Your thoughts:

http://earthempires.com/...sy-fix-35885?t=1429413727

failed thread

Failed? Quite the opposite. Silence on EXPRESS is a good thing. Had I made a bad suggestion, I'd have everyone trying to snipe me.

Kinda like your attempt right now.

The thread is more so for Qzjul. I'm just fishing for why it would be a bad idea to make the adjustments. So far, so good.

I think I like it, must read when sober.

They should be adjusted for express. Bonus points here are pretty much useless other than free GDI.

+1

Not against adjutsing, but concerned about game balance; see my comments on OP's linked thread. Or - tl;dr version - care is needed because being able to stock 360(360) turns (40% of the set) lets you slow roll bonuses in express.

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Making bonus points more valuable for the Express game would encourage people to adjust the times when they claim the bonuses. This would be a headache for Alliance players. For me, it would mean delaying my bonuses in alliance so I could claim them at 00:01am on the Express game start day. That would mess up my Decay Bonus strategy in Alliance.

Why mess with it? Its enough of a decision whether to use 16 points for free GDI or to pay for GDI. The bonuses are still valuable, especially the last two if you are a casher and bump your tax rate to 70% for the last two turns. I don't think there is any reason to complicate the bonuses when we are already figuring out having no allies, the DR formula, and especially, the bots.

I'm just looking at ways to improve EXPRESS by addressing functions that are never used. Bepulse made some strong points and I really didn't consider the stocking of turns then using high % bonuses beginning on turn 1. Maybe by cutting all the suggested #s in 1/2 would be more ideal. It just seems atm, only 3 of 8 options are ever being used: FREE GDI, BOOSTS & TURNS. I'm just suggesting beefing up those numbers a little more.

perhaps we could increase the bonus points for express? Or lower the costs even more?

The problem with any change to the bonus point system is that they have a different effect and value in every server. Changing their value in Express therefore has to be weighed in terms of their value on other servers. This is complicated. It will effect bonus strategies on other servers. I repeat, why change it and add this unnessary complexity? It might be OK if the Express bonuses were isolated from the other servers, but they're not.

On the other hand, What is the purpose of the bonuses?

1) To generate advertising revenue.
2) To encourage participation

The measurements which are thought show the level of participation are a) regular logins and b) forum partcipation.

The regular logins are also now being rewarded by more bonus turns. The login process for this can be automated with a browser refresher app. The forum partcipation is sort of a runnig joke; look at the Gogy thread.

Since Express players generally put in a lot time per day into the game, they should in fact receive more bonus points to be fairly compensated for their participation. The measurement for this should be something that can be sold to advertisers to generate more revenue. If that is possible, then the bonus system should be changed.

I dont even try to work out a bonus strategy for express.. all turns .