Problems if we get too many newbies

[Draugor]

[Note: I split this from the Common Board PC Gamer thread so we don't clutter that with this otherwise useful discussion. -G.]

What are the wizards doing in preparation?

My original answer to this was insufficient, and so I wanted to circle back. Here are things that Cotillion and I have been doing in preparation for the (presumable) influx of new players at publication of the PC Gamer article:

• Cotillion is working on a recompilation of the gamedriver to allow for a max player count of 1024 people logged on simultaneously. Current limits are at 500.

• We are looking at re-introducing the queue at some high number of logged-in players, which we have not yet determined.

• I have stress tested the tutorial to make sure instancing works in the grind zones.

• I am nearing completion of a new pub for Sparkle, which will act as a hangout for players and introduce the concept of rested exp.

• We did a purge of playerfiles that are no longer active, resulting in around 19,000 characters being deleted. We made sure that these were not files that were important to people, with 99% of them being utter novices who did not complete the tutorial and ghost characters that did not complete the creation sequence. The major gain here is that 19K names which were locked up by failed character starts are now again free for use by new visitors. Because I wanted to be sure no valued characters were lost, I did a parse of the list and flagged around 20 characters who were above wanderer level, and who we will restore if needed. None of the characters purged were above expert level or older than 13 days of game age.

More to come, but that's a list of what we're up to so far to get ready for this.
G.

What you should be more worried about instead of max numbers is wether or not we have the ifrastructure in genesis to handle those numbers that are expected as in allow them to have something to do, I mean questing alone will be even more nightmarish if we get 100 newbies that all go to quest, we'll loose like 99% of them

[gorboth]

I don't know if you are correct, Draugor. My suspicion is that retention starts and ends in the tutorial for 99% of players. If they can make it through the tutorial, they have a chance of sticking with the game. Sadly, our retention rate for the tutorial is not good. We don't have a way to fix that in time for this PC Gamer situation, however, so we must go with what we have.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with quests beyond the tutorial, though. I agree that if we had 100 players who all know exactly how to do quests using the cookbook, that wouldn't work. However, true newbies would do the traditional stumbling around, taking hours to even find quests to work on. The beginning quests in Sparkle are all designed to work no matter how many people are doing them, so we're fine there.

So - what's the issue?

G.

[Draugor]

I don't know if you are correct, Draugor. My suspicion is that retention starts and ends in the tutorial for 99% of players. If they can make it through the tutorial, they have a chance of sticking with the game. Sadly, our retention rate for the tutorial is not good. We don't have a way to fix that in time for this PC Gamer situation, however, so we must go with what we have.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with quests beyond the tutorial, though. I agree that if we had 100 players who all know exactly how to do quests using the cookbook, that wouldn't work. However, true newbies would do the traditional stumbling around, taking hours to even find quests to work on. The beginning quests in Sparkle are all designed to work no matter how many people are doing them, so we're fine there.

So - what's the issue?

G.

Okay, lets say we get 20 newbies that trudge through the tutorial, if we get a gigantic influx of people we'll get even more, they ask in ntell what to do, the majority will say quest. And likelly link to the cookbook cause you need that damn thing or its e ven more unbearable. Lets say 20 newbies all goes to the same newbie quest areas, there are like 5 that are doable, 4 people per quest We're surely not striking 500 players ofc, that just wont happen, but gen aint built for alot of newbies at once Wich I thought you'd know

[Raelle]

1So - what's the issue?

everyone's experienced the enormous frustration of getting halfway through a quest only to discover that a critical NPC is already dead or a crucial item has already been taken.
More players = more competition for quests, grinding areas, gear. But I think Gorboth is right that it won't be an immediate concern.

[Raelle]

but also.... visit Pelargir when there's been a lot of newbie activity. Planks and dock-repair junk EVERYWHERE.

[Draugor]

1So - what's the issue?

everyone's experienced the enormous frustration of getting halfway through a quest only to discover that a critical NPC is already dead or a crucial item has already been taken.
More players = more competition for quests, grinding areas, gear. But I think Gorboth is right that it won't be an immediate concern.

This is why quests suck ass, well its one reason.

[gorboth]

Newbies also don't instantly launch into quests and quests alone. They do all sorts of things - lots of killing, lots of wandering around. It is a mistake to tell newbies to instantly jump on the quest train. Let them have a bit of natural discovery-based fun based on their own timeline. Genesis can be about peak efficiency if you want to build an alt quickly, but that is absolutely not the most fun way to play the game for a first timer.

G.

[Kvator]

So - what's the issue?

Well, promoting personal agenda in every possible place is the main issue here

(yes I am aware that quests could use some fixing - like align-mirroring, dealing with some quest-NPC's being constantly killed etc.)

[cotillion]

Don't worry about quest resets.
Alot of new players try Genesis every day. Extremely few actually make it more than 5 minutes. Most quit within 30 seconds.
That's where all our attention should be focused. But it's been hard to find someone interested in improving that experience.

[Draugor]

So - what's the issue?

Well, promoting personal agenda in every possible place is the main issue here

(yes I am aware that quests could use some fixing - like align-mirroring, dealing with some quest-NPC's being constantly killed etc.)

Tbh instancing or just removing them would be best.