If anyone ever says "Allegiance would be fine if you did my idea" SAY IT NOW

azzwaldo · Post by **azzwaldo** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 11:34 pm

Alleg is like a really great shirt that's all creased up and needs a damned good ironing. The presentation is messy and needs focus.

I haven't an iron to hand right now, but here is one idea for new player retention (we do get a trickle of them, but they often just $#@! off, disillusioned):

For the uninitiated the ranking system causes disenchantment, what with the unawareness of things like how it actually works, fake newbs and whatever else.

How about not ranking players unless they are squadded? They shall instead be ranked MERC until they are recruited into a 'squad acadamy' (a place of further

learning! at best, a silent forum at worst lol). MERCS can join squadgames if invited to do so. I believe this change would have positive effects for newer players, and

may even help with squad rosters. It'd be cool if it produced a competitiveness between squad acadamies. Hey, it would make squadding intrinsic to the game, and you

could present things in this way.

They maaayyy saaayy iiiaaam a dreeeeaaamer!

Oh, and GO CASHTO!!!!

Shizoku · Post by **Shizoku** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:55 am

Is it terribly difficult to mod the MODT? Who has the keys to do this? Is it just pkk?

While it's not going to lead to massive player increase, say a new player logs in a bit past primetime, sees the "Message of the day" left over still from last year and no people online, they are going to think this place has been deserted for months.

There's enough activity with the league, cadet, voguecadet and whatnot to at least have a Message of the Week.

Broodwich · Post by **Broodwich** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:07 am

Hey Dome, just do something. Too many in your position have not, and the more you wait, the less people will be around to see the results.

Akin to what peet suggested, set a realistic project goal and realistic deadlines. I don't know our monetary situation, but I'm guessing restructuring the way the game works isn't in the cards. Something simple like adding hires packs to the installer is. Maybe even an option to download or not, (default yes). Who knows!

If your goal is to keep new players, focus on making the learning curve less steep, and the initial presentation of the game not look like crap. Appear active. Easier said than done but you already have some suggestions above.

May the force be with you... you're gonna need it

Jimen · Post by **Jimen** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:58 am

The training missions are really out of date, too - I don't have time to check them all now, but the Basic Controls one tells you to fly with the keyboard, and not only does it not explain sidethrusters, but it actively disables them so you can't figure them out on your own. And the Practice Arena one just puts you in a gat1 adv fig with dumbfires and one rack of fuel and throws figs and scouts (with out-of-date HUD icons for everything, no less) at you till you die, then congratulates you on a successful training mission.

Deathrender · Post by **Deathrender** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:15 am

I think discussion of player retention should be in it's own thread. The topics covered for this issue are wide and we'll be talking about it for awhile.

Post by **MagisterXF94** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:48 am

Shizoku wrote:QUOTE (Shizoku @ Mar 24 2015, 01:55 AM) Is it terribly difficult to mod the MODT? Who has the keys to do this? Is it just pkk?

While it's not going to lead to massive player increase, say a new player logs in a bit past primetime, sees the "Message of the day" left over still from last year and no people online, they are going to think this place has been deserted for months.

There's enough activity with the league, cadet, voguecadet and whatnot to at least have a Message of the Week.

It's not hard.
I don't know if Dome has access to it.
Login to the web end of acss, click content, Message of the day.
Ill'dig up the acss documentation later.

notjarvis · Post by **notjarvis** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:49 am

Broodwich wrote:QUOTE (Broodwich @ Mar 24 2015, 01:07 AM) Hey Dome, just do something. Too many in your position have not, and the more you wait, the less people will be around to see the results.

Akin to what peet suggested, set a realistic project goal and realistic deadlines. I don't know our monetary situation, but I'm guessing restructuring the way the game works isn't in the cards. Something simple like adding hires packs to the installer is. Maybe even an option to download or not, (default yes). Who knows!

If your goal is to keep new players, focus on making the learning curve less steep, and the initial presentation of the game not look like crap. Appear active. Easier said than done but you already have some suggestions above.

nail-head interface.

My two cents though.

Player base has been Declining for years fairly consistently.

From my POV - Getting New players in and getting them to play on should be the number one priority, and getting them into games they can enjoy ASAP is key to that.

When I started there was still a newbie server which often had a few people in where you could have dumb fun before hitting the main servers.

Now when a newbie comes in for the first time, if there is a game on they are thrown into a main game, making that experience fun for a new player is important.

Code and core changes for alleg. should be aimed at making the game a bit easier to pick up, rather than adding more complexity, frankly (I know most Alleg. players like the complexity, but it makes the game harder to learn).
In the world of an alleg. desperate for players - the newbie should be king, and should drive how the game is planned. Always attracting newbies should be key (yes - retaining Vets is important but nowhere near as much - the number of vets will always go down and need to be refreshed - no matter how good the game).

MrChaos · Post by **MrChaos** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:45 pm

Fix the key binding
Upgrade the default HUD
Upgrade the texture pack of the game
Make the message of the day be a daily thing

Not sure if this will keep them for a second game but all are easy to do

Make content more god damn casual esquire
Hit box make them bubbles
key binding hey sue me it fits
prune some faction content
Change core balance so games to end quicker. Say yes to being cheesier

All doable and sure to make everyone angry about something

Not sure if this will improve player retention but all can be done

I'm guessing 45 days for it all to get done

All earmarked to make it newb friendlier

There is more but that should get things going for a bit

Edit: $#@! you auto correct $#@! you in the ear

Post by **Raveen** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:53 pm

Making games quicker would be a very smart move for pickup games. Squad games could continue at the current pace but 3 hour pickup games are not going to attract all that many new players.

Once again, MrC speaks sense.

raumvogel · Post by **raumvogel** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 6:05 pm

Frags is correct.
Also, We saw a large influx of people last fall when a mass e-mail was sent. Everyone was enthusiastic and jumped on the "Lets form new squads" bandwagon. I think we should have stuck with Blue VS. Yellow until the Sunday games were so huge that they crashed the server. THEN we could form other squads.

I watched as the players went from like 4 to 30+ between 12:30 and SGT last Sunday. But they still didn't have enough squadies for that.

But just the fact that everyone knows an event will happen around 3 P.M. on Sunday gets a big spike of players.