Brainstorm: How to keep Avatars coming back?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Glantor Edge, Dec 14, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Baratan

    Baratan Avatar

    Messages:
    712
    Likes Received:
    1,041
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    This is my thought as well. There's never going to be even footing. This is why every other game has a wipe at launch with at most a week headstart.
     
    majoria70 likes this.
  2. Womby

    Womby Avatar

    Messages:
    3,299
    Likes Received:
    12,165
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    South Australia
    The devs are busy, and have a strict schedule they are following in order to get the game out the door before the money runs out. That's why they got rid of hats - they took up too much dev time.

    In the meantime if we want more content, it's up to us. We can make it. We can create our own quests, sporting events, etc.

    If you want an example, here's a quest I prepared earlier.

    If that's not your thing, try reading a book. We have lots of books for sale written by talented local authors. Start your own library!*


    * the self-interest is strong in this one :)
     
  3. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Strict is a bit generous, cover has been delayed what, a half dozen times so far? Mechanics and quests get delayed time and time again, and polishing and add on items get added or completed on time. Unless the performance enhancements in this latest patch are something marvelous, we're probably still many months to a year away from a decent cover system.
     
  4. Glantor Edge

    Glantor Edge Avatar

    Messages:
    273
    Likes Received:
    790
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Singapore
    I agree that the community can indeed create quests and write books for other players to enjoy. However, the problem with that is the lack of exposure / advertising needed to get people who are not playing to come back and play again. How should players reach other players who are not playing the game now?

    By getting Dev's to implement simple mechanics to get players to log back in consistently, wouldn't that benefit you as well?
     
    majoria70 likes this.
  5. Toadster

    Toadster Avatar

    Messages:
    857
    Likes Received:
    1,736
    Trophy Points:
    93
    I think anything they do now would just be a temporary fix and the focus should really go into getting this ready for Beta in 6 months. That is when you need to bring them back and keep them here. A lot of the release items would be just that, Simone would log in for a day get the item and come back next release. Beta will be the next real leap for a player push then launch shortly after.
     
  6. DancingShade

    DancingShade Avatar

    Messages:
    320
    Likes Received:
    678
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Location:
    Australia
    In the past I often took breaks that spanned multiple releases and I've been around since the very first one. I was never good with repeated wipes because I'm one of those slowpokes when it comes to progression so it wasn't until persistence that I started spending serious time in game.

    I can only speak for myself but I really like seeing new things implemented into the gameplay loop, new skills or exploring new places. Some people are just waiting for certain things - I know the farming aspect is popular and once there is more economic and production depth to it (plus those public farms still to be implemented) I dare say you'll see a lot more activity. Farming is a huge draw to games like Stardew Valley or Archeage.

    If I could just get more time to actually play games instead of working believe me I'd be in game a lot more.
     
  7. Lord Dreamo

    Lord Dreamo Avatar

    Messages:
    1,016
    Likes Received:
    1,840
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Western New York
    At this point I think they just need to focus on whatever they need to in order to finish the game. Once it's "finished" and they launch people will come back. And if it is good they will stay.
     
  8. Raistlyn

    Raistlyn Avatar

    Messages:
    228
    Likes Received:
    479
    Trophy Points:
    18
    -More variety of monsters, and RARE monsters that you almost never see but when you do its exciting. For example, I find having 1 scull thugs, 2 scull thugs, 3 scull thugs etc. detracts from immersion in the game.

    -Some random dungeons, perhaps some solo and party areas that can change a bit each time you go back (I know, I heard this is hard with unity, but my view is anything is possible just code it! lol)

    -Increase the variety of music, with a game like this that you can play for HUGE hours, more is better. I love the music in the game but Ive heard it so much I actually hear it sometimes when I'm NOT playing lol (kinda scary)
     
    GrayFog and Merlota like this.
  9. Merlota

    Merlota Avatar

    Messages:
    292
    Likes Received:
    611
    Trophy Points:
    28
    The second one could be a good one. Procedurally generated dungeon. Perhaps scale the first level loosely to the player and party strength but this is not necessary. Somewhere in it is a passage to the next level which is harder. That one has a passage to a harder level. You can keep going, it'll get harder and harder until eventually you cannot proceed. I mean a random map, random spawn locations, randomly generated mob abilities (this one casts these spells, this one calls for help, this one poisons, etc), random passage to the next level (locked door, puzzle, jump down a well, swim over a waterfall, etc). No respawn, how deep can you go. Sure it is a hack and slash adventure but isn't that a big part of the game? They'd need randomly generated loot too but the masterwork process already handles that. ;)

    Do not add more mail delivery/gathering/repetitive daily quests. We have plenty of game options with that playstyle and is is boring.
     
  10. Ned888

    Ned888 Avatar

    Messages:
    788
    Likes Received:
    1,152
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    I left until the game is complete.
     
  11. Gix

    Gix Avatar

    Messages:
    2,203
    Likes Received:
    4,014
    Trophy Points:
    153
    So you're arguing that the players who would be more interested in playing a final product care more about "competing" and that self-induced competitiveness would leave a bad experience which would make the player stop playing.

    .. and you want to encourage those people to play while the game is incomplete... while it was the "game incomplete" part that they stopped playing in the first place.

    ... and one of the suggested solutions is bribing them with items?

    Are we doing this for their benefit or ours?

    My argument is this: if they already don't want to play despite the community-run events (which is arguably the best thing the game can offer at the moment), not much aside from a completed game will bring them back... if at all.

    It's not harder in Unity than it is in any other engine. The game I'm building heavily focuses on random dungeon generation and Unity handles it just fine. The trick is figuring out a clever way to do occlusion culling as the standard solutions don't work... that's a hurdle one must overcome regardless of engine.

    I'd love for SotA to have randomized dungeons with some procedural generated content, but I don't think the people at Portalarium have that kind of experience. The whole scene-based system they got going is perfect for this kind of stuff.
     
  12. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Competing is part of it, being able to explore content before wikis publish the only path through the content that is worthwhile is part of it and that SOTA doesn't have a HighSec or other introductory area that doesn't have guilds handing out +9 armor of mass destruction to green recruits is part of it.

    Had release been reasonably close to persistence, or Port shown any interest in the newbie experience, these probably wouldn't be bad enough to cause a high bounce rate.
     
  13. Baratan

    Baratan Avatar

    Messages:
    712
    Likes Received:
    1,041
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    Anyone who joins at launch will be unable to compete. This is a huge turn off for what I'd consider to be the largest segment of potential new players.

    Who wants to join a game in the 4th quarter?
     
  14. Gix

    Gix Avatar

    Messages:
    2,203
    Likes Received:
    4,014
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Being able to experience the game with or without the wiki is on them and them alone. Besides, maybe that's what they're holding off to; a game that is polished and, if they have problems with a quest, they can wiki the info out instead of being stuck.

    Increasing the population pre-release will increase the amount of people handing out the "+9 armour of mass destruction" as you put it. So, unless that's what you want, I fail the see the logic.

    If the fear is that new players will have no chance of accomplishing things in the game, I'd rather Portalarium fix the discrepancy between new and veteran players instead.

    Because, really, adding more "rare" items only increases our coffers while the new player at release is still S.o.L.

    "Lets make it so that people who don't play now will really have no chance... by giving bonuses that will encourage those who already aren't interested now to play it now so that they don't have to suffer later!" You're attacking the wrong problem.
     
  15. cyathome

    cyathome Avatar

    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    678
    Trophy Points:
    28
    To start, I'd like to see more of the good stuff sota already has. More beautiful adventure zones, more interesting quests with unique rewards, a lot more great looking creatures to battle.. and more group content that brings the community together. These all exist already but are in short supply.

    Add in some of the things missing like hard to reach dungeons for group crawls and even solo play, boss/named creatures that drop items we will want to collect and even farm, advanced skill trees only available once its parent tree is completed, an effort to make the game less tedious and more fun and a pvp level range so high levels cannot 'gank newbies' as it was said during the telethon.

    All of this is just a start. This game has so much potential to become everything we could hope for... if that potential is tapped into people will come and they will stay. EQ is still going strong after nearly 20 years and there is a level 1 character being created there as we speak (probably) :) Sota can become the game EQ always wanted to be.
     
    Elfenwahn and GrayFog like this.
  16. Baratan

    Baratan Avatar

    Messages:
    712
    Likes Received:
    1,041
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    I like your idea. Maybe it's just our vision for the game and not theirs.
     
    GrayFog likes this.
  17. Tahru

    Tahru Avatar

    Messages:
    4,800
    Likes Received:
    12,170
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Spite
    Bribery works for me. So do boobs.
     
  18. LiquidSky

    LiquidSky Avatar

    Messages:
    263
    Likes Received:
    509
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Compete...compete....hmmm....

    Not sure where the competition is.


    Perhaps we should just give all those people crying for meaningful PvP batons so they can go out on the street and press-gang people into playing SOTA. Win-Win for everybody!
     
    Cordelayne likes this.
  19. GrayFog

    GrayFog Avatar

    Messages:
    674
    Likes Received:
    1,400
    Trophy Points:
    93
    and work :p
     
  20. Raistlyn

    Raistlyn Avatar

    Messages:
    228
    Likes Received:
    479
    Trophy Points:
    18
    OK new idea, after doing a siege with Lord British this morning....
    The siege is cool BUT

    Monsters actually penetrating into towns/cities would be cool!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.