There was no August report, due to holidays mostly.
Here is the outline of what I will present to you today:
-Development Schedule
-Recent Developments
-Playerbase growth
-How you can help
-Epilogue
Development Schedule
There are numerous fronts at which we currently focus on.
Game Maintenance
There are a lot of maintenance issues that we are resolving into the background and require a fair share of time. Normally, you are never alerted about these but since we now have a monthly report, I will write down some headlines:
-Hosting Maintainance
At this period,we have some expiring SSLs that we need to renew for 5 years long. The end dates for this are in mid September and early October.
-FB login upgrades
Facebook has once again announced changes in login procedure and the end day for this is October 1.
-SMS payments integration
Right now, we are without SMS payments possibility. This is because our cooperation with the previous processor has ended, due to a change of their policies. All players that use SMS or want to use SMS as a payment, will have to wait a few days till we create the needed APIs and finalize our new deal with a new processor.
In general, SMS payments are not a good way anyway for both us and the players (the mobile carriers and processors keep up to 85% of the paid fee) while in some countries (like USA) they are forbidden. So, using another option is preferred. A common alternative is paysafecard which is available at most countries and does not require a credit card, like PayPal.
More options include Cryptocurrency with Coinpayments API which we already use. We will also try to add at least one more prepaid card way (Mint Prepaid). In general, we can work on request for such so if you have a preferred payment way, let us know and we will explore the possibility of adding it.
Plantations
Two major issues are at hand with plantations:
a)They prove more difficult than anticipated
b)They are still a long way before full picture is unveiled
For these 2 primary reasons, we have decided the following:
-Increase the information you get
-Delay the random events till many plantations are considered developed.
For information increase, this was known. This will mainly come from an "advisor/manager". However, the advisor/manager will not be an npc after all as this would increase difficulty further. He will be freely available to everyone and he will generate advice based on priorities. However, for instant/extra advice, we will consider adding some cost (turns or gc). This will not be available at initial version to save development time.
For random events, we ended up that there is absolutely no room for any negative event right now. Plantations owners still struggle to find the right formulas, rentals are skyrocketing and there is not enough space at most ports. Therefore, this delay will help us save development time for other projects while we will have no adversary effect.
There are some developments coming for plantations in the following days. Mainly, we are preparing an overview page where you will be able to see available acres on every port. We also want at this page to create a way for those interested, to create petitions to the relative countries to increase the acres of a port.
These petitions will increase in-game engagement and will help countries officials choose where to direct their funds for public works. These petitions functionality is still undecided. Leading ideas are either through a button or through a button and an optional text form. Petitions will then be gathered and posted to the country forums (some extra functionality will need to be created there).
Player vs Player (PvP) Battles
While we have made some tremendous progress in the game world, with a lot of new concepts, the pvp battles side of the game remains at large similar as before. Of course, it is hard to ignore that changes in PvP are the hardest. However, in the same time, PvP can prove the most exciting part of the game.
There are plenty of ideas to increase PvP side of the game. We will start with the concept of Flagship and then explore how closer we can get to ship abilities, ship customization,etc. A voodoo cards expansion may be lined up next.
In general, we need some fresh ideas for this part of the game. Although there are already some existing ones that could help get this moving (ie, Blockades).
Players vs Environment (PvE) Battles
Apart from the PvP battles enhancement, we also need some PvE battles enhancement. We are considering the following:
1)A new main line of quests, similar to the titles ones where you get to pit against small beasts and notorious real word pirates. This new line of quests should lead to something else (perhaps it could unlock ships special abilities for example, or special crew) and the final enemy could be a big beast like Leviathan or the Kraken.
2)Guild/Nation based missions
Imagine that the a specific enemy (a leviathan) would be available to a number of players, not only to 1 player. Either as a guild or as a nation or everyone. The key for such an expansion can be given with Flagships. Flagships can be the first ships with special abilities and certain abilities should help beat such an enemy. As a result, multiple players (aka multiple flagships, each with a different ability) may be required to take down one enemy.
Game Interface
The time to upgrade our interface has came. We have decided that we cannot enter version 2.0 without interface upgrade. Try to picture a returning player that comes to see our proclamation about PG 2.0. No matter how many things may have changed, when the main skin is the same, the returning player might think that few things have changed.
Therefore, it is important that version 2.0 update will be the new skin.
The transition to the new skin will be as seamless as possible. Existing players should not be confused. It is a process that will take time and will not happen during one night. We have already made some steps forward with this. The new steps will be more obvious.
Above all, this is an evident necessity, as also outlined by many players in the forums already. This skin seems old but above all, it is a skin that has been designed back then for a much smaller game. The game has grew too large since then and this skin is holding our game dynamic back. It is time to fix this.
Recent Developments
During July we had many developments. August also had its fair share of development although nothing too major as this is the month we take some days off. However, in comparison to the past, our days off were limited, so more work has been done.
Most developments were relative to plantations. There are no special notes about recent developments so I will instead redirect you to the Changelog:
https://s2.piratesglory.com/index.php?page=changelog
Playerbase Growth
2155 users has joined in last 60 days.
1580 joined in between July 2-August 2 and
575 new players joined in August 2 - September 2
The figures for July are very increased due to an extra advertising campaign, which we launched in order to help the game during the August period which was expected to be low.
The 575 players in August-September period is still above the figure in June-July period which was 375 players.
Our retention rates remain low. Our core active members remain about the same while this final week has been the best of August, which traditionally has lesser activity.
Here is an overview on account metrics:
Accounts Status
Total Accounts 117,998
Total Characters 16,328
Without Character 101,670
Characters flagged Active 4,037
Characters flagged inactive 12,291
July and August were bad months financially which is commonly reflected on the credit price in gc in-game, at the credit exchange. This signals the necessity for us to improve our skin to upgrade the game face to its actual dynamic.
How can you help
Right now, we believe that what the game mostly needs is user engagement. In the past few months, we are working on this (ie comments in Global Events). We need to further improve this up to a point where the game daily generated content will be enough to engage the community with interest.
As far as you are concerned, what you could do to help out, is to create this content manually. Stir up roleplaying events without scripting needs (ie wars, diplomacy,etc). For example, for every friction that is created in game, create the relative post in Union of Honor.
Epilogue
This signals the end of this monthly report. Next one will be in October 1. There is a lot of work ahead till then!
For any questions or feedback, please post!
Till next time then!
