Why we REALLY need playerbase growth

[Jimen]

QUOTE (Bard @ May 18 2011, 01:48 PM) WTF?!?

The first thing almost *any* pilot does is remap their key settings to personal preference.

Changing the default mapping won't do ~*ANYTHING*~ about that. Claiming that people not agreeing on and implementing someone else's idea of a keymapping as the "new default" means noone cares about allegiance living or dying is just plain pigsqueal zooting.

(edit -- and to back up my point, we get people complaining about how their changed keymappings don't work in the training missions.)

Maybe pilots remap their key settings to their already-established personal preferences, but newbies who've never played the game before are going to start off with the defaults! The only reason anybody ever talks about how much the defaults suck, in fact, is in terms of newbie retention! We get newbies coming in here and asking "What's a good keymap to replace the terrible default one" like twice a month now, and I'd wager that a lot of the people here started off with a premade keymap as well.

[Bard]

QUOTE (Jimen @ May 18 2011, 09:17 PM) Maybe pilots remap their key settings to their already-established personal preferences, but newbies who've never played the game before are going to start off with the defaults! The only reason anybody ever talks about how much the defaults suck, in fact, is in terms of newbie retention! We get newbies coming in here and asking "What's a good keymap to replace the terrible default one" like twice a month now, and I'd wager that a lot of the people here started off with a premade keymap as well.

I didn't and one of the first things I did after completing the training missions was remap my keys.

It's the first thing I do in *any* game I play.

Perhaps a better solution than changing the default keymap to someone's arbitrary idea of what's good would be to construct a few keymaps, assemble them -- with clearly defined representational graphics -- and put them on the wiki -- Then add a notification somewhere inside the game client on where to get them complete with a nice, clickable URL link.

I guarantee you if we choose a *different* default keymap, we're STILL going to get people coming in here and asking "What's a good keymap to replace the terrible default one".

(
edit - to reiterate - No matter what we choose FOR people, some people are STILL going to hate it. They need something:

"Custom $#@!ing designed for their purposes."

)

[Makida]

There's an objective difference between the current default keymap, which is very un-intuitive, and just a keymap that some people will find doesn't match their preferences. A better keymap may not fit everyone's preferences, but is likely to be more useful to new players at the start of their career. Also, Allegiance's key-remapping thingy is a bit intimidating-looking, so while it's good to encourage new players to look at it and see the range of options the game offers, it probably is not good to expect them to jump head-first into changing everything around in it as soon as they first start playing the game. Some will, but some won't. It's not something that should be expected.

Until a clickable link to the wiki article on key remapping is actually built into the game, it's also not a good idea, I think, to count on newbies seeing that article as soon as they start flying. It's good to encourage them to, but it's not something that all newbies can be expected to know to do.

Anyway, I do doubt that this is a key problem with newbie retention. Newbies will ask for help with keys and the like if they like the game.

[minigun]

Seems like the incoming newbie's, are the same rate as before. Just more vets have stopped playing.
We havn't been able to replenish. Then again i'm probably clueless. i did play a game today,will try and play more.

[raumvogel]

QUOTE (Bard @ May 18 2011, 03:47 PM) Bah. I just tried to download that software and got:

Code: Select all

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Could not allocate space for object 'dougsak.giveAway6' in database 'sarcmark' because the 'PRIMARY' filegroup is full. Create disk space by deleting unneeded files, dropping objects in the filegroup, adding additional files to the filegroup, or setting autogrowth on for existing files in the filegroup.

/SarcMark/GiveAway2/xp/giveawayXPb7.asp, line 77

I got the same....but who needs the software <---------

[Sealer]

QUOTE (Bard @ May 18 2011, 07:48 PM) WTF?!?

The first thing almost *any* pilot does is remap their key settings to personal preference.

Changing the default mapping won't do ~*ANYTHING*~ about that. Claiming that people not agreeing on and implementing someone else's idea of a keymapping as the "new default" means noone cares about allegiance living or dying is just plain pigsqueal zooting.

(edit -- and to back up my point, we get people complaining about how their changed keymappings don't work in the training missions.)

Then I hope that the internet is filled with sim pilots who'd like to play a semi-shooter-strategy in space from y. 2000 and remap their controls as soon as they start a game.

But I honestly doubt that.

There's a reason game reviewers mention default controls and interface in their reviews, and I'm one of people who are tolerant to bad default controls.

[ryujin]

QUOTE (NightRychune @ May 16 2011, 03:44 AM) you know that point in a terrible relationship where the people involved are like "THIS IS REALLY BAD WE NEED TO FIX THIS I DON'T KNOW HOW COME ON WE HAVE TO TRY" and just go around and around like that for a really long time until it finally snaps?

that's what this entire thread reminds me of

lol Viru- good point

QUOTE (Sealer @ May 17 2011, 10:14 AM) Honestly, remove all the pieces of code involving Training Missions in them, because that's some of the worst training missions ever made. And that's not anything I'm saying out of spite, they're just outdated and plain bad.

I agree 100%- those training missions suck. When I learned in 2000, my roommate showed me how to play. I flew the training missions for lols a few years back, and they are definitely lol worthy.

QUOTE (Bard @ May 18 2011, 12:48 PM) WTF?!?

The first thing almost *any* pilot does is remap their key settings to personal preference.

Changing the default mapping won't do ~*ANYTHING*~ about that. Claiming that people not agreeing on and implementing someone else's idea of a keymapping as the "new default" means noone cares about allegiance living or dying is just plain pigsqueal zooting.

(edit -- and to back up my point, we get people complaining about how their changed keymappings don't work in the training missions.)

Again. $#@! the training missions. And change the $#@!ing default keys. They suck. They couldn't get any worse. It discourages noobs. Everytime i reinstall I hate myself. Please change the defaults.

[Sindertone]

I asked a group of zombies if they played any flight sims last night. They just stared at me for a minute and one of them said "Yeah like when I was 12".
I blew it.. I should have said Space sim, which I did but had lost the moment. No one cared. It's the biggest group of gamers one can find and none of them play space sims..

[raumvogel]

QUOTE (Sindertone @ May 19 2011, 12:48 PM) I asked a group of zombies if they played any flight sims last night. They just stared at me for a minute and one of them said "Yeah like when I was 12".
I blew it.. I should have said Space sim, which I did but had lost the moment. No one cared. It's the biggest group of gamers one can find and none of them play space sims..

This

It's a shame that the planet is degenerating into a glob of mindless morons who love Tetris clones. I can imagine when aliens REALLY land on Earth. The shock and awe when they discover a copy of Allegiance. The Headlines will read: "Intense Space Combat simulator discovered, researchers never expected HUMANS to be intelligent enough to create something this sophisticated".

[pkk]

Training mission are for learning game controls, nothing more. For everything else we got the Wiki/AFS/CDT/ACS.

I don't know what you expect from these basic tutorials. Just take a look at other game tutorials. Training missions/tutorials aren't different there.