Concern about relatively low online player count

[LeafyVegetable]

We have seen these threads come and go. Someone screams disco is dying and it is still here. I'm not saying it is dead or dying anytime soon.

Problem is I was in house space for two hours last night and there was <30 on during the "low" time. Even according to http://flserver.de/ our "high" is only about 75 concurrent online players, which is much lower than the full servers I remember only 3 years ago.

Wondering what's going on and what is being done to address this. I dunno about you folks but I'd like disco to stay up at least until Star Citizen is live, then we make a freelancer mod for it :3

Wondering if an option of making it easier for new players to fit in can be considered. I got warned several times when I just joined, the rule list is rather daunting. Maybe a structured tutorial would help. I'm thinking perhaps making ship packages include a complete "newbie friendly" loadout. You can always choose not to buy the guns/parts but have them come in a package. Just my 2c.

Another temp fix would be to advertise on the star citizen forums.

I waited a while to make this thread cuz I'm a nobody around here, but it's getting rather unbearably quiet during my timezone so thought I should finally speak.

[Karst]

I think the main issue is advertising. Always has been.
How many people with a decent grasp of English, interested in roleplaying and the sci-fi setting, and willing to play a pretty outdated game that fits those criteria are there in the world? Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands surely.

There's no really easy way to reach those people I guess, but that's what would really be needed.
And as for the declining community we already have: a proper update, that advances the storyline and doesn't break a ton of things, and addresses issues that have embarrassingly persisted for years now (terribly balanced ships, mining, etc.)

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[Enkidu]

I see your point, but the rule list is there to stop people ruining each other's fun. New guys leave if their fun is spoilt. I'd say easier early credit grinding would be more helpful.

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[nOmnomnOm]

I waited a while to make this thread cuz I'm a nobody around here.

<3 (hug) no homo

but srs...

Some people cant be playing becasue Real Life problems or stuff happen. As the game gets older the players get older as well. This means the players that are older have also more things to do with their lives (well i hope so or that would be kind of sad, really) and so people leave or play less.
This is the most prominent reason why people leave as I have seen.

The next reason is rage Q.Q for any number of reasons.... so... tip out there... I know you (not YOU just "you" in general) spent so much time on the game for example trading or something but let it go man...

Next reason is when server goes poop and we all loose 2 months of forum RP k thx Blodo.

And next reason is people find a different game and dont play disco as much and then just leave... passive, really.

As there are also other reasons like raging at updates that 'ruin' the game... those guys tend to come back....

I know there are more but yeah... those are the ones i have mostly seen.

And also we need more new players to replace the older players that leave and stuff. That's how we will grow out of the low periods... That and also there is a concentration of people playing on one side of the globe and less on the other... hence the high and low times.

All-in-All... tell your friends about the game. Thats how you can start fixing the issue.... OH and play nice and don't be a bully.

[Enkidu]

All-in-All... tell your friends about the game. Thats how you can start fixing the issue.... OH and play nice and don't be a bully.

I.E: Don't frag somebody's annoying eyesore PoB until it reaches core 2. It represents a time investment.

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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

Information | Recruitment | Message Dump |
Feedback | Diplomatic channel

(Links pending redevelopment).

[nOmnomnOm]

All-in-All... tell your friends about the game. Thats how you can start fixing the issue.... OH and play nice and don't be a bully.

I.E: Don't frag somebody's annoying eyesore PoB until it reaches core 2. It represents a time investment.

... disagree but not the place to discuss?
Edit: It really depends.

[LeafyVegetable]

I see your point, but the rule list is there to stop people ruining each other's fun. New guys leave if their fun is spoilt. I'd say easier early credit grinding would be more helpful.

I see the point, I'm not saying we should throw the rules out the door. However maybe make them shorter/more concise.

Also it would appear just going down the sanction page, I of course am no admin but I don't believe a harsh approach bordering on verbal abuse to someone who is unknowingly doing something wrong or commits a minor offense is right. In all other games I played even when someone breaks a big rule and gets banned, the GMs always say something like "We regret to inform you that due to a violation of our TOS we had no choice but to remove your access to <game name> for <X days>".

In short I think we should treat newbies and accidental rule breakers differently from those who are intentionally being jerks. When we have less than 200 active players can we really afford to permaban one person a week?

[Laura C.]

I´m not sure what you mean by "accidental rule breaking", because most common rule breaking is quite intentional (F1 to get out of unwanted interaction despite server gives all the time warning to not do that, swearing, threatening with sanctions...). Though as far as I noticed permabans are issued only for serious violations against game environment like hacking/fidling with files, or against community as whole. And by the way, I seriously doubt there is one permaban per week, from what you got that?

Also, current admin policy is a lot more friendly than it used to be towards typical "newbie violations" - instead of silently simply deleting ships or removing equipment, violators are often moved to Bastille what forces them to look to the forums and rules, and once they reply to sanction thread and explain they understand what they did wrong, they are usually released.

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On a ragebreak. Or ragequit. Time will tell.

[LeafyVegetable]

I´m not sure what you mean by "accidental rule breaking", because most common rule breaking is quite intentional (F1 to get out of unwanted interaction despite server gives all the time warning to not do that, swearing, threatening with sanctions...). Though as far as I noticed permabans are issued only for serious violations against game environment like hacking/fidling with files, or against community as whole. And by the way, I seriously doubt there is one permaban per week, from what you got that?

Also, current admin policy is a lot more friendly than it used to be towards typical "newbie violations" - instead of silently simply deleting ships or removing equipment, violators are often moved to Bastille what forces them to look to the forums and rules, and once they reply to sanction thread and explain they understand what they did wrong, they are usually released.

I meant:
Being in the wrong zone of influence, wrong ship or wrong IFF and willing to take steps to respond to constructive correction once pointed out to them.
First time F1 offender who may actually have legitimately DC'd
First time F1 offender who clearly did not DC and should be punished, but not with instant banishment (three strikes you're out)
First time swearing not directed at another player
First time swearing directed at someone who was clearly being antagonistic - while it is still WRONG, perhaps Warn, Warn+Fine, Character delete, Temp ban and then perma ban as a last resort should be employed.

List goes on. Basically anything that starts with "First time".

In a game, unless someone was clearly being premeditated malicious, I am typically willing to forgive most misdeeds if the offender apologized and attempted to make amends. Maybe I have an unusually high amount of tolerance because I have to put up with all kinds of malicious nasties constantly IRL so I kinda know when someone means ill and when someone does not.

Maybe my impression is 3 years old as I haven't played for a while, and thankfully haven't gotten into trouble for much longer. I still remember that verbal reprimand I copped for docking my zoner vessel on a house station. I just consider myself lucky I didn't get fined. Thing is, I genuinely didn't know, because last I played was 6 months before then and there was no rule against docking my whale anywhere. I am not saying this as a complaint, just saying I felt rather intimidated by the tone used and didn't play for a while. Maybe the admin was having a bad day. However if someone just told me "Hey check your ID you're not supposed to dock there" that would be enough to inform me of the change and I wouldn't do it again.

[nOmnomnOm]

However if someone just told me "Hey check your ID you're not supposed to dock there" that would be enough to inform me of the change and I wouldn't do it again.

Pretty much this.
New players just gotta learn the ropes, is all.
But I do see admins are aware of this and the most people get at times for not being aware is a trip to Bastille.

So yeah... it depends really on the Admins giving the ruling.

also from the rules is this:

-- Administrators are obliged:

To develop and safeguard the health of the Discovery Freelancer community, official server, and forums.
To be fair and treat all players equally, independent of their level and faction alignment.
Not to mix server roleplaying with server administration in any way.
Not to ignore any cases of server rules violations that are reported.