How can we increase the number of MP players?

[DaveK]

I wonder how many groups of players get together on LAN setups or 'private' servers.

If you get to know a group of like minded players via the forum, you can arrange a mutually suitable time, server and location to meet. (for example like Marvin and the IM Guild). If you let the forum know when and where you're meeting up then you'd be creating an attractive opportunity to get others to join you. Since gaining Mil ranking (and hence access to better Mil frames) is probably one of the harder things to achieve solo, advertising opportunities for group combat against the dreaded V might help kick start things.

One thing I like about the game is that I can play solo in SP and MP as well as doing coop stuff in MP, which includes research and experimental stuff like weapons and shield testing ... a situation where an assistant is vital for evaluating the effect of cannon fire and different shield options.

[Major Grubert]

If you want players in mp

you need players in sp

you need players

you need players ? dont wait for them, they are not gonna find this forum and this topic and join mp in a minute...nope

in 2017 if you need to attract peeps you need to catch them where they are

where are they ? on youtube, on facebook, on twitter, on reddit, on social media...

for example, if typing "evochron legacy" in facebook : 0 results

but there are maybe dozens of groups about space game, space, games, mp games, and so on...

so

someone should maybe dedicate some time to colonize those social media space for advertise, recruit, just say "hey you know this awesome space game ? look that video it's awesome [youtube link]", and so on...

you can imagine all kind of game in MP PVP quest tresure hunt and so on... but if nobody first KNOW about there is a game, so, you'll still imagine a lot, alone, and wait...

Since some years space games get a little more hype, star citizen comes out, peoples knows about elite games, etc... but many of these players are a little disappointed, some other games are really expensive, some other are just plane in space, some you can't land on planets, some you have no fights, blablabla... so there is many way to convince peeps that EL is (and indeed it is because i say it, lol, i dont wanna play another space game) the best space game around

ok, the learning curve is maybe a little slower, maybe, but who said flying in space is something easy.. ? but MP can be very helpful about that learnin curve...

dunno, it's just my 2 cents

it's a damn long time i dont play, just can buy EL some days ago, was in deep sh** for many many month before, no time to play, no money to put in video game, now it's ok, EL was one of my first "pleasure spending" in a long time, i'm very happy about your game vice, really

gotta rebuild my old blog about EM and continue with EL

[DaveK]

Interesting viewpoint; give me a little time to think it through

[Marvin]

We had one player join IM today on Starbuck's server ... but it turned out to be somebody we already knew. One other non-IM player was on G2 but he was playing as an Indy and evidently preferred to conduct his operations alone, having not yet tested his wings in combat. (Not that combat is something to shy away from or be embarrassed about just because other players are on the server and can read about your untimely deaths ... a fact I personally demonstrated more than once today.) So, if anyone wants to engage the enemy as part of a group, he can join us any Sunday from noon to 2pm, West Coast time.

[matchbox2022]

When school isn't notoriously busy for me I'm usually on.

So that'll be most sundays from now on, afternoon to evening

I agree though, some more youtubing and making physical pages on facebook would be a good long overdue start if we have over 100 players.

[Major Grubert]

Hi all again,

soc media strategy for that kind of goal

targeting :

facebook
faceboook page
youtube
pinterest
instagram
tumblr
Google - youtube - blogger

--

as a player you could create a dedicated fb account, using your call sign from EL or something like "Grubert Evoverse", then start subscribe gaming groups (dedicated or not to space game, space, gaming, simulation, and so on..), then comment, init talk about evochron, share pictures, whatever... even in groups dedicated to other space games

create facebook page dedicated to Evochron Legacy and link it wherever you can, make it live, publish pictures and report (kind of blogging) every 2 or 3 days

Google, creating a gmail account is a good idea, it opens all google services, blogger is the blog google platform and pretty much well ranked in google results if keep alive about 1 or 2 news a week, plus the google address is useful to open all other accounts with a dedicated address, mine is major.grubert.evoverseATgmailDOTcom for exemple, it open the youtube account as well...

create youtube (google) account, same way of the fb account, example "Grubert Evoverse" or "space game fan" or "space simulation fan guy"... and publish at least a video every week, comment other videos about same target (video games, space sim, other evochron video, other games videos as well...), publish those videos on the fb account and fb page

pinterest is about pictures and interest, so, create account with kind of "space game fan" (same way as others), and publish pictures with keywords, find other account in the same way, space travel, nasa, space pictures, space sim, space draw/painting, whatever... comment, "like", share, collect, an so on

instagram works pretty much the same way as pinterest but have more users, and is more dedicated to mobile uses, send pictures, keywords, share, comment, link to other account which look the same way (you know, space game, space sim, nasa news, blablabla...)

tumblr is old but very popular, more graphic and creative peeps here, share large screen shot, find community's dedicated to space, gaming, space sim...comment share like



___

dedicate one day to one soc media is enough (Monday fb, Tuesday fb page, and so on), polish details, keywords, links, out looking, contacts, answering comments...

not a single person have to do all that in the same time, but if some players can dedicate some time to some soc media and keep it alive the results could be real
no use to open 250 pinterest account and let them die, better open one and keep it alive every 2 days with a coherent and polished news, same for other soc media

___

i'm gonna do some of the duty, me to i want more peeps in the new evoverse, i think the game deserve it, and i know this this "strategy" works really fine

my 3 cents of the day

[DaveK]

dedicate one day to one soc media is enough (Monday fb, Tuesday fb page, and so on), polish details, keywords, links, out looking, contacts, answering comments...

not a single person have to do all that in the same time, but if some players can dedicate some time to some soc media and keep it alive the results could be real
no use to open 250 pinterest account and let them die, better open one and keep it alive every 2 days with a coherent and polished news, same for other soc media

___

i'm gonna do some of the duty, me to i want more peeps in the new evoverse, i think the game deserve it, and i know this this "strategy" works really fine

my 3 cents of the day

I'm commenting here as a player who has enjoyed playing Vice's games for over 7 years so far

As a player who enjoys MP even if I'm flying solo, I really appreciate your intention to create a presence on social media.

There's just one issue that I can foresee, for me at least; time

I run a website for the local Parish Council and know first hand that it takes time collecting material and updating pages to keep it fresh. More importantly it's a long term commitment. I don't have enough playing time as I'd like and I can forsee that the collection and primping of picture/videos/blog material would take and hour or more ... daily. The obvious solution is to see if we can gather a team to share the load plus asking for written snippets plus screenshots of interesting stuff from the wider player base. How long do you think you'll be spending each day?

Vice is very busy creating the game ... the beta team is busy testing the new stuff ... is there anyone out there interested in helping to create and maintain a media presence? Creating material, maintaining one (or more ) of the media accounts, responding to comments

[Major Grubert]

Sorry Davek

I expose all this as a grand scheme including every options...

but one can start small, a screen cap in a pinterest account, this once a week

another can create a fb page and update it same way once or two a week

and so on...

i know that it's taking time to do all this and i don't ask anyone to do it but right now it's the only way i know about how to increase traffic somewhere...

anyone who want to see the game population grow up can do a little thing of all this time to time

i'll do my part

[DaveK]

It'll be interesting to see if any of the present players have any comments or are willing to suggest alternatives or join in making it happen.

[Marvin]

If you're registered at another space-themed forum or website, you might try mentioning Evochron Legacy.

[SeeJay]

Even if I'm not very active at the moment, I do mention Evochron in the Steam forum every now and then.

Both in Space forums like Elite Dangerous and other First Person shooters (lol) ;-)

[Major Grubert]

Since some days i recovered my old blog... still some pictures to find back and some links to repair but the main frame is here and working... (had to manually modify lots of things in the SQL database...)

When the blog will be well stabilized i'll activate other communication channels... slowly but surely

the blog mix Evochron news, space news and adventures of the Major Grubert in the Evoverse...

warning, it's all in french !

[Major Grubert]

created a fan page on FB today also

[Marvin]

I sent the following link to Vice a few days ago, right after I'd discovered its existence.

https://www.reddit.com/r/evochron/

Alas, there are too many "fan sites" for this old body to peruse them all on a regular basis.

[Star King]

In my opinion, we need one server to be in continuous war mode. Which means everywhere you go its hostile. This forces team work and greater participation. All computer generated Navy, AI etc... attack all human ships. No friendlies! If you want to attack a human go ahead but remember that pilot was better as a friend then enemie! Team Speak communication would bring pilots in this community closer.
This guarantees non-stop action. It forces you to build friendly star ports and alliances!
This is my fourth different star wraith game purchase and I am still in close contact with a lot of the pilots who use to play this game everyday. They feel the reason you have more servers (on most nights) then players is because just exploring is boring. You need something more!

[Marvin]

IM has been encroaching on Alliance territory every weekend on G2. We have even built an outpost in Pearl, not something a single Federation pilot should attempt.

[Delta99]

Marvin you should slap an announcement on Discord as soon as you guys are about to go in game or an hour before or something. This needs to be done on a continuous basis and I think you will attract more people in.

[Marvin]

Diana hosts the Discord connection. I have no idea how it works. I just know she can talk on ten different subjects, all during a single combat contract.

[Schmidtrock]

Count me in. I brought Anarchium online today for the community. 35 player slot 24/7 located in Dallas, TX.

I am interested as well in being part of an Evochron evangelism movement.

Perhaps we could hold an interested parties meeting via Teamspeak or such to get this off the ground.

Be excellent!

Regards,

[IND] Schmidtrock

[matchbox2022]

Ill admit it was a pretty good run when the game came back out, but unless it gets a lot more features and basically has a new "coming out" I don't really see a whole lot of people jumping onto multiplayer.

The best we can do now is schedule a time for people, but a lot of guys just tried the game and moved on so I think that's the primary symptom, that or they enjoy single player too much .

Personally....I still jump on at some point sundays, whether in the morning or evening or what have you....but if I don't see someone on I don't tend to hang around.

Adding people on steam and seeing who's online "kinda" works...but not really either.

To be blunt, the best way is for some kind of system to alert you in single player that multiplayer is "available" and alive (over a certain threshold) and gives you the option to join a server whilst in your singleplayer game.
I was thinking about making a system as part of my mod launcher that "could check for you" so you don't have to load up the whole game.....that way if there's at least one I'd say...oh heck why not. I'm sure many other people would appreciate having the ability to check server levels before launching the game up.

As for implementing that......I don't have a bloody clue how to make a batch file talk to a server and ask hey who's online now.....

If someone here knows a solution I'd welcome it.
Otherwise it's just scheduling.....adding new game features.....more emphasis on teamwork quests / contracts (multiplayer exclusives). maybe some items could behave different online than off. The problem is also where there ARE things to do....there's still a massive lack of direction in the game. I do miss the feeling of a full server....but "we" brought that feeling, not so much the game. Stations don't feel alive with buying drinks to find out info about something you are looking for or havent heard of, not to mention station management and control in general (especially for any defense / offense operations with other sectors), nor are there MP co-op contracts that MUST be done with humans. So....
Co-op quests would also be nice too.

Big Rant. About to sleep, but hey its just what I think...
Starting off with new quests and that online server "checker" in batch would be a good first step if only I knew how.
However the game checks the list I wish that could be done through the command prompt in windows....doesn't seem too crazy honestly.
Making a dummy player that can login as your "placeholder" would be nice too, and once another person does the same, the batch file (or the game if a monitor mode were a feature) can check the server, see that you're on and s/he is connected and say hey!! want to load!?!

[Marvin]

The first MP game I ever played was the original Combat Flight Simulator. On the Microsoft Zone. At that time there was pretty much no place else to go where you could fly against other real live players. Star Wars had a space MP game but the MP part was in open space, leaving few options for tactical play. And even fewer options for mods. CFS had lots of mods and the Zone. For maybe six months it was the place to go for MP combat.

Then along came IL-whatchamacallit. And CFS dropped popularity faster than a cat skitters across a hot tin roof. And now ... well, take a look at Steam. Peruse the list of MP games. New games. They get all the attention ... until they are no longer new games. Where once you had to buy your candy from the guy selling taffy from a cart, you now have a whole store full of nothing but candy.

[DaveK]

I'm not trying to be negative, just sharing a thought or two.

Any automated checking system would only work like a quick and easy manual checking system in terms of getting you to log into MP. If the automated check finds no-one then you won't log in just as you are saying you don't at present. The MP 'number of players' check only takes a couple of clicks anyway. So the automated checker will only trigger when a pre-arranged group joins and they may not necessarily welcome others if they have their own thing going, though it's nice playing solo in a populated MP game - it just feels cosy!

Is the checker intended to run on a player's machine, periodically firing up EM or EL (if it's not already loaded ) and checking the status of all the servers, issuing an alert if it finds MP players? Or are you thinking of a regular server query only whilst you're playing SP so you can then have a look at the populated servers?

Part of the problem is (and always has been) that the player base is spread around the globe. For example the US players (like Marvin and VIce) are going online at almost midnight in Europe and it's even harder for linking with Ozzy players. Prearranged meets work obviously or if you're lucky enough to live in an region where there are a goodly number of EM/EL players there's a greater chance of finding someone on. There's also the issue that (at least in the past) several player groups have run their own private servers.

I still suspect that the first step is likely to be some arranged activities to attract a core group that can then be used to 'sell' MP to other players and perhaps attract or maintain new players.

[Marvin]

Most PvP and TvT play occurs in an "arena" ... limited space. Although play can be set up at greater distances (for example, deploying a FDN sensor station in Sierra and an ALC sensor stating in Pearl with the objective of taking out each other's sensor), it would still require somebody to organize the event. And enough volunteers to fill out both teams.

[matchbox2022]

Not too crazy if people arent busy and servers are full.

In response to your question about how it would alert people. I was thinking of just basically an application I could launch through batch to ping / ask the servers if anyone is on and give the player list it gives to EL outside on the OS cmd prmt. Could just alt-tab and use that every once and a while or have it automatically do that every so often and play a sound if someone decides to login (above a certain limit) so you aren't totally alone on MP if you decide to jump on. Otherwise I'd be running my game in the background doing real life things and when someone's on I wouldn't know any better.

This way, if someone was on I'd get that "alert" in the OS, and if I feel like playing I could and be confident someone else thought the same thing.

Obviously requires one guy taking the initiative IN-game....but it is known to happen (eg. I usually play on MP when I do just because).

Anything ingame would require Vice doing stuff to it, which I'd personally rather he spend his time on making the gameplay even better if he's working on things.

So as far as that goes, doing that in batch if possible would be ideal as a really, simple mod.

Organizing people on steam and on here works too....

Just that setup would be nice as an add-on where you would know when to jump on at a whim without missing out.

I would be super into making something like that with batch for people and myself, but don't know where to begin as far as asking windows through cmd prompt how to ping servers and get "specific" information. However EL does it when you "right-click a server" that's basically the commands through windows I need to know, whether it uses a server or if there's a way through EL or its server program I have no clue.

After that the rest is pretty easy.

[Marvin]

I'm not sure you could add a "fog-horn" warning via batch file whenever a new player logs on to the server ... but it sounds like a cool idea. For IM's play sessions I usually log on early. If we had an audible warning for new log-ons, I could park my ship some place safe and then take a short snooze on the couch.