182 replies to this topic

[Grimmhawk]

It's time to rethink your game plan on bringing in new players.

At the time of this post there are 910 players on. This morning when I checked there were less than 400. The game I used to love is dieing .

I have a few ideas that might help. I know some of these ideas with make older players mad ,but suck it up or you might find yourselves playing alone one day.

1:Increase the starting protection to lvl 50 and don't allow them to hit other players period(so no accidental hitting and losing it). Put a time limit on it of lvl 50 or one month whichever comes first.

2:Increase max stam to 2500 and stam gain to 65. This will allow them to hunt more often to lvl faster as well as try out more things. (will also help make it look like EOC isn't so far away to them hopefully)

3:Increase starting bp slots to 10. Will give them a little more space to try out things that will help them make fsp for upgrades like farming plants and so on.

4:Give them some cheap bound starting gear maybe.

5:Once again. Staff needs to play the game. I don't mean just test something for a bit looking for bugs (bugs don't always show up in a few hours of testing) ,but actually play just like the rest of us. You'll understand what frustrates players better and what we enjoy.

6:And again. Staff needs to be more active in the community. When a friend asked me to start playing the first thing I did was check the forum. Staff was more active in it as well as more helpful. Frankly if it was like it is now I'd of never started playing FS.

Remember the goal is to bring them in and get them to want to stay.

[Maehdros]

If hcs increases the maximum stam, they should do so for all players, it's bits and bites of data, which hopefully would promote more players to stay longer. A good thing imo.

Increased stam gain Is a good idea for low levels to a point, for a set amount of time maybe? Like..for 1 month upon creating an account stam gain is increased until they get their feet wet so to speak?


The pvp limit has one flaw , which would be the use of level 50 players as guild banks or as *multi* banks.

[DragonLord]

The game is, sadly, in decline and needs something other than just throwing new (expensive) items into the game to (temporarily) increase the cash-flow.

MANY MANY ideas have been suggested in the forums, a lot fall by the wayside, but some get a positive feedback from BG who then passes the idea onto the programmers where, it seems, they fall into a blackhole, rarely to be seen again.

I love the game, and hate seeing it in free-fall. I'd love to see bugs fixed, new ideas implemented (successfully, 1st try) and new incentives to keep new starters but that's not what I currently see, and its disheartening.

I know BG can't do programming functions, and therefore no blame is attached to him, but just what ARE the programmers doing ? Bugs don't SEEM to be getting fixed, programming tickets don't SEEM to be being replied to, and new coding doesn't SEEM to be appearing. Have they all moved over to Eldevin and/or something else new in the pipeline?

PLEASE, devote the time to FS - don't let it sink into oblivion like SS2 has ...

[ripplelady]

It's time to rethink your game plan on bringing in new players.

At the time of this post there are 910 players on. This morning when I checked there were less than 400. The game I used to love is dieing .

I have a few ideas that might help. I know some of these ideas with make older players mad ,but suck it up or you might find yourselves playing alone one day.

1:Increase the starting protection to lvl 50 and don't allow them to hit other players period(so no accidental hitting and losing it). Put a time limit on it of lvl 50 or one month whichever comes first.

I disagree more should be done to introduce the new players to pvp and how it works,,,if not for pvp or people who helped me learn it I would not have stayed

2:Increase max stam to 2500 and stam gain to 65. This will allow them to hunt more often to lvl faster as well as try out more things. (will also help make it look like EOC isn't so far away to them hopefully)

I slightly disagree, you will infuriate the old players who had to make due or PAY for those upgrades,,, add more stam if you want but give to everyone and extra reserve for those who didnt have this when they were a level 1 more stam and stam per hour cant hurt anyone even the EOC people but make sure you dont forget those who were here before you could get 100 a hour!

3:Increase starting bp slots to 10. Will give them a little more space to try out things that will help them make fsp for upgrades like farming plants and so on.

I dont see a big problem with it except again annoying those who had to buy spaces,,,make sure everyone gets the extras. More space cant hurt anyone.

4:Give them some cheap bound starting gear maybe.

the new tutorial already did that,,and it was a good idea.

5:Once again. Staff needs to play the game. I don't mean just test something for a bit looking for bugs (bugs don't always show up in a few hours of testing) ,but actually play just like the rest of us. You'll understand what frustrates players better and what we enjoy.

totally agree here,, one thing thats annoyed us to the point FS isnt the first game we log onto anymore is the updates, maps and other stuff that should have been tested through before release. Too many updates and suggestions are being put in and then finding out 75% of the game hates it! You have lost many players because of this and will lose more if the GvG update is put in without the whole games feedback! If the cows played the game like they once did not only will things go much smoother (Hoof please TRY to find a gvg target and then TRY and find a target for a 2nd guildmate and see what we are saying about it being a idea that wont help real players but only multi users)

6:And again. Staff needs to be more active in the community. When a friend asked me to start playing the first thing I did was check the forum. Staff was more active in it as well as more helpful. Frankly if it was like it is now I'd of never started playing FS.

totally agree, more staff actually playing the game will make updates run smoother and let them see what changes they are wanting will work or not.

Remember the goal is to bring them in and get them to want to stay.

It should be the goal

Also a couple more things

1 multis,, nobody likes a cheater and especially if they get an advantage. As we said before we dont turn them in anymore since that one whos guild and allys punish us for her termination. Step up with these situations and dont leave the players helping you take the hits for it. More cows playing will help this too since you can see more than we can. Letting the players police the game isnt working and most of all dont let them back months later!!

2 updates,, getting old to see something put out and then fixed after the fact. test it and play test it first, thats why you had a alpha server. The new map is still buggy,,,why?? IRC is a great idea but the game needs a chat they run themselfs, players are not able to get on IRC and some say they are not allowed in so this isnt a full game perspective!

3 As the poster said 900 people online today,,, was 1200 last year so you have lost 1/4 of the players!! This happens in a old game but they usually still keep the older players,,for some reason FS is losing them too. Grendel says "see how many are on next Tuesday!",,,FS needs to keep the players they have and not try and replace them with more new ones,,,after 5 years most people have heard of it.

4 customer service!! Look at the game sites reviews for FS! Sure there are some sour grapes from players who got banned but theres a lot more that are just players who quit over something they didnt like. For example the mutiny thing in Team Cross,, changing the rules to prevent it from happening again didnt help keep the players screwed over by the loophole. There are a lot of examples of stuff like this and especially things like how one situation is handled differently than others. All it does is encourage people to leave when one player gets treated differently than another.

I hope these ideas help and we can keep FS going for 5 more years

[Belaric]

Pardoux, Scrogger +1

Ripplelady +10

Watching Team Cross get raped was sick. What player would join knowing his or her guild could get destroyed that way? 30 days away is a baby. It is a parent dying. It is Real Life calling.

Other points.

Multis: eff it. A game with 3 players and two of them are multis? Let it go. When we had 3000 players online multis were a threat, now they are a reminder that the game is worth something to someone. See a multi - just hit it. Tell me and I'll hit it. There are not enough real players left for multis to profit. Forget multis.

Updates: I like them but do not need them. I accede to the wisdom of Lahona - it is good for the community to see engagement on the part of the designers. (Designerds - I can't be the first to come up with that??)

Testing. Yada yada yada. It needs to be done, but we players need to recall the old military maxim that I will now butcher.

"The best laid plan does not survive first contact with the enemy"

Not accurate I know. But that is the truth of all game updates - as soon as they go live all the unintended consequences become apparent. WE are the enemy. We the players and the complex game environment.

Can we give the Cows some credit for at least engaging the enemy?? (US!) It means they are trying.

[fortville]

It's time to rethink your game plan on bringing in new players.

At the time of this post there are 910 players on. This morning when I checked there were less than 400. The game I used to love is dieing .

I have a few ideas that might help. I know some of these ideas with make older players mad ,but suck it up or you might find yourselves playing alone one day.

1:Increase the starting protection to lvl 50 and don't allow them to hit other players period(so no accidental hitting and losing it). Put a time limit on it of lvl 50 or one month whichever comes first.

I disagree more should be done to introduce the new players to pvp and how it works,,,if not for pvp or people who helped me learn it I would not have stayed

PvP is not the first thing they should be introduced to. They need to learn a lot of basic game mechanics first such as buffs(what they are and how they work), where to hunt and what to hunt, stats and how they work,ect. I agree with the op on this one.

2:Increase max stam to 2500 and stam gain to 65. This will allow them to hunt more often to lvl faster as well as try out more things. (will also help make it look like EOC isn't so far away to them hopefully)

I slightly disagree, you will infuriate the old players who had to make due or PAY for those upgrades,,, add more stam if you want but give to everyone and extra reserve for those who didnt have this when they were a level 1 more stam and stam per hour cant hurt anyone even the EOC people but make sure you dont forget those who were here before you could get 100 a hour!

As an old player I say give it to them and don't worry about infuriating us. We'll get it over it.

3:Increase starting bp slots to 10. Will give them a little more space to try out things that will help them make fsp for upgrades like farming plants and so on.

I dont see a big problem with it except again annoying those who had to buy spaces,,,make sure everyone gets the extras. More space cant hurt anyone.

If it comes down to giving new people more spaces or or not giving it because you have to give it to everyone then give it to them. Again we'll get over it.

4:Give them some cheap bound starting gear maybe.

the new tutorial already did that,,and it was a good idea.

It gave them three pieces if it would help retain them then give them more. It's only going to get them started and by level 10 they will find better or be in a guild and have better anyway.

5:Once again. Staff needs to play the game. I don't mean just test something for a bit looking for bugs (bugs don't always show up in a few hours of testing) ,but actually play just like the rest of us. You'll understand what frustrates players better and what we enjoy.

totally agree here,, one thing thats annoyed us to the point FS isnt the first game we log onto anymore is the updates, maps and other stuff that should have been tested through before release. Too many updates and suggestions are being put in and then finding out 75% of the game hates it! You have lost many players because of this and will lose more if the GvG update is put in without the whole games feedback! If the cows played the game like they once did not only will things go much smoother (Hoof please TRY to find a gvg target and then TRY and find a target for a 2nd guildmate and see what we are saying about it being a idea that wont help real players but only multi users)

The staff DOES need to play the game... Daily! To further this how about taking a guild tour cows? Come play WITH us.
GvG update again? Really? Wrong thread!!

6:And again. Staff needs to be more active in the community. When a friend asked me to start playing the first thing I did was check the forum. Staff was more active in it as well as more helpful. Frankly if it was like it is now I'd of never started playing FS.

totally agree, more staff actually playing the game will make updates run smoother and let them see what changes they are wanting will work or not.

Agree with op. You guys were doing very well at being present in the forum a couple of weeks ago and now you are back to your old habits. Barely a word from you in the forum in the last week. BE present. Make comments. Give feedback. Log in once and a while and moderate these things.

Remember the goal is to bring them in and get them to want to stay.

It should be the goal

Also a couple more things

1 multis,, nobody likes a cheater and especially if they get an advantage. As we said before we dont turn them in anymore since that one whos guild and allys punish us for her termination. Step up with these situations and dont leave the players helping you take the hits for it. More cows playing will help this too since you can see more than we can. Letting the players police the game isnt working and most of all dont let them back months later!!

I used to turn in tons of multi's until they accidentally pushed the wrong button and banned my account. They corrected it right away but it is not worth the risk.

2 updates,, getting old to see something put out and then fixed after the fact. test it and play test it first, thats why you had a alpha server. The new map is still buggy,,,why?? IRC is a great idea but the game needs a chat they run themselfs, players are not able to get on IRC and some say they are not allowed in so this isnt a full game perspective!

Yes please make full use of the alpha.You have the tool and willing people. Use it.
You have told us that you are going to start having a gamewide chat rather than using IRC so more people can be involved. Let's get it started. Every two weeks?? One or two topics per?

3 As the poster said 900 people online today,,, was 1200 last year so you have lost 1/4 of the players!! This happens in a old game but they usually still keep the older players,,for some reason FS is losing them too. Grendel says "see how many are on next Tuesday!",,,FS needs to keep the players they have and not try and replace them with more new ones,,,after 5 years most people have heard of it.

I'm sure others have noticed this through the years but there is always a "seasonal" fluctuation of people online. The northern hemisphere(bulk of the players) is now in springtime and we are poking our heads out of our caves and taking care of yardwork ect. There is also a slight downturn around the holidays every year.

4 customer service!! Look at the game sites reviews for FS! Sure there are some sour grapes from players who got banned but theres a lot more that are just players who quit over something they didnt like. For example the mutiny thing in Team Cross,, changing the rules to prevent it from happening again didnt help keep the players screwed over by the loophole. There are a lot of examples of stuff like this and especially things like how one situation is handled differently than others. All it does is encourage people to leave when one player gets treated differently than another.

We don't know and will never know all the details of things handled by customer service and so can't speak knowledgeably or conclusively about any of it. Are there people not happy with it? Of course. Do we ever hear about the happy results of customer service interactions? Nope or rarely. So we really don't know what the real customer satisfaction rating is.

I hope these ideas help and we can keep FS going for 5 more years

I too want this game to continue.

[rhann123]

Honestly anything that gains the game more active players I'm with. I think the to level 50 PvP protection is unnecessary. But adding more stamina gain and max stamina is great idea! But I also feel that it will also be HCS's job to get the game out there a little more.

[yodamus]

why is nobody pointing out what chases the majority of players away...being subjected to GVG when they join a guild early in the game...any new players will get invited to many guilds right away...not realizing if they join they are meat...raw meat ..ready to be eaten alive the first time they go to sleep..do not allow players less than level 40 to be involved in any way with gvg...the first time a new player logs on and see he has been killed many times over...goodbye...most dont wait for an explanation that is really did no harm to them...they dont know this..and dont care..they see bad news to them...and quit..plain and simple, seen happen to many many players as our guild would try to help the newbies.....you want to keep players...quit the kitty-killing

[avvakum]

It's time to rethink your game plan on bringing in new players.

Yup, screw the old players and help newbies to level up x10 faster to 500 lvl at least. That's the only way. And please find a workaround to punish players without banning them, the Internet is flooded with complaints about FS policy of banning old players and donators for nothing. It's hard to recruit anyone at all.

[Grimmhawk]

This morning there were barely 400 on again .

Out of curiosity I checked online players to see average lvl on at that time 90% were lvl 500 to lvl 1k or higher. About 9% of those left were a minimum of lvl 100 to lvl 500. That leaves 1% that were lvl 100 or below.

Something needs to be done and soon.

Don't worry about adding new content as much for awhile. It's time to concentrate on fixing existing things to keep current players as well as get the return of old players hopefully and things to bring in new players.

I know there can be a lot of griping and whining when new updates are done or lack of them ,but even though that happens it shows that players still care and want to play.

[scarsick]

The game is, sadly, in decline and needs something other than just throwing new (expensive) items into the game to (temporarily) increase the cash-flow.

MANY MANY ideas have been suggested in the forums, a lot fall by the wayside, but some get a positive feedback from BG who then passes the idea onto the programmers where, it seems, they fall into a blackhole, rarely to be seen again.

I love the game, and hate seeing it in free-fall. I'd love to see bugs fixed, new ideas implemented (successfully, 1st try) and new incentives to keep new starters but that's not what I currently see, and its disheartening.

I know BG can't do programming functions, and therefore no blame is attached to him, but just what ARE the programmers doing ? Bugs don't SEEM to be getting fixed, programming tickets don't SEEM to be being replied to, and new coding doesn't SEEM to be appearing. Have they all moved over to Eldevin and/or something else new in the pipeline?

PLEASE, devote the time to FS - don't let it sink into oblivion like SS2 has ...

Couldn't agree more

Honestly, FS needs an overhaul in many ways. There's no dearth of ideas.....good ideas to improve the game but more often than not, the only problem lies in the fact that the coders don't find the time and effort to implement those ideas into the game or fix pending issues and bugs


As for the ideas suggested by OP, I agree wholeheartedly

Would giving 10 backpack slots or extra stam gain really hurt long time players?

I don't think so. If somebody gets mad enough to leave the game over this , I think we're better off without them. But the game desperately needs an infusion of new blood and a smoother ride in the beginning would largely help in the cause.

But of course, what we need more than anything is the devs playing their own game.
The only dev we see around apart from BG (who's doing a great job imo) is Hoof...and it's only when he's around that things get done. That's not a very ideal scenario considering what was once a thriving community of gamers has been reduced to just another rpg game with barely enough players to call it a mmorpg

I would be happy to be proven wrong for the sake of the game...cause if something is not done very soon, the future looks to be very bleak indeed

[Zukira]

The new tutorial is great, but it does have a flaw. That flaw is CRITICAL!

Yes I called it critical.


How many new players have been lost because they did not equip the sword and instead dropped it before trying to leave the tutorial area only to find that now they are STUCK in the tutorial area? We need to stop losing new players because of a tutorial.

Please address this.


Also -

1. Remind players below level 100 about the game every few months if they are inactive. Offer an opt out to the reminders. Especially during special events they have access to.

2. Offer incentives to inactive players below certain levels to encourage them to engage again. "For a limited time, players below level x will receive such and such as a welcome back gift"

- any items would be bound,
- could be a temporary increase in full max stamina to encourage longer play to hook them.
- temporary pvp protection, or a free set of buffs cast (lib, al, flinch, dc)

3. Develop a manual that can be viewed in game.
- explain key elements of the game.
- common abbreviations

4. A 'newbie guild' that people can contribute to, while remaining in their own guild.

5. A donations box (that might even lead to a medal)

- players can drop items in, which are then bound to the 'newbie box' so they can't be resold, after level x or a certain amount of inactivity they are recalled to the box.
- players can donate 'current stamina' with a donate buffs button.
- newbies are given the option to join the newbie guild or not
- new players are unable to stay in the newbie guild after a certain level.

[Hoofmaster]

The new tutorial is great, but it does have a flaw. That flaw is CRITICAL!

Yes I called it critical.


How many new players have been lost because they did not equip the sword and instead dropped it before trying to leave the tutorial area only to find that now they are STUCK in the tutorial area? We need to stop losing new players because of a tutorial.

Please address this.

We'll change it so it can't be dropped until the tutorial stage has been completed.

[Zukira]

Thanks Hoof. I added a few more suggestions to my previous post as well. But the tutorial thing was definitely the most important one.

[Hoofmaster]

1:Increase the starting protection to lvl 50 and don't allow them to hit other players period(so no accidental hitting and losing it). Put a time limit on it of lvl 50 or one month whichever comes first.

Don't have an issue with changing this, but maybe still allow them to attack other players but show a warning that the PvP Protection will be lost if they do?

2:Increase max stam to 2500 and stam gain to 65. This will allow them to hunt more often to lvl faster as well as try out more things. (will also help make it look like EOC isn't so far away to them hopefully)

You mean change the starting max stamina and stamina gain?

3:Increase starting bp slots to 10. Will give them a little more space to try out things that will help them make fsp for upgrades like farming plants and so on.

We could look at increasing the starting backpack slots.

4:Give them some cheap bound starting gear maybe.

We could add an extra reward for completing the tutorial that gives them some more bound items - or possibly just add a simple quest after the tutorial that they can do to give more starting items?

5:Once again. Staff needs to play the game. I don't mean just test something for a bit looking for bugs (bugs don't always show up in a few hours of testing) ,but actually play just like the rest of us. You'll understand what frustrates players better and what we enjoy.

I'll see what we can do - the more time we spend playing the game however, the less time there is to develop it

6:And again. Staff needs to be more active in the community. When a friend asked me to start playing the first thing I did was check the forum. Staff was more active in it as well as more helpful. Frankly if it was like it is now I'd of never started playing FS.

Remember the goal is to bring them in and get them to want to stay.

I do feel we are reasonably active on the forums, however I'll talk it over with the team to see if we can improve on this

- hoof

[Grimmhawk]

2:Increase max stam to 2500 and stam gain to 65. This will allow them to hunt more often to lvl faster as well as try out more things. (will also help make it look like EOC isn't so far away to them hopefully)

You mean change the starting max stamina and stamina gain?

Yes. It might give them more incentive to stay around and lvl more as well as try out other things. Also might make EOC not look so far away to them.

[ripplelady]

One last suggestion,,, DONT put in a update based totally on ONE chat day that happened during a workday in the US without looking into asking EVERYONE about it. Showing the players that they are a lower class than those who got on chat that ONE time for a couple hours isnt going to keep anyone

[Grimmhawk]

1:Increase the starting protection to lvl 50 and don't allow them to hit other players period(so no accidental hitting and losing it). Put a time limit on it of lvl 50 or one month whichever comes first.

Don't have an issue with changing this, but maybe still allow them to attack other players but show a warning that the PvP Protection will be lost if they do?

Sounds reasonable and maybe will keep them from losing it on accident.

5:Once again. Staff needs to play the game. I don't mean just test something for a bit looking for bugs (bugs don't always show up in a few hours of testing) ,but actually play just like the rest of us. You'll understand what frustrates players better and what we enjoy.

I'll see what we can do - the more time we spend playing the game however, the less time there is to develop it

Right now we have a good bit needs fixed and by playing ya'll will have a better understanding of whats wrong other than just our input from posting and tickets. As well more about what we enjoy and frustrates us. I used to code a long time ago for an online MMORPG (won't name the game other than it's owned by EA) and one thing that we learned was actually playing helped us understand what worked, what didn't and what the players enjoyed ,as well as what really ticked them off.

6:And again. Staff needs to be more active in the community. When a friend asked me to start playing the first thing I did was check the forum. Staff was more active in it as well as more helpful. Frankly if it was like it is now I'd of never started playing FS.

Remember the goal is to bring them in and get them to want to stay.

I do feel we are reasonably active on the forums, however I'll talk it over with the team to see if we can improve on this

- hoof

Thanks Hoof . Ya'll were a lot more active when I first started and have slacked off on this. Ya'll being more active in the community is one thing that can help strengthen it and help draw in new players.

[lordthade]

I think a mobile version will be a huge bonus.

Also... PLEASE... add a script that allows us to receive reminders/warnings when we've been attacked, or if our stam is full, or if our items in the mailbox are soon to be deleted.

Make it a sink. People WILL pay for the reminder.


I think for the most part the biggest issue is merely the limitations of the game. More interaction on bios (more avis, more latitude) would help. Truly, most of this game is SOCIAL. The game itself is... eh. Give the players that social atmosphere they enjoy.