Development Shortlist

[Captain Jack]

Ahoy all,

I would like to provide some insight and also collect some feedback.

Nation Control expansion (v1.9) proceeds well. So far, we have added the following:
-Treaties between nations
-We added a new law to regulate Hostility Penalties
-We improved Parliament functionality that was long needed (Ability to abolish a law, premature endings to law votings, default laws for inactive nations,etc)
-We created a new set of actions to affect the nation; The chamberlain.
-We have added the concept of the Rightful King.
-We have added the concept of Enemy of the Crown.
-We have added the Honor concept.

and of course some fixes that are outside the scope of this version, but always needed. If we want to keep to the original plan, then 1.9 should be coming to an end soon. There are two (mandatory) prerequisites before we can move to v2.0 and Plantations.

These are:
-Governor appointing via the King
-Trading Pacts

I do not think that there is anything (I am speaking for major features) on the table right now that should take a higher priority over Plantations.
Letter of the Marque is still not polished enough. In fact, this one should be tied more with the broader Honor System, which is however also unpolished. It is truth that it would be a good opportunity to nurture these out at this version (1.9) as it is mostly fitting. However we remain unconvinced that these will help the game as much as Plantations will. Moreover, the amount of design work that these two require, is too high to consider at this point. We believe that the best track will be to see this basic form of Honor and EoC working, before deciding how LoM will be.

If you got anything else in mind or would like to contemplate on the above, please be my guest.

We have worked through many different things lately and we believe that we should forward plantations now. Development has been sub-standard lately in comparison to what we want and what we need. However, taking in mind that we are constantly underestimating needed time and we are constantly pushing well beyond 100% then I can say we must be at least content with what we have achieved in the last 3 months. Let's not forget all the work that is done in the background which is not something ineligible.

Finally, there is a tough period ahead. The main source of getting new players is now closed and we need to improve this within the next 3 months or we will see a decline in active playerbase. We believe that Plantations will bring back a small portion of players and will also renew the interest of the existing playerbase. However they will not be enough. We will need to have a ready plan to execute right after plantations. A plan that will mostly improve retention rates so we can then rely solely on advertising for newcomers. Then we will be able to continue long term development, like Blockades.

So, as things stand, things will speed up a bit. I will try to post few, meaningful things to ensure that you will be able to keep on track with new developments as they come.

[Admiral Nelson]

Great work.

However no mention of the pirate flagship?... Starting to think its a hoax.

[Shadowood]

If you got anything else in mind or would like to contemplate on the above, please be my guest.

Finally, there is a tough period ahead. The main source of getting new players is now closed and we need to improve this within the next 3 months or we will see a decline in active playerbase. We believe that Plantations will bring back a small portion of players and will also renew the interest of the existing playerbase. However they will not be enough. We will need to have a ready plan to execute right after plantations. A plan that will mostly improve retention rates so we can then rely solely on advertising for newcomers. Then we will be able to continue long term development, like Blockades.

I know different players have different views on what they would like to see implemented, but I also know those who are invested in this game don't want to see it go. They would like to see it grow and grow. Player retention is paramount in my eyes. We need a bigger player base. We need more players like (One Eye, Yosarian, Stan Rogers, PHX, Charles Vane, DezNuts)... We do attract new players who get it and and stay like (Dman, PFH, Thalius Hayle, Kangaroo), but I look at the just joined list and always wonder.. Why don't we have more??

Along with continued new game content that will KEEP active members playing and might even attract old players back, we do need more help with keeping newly joined players interested.

There are several people that join/look at the game and say NOPE. And just leave. Thats fine... Its the players that play for a 1-3 days and give up, that needs to be our focus. Why after a short period of time did they leave? What would change their minds to stay? In my opinion, this is where the focus should lie. Now I of course don't have the magic answer to this but I believe we as a community have come forward in the past with some decent ideas regarding this problem. I would encourage all who have posted something about this issue to provide a link below on the subject. (I know ADMIN loves suggestions )

In my mind....

Finish out 1.9 as soon as possible and get Plantations established. I do agree with CJ that this will be a shot in the arm that some need. It will drive interest and excitement that has been missing a bit lately.

2.0 Plantation - See above. This will be great to see and play with. It will provide us with months of new play. Also to work out some bugs I am sure, but it will be fun to dive in none the less.

What I would like to see is in 2.0 is to set up some future items the will assist in Player Retention. We need some more Guild Controls. Some items have been discussed before. Guild Bank is top of my list right now. It will come in play soon. (Reserved to add more guild controls here soon)

2.1 Ship Specialization (This is huge! On many levels I see this as a must)
2.15 Contract Shipping (I also see Contract Shipping as a why to help newer players advance. Of course they will have to pay for it, but advance.)
2.2 Blockades (Just a fun kick ass feature that will provide hours of fun game play. This will keep players, no matter what Danik says. )
2.3 Flagship

Ship Specialization in my mind is desperately needed. The player who Plunders, Skirmish, Attack, Use Voodoo need a change up of how and why they attack. The recent changes with Ship Sink Chance and Skirmish were great additions, but I'm talking much bigger. I see CJ's lvl 74 MoW on the plunder board and I lose my mind. I WANT THAT! HOW WOULD THE GAME PLAY WITH THAT? HOW WOULD VOODOO EFFECT IT? A lot of different things come in my mind. Not just levels of ships (which would be TOTALLY EASY to change in the game I'm sure), but actually different abilities for each different ship. There are several topics on this discussion....
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1778&hilit=ship+specialization
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=254&hilit=ship+specialization
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3073&hilit=ship+specialization

The strategy involved that goes along with Ship Specialization would play huge dividends for those players (new and old) looking for a strategy based game. How can I set up my ships to make them the best. In what ever aspect of the game they choose.

Player Retention:
1. More missions, quest based system. Players like to receive those awards/rewards and work hard to achieve them. Why does this stop? Why don't I get a "Your Gold Smith is Level 20 Reward" for the 2 billion and 1 year I just invested into this thing.
2. A daily log in bonus - Most games have this. A good argument is the daily Voodoo Present is this... I think we can expand this.
3. Better start up instructions. IDK. It been 2 years since I last did it. But I don't remember it being the best. I might have to quit as Shadowood and restart...
4. Guilds - Training Guilds do a good job now and it is hard to teach a lot of members. I remember in TOR we had our member list up to 40-50 at one point. I know SHM and BS had HELM up to 50+ at one point as well. This is taxing on trainers. It is one of the reasons I stepped down and started VUDU. But I think a time might come soon that I start to train again. (we did take in Banger.. )

What are your thoughts guys. I know you like/love this game as much as me.

**NO OFFENSE INTENDED HERE CJ***
I also know and respect that fact that our game is 'restricted' a bit by the size of our development team. I have no confirmation on this but I think its just CJ +1. This can't be their full time gig either, unless BIGTEA comes back. We players want new content so fast, but there is only so much that CJ can do, and I get this. But I also have felt the frustration that others of felt in wanting new content or seeing a great idea be shot down by 1 or 2 players, only to see it abandoned or put on the back burner.... I do not envy CJ's job as a developer on this point at all. We all have our own opinions, and of course our opinions are always the best. And I think CJ has done a great job in hearing out everyones opinions on all topics. Yes even you NELSON, even though you get banned more than a Nude Pic on Facebook. CJ hears you.

[DezNutz]

Can you explain what you mean by "the main source of getting new players is now closed"?

IMHO, if another new considerable feature needs to be pushed shortly after Plantations to help retain our player base we are in some deep shit as a community. That to me also implies that the Plantation feature can be fully utilized in too short of a time frame and clearly is lacking depth.

Now don't get me wrong, I completely understand having a plan to move forward post Plantations, but the current nature of that plan bothers me.

If we are going to get a plan of what we as the community would like to see, we need to know somewhat realistic development time estimates for existing suggestions. This will help the community to know what is realistic to be created properly in the timeframe and what isn't. Otherwise we are going to have nothing but players suggesting huge features and wants that just can't be realistically implemented in the timeframe we have.

I'm really hoping that I'm interpreting that last paragraph (Finally, there is a .....) wrong.

[Admiral Nelson]

What has me getting banned got to do with anything in this thread?

Seems to me like a personal attack. Having a bad day are you?

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

I second Shadowood's comments, and the guild issue in particular. We need more to do, and if the guild had more to do, we could get new players involved and do more than just cheer them on hoping they make it through the tutorial missions.

I have some thoughts on this I have been meaning to share, but it has been busy leading up to the holidays. I know others have shared ideas as well, and I hope to have some time soon to comb through older forum posts on the subject before posting my own suggestions.

[Captain Jack]

Can you explain what you mean by "the main source of getting new players is now closed"?

We use several ways to get new players. Our best way is no longer available (not our fault, it simply closed). I do not want to share more details though.

Shadowood, thank you for your post. I do agree that we should focus more on those who actually play the game and not those that close it on first view. We were thinking to add a roleplaying story to Avonmora World and create a main chain of quests to tell it. For simple landmarks, we can extend current quest system (merchant/pirate/noble). Surely, specific ideas will help.

Regarding team size, let's not dwell much here but still, let us straight things up. The problem is that when you know how many are working, you inevitably adjust your expectations based on the number. This is something we have learned to avoid as expectations are better created from actual events and not from assumptions. Our team is small and this is all you need to know.

While we are on this, I consider a team of 50 for a browser game a large one. I know a Pirate-themed browser game that had a team of 50 people. I think they developed the game for 2-3 years when at some point, they unexpectedly closed it. A 50-people sized team for 2-3 years, is easily an initial budget of 3Million USD. I have tested that game; it was nothing special. I really doubt it had more active players in terms of numbers than we currently have. I am sure it did not have the community we have.

Surely, a large budget simplifies things. We don't have one, so inevitably we have a small team. We make up for this though, as facts prove, with experience, skill, dedication and longer working hours.

Regarding the significance of every player's comment, it's a tricky conversation. I will only tell that we are rarely stopped. We mostly postpone till we can find the right ideas to proceed. Since you mentioned Danik, if I remember well, he was against Goldsmith. I think he really enjoys it now.

[Shadowood]

Since you mentioned Danik, if I remember well, he was against Goldsmith. I think he really enjoys it now.

As I am sure he will enjoy Blockades too.

Now back to my cabin to study my maps... I have some rough waters ahead.

[Captain Jack]

Ahoy all,

I have received some PMs asking for development updates. Truth is that it has been about a month without much noise from us, which I understand that it is a long period for our standards.

We have been through the following main stages in this past month:
-Needed Server Maintenance (Completed for now but this is periodical anyway)
-Workplace improvements (still unfinished, this consumed a lot of our time)
-Planning of the next day in PG (Our current daily major workload)

We also had some days off due to Christmas and New years eve.
Gameplay code development has not been intense in the last month and this is reflected in our changelog.

I need to explain that besides the much anticipated gameplay features that most want (Plantations, Ship Specialization, Blockades, Port Buildings, etc) there are also gameplay features that will help us with retention. These will also add to your experience with the game but they will not add depth in the game. These are features like Avonmora Herald (scripted daily issue), New Interface (it will replace the existing one), a new main chain Quest System and an improved (interactive) map.

It is quite hard for us to to prioritize features for several reasons. Mainly because we need to make the steps forward as seamless as possible. We also need to ensure that these steps will improve the game 100%. This is only natural to need time. You have all seen the difficulties of adding a new major feature in our latest discussion for Blockades.

Regarding my forums absence, this is deliberate. I am around, I just choose to post less. The forums need to flourish without the necessity of a game administrator holding the hand of anyone. The community is now capable to flourish alone. We just need to make some further adjustments to make the playerbase system independent from administration. I have written it before, the playerbase needs to participate more both in forums and game development. We just need to find the right tools and formula to make it happen. At this point, we have many well-educated (to our philosophy, way of work and necessities of this community) members who are also willing to help. The good news are that we do not intend to keep you wait a lot longer at this part; improvements are imminent.

Finally, for those that want more specific details, we hope that we will finish our workstation improvements and planning of the next day within this week. At worse till Wednesday next week. Which means that either by the dawn of the new week or a bit later but surely before the end of it, you will start getting new code updates.

[not a pirate]

Gameplay features coming.. such as Captain's Log?