Population (September 2020)

Sepphiroth75 · September 2020

Hello,

So i was looking at population numbers and i noticed that we are almost back to September 2019 levels when everyone was waiting for the free to play model to go live.

Broadsword needs our help to increase population but how?

Names · September 2020

Events are pretty common its just the only advertisement is word of mouth so we all need to help do our part and spread the word and for daoc to get somekind of advertisement be it banners on websites or just sponsoring some YouTuber

puter · September 2020

DAoC is advertised on social media. They just don't have the $ to make video ads like other MMOs. The game is old. It's never going to attract a large crowd of players without heavy modernization (i.e. DAoC 2). A Steam release with a slightly less restricted EC model will help. However, keeping those players will require more frequent bug fixes and event based updates that rotate through play styles and possibly underused content. That would require an active development team though.

Lff · September 2020

Add pendragon bracer (4000 spend) and a statute to each realm winner to most rps earned during OCTOBER to the new event. get people actually RVRing. (and ban cheaters if any)

Boduke · September 2020

I didn't vote because there is nothing they can do at this point, the community is the games biggest problem because 80+% of it still wants to play this game like it's 2002.

zerging with nothing to fight cutting ports to add more time to enemy's returning to action.

Than add in the fact that most people in this day and age are more interested/used to fast pace single/small group combat games.

it means as someone said unless drastic changes to allow all play styles and speed up fights are made there is no revival coming.

Solicfear1 · September 2020

Right now the best thing Broadsword can do for rvr action is to make it instant. NF is to big for a low population and needs to be cut in half or just use the EV zone in order make it viable for players to engage in fights at all time zones.

I honestly don't think you'll ever see the numbers coming back to DAoC that we all hoped for when EC was launched. Broadsword had the power to change it around but made it flop with awful restirctions at the beginning and didn't change it till it was to late and now paying the full price with a low populated server. The new server is probably miles away and if they ever get this on steam, I can't see a huge impact there unless they do some sort of a event that encourages people to come back.

Sepphiroth75 · October 2020

Good point Solic. The frontier is way to big. The island which is cool just takes away from my land rvr. Also i want river boats in the main lands that can take me to the relic gates.

Also i wish they would make a new frontier but no way BS could manage that with their small staff.

audizmann · October 2020

I have a good idea for a patch to bring back some players, but it's pointless to suggest anything without Broadsword asking for it first.

I have ideas for solo action as well. There is so much potential, but there is very little support for new ideas from people in general. People don't want ideas, they *just* want more players, but fail to see that maybe you need one to get the other.

I'm looking forward to the new server (having been completely inactive 4-5 years), but I am not excited about any classic ruleset. I'm looking for a good "foundation" on which to play DAoC (and I don't see Ywain ever fulfilling this role). The promise of new patches/adjustments have always been a huge positive part for me, and I wish we could find one solution that everyone can live with and then move forward from there.

Shoke · October 2020

I hope they find the patch level that will provide the best daoc possible, and that is not Classic.

Somewhere after ToA before 2015 is probably the sweet spot.

And focus on fixing bugs, slightly tweaking classes and putting a huge focus on events is how that server's gonna thrive.

Quiggley · October 2020

EC should be completely free with the only restriction being no bps awarded.

Aenvar_Cantlos · October 2020

I voted for events, even though I like the current rythm I just hope they don't stop doing them.

BloodOmen · October 2020

Events aren't enough to save a dying game and as others have pointed out, it's not the age of the game, that isn't an excuse... look at Everquest - still has a very healthy playerbase at peak hours and it's much older than DAOC. The issue is there just isn't enough going in to keeping DAOC interesting. I understand that resources are likely an issue for development but the lack of resources shouldn't hinder creativity entirely.

Names · October 2020

I see new and returning plays all the time and its up to us to keep them playing BS can only do so much. I mean they oready made it easier(may not be perfect but prettyclose ) for new/returning plays if we want this game to keep going and build up a population we as players need to make that happen not BS as they cant play with thos players and help them like we can. So take the initiative and do your part to save this game. My guild in mid (sentella) helped a ton of new players and most of them still play or are coming back after irl problems we were known for our friendliness and helpfulness even helping thos players to find the right guild that fit therw play stile

puter · October 2020

Names wrote: »

I see new and returning plays all the time and its up to us to keep them playing BS can only do so much. I mean they oready made it easier(may not be perfect but prettyclose ) for new/returning plays if we want this game to keep going and build up a population we as players need to make that happen not BS as they cant play with thos players and help them like we can. So take the initiative and do your part to save this game. My guild in mid (sentella) helped a ton of new players and most of them still play or are coming back after irl problems we were known for our friendliness and helpfulness even helping thos players to find the right guild that fit therw play stile

That's only partly true. We, the community, can help new players gear up and learn how to play their respective class(es) so they can be competitive in RvR. However, we can't keep them interested in the game. That's up to the development team. The reality is DAoC hasn't fundamentally changed over the years. PvE has always been stale in DAoC with respect to other MMOs as the majority of it can simply be zerged down (these days you don't even need to do that). There's very little mechanics involved with most encounters and they can be skipped altogether with the application of alternative currencies. RvR also hasn't changed over the years. It can still be boiled down to: kill other players, capture keeps / relics, and gain realm rank. There's no variety outside the classes you play with and against. Don't get me wrong, the meta in RvR has evolved over time due to additional classes, abilities, and general gear creep which has kept the game interesting for some players. However, it's very clear due to the low population that the game itself isn't interesting enough for a larger playerbase.

BloodOmen wrote: »

Events aren't enough to save a dying game and as others have pointed out, it's not the age of the game, that isn't an excuse... look at Everquest - still has a very healthy playerbase at peak hours and it's much older than DAOC. The issue is there just isn't enough going in to keeping DAOC interesting. I understand that resources are likely an issue for development but the lack of resources shouldn't hinder creativity entirely.

I'd argue events could help this game. But they can't be the same copy+pasted events from years past. I agree there's a lack of creativity from the developers, specifically regarding RvR objectives as they haven't changed in nearly 19 years. We've reached a point in DAoC history where the current content has been exhausted and there's no new content to keep players interested. Most of us left are addicts. About a third of the players I've interacted with only play DAoC and won't touch another game (across most age groups too). I don't think the developers have much to lose anymore as the players left are clearly complacent with how they operate. My hope is that they add content that is focused on RvR rather than PvE as that's the staple of DAoC.

BloodOmen · October 2020

I think NF needs trimming down in size personally. With such a small playerbase, it seems rather silly to have such a massive frontier when I would argue only 30-40% of the entire thing is ever used (not including keep takes)

BloodOmen · October 2020

Here's what I'd personally do

- Everything below (or above in Nottmoors case) Bold, nGed, Nott - Removed, place realm guards there or just flat out remove the terrain. Castle Excalibur would be moved slightly north and hold both the Strength and Power Relic, same with Grallarhorn Faste and Lamfhota. You can now only take one enemy realm relic (str or power) until the enemy realm relic you have chosen is in your CK, you can then remove the second.

- All relics can be kept in the CK and CK only and the more relics it has, the weaker the keeps natural guards are and outer gates (the rest of the keep would still be full strength, including any guards bought for BP or Gold and the Inner Keep guards)

- Add Random extra port options - Beno Area, Crauchon Area and Bledmeer Area - will port you randomly within 10000 units of the chosen option (can only be used once every 10 minutes)

- Remove the Realm Skill Point cap on Conquest Accounts but give Veteran Accounts 100% Bonus to RP/BP/Gold earned instead, where as free accounts get only 60% of the normal value but have no restrictions otherwise.

- Lower Cash Shop Prices, its a game with a small player base, the focus should be on quantity of purchases, no need to be greedy.

- Increase the maximum charges of alchemy pots (EU servers used to exclusively have barrels that had 100/100 charges in for healing/power pots)

- Remove all BG's except Thidranki, Molvik and Cathal Valley

- Give all classes a mount from level 5 (quest reward perhaps from starting journey) that increases runspeed by 200% in PVE areas only (disabled in Passage of Conflict, Darkness Falls etc)

- Increase Quest EXP earned. Apart from Gaheris the rest of the games focus is PVP, they should be striving to get people out into RVR ASAP (and I'm not talking about the cash shop character boost), you can level fast with a friend or another account to powerlevel you but newer players will likely get sick before they ever experience RVR in full.... just no reason to drag the journey out for a brand new account.

There is other stuff too but meh, it's already becoming a bit much.

BackOfRackhams · October 2020

Keep rp system based on balanced fights and both parties make rps, truth us that most keep fights are complete number bias so becomes pointless to defend.

So you have one zerg that domniates and 1 fg that dominates , just not healthy for the game.

Population (September 2020)

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