2.11 shows a solution

[The Dragonfly]

It isn't the solution for me, but it showed me a solution, bear with me.

As many others I went onto the testbed to try out the new things first hand and it was hilarious to start with, people constantly in the nation chat going "GM make me 50" and "GM give me that ship", like a bad rendition of Oliver Twist. Once we got the ships and all the fun started going through the new skills, making your choices and setting of. Naturally I was straight away drawn to the Victory, 42lb cannons, what's not to like. It looks great, 3.5 rows of cannons, it does pack a bunch, but as trade-off it's slow as a tortoise and the big guns reload really, really slow. Works well for fleeting and probably good for PBs, the "simplified" skills let it down though and interest soon switch to more agile raters. And so on, and so on.

Like everybody else I continued to experiment around and convince myself, that the ships are great-ish, but the skills are bad-definite, but I still actually had the most fun I had with potbs in weeks. And when I read Half Hitch's rational for the "simplification", i.e. attracting and retaining more new players, along with all the posts disagreeing with it (rightfully in my humble opinion), the obvious solution to that problem hit me, followed by the disbelief, that nobody has mentioned it yet.

The Event!!! Simple as that, The Event!!!

I had fun not because of the old or new skills, not even because of the new ships - I had fun, purely because of the event itself, i.e. you get some ships you otherwise mightn't consider or couldn't afford, get rigs and gear (although it was limited) and you just go out and have some fun, silly fights, ridiculous fleeting, whatever, just plain old fun. No flipping, eco or PBs (although I fancied a PB, 24 Victories vs 24 Victories no doubt). I was looking to PvP in the Victory with a xebec just to see, if she could stern camp me and for how long - unfortunately there were no takers, but just imagine the laughs that could have been. May be the next time.

So forget about 2.11, about simplifying or tweaking the skills, look at the big picture. Have regular events like these instead!!! And invite new players in at least once early on and, most importantly, make it known to them from the beginning, that these events do happen. (Of course you still need to address the issues mentioned in the feedback, proper tutorials, availability of more small ships, may be as non-tradeable deed rewards like on the eco tutorial, and so on.)


Now to start with some more details on how those event could work for players and FLS alike, whoever is interested in that, read on and expand on it.


BASIC IDEA: hold regular weekend events like this, start say every four weeks, more frequent rotations as demand and population grows (you can even make it a tournament for the serious players, who want to meassure their strength)

• CC members get an automatic invite (at least once a month)
  obvious incentive to create revenue, but well worth it
  
• new players get a once-off free invite
  attract, then retain by experiencing lvl 50 ships and action early on, and possibly convert some to CC quite quickly to get invited again and again
  as a bonus perhaps let them carry over any XP from the event to their live char to level up to max of 45
  some restriction, only applies to real new players with only a single account (at that time) and with no char higher than lvl 45 and with at least a certain number of non-afk playtime in the week leading up to the event
  (the 45 cut-off is simply for experience reasons, 45 to 50 you can actually use pretty good ships and do gain a lot of practical experience, which is good practice for level 50 live and familiarises you very well with your chosen career strenghts and weaknesses)
  
• optionally, if there are some no-shows at the start of the event, some F2P players happening to be online may get a lottery based invite, albeit they may have to pay a BSN for the priviledge (obviously, spent BSNs are also revenue for FLS)
  
• every event starts with a clean slade, everybody gets the same stuff, but nothing is carried back to the live server or forward to the next event (except maybe for the XP as mentioned above)
  
• all AHs are stocked with unlimited supplies (even all ship deeds), all at cost of 1 db. And all classes can buy everywhere, e.g. NOs in foreign ports
  
• the map would be seeded with three central and three peripherial flipped port for "in the red fun" and for several PBs every hour (where you might end up defending a foreign port, if necessary, who cares)
  
• if a tournament would be an option, you can opt in or out of a scoreboard, some people may just want to test out ships and rigs, others want to compete

It would need some extra FLS staff time to set up and conduct these events manually at first, but this might quickly be offset by increased revenue. Plus, these events obviously also would function as regular intense testing sessions with feedback on bugs and improvement ideas.

[ozziefudd]

Interesting idea, but, you know, you can already do this in the skirmish instance.

You do lose some ammo and repair stuff but not yer ship.

True, you don't get a free fantasy ship, it has to be one you already sail -- and that makes it easier to practice with a ship you'll really use in the game. Try out some different tactics or something.


The real reason you think the GM-assisted test was so awesome is because it was different. If you had to use the same first-rate every time you'd likely stop after a while.

[Nestcrow]

Originally Posted by The Dragonfly [*] all AHs are stocked with unlimited supplies (even all ship deeds), all at cost of 1 db. And all classes can buy everywhere, e.g. NOs in foreign ports

Yes, they are, for about 2 minutes.
After that they are all in warehouse of 1 player.

[The Dragonfly]

@ozziefudd, yes, skirms are useful for practise, I don't really care about them consuming a bit of ammo and repairs. But you're limited to your ships and their fixed rigging, etc. In the test bed I tried the Victory and found I actually prefer the Sceptre for being a bit better handling for a bit less poundage and tank. Others will like it for fleeting and/or PBs, whatever your preferance. Either way, would be a very, very expensive experience to get from a skirm!

But more importantly, when I thought back to when I started in the game, I walked away a few times for a few days, because it seemed to be going nowhere and both avcom and ship skills were confusing and worse, pick the wrong on and you're stuck for 2 more levels of the same ineffective ship. I only came back each time, because I thought there must be something I overlooked (there wasn't given the documentation, but it got me through to 50 all the same). If a week or two into it I would have gotten invited to an event like this and experienced a glimpse of what's to come (and obviously liked it), I reckon I would have levelled 25 to 50 in a week or less.
So, assuming plenty of the new players they say they loose would actually become regular and stay once 50, then this would be a valuable tool to pull them through. Plus FLS would have some more incentives for some players to become CC, interesting just from a business point.

@Nestcrow, I noticed on the test bed, wasn't me, honest. Seriously though, I really mean unlimited for Events. At at the end of the event, any stock, dubloons, deeds, etc. is simply wipped, no point in stockpiling (not like on the test bed, where some people continue to play regular and hence stockpile).

[IsaBelle2]

OHHHHHH! That sounds like an awesome idea a chance to try new skills and see what it is like. Try new ships and say YES! I want to keep playing and get to this point! I really think an Event or tournaments would really be fun. Lowbie tournaments, Mid Range tournaments and level 45-50 tournaments would also be a great draw as well. I like the idea of an event and yes from a business standpoint it is the trying of a product that encourages people to stay with a product. And once they stay they buy more from that company.

[ozziefudd]

Originally Posted by The Dragonfly In the test bed I tried the Victory and found I actually prefer the Sceptre for being a bit better handling for a bit less poundage and tank. Others will like it for fleeting and/or PBs, whatever your preferance. Either way, would be a very, very expensive experience to get from a skirm! But more importantly, when I thought back to when I started in the game, I walked away a few times for a few days, because it seemed to be going nowhere and both avcom and ship skills were confusing and worse, pick the wrong on and you're stuck for 2 more levels of the same ineffective ship. I only came back each time, because I thought there must be something I overlooked (there wasn't given the documentation, but it got me through to 50 all the same). If a week or two into it I would have gotten invited to an event like this and experienced a glimpse of what's to come (and obviously liked it), I reckon I would have levelled 25 to 50 in a week or less. So, assuming plenty of the new players they say they loose would actually become regular and stay once 50, then this would be a valuable tool to pull them through. Plus FLS would have some more incentives for some players to become CC, interesting just from a business point.

OK, I take your point. However I think it would need quite a bit of planning and GM supervision and some good screening in order to avoid simply opening test to a bunch of party pirates once a week or month or whatever schedule you think it should be.

And there is a great deal of difference between playing with the big ships on test and doing so for real in the game.

However I do recall some of the test events I attended that put some excitement into new builds. Maybe it would work for the game itself. It could be worth considering.