Planetarion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Planetarion is a web browser based multiplayer war-game, set in space. Each player controls a planet, and these are grouped into galaxies, which are further arranged into clusters. The game operates on an hourly 'tick' basis, and the objective is to amass the highest score possible. Score is determined as combination of Value and Experience. The Value of a planet is based on the number of ships it has in its fleet, the number of asteroids ('roids) it possesses, and planetary Constructions such as Factories and Refineries. Experience (known as XP) is gained in various ways. However, the major way of gaining XP is to successfully attack a planet with a high value and score in relation to yours.
An integral part of the game is the presence of alliances. In the early rounds, alliances were not an official part of the game and were instead created by players on an informal basis. However later rounds included support for alliances as part of the game mechanism. There have been many notable alliances throughout planetarion history, including: Blue Tuba, The Concordium (WaC), The League, The Legion (VtS), The Fury, Wolf Pack, Howling Rain, Oooomph, IPC, The Frying Dutchmen (TFD), Xanadu, NoS, ND, and F-crew (the oldest surviving alliance).
In addition to alliances, "Battle Groups" play a significant role in the game. These groups, often including players from several alliances, are usually created on a temporary basis to make organising attacks easier. Battle Groups lessen the strain on a specific alliance, should those involved in the attack be retaliated against. Effective battle groups have made their presence felt as much as, if not more than, full-size alliances.
Players attack planets, a strategic task (each unit has several stats), in order to steal resource producing "asteroids", of which there are three types: Metal, Crystal and Eonium. These resources are used to construct items and ships, as well as fund Covert Operations. A Research aspect is included in the game, although research has no resource cost.
A new round of Planetarion is normally started approximately every 2 months, at which point all the stats in the game are reset and players begin again from scratch. There is normally at least a short break inbetween rounds, as well as some special sped-up games. (There is usually a weeklong Havoc with 15 minute ticks [4x normal speed] and a couple of daylong speedgames with 1-minute ticks. [60x normal speed])
The game was originally free, but from round 5 onwards[1][2] free accounts have had limited features and have sometimes been removed altogether. This move towards pay-to-play has resulted in large numbers of experienced players and alliances leaving the game, undermining the community to a significant extent.
At its peak, Planetarion was one of the most popular browser-based games, with around 170,000 registered planets, although it was widely believed that the true number of players was closer to 70,000, with several players creating multiple accounts (a form of cheating). Currently, Planetarion has a couple thousand accounts, some "paid", some "unpaid".
Under the current Planetarion rules, players choose to play as one of four races, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. A major factor in the ship stats is 'initiative', which determines the order in which ships "fire" during a battle. The races can be summarized as follows:
- Terran (Ter or Terr): Large and powerful ships. Average initiative.
- Cathaar (Cat or Cath): Fast-acting ships, but they normally do not kill opponents (Most Cathaar ships merely 'freeze' enemy ships, preventing them from firing during the battle.). Good initiative, the best in the game.
- Xandathrii (Xan): Very good initiative, cheap ships. (and, by extension, that means a lot of them.) Most are "cloaked", meaning that many specific details about a Xan fleet
- Zikonian (Zik): Zikonian players can steal their opponents' ships and use them in the future. Ships capable of "stealing" have very bad initative, but native-to-Zikonian non-steal ships generally have midrange initiative.
The specific stats of each race are normally adjusted between rounds, in response to players feeling that one race is either too powerful or too weak, or that one component of a particular race is too storng or too weak.
Planetarion also hosts a number of forums where players can interact and share strategy with one another. These include a forum for General Discussions unrelated to the game (which can be rather anarchic) and a Roleplaying forum, which has declined in popularity over the years.
Planetarion was originally created and developed by Fifth Season AS in Oslo, Norway, but was later sold to SimTech / Jolt Ltd in UK.
