Someone needs to explain to me why it is acceptable for an organization with multiple guilds is allowed to conquer multiple planets. Just today on the server, on Ilum, a planet with the goal of 200,000, the Eternal Order is in first with 3,046,219 points. The Eternal Order also holds Iokath, a planet with a goal of 550,000, has 5,132,920 points.

Invasions either need to be rolled backed or changed entirely again. The only benefit these invasions offer is a flagship encryption guaranteed, which my small guild has yet to do. We have worked around this by going after planetary commanders.

Unfortunately, with large guilds doing what they can to monopolize the leader boards, it is nearly impossible to knock out the shields of the named commanders, as the conquering guilds do not pursue these targets and simply move on to the next invasion, rendering the named commanders invulnerable for a set amount of time.

Not only do I recommend revamping the Conquest/Invasion system AGAIN in hopes of something better NOT WORSE, I recommend removing the requirement that a guild must be in control of a planet in order to do the bombing runs to knock out named commanders' shields.

I agree that there are some changes necessary so that small Guilds have a better Chance of actually Conquering a Planet, for example offering small, medium and large yields for each Planet and upgrading Guilds to the higher Rewards at a specific Point.

But if it's only the encryptions you are after it doesn't matter who leads the board, all that matters that as many of your guildies as possible reach their personal Conquest Goal and that your Guild as a whole reaches the Guild Goal. My Small Guild earned 9 Encryptions last Week while earning just 201k Conquest Points as a whole and never showing up on a Leader Board. For the time beeing this is the way we are going to earn these things.

Like I said, we’ve been going after commanders for the encryptions, and your guildies are more than welcome to join consider one blue is guaranteed per commander. Flagship plans are for whoever wins the roll, but even with this rule in place, my guild has made far more progress in expanding our flagship than participating in conquests.

However, waiting for named commanders to drop their shields as well as larger guilds claiming to get their guildies the titles on small planets as well as selling the encryption’s they have at extortionistic prices drives me up the wall.

I saw a suggestion recommending opening all the planets for invasion, which may help alleviate the problem, but it would not eliminate it. It boils down to subjective experiences of a group of people denying others opportunities beyond the motivations of competition and well within the realm of greed.

Neither of my moderate-sized casual-player guilds has its flagship completely unlocked, so I'm glad that our predominantly casual players can get the encryptions they need to unlock the guild ships without having to worry about what any other guilds are doing what, when, or where.

That part doesn't ever need to change. It's done, it's working.

If anything needed to be fixed, it's stuff totally beyond what my guilds worry about because we've never been seriously in contention for conquering a planet either prior to, or after, these conquest changes, so just keep those two things separate: personal goals leave as is, and if there's some other sort of change to balance out anything else, well, I'm sure the discussion on that will certainly continue...

Neither of my moderate-sized casual-player guilds has its flagship completely unlocked, so I'm glad that our predominantly casual players can get the encryptions they need to unlock the guild ships without having to worry about what any other guilds are doing what, when, or where.

 

That part doesn't ever need to change. It's done, it's working.

 

If anything needed to be fixed, it's stuff totally beyond what my guilds worry about because we've never been seriously in contention for conquering a planet either prior to, or after, these conquest changes, so just keep those two things separate: personal goals leave as is, and if there's some other sort of change to balance out anything else, well, I'm sure the discussion on that will certainly continue...

Yes, we can go after encryption’s through other means, however, when a large guild conquers a planet, they then unlock the ability to do a bombing run and knock out named commander’s shields. One major gripe I have with this is that they move on to the next planet, rendering this commander invulnerable to everyone. If any guild could perform bombing runs, that would be fantastic, especially considering it makes sense that a capital ship in orbit over an enemy position would probably be able to attack it, instead of having this imaginary conversation:

“Prepare the fighters.”

“We can’t, Sir.”

“Why not?”

“Our sister ship has already been here.”

“Well call them back.”

“We can’t, they scrapped their fighters.”

“Why can’t we use our fighters?!”

“We don’t have permission to.”

“Permission?!”

“We’re not allowed to invade this planet.”

“Well then assemble the fleet! Someone’s fighters must be able to perform bombing runs.”

“No one in the fleet can use fighters on this planet.”

“Except the one ship?”

“Except the one ship.”

“And they’ve moved on?”

“Yes. They sent us a message that reads “Noobs, yolo, rofl.”

“... Assemble the fleet to pursue them.”

“We can’t do that, Sir.”

“Get off my bridge.”

The most immediate thing I want is to be able to perform bombing runs on shielded named commanders without the need to conquer the planet first.

Invasions either need to be rolled backed or changed entirely again. The only benefit these invasions offer is a flagship encryption guaranteed, which my small guild has yet to do. We have worked around this by going after planetary commanders.

 

Unfortunately, with large guilds doing what they can to monopolize the leader boards, it is nearly impossible to knock out the shields of the named commanders, as the conquering guilds do not pursue these targets and simply move on to the next invasion, rendering the named commanders invulnerable for a set amount of time.

The entire conquest system remains flawed. Even with the small, medium, and large categories, we're seeing multiple large guilds going after the small yield planets. Honestly, large guilds should be required to go after large yield targets based on their sheer numbers alone, but perhaps average point counts per week could also factor into what categories they'll be eligible for.

Someone needs to explain to me why it is acceptable for an organization with multiple guilds is allowed to conquer multiple planets. NAME AND SHAME DELETED.

How does the game know that two guilds are part of one large organisation? No such structure exists within the game, so there's no way to tell.

There's a separate *conceptual* question (is it, in some sense, "morally" or "ethically" acceptable?), and in general I'd agree that it's not good sportsmanship to play like that, but from a practical point of view, since the game has no concept of guild alliances, there's no way (in game mechanics) to enforce such a restriction.

And name-and-shame is not allowed on the forums, especially in cases where the explicit rules of the game haven't been broken.

How does the game know that two guilds are part of one large organisation? No such structure exists within the game, so there's no way to tell.

 

There's a separate *conceptual* question (is it, in some sense, "morally" or "ethically" acceptable?), and in general I'd agree that it's not good sportsmanship to play like that, but from a practical point of view, since the game has no concept of guild alliances, there's no way (in game mechanics) to enforce such a restriction.

 

And name-and-shame is not allowed on the forums, especially in cases where the explicit rules of the game haven't been broken.

I agree with the statement here. To add to it, I personally feel that there is no ethical or morally dilemma. The organizations in question have put in ample time and effort to obtain the support/points they need to gain control of the planets.

I side with the OP on the fact that this game would be more entertaining if the bombing run requirement were reevaluated and changed. One suggestion: A guild who's master is subscribed should be able to use the bombing runs when they, the guild, hit the point threshold required to control a planet.

On a side note. I think it would be hilarious to allow the use of conquered plant perks automatically on planets that can't be controlled.