make sure there are constant posts wishing that the bots never return.
if the bots ever return, make sure you and everyone you know immediately express disapproval
tell everyone you know we don't want bots back in express
if we find out any developer has started work on trying to fix the bots and bring them back, we shut him down hard
he will be ruining it for us, so instead we say we want him to work on Express updates/patches/balance etc and not on the bots
player numbers will rise
we befriend all the new players, for it is us who has demanded that the bots never return
with our new collective
we can have the power to expel moderator abuse, and restore this game to a former glory

500+ turns into the set and there is close to 0 tech available. The bots change things, but serve a purpose.

its been 1 set where we knew there were not gonna be bots.

the metagame takes time to change

don't bother talking about balance in this game there has been no balance for god knows how long

and if you think tech is so good then why not go techer and sell it for a price through the roof and then easy win for you right???

Aren't you banned?

Also, began last set ..

bro, the bots keep it from becoming a meta game...

in response to your question KoHeart, suck my balls

no A-Rod, Earth Empires or Earth 2025 is naturally a pure PvP game. It was built and designed for purely for PvP. The developers have added bots, which may or may not have been a good call, I don't know, but they did so without making any other significant balance or design changes, and therefore the addition of bots has ruined Express gameplay

Removing bots is only restoring Earth 2025 and Earth Empires to their prior glory. I don't mind bots but if you do something so drastic as that then it must be accompanied with the same amount of balance and design changed needed to keep it a great game.

I guess that's why it tracks networth, clans by avg and total networth, we recognize a top 10 networth, not attacks or wars or anything like that? g=) Do you realize how much of the original earth 2025 was bots?

The addition of bots made strategies not called INDY or Techer capable of competing.

There wasn't war last reset. There was big indy's farming ppl that had stopped playing, and suicider's upset over being grabbed once or twice. I grabbed 7k acres plus buildings. And i only beat the all x farmers because they bloated on too much tech, Their cashflow was higher. This just feels like a fast version of tourney. a few grabs, a few retals, a lot of exploring. g=)

Kinky!

I like it with the bots and without the bots. The market is a problem so people are going to have to tweak their strategies to compensate. I bet a casher can finish top ten this set.

That was a lot of fun too, the Wild West days with multis everywhere and market swings. Very fun times, we need a wild west server like that where it’s like primary but anything goes. This server would be fun to do that on.

Oh so now we have a real war game, you have to buy or build a defense, or get smacked.

Not necessarily, highest NW wins the round.

I can't think of anything within the game itself that prevents anyone from doing this.

my friends,

i propose to you that we can negotiate on this,

i think Cathankins has hit the nail on the head when he says he likes both, well... then let's make it both. a 50/50 roll of the decide, a flip of the coin, in the backend code of course, to decide whether the set is gonna be a bot set or a botless set. the best of both worlds, double the strategies

surely we can mostly all come to agree on this? it's meeting half way and we are getting nothing but good

Bro if u hate bots just hit human players.

That's not the point, without bots all explore can compete, not everyone has time nor will to farm bots to fluffs.... That's why I only play Primary and Tournament.

All explore can still compete, or minimal grabbing. If anything, all x casher/farmer is safer to play with bots. You're less likely to get mired in the retal war with the same ppl wasting turns trying to keep what you have. I do like the contrast though, and would like to see it mixed up. But if you aren't playing an indy or techer with non bots, you can't even keep up in production retalling. When the other guy is making 2-3 times more than you on equal or less land, eventually he can just keep hitting back and growing.

The all-x record in the latest express changeset is $37,040,255.

Looking at the last bot set:
There were 96 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 g a l a d r i e l (#80) Game profile 52,402 $54,126,946 HG
2 Apollyon The Destroyer (#8) Game profile 36,823 $47,112,126 HG
3 AngRy erOtic worlD (#5) Game profile 48,780 $44,617,572 HG
4 EARTH 2025 (#10) Game profile 16,167 $43,350,583 HG
5 moes tavern (#93) Game profile 44,762 $34,176,107 HG
6 Cashews (#59) Game profile 17,230 $33,639,720 HG
7 razzy dazzy (#89) Game profile 43,423 $33,426,694 TG
8 ASTRAL (#6) Game profile 12,168 $31,110,218 TG
9 Western Star (#4) Game profile 33,399 $28,510,479 FG
10 treelife (#23) Game profile 31,944 $24,583,981 RG

This would put the all-x in rank #5.

So yea, all-x is competitive. If you grab a little you'll prob get higher..

And looking at the set before that:

There were 93 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 o n e t w o t h r e e f o u r (#56) Game profile 52,407 $62,295,587 HG
2 Knights of Solomons Temple (#45) Game profile 35,860 $46,293,775 RG
3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (#9) Game profile 13,174 $44,689,054 HG
4 AnotheR orOgy grinD (#4) Game profile 50,093 $39,769,869 HG
5 Western Star (#2) Game profile 30,013 $31,787,379 FG
6 Death to Smoochy (#89) Game profile 31,878 $29,272,397 FG
7 theres few but many between (#7) Game profile 10,750 $26,232,890 HG
8 Flashing Red Light (#3) Game profile 15,871 $24,459,669 HG
9 Wanera (#37) 6442 $23,815,083 D
10 v for Eric (#91) Game profile 28,343 $22,766,265 TG

You'll still get #5 as an all-x.

I mean, if you don't want to win and settle for top 10....yeah sure it's competitive......just don't expect to win and settle for less, sounds like a participation trophy.

As it should be... shouldn't be able to compete for top spot without the effort. Even with no bots you were hitting retals and getting land. The top Indy's were grabbing like mad. The fact that all x CAN take a top 10 in this mode shows it's competetive, AND that a lot of ppl are leaving a lot of NW on the table

Sure, have at it in your 60 bots and 10 people server, if anything the last 2 sets showed what people really want but I digress.....the good of the few outweighs the what the majority wants, again, circle jerk status.

You're only reading what you want. I'm for a mixture of bots and no bots sets. Also the only strat that changes from no bots is all x retaller... that one basically disapears.

How does it disappear with bots?

nobody will be looking to hit a little techer storing turns and money when there are bots that will give equal land and not hit back. Instead you'll get topfeeders.

Ratski and his band of rainbow buddies and don't forget the mars players too.

Personally, I'd hit the player if you're looking for a top spot and you were sure the immediate gains were going to be even. Even with the risk of retaliation I'd still consider occassionally choosing a player over a NPC. Bots dont finish #1, players do. Going for an easy no-risk gain by not directly hurting your competition is a player choice. Hell, if countries werent close to 90% jets the market would actually improve too. Let them farm bots around the clock and then take the land off them (or at least exchange and create some ghosties). Quit being sissies and dont be afraid to occasionally punch your competition in the mouth.

There's a a time for that, especially if you have the turns to get production off that land before a potential retal trade. In my limited time back though i've found that bots or no bots, you hit someone you could end up in a war, not a land trade. First set of bots i came out clean, ran Dict for the protection/advantage and it mostly worked. Took 1 retal and by the time i did get suicided on they couldn't hurt me. Second set was constant trading, no getting ahead. So i like your theory, but i suspect your more interested in the chaos than the actual gains. g;)

Fair point...

I would be happy with doing like 3 weeks bots then 1 week no bots, it'll tickle my balls :P

i'd be fine with an every other.

I'm fine with 3 week bots 1 week not as well.

THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST THING THAT I HAVE EVER READ ON THIS BOARD THAT IS GENERALLY FULL OF SISSIE "DONT TOUCH ME" NETTERS.

What is rainbow about this build:Structure Owned Construct
Enterprise Zones 8215
Residences 8208
Industrial Complexes 1032
Military Bases 150
Research Labs 0
Farms 0
Oil Rigs 0
Construction Sites 125
Unused Land Area 286 Acres Currently in Alliances, I am cashing at 10 million a turn. I started late in the set, and moved from 400 to 98Th place. I don't think this is a Rainbow country KoHeartGPA.

I agree with rotating sets every other one that seems fair since everyone is split. Also there were three rep cashers that made top ten last set without the bots and one of those cashers was also the country with the highest war stats so by no means the limit of a no bot casher. I’m sure I can do 30 mil and tmac hit 50 mil on 2k turns in tourney, seems even easier here I bet 60 can be broken by a good player, imo casher is viable even if some other strat is better.

I'd say Express without bots is more difficult than tourney because with 360(360) turns anyone can break you or retal at any point in time, and if you multitap you get KRed. In tourney, it's hard to close gaps between countries (if you get bottomfed).

I don't believe anyone is touching 60m nw in a no bot set. You'd have to run a super aggressive, super lucky techer to ~14k acres fast enough to still be able to get high tech prices for a LOT of turns. it's very unrealistic. I'd be REALLY impressed by anyone that can make 40m non bot. NiteIL and AndrewMose breaking 31 that first set was impressive. IMO.

Also less retal wars.

I don't play 1a, you need more CS, you should stop playing rainbow in all servers because with that you're admitting that what we're telling you is correct, hopefully that country is a rep with maxed out tech, but i doubt it.

Yes maybe 60 is pushing it, I just thought if guys have hit 50 mil on 2k turns then maybe a higher score can be done on express, it seems easier imo because you can run your tech up so much easier early. The landgrabs would be the issue but in a perfect set, mr titanium hit 27 mil last set and he said that was his first game in 10+ years, he came back for a reunion so if 27 mil is him playing rusty then maybe someone like
Him or tmac could do it