My thoughts on getting players to return

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Dominor666, Dec 10, 2018.

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  1. mystarr

    mystarr Avatar

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    Would this leave our crafting skills alone? I would hate to use it for my adventure skills and discover it had also reset my crafting skill tree (lot of wasted resources...)
     
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  2. the Lacedaemonian

    the Lacedaemonian Avatar

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    Hell yes. I've spent so much money of respec scrolls already. I'd do it once again, even the chance to see how much XP I lost to dying would be interesting.
     
  3. Brass Knuckles

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    Give it a special look where we could proudly display it as rare deco.
     
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  4. Eric White

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    Why remove it at R62?

    IF you are making it non-tradable... leave it indefinitely at this point. Forcing us to make a major choice in month (alright... like 5-6 weeks for this cycle) is not a good it for many.
     
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  5. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Was about to request same.
    @Chris brilliant move!
     
  6. Terrence Phillip

    Terrence Phillip Avatar

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    @Chris Great idea! The difficult part will be getting the word out to old players.
     
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  7. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    @Brass Knuckles In your example, those 2 years weren't just "playing" an Ice Mage - they were spent earning the points that went into the Water Tree. The way I see it, it's the time spent earning the xp's for whatever skills that counts most. And since we've already spent the time earning those points that went into our pool (and subsequently into skills) - why should we ever be "punished" ( IE must have a one time book or a dozen relearning scrolls @ 3 COTO's a pop) and not being able to turn them down and get ALL those points back to build another "build" ?

    @Chris Why on earth would it "vanish" at the start of R62 ?

    IMHO, once you have spent countless hours earning the xp's to build skills - what would it hurt to let us turn down any skill at any time and get 100% return of xp's spent for it ?

    I've never understood why we can only get a % of the xp's ( time spent ) back when we turn down a skill.

    If it's so Port can get funds for selling Scrolls of Unlearning, then we have a problem Houston. Much better ways to get funding other than selling us back our TIME..... IMO.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2018
  8. Vladamir Begemot

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    We should REALLY be being seen on Discord. Everyone uses it, we have regular updates, that's a perfect spot for a monthly news push.

    Edit: I'm talking about the News splash when you first log into Discord.
     
  9. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    What Discord channel would reach these people ?
     
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  10. Vladamir Begemot

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    Just edited for clarity. I messaged Discord a while back, Port needs to get in touch with them. It might take some advertising dollars, but I think it's a very prominant and great spot. If you consider that people will see "Update 62, Update 63, Update 64" month after month there, it will do exactly what good advertising is supposed to. Be visible time and again until people eventually come out of their comfort zone and give it a shot. Plus, old players will be likely to check out what the update is. It's a very low friction spot.

    (That is, assuming it IS paid advertising. If it's free, then get on there yesterday!)
     
  11. Brass Knuckles

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    I’m not opposed to the book I’m just looking at it practically. It’s the sota system and I’m cool with it but I do find it strange I could have played a ice Mage or a water mage ;) since persistence but with a full reset and auto attacking a practice dummy I could be a multi gm grandmaster something else in 10 minutes.

    Or if I spent my whole life being a mechanic I could not take all that expiernece and be a doctor. In that way I think it’s odd is all.

    This is not a complaint but a observation in uo if you wanted to be a good swordsman or woman you had to spend time real time doing that is all. Honestly I think most mmorpgs are like this and yes I’m ok with sota being a diffrent type of game. For the games sake I could really careless this ain’t uo.

    I don’t want to side track this conversation with my side thought.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2018
  12. Barugon

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    I still don't get why we have to lose a lot of experience when untraining skills.
     
  13. Worfgar

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    I think it's a great idea.
     
  14. Dominor666

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    Ok, to elaborate on my original musings, hopefully to make it clearer what my intentions were.
    Currently i have a character very high in death, i did this because a lot of my time was spent playing solo ( in a non-USA timezone so people online are fewer ) since thinking about returning i have decided my main goal ( since i do not have much playtime ) would be to help out friends by taking on the role as a primary healer. That way i could just in, help them out, maybe go help someone who wants to kill X mob but is having trouble by themselves.
    Thanks @Chris what you are proposing would make me seriously consider a return, you give me a little sugar, ill give you a little backrub -- all winners
     
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  15. Jaanelle DeJure

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    Personally, after everything I've spent on this game, I wouldn't mind purchasing a full set of unlearning items.

    The reason I quit playing is because Bludgeon is broken.
     
  16. Vladamir Begemot

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    Sounds like you'll be getting it for free! Welcome back!
     
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  17. Paulie Walnuts

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    I would say primary focus on quest/story, polish all of the zones out for early to mid to late game content progression and design. Get the in game maps working. Make the loot more interesting to give the grind more purpose. With a good quest system and a reason to grind other than just leveling it could make all the difference.

    Shift focus mainly back to early-mid game content since new players don't start as late game players. The focus should be on acquiring new players, hooking them, and retaining them. With that said, once all of the above is dialed in and tight, re-launch either a new server that people can just play an obtain everything, or wipe the existing server of all skills and send everything everyone owns to the bank and say, "go!".

    Turn up the experience gain a little overall to help get people back up to speed and give the ability to level skills up to 200 purpose. Remove XP sweatshops like UT. It won't be needed anymore as an XP booster, but it would still be a good adventuring zone and possible a nice place to farm loot. This should allow development of future episodes with plenty of headroom.

    In order to do this successfully it's VERY IMPORTANT to make sure that everything mentioned above are extremely polished. Until then, if a relaunch or a wipe is attempted it would be completely useless and could do more damage than good.

    I know that this is not going to be a popular suggestion among existing players who have spent time building their character/empires, but honestly at this point we need new blood as old blood eventually coagulates and I can't think of any other solution.

    I'm a vet player who spent a lot of time leveling my character. So I get the frustration of thinking about starting over, but I'm also competitive and would welcome the challenge to start again if it meant making this game popular and successful.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2018
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  18. Humbert_Humbert

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    Already down 16% of the 34% population boost we received from free to play last month. I wouldn't even mess with episode two until episode one is satisfying enough to retain people playing for free.
     
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  19. Mishikal

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    I'm honestly not sure what would get me to return to playing SOTA. The respec book wouldn't do it, since I didn't stop playing because of my spec (Ranged) even though the spec is a bit of a challenge (I don't mind challenges).

    For me, it comes down to fun. There was a brief period where I had fun playing the game (and I'd played consistently since persistence). I was finally feeling really positive about the game and its future in the early R50s. And then whole series of changes that went in that utterly removed all fun from every aspect of the game I enjoyed.

    Nothing that I see in the Release notes or the daily standups gives me any indication that the changes in the pipeline are going to resolve this.
     
  20. Barugon

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    If all the changes they made recently are not enough then there's probably nothing they can do to please you.
     
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