Announcement 16th September: Discussion

[Semadin]

There are a lot of nice changes/additions that could be made to the game itself...but it seems that the problem is just that no one really knows that this game exists...it seems like a problem of advertising.

I second the facebook request - even at the very least a utopia game fan page. I remember 10-11 years ago being introduced to the game and knowing several people IRL who played...it's a pretty damn addicting game and all anyone had to do was tell a friend at school 'hey check out this game' - but that isn't really how people work these days. It takes like 5 minutes to set up a fan page - then just stick the link in the throne message.

i would think by getting on facebook you would be able to at LEAST double the population playing currently (everybody loves a free online time sink).

use the power of 'like'!

ps. free advertising is good.

pps. also, bring back the original music -_-

[Dolgil]

Just not "hiding" the game would help. While advertising may take some money, it doesn't mean much for coding. And yes, there are a lot of people tired of "pay-to-win" type games which is about all facebook is about. This game builds community without gimicky things like gifting. The anti-game? Theme for ads right there.

A guide would help, as several games out there are very lacking in this area. Those are just simpler games and have a great commonality between them. This game is often not very intuitive. Example is the "rainbow" build strat.

[Vit]

For example, if you look at Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(disambiguation)
you could see only
In computer and video gaming:
Utopia (video game), a 1982 Intellivision simulation game
Utopia: The Creation of a Nation, a 1991 computer and Super Nintendo Entertainment System strategy game

That's all.
You ask what to do without money - just post an article in Wikipedia!

[Darkz Azn]

http://mud.wikia.com/wiki/Utopia_%28online_game%29

this used to be on wiki ... dunno who deleted it ...

[RMO]

Hy there, Thundergore.

As far as i see it there are a few main issues:
A) high rate of players churn: old players
A') high rate of players churn: new players
B) low rate of new players
C) low player satisfaction/experience rate
D) no integration with an assistant (Angel/Pimp like)…
E) very poor game guide, no Q&A for noobs, etc.
F) lack of organization tools for kingdom. This can again really boost user friendly experience and better help newly formed kingdoms.
G) old game menus and GUI.



In order to address theese issues you need to understand first what are the main causes.
Then you need to understand what are the main actions needed to be done.
Then you need to rafine the actions, give them priorities, give them improvement grades and timelines.
Then you can choose the plan for that.

Of course, there is always more than one single answer to every question… important is not to choose the worst one, but the more opportunist


A) => boredom came from: playing the same game with the same features for a long time, same game format and menus, same old faces and smaller number of players, increasing lack of commitment in intra kd mates (that would be because the is no more battlefields like activity)
A') => boredom, low usability and game navigation, low socialization/information tools with the kd… basicly the game doesn't attract the new player like in the past and he or she doesn't get addicted in order to minimize the bad impact of the things i just enumerated … other times, other demands.
"B) => At this moment i really don't see any real steps towards getting more new players. This is a delicate subject because you need to be able to keep the players in order to make the advertising worth. In the same time you cannot afford to keep the decline of number of players because when a certain threshold is reaced Utopia could go spiriling down. Yet again, in the same time a too aggressive advertising will get more new players but only for a short term.
As far as i can see a very powerfull tool for getting new players constantly is the 'tell a friend' way. You can attract new people in many ways… facebook/socielization portals, adds, exchange with other sites, tell a friend features, etc. The teel a friend feature should be exploited wisely. If you are getting new players and they churn after one or 2 ages this gold resource will evaporate and will do no good for you anymore in a short period of time. To make it worth for the players who tell to a friend you need to give them something back... like in the old days."
C) low player satisfaction/experience rate => this has a lot of reasons behind it… it can be low rate of interesting changes among ages, too many long term features that stay pretty much the same, the same bigger bully kd attacks (that will never end anyway)... theese are a few examples. If you make a thread related to this you will get 1000 opinions. I was saying in a different thread that a great impact would be pooling the number of races and personalities in a large 12 no pool to choose for every age... having maybe less races/pers. Some would say, doh, this brings nothing new... i would say that this sort of change will subconsciously give a fresh feel to the game along other changes.
D) => I don't know a good player who does not need Angel/Pimp. It's like a part of the game, air that you breathe. This can really boost the game usability and user friendly experience.
E) => make a better guide, damn it! Use this tool to give the new player a better understanding of the game, not make him wonder through wiki links. Noobish players will abandon the game because they cannot understand it... Moreover, you can make a good q&a and also a noob guide to explain different aspects of the game that are not defined by formulas (like inter kd socialization, kd strategies, land strategies, etc.). An informed person is way better than a person that knows only half of the story. This improves quality of new players and time for them to get to better levels.
F) => Pimp like features, but with something more to make it easier for following orders for kd mates to offer much more interactivity between players and easy to use tools for monarchs. Even if this might be seen a noobish I think this can really boost the quality and quantity of better utopia players. This means more addicted long term players, this means more new and remaining players. It's more fun with more poeple playing the game.
G) => Some would say it would be a luxury feature(like assistant, or phone integratioon/friendly gui), but you need to be realistic about this. Things that we take as granted theese days are to be honest some 'ages' ahead of the game gui.
I'm not saying this game needs facebooking ( :) ), it has it's own touch and feel sort of speak. But you need to see the line between different and old. Fewer people want to play Z80 games anymore ;)"


The hardest things are to make a new player stay long with the game, to make an old player still commit. For this you need a few good things: variety, stability, dynamicity, socialization and features. You might be very impressed of the good reaction of an old player to a small visible change, and even greater response to a bigger one. Visible changes are always the most popular, something fresh will always be percepted positive... variations keeps wheels spinning, socialization and 'cool' features pay off for longer term and mentain higher experience rate.


Thanks!

[Syele]

As long as new players joining the game are all placed together at the bottom of the server with no one with them but other brand new/returning from many many ages ago players, you will not be able to increase the player base.

All these other suggestions have merit and are interesting, but everyone you bring in will create a new prov, look around, feel lost and alone and leave. No one wants to arrive in a brand new KD after not playing for 4 years and be monarch cause they are the most experienced player in the new KD. They dont know what tools are up to date, where to find changes etc without a lot of research.

Yes it will take a little coding to fix it. Time spent fixing this one problem would do more than any other change to help the game.

[Magn]

As long as new players joining the game are all placed together at the bottom of the server with no one with them but other brand new/returning from many many ages ago players, you will not be able to increase the player base.

All these other suggestions have merit and are interesting, but everyone you bring in will create a new prov, look around, feel lost and alone and leave. No one wants to arrive in a brand new KD after not playing for 4 years and be monarch cause they are the most experienced player in the new KD. They dont know what tools are up to date, where to find changes etc without a lot of research.

Yes it will take a little coding to fix it. Time spent fixing this one problem would do more than any other change to help the game.

Well, the situation you describe is 3 problems really:

1) Lack of core tool integration (mix of core functionality between Angel and Pimp) into the game force players to find loosely integrated third party alternatives.

2) The wiki sucks both as a beginner's guide and as a quick reference (again, many people are not search engine wizs).

3) The game is structures so that most of the good leadership material is centered in existing veteran KDs and every KD need at least 1 competent, knowledgeable leader to function.

And yes, I agree. I also think solving problem #1 and problem #2 would do wonders for solving problem #3 (wouldn't teach beginners how to manage KDs, but it would provide them the tools to make the management less time-consumming and to quickly catch up on the game mechanics they need to devise a strat).

[nova1491]

well i believe these are the same tips from supportive players and same complains from players of all levels.

was playing back 10years ago. it was a off and on thing(one age here and there).

things change.. yeah... but its pointless to see these tips back on the boards time and again. I believe last time utopiatemples was the in thing. with news reporters taking comments and news on the chainning.

With battlefields and tournaments, news coverage and update on honor land and networth by volunteer reporters.

Oh well. not much advertising back then. got word of this simple game from a friend of mine. Just my two cents

[itchm]

I didn't have time to read too much of what peeps said. But in regards to the "tipping point" If you are trying to improve profitability these are my thoughts:

- Remove vac mode. This potentially would increase the number of prov sits.
- Tweak prov sit cost. Currently its 1 credit per day, if I am not mistaken. I suggest it costs 3 credits for the 1st day and 1 credit each day after that. As for the two week maximum... I realise that there are cases where this could involve cheating... but for eg. I prov in my KD was just forced to quit cos he had to move house to a place where he couldn't access the internet. I would have provsit for him for months as he was a valuable KD member... now I will just invite him back later. That plenty of potential money that you missed out on.
- Pay to win. Like more income and such. I think this is not a feature that suits utopia, at all. Utopia is a skill based game.
- Invites. They should cost money. Or. Keep them as they are, but let peeps buy them on top of whats currently available. I know personally that I invite peeps trying to fill my KD then I end up killing half of them off. Then I run out of invites and wait for the age change. I would definately buy more invites. Some people would say against this that eventually all the KDs would be tight and no one would buy invites anymore. PoppyCock. I can ASSURE you that there will ALWAYS be ghettos out there with some peep trying to turn it into an SKD. Its human nature.

Thats mah 2 cents :P

oh yeh... my 3rd cent.

- What do peeps think about training KD's. Peeps with heaps of internet time would run KDs for training purposes. Players would pay/gift credits to the Monarch of the training KD for an invite [the buy invite option would go hand in hand with this]. The monarch of the Training KD would then sell the credits back to Jolt.... I am not sure if there are legal probs with this, if its doable I think its a spectacular idea but.

[Admiral S3]

1st let me say that I am glad the game is reasonably stable again, and that too date has remained mostly along the lines of the last known version of the old code base.

With that being said; there are some changes that have been made which defy logic. As an example I point to the changing of "Crystal ball" a long held original staple of the game, to being a thief op. This eliminated the need of having mages in a KD for intel purposes, and most I have talked to feel that this has put too great a demand on thieves, which have now become almost the sole source of intel.

There are others, but that one does stick out as something many feel should be changed back.

Looking towards the future: Some here have stated the creation of Smart phone aplications... frankly most smart phones have either an IE like, mozzila like, or Safari like browser, which can reach Utopia. The problem is of course the data the browser has to condense into a useful sense. Instead of a smart phone app, I suggest concentrating as some have suggested on skins or themes for the game. Building a scaled down theme would allow all smart phones that have internet ability, which they would need to use any app built anyways, to view the game properly.

Likewise, it would allow users to have a more graphical interface as well, upto and including a battle clip of sorts, or possibly even some control over the battle its self while in progress, if the developers wish to take it that far, but these things should only be avalible if, and only if the player wants to see or use such things.

Otherwise adding some flares of realism to the game could be an attraction for many. Such as, would not the lords and ladies of a kingdom send out "patrols" with in the kingdom's boundaries? Would not these patrols if they were in the area of a province being attacked lend thier support to help fend off an attack? Likewise would'nt it be concievable that province A, being an almost pure mage, with very little attack power, might lend some of his/her troops to Province B when province B makes his/her next attack?

Now I am not suggesting allowing a province to send 10s of thousands of troops on a patrol, that would totally upset the balance of an attack, but adding a random chance should a province have sent out a patrol that is "still out" that they might intercept an enemy attack, and either A. lend a hand in defending that prov resulting in only a slightly greater chance 1 to 3% of the attack being twarted, or B. If intercepted after the battle, less land being brought back.

The same for aiding another's attack, by doing so, the prov lending troops would get a % equal to thier % of troops sent of what ever was brought back. However they share in the troops lost, they share in the defeat if there is one, and aain the ammount allowed to be sent should be small.

The same could be said about killing dragons. After all a KD shares in the launching of one, A member of the government IE the monarch should be able to set a "Draft tax" temporarily to help kill off a dragon. This "Draft tax" would simply imply an additional KD wide peanalty ontop of the dragon's peanalty, which would automatically send x% of all soliders drafted at the dragon, until it was dead, or until the monarch ended the tax which ever came 1st.

I know alot of the above are more or less suggestions for the game and how its played, but these are elements that would not only improve game play, but also entice people to join the game.

S3

[Debauchery]

Theres some very nice ideas in here .
1. I do believe promotion of the game is paramount. Facebook .
2. Having a user friendly walk through would be a great idea ( help new players know some of the basics ) Also maybe a beginners guide incorporated into this .Accessible from your throne page.
3. The idea of your military adviser helping would be good also ( this would just be to tell you how much offense you are sending- it doesnt need to show defenders defence and success rates (for those who dont use angel and cant work out manually how to calculate there offense points))
4. Ceasefires once signed can not be broken for at least 24 hours (similar to stances)
5. Income - Buying of credits for extra moves for a kd , i see there is 4 moves this age maybe have a cap where a kd can buy maybe 3 extra credits for the age total of 7 moves .

[Thundergore]

Okay - I've been sick for a spell so haven't had the chance to interact with those who've taken the time to provide feedback - thank you to those who did so.

Moving forward, most of your actionable feedback (the ideas that aren't limited by our current restrictions) is excellent.

Several things catch my eye, in no particular order:

Promotion/Advertising - Facebook and Twitter
Means to donate (should this be something an individual wishes to pursue)
Walk throughs and guides

There is a lot more excellent feedback that requires tweaking of code or small additions (some larger additions). This stuff sadly has to go on hold for now.

Keep it coming. If you have anything else you want to discuss feel free to PM me.

[Fates Warning]

God no. NO PHONE APS!!!! This game is already taken over by kingdoms that have no life and can be on 24/7... now you want to make it even easier for them to be on 24/7? Already bad enough with the activity requirements around here and now we are going to need phone aps to be successful? No thanks, that's the day I quit