Open Letter - Tough Decisions

[KrynetiX]

The big picture is simply this; without new players being retained nothing else matters. Leagues, events, quotas; none of it matters if the Zone continues to operate below critical mass population numbers.

Stop deflecting the big picture, the zone needs to start retaining new players or none of this other shit matters. If what you are suggesting or promoting can be shown to have direct positive impact on new players for the zone then fight for it. If what you are suggesting or promoting doesn’t have an immediate and positive impact on retaining new players, you are wasting time. Time the zone does not have.
eph

Agreed.. There's fundamental flaws in our system that do not need to exist. I just downloaded Continuum from getcontinuum.com the other day on a friends laptop and guess what ... Trench Wars was not on the list. I had to change the directory server to ssdir.playsubspace.net in order for TW to appear as an option. That's pretty messed up.. And it's just the tip of an iceberg of little errors that we don't fix for one reason or another.

I think it's hard for us to see the big picture - we almost can't see the big picture because we've been involved with the game for too damn long. Changes that are radical to us are NOTHING to the new player. They don't know or care about the difference, so long as there's some fun to be had when they log on. I mean, I think.. I don't know, I'm not a new player..

Things I would consider we do are:
Kill SSC. We're relying on an out-dated, obsolete player database that we don't have root access to. We should inform everyone with cross-zone messaging informing them to visit a URL to register their playername because we're switching to a new, improved billing system.

Launch a sister zone for Trench Wars running on the ASSS server software. TW's current server is out-dated and obsolete. ASSS is the clear winner in comparison. The capabilities are endless. There's a lot more developers who can code in C and Python than those who can (or are willing to) program Java. We (twdev) had already created a clone of Trench Wars on a test ASSS server. Most of the bugs have already been worked out. There's no good reason we shouldn't switch. I understand the fear of a massive over-night switch and that's why I propose we launch a sister zone running on ASSS to host certain events utilizing new capabilities. We can host new games with never-seen-before features. There's also a method to setup (for example) ?go newEvent to direct the player to the sister zone without ever leaving game, and another convenient ?go tw link to get back to the main TW server.

Spend the donation money on something.
This can pay for new/better servers (servers which TWDev have complete access to). The current server, like everything else we rely on, is out-dated and obsolete.
This can pay for email campaigns with the massive amounts of player emails that we have on record from various Subspace forums. (already started this, see sendgrid.com)
This can pay for outsourced development, online advertising/marketing, ad-space in game magazines, anywhere.

We need an overhaul, and new attitude, new ideas.

[Rab]

My two cents:

The zone is now squad-centric which wasn't always the case. Players (with the minor exception of those who only pub) log on and they see that their squad doesn't have 4 on so they go afk until there's enough to TWD. This means that pub remains mostly docile, subarenas flounder, and the zone is generally dormant.

I do not claim to know the solution to this but I think it's something most people choose not to recognize. As much as TWD pretty much IS TW at this point, this fact works both ways. TWD is also simultaneously keeping the rest of the zone back.

If you guys are serious about creating more of a buzz of activity outside of TWD you need to recognize that this can't really be done without doing something to limit TWD in and of itself. People are conditioned to log in and TWD and do nothing else. Until that is changed, you will be stuck with the current zone meta regardless of what you do.

It's a classic catch 22 if you ask me. TWD is what's keeping the zone as a whole even remotely active but it's also what is keeping the rest of the zone from being active.

What would you do about it?

[Vehicle]

Honestly, Rab, the reason I didn't offer any solutions is because I don't really have a good one. If you limit TWD to only certain times or days then you have people who only log on during that time frame, thus defeating the purpose. The only thing that sort of comes to mind as a semi-solution would be limit TWD arenas, like make only 1 twdd, 1 twjd, and 1 twbd arena at all times (maybe 2 on the weekends). That way, even if your squad did have enough players to game, you might not be able to, which would force you to wait, which might force you into pub or elim.

(Also, as an aside, if you're going to get rid of wbduel and javduel I see no reason to also eliminate elim. Elim is inactive because wbduel and javduel exist and cater to specific populations. If you take that out of the picture, players who duel for a living can still have elim as a safe haven.)

[Vehicle]

Or wouldn't it be funny if you forced players to spend pubbux to get into a TWD game

[Ephemeral]

We can all list things that can/should be improved. But the time for general improvements has past and frankly there is evidence that implementing multiple contemporaneous improvements has been damaging to the game.

I continue to believe that bringing in, and retaining, new players should be the primary focus; even if this means putting off other good ideas or suggestions for now.

Steam and other efforts bought in a new wave of players yet VERY few stayed. What can we do to change this?

I floated an idea to require a new player to go through short (5-8 minutes) training period before being able to enter any other arenas. While I don’t like forcing people to jump through hoops many other games have a training level or requirement before proceeding further into the game. The real value here is that a new player get ‘invested’ when doing this but there are other benefits. It also means that a new player is better prepared to face being thrown into Pub 0 against other players. We have all seen a new player enter Pub 0 and quit after 60 seconds of being totally owned. A side benefit is that this would also prevent some players from making a quick alias and re-entering the zone for team killing or other infamous reasons.

Another idea that might help retain new players is a change to the way that the staff ‘New Player Alert’ system works. Currently staffers get a message when a new player logs in for the first time. There are also additional coded features which assists staffers in helping a new player. And the staff quota system is configured to ‘reward’ staffers for helping new players. All of this is very good work and spot on but a few things could be improved.

I think the Bot ought to supply the new player’s country to the New Player Alert. It does little or no good to send a staffer who speaks only English to communicate with a new player who doesn’t. Interfacing with new players is tricky enough (as to not scare them away) but language barriers (IF you even figure out there is a language issue) makes it more difficult than it should be.

Whether or not these are good ideas or not is certainly open for discussion. But they are both targeted at improving the new player experience. Obviously there are many more suggestions and ideas that fit this criteria. Please help by listing ideas that specifically improve how we canretain new players.
eph

[Left_Eye]

Things I would consider we do are:
Kill SSC. We're relying on an out-dated, obsolete player database that we don't have root access to. We should inform everyone with cross-zone messaging informing them to visit a URL to register their playername because we're switching to a new, improved billing system.

Launch a sister zone for Trench Wars running on the ASSS server software. TW's current server is out-dated and obsolete. ASSS is the clear winner in comparison. The capabilities are endless. There's a lot more developers who can code in C and Python than those who can (or are willing to) program Java. We (twdev) had already created a clone of Trench Wars on a test ASSS server. Most of the bugs have already been worked out. There's no good reason we shouldn't switch. I understand the fear of a massive over-night switch and that's why I propose we launch a sister zone running on ASSS to host certain events utilizing new capabilities. We can host new games with never-seen-before features. There's also a method to setup (for example) ?go newEvent to direct the player to the sister zone without ever leaving game, and another convenient ?go tw link to get back to the main TW server.

Spend the donation money on something.
This can pay for new/better servers (servers which TWDev have complete access to). The current server, like everything else we rely on, is out-dated and obsolete.
This can pay for email campaigns with the massive amounts of player emails that we have on record from various Subspace forums. (already started this, see sendgrid.com)
This can pay for outsourced development, online advertising/marketing, ad-space in game magazines, anywhere.

We need an overhaul, and new attitude, new ideas.

There are too many numerous mistakes and things that aren't being thought through with your suggestions. I'll name a few that stand out the most to me.

The SSC (including PriitK) has helped our zone free for over a decade, which TW has not paid one cent for. PriitK has also funded our game server for free and continues to do so, while we are able to make changes that we need within the game. Why would we ever put that at risk? Yes, we have funds, but those funds would be quickly depleted with all that needs to be done, such as advertising, new website/bots, ASSS zone, etc., and what then? Who would pay out of pocket if we dare break away from SSC and PriitK? I can guarantee that players would not be willing to throw money at this game just to play it or keep this particular zone going if any suggestion of breaking away from SSC and PriitK. That's one of the attractions of this game... it's free. Not to mention, PriitK still has agreements to this code and some legal rights to this game. That would be grounds for an instant shut down of this game, once he caught wind of that, which he would quite quickly as SSC Ops keep in contact with PriitK often.

As for ASSS zone, you can easily make that change and then show interest upon our sysops. PriitK would still be the best option to reach out to, no matter how long that took, as that is the more logical route to take. Until then, there are other changes that could be done and focused on to make TW last longer as Kthx, Eph, and others have suggested.

If TWDev was to spend money, they should spend money cleaning up our database or starting over from scratch and hiring coders. Our bots/website are completely outdated and could use a whole make-over. They could also be spent acquiring an ASSS zone to host leagues or special events in, if that is what people want. However, as far as abandoning the SSC or even PriitK, I think that is a huge mistake, both in legal rights and logic. If anything, SSC should be worked with, not disregarded and moved away from, considering they have resources we don't have, and have support from the leader of this game and zone we run. To suggest otherwise is (in my humble opinion) heresy and blasphemous.

Lots of love,

Lefty

P.S. As much as his attitude has grown over the years, Kthx is an awesome host and has been around long enough to have and make really great suggestions as to what staff's directions should be. LF also has knowledge that could help out this game. I support their return to staff. Probably will get flamed for that suggestion, but meh. :P

[Shaddowknight]

Our inactive continuum overlord is holding us back in a few ways. First off, we arent even at a 1.0 client, as there are still buhs and issues that are unsolved. This game needs work, and he has abandoned it as a project. As for money, there are ways to generate it. Uncertain how much things would provode, but options are available.
Its a double-edged sword, we gainsome things but lose others if we break away. We just need to weigh the sodes to see which would be the preferable option.

[Zeebu]

Or wouldn't it be funny if you forced players to spend pubbux to get into a TWD game

joke post

[MegamanEXE]

Honestly I think it's silly that people think that the way to move the zone forward is to set the zone back a decade. Yes, the playerbase has fallen to extremely low levels, but simply changing around arenas and bots and things doesn't address the root cause of the problem. The problem is, of course, no new players are sticking around after trying the game for the first time. We would have seen a population boost from getting listed on Steam Greenlight if we could hold new players longer than a few minutes on their first time playing.

The problem is that a brand new player, who has probably never played anything like Continuum outside of something like Asteroids, gets dumped into Pub 0 and has to deal with 10+ year vets doing things like base entrance camping and LTing. The new player may be able to score some lucky shots with the WB (if they even know to switch to it in the first place) but they will be on such an unbalanced playing field that they won't want to keep playing, because there is no gratification in getting killed in one hit by a vet WB or blown up/frozen to death by a levi bomb, when they don't even know how to fly around in the first place.

Eph has said it already, and I agree with him, that we need to make some kind of tutorial for new players as they enter the zone, to give them the basic controls and instructions on how to fight on a single ship (probably WB.) Otherwise there isn't really any incentive for a new player to keep playing after the first 30 seconds.

A year or so ago, there was a staffer that posted on the forums requesting a script for a tutorial. I wrote a script and posted in the thread saying that I was interested in helping, but I was never contacted afterwards, and there was apparently no development on that front. I may be able to find that script, but I am fine with just writing a new one based on what TW staff wants to make in a tutorial. The tutorial needs to cover basic things like

-quick overview of JUST the tutorial ship, so new players don't get overwhelmed with information that isn't useful to them yet
-movement, explaining the physics of thrust both forwards and backwards
-shooting at a stationary target, and at movng targets if it is possible for it to be implemented
-attaching
-bases and flags
-overview of all ships, showing how each is useful and specialized to take the base and hold the flag
-how to public chat and PM
-how to contact staff if they have a question or need help

It would be good if there was a tutorial arena for new players to go in for the tutorial and be able to practice until they want to move into Pub 0. It would also be nice if there was a way to make an arena for new players only, so they could fly around and kill people of their own skill level, but I don't know how that would be implemented.

But really, one of our main problems appears to be that, since we are all vets, we understand this game on so many levels that it just seems simple to us. Get in a ship and pew pew kill people dead. But it's not that simple for a new player. We need to make it as simple as possible for a new player to pick up the game and start playing before doing any kind of major change to the zone. That way, we can get more population to work with.

[Rab]

I have seen games completely rebuilt before because the owner went AWOL.

The replacement game always ends up emptier than Chernobyl.


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Is there evidence that the "new player alert" actually helps? If not, scrap it.


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Some people are saying we should force vets to play pub.
Some people are saying noobs don't like getting owned.

We'd better resolve this before forcing vets to play pub.

[Shaddowknight]

From player suggestions, click here for an update on staff quota. More things based on what you've been saying are in the works, so keep your eyes open for em!

[Tone]

None of these posts matter, unless the game was truly advertised somewhere where it makes a difference + the population tripled + time was allowed for the new people to practice.

[KrynetiX]

tutorial arena

We should definitely get as many advertising quotes as we can, I've sent out emails to the advertising leaders of many of the major gamer websites. We'll see what kind of prices they quote..

I'm going to begin organization of a tutorial arena immediately. This has been done before, but never perfected. If anyone is interested in being a part of the planning / execution of a tutorial arena, send me a message.

@Lefty,
I realize it's radical to say 'kill SSC', but being independent would be advantageous. We'll no longer be constrained by an inferior biller. As for the server, do you think Priit would stop paying for the web/bot/zone server if we chose to handle the player database ourselves (saving him some $)? If he does (I doubt he would), I'm sure we can manage a new TW server on our own.. Many of us dedicated Subspacers have and have access to plenty of servers and resources and we'll most certainly keep the game going - no doubt about it.

[Izor]

IMO from whats been discussed in the various pub threads this conversation should ONLY be about pub. This game retains very few people right now because the pub game is broken beyond belief. I'm not going to restate everything I've previously said, but new players start off at a disadvantage against veterans who are so lazy they just spam !buy and no one can touch them. fis isnt getting the job done as pub lead although i guess its worth noting shes made a pretty impressive collection of negative changes

[Izor]

wanted to edit my post but this forum is broken in chrome...krynetix makes some decent points about SSC and ASSS but those things dont fix a game thats been dicked with to the point that its not fun for everyone. Perfect example is that streak bot resets when you visit safe now so people like me will just not play pub. Was this really a prudent change? There are a lot of people who like to play this style, and if they feel like theyre getting bullied by bots to play a certain way theyll just stop playing. The first impression this game makes to people is by far the most important. Right now it just isnt making a good first impression.