I'm a new player, well, I am returning after playing in the 90's. I'd like to share my observations on the zone, which I was glad to find had people in it. After playing in the only other populated zone that had wacky physics and ruin the flow of the game. I agree with Sue on several points, and want to share my observations as a new player, but I hope I don't come across as a severe critic, anyway here goes: The map - I actually remember this map, albeit vaguely - I think it is 20% larger than necessary for the current population of players. The obstacles - often large, dense, and lacking entry points - interrupt the flow of play, and restrict action rather than promote it, because of the small population size. Those are the 2 big things that struck me first after returning to the game (which is so much fun!). The next thing was the bounty at start and greening, which I relearned after the recent switch (before the halloween change). As a new player I felt that the low bounty approach had a major strength, and major weakness, both related to the population size. At low population size, 4 or fewer players, when logging in my opponents are often fully "greened" ships, while I would have low health. Due to my poor ship handling skills I was quickly killed. If I spent the time to green, and then engaged, I was still quickly killed, and had to look forward to more running and greening before I could "enjoy" another loss. This made re-learning the game more difficult, and frustrating, and I actually didn't want to play. However, when population sizes were larger, exceeding 10 players, the low-bounty-at-start was remarkably MORE fun to play, because of team dynamics. The low-bounty and shared greens promoted teamwork, greening for teammates and team fights, and because of the low health at start I saw turrets and cloakers return--both phenomenon I hadn't seen in the high-bounty-at-start version of the zone earlier. The game was much more dynamic, fun, fast paced, and I felt everyone had more fun. I think the high-bounty start promotes individualism, and low-bounty promotes teamwork. At least that is what I see. To get the most out of these dynamics I'm wondering if settings can be established based on population size? Can you increase the start-bounty during low population, then reduce the bounty as more players join the zone? I also agree that remaining the same is a bad idea, and continuing to try new things to see what people like is a good idea. I also think the new Halloween map has lots of obstacles that could be improved, but the "Halloween powerups", surprises, and artwork are a great way to promote a temporary change to the game that is very fun. I would actually like to make a version of the chaos zone map and submit it to the server staff, if they have a copy of the original zone map, or the zone map that was on the server during the low-bounty session. I think it is great that the game is still around--and I also think you could increase the number of players by integrating this game with facebook, in fact, you may even generate revenue by doing so, but I am not aware of who maintains the legal rights to the game. If the game was migrated to facebook you could reach a large audience very quickly, and if someone augmented the graphics to something less sci-fi (which unfortunately is why I love the game), you may also attract female players. You could make it kittens fighting on a giant ice rink, throwing small and large snowballs at each other. Same game, 2 million more players overnight.
