How do we get more players?

[Galacticus]

It seems that most problems on this server would be solved if more people were on the server.

Is there an argument to not have more players?

How can we change things to get more players?

What is keeping people from playing here?

How can we address those issues?

[aborted]

1. Take away xp death
2. Grouping xp bonus thats better than soloing. (atleast to 50)

[Galacticus]

Originally Posted by aborted [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

1. Take away xp death
2. Grouping xp bonus thats better than soloing. (atleast to 50)

Boom - its patched in. Rogean posted new patch notes on the main page.

You think people will just start flocking to the server at that point or do we need to do more?

[Sear]

Originally Posted by aborted [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

1. Take away xp death
2. Grouping xp bonus thats better than soloing. (atleast to 50)

Originally Posted by Sirken [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

good start

3. stop griefing new players u see running around in cloth
4. stop using ooc for real life attacks and dumb spam
5. the PLAYERS need to create an environment that is actually friendly (appealing) to new players
6. let blues COPY over (without coin or droppables so they cant have a negative impact on the economy.
7. PvP text

1.) If you want to moderate OOC more, then do it, but an easier fix = set /auction to global. Right now everyone uses /ooc for auction. It overcrowds the channel with auctions that are not "out of character" but go there anyway because only one social channel is usable currently. Separate it out into two different channels like it was on live, and you do not have to worry about the trashy-ooc side overwhelming the game related side.


2.) I don't like the concept of increasing group exp. Not everyone can (or wants to) group here, and there is no reason to unfairly punish soloists.

Made this suggestion a year ago and will make it again: hotzones. It is common design with any MMORPGs that have too much real estate to occupy too few players - which is exactly the case of this server. They did this on live EQ after the expansion zones started outnumbering the players.

Increasing the zone experience modifier (ZEM) for a few zones would result in more pvp and more grouping, while not devaluing non-accelerated zones because those remain lower risk. A zone like Unrest is as close as it gets currently to this - we need more of that. Lake of Ill Omen doesn't feel classic at all. There's 6 other players in the zone yesterday, we spend half an hour looking for someone to kill just because we're sick of grinding. Can't find anyone. The zone is massive - all of the kunark ones are. Where's the 30-50 pvp/group spot? Dunno. There really isn't one.

A global increased exp rate is a lazy way of fixing it. You allow players to more quickly run through the 1-50 treadmill, so then at least the ~150 players on the server are all generally in the same range and zones (51-60 kunark zones).


3.) A blue-to-red transfer option wouldn't be fair to red players who started here from level 1. Leveling here isn't the same as it is on blue - it isn't even close. Samwise posted about this in another thread and I agree with him completely. Blue is MUCH EASIER (PVE) even at a slower rate. There are multiple reasons for that: you can group easily, there's no pvp, there's 90+ people at the EC tunnel instead of 0 who will buff/help you, there are players in every city zone that will bind you if you're a melee.

This is something I feel like gets overlooked on the staff side, although it's not your fault since you are running both of these servers and thus can't compare actually playing on them (to eachother or to live).

Just to give an example: I started a pally here with a rogue friend. We spent something like six hours one night corpse running from antonica to kunark. Why? Because there was no one to bind us. Getting a bind here as a melee can be really really difficult. This is generally a much harder server PvE-wise than any of the red ones I played on live, and it is definitely tougher than blue99.



All this groupthink shit aside, I've been enjoying this server a lot + it's doing really well population-wise.

[Tradesonred]

Originally Posted by Sear [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

A global increased exp rate is a lazy way of fixing it. You allow players to more quickly run through the 1-50 treadmill, so then at least the ~150 players on the server are all generally in the same range and zones (51-60 kunark zones).

I dont see anything wrong with the faster xp. Hardcore grind was good back in 1999, but i dont see myself doing the 50-60 grind again at this rate.

It would be fun to get to experience many other classes i wont if xp is slower.

At the same time, i wouldnt mind if it stayed the same, as long as they fix the xp loss in pvp it seems is a given now, so i can enjoy the journey up without it being a ridiculously boring PVE grind where nobody pvps because they dont wanna add more grind.

After reading your post, i do agree that adding hotzones would be better than group xp, maybe boost group xp just a tad to get a little more motivation to group. So then we can bottleneck the pvp/pve and make the zones more fun to play in, which in turn will help attract new players because these zones will be alot of fun (snowball effect bringing population up, instead of downward spiral xp grief/no pvp bore down the toilet).

I dont think its fair to lay all the blame on the players for griefing new blood. Devs have been told a year ago that xp loss in pvp was a weapon given to griefers to grief with. Been told a year ago top guild would farm anything it wants without anyone seriously contesting because of xp loss in pvp. Now it seems server is coming around, but a year ago response was "Lol, this isnt CoD" and even recently. It should be expected that players on a pvp server want to pvp, and enjoy the edge they have worked for (the gear) for lulz. For the new guys, they should learn soon that there is safety in numbers, and trying to reach out to other noobs to stick for each other against better geared griefers. Like i said in another post, as soon as fix goes in ill join or start an alt guild so fresh players can defend themselves against griefers and motivate them to stick it out by making fighting back fun. OOC is useful to let them get in touch with each other.

The sooner the devs ditch the xp loss in pvp, the sooner griefers will have less of an impact on people starting on the server. Instead of telling players not to pvp on a pvp server, you guys should implement the xp fix asap. By taking less of a demotivating hit, new guys can get back on their feet quicker and actually get the motivation to get some payback (and access to the fun, the adrenaline of being able to try and sometimes actual payback) because the penalty for failing disadvantaging odds is not super harsh. The exact same thing is valid for end game, top guild can still hold down zones/camps, but theyll have to work for it instead of winning by default because of their numbers or their gear.

That being said, yeah being overly assholistic will not serve yourself in the long run if you want more prey to play around with in the future.

[Tippett]

aborted is right I even solo on my ranger at 45 rather than grouping because even though hes' a shitty soloer it's still better exp then grouping (lol)

[Faerie Blossom]

I say let the blues transfer over [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Grumpurt the Terrible]

Grumper iz new. Yu lik Grumper? Be Grumper friend.

[raitheon]

Largely I think its due to the community at large. Judging solely by forums; blues trolls are nicer than Red's trolls.

Get your trolls spayed and neutered today!

[Sirken]

Originally Posted by aborted [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

1. Take away xp death
2. Grouping xp bonus thats better than soloing. (atleast to 50)

good start

3. stop griefing new players u see running around in cloth
4. stop using ooc for real life attacks and dumb spam
5. the PLAYERS need to create an environment that is actually friendly (appealing) to new players
6. let blues COPY over (without coin or droppables so they cant have a negative impact on the economy.
7. PvP text