Social Survey: Why people are loosing interest to Discovery?

[LuckyOne]

A lot of good points have been pointed out in this thread. And a few biased (and seemingly personally motivated) opinions.

First of all I would like to congratulate the team (and the community) for keeping the game/mod alive. It's a miracle this thing survived for so long with all the new and hot alternatives.

From a perspective of a late joiner I can tell you a few things that are especially confusing to new players:

- the ID system is a bit confusing. Even after the rework which made ID rules clearer I still come across lines where I'm not really sure about the exact meaning
- the lack of dedicated tutorials for a lot of things (the Mining/Ore Trading one is a great example of how all of them should be written)
- half of the mod is the Forum "metagame" which has weird rituals and even less understandable rules. A somewhat casual player will simply not bother with it
- all the prices are insane at first glance, until one discovers the concept of Ore trading as a money making activity
- the essential forum sections are not highlighted enough (although forums as an essential game manual is basically early 2000s design. Modern games tend to integrate help systems seamlessly into the actual game)


And here are some things that really irk me sometimes, and I think cause a lot of players to eventually give up, and leave disappointed

- the toxicity of some players/moderators/even devs towards others, especially those who have invested lots of their free time in a best-effort attempt to improve the game
- the unbalanced greenhorns vs Ace veterans in PVP, with a tendency for the development to shift in favor of the latter (often no way to actually run, no more powerful friendly NPCs to help even the odds )
- the lack of a clear vision for half of the features of the mod. There are cool mechanics such as jump drives, cloaking devices, POBs, jump beacons, docking modules.... and then there are those weird rules on when/why/who can use them
- the disregarding of PVE / Co-op features of the game in favor of solo / PVP, although this has apparently been changing lately with the work done on the PVE controller and various ship rebalances


What I would like to see (more of) to improve the mod:

- more chances of group fights (either via events or encouraged through some gameplay mechanic). These are quite fun for newbies to hop into, and they won't get instantly obliterated by a duel pro
- more PVE / Co-op content. The recent event has lead to random people naturally grouping up to seek protection from the pirates / powermine in a group with a JD Bustard
- in-game bounty system. Honestly, the current forum Bounty Boards are tedious to find, tedious to post to, and often require registration which basically might make your chances of actually getting your bounty even lower if it's not a blanket bounty board.
- more chances for the players to affect the state of game. Currently there exist a few mechanisms (POBs, dev requests, SRPs) but they are complicated, take a lot of time and are very confusing to a less RP-oriented player.
- a modernized interface for (official) factions to post their missions / track their roster. Maybe even nicer if some of it could be integrated in-game as rumors.
- more mechanisms for people to team up and get in on the action faster and without having to switch accounts. A rework of docking modules I suggested here might actually help with that.
- a boost to unlawful gameplay. Basically make smuggling / piracy more incentivized and more equal time/credits-wise to other activities. I have already suggested a few ways this could be done (NPCs acting as a warning beacons outside trade lanes to increase risk of interception, unless you tip them off by dropping part of your cargo - that way you could increase the profit on the smuggled stuff without it becoming too profitable. Also making smuggling drop off points freighter only so you need to work in a group with a 5ker for maximum profit) and some have suggested permanent bonuses for PVP kills for certain unlawful IDs.