Social Survey: Why people are loosing interest to Discovery?

[Alvin]

Roku Omicron Alpha North Edge Worlds 3h58
General_bumi Omicron Alpha North Edge Worlds 3h50
Oohoowhoobhoo Omicron Alpha North Edge Worlds 18m
MNS-Viajero Omicron Beta North Edge Worlds 19m
Marcinko Omicron Delta Nomad Worlds 1h31
(\^/)Helios Omicron Delta Nomad Worlds 3m
RV-Pennybrooke Omicron Iota Nomad Worlds 45m
Vagrant.Melia Omicron Iota Nomad Worlds 37m
Kylan'Kan Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 1h30
Jestak|Aoi Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 27m
Amar'Utu Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 24m
Mor'Kher Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 23m
Greater.Light Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 20m
Li'in'Da Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 19m
Koi'shi Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 16m
K'Hara|Pherousa. Omicron Zeta Nomad Worlds 3m

There were also 5 Core ships including myself on this list just a moment ago.

Your activity list sums up what Relationship was trying to convey so far. It is obvious the last 9 (or that shady 10th) is a nomad gank squad, nobody will bother to log against that. The players in Alpha / Beta are in their own bubble, and the two in Delta are not going to face that. For the Nomads, their subsequent options in most cases are either jump to Liberty, or just log off if they see a 45th countergank expecting them - neither are activity for the Omicrons. Same could be said vice versa Nomad not logging against human ganksquad. Its not about laziness, but rather if one consider fun jumping in to the game to get trashed. Having blip of players in 1 snap shot, does not equate to activity over a significant period that actually interacts with each other.

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Avoiding the blames and looking in hindsight, the chemistry in the old Delta was *just* right in its accidental mix of its imperfection. The centre of Delta was the crème of the activity. The mission system overlaps each other and 90% of the time you will find ships there if someone was in the system. Order and Core indie could ruins each others day by just seeing each other in the field and the nomads could sneak in last minute and finish off solo / dual missioning ships, this then lead to subsequent banding of human ships to try fight off the nomads. Most Nomads indies were perma docked in Lichenfelde (because travel from Iota takes too long) and ready to go for a 1v1 or 2v2.

Reintroducing Zeta it self was good, but the attempt to move the activity hub from Delta and Zeta just didn't bring the player base over. Without Zoner missions, the moved killed all Zoner indie activity which was previously populating Delta, and the new Order and Core mission system in Zeta now just kept them mostly to their respective areas. I played Order missions for a short while, but it was no where as fun as Delta, and the nebula blocked most of the vision for any missions spawned there. As for the PVE battlefield, it was intresting to begin with but it just didn't translate long term. I don't know if the fact human NPC spawns deterred Nomad indies, or it is somewhat hard to unwedge PVE players unless you bring gank squad in.

As for the topic of OORP ships, yes it became more of an joke in the latter stage of Delta, from RNC Bismarck to BD Togo, and a LSF LABC to a Crayter Argus. However are still things minor in perspective, and players can put up with compare to now a dead space. Nomads, (my indie bomber) included were more than happy to log and shove a torpedo or two into these ships, which translated to activity. Now, yes there are less OORP ship except for an indie LNS in the Zeta PVE zones, but equivalently scaled with less over all activity and in my eyes turned out to be a bad trade.

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PS - On a similar note, I cant help but feel the Omicron rework gave the Core most of the touch up. At least one station models had been upgraded and decorations added, placements improved, and Rho is basically a cross road system (In particular for core ships to jump) between Omicrons and Sigma for fast action, but again this didn't translate in bring in additional Core activity / or drive to get more Core to log which we also need in the Omicrons.

[Lucas]

People saying delta was fine before have never tried to do any semi serious roleplay with RNC-IvanDestroyer, LNS-MegaIvan and their 21 non speaking nephilim friends in a single group that did nothing but shoot the same few npcs while speaking russian or oorp in local chat

[Stewgar]

The gap between skill is a big one, but that problem has layers. There are some elites/aces that after taking down 3 lawfuls in Liberty can go to conn and share some of their knowledge and conduct training while others don't even respond when you compliment them on their skills. Which leads to my next point.

Social interaction. I feel my age when I bring this up, but a lot has changed since I played back 2003-2008. It was more about playing to have fun and going on adventures then going for the win. Some of my best fun here has been in the result of a loss because of the interactions afterward. Training sessions with unlawfuls in Conn as an example. Then the next day I took those lessons and downed 2 unlawfuls and there were no gg's or 'fist bumps' after. They just logged off. Felt like an empty victory.

There's also lack of leadership skills within faction/governments. Most factions that I have joined I felt like I was a stray dog rather than a valued new member of their organization. I even left one faction without warning and it took 4 months to even have a mention of it. I almost had to beg for training or to talk with somebody about how things are done within Discovery. It's no surprise that the factions that are currently active are ones with good leadership. I make it a point to welcome and greet any new faces within the factions I am in a leadership role of because not only is it a good thing to do, but people are the most scarce and valuable commodity in this community as of right now. When people join a new game such as this, they look for people to fly with or to socialize with. It doesn't help if there is a barrier to that goal.

To generalize, it's us. Overall, this is a cold, unwelcoming community when structurally it is built to be warm and welcoming. People need to drop their egos, be more welcoming to people, and this place will get better.

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It ain't about what you are capable of, it's about what you're willing to do.

[Save My Soul]

People don't log - we told you why they don't log.

Big faction that drives activity in Omicrons are nomads. Nomads do NOT Rely on RP in the omicrons.

1) Lolwuts log
2) Nomads cleanse
3) everyone else logs for nomads

4) Nomads win = > they raid. Organically. With just pinging and no scheduling. They can also go ALL OUT because they have a wall of loads of HP to go through.
Without that wall when nomads now masslog - they mostly just gank steamroll all every time. Other factions don't have the time the lolwut CAU8 nephs bought them, and other nomads. It's not their fault. It's Your fault.

Only people that cared that it was a semi-conn were people that never logged, and they don't log now either

Your own HC Is telling you this and you won't listen. Because you don't play the game. There are a lot of people like you in the community, most of them barely play. They will rather see it die than witness people having fun by doing what's not seen as "quality" in their subjective PoV.

Nomads could quite easily raid Mu, Zeta, Rho, Delta... many other systems. There are ships logging in that are waiting for them to interact. In fact, funnily enough, I am in Iota right now (so I indeed do play the game) with several Core ships and have been waiting for about 10 minutes for something to login. Funnily enough, we were reacting to a bunch of Nomad ships that were in Zeta (likely grinding the warzone, y'know, doing PvE), but they all logged off as soon as we started logging in.

I think people are just lazy. The tools and means for them to interact and do things are there. It's a people problem. Back in the day, Core was driving the majority of Omicron activity but it had the leadership in place to achieve that. When that leadership burnt out, activity dropped (until the next person or people that could do the same thing came along, this case Nomads apparently, but only in Omicron Delta?). Seal clubbing mission farmers that barely speak a lick of English shouldn't be a complete substitute for proper PvP and RP interactions.

I agree that previous Delta was much nicer. FP was conveniently located in the corner, with its back to the sun, and it feels really comfy. Now the station is lonely floating in the center of the system. And it's just... Meh, I don't know. It's just not comfortable to sit there anymore, imo. Lichtenfelde is another one thing to the pile, eh. Why it's not in nebula? Or why it isn't destroyed then? You can see it from a damn mile away. It's just silly. Definitely not a secret Wild hideout. And why tf is it Nomad IFFed now? Human station with some nomad shiet on it. Altair is Wild. Kaarst is Wild. But Lichtenfelde is Nomad. Genius!

But on the other hand, nothing has changed much, tbh. All farmers moved to Zeta. So if you want to catch some newbie you can just go there. So, I personally liked previous Delta more, but nothing terrible happened when it was changed. I wouldn't say that it anyhow affected online on the server. Not that much influence, for sure. And I kinda like the connections. They're... Decent. Just a normal connections. Good enough.

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[Sava]

People saying delta was fine before have never tried to do any semi serious roleplay with RNC-IvanDestroyer, LNS-MegaIvan and their 21 non speaking nephilim friends in a single group that did nothing but shoot the same few npcs while speaking russian or oorp in local chat

Let them learn to RP on forum first, and then play the game, or else gtfo.
We're all for quality roleplay here, after all. There are fun missions and trade routes, too. No Ivans needed, can perfectly play with just 1 player online.

Edit: That was sarcasm. Ivans, even being newbies, make the place feel alive. Some change their habits, some don't. I don't entirely understand the frustration coming from populous systems, but there's surely a way to get yourself what you need - play elsewhere, don't force your idealistic vision of elite RPers and empty space on people who would rather just enjoy the game.

[Lythrilux]

Lichtenfelde is another one thing to the pile, eh. Why it's not in nebula? Or why it isn't destroyed then? You can see it from a damn mile away. It's just silly. Definitely not a secret Wild hideout. And why tf is it Nomad IFFed now? Human station with some nomad shiet on it. Altair is Wild. Kaarst is Wild. But Lichtenfelde is Nomad. Genius!

That's something to do with it's LOD model. I did change it to something else but that caused a ton of issues and it was reverted to the old one as an interim solution. It could always get moved into the Palau Cloud but that might put Nomads/Wild at a disadvantage. Generally speaking bases in fields and nebula, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are hidden.

Let them learn to RP on forum first, and then play the game, or else Ferrari.

After trying to explain this to them extensively these players just gave me the impression that they didn't care.

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[RedEclipse]

People saying delta was fine before have never tried to do any semi serious roleplay with RNC-IvanDestroyer, LNS-MegaIvan and their 21 non speaking nephilim friends in a single group that did nothing but shoot the same few npcs while speaking russian or oorp in local chat

Indeed zero activity much more inserting in terms of RP perspective and game experience. Let local Ivans enjoy the missions on their land while 21 of nephilims can farm missions on their neighborhood.

[Wesker]

I gave this game tons of effort as a 1ic for years, I've learned quite a bit looking back on it from where I am now.

-Story

The greatest mistake the story devs ever made was involving players as a group in story development itself. But this is also not a one-sided issue, the player's obsession with story development is a huge issue as well. I was guilty of it and paid the price in the long run, and I see people even in this very thread guilty of it. If you give anything more than 0% of a shit about story, you are part of the problem. If you like to see tons of npc bases under your control, or even one scattered everywhere where it isn't needed - you are part of the problem. I've seen so many faction leaders drive their factions into officialdom for the promise of being involved in story and then I see them quit for the same reason. It took me a while to realize it as well, but story is irrelevant. If you aren't logging on for the sole purpose of PLAYING THE GAME then there in lies the issue. People are obsessed with being the best or being the coolest in a space sim where less than 100 people play, there's nothing special about owning so many npc bases and theres nothing special about driving your factions storyline over others. I've willingly given up 2 systems after realizing this. I don't give a shit about what happened to 54 or now in Cologne. It's irrelevant, as long as my faction has a shipline and just enough bases to launch from for fights - that's what matters. Every fight where I've seen this server population spike up has been over a story conflict, or about something where one side gains where another loses something that's represented in the form of an NPC base. This is poison. Again, I am guilty of having behaved this way in the past as well (see omega 3 drama lmao) but I've accepted it was a mistake and have changed. Hopefully, it doesn't take the server falling apart for others to realize this. Who gives a shit if you have 1 base, who gives a shit if you're confined to your vanilla gig just log in and play the game.



-Lack of fighters.

I have my moments in caps where I enjoy flying them. I recently bought a BAF Dunkirk again, I own a Valor, Misrecorde, and several jorms and vidars. I don't mind logging in for a cap fight when time permits and I know I can make it. But I also like flying fighters even more, regardless of the numerical advantage or disadvantage. But everytime I log into the game and look outside conn I see level 79+ across the board. People complain about "the skillgap" like it's impossible for them to meet or exceed, the skill ceiling is rising, a lot of these new players coming in showing promise at pvp are waaaaaaay better than the people that were supposedly showing promise years ago. What took me months to understand is being understood by new players in a matter of DAYS. That to me is a win, but likewise other people see these players and get intimidated, partly because they don't want to put in the effort to improve in fighters or because they fear dying ooc.


Learning pvp is like learning it in any other game if you ask me, its a process. People are picking it up faster and faster the more the years go on and it's only a matter of time before my laziness truly takes over my drive to improve as well. If you put in the time and effort, you will improve.

But then people say "well what does it matter if you improve in fighters you'll just get pummeled by caps anyways." Yes, there's always going to be a majority of caps because they take less effort to use and guarantee the player's safety in most situations where caps aren't around. But at the same time being better as a fighter pilot gives you the confidence to go out and do whatever kind of rp or flying you usually do on a daily basis. You know that if other caps are around you can just thrust or cruise away without dying, and if other snubs come around you'll be good enough to confront them and win. If you have that confidence as a player, that in itself provides more motivation to play the game than someone who doesn't have that confidence.


-RL

I've noticed a lot of the players here are older folks now, I started playing discovery when I was 16. Now I'm 22. I have a serious real-life goal ahead of me that has taken a lot of my time already and will soon be my one and only focus for a long time. After that? Well, I don't know. A few of the people I wanted to continue RP with have left and I'm not sure when or if they will return. It depends.

[Gunbladelad]

For myself there are a number of factors why I don't play Discovery anywhere near as much as I used to (and I was one of the most active players back on the old Discovery UK server back in the day)

Most of the people I enjoyed gaming with back then have moved on - and my experiences here on this server have been among the following;

1. You get completely ignored by everyone you pass - if you're lucky you'll get a "Greetings" in passing before they shoot off down the tradelanes.
2. When you don't get ignored you're usually being pirated by something insanely over-powered which is just complete over-kill - and usually resulted in me losing my ship and cargo with virtually no warning or RP.
3. You go out of your way to travel to systems with activity - but by the time you get there, it's all finished and everyone has vanished offline or to other ships - or nobody's willing to include you - even if it's no more than a "Back off to a safe distance" message...

There's probably 3 or 4 people here from back on the UK server - most of whom I haven't spoken to for years - and from what I gather most of them are pretty inactive anyway.

Nowadays if I'm playing Freelancer, then it's usually story mode or a different mod - but I'm more commonly found on console rather than PC games.

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Where logic won't work, I will.

[Thexare]

The community, 100%. Well, 80% really.

Time to open up about something. Some of y'all may recall that I was, for a time, on the dev team. This didn't last long, though I never told most people why. It's relevant now, though.

I had an anxiety disorder for much of my life that only got diagnosed and medicated in early 2020. And even with the medication, the community made the game literally unbearable for me. Take some time to think about that - I'm on multiple medications and still can't deal with you people.

Whether it's dev infighting (a case I've no intention of reprosecuting this much later) or toxic non-staff veterans, the only place I could go that was free of it was my own faction. The problem with that is that if you only ever want to interact with a faction you created, it essentially becomes the roleplay equivalent of masturbation. I still linger in NO's discord and occasionally do forum and discord shit on their behalf, which leads to the other 20%.

The game's just not that interesting. I started playing in 2009 2008. I've taken several breaks, but even so it's been over a decade. Few games even with ongoing professional development can hold interest that long, and Discovery's devleopment has long been anything but professional. Fundamentally very little has changed mechanically from vanilla, just numbers tweaks.

Some really stupid story decisions that completely ruined some of the RP angles I was interested in pursuing didn't help, but that's about 3% of the issue tops.

edit: you people still have the goddamn word filters on? seriously?