How about if the player could set a threshhold for a planet. Once the threshhold is reached, then it will move a player set number of ships to a specific planet.
ie. When planet A reaches 150 ships, move 100 ships to planet F.
This would keep the screen clutter down more, but still allow the player to automate some of the process.
I like this idea quite a bit. If nothing else, it could be implemented and then tweaked later as people see they want to play differently.
I'm not quite sure about the class ranking idea. Saying you're in the top 10% of all players to me means something better than saying you're #1 in the loser class
Aside from that, how would classes be determined if not by global rank? Being #1 in the 100-199 class just means you're ranked #100 in the 0-99 class doesn't it? And what happens when you're #1 in the 100-199 and you're whooping everyone else non-stop? Shouldn't you move up classes fluidly? To me that just makes the class distinction meaningless. Am I missing the idea?
How about I make it work like Halo 2's Online Matchmaking?
The game matches you according to what type you want to play with someone of a similar level. There would be no distinction between one Level 12 and another Level 12 player then, so it wouldn't be such an issue. People would very quickly move to their level and always be able to play games with people on a similar rank to them.
As for players leaving during >2 player multiplayer matches, I think there are 3 appropriate options for response:
- The missing player should be replaced with a Dumb AI player
- The missing player's planets turn to neutral
- The missing player's planets go to the person that took his last remaining planet, or the person that took the most of his planets.
The last option I don't like because that makes it unfair between the other 2 players. The second option would certainly be sensible, and the 1st option I think would be best. I say that because if players A and C surround B, and C drops out, A would still be counting on that surrounding strategy to take out B. If C's planets go neutral, B just sucks them up and suddenly has a HUGE advantage because A can't reach them. If it turns to a dumb AI, player A's strategy doesn't go completely out the window and player B is still in his same situation as before.
Also with 2v2 games, if I lost a teammate, I might rather have my teammate turn into a Dumb AI than suddenly be lost and fair game for my other 2 opponents. Also, replacing them with anything other than a Dumb AI would probably not be fair because all the existing AI's above that can really beat almost any human