2022-01-13 FYI

[Haxus]

Time to get blamed

No one here is pointing fingers of blame. I do not hold grudges.

This has been a great ride and we've all learned a lot. Maybe some day we will find the right balance.

[Zensras]

One more thing before I start getting ready for work:
Will there be anything to prevent abuse of the protection? Say someone intentionally logs off during an attack and constantly reconnects?

[ArdyEm]

Haxus.

Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.

We've been in the discord all day long fan-girling over your initial post this morning. I am so thrilled to hear about the return of Hazeron and excited to get back into the universe with all of you. I've been coming to these forums sporadically over the last year hoping that you'd return. I can't express my gratitude for this work of art that you've given us. Not only that, but your dedication inspires me as a young person to recognize my full potential and realize that I can solve complex problems by myself. Also - I thank you for giving me a copy of the beta. It's such an honor to have this game immortalized in my steam library just in case you get abducted by aliens or the grid gets taken down. Here here! Welcome back Haxus.

Deantwo,

Thank you as well for sticking around. You have kept this forum alive and without you I fear - many that remain now would not be here. I didn't mean to make that rhyme. If you're ever in the USA come see me and I'll show you some cool stuff related to what I told you about in the discord earlier. I'm that redneck ;)

[mabmoro]

I can't wait to start playing SoH again, I have no words for how happy seeing this news today made me. :)

[Yurk Embassy]

Hi there, it's great to see you again Haxus!

I would like to comment about the Noncombatant feature, regarding another specific point which I'm hoping has not been covered yet--otherwise, my apologies.

"A noncombatant empire cannot be attacked and its units will not attack anyone else." This means an empire's defence line will no longer be a reliable countermeasure against spies and infiltrators. Foreign avatars will be able to access your planet and ships while your empire is off, and set the stage for some sabotage operation, place avatars on strategic positions for later, or simply reconnoitre the area and access information which they should not be able to obtain. I feel like it might be safer for units stationned on an Empire-controlled planet and in ships/stations orbiting Empire-controlled planets, to fire at enemy avatars even in Noncombatant mode. That would stop spies from having it easy with this feature.

I also agree with the idea of a two-hour-or-so cooldown between logging off and activation of Noncombatant status. That would make the game more balanced. Another idea for it not to be easily abused with alts and whatnot would be to have it so the accounts themselves, related to avatars who are part of an empire, would have to be logged out for Noncombattant status to be enabled for said empire. That way, even if you're playing in an alt empire, you still being connected on your account would still make your empire vulnerable. I don't know if it's already the case or not, though, but that sounds like a reliable way of deterring exploiters.

[QuakeIV]

Would you be willing to entertain an alternative to pay to play only? I skimmed the thread to this point and it appears to have come up already (i only actually fully read the haxus posts), with someone mentioning empire formation. I personally think a twist on that wherein only paid accounts are allowed to form empires, but can make them whenever they want, might be a suitable approach.

I really like the freemium model because then there are a lot more people to play with and also its easier to convince friends to join me.

[Yurk Embassy]

Would you be willing to entertain an alternative to pay to play only?  I skimmed the thread to this point and it appears to have come up already (i only actually fully read the haxus posts), with someone mentioning empire formation.  I personally think a twist on that wherein only paid accounts are allowed to form empires, but can make them whenever they want, might be a suitable approach.

I really like the freemium model because then there are a lot more people to play with and also its easier to convince friends to join me.

Freemium would allow players to try the game out before paying up. Maybe they'd be more inclined to end up paying for a month eventually (and henceforth joining in the adventure), if they were presented a chance to try the game for free as a simple citizen in the first place. That indeed would be a decent business model; the simple idea of having to pay for a game of which you know very little, can be enough to make many potential players back off.

[Norm49]

Welcome back Haxus,

I am glad to see the game come back. I still never been able to find a other game like SoH.

For the non combatant empire I don't think it i a good idea. I would be to easy to spy or infiltrate operative. I think what we should do is after a city been capture for some time 2 to 4 days the city should produce mellicia. That ways the invading empire would have to live a decent military force behind. Capturing a city would be longer and when the original owner come back he would be able to take the city back with the help of local melicia.

What do you're guys think?

[Athena]

Pay to play is not a good idea. It is the reason the peak online player count dropped from like 100 down to 3.

Please consider making Hazeron F2P again and setting up a Patreon. There is no additional pressure from us to work just because we're patrons.

[bd95cff0]

I am in the process of bringing the Shores of Hazeron servers back up. Their new home is currently being prepared.

Reconstruction of the server rack is also needed. The computers have been sitting cold in my barn, right where I dumped them a year ago. If the equipment still works, we'll be good to go.

That is all moving along. Servers will probably be back up by the end of February.

Nice to hear from you again. I'm looking forward to the results of the old game. Will it be the "old" SoH again, or the new one via Steam?