Hazeron Wont Become What it Wants to be Like This
Hi I'm a long time player that was active during Universe 3, 4, and tried to rejoin at the end of 5. Unfortunately I joined right as the new designer came out however and ended up being unable to get back into the game because the bar of entry had been raised too drastically.
Hazeron's functionality as a game and a universal simulator has dropped dramatically because the designer changes, and while yes the implementation of bug fixes are important and necessary, the game that people get when they they can log on is not suitable for anyone but the most dedicated players.
I'm not going to argue as if I know what the game is supposed to be, but I am arguing that no matter what it could be, there are design flaws that will prevent it from becoming that. Primarily with the new designer update the game no longer has a learning curve, and instead has a skill curve, which means that the lowest bar for entry is unsatisfying. The blueprinting system is flawed as people did used to enjoy being able to make their own ships in their own way using the grid based system, but the 3D modeling required to design a ship now goes over the heads of a majority of people. In this, players are forced to make unsatisfying patchwork empires that are not fun to explore, as a majority will not look pleasing in the same way Spore Cities rarely looked pleasing. This will push people who find enjoyment in city building out of the game unless they essentially learn how to use a 3D modeling software, which only an extreme minority of any game would be willing to do.
This higher skill curve means that player retention will always be at an all time low. Public blueprints wont fix this of course due to the high degree of variance of buildings that can't fit into the needs of the player who can't model, and even worse with the removal of stacking buildings there's no way for players to make cities that can follow space or terrain restrictions without having to design a building themselves, which they can't. Spacecraft design is also a very in-depth process that require incremental increases in ship components due to the resource availability system, where a player needs to upgrade one specific part of their ship with every new component that becomes available. This becomes much harder in the current designer system and outright impossible if you're trying to avoid it.
All of this culminates in a dramatic drop in player numbers, and with that comes a lack of international politics, trade, war, alliances, a lacking of things to explore, a lacking of antagonist and protagonist peoples of interest, and an inability to act as a non-empire entity just doing space adventures. It makes Hazeron effectively a single player experience that just so happens to have a server connection. Whatever Hazeron is supposed to be, it wont be so long as there are no players there to make the scifi universe simulation possible.
The Solution MK1: Hazeron Classic
The Neutral Zone has always been the more empty of the two, and while there is valid reason for having a neutral zone, what would be even better is if that server space is instead turned into a version of Hazeron during one of its most popular or more stable eras. The Universe could be a no-strings-attached earlier build that is not updated and not considered for bug testing, but still allows people who want to play the game as it was before the designer change to still do so. This would allow people to continue paying for the servers while the primary Hazeron server is updated and made into whatever it is destined to be, and players can migrate over when they find it satisfactory rather than dropping the game entirely and hoping they will like it later.
The Solution MK2: Designer Overhaul
The much more drastic solution is having to redesign the designer, or edit it in such a way that people can proceed to use it and make satisfactory buildings with very low skill. Outside of drag and drop prefabs and reintroducing a grid based system though I'm not sure how it's possible, especially with buildings. The old system was simple enough that anyone could use it even if you had to learn its uses, but as it currently stands the work necessary to make a ship is more equivalent to just doing actual model design for free.
Hi I'm a long time player that was active during Universe 3, 4, and tried to rejoin at the end of 5. Unfortunately I joined right as the new designer came out however and ended up being unable to get back into the game because the bar of entry had been raised too drastically.
Hazeron's functionality as a game and a universal simulator has dropped dramatically because the designer changes, and while yes the implementation of bug fixes are important and necessary, the game that people get when they they can log on is not suitable for anyone but the most dedicated players.
I'm not going to argue as if I know what the game is supposed to be, but I am arguing that no matter what it could be, there are design flaws that will prevent it from becoming that. Primarily with the new designer update the game no longer has a learning curve, and instead has a skill curve, which means that the lowest bar for entry is unsatisfying. The blueprinting system is flawed as people did used to enjoy being able to make their own ships in their own way using the grid based system, but the 3D modeling required to design a ship now goes over the heads of a majority of people. In this, players are forced to make unsatisfying patchwork empires that are not fun to explore, as a majority will not look pleasing in the same way Spore Cities rarely looked pleasing. This will push people who find enjoyment in city building out of the game unless they essentially learn how to use a 3D modeling software, which only an extreme minority of any game would be willing to do.
This higher skill curve means that player retention will always be at an all time low. Public blueprints wont fix this of course due to the high degree of variance of buildings that can't fit into the needs of the player who can't model, and even worse with the removal of stacking buildings there's no way for players to make cities that can follow space or terrain restrictions without having to design a building themselves, which they can't. Spacecraft design is also a very in-depth process that require incremental increases in ship components due to the resource availability system, where a player needs to upgrade one specific part of their ship with every new component that becomes available. This becomes much harder in the current designer system and outright impossible if you're trying to avoid it.
All of this culminates in a dramatic drop in player numbers, and with that comes a lack of international politics, trade, war, alliances, a lacking of things to explore, a lacking of antagonist and protagonist peoples of interest, and an inability to act as a non-empire entity just doing space adventures. It makes Hazeron effectively a single player experience that just so happens to have a server connection. Whatever Hazeron is supposed to be, it wont be so long as there are no players there to make the scifi universe simulation possible.
The Solution MK1: Hazeron Classic
The Neutral Zone has always been the more empty of the two, and while there is valid reason for having a neutral zone, what would be even better is if that server space is instead turned into a version of Hazeron during one of its most popular or more stable eras. The Universe could be a no-strings-attached earlier build that is not updated and not considered for bug testing, but still allows people who want to play the game as it was before the designer change to still do so. This would allow people to continue paying for the servers while the primary Hazeron server is updated and made into whatever it is destined to be, and players can migrate over when they find it satisfactory rather than dropping the game entirely and hoping they will like it later.
The Solution MK2: Designer Overhaul
The much more drastic solution is having to redesign the designer, or edit it in such a way that people can proceed to use it and make satisfactory buildings with very low skill. Outside of drag and drop prefabs and reintroducing a grid based system though I'm not sure how it's possible, especially with buildings. The old system was simple enough that anyone could use it even if you had to learn its uses, but as it currently stands the work necessary to make a ship is more equivalent to just doing actual model design for free.