Trenthian
Active Member
Posting this in the forum, because it was asked of me.
Good people of Erenor,
I thank you in advance for taking the time to read all of these words by us. This is the work of several current short and long time players suggestions. I know it’s a wall of words, but stick with it and consider what is being said. I, as well as many people who have worked in the past to bring up these opinions will appreciate your support.
-----------------------------------
The ArcheRage Development team may be open to changing things on the server to foster growth and content participation.
The biggest challenge our server faces is new player retention. In its current form, new players are attracted to the server with the host of positive conditions like free labor and a new player support pack.
This is an ok system for attracting new players, but many new players don’t even care about it. They come to us seeking a fun new play experience and leave before seeing what our server has to offer.
BUT when they get here and take the time to start working on their character, they start to notice a few things that don't add up. They realize they face a tremendous grind to start to actually play the game.
Normally on a large server this issue would be balanced by finding people who could help you level up, and gear up and participate in content.
On our server however that does not work because of a lack of players willing to help, and the low population setting the bar too high. Simply put, the burden is too great for a new player to progress quickly enough to want to stay.
Once a player sees this and leaves, they are generally gone forever. In addition to being unable to retain new players, we are having players who have been established leave the server as well. This happens for a multitude of reasons but we cannot have server growth if we are unable to retain players at a rate greater than we have players leaving the server.
Currently the support pack brings people up to about 4.1k GS and gives them a wagon (which is already freely available through questing) And initially this sounds like a great boon. The truth is that they need to bring their gear up to the 10-12k range to have a fighting chance, and even then they need numbers on their side against many of the players who have been playing for years.
Hiram Gear was originally meant to quickly catch people up to be within a few thousand of the current top gear. That was the original intent before XL games repealed the expected changes in favor of a long hard grind intended to alleviate money from wallets.
I propose one top-priority change be made first to actually make our server different from the live servers: A new “Enhanced Player Support Pack” that is freely available to all players. (once per account)
While the proposed pack might seem like a lot, it really isn’t as demonstrated by the live server already, but the goal is to give players everything they need to start contributing to content and community by bringing them to around 12k equivalent gear.
“Why give them 12k equivalent gear? Shouldn’t they work for it?”
Many of us already have worked for it on live. Many of the players coming here are looking for a better than live experience. They are seeking a new home. They came to ArcheRage believing it would be different. They are seeing it is worse and leaving.
“But what about the eCoNoMy?”
There is no economy right now. Without a large player base its literally 5-10 people selling each other stuff on the AH at progressively higher prices. Laughable.
“Why don’t they just swipe?”
More and more even top geared players are answering this already. “Who the f would pay real money on a dead server?” No player-base, no economy, no reason to swipe. This is brain on easy mode.
“12k is achievable in just a few months though!”
Excellent point. New players don’t stick around for the months required to do it because the grind is too long. They’d rather just play something else. To keep players playing we need to help them play sooner.
“But I see new players all the time!”
Alt toons using emotional manipulation to get help is an awful scourge. One or two legitimate new players sticking around is great! We are in fact losing active players faster than we are gaining them, and we are losing more new players than we are retaining. This is unsustainable.
“The population is fine. I saw a full raid yesterday!”
People and their alts logging in for special events, and then logging out for weeks/months after their grind is not an accurate reflection of the active player-base.
One of our Devs said that no one here is going to want this. Yes. Because the people who need it are not here to speak for it. For some on our server it’s true. I think that a lot of established people will fear or admonish this change because it represents a lot of things to them that maybe puts them on edge. And people who have left who would have stayed don’t have a voice anymore. But this is a change mostly intended to fill out our player-base.
People with top gear already shouldn’t feel too threatened especially considering that many of them despair constantly about the lack of challenge or people to play with/against (pvp). And again everyone, not just new players should receive these items.
So what do we do about it?
First, Let’s help people actually catch up.
——————————
The proposed “Enhanced Player Support Pack.”
Available at level 52 (just like now.)
- 3 Full Sets of Cloaked Brilliant Hiram Guardian Adventurer's Armor (30Day)(Epic)
- 8 Cloaked Brilliant Hiram Guardian Adventurer's Weapons (30 Day)(Epic)
- 3 Cloaked Brilliant Hiram Guardian Adventurer's Instruments (30 Day) (Epic)
These are temporary sets to try so you can learn what you like, and try before you commit. These will self-destruct after 30 days and cannot be fed to other gear.
After that open a Permanent Set Crate that you choose when you are satisfied playing around with your different options. ArcheRage makes it hard to go wrong. Just be careful and make it work for you. You can skip the crate with the temporary 30 day items all together if you want, or save it for a rainy day.
- 1 Full set Cloaked Glorious Hiram Guardian Armor (Permanent) (Legendary)
- 5 Cloaked Glorious Hiram Guardian Weapons ((Permanent) (Legendary)
- 2 Cloaked Glorious Hiram Guardian Instrument (Permanent) (Legendary)
- 600 Sealed Divine Hiram Infusions (Expire in 60 Days Gold required – better run some packs)
- 150 Bound Hiram Serendipity Stones (Expire in 60 Days – Only usable in Hiram lets you try for the stats you want in your mythic sets right away)
- 32 Cloaked Glorious Hiram Lunagems (Custom) (120 Day Gems become Permanent Once Socketed – Gold required. Start grinding or lose them – untradeable – Can be used in Glorious Hiram Only) (you choose the type of cloaked gems like the infusion kits).
- Cloaked Wing Support Crate (choice of Astra Wings, Custom Dye-able Astra Wings Default Color: Light Pink)
- 2 Adventurer’s Rings 2 Adventurer’s earrings (Or something better?)
- Rank 10 proven warrior necklace
- Cloaked Mount Crate (Celestial Pegasus, or Celestial Kitsu)
- 50k honor
- 50k vocation
Prefer that sweet Potato life? We can get you set up for some top Potato Vs Potato too!
- Full-kit Harvester Farmhouse (Custom Bound Cannot sell)
- Farm Freighter Scroll (a wagon is nice, but useless to new players.)
- Adventurer's Clipper Scroll (just give them the boat.)
- Merchant Schooner Design (Design. Grind your mat's scrubs.)
——————————
With this we would be giving new and returning players who were scared away a second chance to consider our server.
I’m expecting a lot of the old guard to dislike this. I can't exactly expect that people who have left the server to leave a comment about why because they are already gone. But please if you normally stay quiet please break your silence to comment about it.
Everyone should be able to get this pack, not just new players. It may not be useful to everyone because a lot of established people won't need it. But it would help keep the server from losing new people in the first week of play.
There are some other things I have suggested attached in there to match and exceed live server’s “generosity” to show how the devs very seriously care about their players.
So what then?
Players can begin the actual grind for Erenor and play the game as Inoch intended. New players will feel a little more relevant in raids and start participating in open content right away.
Established players might make some new friends too. Start turning on the charm. We have a chance to be the first server to fix the game.
Players were not intended to spend years on Hiram in the original gameplan. Erenor was supposed to be the gear to grind over time and Worldboss gear was intended as endgame content you progressed to with your guild. XL games broke this vision for everyone. ArcheRage team has a unique chance to fix this original vision.
How else does this help established players?
Say you already have a complete build but were curious about a different build or class. Wonder no more! This is your chance to make yourself a budget healer, or that tank you wished you had a chance to try. Want to switch to Darkrunner? DO IT. Have an idea for some strange weird hybrid build? Knock yourself out.
What else?
Once we catch people up, rewards for less-played dungeons and instances are going to need to be tuned to make it so players have a reason to queue for them.
I will be making more posts that go in-depth for some more balancing I have worked out, but we can’t afford to lose more potential players to a pointless insurmountable grind. This is priority one. We can work together on other top-issues after.
Good people of Erenor,
I thank you in advance for taking the time to read all of these words by us. This is the work of several current short and long time players suggestions. I know it’s a wall of words, but stick with it and consider what is being said. I, as well as many people who have worked in the past to bring up these opinions will appreciate your support.
-----------------------------------
The ArcheRage Development team may be open to changing things on the server to foster growth and content participation.
The biggest challenge our server faces is new player retention. In its current form, new players are attracted to the server with the host of positive conditions like free labor and a new player support pack.
This is an ok system for attracting new players, but many new players don’t even care about it. They come to us seeking a fun new play experience and leave before seeing what our server has to offer.
BUT when they get here and take the time to start working on their character, they start to notice a few things that don't add up. They realize they face a tremendous grind to start to actually play the game.
Normally on a large server this issue would be balanced by finding people who could help you level up, and gear up and participate in content.
On our server however that does not work because of a lack of players willing to help, and the low population setting the bar too high. Simply put, the burden is too great for a new player to progress quickly enough to want to stay.
Once a player sees this and leaves, they are generally gone forever. In addition to being unable to retain new players, we are having players who have been established leave the server as well. This happens for a multitude of reasons but we cannot have server growth if we are unable to retain players at a rate greater than we have players leaving the server.
Currently the support pack brings people up to about 4.1k GS and gives them a wagon (which is already freely available through questing) And initially this sounds like a great boon. The truth is that they need to bring their gear up to the 10-12k range to have a fighting chance, and even then they need numbers on their side against many of the players who have been playing for years.
Hiram Gear was originally meant to quickly catch people up to be within a few thousand of the current top gear. That was the original intent before XL games repealed the expected changes in favor of a long hard grind intended to alleviate money from wallets.
I propose one top-priority change be made first to actually make our server different from the live servers: A new “Enhanced Player Support Pack” that is freely available to all players. (once per account)
While the proposed pack might seem like a lot, it really isn’t as demonstrated by the live server already, but the goal is to give players everything they need to start contributing to content and community by bringing them to around 12k equivalent gear.
“Why give them 12k equivalent gear? Shouldn’t they work for it?”
Many of us already have worked for it on live. Many of the players coming here are looking for a better than live experience. They are seeking a new home. They came to ArcheRage believing it would be different. They are seeing it is worse and leaving.
“But what about the eCoNoMy?”
There is no economy right now. Without a large player base its literally 5-10 people selling each other stuff on the AH at progressively higher prices. Laughable.
“Why don’t they just swipe?”
More and more even top geared players are answering this already. “Who the f would pay real money on a dead server?” No player-base, no economy, no reason to swipe. This is brain on easy mode.
“12k is achievable in just a few months though!”
Excellent point. New players don’t stick around for the months required to do it because the grind is too long. They’d rather just play something else. To keep players playing we need to help them play sooner.
“But I see new players all the time!”
Alt toons using emotional manipulation to get help is an awful scourge. One or two legitimate new players sticking around is great! We are in fact losing active players faster than we are gaining them, and we are losing more new players than we are retaining. This is unsustainable.
“The population is fine. I saw a full raid yesterday!”
People and their alts logging in for special events, and then logging out for weeks/months after their grind is not an accurate reflection of the active player-base.
One of our Devs said that no one here is going to want this. Yes. Because the people who need it are not here to speak for it. For some on our server it’s true. I think that a lot of established people will fear or admonish this change because it represents a lot of things to them that maybe puts them on edge. And people who have left who would have stayed don’t have a voice anymore. But this is a change mostly intended to fill out our player-base.
People with top gear already shouldn’t feel too threatened especially considering that many of them despair constantly about the lack of challenge or people to play with/against (pvp). And again everyone, not just new players should receive these items.
So what do we do about it?
First, Let’s help people actually catch up.
——————————
The proposed “Enhanced Player Support Pack.”
Available at level 52 (just like now.)
- 3 Full Sets of Cloaked Brilliant Hiram Guardian Adventurer's Armor (30Day)(Epic)
- 8 Cloaked Brilliant Hiram Guardian Adventurer's Weapons (30 Day)(Epic)
- 3 Cloaked Brilliant Hiram Guardian Adventurer's Instruments (30 Day) (Epic)
These are temporary sets to try so you can learn what you like, and try before you commit. These will self-destruct after 30 days and cannot be fed to other gear.
After that open a Permanent Set Crate that you choose when you are satisfied playing around with your different options. ArcheRage makes it hard to go wrong. Just be careful and make it work for you. You can skip the crate with the temporary 30 day items all together if you want, or save it for a rainy day.
- 1 Full set Cloaked Glorious Hiram Guardian Armor (Permanent) (Legendary)
- 5 Cloaked Glorious Hiram Guardian Weapons ((Permanent) (Legendary)
- 2 Cloaked Glorious Hiram Guardian Instrument (Permanent) (Legendary)
- 600 Sealed Divine Hiram Infusions (Expire in 60 Days Gold required – better run some packs)
- 150 Bound Hiram Serendipity Stones (Expire in 60 Days – Only usable in Hiram lets you try for the stats you want in your mythic sets right away)
- 32 Cloaked Glorious Hiram Lunagems (Custom) (120 Day Gems become Permanent Once Socketed – Gold required. Start grinding or lose them – untradeable – Can be used in Glorious Hiram Only) (you choose the type of cloaked gems like the infusion kits).
- Cloaked Wing Support Crate (choice of Astra Wings, Custom Dye-able Astra Wings Default Color: Light Pink)
- 2 Adventurer’s Rings 2 Adventurer’s earrings (Or something better?)
- Rank 10 proven warrior necklace
- Cloaked Mount Crate (Celestial Pegasus, or Celestial Kitsu)
- 50k honor
- 50k vocation
Prefer that sweet Potato life? We can get you set up for some top Potato Vs Potato too!
- Full-kit Harvester Farmhouse (Custom Bound Cannot sell)
- Farm Freighter Scroll (a wagon is nice, but useless to new players.)
- Adventurer's Clipper Scroll (just give them the boat.)
- Merchant Schooner Design (Design. Grind your mat's scrubs.)
——————————
With this we would be giving new and returning players who were scared away a second chance to consider our server.
I’m expecting a lot of the old guard to dislike this. I can't exactly expect that people who have left the server to leave a comment about why because they are already gone. But please if you normally stay quiet please break your silence to comment about it.
Everyone should be able to get this pack, not just new players. It may not be useful to everyone because a lot of established people won't need it. But it would help keep the server from losing new people in the first week of play.
There are some other things I have suggested attached in there to match and exceed live server’s “generosity” to show how the devs very seriously care about their players.
So what then?
Players can begin the actual grind for Erenor and play the game as Inoch intended. New players will feel a little more relevant in raids and start participating in open content right away.
Established players might make some new friends too. Start turning on the charm. We have a chance to be the first server to fix the game.
Players were not intended to spend years on Hiram in the original gameplan. Erenor was supposed to be the gear to grind over time and Worldboss gear was intended as endgame content you progressed to with your guild. XL games broke this vision for everyone. ArcheRage team has a unique chance to fix this original vision.
How else does this help established players?
Say you already have a complete build but were curious about a different build or class. Wonder no more! This is your chance to make yourself a budget healer, or that tank you wished you had a chance to try. Want to switch to Darkrunner? DO IT. Have an idea for some strange weird hybrid build? Knock yourself out.
What else?
Once we catch people up, rewards for less-played dungeons and instances are going to need to be tuned to make it so players have a reason to queue for them.
I will be making more posts that go in-depth for some more balancing I have worked out, but we can’t afford to lose more potential players to a pointless insurmountable grind. This is priority one. We can work together on other top-issues after.
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