...Ouch.

Post by **Devari** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:45 am

I just happened to take a look at the top 10 lists for WOA and BFR. 7 on WOA and 9 on BFR?! ........ Ouch.

To state the (very) painfully obvious, it seems we have a severe shortage of players. There was a time, I do remember, when we maintained ~20 players at least.

But what can we honestly do? Is the answer more aggressive advertising? A nicer visual presentation? Some kind of as-yet-unknown killer feature(s) that makes us amazing?

Including ME and taking into account overlap, something like 25-30 people play on the FAF codebase. A bit of a shame, really...

Nuclear Raunch · Post by **Nuclear Raunch** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:54 am

I'm too drunk to have too much insight right now, but I think something that may help increase FAF code's popularity would be to set the default parameters for the source code the exact same as a standard prom. Races, unit names, BM prices, troop production, max troops and grains on the PM, etc...

FAF code is better written than the standard (QM) code, but I think people may be hesitant to switch to it when it brings so many changes. Let the default play the exact same as QM code (minus all the glitches of course) and let them turn on the extra features as they see fit.

Post by **The Beatles** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:57 am

I think ME has hundreds of players, Devari. Look at their game info page.

But yes, Nuke is right. However, I find it difficult to bring myself to do that. Maybe we should have a config.php just for the releases, and/or a "Classic" server, maybe instead of BFR.

Post by **Devari** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:05 am

Look at top 100 players (read: active players). I only see about 20 out of protection (depending on the server, of course).

The rest I will think about when I've had some sleep.

Slasher · Post by **Slasher** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:17 am

I keep saying this, mass email everyone on the forums from the IPB ACP with all the changes.........

Post by **Gen. Volkov** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:14 pm

And combine it with a truly massive advertising campaign.

Post by **Freenhult** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:18 pm

I've mass emailed everyone, now someone get some cardboard. But really...We need some good ideas fast. Even just putting the logo out somewhere we would be better off.

Post by **Gen. Volkov** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:58 pm

Er.. I just checked my E-mail.. no new mail.

Post by **The Beatles** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:43 pm

I got it.

Post by **Freenhult** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:07 pm

Why? It was under bulk and it sent to like 296 people. I know some peps that got it. You prolly just deleted it.

Slasher · Post by **Slasher** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:56 pm

I never got it

Post by **Freenhult** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:27 pm

Huh... Odd. I'll have to look into it.

EDIT: Someone who still has it PM it to me.

Post by **The Beatles** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:53 pm

Here it is:

Frost And Flame (A new theme!) ( From Frost And Flame Forums )
1 message
Frost And Flame Forums <faf@staronesw.com> Fri, Jun 30, 2006 at 3:17 PM

Frost And Flame has adopted a new theme! With a new anciet Mediterranean theme, fight as one of 9 ancient civilizations.Choose From Assyria, Egypt, Gaul, Germania, and others. Life like scaling and the features that made Frost And Flame popular are still there. Come back and have a look around. Whether your a seasoned veteran or a new player, your sure to have fun!

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Turock · Post by **Turock** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:14 am

Hey I got the email

At ME we don't have hundreds of players either. I think maybe 20 - 25 and a few of those are die hards that play everyday. I think there are a few things that keep the game from becoming more mainstream than it is. My .02 cents follow:

1) First is that there is a bit of learning required on the players part in order to be successful. At first glance the player is overwhelmed by all of the options and a good number of them are too lazy to read the game guide. When we first started I would get tons of emails asking the same thing, how do I play? What do I do?

2) The experienced players slaughter the new players. We had a HUGE problem with this. Of course everyone wants that first kill when they start playing and what better targets, the newbies. Problem is, the newbies get angry and then don't want to play anymore after only a few runs. This is why we disabled the individual war and the clan war. It was an attempt at controlling the slaughter.

3) Site exposure is a tough thing. I posted our url to a few decent rpg/mmorpg links sites and that seemed to help but it is something that needs to be done regularly and not just one time. I was kind of lucky in that I had another game site that had been running for about a year and had a player base of several hundread that played everyday. Links from that site directed new players to the ME site. A little bit of networking

Problems #1 & #2 limited that networking success though. Players either didn't understand the game or got mad because they were being targeted as fresh meat. Frustration got them and I'd say 50% or better only played one time before quiting.

One idea that I had for site exposure is with a site called Top Web Games: http://www.topwebgames.com/ It is a sort of site review/top site list for rpg and mmorpg games. They offer incentive based voting for your sites. That means we could offer additional turns to players that took the time to vote. Each vote gets you higher on the top list which means more exposure

The php code is on the TWG's site and explains how to set it up.

As for features that the game needs:

A tutorial or something of that nature to help the new players that have never played a promisance game before outlining some of the basic strats. I know that there are forums, etc, but players are lazy!

A configurable max attack limit along with message notification of when an empire declares war on another empire.

A time limit for when a member of a clan leaves the clan and then can rejoin another clan, or the same clan. We have problems with clans kicking out members in order to attack alliances then rejoining that clan so no action can be taken.

I'm sure that there is more that can be done but its getting late and the kids are all over me, so gotta run.

Cheers,
Turock

Post by **Freenhult** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:21 am

Imperia has the incentice based vote thing, but I find that to be kinda a cheap thing. Although it might not be a bad idea in the interm. No reason why we couldn't remove it. As we are now, I'm fairly supportive of most measures.

PS. Thanks for the letter Beatles!

...Ouch.

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