Here are some suggestions for the site from members. We need input from members as many of the ideas are in sections we intend on launching, have programmed or others are just great ideas that we need to try out. We’ll leave it up to you. Send a note to CC centralcommand@usofearth.com which of the following is the best idea in your opinion. These are the final Two. If any member likes ideas within let us know. As I said a few we are doing so if you like things we are doing already in reinforces what will get done faster than other areas.
Entry 1
What I would do if you had control over the U.S.E. site.
I have been playing on the site for about 2 months and I think it’s the best strategy war game out there right now and I love the game, but there are some things that I would change if I could. I will list them in order of importance with the issues that need to be fixed ASAP listed first.
When recruiting troops add a box to direct the troops into a pre-assigned district so you don’t need to hunt them down to move them.
Please add a “move all troops to one district” button. So you can enter the receiving district for all troops at once. I spent 5 hours the other day just moving DT’s from empty districts because my attacks were so slow and bogged down because of the paging problem. Also, maybe make the “Light” Medium” “Heavy” and “District Troops” boxes at the top of the move troops screen “clickable” buttons. Sort of like in Roulette, you would click that stack and direct them to where you want to move them. If you just wanted all your DT’s moved at the same time for instance.
Add a “Build All” button for forts and eventually the other buildings. I have almost 1000 districts with no fort because it just takes too long to sit there and click every single district.
Fix the Move Troops page: You should only see the districts that actually have troops to move, just like the offensive screen. Also please add prefecture labels to the pages when you cursor over them so you don’t need to fish and guess what number page has the prefecture you want. Something like: (P14 B1-B68) would be very helpful and save a lot of time to do the other things you need to do.
Also why do we need to go to the bottom of the screen put the cursor on the page strip have it disappear and then click it again on the move screen. It should be permanently on the move screen and should not go all the way over to the right of the screen for the higher pages. Maybe have Pages 1 through 30 showing with a >> for the next set of 30.
Right after you complete a blitz attack and the box comes up saying the “Defender is regrouping” there should be a button that asks you if you would like to remain on the attack screen or go back to map. Attack should be default because most times I attack multiple targets at once.
Add Attack Status to new Regime page. Also defense status screen (build forts) is not working anymore.
When accepting blitz terms it should stay on that page and that like should change color and say “Accepted terms” instead of going to a white page saying that and having to come back manually.
This is for Non-Made players. Hide the empty districts with no troops on the attack screen. All the districts show DT’s that cannot be used and slows everything down and freezes up blitzes. Anything over 3 pages slows down drastically.
Also maybe have the players download the core files to the game like other online games do to speed up processing especially for players with older pc’s or dial up access.
The next items are for things that I would like to have in the future but are not extremely necessary at the moment.
Add an “you got mail” Indicator to the action station with a hot button going to your regime mail.
Add an Incomming blitz page to the Attacks screen with Attack, destination, troop count and ETA.
Simultaneous attack feature. Have a que with say 10 targets and set the attacking troops and attack all 10 at once. All have to be the same troops counts attacking.
Simultaneous move from one district to several others. Most of the time my troops are in one district because you can move them easier and the game is much faster. But sometimes you need to defend 10 or more districts maybe 50 or more. It would be much faster to have a page with destination boxes and one origin district to move to multiple districts at once.
Get rid of the scrolling news and historical quotes. Nobody reads it and it just uses up RAM. Instead have a Battalion news o f the day button. Showing who had the most wins that day, who won contests, who attacked who, who’s on leave etc..,
I would like militia extended to 48 hours instead of 24. Sometimes you just can’t get to it and then a random event takes your troops or rebellion. After all they are the same questions over and over again.
Why is espionage not on? Or is it? I can’t tell.
What is going on with the Intel screen? When do I get to fire Janet Reno? That fat broad got to go but I don’t think this is needed. Everyone should have a default Intel Chief and then adjust the attributes based on your own knowledge, Community, AOW scores etc.. As your knowledge grows so should your Intel chiefs.
Would like more interaction with the Darths and Obama AI’s. I love the addition of them and would like more of them. Maybe make them more aggressive and give them free rein all through every prefecture to wreak havoc where ever they want to. I would love that. Give them massive armies to but also move there troop stacks around if you get lucky and find them you hit the jackpot.
Finally I would like to add my two cents to the Private Prefecture question.
You should only be given a private prefecture on gaining a certain rank like E-8. Then only private for say one week to give you time to consolidate and build forts and so on. Then after 1 week access is granted to others with the same rank as you are. The higher rank the more access to the game should be granted automatically. No prefects should be given just for asking for them, this will stop favoritism. It should be on a strictly merit based circumstance. If you advance to E-9 then you get another prefecture and the same process begins again. This is incentive to constantly improve your stats and your rank. A merit based system is the most fair and rewards those who have shown that they work hard and are truly in the game. That’s my take on it. This is incentive to constantly improve your stats and your rank.
Entry 2
The U.S.E. offers a great gaming and community environment. However, I find the biggest challenge is the amount of time required to be truly successful. It is my belief that with some relatively minor changes to the user interface a great deal of efficiency can be generated that would not only conserve the valuable time of the Commanders, but also the resources for the U.S.E. servers. The enormous amount of time required to first learn how to successfully play the game, and then to maintain a high level of success ultimately leads to the death of many Commanders. Let’s face it, most of us have jobs and family that we need to attend to on a regular basis. Requiring less time to play the game would lead to more success and more players. Following this theme (plus a few other ideas), I have enumerated in no particular order my top ideas for changes that I would implement if I were in charge of the U.S.E.
1. Moving troops – moving troops is currently a very cumbersome task for any player that has many districts. Often times the troop movements consist of gathering up troops from multiple districts to move to a single district. This could be done with a tool very similar to the “All Forces” button in the attack screen. Click the button to select all forces, then have a single drop-down menu to select the destination district. A slightly more complicated approach would be to select all the forces, then drag them to the map and drop them into the desired district. Another helpful tool for moving troops into multiple locations is also a take-off from the attack screen – instead of displaying all of the Commanders districts, display only those that have have troops in them, after all there is no reason to attempt to move troops out of an already empty district.
2. Attacking – currently attacking requires many separate mouse, key clicks, and screens for every single district attacked, particularly for a blitzkrieg. A couple of different ideas to make this more of a graphically intuitive process are as follows. Allow the user to create one or several default stand-by unit configurations and desired terms that would be displayed next to the maps. Then simply drag and drop the desired configuration onto the desired district in the map followed by a pop-up confirmation window. Alternatively attacks could be initiated by right-clicking on the desired district popping up a menu that would allow the Commander to select the type of attack and the desired attack configuration if it is a blitzkrieg. This same menu could also be used to select a probe and to spy for troops, reducing mouse movements. While the attack videos are interesting the first few times, eventually they are simply using up bandwidth and slowing down the entire attack process. These should either be eliminated, or at least allow the Commanders to turn them off.
3. District Defense – currently the task of defending your districts against incoming blitzes is very difficult as all of the relevant information is scattered in multiple places. For example the District Defense page does not contain the prefecture that is under attack, the attacking Commander name, or the time the blitz will expire. Additionally it does not provide links for obtaining intel on the attack or for accepting the attacking Commander’s terms. Currently the only way to determine the expiration time of the blitz, get intel, or accept the terms is to locate the incoming blitz in the attack log, which can be very time consuming for active Commanders. As a minimum, all of these elements should be gathered together in the District Defense page. An additional visual interface would be to show districts on the map that are under attack in a blinking color or with a pattern overlay. Then by either selecting this district or right clicking on the district the Commander can get all relevant information such as the expiration time, intel information, the attacking Commander name, and the ability to accept the terms.
4. Attack Status – dealing with outgoing blitzes that have already been initiated is also difficult due to the information being scattered in multiple places. The information in the Attack Status page and the On Duty page need to be merged. Relevant information required in one location includes both the prefect number and district number being attacked, the Commander name being attacked, the expiration time of the attack, the troops committed to the attack, the ability to call off the attack, and the ability to spy on the district being attacked to determine if the other Commander is defending by moving troops into the district. A visual approach using the map could also be added for districts that have already been attacked that day and that are currently under attack. On the map the districts could have blinking colors or a pattern to quickly show the district is under attack or has already been attacked that day. Additionally either selecting this district or right-clicking it would provide all of the relevant attack information such as troops committed, expiration time, and the ability to call off a blitz.
5. Fortifications – for Commanders with large empires changing fortifications is very time consuming. This time could be shortened immensely by adding a button to build forts on all districts that currently do not have forts, and another button to allow changing the style of fortification for all districts at once.
6. Local Time – it would be very helpful if the time display everywhere within U.S.E. could be displayed in the Commander’s local time zone. I see this done on some other sites so I suspect there is a simple method for implementation. This would necessitate a notification, perhaps on the Regime page, of the local time of day at which new days begin within the U.S.E system.
7. Multiple Empires – having multiple empires for a single Commander causes lots of problems. Historically I believe there was a very good reason for this, but ultimately each player needs to be limited to a single empire, perhaps through electronic tracking. Just as the President of the United States cannot command armies from multiple countries, neither should a Commander in the U.S.E. be allowed to command multiple empires. Unknowing Commanders can get into a war with what they believe is a smaller or similar sized empire only to discover later that the empire is just one of several under the control of a very large Commander. This just leads to the early death of many Commanders and I think we all agree that we need more players, not fewer. Commanders with multiple empires should be forced to abandon or merge them all together immediately.
8. Insiders – no one involved in Central Command, Admin, or Programming should be allowed to actively play the game. We are all human and therefore we will all act on our instincts to help friendly empires and not help the ones we find unfriendly. Basically anyone that has access to inside information or has more power than the average Commander should be electronically banned from playing. Trying to make Central Command requests anonymous is not really an option because often times the nature of the request will ultimately give away the identity of the requesting Commander. Ultimately as the bugs get worked out of this site the need for intervention from CC/admin/programmers should decline – a more in-depth tutorial will also help to ease the number of incoming requests to Central Command.
9. Private prefects – while we all wish we had a private prefect in which to hide our troops I think we would all also agree that when we are under attack by a Commander that is hiding his troops in a private prefect that the entire process constitutes a very unfair advantage. The success of the United States Military is largely due to it’s ability to project power wherever it may be needed. Why should we here in the U.S.E. be any different? All Commanders should have access to all prefects – except the breeding grounds for new empires which should remain off limits to all outside intrusion. I would also recommend that these breeding grounds be hatched within separate states/countries in which all of the empires within are allowed to grow to a level at which they can be competitive with the “outside world” at which time these breeding grounds are then opened up to all.
10. Organizations – Empires should be allowed to form into publicly displayed organizations, rather than being forced into a battalion based on when the Commander joined the U.S.E. Each organization would be run by democratic vote setting policies and determining when and how other organizations or rogue empires should be dealt with. Commanders within an organization that do not follow the organizations procedures and/or rulings are subject to a multitude of disciplinary actions determined and voted on by all the organization’s Commanders. Each organization should have a private location to discuss pending actions. Any new Commander wishing to join an organization is subject to majority approval from member Commanders. A Commander’s organization membership should be publicly displayed so all can see prior to initiating any attacks. While no one empire can be forced to join an organization the benefits will result in very few rogue empires. A basic set of principles for each organization should also be displayed to attract Commanders that have similar desires. Ultimately this is the only way for smaller empires commanded by people with less time on their hands to play the game for extended periods without being destroyed in a matter of days.
11. Searchable Combat Log – it would save a great deal of time to be able to search the combat log for certain elements such as: blitzes won, blitzes lost, frontal assaults, troops trained, Commander names, Empire names, special notices from CC, and date ranges.
12. Mercenaries – empires should be allowed to train armies and hire them out as mercenaries. This would help those Commanders that enjoy playing the game at a more sedate pace. Commanders should be able to negotiate mutually agreeable terms. This would also be useful to those empires that need to take extended leave, allowing another Commander to hopefully keep them safer than the absent Commander.
