How do we reduce player apathy/Leaving rates?

[Rodent]

How do you reverse entropy? That's basically the question op has....decay happens to all things.

[Zen_Mechanics]

The best way is to put ourselves in others shoes, what would we expect from the mod. It's that simple, working on it isnt.

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Were fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

[Haste]

To answer the topic title:

We don't.

Players are going to leave. I think the mod is going to need major new features/additions/improvements to draw back the players it's lost over the last year or two. That, and we need a server that's stable and mostly lag-free.

I don't think Discovery's development team is motivated or, frankly, competent enough to improve the mod to the extent required to make server population go up again, rather than down.

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[Pavel]

I think the mod is going to need major new features/additions/improvements to draw back the players it's lost over the last year or two

Gallia ))

[Enkidu]

Well, I'm out, I'm done. Had a conversation which was actually frightening in regard to how seriously people take this game world over a recent Skype dialogue. Nothing untoward was said, just… wow, that point bashing.


I guess I'm a victim to my own theory, but, damn.


No, I'm not coming back here.

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[SnakThree]

Warning players before deleting their bases would be good idea.

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[Haste]

I think the mod is going to need major new features/additions/improvements to draw back the players it's lost over the last year or two

Gallia ))

I was thinking more along the lines of completely revamping capital ships and their combat mechanics to be more interesting and allow for a greater skill curve (lots of people like to fly caps, but there's really not much you can do to become much more useful in one beyond a certain point, so these players could possibly be brought back to the game). We probably also need money sinks that aren't PoBs to spark some life into money-making activities like mining, which in turn would hopefully bring piracy back, and so forth.

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's plenty people could come up with.

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[Thexare]

We probably also need money sinks that aren't PoBs to spark some life into money-making activities like mining, which in turn would hopefully bring piracy back,

Step back, look at POBs again. I rambled about this before. Less cargo, higher price - less tedium in base maintenance, more money sink. But with fewer trips needed to supply the base, people are free to get that money in whatever way they might prefer.

Not saying that's a complete solution, but I think it'd help.

What else would help is a reduction in tedium. Cut this buffer system nonsense, fix the jump hole networks in Kusari and Rheinland. Make it easier for people (especially Corsairs!) to get to where the action is.

And hide the changes from Xoria so we can have some fun trading for a week or two.


(I also agree that a total revamp of caps would be nice, but the current system is a hell of a lot better than the one in place when I started in 4.84...)

[Zen_Mechanics]

Better communication from admins to the community - instead of deciding upon themselves while disregarding parties.

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Were fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

[Haste]

We probably also need money sinks that aren't PoBs to spark some life into money-making activities like mining, which in turn would hopefully bring piracy back,

Step back, look at POBs again. I rambled about this before. Less cargo, higher price - less tedium in base maintenance, more money sink. But with fewer trips needed to supply the base, people are free to get that money in whatever way they might prefer.

I wasn't saying PoBs are, by definition, a "bad" money sink. Just that I feel there should be different ones to ensure players will rarely if ever feel like they have "enough money to last a lifetime".

An "Eve light" of sorts seems like it could be a good idea to me. Leave ships with equipment at a certain percentage of disrepair whenever your ship is blown up. Of course, the problem there is that players are excessively blue-message-o-phobic as-is, and that'd only be made worse by such a change.

Anyhow, the dev team right now seems to be slowly falling apart as its members either go inactive or leave the team itself. I doubt they'll be able to pull Disco out of its downward spiral.

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