"EVERY ship needs a buff hammer"
Hades-artemis pyramidion I actually prefer no buff hammer. I like my balloon to be maintained for emergencies, and I don't think a buff hammer engineer can maintain my balloon well enough. Also, it needs a gunner for the hades.
Buff hammers extend into the realm of advanced gameplay. Focus on getting engineers to manage their areas properly before you start making them also handle something like buffing.
But that's besides the point.
I agree that our discussion should try to revolve around what we can/should do as players and a community. We can't control Muse, and they have their own ideas. We are best off trying to grow the game through community efforts.
That said, personally when I play a game, I like to learn it and find my place before I look at things online. Any sort of guide, be it video, text, hologram, whatever, is something I avoid in any game until I have my feet under me. Maybe I'm weird, but I feel like I would rather base my skill in experience and grow my abilities by learning tricks from others, than to learn through guides and gain experience only as someone who already knows the community tricks.
I don't think any guide outside of the game will help keep new players. I think that in order to keep a new player, you have to get their interest through the game itself. Then their interest might grow as the connect to the community.
So while video tutorials would be beneficial for mid skill players looking to improve, I think that we first have to keep them around long enough to care.
To get a new player's attention, we must assume several things
Assumptions- They are not yet interested in actively training/learning - only in playing the game
- They will not look at the tutorials since tutorials are not required - better to learn through experience
- They will not be prepared for the coordination needed to maintain a ship and a team
Working around this set of assumptions, what can we, as a small group of players active in the forums, do to make players more interested in sticking around and improving?
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In a completely different direction, I had an idea that would require Muse support, but would be interesting.
Coded Retention IdeaBrand all players into one of the factions immediately. Your faction is displayed.
Factions may have allied factions. These are shown publicly in game.
Muse controls the alliances, shifting them about to keep things varied.
You may only play on ships with people of your faction/allied factions.
You may change factions on a limited basis. Start with 2 free changes. Max of 2 changes storage. Every week you are given a free faction change.
If your faction wins a game, any game, your faction gets one point towards a public leader board. Games with players from allied factions gives a point to both factions.
Clans are part of a faction.
The idea here is that instead of throwing new players into a bunch of random lobbies and hoping they figure out community themselves, we push them to get to know their faction. If one of the strongest parts of the game is the community, and the only way to discover that is by playing long enough to wander into one of the fun lobbies, then we are missing an opportunity. Give players an incentive to bond. Give them common enemies.
My basis for this is the factions in WoW. I know nothing about them, and have never played the game, but I know players get spirited about the distinction. Maybe that isn't the direction we want to go, but it would add an interesting facet to the game.
Clans each being part of an individual faction, with factions shown on the leader board, would give clans an incentive to more actively educate new players instead of just "go play the tutorial please", since the clans would want their faction to do well. See a player in your faction that is terrible? Get them on your ship and make them not terrible so your faction does better.