Empire Building

I'm curious in what the long term players have to say about empire building given todays game conditions?

I've been away from the game over 5 years, a lot has changed in that time and the old way of building no longer seems viable.

What's your thoughts on playing multi planetary? I see a lot of yous still do. The lack of GC rewards are holding me back

Same with A CEO, are they even worth having? Is buying population worth it?

Now GC's are so hard to come by I haven't spent a single 1, apart from a 3 corp booster.

How would you guys go about things if yous had to start again?

I haven't really thought about that question, but it is very fair so I'd be glad to take a hypothetical look at it.

An initial assumption is Premium Account purchased @ 6 month period - $4 per month is reasonable for a game that can easily take a half hour a day or more if I am really enjoying myself, and doing it at the 6 month level nets an additional 30 GC. Premium means my account can really grow without restrictions. Free is viable, but to be honest I don't recall the exact restrictions on game level, population etc for free players. If you want to make a big splash you really need the unlocked potential of premium.

I would elect to build my empire on WG. It is currently the highest population world so there is the most opportunity for interaction with other players while still having plenty of space for carving out my own little empire without stepping on anybody else's toes. The general Empire size I am comfort

Ian, your view on GCs is one I share. Right now, it is doing the same to us as gold did to the Long Depression. Meaning it is an active constraint in how much players want to expand/play into other worlds. Moreso, at the moment I think it is forcing them to contract. On a related note, I believe there is a case to be made here where an increase of in-game GC supply may increase GC purchases. In tandem, there's a clear case to revert Direct Trading to what it was.

Regarding your question, my advice is to stick to your one free main entity and open an enterprise in the same world (30 GCs/month). This will help up build your base. Then consider how much you want to spend against how much you want to play on other worlds. Only you can answer that question for you.

Thanks for the input guys. I guess in the end its subjective like you said Laguna. No one can really answer the question of value for another person.

My initial post was me having a bit of a moan really I don't see it as worth the extra cost and thought I'd vent and see if any the vets feel the same hehe

I'll prob pay the extra $36 per year to play as ceo on FB but that's it. Its a shame, I'd love to play econ on WG and war on FB like before.

Plus no incentive to fast build without the GC rewards to chase. But ah well, I'll try keep the moaning to a minimum from now on.

Unsthable, you type epic posts sir, that's a lot of info. Thank you for the effort. Lots of nuggets in there.

It's definitely something to moan about, and it gives necessary feedback to the GM.

"...there's a clear case to revert Direct Trading to what it was"

Good god yes! The new one had me thoroughly confused at first, and now miffed at how pointless it is in comparison.

I think the game would be a lot healthier as a whole if Andy were to revert certain things back to more "free market" based mechanisms.

For instance, when I sell electric power, why is there a cap on the price? Just let me sell it for what I want. This gets really annoying when it goes into surplus for a a game month or three, right when I want to log on and make a big sale, but instead I have to wait for the price to go back up, in order to name my fixed price at the maximum limit, as opposed to just listing it there and waiting for the market to absorb the cheaper surplus before mine gets sold.

Worried about people using immediate orders getting wiped out? Set sane limits for the immediate orders, or perhaps implement a