So, flares have been around for a while, and have seen at least a little activity. Unfortunately, it does appear that the majority of the time control of bubbles stays with one or at most two organizations, typically, swaying back and forth if they're lucky. This is at least partially because they fall into predictable cycles, even if the exact times aren't 100% predictable.

One solution to this issue is to randomize the groups that flare. The problem with this is you run into the issue where a bubble could flare multiple times in a row, frustrating the person who just worked so hard to get the bubble.

Another might be this: with every flare that passes, the probability that a larger group of bubbles (even all of aetherspace!) would flare increases; a larger-group flare decreases the probability again. A larger flare opens up the real possibility of gaining bubbles to more people and gives even "low" orgs a taste of victory, or at least more of one than they receive normally. I think most people who participated had fun in the first, all-aetherspace flare, partially because of the "ooh shiny" factor, but also partially because everyone had more of a chance to actually make an impact.

I'd expect the chances would start pretty small, so a larger flare wouldn't happen very often. Just something that'd be there, every now and then.

Honestly, I like the flare mechanic in general; it's got fun flavor, and who doesn't like txt-imperialism? Of course, anything that encourages the use of aetherspace for more than bashing is a plus. But it seems like it's kind of received less attention than it really deserves, so maybe some tweaks might help.

Idea: Balance these new Constructs.

Otherwise I'm quite content to let them be balanced via denial. :/

In regards to your post, though... there was an awful lot of attention paid today! A lot of the flares have been happening at times with few people around, which makes it difficult for a large population to be involved. Deathsights showed probably about 25% of the online population (if not more) running around aetherspace tonight.

Edit: Is your assertion that people did not have fun participating tonight? I've seen some raves on the forums even from those on the 'losing' side of tonight's battle, and I enjoyed myself. Y'all took out our whole fleet once. I also don't see how it matters whether the bubbles go 'randomly' in a set or it is the same 3 each time. Doesn't change much, given that people tend to have ships with flashpoints everywhere and / or bubblixes.

But flashpoints don't mean anything if you get blown up the second you get there. If more bubbles went up at once, you have better chances of picking one that no one else picked.

Have them all flare at once!

Which favours those who are on the ball. A small org can get there via flashpoints faster than someone with bubblixes can whistle. You can get in position, set up the docks, and ambush those who are overly reliant on high-tech gadgets.

I can't help but feel that this is like asking all villages to have a chance to revolt at once, or all Domoths to flux at once. Part of the point of it is that there are limited resources that you have to politic / work together for; I will also point out that Hallifax in the past was able to do this.

I mostly agree with you, I was just pointing out what I think is the main point of this suggestion. More flares at once mean that smaller/less capable orgs will have a chance, even if it's only every now and then.

I think that something needs to be done to discourage getting all of the aetherbubbles. Villages seem to be fine because we can see a spread of control, but flares are not showing this.

Something like, each additional bubble you claim might be harder to synchronise, if done right could mean that the "winning org" would have to work harder to get all of their constructs up while other orgs find it easier to get at least the defensive one.

The only thing I don't particularly care for is the ability to use bubblixes during flares. It wouldn't really be fair to disable them during flares I don't think, but some way to prevent people from instantly returning would be nice. Maybe have a delay on travelling to bubbles that are flaring similar to trying to bix/ascend out of enemy territory? Though I suppose that wouldn't really help either. Oh well.

I guess I just don't really like individual artifacts (and dingbat arties, at that) having such huge impacts on org-based conflict. But that's also the way it's probably always been and always will be, so.


If this were something deemed necessary/beneficial, I'd say just allow an org to hold only one bubble out of a set that flares together. It'd still be possible for two orgs to hold six of the eight bubbles, leaving 2 for the other four orgs to fight over.

The problem with this thinking is that after spending a long time with limited resources bombarding a bubble in peace with a colossus up, a bigger org can swoop in, clear ships and win in five minutes.

I think that aether ship combat needs to be rewritten. Playing with it in parallax, the vast majority of it seems pointless compared to just doing straight damage. It also feels like using the full extent of the skills would require being on close to a fully automatic multi-person system, which I can't imagine the admins would be very happy about. The ground battle aspect of flares needs to be more important/developed also. Piloting a colossus is great fun, as is taking down other colossi, but at the end of the day, you can stand in a colossus unimpeded for more then 30 minutes and not get any tangible gain in synch.

Edit: Oh, beacons should also allow you to get back down to prime.

Personally, I think each bubble should have an opposite/rival bubble, and the same org can't own x bubble and its rival. Then I think owners of x bubble shouldn't be able to enter or fly around rival bubble y, because it encourages teaming by the winners, and victory is bad.

P.S. ground troops really should have more of a benefit than now. It's like 80:20 in favour of bombarding, while it should be more like 60:40, IMO.

It's not so much that people are plotting when the revolts will be in advance so much as a disparity between the number of ships and capable crew members each organization has.

Not sure if you're serious on the first bit...

I'd love to see more ground fighting during flares. Then I'd have more use.

I agree that most actions other than straight damage and possibly damage to the grid or chair are near useless after initial set up, which sort of does need to be addressed, but that's a ship/ship combat issue more than a problem with the flares.

Shuyin's quite obviously not serious, and I agree with the sentiment. If you care enough about having more than one construct, get together all those aetherhunting zombies (Halli has enough of them) and have them mop up enemy ships and bombard bubbles. Off-hour flares affect all orgs, although some tend to have more active and able players during those times than others, admittedly. Considering how domoth-happy Seren and Mag often get just then, though, I'm not sure where exactly the problem with flares lies.

Aetherflares are an exciting new addition. I don't see anything wrong with it and not because Celest is doing alright in that area but because everyone has the same opportunities. Magnagora had four bubbles very recently.

The only real problem I have with flares is how much bombards stack, and how much better they are than colossi: five uncontested bombards wins a bubble, and you can have all five going at once; a colossus is significantly slower than a bombard: unattended, it cut one bombard off over twenty minutes, ie it took 4 bombards = 20 minutes rather than 5 bombards = 30 (two ships bombarding). A marginally attended colossus (3 people? Not sure) on Bottledowns achieved the same.

And in the Cankermore flare before last, Magnagora swept in when Glomdoring was at 1 bombard from winning, and took the bubble in two rounds without touching Glom's colossus (our bombards lowered their score but didn't increase ours as much: it appears that your score is at least partially affected by your opponents').

So, yeah, I think either bombard stacking should be addressed or colossi buffed. Not to say that they should be as good or better than ships, but controlling the ground should at least provide something.

The issue with flares is one of those larger issues with the game in general. When you're on top, you get mechanical rewards that make you even MORE on top. When you're losing, you're relatively bereft of the same.

For aetherflares, I will say this much- everyone is playing from the same general deck of cards as far as ships are concerned. Unlike revolts, where there are all sorts of ability complaints and charisma issues, different orgs don't have different abilities for the relevent stuff regarding ships.

Population issues, ship issues, yes. But at least those are universal and not rooted in mechanical differences.

I like that the aetherflares focus more on ship-to-ship than on ground fighting. It adds a fun, different element to the game and differentiates them from Domoths, which are essentially all ground fighting.

@Esano- Just get more ships!

I wish that it was more focused on colossi ground battles, in specific. They add a new mechanic that isn't just smashing with numbers and damage attacks, like aethercombat feels to me.