Can't find players

[anariel_wen]

I haven't been able to play for days because stupid game can't find players for Cities and Knights. Anyone having the same issues? I mean it's not even funny

[One hand only]

How long are you searching for? It usually takes 5-10min to find a game. Very small playerbase for that expansion. I'm hesitant to buy it for this exact reason.

[Stroom]

This is exactly why a lobby would be much better - then people can actually see that people are trying to play the expansions. Someone might use the scroll to join. Someone who would rather have played a base game can see that a C&K game is being created... Lobby is much better for a small player base. Currently there are what... 200-300 players online at any time. If a game lasts 40 minutes and takes 2 minutes to create it means that there are about 20 people waiting at any time to start a game. This means that the matchmaker is pretty useless and it would be much better if the players manage how games are created.

But the developers do not give a flying ♥♥♥♥. They are going mobile. PC gamers can eat it. The blindfolds are on and there's no going back.

[USM [CM]]

Originally posted by Stroom:

This is exactly why a lobby would be much better - then people can actually see that people are trying to play the expansions. Someone might use the scroll to join. Someone who would rather have played a base game can see that a C&K game is being created... Lobby is much better for a small player base. Currently there are what... 200-300 players online at any time. If a game lasts 40 minutes and takes 2 minutes to create it means that there are about 20 people waiting at any time to start a game. This means that the matchmaker is pretty useless and it would be much better if the players manage how games are created.

But the developers do not give a flying ♥♥♥♥. They are going mobile. PC gamers can eat it. The blindfolds are on and there's no going back.

Where do you get your numbers ? *sigh*

[Stroom]

Mostly assumptions but I guess it is not much off the mark. Can you give us official number of
1) How many players are online each day?
2) How long is each player online?
3) How many games an average player plays every day?
4) How many players are online waiting for a game on average at any time of the day?
Only for the games with other humans through (auto-match, not free-match) matchmaker.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/544730 - it shows a number when the player count is higher than 300. Most of the day it does not show anything. In the evenings, I have seen it go up to 350. I guess it is only about players who play through Steam so it does not contain players from the browser. Do half of the people play from the browser not through Steam? Are there any other ways to play the game at the moment?

Let's do some actual math then.
In the Catan Universe forums 3 months ago you said: "We are hosting (depending on the weekday) about 7K to 9K useres per day."
I do not think you have gained much more users since then. Let's say 9000 users per day. Seeing all the negative feedback and you closing down most features you must have actually lost players compared to early access phase.

Assumption: Each player plays about 2 games per day on average, let's say about 90 minutes. One game is about 45 minutes.
Assumption: Most games have 3 players in them because the matchmaker sucks and getting a 4 player game is nearly impossible.
Assumption: matchmaker creates a game in about 2 minutes.

9000 users per day, 90 minutes online, over 24 hours. This means that on average you have 9000 * 1.5 / 24 = 563 players online at any time. So there should be a considerable amount of players playing through the browser. Still, most of these players would spend most of their time actually playing rather than sitting in the main menu waiting for a game to start.

563 players online at any time. 2 minutes to find a game, 45 minutes to play.
563 * 2 / (45+2) = 24 online players are not in a game at any given time. Best case scenario when players are immediately trying to find a game when they are not in a game.

Considering that there is a base game, 2 expansions and a card game and a majority (maybe 80%) of the players only play the base game including non-paid mode, distributing the players between different game modes makes it really hard to start an expansion game. And add to that the people wanting to use friendly robber and cardstack in the future when entering the matchmaker... Which you removed when you took the game out of early access mode to make the matchmaker faster... Matchmaker will always suck for a game with a combination of small player base and high game customization.

[Stroom]

@CatanUniverse[CM] do you have a reply to this? How active are your players?

[Darknuke]

I honestly regret buying the game at this point. I only play C&K and rarely am able to find games for it. Too much hate towards the monetization scheme and the UI has proven to be poorly optimized for user experience. I've made several stupid mistakes I've never made in real life Catan, simply because of how bad the UI is.

Also, it's not a good sign when the devs come in not understanding their own player counts. As a game developer on Steam, I can tell you that we have access to that information on our developer panel. Plus, any Joe Blow can use Steam Spy: http://steamspy.com/app/544730

You guys need to step your game up or continue to be harassed by us. It's incredible how poorly you continue to manage this game and your community.

[Stroom]

Wow, didn't know about Steam Spy.

It seems very strange that the average time per player count has skyrocketed after May 17th (after I posted the player count stuff). I guess it is easy to just launch the game and keep it online on several computers overnight. The median time has gone down though. Still, the time players stay online does not show precisely whether they are actually playing or just sitting in the main menu. Need that info from the developers.

I could redo the math again but it is not that far off based on these stats. If you want to see how many players are currently waiting in the lobby you should use the median play time rather than average. That number is around 1-2 hours.

Still, the numbers show an average of 50 players waiting for a game at any given time. This is enough to create 16 3-player games. Saying that this does not fit on a screen is ridiculous. Lobby is so much better for a small game like this.

[Stroom]

Hey, Catan Universe [CM]

Can you tell us some of your player statistics?
How many players log in every day?
How many hours (average and median) do the players spend playing the games?
How many games do you start each day?
How many players are on average in each of those games (something in between 3 and 4)?
How many games are base game, how many are using the expansions?
How many games are created through free match mode (default map), how many with auto match (random map)?

Knowing this information would really inform the players whether it is worth buying the expansions or not. Not answering would probably mean that the numbers are too low to spend money on the game.

[Minus]

Lol Dev dismisses posters with "Whered you get your numbers" and a fake exasperation sigh and then goes radio silent when solid proof is given.

On the positive though Stroom; I'm glad I saw your and Poisons posts on Catan Universe, regarding the Pregenned Roll lists and now this. Saved me £15.

On the other hand though; I do feel for the Devs of this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ port though, theyre clearly being hampered by the Catan Co. themselves ala GamesWorkshop did to the Blood Bowl team (who unsurprisingly had the same problems)

[Stroom]

I'm going to bump this post again. Any official player numbers maybe? Or is the steamspy link accurate?

[USM [CM]]

The postet link can´t be accurate since you can log in to the game via browser and (using cross platform) compete against players with the steam version of the game.

[Stroom]

So, how about your official numbers then?

I doubt that there would be more than 3x difference compared to that. The game is only launched for PC. Would most people really play on browser?

Even then, a lobby would be a much better option than matchmaker for finding players to play with. You need to have thousands of players online at the same time to justify using a lobby. At the moment, it seems like at most you have less than 1000 users online at any time.

[XDude]

Originally posted by Catan Universe CM:

The postet link can´t be accurate since you can log in to the game via browser and (using cross platform) compete against players with the steam version of the game.

Thats the worst reply ever. Obv mac and linux userbase dominate.

[Stroom]

A month without a serious answer.

[Stroom]

Another week without a meaningful reply. This is a very common concern of players who would like to buy the expansions. Why buy at all if there aren't enough players to play the expansion?
Any statistics please?