I think the best way to keep active players in the game is to create a tutorial esque introduction for a new player. Instead of a guide they have to click and follow, maybe an interactive layover over the main screen, telling them to build a solar plant and then metal mines and then walking them through their first raid/expedition?
And maybe more accessible guides for fleet saving and other slightly more advanced tactics. People don't look to the forums first for more information on the game. I had to explain to a player who's fleet I crashed what it meant to fleet save and what to do if you were to be attacked. Granted their alliance should have the responsibility to teach them how to play the game, but to keep all newcomers in the game, a tutorial/walkthrough for the beginning would be nice. Perhaps have the first few basic upgrades on the first planet instant so that newbies can quickly get to learn how to build ships and raid, instead of having to wait a few minutes/hours before they are able to get their first ships up and running.

Ok, that reply sounds to me like "we know what to do and how, but we don't want to do it". You have identified problems and solutions, but haven't taken any action.

I appretiate what you have done with reloaded, I really enjoy it. However if the game stays as it is new players are not gonna be likely to stay for long. At some point you do need to make the next step and throw an update or two around.

I have been reading the forums. I see old players from other universes complaining about the focus on reloaded and I see their point. In fact, there is one game that I have played for the longest time in my life so far (talking about consistently playing, logging every day) and they made a similar mistake - opened a new server with newish version of the game. Basically they are running 2 different versions of the same game and that backfired on them. They are counting on old players and havent been doing game updates for years. Sounds familiar?

When I start playing a game I am very passionate about it. I cannot put my mind to rest until I figure it out - what does/doesn't work. When I started playing in reloaded (wow, that was 1 year ago actually) I had experience with "a copy" of the game. So I tried to do what I usually do but then I realized there is more content that forms different strategies and I went for it. Spoke to people around, figured it out. I even wrote a guide on expeditions for reloaded and posted it here on the forums.

Now here comes the question of keeping people. In every game there is 3 things that are doing so - PvP, PvE and Rankings. Expedition tweaks in reloaded were great way to introduce some kind of PvE into the game. An activity. And this is the most important thing - give the players some activities to be busy with, to feel that they can do something. Thats why my first suggestions involved additional content. Didn't get response from you btw, so I moved to smaller suggestions. Than I browsed this thread with a lot of good small tweaks and same issue - no response.

Was it really needed for me to spam here for a response? You say the forum activity is low and I can see why.

StarStream wrote: ↑

Fri May 04, 2018 9:33 pm

I think the best way to keep active players in the game is to create a tutorial esque introduction for a new player. Instead of a guide they have to click and follow, maybe an interactive layover over the main screen, telling them to build a solar plant and then metal mines and then walking them through their first raid/expedition?
And maybe more accessible guides for fleet saving and other slightly more advanced tactics. People don't look to the forums first for more information on the game. I had to explain to a player who's fleet I crashed what it meant to fleet save and what to do if you were to be attacked. Granted their alliance should have the responsibility to teach them how to play the game, but to keep all newcomers in the game, a tutorial/walkthrough for the beginning would be nice. Perhaps have the first few basic upgrades on the first planet instant so that newbies can quickly get to learn how to build ships and raid, instead of having to wait a few minutes/hours before they are able to get their first ships up and running.

Quoting the whole thing as I can't be bothered to pull out just the bits I wanted. lol. As you've said, alliances should tutor their members. But not everybody is in an alliance. The few basic upgrades is a great idea. I suggested, (excuse this) many moons ago, that the first world you have, the crap one that you can't abandon, it should have a moon. Your first moon, you're able to launch from it without fear of being tracked. In a way, this teaches any newb the importance of moons. They might be more willing to buy rubies to purchase moons with if they understand that ruby moons and moons as a whole are so important. To start with a few resources could be good too. With a message to state that they should view the help menu to see how to spend this stuff. There's other stuff I could elaborate on but as a starter, these are just a couple of ideas.

mightyoz wrote: ↑

Sat May 05, 2018 7:36 pm

StarStream wrote: ↑

Fri May 04, 2018 9:33 pm

I think the best way to keep active players in the game is to create a tutorial esque introduction for a new player. Instead of a guide they have to click and follow, maybe an interactive layover over the main screen, telling them to build a solar plant and then metal mines and then walking them through their first raid/expedition?
And maybe more accessible guides for fleet saving and other slightly more advanced tactics. People don't look to the forums first for more information on the game. I had to explain to a player who's fleet I crashed what it meant to fleet save and what to do if you were to be attacked. Granted their alliance should have the responsibility to teach them how to play the game, but to keep all newcomers in the game, a tutorial/walkthrough for the beginning would be nice. Perhaps have the first few basic upgrades on the first planet instant so that newbies can quickly get to learn how to build ships and raid, instead of having to wait a few minutes/hours before they are able to get their first ships up and running.

Quoting the whole thing as I can't be bothered to pull out just the bits I wanted. lol. As you've said, alliances should tutor their members. But not everybody is in an alliance. The few basic upgrades is a great idea. I suggested, (excuse this) many moons ago, that the first world you have, the crap one that you can't abandon, it should have a moon. Your first moon, you're able to launch from it without fear of being tracked. In a way, this teaches any newb the importance of moons. They might be more willing to buy rubies to purchase moons with if they understand that ruby moons and moons as a whole are so important. To start with a few resources could be good too. With a message to state that they should view the help menu to see how to spend this stuff. There's other stuff I could elaborate on but as a starter, these are just a couple of ideas.

This is actually a pretty great idea, How big would the moon be?

It would have to be pretty safe. I mean, the first world you get is permanent, therefore I think it should follow that the moon should be too. This of course is the only moon you get gratis. Every other moon would have to be earned in the normal manner or bought via rubies. The latter though, as I said previously, the moon you get with your first world highlights to any newb its importance. Once this is learned they would hopefully, if they can, go forward, buy rubies and buy some moons. So, Zorg would win as they are selling more rubies. The newb wins, they get a moon, something to learn from and their first raids would be safe from the phalanx.

I agree that all newcombers should have moons, though disagree that they should be large. Note that on Xtreme this idea has been paritally implemented. I say partially because only a portion of newcombers get moons (and they are relatively small, between 5 and 8k if I remember right)... It's entirely random whether or not you get a moon when you create an account on X, and you're more likely to recieve a homeworld without one than with one. I see no reason for this, and think it would be better (not to mention more equitable) if all newcombers got moons on X. I also see no reason why this shouldn't be extended to all universes.

Why do I think homeworld moons shouldn't be large? My feelings on this would be mixed except for the following point: inactives - it's common practice to fleetsave to large inactive moons (and an important dynamic of the game as it stands). But if every single new player got a very large indestructable moon, lanx of any semi-skilled player would be even more impossible than it currently is. Successful lanx hits on any server other than Reloaded have become a very rare thing in recent years as is.

In that case then, this idea would not work. So, for the sake of the bigger players not liking it, the newbs get nothing, again.

One moon, ONE moon. Their first and only freebie. Moons can be attacked on a destroy mission whether a player is in protection or not. So, a new player comes in to the game. Thier moons is for example, 5k in diameter. Starts to learn, then boom, his/her first moon is destroyed because they happen to be learning the game? lol. That's fair.

As usual, the point is being missed.

New players come in to the game, it's already been mentioned that they feel that the game, whatever server it is, is unbalanced. So, by suggesting this, any redress in this balance is going to be negated by the fact that almost as soon as they start, their new moon has been destroyed? lol. How's that going to feel to them? They can see how far they have to go before they can even think about challenging the bigger players. "POP", moon gone. Player quits.

Well, I am talking from personal experience here. When I started I had rly hard time finding someone to moonshot me in the first place. My first moon lasted less than 3 days on my homeworld. A week later I got a 2nd moon(after I got crashed). That moon lasted a bit less than a week and I was moonless again. Bottom line - I lost 2 moons in my very first month of playing. It requires a big dedication for someone to stay after such events, most new players won't come back after their first moon loss/crash. I had a few people that started around the time I did and once they lost their ships they never logged back.

So yea, big homeworld moon will make sense. Or at least A Moon.

The moon is a good suggestion imo. But maybe a random sized moon that CAN NOT BE DESTROYED THE 1ST 60 DAYS? Just to give the new player the chance to fleetsave while he/she learns the game properly and settles in. After 60 days the new player should be able to have multiple moons given by friends and/or alliance members.

The one moon, big moon at the original world would be the only one. But, there woud be nothing to stop these players going for moons in the normal ways elsewhere. I cannot remember the amount of worlds available to each player in each of the different servers. As I play Standard, that would be one moon out of a potential 10 or 11 if the player opted to ruby purchase the extra world slot. But, I will limit it to 10 slots as players that cannot afford to buy moons via rubies will not be able to buy that extra slot anyway. So, one moon out of a potential 10, would that really upset the balance of any server?

Obviously, some players have a vested interest in keeping it as it is. But from the point of view of new players getting demoralised after watching their moons getting popped, this would really help.

Just to quote something that you've written Sinister. "CAN NOT BE DESTROYED THE 1ST 60 DAYS?". I can understand what you mean. But, if a player had a moon like this, started the game, learned how to play, then built this moon up, Lunar bases, robot factories etc etc. 61 days pass, then boom, it's popped, would that not be just as despressing as losing it after day 1?

Also, remember, if they know it cannot be destroyed, they would be more inclined to build it up. Again, depending on the server of choice, the points protection for players is different. Building a moon up increases their building points. Permanent points that will add to their score and take them towards the protection level. To mention Standard once more, protection is one million points. Building this moon up in that server will only be a drop in the ocean so to speak. But in other servers it will accelerate them onwards and upward. A reason for them to learn more quickly.