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Just because a portion of the playerbase has, I'll say, 'had their cake' in terms of giving feedback and getting appropriate updates and fixes doesn't mean that you care less and less about that part of the population and look towards the potential playerbase and what they want. If the existing pool were to leave, which I am not saying it will but, what would you be left with? A system that the potentials have never touched, so how will they know if it is better or worse than before?
They've made their target market clear, and Phase 3 looks like it'll give good reason to have people stick around. What they've almost made equally clear is that they don't really care what longer-term people have to say unless you're praising them for putting hope in numbers that only recently started to develop.
This Conquest feels like it essentially is a Frontline V2, like they just mashed the pace of Frontline with the objectives of Conquest, and I won't know how I really feel about it until I play it obviously but it doesn't feel good now.
In reference to the "less complexity and more in-game time," I don't think this Conquest mode is less complex, actually I think it will require MORE effort and planning to not be a complete mess in the early days. I feel a lot of people could actually be initially upset by how the new Conquest plays out, and depending on how long it takes to fix and adjust the mode accordingly, I could see people getting a sour first taste.
+1
Well, in those words, it actually sounds really bad. It sounded equally as bad when Protagonist essentially wrote off the Veteran population due to what is more "favorable."
Just because a portion of the playerbase has, I'll say, 'had their cake' in terms of giving feedback and getting appropriate updates and fixes doesn't mean that you care less and less about that part of the population and look towards the potential playerbase and what they want. If the existing pool were to leave, which I am not saying it will but, what would you be left with? A system that the potentials have never touched, so how will they know if it is better or worse than before?
They've made their target market clear, and Phase 3 looks like it'll give good reason to have people stick around. What they've almost made equally clear is that they don't really care what longer-term people have to say unless you're praising them for putting hope in numbers that only recently started to develop.[/quote]
Equally, you shouldn't weigh what a tiny minority of players say over the vast majority.
Actually, this change is being done with all players in mind.
Your matchmaking time is entirely down to a lack of players for you to compete against. The delay in the release of Ranked play is largely driven by it being pointless to introduce until there are the players to support it. Problems with MMR exist because there aren't the players at the higher end to make the system work.
The single greatest thing we could do to improve the quality of the game for all players right now is have 100,000 more active players.
This has nothing to do with whether the game itself is good or not, or whether it is bug-free, stable, cheap or not. The only thing that matters is given a choice between game X and Fractured Space to use your time on, Fractured Space is the more tempting prospect. Basically, it's 7pm on a Friday, time to play a game and Fractured Space has to be a more enticing game to play than a bit more GTA Online or Civ 6 or WoT or LoL, or Rocket League or.... well any other game.
A good game has to be enticing with the full range of alternatives available no matter what baggage it is carrying. We have a queue time of 3-4 minutes? Well, the game you then get into has to be even more fun than the alternatives. You just got a match that collapsed? You didn't get your level up gold pod? Stuck playing Pioneer? All these things can be forgiven (temporarily) providing the game itself is worth it when you get in.
Our goal is to convert more new players in their first few games to become longer term players. Doing so has two major impacts on the game for lower level players:
- Matchmaking times will decrease
- Games will be better balanced
With decreased matchmaking times what we get is fewer players leaving the game to play an alternative because they're fed up of waiting. Which leads to more games being played, decreasing matchmaking time.
Better game balance leads to fewer players leaving the game to play an alternative due to being stomped, enabling them to learn at a more even pace. Which leads to more games being played and a better distribution of player abilities.
If this works, and player conversion improves as we believe it will, over time the density of players at the top end will increase. The very best players will then find themselves more regularly facing the better players in the game (rather than the occasional mixed bag that happens now). Complaints about players increasing MMR too fast will decrease as you'll settle into a competitive range of MMR with the players available to play against.
Effectively all players, new and old will get more games, faster and the spread in terms of player ability will be such that you'll get a closer-matched game in the first place.
All of this starts at the foundation.
A full game manual that is entirely accurate will help, but it's not the solution. Absence of official guide material can be forgiven if the game is fun enough. What cannot be forgiven is the game itself not being fun. You wait an hour to go on the best ride at your favourite theme park, because the wait is worth it - you're forgiving an inconvenience for the payoff. That's what we're trying to do - make the payoff worth the various inconveniences that exist from time to time.
We'll fix the inconveniences too, but if the ride is boring you won't want to ride it anyway.
Bluntly, this has to work. We have great confidence that it will do, and we know there is a risk that some veteran players don't like the updated modes of the game. If there is no improvement in converting new players to regular players it really doesn't matter how many veterans we cling onto as the game itself will be unsustainable for long.
You'll be able to judge for yourself whether the changes make the ride more fun when Phase 3 releases in the very near future. We hope you'll enjoy them.
*Spams imaginary like button*
That does NOT mean the game isn't fun at all. It just fails at giving people the necessary knowledge they need to have fun.
According to the achievements you're loosing 50% players between match 1 and match 10 and EIGHTY percent players between match 10 and match 100 (probably a bit less but it's too significant to just be a leveling issue).
Getting players into their first game is not the issue you face - this is some sort of niche game after all. Keeping them playing after match 10 is the problem. And that's the point were "knowledge to have fun" and everyday-QOL stuff like a proper readable non-cluttered HUD and more than ultra-basic ingame communication tools becomes significant.
Let me say first that I never wish to seem like I know what I am talking about in terms of how a development path should be taken, I only wish to at least constructively critique the development if I am going to continue playing, albeit it sometimes comes out completely wrong. You, ECG, are the Devs and have the experience. I even read a lot of what you post multiple times so as to learn and understand the different workings of managing the development system.
That being said, I feel ridiculous every time I have a conversation about this. Such simple things, the blind pick paired with lane overview AFTER ship selection, are systems everyone old and new deals with. I'm fairly sure that anyone new coming into the game is gonna be a little upset when they realize that part is broken, because in scope of everything you're developing it is so little, but to the player it is so much. I don't even know how many fixes have been rolled out and selection system gets put on the back every time.
Yes, that can be brushed to the side if the content is fun and brings you back, but damnit man that selection system is a ♥♥♥♥♥ every time I go to play! If I could at least SEE that the other team is picking five Enforcers, my team could prepare better and I wouldn't be so pissed that I don't encourage the idea of another match lest I face those enemies again.
The lack of game guide at this point is still pretty annoying, and I think I only overlooked it in the past because we were Early Access. I still agree the game is great, and I will never downplay how uniquely beautiful it is.
Sorry, but it's not.
I have two friends which droped this game excatly for the reason of that. And one of them literally said that game is not interesting because vitally elements of game mechanics are not obvious.
I had time and intention to explore game, friends hadn't, so i playing along now.
It's not like we are making this stuff up. This is personal experience with new players AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE IS TELLING YOU THE SAME HERE. So get you ♥♥♥♥ together, listen to feedback for once and actually provide the knowledge players need to have fun with the game. This IS a TOP PRIORITY.
The alternative is to remove any and all complex aspects from the game, like armor, point defense, cloak/detect, blinks, highly specialized ships, sectors, etc. and dumb the game to a capital ship version of Call of Duty in space. But that most likely won't be a fun game at all.
The 50% you believe are leaving before game 10 are the ones we're chasing down first. They liked the concept of big spaceships in combat enough to install the game, if they're not enjoying it that is something we should be (and are) paying attention to.
Of the 80% you believe are leaving before match 100... 100 matches is a (to use your style of emphasis) HUGE AMOUNT OF GAME TIME. You are falsely including those on 20 hours played who are still playing and anyone else yet to reach a pretty significant milestone.
Is proper, accurate game information helpful in keeping people during that time? Of course it is. It's essential in a competitive game. The reason our focus is not on that point immediately is because we lose more players before it even becomes important.
Oh jeez, we're not twelve year olds in middle school, can we drop this passive aggressive back and forth..?
There are lots and lots of people who install the game because "huh, space ships!" only to quickly find out that it is entirely not the kind of game they like to play. And why should they actually research IF it is their type of game or what the game is even about when they can just download and install within 10 minutes FOR FREE?
There is zero reason for them to do that and as such lots an lots of people will end up installing a game they could have found out they won't like in a matter of minutes IF they had actually done some research.
These are players that will not stay no matter what you do.
You'd need an entirely different game to keep most of those.
Now I have said that this number (80%) isn't entirely accurate - it is most likely more about 50% as some players are still slowly crawling their way to match 100.
However it is SO SIGNIFICANT that it cannot be just active players who simply haven't played 100 games yet.
Again, these players that have stuck around to play their 10th match are CLEARLY INTERESTED IN PLAYING. They obviously like the type of game enough to play it ten times, which is a pretty significant amount of game time (probably something around 2-3 hours). You don't do that if you think a game is crap or not your type of game.
THESE are the players that you actually have a chance to keep playing. Not the ones who are like "no 6 DoF" or "no WoWs in space" - you won't keep them even with a perfect space MOBA game.
That's like a hospital saying "we don't have enough resources to save everyone, so we gonna ignore the people who had blasted their limbs off and focus all of our efforts on those who are so badly torn apart that they only have a minimal chance of survival". In the end they won't save anyone's life.
You should focus on those player you actually have a chance of keeping. You're bleeding those players you have already won in the false hope of catching those that won't like your game no matter how perfect it is at what it does because they do not like what your game does in the first place. How hard is that to understand?
The players who are clearly interested and have stayed long enough to play ten matches need more reasons to stay entirely, they need vital game information (like armor values and broken armor mechanics), they need a proper HUD, they need social features to network and team up. Loosing these players will hurt the game FAR more than loosing more of the kind that would not have stayed anyway.
(And by the way this is not at all saying you should cater to the veterans because the veterans will not benefit from ANY of the above, except maybe a better HUD but that one also serves inexperienced players a lot more)
The average consumer playes far, far less hours in total than you or I before they stop playing whatever game it is they play. Their gameplay lifetime is much shorter than ours. Whereas we may rack up hundreds of hours on a game, most gamers are more casual. Personally I'm not too fond of the prospect, but the games industry has shown that it is a fact. There are more casual gamers than there are hardcore.
With that in mind, I will repeat what protagonist stated: 100 hours is a HUGE amount of game time. If a player of Fractured Space reaches 100 hours played, that is exceptional. They have had their game time, and are ready to move onto other games.
Players with up to 100 hours playtime aren't "new" players in the grand scheme of things. They are new compared to you and I, but statistically that is a lot of time for a player to invest in a game. As far as the market is concerned, 100 hours makes you a long-term player.
so what? this change was needed to cutdown on the downtime. surely many players dropped the game because of the slow moments when nothing happens. if it takes 2 min to get to your enemies, only to get rekked shortly after, well thats hardly encouraging to stay and play.
new conquest will allow players to learn the game a lot faster