55 replies to this topic

[tharzill]

I think it would help a LOT if you would quit changing the basic rules constantly. Since I began playing most things from PvP to Titans, SEs... Rules concerning buffs and potions, and many more have been changed again and again. This is not only confusing (especially to new players) but also frustrating for some of the older players.

[yotekiller]

The Best Player and Top 100 medals are no longer achievable for a new player without dishing out some major serious cash. I joined over 3 years ago and I have felt like they are out of reach for me for quite some time even though I have donated some along the way. I know HCS is dependent on people spending money but it's discouraging to feel like you can never achieve something no matter how hard you try. Some people have spent a lot of cash and invested a lot of time to get those medals but I think they have outlived their usefulness. I'm not sure how you eliminate or replace them at this point but I do think they discourage more than encourage most players.

[shdowdrgn]

The Best Player and Top 100 medals are no longer achievable for a new player without dishing out some major serious cash. I joined over 3 years ago and I have felt like they are out of reach for me for quite some time even though I have donated some along the way. I know HCS is dependent on people spending money but it's discouraging to feel like you can never achieve something no matter how hard you try. Some people have spent a lot of cash and invested a lot of time to get those medals but I think they have outlived their usefulness. I'm not sure how you eliminate or replace them at this point but I do think they discourage more than encourage most players.

just read this whole thread. i have to sit back and really think before deciding what i should bring to this discussion but i think this post makes a lot of sense.

[avvakum]

More freedom/room for creativity to attract the creative players. They will do the rest. The more HCS controls the game, the less is room for "creating".

[Mister Doom]

I'm not sure attracting new players is the main issue. I often log in to find that one of the countless recruitment links I've posted around over time has brought some other newbie in. What I have noticed though, without fail is that if they aren't picked up by a guild and shown what all the different buttons etc do, they don't stay very long.

Perhaps when new players join they should be automatically put into a 'monthly noob' guild that houses all new players that joined within that month. At least then after a few join and learn from trial and error they'll be able to help each other.

Also it gives established guilds an easier time of finding potential new recruits, just look through the auto-generated newbie guilds for players that are outshining their peers.

Obviously these guilds would have to be slightly different from regular guilds, no invitations, no inclusion to rankings(Or possibly a separate ranking system) and no size limit (hence the ranking exclusion)

Hell, you could even go one step further and have a system that allows a HCS member to monitor the different auto-guilds. (there'd only be 12 different ones per year) This would give them good indications of what players need/want/don't understand. Heck it could even help some of HCS' members understand the game better themselves.

My constructive 2 cents.

[BigGrim]

Perhaps when new players join they should be automatically put into a 'monthly noob' guild that houses all new players that joined within that month. At least then after a few join and learn from trial and error they'll be able to help each other.

I've seen this mentioned in a few places now. I wonder how viable it would be. Something to help the new players understand how the game works is a good thing and kinda what we wanted the Mentor/Karma thing to do.

I wonder if it would be worth allowing Mentors to help run a game funded (items totally locked) Guild with the intention of helping New players from the off, and how hard that would be for us to implement.

[Mister Doom]

I wonder if it would be worth allowing Mentors to help run a game funded (items totally locked) Guild with the intention of helping New players from the off, and how hard that would be for us to implement.

That's an interesting thought, though I'm not sure how many players would want to leave their guild to mentor players vs help them from their current guild. That's kind of why I mentioned a HCS members doing it. That being said though, there are still quite a few truly benevolent people who play, they may be willing to do it.

[BigGrim]

That's an interesting thought, though I'm not sure how many players would want to leave their guild to mentor players vs help them from their current guild. That's kind of why I mentioned a HCS members doing it. That being said though, there are still quite a few truly benevolent people who play, they may be willing to do it.

Yeah, I am wondering if there would be some easy way to allow them to function as a kinda Guild Leader for the Newbie Guild without leaving their own. We'd have to ensure that structures did not allow overlapping bonus' from two Guilds and whatnot. I dunno. Thinking aloud.

[duktayp]

i'm wondering how easy the 'find mentor' link is to find, and if it should be included in a daily message in new players' logs

currently 'find mentor' is hidden under the find player tab

[Mister Doom]

Something like an inter-guild chatroom? That could work, people have wanted that upgrade for quite some time. You could link special channels to these 'noob guilds' that only allow registered 'mentors' to speak with them?

[yotwehc]

That is why I suggested the global newbie chat which would include the welcoming committee. Timing is key and as a noob, you tend do login for a few minutes at a time. If no one is on. Oh well. It would be most effective to see someone online when you login ready to help. IMHO

[BigGrim]

i'm wondering how easy the 'find mentor' link is to find, and if it should be included in a daily message in new players' logs

currently 'find mentor' is hidden under the find player tab

Perhaps, yeah.

Something like an inter-guild chatroom? That could work, people have wanted that upgrade for quite some time. You could link special channels to these 'noob guilds' that only allow registered 'mentors' to speak with them?

Anything that would allow easier communication with Newbies and Mentors and hell, myself in-game would surely help.

[duktayp]

i'm wondering how easy the 'find mentor' link is to find, and if it should be included in a daily message in new players' logs

currently 'find mentor' is hidden under the find player tab

actually it's

actions --> find player --> find mentor

[dowuones]

That's an interesting thought, though I'm not sure how many players would want to leave their guild to mentor players vs help them from their current guild. That's kind of why I mentioned a HCS members doing it. That being said though, there are still quite a few truly benevolent people who play, they may be willing to do it.

Yeah, I am wondering if there would be some easy way to allow them to function as a kinda Guild Leader for the Newbie Guild without leaving their own. We'd have to ensure that structures did not allow overlapping bonus' from two Guilds and whatnot. I dunno. Thinking aloud.

Probably its enough for a mentor to see the new guild chat and have a chance to post there.
You could make it so that every guild (maybe only those out of the top 250, or top 100) can hire up to 3 mentor (for free) from the mentors list (and also have a chance to fire them if the mentor doesnt help). You can be a mentor only for one guild, and you have access to the guild chat (not to the guild store or structures, and there will be a lot of troubles). Also the 3 mentors have to be from different guildes to prevent abuses, this way they can monitor each others and avoid bad advices or scam. The important thing for new players are not buffs or items, the important is to learn the game, having 3 active and experienced players could be a great help.

[Grimmhawk]

That's an interesting thought, though I'm not sure how many players would want to leave their guild to mentor players vs help them from their current guild. That's kind of why I mentioned a HCS members doing it. That being said though, there are still quite a few truly benevolent people who play, they may be willing to do it.

Yeah, I am wondering if there would be some easy way to allow them to function as a kinda Guild Leader for the Newbie Guild without leaving their own. We'd have to ensure that structures did not allow overlapping bonus' from two Guilds and whatnot. I dunno. Thinking aloud.

You could make the new player guild automated with a new structure specific to it that they could click on for buffs. A chat sorta like guild chat that mentors can give advice in and that new players can ask for help in also.

[Lahona]

Add in the guild hall where you can place the FAQ with forum & / or wiki links to the answers -- perhaps a new section in the forum for these and have those answers checked for correctness and usefulness.

[yotwehc]

I feel ignored For new users, I distinctly remember how overwhelmed I felt because there was so much. I knew there were a ton of static resources available but was too much to parse through. Just shouting out in a global chat would have been perfect. The downside is this will kill the fsbox and people may abuse it to sell stuff so this is why I thought it should be reserved for noobs and welcoming committee only. Oh well. I will keep throwing my 2 cents until I'm blocked from the forums. Lol

[Filletminion]

At this stage I would not invite a single friend .I have no confidence the game can be turned around. If you are really serious then you need to undo some of the game changes you have implemented.They have been extremely detrimental to the game ,go back and look at what happened to player numbers when you implemented the pvp ladder. then you compounded it by introducing protection , up until that point this had always been a pvp game at that point pvpers and levelers opted out in their droves.

You need to find a way to make titans fair for every player on every continent , massive profits are available to a few the rest can pick up crumbs.

When those things change I will consider inviting friends.

[Jonah Tebaa]

First of all, thanks Hoof for these threads. I hope the feedback does help here.

1- i agree on lowering the cost of FSPs a little in terms of donations. We all love to donate, part for the time the developers put into this game, but let's all be honest, it is mostly for the FSPs. Decreasing the cost, although it would make the players donate less amounts of $, but would get more players to donate. Also have some relative rewards to players who donate less than the max amount. I mean a player who donates $60 now gets a fancy pot when you have offers running, but if he donates $10 he gets only the FSPs. A pot with lower level buffs would be nice.

2- For the new joiners, why not have them earn a new currency that they can use to upgrade their character directly. Not gold and not FSPs. Say when a player joins, he would earn Fallen Sword Boosters in addition to gold from hunting, items from arenas, tokens from ladders etc... This would last till they have been playing for 2 months for example. After passing 2 months, they become like all players and earn gold only from hunts, and tokens only from ladder wins. This would get new joiners to get the chance to upgrade their characters and thus compete somehow and get attached more to the game.

3- Another thing that was mentioned before was a fully playable iPhone and Android app. This would get more players to join. Make the game free and advertise it on your other games that you already have in the appstore. I wouldn't mind getting some sort of boost in my battle tank iphone game for installing the free FallenSword iPhone game. Also, I assure you that the current players are more than enough to get this app to "Top Grossing" section within days. Now I assure you, a free game in "Top Grossing" will get TONS of downloads all over the world that you will need many new servers. I believe in this idea, so think about it seriously guys. But make sure you make it FULLY playable. and it is not impossible I believe (and hope).

4- More in-game tutorials to help new players learn everything about the game. Maybe add some new quests that would have noobs play a few arenas made specially for noobs, and make them join a pvp ladder once. Maybe make them have to finish this big quest first to be able to start earning FallenSword Boosters for 2 months.

5- Have a regular IRC chat with a community-voted set of players to share thoughts on what should be changed/added/removed from the game. We all know that if you guys played the game regularly, you would see a lot of things that we "nag" about. But we totally understand that you do not have the time to play all the games that you make. So have the community vote for, say, 20 players to represent them in regular IRC chats with you guys.

6- This thread about Arena Tokens has a great idea: http://forum.fallens...hp?f=1&t=107637

7- Give all players who are called "jonahtebaa" one million FSPs. I am sure you can find at least one player named that ;p

Again, we all appreciate the efforts that you have been putting into this game, especially recently. The AH is AMAZING, the new LE sets revived the arena, and the inventors. The constant EOC releases... everything really is going too well recently. The global events are amazing!

Wish you and us the best of luck in making this game even a greater game,

Jonah

[Filletminion]

Maybe instead of shunning new players we the experienced players need to take them under our wing and teach them the game.....