Hi,
I would like to suggest that the devs look at ways to retain NEW players.
IMO there is a huge problem with character advancement around level 30 which causes many players to quit.
When you start this game it is great. You build up your buildings and your army and you go about clearing the island and all is good.
Once that has been achieved however it goes down hill very fast and my guess is that 9 out of every 10 players quit.
I would have but for two reasons. 1) I got a gold tower at xmas which allowed me to progress upgrades. 2) I got into a great guild that helped me a lot.
The problems as I see it include:
- You cant advance any of your buildings because they all demand gold and you have none. At that level it was a push to get just one gold mine running. To get the 500 gold coins to upgrade just one building took weeks. Nobody wants to play an empire building game that allows them to upgrade buildings at that frequency.
- You cant go on many adventures because you have no resources. It took me a whole week to gather the troops and resources to go on a single adventure. Why log in if you cant do anything?
- Game mechanics are not clear. For example it had to be explained to me that I needed to set up a bread making production line to be able to gain settlers. I was waiting for them to come in naturally.
- No level advancement. Even though I completed loads of quests I had no advancement because the only way to gain exp is through adventures. (and you arent doing any of them because you cant afford to) This was very frustrating.
- Receiving quests well beyond your level. There are many quests that are presented to low level players that they cant possibly or wont feasibly complete. These ill-thought-out quests serve only to discourage and remind the player that they are not advancing.
My suggestions:
- Apply small amounts of exp to EVERY quest completed. Even if it is 50 exp for completing the find the collectables quest, it keeps people active and makes them feel like they are progressing.
- Make the Bounty Hunter adventure a free adventure that doesn't disappear from your inventory when used. Up the exp it gives to 500. This will get people into the habit of doing adventures and will teach them the mechanics.
- Re-examine the quests around this level.
- Improve the GUI to be clearer for new players. For example the first time I sent a general to an adventure I thought the game was broken. I didn't know that he took 30 mins to get there or that I could see how far away he was by looking at the specialists tab. Make thing like this clearer for novice players and put a window up on the screen for them to see.
Once a player is hooked by this game, they stay hooked. It is great fun and I have not played an online game with such great seasonal events.
The problem is getting them hooked.
I hope this suggestion helps improve the game.