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All posts created by Flari-Merchant

Flari-Merchant
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I like the concepts behind everything that Smitty has presented here:

* Add PFRPG elements that are recognizable. PFRPG flavors from the NPCs to the naming of objects to Adventure Paths To ANYTHING that reminds players of PFRPG when they play this game. If you are going to call it Pathfinder Online then damn well do everything you can to add a PFRPG "feel" to the thing!

*Add fantasy world depth to the "atmosphere" of the game. It just seems so freaking sterile…. All places that players can build to live in are called "Settlements"! What about just lone towers, keeps, villages, towns, cities?

*Leverage existing graphics so that players can be skinned as monsters if they want. Make these rewards for something players can achieve.

*Random World Boss Events.

*Random GM run mini adventures. GMs can spawn mobs wherever they like. GMs can spawn buildings where they like. Use this to create mini adventures. Bring the thrill of TT as much into PfO as you can instead of the same old generic, actually static, worlds that published TT worlds and MMO worlds REALLY ACTUALLY ARE.

Remember though, we are very diehard players. We are used to all of the workarounds that lack of "Quality of Life" things that most players expect to see in MMOs. Much better developed UIs, social tools, etc.. We are all used to "going without" but new players expect to see much more ease of use and function than we do. That needs to be addressed, BIG TIME, also.

I know that Paizo's focus for this Road Map has been to try and flush out all of the features that they have promised for this to be a "complete game". I appreciate this and it isn't a terrible goal and focus for the past months of development BUT IT ISN"T MAKING THE GAME MORE "STICKY" for new players on a moment to moment, day to day way. Need a Road Map that is all about BRAND NEW PLAYERS and contents that are accessible to them. This includes UI, quality of life conveniences, more PVE variations, and yes more small scale and rewarding PVP possibilities…

Much of these things could probably be done with minimal coding but time heavy investment.

PS-Get out of the BOX. smile It is way too stuffy in there for your imagination and creativity to work at 110%. Break "the loop" that makes everything seem impossible without direct $$$capital$$$ funding. The game has so much potential. smile
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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The loop needs to be bypassed or broken by out-of-the-box thinking.
Unless Paizo is cool with carrying a micro populated game for years before any real progress can be made.
Unless Paizo is not actually suffering from a tiny pop and tiny Dev team and is pretty much content with what they have going now.
Unless WE are content with the game as it stands and are happy to have it so for many years to come…

If all parties are satisfied then that is cool and ok. I'm just one player but I'm not really seeing a satisfying version of the Kickstarter presentation of the game yet.

My idea may be impossible to implement now or may be complete crap that will not work but SOMETHING has to work because I believe that anything is possible. Anything except getting the game on its feet sooner than 2024 with the current approach. I think the DEv team are great and I admire how hard they work but they are just 2 guys.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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As for content

I also agree that content is VERY IMPORTANT. Remember though that content is perhaps one of the most expensive things to develop in an MMO. Takes money. Takes a lot of different specialized skills. Takes time and in short: Resources that yu can only get through Investors OR a large player base.

However, there IS SOME CONTENT OF ALL TYPES already built. We just need to bring new players through it so that they see it. Maybe there is more to the saying that "In a sandbox, the players provide the content"? Maybe part of that is meaning that we drag new players(or bring them) TO THAT CONTENT.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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Iram Thelbane
@Flari: you have found your sword of Stickiness, it's making new players become members of our families… It's not needing developments, except perhaps enhancements on social tools, but that "old" players interact with newbies. And i know they are doing the job…

That is probably one of the most important things that we as players can do. No argument there. Hopefully we are all doing that but I have my doubts that all are doing so. Having talked to many players, I have to say that they are happy to help new players and do so as often as they get a chance by answering questions, offering explanations, etc… Certainly though the vast majority of players just like to log in, do their gathering/crafting/chat/"escalation for a recipe lottery" and log out.

I don't think that there is enough active population right now to catch 1/2 of the new players that try the game. BUT rewards for participating in both finding and helping new players with rewards for being new and participating in some "mentor" program to learn could be a "win/win".

All players love to be rewarded for doing things in game. If you "incentivize" these players so they feel they are "getting extra" for doing something, you have a motivating system. You have player to player contact and you have the building of social bonds. Automatically.

You have "zero pressure" to "Join A Settlement, It is your only hope!" You have a vet player that is more dedicated to take care of a new player because he gets rewarded. You have a new player more interested because he can learn faster but best of all, He gets "Rewarded" too. He gets "something extra" for using the program. Something that those who don't, can't get…

Remember that PFO University was quite popular with new players? Remember that they were asking about it ALL THE TIME? Realize that they still do as a matter of fact? Think about that…

I am not going to say that it is, by any means any kind of panacea. There are lots of reasons players try and then "bounce" from games and each person's exact "negative impression triggers" are different so we (and Paizo) have MUCH work to do to smooth those out. Just sayin': if it could be developed at fairly low cost, might really help.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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Maxen
We’ve told you lay off the Secret Giant Mushrooms (Giant)!

But in all seriousness, I only use +3 kits for all tiers and all my gatherers are Rank 15 or 16. My experience has been that T2 gushers often take longer than T3. I’ve had T2s push an hour and a half, and that’s way too long in my opinion. I feel like T1s should take 30 minutes, T2 should take 45 minutes, and T3 should take 1 hour. These times would be give or take a few minutes based on kit level and gatherer skill. Dedicating more than an hour to standing around and killing mobs is painful. You also prevent players who can’t dedicate more than an hour or two from working gushers. If I’ve got 1.5 hours to play in the evening and I have to find a gusher first (yes, I’ve got them on the the first pull, but more often after 20 or 30 pulls), I’ve already precluded myself from working a T2 or T3 to completion due to time limits. Just my $0.02 US.

Maxen
I agree and I suppose that should be a bit less for +kits. Not often can we spend an hour on every gusher. Not when, just ignoring any gushers, my T3 4x gatherer can scoop up 500+ pieces in an hour quite easily. Hit that hex a few times and it is better than doing random gushers if it's a good hex.

One other issue: Gushers are designed to be done by high lvl characters or lower levels in a group. This is a great policy if there is a large population. While the pop is so small, however, it hampers new players. They are often alone and simply can't hope to enjoy a T1 gusher on their own. I think that there should to be a rank of gusher that a solo lowbie can do… Would be good for the game and could be phased out when the game actually has players, if needed.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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I wasn't clear with my OP. I am looking for a magic sword of Stickiness. Ways that help new players get "hooked" that can be done with minimal Real Cash investment, i.e. coding time, art work, etc…

There certainly isn't just "One Way" to grow and stabilize player population. Certainly we all take care of New Players when they breeze through checking the game out. We are already friendly and we are already eager to learn them some PfO Player tricks and we are generous.

It does not snag them into the cycle all that well, though. They stay for days, a few weeks, maybe a month. Then they fade away. That is a normal MMO cycle anywhere, but it would help us bunches if we had a much higher success rate than normal…

Thanks for all of the musings, though. They are all good food for thought.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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Iram Thelbane
That's true, we need players to be active in the market… Perhaps we could ask those old and billionar players, and new and poor ones to help?

You can and others have. smile

What I am getting at is that there IS AN ECONOMY. It is just mostly based inside settlements/alliances as you already pointed out. Most settlement/alliances can provide all they need internally. We have a small population that is very heavy with all kinds of crafters. All of them in alliances.

There is a REAALY SMALL part of the economy that can't have everything made by friends so you see some little AH activity. For some reason, very few players want to gather and sell on the AH. They use it all for gearing their own group and are not much interested in selling.

Maybe because they can easily get what they need internally without coin? Maybe they don't need coin because coin is so EASY to get, they don't ever need coin… I don't know for sure smile

Need many more players that HAVE TO TRADE for their gear and also always need coin.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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Iram Thelbane
Flari-Merchant
@ Iram

All these problems would likely self correct with many more players.

I do not think they will until that happens.

I am not aggree with you. For me it's "the snake who bitte its tail" (french expression). Because, new players won't stay if the economy isn't developed a little.
We need to broke the loop using actual players base in order to develop the economy… And the increase in new players number will follow!

One thing we needs is that new players can develop their characters faster at begining. I have played a character that have a lot of unspent xp, and no xp spent. So i was like a beginner, but with a lot of xp, and i take more fun developing him than i take with Iram, because, i haven't to wait a long time for xp before building a viable toon and he can now be active in the economy… I think that it will be interesting to speed up the learning curve at the beginning (perhaps make new characters start with 100k xp, or speed up the xp rate at beggining…smile
Your ideal economy needs players to buy and sell materials and gear.
Is that correct?
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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@ Iram

All these problems would likely self correct with many more players.

I do not think they will until that happens.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
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Flari-Merchant
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@ Maker

Apologies for such a public contact but… I have to admit that I am at a loss as to how to get ahold of you through the shivtr site after trying several ways.

Well I have some several 1000 blanks and shafts for arrows that I am willing to sell you. You have indicated that your store is wanting to buy materials.
If you are interested in some kind of deal, please contact me at the included email below.
"I buy Azoth for 5sp/ea. I will trade Enchanting or other rare materials/anything for Azoth. Contact me if interested. GET YOUR COIN EASY!"
uotopia@msn.com
Quote