15 replies to this topic

[Hinter]

So the thing is I don't hack down on the Staffteam or Omicron they are doing a great job. 

 

But I kinda get the feeling that something has to change, I dont have the numbers of how many players there used to be online at most hours but it definietly feels like the player count has drop a fair bit.

 

Now this surely have several different factors such as OSRS, Classic WoW etc...

 

But I would have gussed they would not have made such a big impact since OSRS have been around for a long time and the hype around Classic WoW has died down atleast a bit.

So my suggestion would be to atleast think about maybe changing things to get more players and most importanly more active players because of how it is now it feels like the server has a playerbase usualy around 200 players on at most times but I atleast get the feeling that most of them are either AFK or just inactive. This also goes for the forum sure it might see activity from people seeing guides or some writing posts and topics but not as much as the playercount would suggest. Ofcourse you can't force players to use the forums and alike but maybe trying to get more activity on here wouldn't hurt the server/forums.

 

So my suggestion is that there needs to be some kind of change either a "restart" of the server with cleaned eco etc etc. (Most likely not since the players with wealth or achivments on the several ironmen modes would be opposed to this kind of "radical" change since they myself included have worked to get to the point that they are currently at).

 

Another thing could be to try and market the server more and try and get a more active playerbase and with that a bigger playerbase (not saying its small at the moment but I think it could also be alot bigger).

 

Now this is just my suggestions and if you have anything to fill in with comment it down bellow on this post and I will make a section of your suggestions added to this "list". 

 

The main goal with this was just to start getting a discussion started about from my point of view a "problem".

 

Because as it is currently around 19:30 GMT 0 and there is around 400 players on.

 

Yes this might just be my view of things and I may be completely wrong, and the this is actually not a problem for the majority of the players but I atleast wanted to voice my concerns.

And again this is nothing against the Staffteam or Omicron this is just something I thought about and since I like the server I would love to see it prosper even more.

 

/Jacob

 

 

 

(If this does not belong here feel free to message me or remove it)

 

Suggestions from the replies:

 

Make wilderness more active.

Increase the Gambling community.

Edited by Hinter, 26 October 2019 - 04:44 PM.

[Linkki]

I am not sure what exactly you want to change. Yes the forums are not that active on here and the time I have been playing RSPS the forums never been too active usually a few people post there just, because they actually like using forums/interacting with other. But mainly people want something in return, when using the forums or they use the forums like you said only view guides etc, so of course the forums are not active as they could be. Increasing forum activity is not easy at all tho. There is a lot of people who afk which I think everyone is aware of and there is some people who splash mean while doing something else. Doing economy reset would do more harm than good as you already mentioned the reasons why it obviously wouldn't happen. The economy here is better than on the majority of the rsps which has been up for a while. I don't think the server is necessarily dying or anything more like the RSPS in general dying.  I think the main goal for Alora should be right now is increase the wilderness activity which could increase the player activity (Clans etc). However can't do much, if people just prefer to play on ironman (including myself).

 

 

I am sorry for the grammatical errors. 

[Hinter]

@22 I agree but I just wanted to voice my concerns. Its not like the server is dying its still at the very top of RSPS would just be nice with some more activity.

[Death Kid]

Hello,

 

This server has one of the best, if not the best economy on a RSPS. The majority of wealth is distributed in game modes that are unable to trade. This means that, regardless of how much wealth an Ironman has, it does not play a factor in the economy. The game also has a ton of gold sinks, such as trade post fees, well of good will (600m per day), instances, and many other things. You cannot donate for directly for wealth, which means that wealth (coins) is not being directly added into the economy. Custom donations are simply a re-distribution of wealth among the economy. The economy in the game also balances itself for inflation. E.G bond prices a while ago were from anywhere from 50-60m to 200m today. Just like in real life, when there is more wealth, we can witness a price increase (totally normal). Disregarding everything I just said, if we were to vote for a community-wide economy reset then we would lose every single Ironman (not including the normal accounts) which would be around 80% of the playerbase. Also, lots of people have donated to get ahead in the game, what do you think will happen with those donations? Catastrophic backlash would occur that could even lead to the server shutting down. As for your other concern, the forums activity might be decreasing but that's only because of the presence of Discord. People, like myself, have been using Discord as a form of communication rather than the forums. It's much easier to share pictures, chat up your mates, and share your achievements through Discord. You said it yourself, there are a lot of active players but not many posts, and that is because most of the things you can/would post on the forums could easily be posted to Discord. As for the playerbase itself, I do believe that it is smaller than previous months but there is a lot of factors to consider. People generally tend to wear out from playing RSPS, and the players that leave will eventually be replaced by fresh ones. Also like you said, many big games are being released, people are busy with IRL, and school/university is in session. However; I do believe that we could focus more on improving the wilderness, and possibly gambling which would attract a whole new stream of players that are not interested in the Ironman mode. 

[Hinter]

@Death Kid Well I did not mean "just" a eco reset because that would really harm the server but to bring new life with a "restart" that would bring new life to more or less everything with everyone to start over, im not saying this is a good idea since alot of players would most likely quit all together and just an eco reset is not needed at all since as you pointed out this server has one of if not THE best economy of all RSPS. With Tbows not being far off from the OSRS price. An eco reset is not a solution and its not a needed one. One of the suggestions was merely to have a reset to have everyone start fresh. (Has worked with other servers wich I wont mention). But this also ofcourse has a huge downside in players will quit etc etc. My suggestion as a whole was not to actually do any of the things I mentioned but to merely bring it up for "debate" and to hear if others felt like me or if it was just me. 

 

I also agree that the wilderness could use an upgrade with prayer switches etc. But I did not want to add that since that has been suggested before and I didn't want to repeat it again as it is quite common to be suggested and talked about. 

 

I also agree about the gambling side of things but that also brings more problems for the staff team such as more likely scammings etc. But it would probably boost the player count even more and could be a good addition to the server. Since the server is not "heavily" ironman based but there is alot of ironmen playing because it replicates osrs without having to grind as much for xp etc. An additon to gambling could bring more "normal/normie" players onto the server.

[Death Kid]

@Death Kid Well I did not mean "just" a eco reset because that would really harm the server but to bring new life with a "restart" that would bring new life to more or less everything with everyone to start over, im not saying this is a good idea since alot of players would most likely quit all together and just an eco reset is not needed at all since as you pointed out this server has one of if not THE best economy of all RSPS. With Tbows not being far off from the OSRS price. An eco reset is not a solution and its not a needed one. One of the suggestions was merely to have a reset to have everyone start fresh. (Has worked with other servers wich I wont mention). But this also ofcourse has a huge downside in players will quit etc etc. My suggestion as a whole was not to actually do any of the things I mentioned but to merely bring it up for "debate" and to hear if others felt like me or if it was just me. 

 

I also agree that the wilderness could use an upgrade with prayer switches etc. But I did not want to add that since that has been suggested before and I didn't want to repeat it again as it is quite common to be suggested and talked about. 

 

I also agree about the gambling side of things but that also brings more problems for the staff team such as more likely scammings etc. But it would probably boost the player count even more and could be a good addition to the server. Since the server is not "heavily" ironman based but there is alot of ironmen playing because it replicates osrs without having to grind as much for xp etc. An additon to gambling could bring more "normal/normie" players onto the server.

I still don't understand what it is you are suggesting. You don't want to suggest wilderness updates since it already has been suggested, and you think gambling is not a good option. So your complete suggestion is an economy reset? I feel like this is more of a discussion thread rather than a suggestion. To clarify, if it is indeed an economy reset that you are suggesting then I'll have to not support your suggestion. 

[Not Five]

Things need to change, that's for sure. The eco being in the weird limbo state it is in right now is certainly cause for concern, but it doesn't warrant a reset. Those at the top, by now, have to know what to do, it's just a matter of shifting efforts & focus, which I'm not sure will happen. 

[Sassa fras]

This is a challenge I'm sure the staff team has already been discussing, and it's something that I've heard many players talking about: It is undeniable that Alora is slowly losing playercount. I don't necessarily think the situation is as grave as you think, because growth is almost expected to stagnate as the server approaches its 3 year birthday...but it's something that will need to be addressed soon. I don't really buy the lower player count is due to "oh, it's no longer summer" and "Classic WoW/Call of Duty/whatever new game is being released"... the quality of competition from other servers has increased.  I won't address the forums activity point even though I  agree with you, since a decrease in game activity usually correlates with a decrease in forums activity.  Take a look at the number of people commenting on game/staff update threads, participating in event sign-ups, etc. compared to six months/one year ago.

 

These are my opinions on a variety of suggestions I've seen, take these with a grain of salt.

 

Need to be fixed:

- Improving existing content/eliminating bugs: Alora has a massive amount of content, plain and simple.  We are usually the first server to have a newly released boss/quest/etc., but this is usually as the expense of a well-coded, interactive update. I'm sure many existing players leave because suggestions to fix long-standing problems aren't addressed with the same priority as releasing new content. Where is the Raids rework? Expanded achievements? Runelite-esque plug-ins? COSTUME ROOM FIXES (I kid....somewhat)?

-"Account has been disabled"/login problems for new players: I don't think there's a more effective way to immediately lose a potential new player. I REALLY hope this will be/has been fixed.

-Lack of PvP activity/clans: Alora has been primarily a PvM/ironman server, but even in the past we would have a couple strong clans out there in wildy. This is out of my area of knowledge, but there have been a variety of PVP improvements that have been suggested in the past by experienced PvPers.... and also, what happened to the idea of implementing Deadman Mode a while back? While gimmicky, that could have brought some PvP attention to Alora.

-Punishment system is too harsh: I think the staff team (in the past, myself included) have been a little too harsh on certain infractions. This hasn't affected a significant number of players, but I'm sure a number of passionate players who have been perm muted/banned on their main accounts for "soft" reasons just decide to leave Alora and join another server.

 

Commonly suggested, but don't need to be fixed:

- Eco reset: Just no.

- Adding more content: Alora has the most amount of content out there... quantity has never been the problem.

- More frequent/higher quality events: There are multiple events on FIVE (!) out of seven days a week, with larger monthly/bimonthly competitions with large prizes. We have the best event man in the business. Maybe a few more PvP events are needed, but there are plenty of times when not enough people sign up for them and KP has to cancel (this ties back into the lack of PvP activity).

- More advertising/higher quality marketing to get the word out: Almost everyone involved in the RSPS scene probably already knows about Alora. It's been at the top for literal years now.

[Hinter]

@Death Kid 

 

Im not suggestion something concrete, instead I just wanted to voice my concerns about the current state of the server and the future going forward. I love this server and would hate for it to go downwards. I just mentioned some "possible" suggestions or something to get the discussion started not something that I would really like too see it was more just to get some sort of "talk" about it.

 

And I dont have anything against the suggestions you made I just wanted to lay out the possible problems that could occur with it. Personally I agree with you that gambling would be a great addition aswell as more PVP content etc.

 

I also don't want an ECO reset I just wanted to lay out some options sure even I might not agree with them but might aswell talk about it to see what the players want and to open up a channel for discussion.

[Trii]

I remember back when elite ironman was released, it was the most active the server has been. They tried recreating that with Group ironman but sadly when you get ghosted by your teammates after putting so much time into the account, it's not so motivating to keep playing. After a long while they released the tickets to split from your group but imo it was too late.

Then Realisim released (Which in my opinion is a dead ended game mode), I mean come on Classic is x5 and had it's own economy and it didn't work out. It's only a matter of time for Realisim to face the same fate. 

One thing i'm very wary about when i join a new server is when i see it has so many game modes. It's never pretty it just splits the community. 

So please no more game modes.

"make wilderness more active" I am sorry to say that I've heard that a million times since i joined the server, seen a lot of Wildy updates. It's a hard thing to do when OSRS exists and i don't think i need to explain why. 

 

And how would you increase the gambling community?, You can't force people to gamble and over half the server are ironman and the rest is divided between 3 gamemodes with 2 economies...

[Hinter]

@Trii 

Fair points. I can see why wildy updates might not change players wanting to PVP but might aswell try aslong as it doesn't take up too much development time or to gather all the wildy updates and letting the community vote on which ones to put forward. A polling system like OSRS might also be something to consider (this has probably already been suggested but no harm in mentioning it again). Since you bring up some fair points about the different gamemodes. 

 

Now to the gambling. I don't think you should force players to gamble, but you can make it more accessible to the players by not needing 1000 store tokens for a dice bag or the Gambling CC and letting players create their own CC's. Now this would cause more problems about scamming and alike problems for both players and the staff team. But to compete with atleast some other servers (don't know about most servers but I know about some) where players can buy a dicebag for way cheaper and start their own CC etc. Now Alora does have a very good system for gambling so its safer for the players is a good thing. But a way to increase it COULD be to make it more avaliable to the "masses" with a dicebag maybe being for 100 store tokens or even being able to buy seeds and a dicebag ingame from a store rather than having to have it go through donations. Now this might take away some from donations but it might also increase donations because players donate for a bond and might try and start their own gambling CC or gamble.

 

Now this might not be good at all for the server and it is currently made in away to try and prevent scamming as much as possible which is a good thing, but that could be away to increase the gambling community to get more players. But for that you need to way the pros and cons.

[MT]

After reading through some of the posts and replies, I can see that you no longer support an economy reset. I, too, agree that it it is a bad idea, and I feel that there can be other, better methods of attempting to grow the player base. I can understand that you would want gamble hosting to be more accessible for players, but I do not see a reason to do so if not many people choose to gamble anyways. I do like how wilderness updates are slowly rolling out, but as what @Sassafras has stated, there are plenty of bug fixes and updates that we have been waiting for for several months or so that need to be implemented. While I'm not against weekly updates and such, it would be nice to go back and improve the content that we already have rather than continuing to put out new content. Doing both would a plus, but some priorities need to be set going forward in terms of future updates.

[Real Alan]

I disagree with the eco-rest idea Instead, I highly recommend trying out the realism eco first!  Perhaps you could bring us the first tbow on realism!

[Hinter]

@Real Alan By the "reset" I did not mean "just" an ECO reset but a whole server reset so everyone can start fresh and for new players to be able to compete, but as I have mentioned several times this would not work and alot of players would quit. I just wanted to take it up as an idea and up for discussion as I have also mentioned several times.

[W13]

Yello,

 

Before my actual response I'd like to note and thank the staff. As we all know, they are all constantly doing whatever to keep Alora alive and thriving, and if any staff sees this, hope you know we all appreciate you guys. <|:-)

 

For starters, I think that bringing this up as a topic is overall positive, and that there are always improvements that can be made. However, as of right now, I think the urgency in this post seems slightly unnecessary. For example, In my opinion, an eco reset would be a last ditch, drastic move in an attempt increase the player-base, and should only even be considered if the number of players was to be consistently and seriously lower than in the past.

 

If a staff member were to see this post, and if this is even a possibility, I think it'd be useful to see the actual numbers dealing with the number of players over time(again, I don't know if this is actually possible). This way we'd be able to see how they've changed over time. With this we'd be able to come to a conclusion as a community the regarding the urgency of increasing the player-base, and work together to solve current obvious issues or come up with new ideas to try to increase the number of 'Alorians'. With that being said, it is entirely expected at this time of year for the player-base to dip. People (including me) have school and work, and also simply enjoy other games along with Alora. So, if we're able to see the change in the number of players over time, like in a graph or whatever, we'd be able to tell either that the 'low' number of players is due to expected, normal factors, like the ones above, or, that the 'low' number of players is due to a steady decrease over time, in which case changes would "need" to be made.

 

With all that being said, it's worth mentioning that I think a common narrative surrounding the number of players on any given game is that more players = more fun/more sense of community/better game/you get the point. I personally don't agree with that narrative, especially regarding Alora, not that having more players would be negative, obviously, just that having a small (relative to other games) player base isn't inherently a bad thing. I really feel a strong sense of community in the player-base Alora as a whole, as well as in the bunch of tightly knit smaller communities within it, even though Alora isn't a massively popular game.

 

If you're responding to this post, please keep in mind that everything above is my personal opinion, and if you disagree, I am entirely open to your opinions, assuming you're open to mine. I want to have a constructive, helpful discussion, not an argument. Basically, if you disagree, say so in a way that's productive, if you just try to be argumentative, I simply won't respond.

[Mack]

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