The purpose of this page is to explain to everyone the direction Atorians development is heading and what the future will hold for this game.
At present there is one major problem that needs to be removed to ensure that not only my sanity stays intact but also that Atorians long term future is ensured. Please don’t be concerned the only thing threatening Atorians future is the amount of time it demands from my life, I’ll explain. I work on Atorian in my spare time, I have a full time job, a house to maintain and a family to take care of, as well as other hobbies and interests, pretty much like anyone else, I manage to get 3 to 5 hours a week of spare time to work on Atorian and I have been using this time for the past 3 years to develop and maintain Atorian, thankfully Atorian requires very little maintenance these days, however because Atorian restarts once every 4 months and each restart (episode) is expected to include new features there is a constant demand for development, a demand that I am personally struggling to meet.
So how do we solve this problem? This answer is simple but the solution will take a long time to achieve. Episodes need to last a lot longer than they do now to the point where an episode is launched once a year (rather than 3 times a year).
I can see what you are thinking and I have already thought of the solution, if Atorians Episodes lasted 12 months then the game will get very boring, very few players will maintain their campaign and eventually give up. If episodes are going to last longer Atorian will need to become both more interesting and far more flexible
Both the ’more interesting’ and ‘more flexible’ aspects need to be broken down much further, these two improvements are the key to unlocking a successful longer lasting episode.
More Interesting
Giving Atorian an improved appeal will take the longest to achieve, its not just about increase the size of the game but also making it appear and feel much more game-like, we need to remove all the little frustration and improve the game so that it is far more user friendly and fast.
To achieve this goal the following need to be addressed:
New Features
The game requires far more features if players are going to be expected to play the game for a long period without any new releases.
Improved Interactivity
The game requires a lot more interactive features and eventfully appear more like a game than a website. This would make Atorian more interesting.
Further graphics
A lot more graphics are needed, Atorian is far too text based and leaves very little to the imagination, again this would improve interest in the game.
More Flexible
An episode lasting 12 months creates many problems as far as flexibility is concerned. Players need to be able to take a break from Atorian and then return again to not only find their account still active but also not a million miles away from the position they left it in.
To achieve this goal the following need to be addressed:
Flexible Scoring
At the moment players scores constantly rise and can never fall, if episodes are to last 12 months players scores need to be far more flexible, they need to lose points as well as gain them.
Account Hibernation
If a player is inactive for more than 3 weeks their account and empires need to go into hibernation. During this period these empires can not be attacked or contacted and when the account user returns the empires resources need to be re-calculated to make up for the period of the absence.
Summary
So taking all this into account here is a brief outline of what is needed:
Problem: Episodes need to last a lot longer than they do now months
Goals:
Improve Game Appeal
New Features
Improved Interactivity
Further Graphics
Improve Flexibility
Flexible Scoring
Account Hibernation
Plans are already underway to outline what the future Atorian should be like. Once these outlines are in place development will begin and with each new episode Atorian will take steps closer to achieving its goals.
