As things stand, the majority of people who will play a round all sign up and are playing within the first 24 hours (certainly by the end of the first weekend).The number of new accounts after this (that aren't restarts) is a nominal figure compared to the bulk of people who play at round start.
We need a fix for a number of reasons. The most important:
Starting late is a drag. Teching up takes time, its a slow, cumbersome process. If you're solo there is very little to do. If you find an alliance to shelter you, you're of no use to them and don't get the feeling you're part of the team for a substantial amount of time (you can't defend your new-found alliance members, you're a burden).
You don't mind growing very slowly at the beginning of the round because everyone else is in the same position. It is made more bearable if you're part of an alliance because there's the community aspect. Each alliance members usefulness is generally the same.
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What can we do to make joining the round more desirable for new/existing players?
One possible fix:
Making everyone tech up from scratch at the beginning has a clear purpose, to give everyone an equal start.
Later on in the game, this purpose disappears and we make playing Bush less desirable by making people "catch up".
I'm struggling to find a reason why we don't afford new players this opportunity. There are no balancing issues because the player is still tasked with gaining land in order to get bigger. We're simply allowing them the chance to get involved more quickly.
There's a similar impact on existing players who missed round start - They're put off by the invariably boring process of tech-ing, when they want to be up and running, defending alliance mates and attacking.
Only real drawback is that for brand new players it doesn't teach them how to tech up. But is this actually something you need to learn? It is one of the most basic elements of the game, if they choose to play at the next round start they won't find a massive gap in their knowledge.
We need a fix for a number of reasons. The most important:
Starting late is a drag. Teching up takes time, its a slow, cumbersome process. If you're solo there is very little to do. If you find an alliance to shelter you, you're of no use to them and don't get the feeling you're part of the team for a substantial amount of time (you can't defend your new-found alliance members, you're a burden).
You don't mind growing very slowly at the beginning of the round because everyone else is in the same position. It is made more bearable if you're part of an alliance because there's the community aspect. Each alliance members usefulness is generally the same.
-
What can we do to make joining the round more desirable for new/existing players?
One possible fix:
- Allow players to choose and unlock an entire route in one development. Players joining late start on an increased amount of land and enough funds to start this development. It unlocks all units in their chosen tech-tree (except the P-Unit) and allows them to get involved in the game in X amount of time (Perhaps as little as a few hours, rather than the ~week it takes to get up and running at the moment).
Making everyone tech up from scratch at the beginning has a clear purpose, to give everyone an equal start.
Later on in the game, this purpose disappears and we make playing Bush less desirable by making people "catch up".
I'm struggling to find a reason why we don't afford new players this opportunity. There are no balancing issues because the player is still tasked with gaining land in order to get bigger. We're simply allowing them the chance to get involved more quickly.
There's a similar impact on existing players who missed round start - They're put off by the invariably boring process of tech-ing, when they want to be up and running, defending alliance mates and attacking.
Only real drawback is that for brand new players it doesn't teach them how to tech up. But is this actually something you need to learn? It is one of the most basic elements of the game, if they choose to play at the next round start they won't find a massive gap in their knowledge.