For the love of GOD!!!!

Code them out please...

+1

+2

3

Earthquakes should do more damage and happen more often!

+4

Especially now with such high building costs, something as random as an earthquake late on can determine who wins and who loses if countries are close enough

I had 2 earthquakes today...

I've had 4 in two days...the rebuilds have set me back in terms of nw, rank, and money...

It's frustrating to say the least.

-1, they have to make LUCK more useful!

I guess it's not worth rebuilding at this point? I just got slaughtered.

Definitely not worth it

It stopped being worth it to rebuild about 10 days ago. :/

Unless you have -building cost bonus, then maybe 5 days ago.

Oh gawd, I just lost 807 bldgs in an earthquake. Would cost $202m to rebuild - definitely not worth it to rebuild

Yeah I know, it was only wishful thinking that you could convince me otherwise and somehow I could get my 1783 acres working again!!!!!!

speaking of earthquakes does having at least 1 building of each type really helps in reducing earthquake damage??

@qwertyh No, it doesn't. That only worked in E2025 because earthquake damage was divided by your building types. In EE, it kills each building type equally brutally.

So they keep earthquakes because they were in e2025 but then have them work differently from e2025 to make them more painful "=[

I hate earthquakes...

I can't remember tha name of the shareware game I used to play. But it had 7-26 star systems you had to conquer, each star had x number of planets (you could build more, or destroy them) and you could play against 1 or multiple computer opponents.

Just like Risk, it would take hours to finish. But it had a feature called random events, that made it harder. Because you couldn't be sure your attacking fleet would make star system N or whatever it was that was on the other side of the screen without getting hit by a random event that caused it to get lost or off track..

And once you were good at the game, you had to have random events at max to make it challenging so you wouldn't beat the computer as easily every time.

That's why in the summer of 1999 when Mehul had his chat to develop earth 2025 I suggested random events to him, both good and bad. And he and the others in the chat liked it.

That's why we have earthquakes

So you're to blame for this.. :p

The 20-30 people who compete for the win complain about it.
The couple of hundred who don't even stock but play right to the end don't - it's one of those nitty gritty things that make the game interesting.
Yes earthquakes suck, but booms rule, random explore gains..

whatever breaks the monotony of playing turns like a robot makes the game more interesting.

+100. Stop fluffing about earthquakes. Everyone has them.

Your argument and reasoning is flawed. That shareware game of yours is a single player game. You add random elements to a single player game to make it unpredictable and more challenging, sure. It is your own game, and doesn't affect anyone else. You could cheat in it and nobody would care.

However, EE/Earth2025 is a multiplayer game, a game where the best vie for the top spots. The playing field is no longer even if different players get different amounts of earthquakes or random events. If you cheat, everyone else would cry foul.

Random events and earthquakes have no place in a competitive game - and that is why you'll never see random earthquakes in a game like DotA, Starcraft 2, Team Fortress 2, or even Chess that can shift the balance of the players or teams - because competitive games are about player skill, not about dumb luck. In these games, you'll find that both teams start with similar resources, the maps are almost always symmetrical (rotational or reflectional), or if the goal is asymmetrical (plant the bomb or capture a point), then both teams take turns to complete the same task and see who can do it faster/better.

You mentioned Risk and Risk is a multiplayer game - but Risk wasn't really about player skill - it was a game that really combines a bit of both - but a lot of it still comes down to the dice rolls. This is why a leaderboard for Risk or Monopoly is silly, and they will never be competitive games.

I understand that, maybe, just maybe, you don't view EE as a competitive game, and thus random earthquakes and events are fine - and I accept that as your viewpoint. But that doesn't mean I have to agree with it.

I also, I fail to see how random earthquakes, booms, etc break the "monotony" of the game. An earthquake happened? Oh crap, I spend 15 turns rebuilding. A boom happened? Cool, Keep on chugging like nothing happened.

Not only is it not interesting, they do not add meaningful decisions to the game. The player does not choose to play a different strategy or more offensively/defensively because of EE's random events.

In a single player game that you mentioned, sure that changes things, because a single random event could wipe out your entire fleet - there is the risk vs reward element there. In EE, there is next to zero risk vs reward elements in the random events, and the whole random event system has zero game value. Awesome, a 1700a earthquake happened, what risk or value did that earn me, how did my decision making result in whether the earthquake was more useful or harmful? Zero effect.

I can see random explore gains being there to stop "cookie cutter" optimized builds, and prevent possible botting as well, but really the other random events are meaningless and add no value to the game.

From a game designer's perspective, a game mechanic that does not add value to the game, instead detracts from it, especially if all it does is annoy the player.

[I work in the games industry.]

And you know what random event annoys the player more than any other? That's right...

Xin - I didn't compare Earth to Risk.

Your best make up maybe 20 guys on Primary, 60 guys on alliance. Look back at those primary threads - you guys are predicting end results alarmingly early.
Why? Because GDI protects you from random suicides, like a big tag protects you in alliance. Running a 0 tanks/0 sdi country and grabbing everyone once shouldn't be rewarded. This is a competitive game.

Over the course of a reset the likelyhood of good and bad random events occurring to you and your chief combatant for #1 are even - if neither of you get hit by earthquakes..
does the guy who finishes second complain about spy ops?
failing his spy op 3 times on landgrab target #17 on the 4th week of the reset?
the fact that the one sunday was mother's day and he couldn't login until 24hrs had past and not 18?

You know, just like competitive sports with referees. Losers blame the ref. The streaker, who broke their rhytm. The floodlights that turned off and put an extra 30 minute delay into the game. The torrential rain that hit with 15 minutes to go.
The fact that their star player had a thigh strain after they had used all of their substitutes.
That Suzie the waitress poisoned their food the night before the game.

Random events have a significant role in competitive sports, even in computer games or chess.
How do you the guy on the other side of the table doesn't have a huge need to pee but decides to press on as the games about to end? But it affects his concentration.

If supposedly the gap between #1 and #2 is this small.
Then might as well have something worth blaming for it, instead of the loud minority complaining about it on every forum but them always being the same 20 guys.

There's a reason why its called the silent majority.

Again, your analogies are bad.

If the floodlights turned off and added 30 min delay into the game, both teams are affected. The stronger team with higher stamina might win out.

If the torrential rain hit with 15 minutes to go, both teams are affected. Again, the team with better training in wet weather conditions might win out.

The star player had a thigh strain, that's what substitutes are for - they guard against random events - but if you really used up all your substitutes, then yes, you can say it is REALLY bad luck.

If a waitress poisoned their food, it isn't a random event, it is sabotage with intent.

If the guy on the other side of the table has to pee, competition rules allow for it, both players get equal amounts of restroom time, plus both players could plan for it by peeing just before the match.

Earthquakes are not only random, they affect players in different amounts. You could claim that the luck bonus can be used to mitigate this... but come on, the luck bonus is so weak nobody but all-explorers use it, even with earthquakes.

If the gap between #1 and #2 is really that small, then the losing player should be able to find fault with his own play, such as carrying too much defenses (high upkeep), or not using Stand Orders, the decision between going one more day of -expenses versus one more day of booms, etc, as opposed to blaming it on random luck.

Anyone could blame luck. Hey I lost that game of chess because a leaf brushed my leg and I lost my concentration. The point though of competitive games is to reduce/remove that luck factor so that true skill can shine across.

Also, you're going to have to name me a competitive sports where random events play a significant role __as part of the game's mechanics__ (that isn't gambling).

Everything I've said, external random events outside of the game's control and rules, people want them minimized or removed. The swimming competitions at the olympics didn't ban certain "high tech swimsuits" for no reason.

xin... when the best time to start using booms as a casher? you crunch numbers like nobody else i know playing this game. help me out pls? :D

@st0ny, You start using booms when "the money you get from the boom" is larger than the "money saved from putting in -X% more expenses for the remainder of the reset" using the same amount of points.

This requires an estimate that you typically do once per login as to how much money you save over the rest of the reset (based on number of turns left till end of set, current and projected upkeep, etc).

You don't play any sports I see. Sitting in front of a computer too long.

Getting poisoned is not a random event? Lol. That happens every week i guess. And the high tech swimsuits is a random event? Seriously? Are PEDs random events too?

At least getting poisoned isn't part of the game mechanics.

That's the point I'm driving at. Game mechanics and rules should set players on even footing.

All the random events that was mentioned were outside of game rules, the game rules itself does not intend for them to be present (which is why they were bad analogies), unlike earthquakes.

xin... thanks... i guess... did i mention i suck at maths? lol. but seriously... thanks. :D