200+

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Omni
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200+

Post by Omni »

Currently, our peak number of online users typically is around 100 - 120.

I want to see us hit 200 regularly and you're all going to help me :-)

The Incentive Program I am sure will help a lot with getting us to that goal. (Working on it with Brad & Flisk).

What else will get us to that goal? What will make you want to drag every gamer you know kicking and screaming into this game?

Besides the perks of having the Incentive Program, I am thinking of holding a 'real' Mega-Lair event if we hit this goal.

Y'know - one of those multi-hour, players slaughtered by the hundreds, new never before seen disciplines and items type of events.

With of course - something special for everyone but maybe.. just maybe... a reaally special item for one very lucky person!

So put your thinking caps on and tell me - what will get us to this goal?

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Darge
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Re: 200+

Post by Darge »

Time.

Either you wait for new players to be drawn in, or you wait until enough content has been developed that long gone players will forgive the last 4 or 5 years.

A mega-lair would be awesome, but it will only drive the online numbers up to around what the HATE event did, and it will only appeal to the top end. Not that that is a bad thing, but I doubt it's the approach you are aiming for. It's not a long lasting solution, and you can't just throw out true Mega after Mega, or they just become standard.

Keep up the fantastic work; I'm sure you have some great things brewing *hah, a pun* and as long the content builds, interest will be piqued, but by that same token the content must slow us down in a good way (require thought, not farming.)
SIN
My father was a wolf, I'm a kinsman of the slain, Sworn to rise again
I will bring salvation, punishment and pain, The hammer of hate is our faith
Power and dominion are taken by the will, By divine right hail and kill

trav: you bad bad girl

Omni
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Re: 200+

Post by Omni »

Good points.

As for the Mega, well.... you'll be needing LOTS of help...

Terrel
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Re: 200+

Post by Terrel »

Omni wrote: What will make you want to drag every gamer you know kicking and screaming into this game?
couple ideas:

stats: +1 stat per person brought in (Perhaps over the 25 cap?)
Skill or exp: some amount of either per person brought in

Tnem
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Re: 200+

Post by Tnem »

I think the incentive program is a waste of time really, i think that the players of the game spread word about it already so you wont gain players that way. You will only alienate those who have already encourage people to play.

The best way to attract in players is just to make a good game :P, this means adding more content, fixing bugs and making the intro to drak a bit smoother.

You are competeing with the likes of wowcrack, eve and many other multi million $$/££ games, the only people who play this game are those who like something a bit "different" or who like the community. There arent that many people like this and they are normal hard to find and "drag" to the game...


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Re: 200+

Post by Dumar_enjoys_food »

Put an energy disc between espear and elance. I would... convince myself to play more then <G>.
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Stench
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Re: 200+

Post by Stench »

not sure what will do the 200+ players i already have my 69 year old father and mother playing 2 nephews my fiancee and roommate playing if your trying for a perm count, a mega lair wont draw what you want. might try something like alt2 free for a period of time with events there or speed up alt1 for a time and some events.most newer players will spread the word,most old players have already got others playing i would think.alot of new players get frustraited with nothing but mindless grunting maybe add some other things to do maybe not as gear for prizes but for pots and coin or exp or skill.
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Skip
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Re: 200+

Post by Skip »

Biggest barrier I see for 200+ players...

The repetitive grind going from level 20 to 50 has been burning people out and chasing them away.

Pretty good diversity of content for level 1 to 20 characters.


~ Skip__KAM ~

Tirith
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Re: 200+

Post by Tirith »

We need more new players. The long term players need to be advertising to everybody they know, in your real outside world life, tell your coworkers, friends, family. Also, I never thought I would be for level restricting hunts. But something has to be done to prevent the larger players showering smaller ones with all the things they cant even put forth effort to get. In the way that Volton has a level restriction to be attacked. Perhaps this should be applied to all lairs across the realms. (Maybe make an exception for the lairs that have items needed for hit docs. or not) Maybe shower new items to old lairs, give all of old nork a Re-Vamping.

For me, what was enjoyable about the game was growing, gaining levels and skills and meeting other people who played. Making friends, growing with them. When I remember my favorite times, its taking down a lair with my best friends. Pulling an all nighter in upper keep when I know I have to go to work in the morning. Sure, there are many capped out players at lvl 75. But many of them have already moved on to other games. Will SDC bring them back? BDC didnt. Why would 1 small area with 2-3 lairs and a 3 level skill cap raise bring anyone back?

Don't trickle out content little by little. Release a huge area, 20 lairs, 20 new levels to gain, 10 more skills. 100 new quests, new items, more variety in items!!!!

Events are nice, but they are only a bonus and can't be relied on to keep the players here.

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Volcom
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Re: 200+

Post by Volcom »

good luck

Necron99
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Re: 200+

Post by Necron99 »

Well...try treating the players like customers instead of users.

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ZhouYu
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Re: 200+

Post by ZhouYu »

1. Advertising - For srsly. Word of mouth can only bring you so far. Perhaps banner exchange programs would help?

2. Newbie gear - Currently, newbies in Drakkar are set up with a set of "newbie gear." I'd advise to have some way for them to get some similar gear (not as good, maybe) themselves.

3. Maxxing - Maxxing hits is a demonic task the first time through. It should be smoothed out SOMEWHAT. Taking less time, doing quests and coining to get hit points at level 13, etc. Anything to mix it up or make it a little easier would allow you to retain more players.

4. Quests - OK, so there are some really awesome alt 2 quests. Perhaps adding some quests that are available on both alts that give a taste of the quests on alt 2 would encourage people to subscribe as well as mix up gameplay for new players.

5. Cost - EQ2: $15/month. Drakkar: $17.50-$40/month. No offense, but people generally prefer to go with a much more well-known RPG than one like Drakkar. They see the cost to subscribe and they consider the fact that the number of players online is so small and they don't want to subscribe. Maybe reducing the cost somehow would help, such as free guildhall access with 1-2 characters with gold or some such. Perhaps guilds could pay for guildhall access as a group (fixed amount for a guild) and customize their guildhall. There's not a lot of suggestions on the cost that I can make other than that.

Yes, I know that you can go as low as silver/no guildhall, but that's not generally something people like to do. Aside from that, guildhall access on at least one character is, or at least was when I played, fairly common.

Cobra
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Re: 200+

Post by Cobra »

From what I've heard in lobby since I've been back playing this last month. People get burned out in cob until they're either lvl 25 and have help in NL, or trying to get big enough to do NL themselves.

To fix this I would suggest making NL full xp gain down to 20, and either tweaking the current stuff to be more soloable, or create new areas to hunt in that are.

I know that many, including myself, left when NL came out because it was such a drastic change from solo to party. You used to be able to log in and kill stuff in nork/cob for that 20 minutes you had and make some gains. Once you get to NL, the only thing you can do yourself in 20 hours is talk in lobby.

Cobra

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ZhouYu
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Re: 200+

Post by ZhouYu »

I think an important part of the success of any MMO is how newbie-friendly it is. Fixing content that takes months to get to won't help if those people get disillusioned in those months. Yes, it is helpful for retaining and bringing back old players, but it is more important that the MMO be newbie friendly.

I'm sorry, I love Drakkar, and I love the challenge, but it is not newbie friendly.

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Teh_Cheat
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Re: 200+

Post by Teh_Cheat »

It's not like you can't hunt Cobrahn anymore once you make level 25. There are plenty of areas in the game for players to hunt and skill. You can't always get the best gains solo.
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Re: 200+

Post by Arkon »

The grind is too long. When you have large players doing GDH and everybody else working on building..

It makes the game drag.

I suggested previously bringing back the skill books. (Not to the extent that the Psi scrolls were generated)

This would give smaller players something to work for that would definitely allow them to feel they were making progress.

Remove skill caps too... Not completely, mainly off the lower skill levels.

The "purity" of the game was lost long time ago. I understand that bigger players put a lot of time and effort into building their characters and they don't necessarily care for newer players to do in months what took them years... but... at least it would make for more players to tackle larger lairs.

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Darge
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Re: 200+

Post by Darge »

Arkon wrote: Remove skill caps too... Not completely, mainly off the lower skill levels.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but every skill (1-infinity) is capped. The notion that particular skills stand out as having a cap is a piece of misinformation that's long been floating around the player base.

Anyway, uncapping any of the skills could result in gains tripling or quadrupling under the right circumstances, even in the 20+ skills.
SIN
My father was a wolf, I'm a kinsman of the slain, Sworn to rise again
I will bring salvation, punishment and pain, The hammer of hate is our faith
Power and dominion are taken by the will, By divine right hail and kill

trav: you bad bad girl

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ZhouYu
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Re: 200+

Post by ZhouYu »

How's about bringing back the old skilling methods of IH'ing lairs?

Arkon
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Re: 200+

Post by Arkon »

Darge wrote:
Arkon wrote: Remove skill caps too... Not completely, mainly off the lower skill levels.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but every skill (1-infinity) is capped. The notion that particular skills stand out as having a cap is a piece of misinformation that's long been floating around the player base.

Anyway, uncapping any of the skills could result in gains tripling or quadrupling under the right circumstances, even in the 20+ skills.
Darge, I don't believe I said anywhere that particular skills had a separate cap nor is it important. I am not a programmer nor have I ever claimed to be. If it is so difficult to adjust the caps at certain levels than bring back the skill books and set them to be usable at certain levels.

Suggestions; have a trader in nork to assist in skills up to skill 20, next trader could be in Cobrahn perhaps up to skill 25, final trader could be in NL for skills up to skill 30.

Having different traders in different areas would prevent areas from being repeatedly farmed out by high level players. No sense in having a level 50+ player continually nuking N-4 repeatedly and preventing smaller players from getting the skill books.

I do know that the caps have been changed several times over the years. I played a few months after the game appeared on mpgn. Skill gains were much slower then they are currently. I couldn't answer to what they are set at now.

Omni wanted to know suggestions for increasing player participation and retention.

While I respect your knowledge I don't see that you necessarily need to tear apart suggestions that are put forth. If you disagree with it fine, more power to you.

My viewpoint is that increasing skill gain (especially in lower to middle skills) would help increase the player base.

That is only my opinion and it is niether right or wrong. The difficulty of implementing particular ideas I have no idea. I leave that up to the people that asked for the input.

Please allow people to brainstorm as they will.

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Darge
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Re: 200+

Post by Darge »

*sigh* Forget it.
SIN
My father was a wolf, I'm a kinsman of the slain, Sworn to rise again
I will bring salvation, punishment and pain, The hammer of hate is our faith
Power and dominion are taken by the will, By divine right hail and kill

trav: you bad bad girl

Martialarts
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Re: 200+

Post by Martialarts »

Arkon wrote:
Darge wrote:
Arkon wrote: Remove skill caps too... Not completely, mainly off the lower skill levels.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but every skill (1-infinity) is capped. The notion that particular skills stand out as having a cap is a piece of misinformation that's long been floating around the player base.

Anyway, uncapping any of the skills could result in gains tripling or quadrupling under the right circumstances, even in the 20+ skills.
Darge, I don't believe I said anywhere that particular skills had a separate cap nor is it important. I am not a programmer nor have I ever claimed to be. If it is so difficult to adjust the caps at certain levels than bring back the skill books and set them to be usable at certain levels.

Suggestions; have a trader in nork to assist in skills up to skill 20, next trader could be in Cobrahn perhaps up to skill 25, final trader could be in NL for skills up to skill 30.

Having different traders in different areas would prevent areas from being repeatedly farmed out by high level players. No sense in having a level 50+ player continually nuking N-4 repeatedly and preventing smaller players from getting the skill books.

I do know that the caps have been changed several times over the years. I played a few months after the game appeared on mpgn. Skill gains were much slower then they are currently. I couldn't answer to what they are set at now.

Omni wanted to know suggestions for increasing player participation and retention.

While I respect your knowledge I don't see that you necessarily need to tear apart suggestions that are put forth. If you disagree with it fine, more power to you.

My viewpoint is that increasing skill gain (especially in lower to middle skills) would help increase the player base.

That is only my opinion and it is niether right or wrong. The difficulty of implementing particular ideas I have no idea. I leave that up to the people that asked for the input.

Please allow people to brainstorm as they will.

Now i think there is a mis conception.. MA's used to get skill 31 in nork.. Now the most that can be acheived is 30.5.. The caps could adjust better if they came off after skill 32 then cap for gain in NL like it used to be. Death is sweet.
:mrgreen:
The MA
DEATH IS SWEET

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nunnbt473
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Re: 200+

Post by nunnbt473 »

If you want the player base to increase, I suggest you concentrate on keeping what noobies that do come through or old players that come back and don't remember it well. Most players are so large and NOT in alt 1 (where the noobies are) that they tend to quickly get overlooked. I personally have extended and invitation to help about a dozen noobs in the past month and helped out about half of them myself semi regular with questions, basic armor, helping choose class ..etc.

This could be avoided in many ways.

1. Volunteer staff. This could be on a permanent basis or have for ex. 1 week limits at a time you sign up for. New players could type #help and have a staffer teleported to them to answer questions..etc. In exchange offer floating HP for X days, discounts on GH or silver/gold, access to lesser event items, quirks, zaps, xp, skill trainer paid, gold... something in exchange for their time / willingness to 'help the greater good of the community'.

In fact I recommend taking it a bit faurther and having new accounts have a special icon next to their name (even though its usually obvious since half of the free accounts are newbies). Ingame make their tag teal or green instead of white for the first week or until level 5. Allow said staffers to have a /form teleport to newbie command and /scry newbie or something.

2. On their first character up until say 13/10 they get +5 HP/+5 EP at level up, hidden +10 char/luck .. etc to get them on their way and started up so they can move to more areas and see more of the game quicker and stop getting that *every time I walk into x dungeon I get killed* feeling.

3. As mentioned before, special newbit armor. Hey make a special set of all blue armor or something, average low level blocking. 1 points fire / ice / enmiss / assault / acid / lightning .. etc prot per piece or something. One item for every slot that stands out, like a bright blue or something (like of like the current silk sash). If dropped it disappears (like blunderbuss), they could simply go back to an NPC at their trainer or a special NPC and be issued new armor.

4. FORCE THEM TO USE THE SCHOOL. Too many new players get tired of reading or see the stairs and go oh hey! Lets click this down stairs button on my macro bar ... look a town! *Runs around like a chicken with its head cut off until they get lost and confused*. If you are not going to redesign this outdated piece of nork, at the VERY least please hide the stairs (like the secret ones to VT thief guild from nork thief guild)..etc.

5. A town map like (http://www.geocities.com/telletran/norktown.html), perhaps with some labels in big red letters. Place it in their sack, as like with the armor, when they visit an NPC he would reissue said item free of charge. After X level /skill / exp amount / hp / days account was created ago / number of total days logged in... whatever. the NPC fails to issue gear anymore. Or if it is crappy enough gear just call it a priest of the temple who donates to anyone in need period and always let him reissue it all. I see too many noobs who don't know where to find heal potions or the main dungeon or know that steel flower has those nifty succor scrolls.

6. Maybe have a little daemon NPC that pops up occasionally and asks "Are you lost, should I escort you back to town? If so say daemon, return me to nork" or daemon, where is .. tanner, heal potions. I know this takes away a bit from that 'community atmosphere, but after seeing new players and old players coming back I just feel like most arnt utilizing the opportunities that they do have until people start engaging them, they see / feel no need to engage us in any sort of conversation. Regardless of how little or necessary it may be. Perhaps I am just over reacting slightly though.
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Mars
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Re: 200+

Post by Mars »

Take this any way you wish, but this is my personal opinion and not an opinion of Drakkarzone and/or it's employees

What you are asking for sounds like you want the game handed to new players. That is not the point of the game. I am totally against making a game so easy that anyone can just "walk" through it without learning. If you gear them up so they can survive more places, what is going to stop them from going to the lower places and bypassing the learning as they go? You are just asking for them to be handed gear/items that will allow them to skip all the details.

I've been here for over 10 years, and I always found the learning and exploring the best part of playing. I'm not one who enjoys grunting or standing in one place and killing killing killing. I like to get out and explore. If I die because of it, so be it. It teaches me the limits of my character. I used to buy majors by the 10 pack, I died so much my con was always dropping. I was offered many pieces of gear as I was just starting and refused most of it until I felt I was of a size where I could contribute towards the goal, I felt better wearing or using the item if I knew I earned it rather than just having it handed to me.

So bottom line? I am not in favor of any of your suggestions except the one about the school. I am taking steps to change the school.

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Teh_Cheat
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Re: 200+

Post by Teh_Cheat »

Mars wrote: I always found the learning and exploring the best part of playing.
I agree 100%.
SIN

Cobra
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Re: 200+

Post by Cobra »

I agree with you Mars, the problem is that since WoW, the gaming world is get max lvl fast, and then have tons of high-end stuff to do. Thinking along the way, or even using all your skills is optional. Drakkar is a niche game, which unfortunately doesn't have a lot to offer to newer people; even a lot of the older players are finding it hard to stay around with lack of newer content and/or forced grouping to grow.

In order to get to the 200+ mark that you are wishing for, steps might have to be taken to make the game change towards the mainstream a little bit. No one wants to play drak for hours and hours to get even lvl 18 to go to cob, just to grind for months to get to a size to do the same thing in NL. When for the same amount of money, or less, they can go get max lvl in WoW, WAR, etc. in a few days, and enjoy all the end game content for months if not years.

Drakkar loses people on the grind to 50. Either you grind it out in cob forever for 50, or you grind in cob for 25, just to leech in NL for 25 lvls unless you're a ment. Bigger players don't have this problem because they've went through the game once, and can get their crits to 75/35 with very little effort. There needs to be a happy medium between the grinding of cob/leeching NL to grow, and the insane speed capped people can grow their 2nds.

NL needs to be totally overhauled; it needs to be more solo friendly across the board. Let 25+ people hunt in NL without leeching. Unless you're a ment, or someone in pally armor, you're forced to sit and watch others kill in NL. Mormar needs overhauled to be more solo friendly. For some classes, all there is to do once you finally get to NL/DL is leech while others kill, what's the fun of that?

Mainstream is let people grow solo and at speed, give them tons of places to hunt, and give them tons of high-end content to enjoy once they get max lvl. Drakkar seems to be going in the opposite direction. You grow slow, the bigger you get, the more you need a party. Once you get to NL all you do is party, and even then it can be pretty slow for the first timers. New content comes around about every 3-4 years.

Is it any wonder why people are playing other games?

Cobra

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