Astro empires

Astro Empires (AE) is a Massively Multiplayer Real Time Space Strategy Internet Browser game opened in May 2006. The game has attracted over 40,000 players since it first opened and has recently started play on its fifth server, known as Epsilon.

The game takes place in one universe spanning dozens of galaxies, thousands of systems and tens of thousands of worlds in which players can build up their own Astro Empire of the stars.

Gameplay
The game begins with a single 'Home Planet' and 50 start Credits. A player can upgrade for a year to boost his credits by 50, which is often used to gain a head start early on in an account. From their 'Home Planet' the player uses his Credits, which are generated at an hourly rate (the amount is dictated by a player's Economy value), to build ships, structures or research new technologies. As the player researches new technologies, new units and structures become available to the player with greater power or greater economic value. As the game progresses players enlarge their empires through colonizing new worlds, trading with other players or warring with other empires.

Groups of players with common goals, guilds, can be joined. These form the basic element of teamwork. Once the player joins a guild they work towards the guild's objectives. Players who do not join guilds run the risk of being 'farmed', having their bases looted by more experienced players.

Astro Empires plays in real-time; time continues within the game world after the player has gone offline. Thus, if a player is offline they may be attacked by rivals. This becomes increasingly more dangerous for the player's bases if their guild is at war with another guild. Scanners allow players to see incoming ships; however, the amount of warning may vary depending on the size of the fleet, in hours or minutes. Construction times increase as players improve upon their buildings. For example the ‘Metal Refinery’ which is a staple building at first level takes 10 minutes to build while later on in the game in can take hundreds of hours to complete a new level.

The Real-time aspect and longer player bias has been cited as the reason for many players leaving the game. Players often will have recently left the player protection, and return to the game, only to find their fleet in ruins and their planets occupied. This causes many to leave the game, or in extreme cases, makes them retaliate against their occupier's guild with whatever fleet they have left. This can put them in a yet worse situation.

War
Astro Empires is a war game and so much of the efforts of the creators have been in the war elements of the game. Conquering another player's ‘base’ or ‘planet’ allows the occupier to gain a reward of 30% of the bases income each hour and the ability to pillage a percentage of the players savings once a day.

There are multiple ship types in the game of varying costs and sizes which each have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example the ‘Battleship’ is good in capital ship combat however it can be taken down with much less than its credit value of ‘Heavy Bombers’.

In addition to Player versus Player combat there are two empires in the game. The , made of players who go inactive, and the , a dreaded race of highly advanced aliens who have come to the universe to wreak havoc..

Politics
Although not being an original part of the game Politics have grown out of the forums as different guilds (Large in-game alliances made of players) form (NAPs), (MDPs) and Alliances with each other.

Political events, broken treaties and wars are fought on the forums almost as often as they are fought in game. However, with the moderation staff made up entirely of the older players or those sympathetic to them, complaints often arise about the forum moderations.

Upgraded Status
Currently, there are two types of accounts: Upgraded and Free. Players begin their first week of play with an ugraded account and are downgraded to a lower account after this week. These additional features are offered to encourage users to help the game develop and fund its operation.

Reception
As with all games, especially MMO games, there are many criticisms that are a natural part of play in a developing game.

A Pirates game
Many users of Astro Empires have offered criticism to the advantages the games design offer to older and more experienced players. Due to the real-time element of the game those that joined later will always be at a disadvantage to those whom joined early in the games development. The unfortunate side effect of this has been large numbers of the older players and guilds will farm new players for additional credits by occupying their bases before they can defend themselves. Many players have quit the game due to these happenings.

The game's administrators have implemented a seven day "newbie protection" policy and player level attack prevention to try and curtail piracy however it has had a limited effect. The opening of new servers every 6 months has allowed all players a chance to start on the same level at the same time. This has been partially successful, and with the game continuing to grow, each new server has tended to gain new players faster than the last.

Upgrade
Although upgraded accounts help to fund the game there have been many complaints from 'free' users whom see them as stifling to their growth in the game. Many of the features that are only offered to 'paid' users are common for free users of other games such as 'advanced structure levels'.

Since the game first opened the admin have been adding new features for paid users and improving the features available for free accounts however the controversy continues.

Heavy-Handed Anti cheating methods
As with all games Astro Empires Admin try to protect its users from cheating. Their main weapon in this however is IP checks. These checks are to catch two accounts from the same IP, and if so the player will be messaged in-game informing them of their IP being shared with another player. This is in violation of the game's policies and is a bannable offense.

There are however many players who use the same IP to play the game for example family members and office colleges. Once two accounts have been accessed from the same IP, even if this is a one off the players are contacted. If they wish to continue the game players must ask for special permission from the admin and upgrade all accounts on the IP. The alternative is to have your account barred. This is probably the single most criticised part of the administration and game.

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See Also

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