How can we increase the number of MP players?

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DaveK
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How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by DaveK »

This thread arose from a comment by matchbox2022 in a thread about server content.

miss the glory days of 30+ players on a server at a time.

It reminded me of the satisfaction and fun of being part of a community within the Evoverse as opposed to just being part of the Forum community. Since the lack of players found on MP servers seems to be a regular cause of frustration/concern that it is worth starting a new thread dedicated to ideas about how to increase the number of MP players.

Any and all comments, suggestions offers are very welcome :)

My first response was:

I agree that the old, well populated days would be good to see again, but from what I remember it was due in a big way to some dedicated players creating activities that attracted crowds. We had treasure hunts (Marvin), PvP tourneys plus a PvP playground in Sapphire (King Arthur) as well as Last Man standing (in space, in asteroid caves and on planets), some TW vs TW and TW vs ship combat as well. There was also a fairly frequent opportunity for military combat against the Vonari where newer players could join in big(ish) rumbles in WZ's with the advantages of getting experience, military rank points (giving access to the better mil frames) and surviving combat against groups of Vonari for more that a few seconds.

In EL and EM and EMII Clan wars were intended to lead to group combat and system development. On the whole (and a reason for its demise) clan wars ended up de facto as Pizza Delivery Star Systems Maintenance Contract Grinding plus forum based grumbles about enemy system attacks when no defenders were online. I actually found the lonely pizza deliver quite therapeutic but not a popular group activity! :D

Therefore I suggest that we might open a thread to explore the creation of some activities that might attract groups of players to a given server at a given time ...

Options (including the ones mentioned above) are:
  • treasure hunt
    LMS in space
    LMS in caves
    LMS in the atmosphere of a planet
    LMS amongst station modules (hide and seekish)
    PvP arena
    group vs group contests
    system acquisition and control for FDN or ALC groups - a bit like clan wars in EM and EMII but with NPC interference instead of players defending
    system acquisition and control for FDN and ALC groups - one faction defends the system the other tries to take it
    Vonari bashing
    Multiplayer races
    PvP racing knockout contests
Sadly quests are SP only so group quests aren't an option

Given the number of servers and the global spread of players (and related spread of timezones) I think that large groups aren't likely to congregate at random. We can't just grumble or wish for large group activities in MP and expect someone else (the infamous 'they' as in 'what are they doing about ...) to organise things on the off chance that players will turn up. I think it needs volunteers to offer to coordinate an activity and and then the rest of the MP community to support them by turning up, acting as judges or whatever might be needed. At some point we need players to put join the they's

If there's a positive response I'll start a thread for discussion, ideas and offers >:D

Marvin responded:
Marvin wrote:
matchbox2022 wrote:miss the glory days of 30+ players on a server at a time.
Supersaturation is the problem. Even when a server offers a very specific type of game play (pick any of the above options) and the type of game play is listed when scanning servers, often those servers show zero players on line. With hosts (dozens of them) just waiting around for somebody to log on. If you're lucky, one guy either picks from the Lotto or logs on to a known server ... then other players, seeing somebody on that one server, join in. One by one.
So now it's over to the forum members ...

Do we think that it's worth putting a bit (or a lot) of effort to resurrect a well populated MP Evoverse?

If so, what are you suggestions or comments about how it can be done?

:D
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Re: MP Server Features Survey

Post by Marvin »

matchbox2022 wrote:miss the glory days of 30+ players on a server at a time.
Supersaturation is the problem. Even when a server offers a very specific type of game play (pick any of the above options) and the type of game play is listed when scanning servers, often those servers show zero players on line. With hosts (dozens of them) just waiting around for somebody to log on. If you're lucky, one guy either picks from the Lotto or logs on to a known server ... then other players, seeing somebody on that one server, join in. One by one.
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Re: MP Server Features Survey

Post by DaveK »

Marvin wrote:
matchbox2022 wrote:miss the glory days of 30+ players on a server at a time.
Supersaturation is the problem. Even when a server offers a very specific type of game play (pick any of the above options) and the type of game play is listed when scanning servers, often those servers show zero players on line. With hosts (dozens of them) just waiting around for somebody to log on. If you're lucky, one guy either picks from the Lotto or logs on to a known server ... then other players, seeing somebody on that one server, join in. One by one.
In the G.O.D.'s individuals organised events. This was followed by (lead to?) the creation of a combat space and regular times for PvP and group v group. Perhaps, to get some momentum going, we need some organised events advertised on the forum?

I think that it might be worth starting a new thread and transferring the relevant posts from here - we seem to have 'jacked this thread and hidden this discussion under an title that describes the original poster's interest.

Comments?

:)
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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A lot of these suggestions require players to converge in a server at a specific time, which is ok when you have a large player population, but with the small numbers spread over various countries that play now, this might prove troublesome to organize right out the gate.

Maybe we start with something a little more individual. I had already been toying around with the idea of organizing a PvP tournament for Ghost Fleet, but we could take the same principles and just implement them on a larger scale. We could create digital fliers and promote it across various relevant venues (Here, Craigslist, space sim forums, Facebook groups etc.). We make brackets and have sign ups, stipulate criteria (i.e. have to use same ship frame, no jumping during combat, 2 out of 3 wins, etc. ), then let the competitors complete their matches on their own time and report the results to the forum until we've gone through all the tournament rounds and a winner emerges. We could maybe even get fancy and creative, and figure out something to offer to the victor.

This way we not only foster interaction between players on an immediately realistic scale by placing the event in their own timeframes, but we also reach out to non-players with the promotion flier and entice newcomers to purchase and play. Win for us, win for Vice. If it is successful it could open the door to more cohesive multiplayer events, and if it is not, there's no real huge loss of time and energy to anyone.

Food for thought.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by robberer »

What i can imagine to populate a server MP is to show the number of player logged in to a server before connecting to the server. If one can read : Orion Sigma (3 players online) he will most probably log in to this server too. Right now we can't see which server has an player or more.

Maybe an "official server" could help too. I prefer official servers (if available) over private hosted servers.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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robberer wrote:What i can imagine to populate a server MP is to show the number of player logged in to a server before connecting to the server. If one can read : Orion Sigma (3 players online) he will most probably log in to this server too. Right now we can't see which server has an player or more.

Maybe an "official server" could help too. I prefer official servers (if available) over private hosted servers.
You can see player info (names rather than just how many) when you check a server with a right click. :)
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by robberer »

DaveK wrote:You can see player info (names rather than just how many) when you check a server with a right click. :)
Didn't knew that, thanks. But to complicated to get an quick overview if you ask me and it is Non-intuitive. Intuitive would be to left click once to get the info or at least display a hint for the user that he can right-click to get server info.

What I meant was to display player count appended to the server name.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by DaveK »

robberer wrote:
DaveK wrote:You can see player info (names rather than just how many) when you check a server with a right click. :)
Didn't knew that, thanks. But to complicated to get an quick overview if you ask me and it is Non-intuitive. Intuitive would be to left click once to get the info or at least display a hint for the user that he can right-click to get server info.

What I meant was to display player count appended to the server name.
1: choose public server list
2: right click on your favourite server
3: read the names of all pilots logged on.
4: rinse and repeat for each server (usually less than a handful) in order of decreasing position in your popularity list

Is that really too complicated?

If the server list just shows a number logged on, then you might miss one (or more) of your mates if you just log onto the most populated server, so you'll probably check the servers anyway. In the past the number logged on was shown, but if no-one was on then players were not tempted to be the first. Result was no-one logged on because no-one was logged on because ... Vice removed the population info to try to attract players to log on, but having no access to the info was thought to be a step too far so the present system was introduced.

And you only have to do it once for the playing session.

:)
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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SolarWarden wrote:A lot of these suggestions require players to converge in a server at a specific time, which is ok when you have a large player population, but with the small numbers spread over various countries that play now, this might prove troublesome to organize right out the gate.

Maybe we start with something a little more individual. I had already been toying around with the idea of organizing a PvP tournament for Ghost Fleet, but we could take the same principles and just implement them on a larger scale. We could create digital fliers and promote it across various relevant venues (Here, Craigslist, space sim forums, Facebook groups etc.). We make brackets and have sign ups, stipulate criteria (i.e. have to use same ship frame, no jumping during combat, 2 out of 3 wins, etc. ), then let the competitors complete their matches on their own time and report the results to the forum until we've gone through all the tournament rounds and a winner emerges. We could maybe even get fancy and creative, and figure out something to offer to the victor.

This way we not only foster interaction between players on an immediately realistic scale by placing the event in their own timeframes, but we also reach out to non-players with the promotion flier and entice newcomers to purchase and play. Win for us, win for Vice. If it is successful it could open the door to more cohesive multiplayer events, and if it is not, there's no real huge loss of time and energy to anyone.

Food for thought.
Some very good points!! I agree that jumping in at the (very) deep end would be unwise. Over the years several ideas have been developed, starting with the small and simple and evolving into major events. For those who are interested, I've tracked down some of the MP event threads from earlier times. Below is a list of links to some previous threads (from the old starwraith forum) that might get something kickstarted or at least let people see what has been suggested before:

Nov 2015 - Making Multiplayer back to life: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... n+standing

Dec 2013 - Evochron Free Hunt Society - and LMS tournament organizing page: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... n+standing

June 2013 - Fleet Battles (Brainstorming): http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... n+standing

Sep 2012 - Pvp Tournament: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... n+standing

And finally to give some ideas about how LMS, treasure hunts might be organised:

Oct 2011 - Taking video footage of LMS competition: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... d+cave+LMS

I am definitely NOT suggesting that previous discussions should be sanctified, but the ideas discussed might get a few brain cells churning and save a few wheel re-inventions, though re-inventing the wheel can help cement a team of organisers! :D

:)
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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DaveK wrote:
robberer wrote:
DaveK wrote:You can see player info (names rather than just how many) when you check a server with a right click. :)
Didn't knew that, thanks. But to complicated to get an quick overview if you ask me and it is Non-intuitive. Intuitive would be to left click once to get the info or at least display a hint for the user that he can right-click to get server info.

What I meant was to display player count appended to the server name.
1: choose public server list
2: right click on your favourite server
3: read the names of all pilots logged on.
4: rinse and repeat for each server (usually less than a handful) in order of decreasing position in your popularity list

Is that really too complicated?
Maybe "complicated" was not the right adjective, but as I mentioned in another thread. English in not my native language.

But your point 4 is what i've meant. "rinse and repeat". That is tedious to me. I play another MP game since a "long" time. EGS "Empyrion galactic survival" and i know from my experience the playerbase is mostly concentrated on the offical server and 97% off the private servers are empty. Why ? If you ask me, just because everybody can see in a wink who is where. This concentrates player on a central point without thinking about where to log in. And personally, I'm not interessted in WHO is online, I want to know where I can meet the most people.

Not complicated, but tedious.

Complicated is to organize events to attract players to be online.
DaveK wrote: If the server list just shows a number logged on, then you might miss one (or more) of your mates if you just log onto the most populated server, so you'll probably check the servers anyway.
When I have a mate to play with we both know where to play or we chat beforehand where to play. I don't need a server info for that one.
DaveK wrote: In the past the number logged on was shown, but if no-one was on then players were not tempted to be the first. Result was no-one logged on because no-one was logged on because ... Vice removed the population info to try to attract players to log on, but having no access to the info was thought to be a step too far so the present system was introduced.


And you only have to do it once for the playing session.

:)
OK, I didn't knew that, but i shows to me that I'm to far offtopic with my concerns. Anyway , someone has to always be the first ;) to log onto a server.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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Please don't get me wrong ... you're not off topic at all. :D

One of the magic things about Vice's games is that he listens to the community and works hard to give us what we want ... as long as the reasons are good and the explanation clear and there is popular support. 'Logged on server' numbers used to be available but were taken off for good reasons (see my post above) ... if you want then back then you need to offer equally as good or even better reasons. If other people agree with you and comment then there's a good chance that it could be reintroduced in a future update.

I'm just exploring the reasons that you have for wanting to see this change. As you've just said, when you're going to play an agreed session with mates it doesn't matter - but what about when you've decided to get an hour or two in and want to see if anyone you know is online?

I'd love to see more active MP. The problems we need to overcome are the world wide spread of players and the relatively small number of players (compared to the big production teams with $$$K for advertising). Attractive group activities are one possibility. MP-only solo or group activities are another. For example I think that MP versions of quests would be very attractive if the problems could be overcome. Having a single public server might help, but when we are getting MP for free because of the generosity of some enthusiastic players we can hardly start telling people they can't host a server! I don't really see that putting the number of logged on players in the main server list is going to make a big difference since the info can be found in less than a minute with a few mouse clicks ;) I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise though :D
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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DaveK wrote:Please don't get me wrong ... you're not off topic at all. :D

One of the magic things about Vice's games is that he listens to the community and works hard to give us what we want ... as long as the reasons are good and the explanation clear and there is popular support. 'Logged on server' numbers used to be available but were taken off for good reasons (see my post above) ... if you want then back then you need to offer equally as good or even better reasons. If other people agree with you and comment then there's a good chance that it could be reintroduced in a future update.

I'm just exploring the reasons that you have for wanting to see this change. As you've just said, when you're going to play an agreed session with mates it doesn't matter - but what about when you've decided to get an hour or two in and want to see if anyone you know is online?

I'd love to see more active MP. The problems we need to overcome are the world wide spread of players and the relatively small number of players (compared to the big production teams with $$$K for advertising).
I understand you and that the current mechanism is practicable (for you) with the 7 public servers that are available right now. In the worst case still 14 clicks to find your mate or to get an overview. If you could see that only 2 of the 7 servers are populated only 4 clicks at max are necessary to get the desired result. Don't get me wrong, i like that we can see who is online, most other MP games don't offer this functionality.

But as you said, this works because the game has not a great playerbase, maybe because of to less advertising. And this game really deserves more attention. With more players the server count will raise too. Right now i've checked EGS, a game that is still alpha, and only has 5 developers as far as i know. There 2229 servers online. Without seeing the player count (and sorting by player count) it would be a pain to find a well populated server :D

I guess, and it's just a guess, most people don't want to check all servers before starting to play MP.

And in the "Making Multiplayer back to life" thread i can see i'm not alone with this feature wish.
DaveK wrote: Attractive group activities are one possibility. MP-only solo or group activities are another. For example I think that MP versions of quests would be very attractive if the problems could be overcome. Having a single public server might help, but when we are getting MP for free because of the generosity of some enthusiastic players we can hardly start telling people they can't host a server! I don't really see that putting the number of logged on players in the main server list is going to make a big difference since the info can be found in less than a minute with a few mouse clicks ;) I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise though :D
With "official server" i didn't meant a single server and then nothing else. But it could make the decision easier for some people (like me) to chose which server to join.

Last but not least, i'd love to see MP quest too. We could even write our own quests and publish them to Vice so they get included in the main game and every server would have the quests available. That would be a great addition to the possibilitys we have right now in MP.

In addition to quest i would like to see, well paid, MP contracts too. Contracts that can't be done alone . Not because they are damn hard to master, but they need the involvement of more than one player. E.g.

PvP:

PvP time races. Winner gets the money.
Find animal probes on a planet, the first who delivers gets the money

PvE (coop):
Mine 250 paladium, 250 Metal and deliver them to different stations, in different systems which are at least 4 systems away from each other. Delivery timespan of both have to be max 30 seconds. the players then have to coordinate their delivery in a specific moment in time. Every participant gets the money.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by DaveK »

:D Marvin is the go to guy for quest questions. Vice is the go to guy for all things programming (and nearly everything else! 8) ) Perhaps they can chip in with why quests have to be SP only or whether it would be possible to have separate SP and MP versions of quests

By an 'official server' I didn't mean limiting MP to one server only - just that having one server designated (perhaps by mutual agreement of the server provider and Vice) as a group activity server it might make it easier to set events up.

I like the idea of group only contracts. The multi-waypoint Mil contracts in warzones are in reality group contracts, unless you are one of the elite of the elite combat pilots. Perhaps a contract might specify two or more simultaneous but separated requirements to ensure that they are doable by groups and not by super-solo pilots (e.g. take down two separate targets (e.g a Vonari cap ship plus a distant Vonari fighter group)

There seems to be so much potential for MP. I think that unless the community is willing to chip in to realise that potential it'll probably remain wishful thinking. I'm happy to help coordinate but it's more than a one player job to make it happen! :D

Exciting though!

:)
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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While developing a couple of the original quests, IIRC I never bothered to ask Vice why quests* were now restricted to SP. He will need to chime in on that one ... as well as the reason behind the way MP servers are currently listed (as opposed, for example, to the type of listing in Mount & Blade). As for contracts requiring more than one pilot, I can't think of any which can't be accomplished by a single hot-shot Buck Rogers but, for the rest of us, taking on seven or more enemy ships ... or, most especially, taking down an enemy space station ... requires teamwork.


* I've only once used the quest engine in either Mercenary or Legends (I forget which) as a means of promoting competition between players. That was for a road rally ... which was complicated to script and, unfortunately, wasn't received very well. :P
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by Vice »

To help address the issue of multiplayer quests and why the system is/was designed around single player exclusively, here are some excerpts from a design document I posted for the testing team about two years ago during development (this was written before the game was released, so it's referring to future plans):

"The old quest system has been scrapped and the plan is to replace it with a new system that is not bound by the game's internal contract/mission system. Instead, the new quest system will be designed to operate entirely on its own without any contract-based or other player dependencies. One significant difference in this approach is that the system is designed to work exclusively in single player, freeing it up from the confines of having to use the game's multiplayer contract/mission structure and instead, allowing it to operate entirely independently for many new and unique options. This also means the objectives and events are now specific to the player on the quest. Without interference from or dependencies on other players to complete fixed contract objectives, the new quest system is now open to having branching structures with more complex stages, objectives, and effects. The player on the quest can now complete things like travelling to a waypoint within a time limit, following either a winning or a losing path within a quest, and/or complete certain tasks on their own time and in their own ways."


Why wouldn't the system work in multiplayer?

"...there is no synchronizing between [players] because of the inherent freedom required to operate the new quest system. If there was any synchronizing, attributes like time limits, winning/losing paths, teleporting, etc, etc, would/could apply for one player, but not the other and/or adversely effect the other player's progress/status. If the system were just binary for win/lose for a contract as with the old system, then it wouldn't matter much. But since the new system can have multiple stages, multiple pathways, individual time limits, and player-specific events/requirements, etc, it's not practical to try and link those systems to a set of dependencies that would break one or more for one or more players.

For example, if a time limit to a destination applies, one player can trigger the event at the location while the other just waits at the destination to complete the objective. No point, risk, or much of a gameplay reward. The same is true for many other planned event types as well. Either they break, can be done through shortcuts because of multiple participating entities, or one player goes one way while the other goes another. It just wouldn't work without severe limitations being forced on the system (and the players), which really shouldn't apply if it's to provide the kind of diverse and [wide array] of options players have been requesting."



Another point to consider is that some of the objectives mentioned are actually in the game now in one form or another. Or at a minimum, can be largely facilitated by the existing freeform design structure. So changing some objectives slightly or adding what largely already exists would not likely have a significant impact on the volume of online public anonymous multiplayer (the vast majority seem to play on private servers or LAN). Other objectives have not been added and/or should probably be avoided due to exploit risks. For some specifics relating the former and latter mentioned in this thread:

- PvP timed races > PvP sequential racing is available now in the trade console and can be set up between two or more players. Players could arrange an award among them, paid from the losing player(s) to the winning player. So it's possible to set something like this up now. Including some kind of automatic payment by the game would likely result in players looping races with one player winning them over and over again while the others sit back or do other things, then the winner splits the free money with the other players (or keeps it). So this kind of option is generally set up to be among players rather than providing some kind of automatic payment which is the kind of thing that has lead to exploit problems in the past (which were later changed or removed by player request).

- PvE (coop) > There are certainly a number of PvE coop options in the game now. Including the ability for one player to hire another player to take out hostiles or recover resources (with an arranged payment from the hiring player to the hired player upon completion). Not sure if mining race scenarios with time limits would help much, there is already a pronounced time limited coop objective in place, which could potentially be expanded on. Just not sure it would do much for online public multiplayer interest.

DaveK covered the reasons for the public server listing system approach pretty well.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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Vice wrote:DaveK covered the reasons for the public server listing system approach pretty well.
OK, that maybe explained the approche well, BUT, it's not working. Time is changing, and player expectations are changing. I've looked the last month every time i log in. NOTHING, no player at all. I've logged in anyway onto diverse servers, mostly Orion Sigma, for hours, 8 hours at the maximum, NOTHING. So where are the mates DaveK is looking for ?

AND there is the fact that "nobody" except those, who got the info in the forum, knows that a "right click" provides more information ??

I repeat myself, if one (especially newbies) look to the server list and has no info, he WILL probably not have a look a second time. As for myself i'm short of giving up to check the server each and every time. Right now i play this game a lot. And start the game a lot. Each time i have to do this right click procedures, i lose some of the motivation to do so (checking) and i tried to be online for a long time.

This is getting old at some point and will result in that i will stuck in single player. The game runs fine without a server. I like it anyway ;)

-----------------

What could be a solution ?

Maybe an online page where MP stats are published ? Which server has the highest probability to find active players ? Most logged in users, highest fluctuation of players ? A poll ? I don't know.

EDIT: And on top of this it feels that there is some penalty in MP. At least for military missions. In SP i get 7 NPC mates who help me in a mission. In MP only 4. So why should i risk my ass in MP (when no player is online) when SP is much more easier ?
Last edited by robberer on Thu Feb 02, 2017 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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OK, that maybe explained the approche well, BUT, it's not working. Time is changing, and player expectations are changing. I've looked the last month every time i log in. NOTHING, no player at all. I've logged in anyway onto diverse servers, mostly Orion Sigma, for hours, 8 hours at the maximum, NOTHING.
I'm not interested in arguing about it. The reasons are stated and seeing a bunch of zeros across the list won't inspire you to sign on any more than signing in on a server to check for players, will it? It didn't in the past. And if you sign in to check for players, at least you are then online where other players can find you, rather than just checking the list and leaving with no connection to multiplayer at all. The best approach to joining up with players in the public online section of multiplayer is to simply sign in to a desired server whenever you want to play and stay on as you play the game. The longer you do that, the better your odds of having another player eventually sign in to join you.

The right click option was a later addition by player request, the more effective approach is to have a player sign in to a server and at least stay for a while, providing more of an opportunity for an encounter.

Information could be one approach, but again, it's the -action- of signing in and actually being on a server that results in multiplayer gameplay. Not seeing a list of zeros nor viewing lists.

One approach that might help (as DaveK mentions and offers suggestions for in his opening post) would be some kind of community based consolidation effort, where a clear direction is provided for players interested in public online multiplayer. That is, one particular server, a range of times to meet that players are aware of in advance, where to meet for each faction, and even arranged gameplay events (CvC battles, build operations, races, trades, negotiations, new player training, etc, etc, etc).

Edit for reply to your additional edit:
EDIT: And on top of this it feels that there is some penalty in MP. At least for military missions. In SP i get 7 NPC mates who help me in a mission. In MP only 4. So why should i risk my ass in MP (when no player is online) when SP is much more easier ?
That's exactly what multiplayer is designed for, to have human players help fill in the NPC population for such encounters. The challenge can be a bit higher in some scenarios in multiplayer (depending on objective and location) with the goal of having other human players joining in to help out. But you can certainly still do them solo (and many do for the added challenge). By the same token, several objectives are easier in multiplayer (some with or without other players), so are also available if you are looking for something easier.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by robberer »

OK, i'm out on this subject. Don't worry, i don't will bother any of you again with this topic. Any comment to my last "edit" ?

"EDIT: And on top of this it feels that there is some penalty in MP. At least for military missions. In SP i get 7 NPC mates who help me in a mission. In MP only 4. So why should i risk my ass in MP (when no player is online) when SP is much more easier ?"

If there wouldn't be a penalty in MP i would be very VERY more often in MP. But i want to progress in games and i like to go the easiest way.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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Yup, I edited my post to answer your edit:

That's exactly what multiplayer is designed for, to have human players help fill in the NPC population for such encounters. The challenge can be a bit higher in some scenarios in multiplayer (depending on objective and location) with the goal of having other human players joining in to help out. But you can certainly still do them solo (and many do for the added challenge). By the same token, several objectives are easier in multiplayer (some with or without other players), so are also available if you are looking for something easier.

You are welcome to continue to discuss this, even if we disagree, I appreciate the dialogue and exchange as long as it doesn't dip into forum rule violations. And just because I may post a counter point, doesn't mean I'm not considering your point(s). If you have other suggestions or requests to help try to build online public multiplayer interest, feel free to share them here.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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:o Try taking down a well-defended space station with only AI help.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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"That's exactly what multiplayer is designed for, to have human players help fill in the NPC population for such encounters."

Uhh, then i did everything wrong the last 20 years. For ME, MP is to meet other people in a game, to discuss things, to help out if thing are getting to evil. But in the End i liked the lone wolf role. Even in MP. Over and out.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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robberer wrote:Uhh, then i did everything wrong the last 20 years. For ME, MP is to meet other people in a game, to discuss things, to help out if thing are getting to evil. But in the End i liked the lone wolf role. Even in MP. Over and out.
Nah, nothing you would have done wrong :) You just cited an example of a coop scenario where human players can improve your chances for success in an objective designed to be more challenging in multiplayer to accommodate the involvement of other human players. Other gameplay options in multiplayer have different criteria, sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult, sometimes the same. It depends on which objectives are referred to and where they take place.

Probably the most effective approach to building interest in the online public multiplayer option would be what DaveK suggests in his opening post. Namely, arranged 'activities that attract crowds'.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by robberer »

Alighty then, i'll cool my mind down and tomorrow we will see what other ideas will come around.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

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??? I'm not much for PvP because I'm not that good at PvP. Which is one reason why I do my best to keep IM (our guild) together ... strength in numbers. As far as I know, there's currently only one player who logs on every now and then as a solo adversary. And, according to one of our guild members, this guy is good. He (or she) is the latest in a short line of solo players who have, over the course of the Evochron history, made MP an interesting proposition.
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Re: How can we increase the number of MP players?

Post by Arei »

I don't really know what to do regarding MP, when starting up the game I often right click on servers to check if there is people logged, but I have yet to actually connect to one. As a pure IND explorer, MP doesn't appeal me like SP where I can explore space quietly, taking my time, without having to be warry of my surroundings except in hostile alien space. I can also store my tons of equipement safely without being worried about the station getting destroyed (I saw something changed in that regard though, I need to read the latest changelogs carefully).

PVP, PVE contracts and fighting in general is not really appealing to me because I'm both bad at fighting and generally peaceful even towards obviously aggressive npc/players; I'd rather just flee than bother with fighting.

I'll try to motivate myself and log on a server next time I see people on it, but I doubt it will do much to help the issues mentioned in this thread. ><
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