Level Six - Initial Notes

[Coops]

I've called this post 'Initial Notes' as I'm sure over the next week you will see myself and possibly staff making all kinds of post on the subject to Level Six and all its 'paraphernalia'. But for now I just wanted to cover some early first thoughts.

Probably top of my head after such a long time working on this ones are two subjects. The first being bug reports. From time to time we get some great bug reports for you. Clear concise reporting sometimes even with a snapshot. Other time we get one liners that are barely understandable.

Bug Reports
It is my hope that those of you that might log a bug report in the next few weeks will first have made sure with a staff member that it IS a bug. They should be able to tell you as most of them have had over a year of me bleating in their ear about various functionality of Level Six. Then that the bug you post is concise and has all the facts we need to understand it and work on fixing it. Lastly you follow through with any queries we may have.

Exploits & Browser Hacks
Secondly, Exploits and Hacks. Over the last year I've had to add a LOT more exploit code to catch those of you attempting to use the system in a way it was never designed for your personal gain. This is simply exploiting and we wont tolerate it. Then those of you who know your way round a browser and have been using some of the more colourful browser add-ons and mechanics to hack the browser buttons and functionality. This too is not going to be tolerated any more. If you cant play in a normal fashion and feel the need to hack the returning data to advance your toon we don't want you here at Core-Exiles. When we find you doing this we will lock your account and you will simply loose everything you've worked for.

The above section may sound a little draconian, but to be honest I've had it up to my eye balls with players who want to play for free and to try and bypass measures put in place to make sure that 99% of you play fairly. For 99% of you the last section is something you can breeze over, but those of you and yes know who you are - we are watching.

Level Six 'Costs'
This last few weeks I've spent most of my time (along with some great and industrious staff) working on balancing out the costings and general game mechanics of level six. This includes all the resource costs, schematic costs and SRP costs. For some of you below level 60+ these will seem in the extreme. But when you consider what they all go towards the end items had to take into account.

Settlements can now craft Player Made ships and Starbase Hubs. These in turn will be usable by players to gain more income and advance in the game. So there has to be a balance.

There are currently 139 settlements out of the 203 active that are Level five and therefore stand a chance of going through to level six. MOST of you wont be able to as you will lack funds or SRP but again we balanced the SRP costs in mind with the current player base.

Above All
If I can give ONE piece of advice to anyone planning on level six my advice would be 'PLAN AHEAD' - Don't make assumptions. Do some research and think long and hard about your choices. Once at level six you will have as much time as you want before making the 'Specialisation' choice. So dont rush.

One Rule to remember is that YOU as a Captain may only EVER purchase a maximum of 2 Level Six licenses. So it doesn't matter how many settlements you build, let burn down and sink into the swamp you can only ever have two level six's.

I'll leave you to all ponder level six whilst I go stick a nasty A.I with a large pointy stick..

Coops, Oct 23, 2012