Improving the game

[Captain Jack]

Ahoy all!

Today I want to discuss a few things with you. I am seeking your feedback. Take a cup of coffee (or tea), arm yourself with some patience and read this important thoughts we have for the game. I will read all replies, no matter their length.

The objective:
-Increase the active players that play Pirates Glory.

Current status
-The game is currently growing. We have many active players. Generally, a regular player (right now) does not care about this. The reason we care, is because we know from past experiences, that the only way to keep the game successful, is to always find ways to expand the playerbase.

Therefore, we are ALWAYS looking for ways to increase our active players. For anyone that enjoys the game, it is important if you manage to bring 1 player to the game. If everyone could fetch 1 new player every time, expansion would be great and we would save a lot on advertising, which would be then spent on graphics.

Current problem
-We have a very specific problem right now; we are able to bring many new players in, players who actually try the game up to a certain point. This means that they manage to skip past the initial difficulty of the menus. However, they do not necessarily stick to the game once a few days pass.

(TIP: Did you know that all newcomers have notifications ON by default? This means you can always message an inactive player and there is a high possibility they will actually read your message.)


Proposed Solutions - Developers
-Feel free to suggest what we can do about it. Interface improvement suggestions are always welcomed. We have in mind to create small tutorial videos that will accompany the tutorial missions we currently have. We also want to create more tutorial missions. For this last part (the tutorial missions) we will create a new topic in the forums (at some point in the near future) where we will publish the list of current missions and their details, so that all experienced player can have a look and suggest tweaks/new missions.

Proposed Solutions - Players
-Feel free to suggest how players could help in this direction. We have two ideas for now.

->First, we need more active and competitive guilds. We know from our gaming experience, that a determined newcomer can result to a great guild leader. Most of the time, younger people might be able to do this better, thanks to their more free time. Therefore, we seek ways to make it more alluring for someone to operate a guild.

We seek your feedback here. Ideas like medal system awarded by the guild leadership as well as credits bonus to the guild leader (ie 5 credits per month per active player in his guild, for 50 members this would be 250 credits per month) are viable instant solutions that we could implement. Credits for a younger player can be a huge inceptive as younger people want credits but they cannot purchase them.

There are also in-depth options, like adding a building in the forthcoming Hideout feature, which would control how many members a guild could have.

A third option is to promote guild competition further. Perhaps more guild rankings. A medal system perhaps based on stats and finally, the idea of Monthly Awards; awarded by a combination of player votes + system vote (based on some hidden statistics) .

->Second, we could offer inceptives to the current playerbase to help newcomers. We know that most of our active players are already doing this. There are already some in-game awards for this (like presents, getting voodoos when you need them, etc) as well as the Top Helper award bonus but we are thinking of a new extra option.

Regarding the top helper award, we already know it needs a certain improvement; we will make it appear as an event to newcomers after a few days, so they can be prompted to vote for a top helper by the system. This will also make it a bit more fair as we have detected that many of the votes are directed by the guild leadership (ie hey guys vote for X person in the system). While this is not a violation, it skips the initial idea we had for this feature. This upgrade is imminent.

Regarding the new option, we are thinking of an option to let players "recruit" newcomers. This means that they will be able to put them in their "Recruitment list" and become their "Mentor". Players in your recruitment list will award you CREDITS depending on the fame level they reach. ie 10 credits for 100k fame, 10 more for 200k fame etc (we will decide the amount/credits award list later - by the way we are thinking to slightly increase the credits offered for the referral system, this upgrade is imminent too).

In short words, you will be able to earn credits from the system for every player you help. Every player will be able to have only one mentor and newcomers will be the ones that select which mentor they want.


Finally, regarding the highly expected new features of Hideout (banks, etc), this is something we already work on. It is a huge feature and we still have some issues that need to be ironed out. Realistically speaking, it won't happen in September (although we might make a surprise effort - you never can be really sure with these huge features). We do not want to delay it though as we really cannot wait for the Ship abilities/upgrades system which we think will make the game much more interesting in PvP - with a new set of options/strategies that can be followed. We currently work at top speed and we will see how fast we can implement both of these huge new features.

[Big Brother]

I like the idea of rewarding people for recruiting, but it shouldn't be as many as 10 credits. Also, I think it should be based upon the number of invitations sent, that way, all players have an incentive (including guild leaders) not just the leaders. I understand that there are many guilds that place someone in charge of recruiting, but this way (if we base the rewards on invitations) all players can get a few cred for sending a few invites.

The increase of fame shouldn't equal a lot of credits, and not just the leaders should receive them (again), but it should go into something like a guild "bank". Henceforth, there should be a building for guilds that store both gold and credits. If this happens, we should enable a VERY small amount of fame to be given to you from the system if you "deposit" into the account. Also, the requirement of making this building bigger should be based on the amount of members. Say, for example, you have a guild of 3 and a building of level 1, you could be able to deposit up to 300,000 gold coins and 30 credits. I think that it should be small rewards, so that players have a higher incentive to increase the level of said building and the amount of members, also, the limit for the capacity should be decreased for members inactive longer than 2 weeks (although you should keep what you have stored already, and not be able to increase it). If we factor in the member amount, the leveling of the building should be affected by the amount of members (if you have 2 members the max level is 2 and the cost is 200,000 for the next level). These ideas should be open for discussion and improvement, so as always, who agrees?

[SSR]

The first time I started playing this game one of the features that made me go on was Voodoo. So many things to try before quitting! I suggest that every new player should get certain voodoo upon completing missions e.g Iron golem, Pacifism, Tidal wave!!! and so on.

Next idea: There should be a default guild for newbies. In it there will be a basic tutorial (our guild has a pretty good one), suggestions for good trade routes, basic plundering tactics (like, do not attack the Administrator's cutter ). The most interesting part? The guild will be run by the guild masters of the other guilds. It will act like a secondary guild for them next to their own. That way all guild masters will do their best to teach and recruit all the promising newbs. The GMs won't be included in the memberlist and active voodoo (due to security issues).

Next: An easier change of the nation would be awesome! Maybe one free first time? Without the mission. That's the thing that bugged me the first time that's why I still wear the flag of Nevis And the newbs have no idea of the perks of being part of Wales or Barbados for example.

Next: I still have no idea how to become a pirate as I'm the only active player of my nation. It will require quite the voodoo and cost me some gold to become one if I have to raid those players. An easier way must be had.

---------------------------
This will be edited if more comes to my mind.

Players in your recruitment list will award you CREDITS depending on the fame level they reach. ie 10 credits for 100k fame, 10 more for 200k fame etc (we will decide the amount/credits award list later - by the way we are thinking to slightly increase the credits offered for the referral system, this upgrade is imminent too).

I am absolutely against this! It's so easy to abuse this that I can't even imagine.

[Swampy]

Is the whole problem here retention and not recruitment?

I think a method of protecting players based on some game criteria would be good. For example, certainly new players need protection from being attacked early on as they may be put off the game before they can learn it.

Also though, I've known players leave the game because they've been attacked to the point of extinction. I know that voodoo is a way that you guys make some money from this game (for whatever reason, that isn't important) but to me voodoo makes it very easy for someone to be completely destroyed, I'm afraid I don't know how this can be changed to improve things but it can certainly put someone off when they realise they may have to spend a lot of money just to have a chance of competing.

[Captain dungeness]

Captain Jack, I'm really happy to see this post and I think you can do many small things that will help new players stick around. I have a few interface improvement requests but first I want to write out what I think for player incentives (both established player incentives and new player incentives). I will try to break up my ideas into categories.

=======New Players=======
-Give them a few pieces of the fun parts of the game so they know what they are missing if they quit. Right now they don't get to try out many of the really good parts of the game. These rewards are earned after completing certain tutorial missions.
.........Like Amorphis said: they should get a few cards for completing the missions (like Iron Golem, Bribe, Pacifism, Coastal Patrol/Piracy, Ruby Necklace, Bless, Drums, Buried/Hidden Treasure, and of course TIDAL WAVE! <-- that's probably the most fun card for new players)
.........Give them some gold and/or resources each time they finish a tutorial mission so that they can buy a new captain and build a new ship on the first play session. I haven't ever player the tutorials but it would be terrible to spend maybe half an hour on the game and then never see progress and have the game tell you to come back tomorrow because you can't do anything more right now.

=====Established Players=====
Recruiting:
-1,000 gold ->10,000 gold per click
-increase credits per signup & fame levels so it's worthwhile

Helping Newcomer Incentives:
Short Story: I got a message from a new player today it just said "ok". I'm guessing because the new player system says something like they can ask me questions but I really don't know what "ok" means. I just ignored it because I was busy checking on my trade routes or something. I figure there's little in it for me to help a super-brand-new player. Right now I would rather wait until a player shows some promise and asks a full question before I take time to respond. /end story
BUT if I could earn myself 1 credit for helping that player out I might consider it. Maybe it would be good if that player could click a button that says "this player was helpful, award him with 1 credit" or "this player was not helpful" (this button would only be available when that brand-new player is matched with an established player). Then make a list of "New Player Commendations" that shows who has helped the most brand-new players.

Honestly I'm not often ready to answer the brand-new-player messages so I have a request for an improvement to the matching system. I would like to click a button that says "I am ready to answer brand-new-player questions now". It would tell the game I would like to get priority as long as I'm signed into chat (and time out after maybe 2 hours). Then the next brand-new-player will get my name as the one to chat with. This way you can have greater confidence their questions will be answered and then I have this player's attention and can recruit them to my guild etc. If you're worried about cheating then make a 5-credits-per-day limit. If this were the case I would probably be encouraged to help my daily 5 newbies and then click the "I'm done answering brand-new-player questions" button. If no one is actively clicked the button then the system would work as it does now.

Another currency to pay helpful established players is with helpful cards instead of credits (they can sell the cards if they want credits). Like: "If you help 5 brand-new-players today you will receive one of the following cards (randomly selected): Bribe, Generosity, Charity Donation, Tobacco Gathering, Rum Festival, Potato Party, Serenity, Duplicate".

Guild Leader Incentives:
Please don't create rewards for sending invites that may never be received or being on a 'mentor list' that doesn't prove you have helped them. I believe the goal of helping new players is that they will join your guild and you will get rewarded for their activity. THEREFORE every month give the guild master 3 credits per player who has been in the guild more than 30 days and has not gone inactive for more than 7 days at a time. Also give the Guildmaster's Hideout an ability to increase the gold per active member to 4 credits each and then 5 credits each (10M gold upgrade each time). Also give the guildmaster the ability to see which players who will be counted toward his monthly reward and which players won't count.

SUMMARY:
If you can succeed in making the established player base the main source for helping new players learn the game and stay active you will done better than most other games I have every played. Most games make the established player either not care about new players or consider them a resource to exploit. I believe PG has the ability to reward players well for keeping players active because the established players have so many things the new players want (gold, credits, voodoo cards, ships, game knowledge...). The only thing missing right now is the new players don't have anything the established players want. If their attendance is worth something -to me- then I am willing to share my gold/knowledge with them to encourage them to stay.

-Captain D

[Sa majeste francaise]

I would add: More user friendly interface.

Actually Im a new player and it is really byt really hard to figure out how this game works.

[Nivekia]

I would agree with a lot of what has been said above.

I am a new player and am 24 hours old and it is already obvious that the game has a major retention problem which really does not surprise me. If you look at the last 100 players to join only 7 are over 1,000 fame points.

Basically as a Newbie we haven't a clue what we are supposed to be doing! The interface is very poor in as much as although the graphics are good we have no idea where to find anything, there does not appear to be a logical layout.

I like the idea of a Newbie Guild run by experienced players, a Mentor system where both the mentor and mentee gained rewards for completion would work, a much better tutorial would work, even if you put all the help pages that have already been written into one place that in itself would be a benefit. Also you might consider newbie only tutorial towns (2) where they can learn the basics of the game without fear of being attacked.

As a n00b I can tell you that right now I have no idea how voodoo works, how fame is generated or influence, I have no idea what benefits being in a nation have or how to progress politically or indeed what my long term aim is. At this stage I should know all these things because as a new player I don't mind going through a learning curve as long as I know what is at the end. However, if I don't know what the point is then I will probably like everyone else leave.

That would be a shame because having looked at a number of different pirate games out there this one definitely has potential.

[Captain Jack]

Thank you for your detailed post Nivekia and welcome to the forums.

If you don't mind, since you have fresh the newcomer missions, can you give us a review of them?

[Nivekia]

I will try my best Captain Jack.

Before I start though may I first of all say that in my newbie opinion the game has what looks like a great engine and tremendous potential.

I even think as I delve more into the game that most of what is required is actually present in the game. It is just so damn hard to find, that you sort of stumble across it and go "oh that's how that works" or "so that's where I find that bit". The problem with that is that you need to really persist in finding things and I have come very close to quitting in frustration a few times.

My main suggestions then would basically fall into two categories which are "Where do you find things" and there is not enough Role Play or attachment or basic story line with the tutorial character, the Quartermaster.

I can only speak personally but I for one never identified with him and every time I log back on and he is telling me a lot of information that at the moment I have no interest in (top nation, biggest gain, biggest loss etc). This information is off putting in that as a newbie(who is doing a lot better than a lot I believe) I currently have 14,500 fame so to be given this info ..................
Most Notorious player Beware of Umadon, the most notorious person in Avonmora. He has 41,124,265 fame points.
Most Influential player Captain, Xepshunall is the most influential person in Avonmora with 1,573,422,959 influence points.
Greatest rise today Rolando_de_Sandoval has risen by 2,240,560 fame points since yesterday.
Greatest fall today Retiro has lost 2,181,973 fame points since yesterday.
is plainly off putting and makes me want to give up.

If you want to give people this info when they log on then make it the Governor or even a "Pirate" Newspaper that does it (except of course there weren't newspapers then but you get my drift).

Again this is only my opinion but the Tutorial character needs to be on my side and guide me through the early stages and I need to identify with him so give me a link to him that takes me straight to all the help files I need. It took me two days to find the help files at the bottom because they are so small (and I am thick as well of course). Most of the info that I need is there plus the very useful help file viewtopic.php?f=13&t=500 which again I stumbled across but it has helped enormously. So you could put a collection of the best forum guides in one place for me to access (in other words any guides that you have decided to make stickys).

So I would have the Quartermaster (or who ever) welcome Newbies with some atmospheric Role Play to get you involved. I am not a writer but you need to set the scene so my poor suggestion would be something like.........

"Welcome me hearty!! I has been ordered by the Governor of this 'ere rats nest and general degenerate hell hole called Tortuga (or whatever starting Island has been chosen) to look after you in your first few days here.

I can't say that it is a task I am looking forward to you for you look like a totally useless article who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag let alone lead a cut-throat gang o' pirates to a horde of treasure.

If you fell over a treasure chest I doubt you could even pick it up you look so puny.

Never mind, the Governor said that if I taught you well he would release me into your service rather than spend the rest of my natural in that there Town Dungeon so I guess I had better get on with it. But let me warn you if you gets me drowned I will haunt you till the day I die!"

Now he can take you through the tutorials whilst all the time moaning and berating you for being a useless Captain. One of the first things he should do is show you to your cabin which would contain all the books written to aid new Captains (this would be the contents of the existing help file repositioned and simply relabelled as books on a shelf plus any finalised "sticky" forum guides).

The tutorial rather than simply being press this do this, do that, in my opinion should be conversational and in Role Play. So the Tutorial one and two would be something like...

" Now it is no business of mine how you got yourself into this mess and how you arrived here with just a (sloop, or what ever your starting ship was) and a tiny bit of money. All I can say is if you expects to survive and prosper in this age of merchants and pirates then you better start learning all about fame. Yes fame you numskull is there sumat wrong with your hearing!! Let me tell you, those with fame win and those without it will be just like you are now and never amount to anything. So shall I tell you more?"

Press yes to continue etc.

In this way the Quartermaster can take you through the rest of the tutorial but it should be done in such a way that it is role play and in such a way that you can get involved in the game. For example, Tutorial 5 " Top Right Menu", the information there is good and vital but it doesn't involve you in the game. If the top right menu was instead your own personal Captains Journal or something then that would make sense and would be in keeping with the theme.

In a similar vein on the left of the screen there is my Headquarters, Plunder, Market, Tavern and Court. As a new player none of these tittles or headings make any sense. I have one boat and no company so what is my head quarters a headquarters of? If you want to call it my shipping office or something else then it would make more sense. On the other hand if in the tutorial you tell me I have just started a company or an enterprise or something then again that would work.

At no time have I been told where I am in the game. I have assumed that I am on board ship sailing the seas so it seems strange that I can access the tavern and go to the court. It has taken me two days to realise that I am not on board and that I employed a captain to do the work for me. That is now changing my view of the game a little and is making it more of a "management" game than I first thought. The fact is I like management and thinking games which this appears to be and didn't want a swash buckling fighting at all costs games. However, I nearly left because I wasn't sure what sort of game it is.

I am really sorry I have been rabbiting on and I appear now to be writing war and peace.

My apologies.

I like the game, I think with a little bit of tweaking here and there it could be awesome and if you want any more views opinions or help from me then just ask.

[Spastic]

1) When a player joins a guild the member gets x credit(s). Only players less than 2 weeks old count.

2) I think a guild master should get credits for reaching certain milestones e.g. having 1 member, 10 members, guild is 1 month old, guild is ranked no.1. I also think other members should be able to claim this prize. To claim the prize members would have to click on a link to get it. This would be significantly less than the guild masters prize.

3) 1 credit should be given every moth to all members that have been in the guild for a month for every member thats has been inactive for more that 7 days

4) Newbies should be given more turns when they complete a mission. This will allow them to do more stuff the first day they play.

5) A mentor system should offer less rewards for the mentor and more for the student. The student should get something like a 10% fame everyday, x amount of gold per day, half price ships, half price resources (just a few ideas). The mentor should be ale to access certain information like how much gold they have, how many officers and what type, how many turns, how many and what type of ships they have.

6) A newbie mission should be to join a guild