sector).

Keep it there. I would not stay out of a 7000+ Sector universe because a pirate is on... (Stupid excuse to NOT go online for a game your paying for monthly). And if ever becomes bigger... Just have an active players number, just to show the amount of Serco, Itani, UIT, and total online (Talking past 750 players online)...

It doesn't pose much of a use now, removing it won't add much either. So since its already here, you might as well keep it.

Keep the active players page. If someone doesn't want to be seen on it, tough luck.

The arguments to keep them seem to be pretty weak so far. Tough luck? Is that supposed to be convincing? And it's not so much whether you'd personally stay off just to avoid players, but rather knowing that that danger (of pirate presence) exists out there to begin with. It's about knowing your chances of encountering pirates, not one or two individuals you're trying to avoid or whatever.

And I ask again, how will you keep track of thousands of players once the game becomes popular? I can understand keeping an active buddy list, which I totally agree with, but keeping tabs on every single person out of hundreds or thousands of players seems a little on the overkill side. Can you honestly say you'd navigate through page after page just to look at who is on out of all those people? By the time the next page of active players loads you'll have dozens of players logging on and off at that exact second, which sort of ruins the whole purpose of seeing who is active to begin with!

I'd also like to note an interesting phenomenon which occurs with many games. When you join a game server, you usually check to see how many people are on. If you only see one or two people in a game, you'll avoid joining that server in favor of a bigger one. Well guess what, everybody else thinks the same way. So knowing that very few people are on actually tends to work against encouraging players to log on. So knowing this, having an active player list may discourage some players from logging on during quiet times, when more players are actually needed. This won't be a problem later on, but it'll certainly be something to consider during the early months of the game. Not knowing who is on tends to attract more players.

I'll be more than happy to provide more reasons to remove the active player list. Just ask. Of course the devs will probably use good judgement as to what to do with this feature, but I figured I'd add my own two cents and in the process challenge those who think otherwise. It's fun!

=)

Ehm... when the game passes 1000 players logged in at any given time, how can one NOT log in when there is a notorious pirate on?

Let's say there are 7000 playerers, 1/7 are logged in, that's my 1000 players up there.
I'd rather not log in when I have no buddies on than avoid a pirate.

I have no fear for them anyay. Being chased is fun!

I have a suggestion: Replace it with "10 most recent logins" and "10 most recent logouts".
Maybe a "10 longest logged in" too?

I'm in favor of keeping the active player list becuase i'd like to look for buddies. However if low numbers will discourage people from logging on then I guess the list should be removed. However I sometimes prefer to log on with fewer people so I can focus on certain missions without other player interference.

>I'm in favor of keeping the active player list becuase i'd like to look for buddies.

That's why I suggested an active buddy list to replace the active player list instead.

=b

/me hugs sarahanne and hides behind a xithricite core barrel

If there's a notorious pirate on that I want to search for and hope to kill and I see he's online, I certainly want to see if he's online.

So far, the arguments to get rid of them "seem to be pretty weak so far." Because people will be afraid to join if there isn't many people on? "And that's supposed to be convincing?"

Believe it or not, some people actually like logging on when there are only a few people on.

I'd like to know whether my favorite enemies are on, because they certainly won't be in my buddy list.