Utopia will die

[Ezzerland]

The only way utopia is getting 100k players again is if someone hacks Google and redirects the traffic here. Then we MIGHT get 93k more people to sign up...maybe.

Hrmm.. With a little bit of faery power, this might just be possible. Definitely the best idea yet on how to get players back! :)

[Lestat]

I'll fetch the milk and bread

[Elf]

As long as Utopia lasts maybe 5 more decades - im still happy.

[Elf]

We dont NEED new players. They arent required ... But yes they are always welcome and wanted, they arent a necessity though.

[Red]

make new spells (you deleted CB, so make a new one, for example) and abilities and implement them in betatesting, like other games.

CB got replaced by SoT (in age 47). Since then there were new spells added (Bloodlust and Mage Fury in Age 49)

[flutterby]

Fountain of Knowledge

[CrazyMatt]

i want 9/2 elites for orcs! and 0/5 def specs back!

[Pillz]

Utopia will never reach 100k. I do not see how 10 or 12k is out of the question, though. But it is impossible for the game to experience any growth if there is zero advertisement done on its behalf. There is a market for rogue-likes (nethack, dungeon crawler stone soup) and games like dwarf fortress, why wouldn't there be a market for Utopia? Hell, there are even people who play table top RPGs on message and image boards.

[PhoenixScorpion]

Utopia will never reach 100k. I do not see how 10 or 12k is out of the question, though. But it is impossible for the game to experience any growth if there is zero advertisement done on its behalf. There is a market for rogue-likes (nethack, dungeon crawler stone soup) and games like dwarf fortress, why wouldn't there be a market for Utopia? Hell, there are even people who play table top RPGs on message and image boards.

Pillz it wouldn't be hard to reach 100k+, the obstacles are poor management/mismanagement ;)

[newatthis]

i ran a ghetto last 2 age with half of the kd was inactive ... we got few new players there who had never played before n were so confused about a lot of things n wikipedia ain't helpful either ... so i spent 1-2 hours a day writing on kd forum about some basics ... i didn't just write TG 20% or WT 20% coz those new players would ask "what's TG n 20% of what again?" so i write:

- please build 10% farm of all your land ... IE: if you have 500 acres land then it will be 500 acres x 10% = 50 acres for farm
- please build 20% watch towers of all your land ... IE: if you have 500 acres land then it will be 500 acres x 10% = 50
and so on and so on

that's just buildings for one race ... about the army i can't say dspecs or leets, or thieves coz again these new players were clueless so i called each armies by name: ghouls, trolls, whateva ... or i call them by row on military page along with detail calculation to get 10 epa +7 dspa + 2.5 rtpa ... so i wrote :
please train 10 ghouls (the third row army on your military page) x your acres ... so if you have 500 acres, you have to train 5000 ghouls
where the military page is, what draft is, how to change the draft n many details in 1 page i had to explain in details ...

so imagine how long it took for me to explain how to use angel and pimp ... and tell u the truth it is frustrating n exhausting ... but i spent my time only to keep any active players i could find to fill the spots with 20 active provs regardless they can play or not ... was it worth the effort? ?? hell yeah, 2 out of 5 of these new players stayed playing even after i left the ghetto ... hell, everyone has to start somewhere .. i once new player too n a player did spend time for me explaining inch by inch n play by play ... that's how i get where i am right now (not saying i'm a pro doe)
...
my point is, there are new players signing up every age ... of this i can assure u but how many ppl wanna spend time teaching these players inch by inch and play by play??? the wikipedia is too confusing even for more experienced players ... n most of the times i've ever spent in other ghettoes, not much ppl or monarch would spend their time to teach new players ... they either shut their eyes, kill the new players, or leave the ghetto being farmed even by other ghetto and that's why it seems new players come, play for few days, n be inactive after 2 weeks being a failure ...

my suggestion is, we need to teach new players how to play before they feel like a failure ... n that's why i agree with fuzzy| guy : change the way we treat new players and its a start ;)

[Grilo]

So, let me give an Idea. I play this game for long time, and always thought about it:

Is a totally diferent way for honour. So open your mind:

What is honorable?
Honorable is hit provinces on your size (counting the kingdom size also) and preferably if they are warned that will be attacked.
So first we only win honour if the kingdom you are attacking is warned.
For that we would have to create a new mechanism in the game, that i think would become the game much more intersting.
The hotile metter would be like a stance, but that you direct to some kingdom. You merely declare that your kingdom will start the agression against other kingdom.
Doing it the hostile metter would encrease lets say 1 per tick, reaching their maximum in a day. The honour gained would be proportional to the hostile metter.
2 - the "hostile declaration" can be removed at any moment
3 - the kingdom against which the declaration was made can at any moment that the "hostile declaration" is still active declare war
4 - The hostile metter would put the kingdom that declared on unfriendly on some point (we can say 5 points)
5 - On war both Kingdons gain the maximum honour

This mechanism also would be very well received for kingdoms that like to schedule a war, since would just one declare hostility and the other start the war, without the need of these nosense attacks before war starts.

Besides this mechanism another important change

You loose honour hiting smaller provinces than you (counting the kingdom size)! It is not applied at war, but still on Hostile situation.

I have much more ideas, about this honour topic and another ones that i think is also great. If want to contact me: utopianstrategists@hotmail.com

[Spahrep]

I'm going to jump on the "be nice to new players" bandwagon. Its really just a 'community', the whole 'it takes a village' thing.
I played utopia back in the very first few ages, then just started playing again 3 ages ago.
I got signed up, picked my faery mystic and away i went into the ghetto. Within the first few hours i received a message from the monarch telling me that faery weren't allowed in their kingdom, i had to leave or be razed. Epic.
Luckily i went to the forums and IRC and found people willing to re-teach me and a new kingdom to join. Most new players wouldn't have the knowledge or the attention span, or any clue what IRC is.

[yamibone]

My no.1 suggestion would be to make this game NOOB FRIENDLY. It is currently written "for hardcore gamers" yet that is never going to attract new players to learn the game. Tooltips, friendly hints and a help section would be a start. The learning curve is too steep, and nobody has the patience to spend months learning a game these days.

Another suggestion is that utools should be fully implemented into the game. The devs need to implement the graphical adaptations into the game. Thats a no brainer.

[Spahrep]

Mouse-overs + tool tips take developer time unfortunately. If they dev team wants to invest in stuff like that, tool tips + mouse overs that you can turn off would be fantastic.

Until that day comes, i think the community needs to work together on the wiki and guides.

[LameBeaver]

Given that Utopia is not advertised, Utopia is doing well for a game in its genre imo. It will definitely have a long run. It even outlasted Jolt and its "Utopia" Kingdoms (not sure if this is really an achievement).