some ideas I have to improve player presence and participation

[Frankie]

Events

allow constant access to events

events should be hosted more frequently if they aren't already (I'm unsure of this. haven't paid much attention as of right now) I remember I used to love playing unholy nation and n-pulse strictly for events. (fun fact: I stole the idea of "chance" from n-pulse and brought it to era) I still enjoy playing era events as well. in fact, it's the only time I ever actually play the game. bring back the event bot! I don't think I have seen it over the past few days I've been lurking on era. I feel like events should be hosted all the time around the clock so there's always something for players to do and fall back on when they are bored.

consider creating new events and revamping old ones that may not be used anymore. they don't have to be complicated. simple things can be just as fun as something like outbreak. look at 'staff abuse.' simple idea, simply executed, and a lot of fun in my opinion. simple events require less resources to develop, and they will help expand variety.

make event coins worthwhile

I already had the :awardguild option put in place a while ago to give players more of an incentive to play team oriented events. this way events like assault don't turn into an LMS with only one winner. this opens up a lot of opportunities for new team events.

I fully believe that the ec shop shouldn't include rare weapons. I see these items in the shop that cost 750 ec. that is extremely unrealistic and pointless. it's very unlikely that anyone will ever be able to afford that. playing 750 events is a challenge in itself let alone winning 750, so why is it there? to taunt players? move these items to the mvp shop.

the ec shop should consist of mostly novelty items, and it won't do any harm to lower the prices to make them more easily accessible because these items won't offer any advantages to players. any weapons in the shop shouldn't pose any significant advantage. for example, gas and the flying bomb. they are perfectly reasonable.

create prizes that only cost 1 - 10 ec that aren't consumables or only have one use. this way you can feel accomplished when you win an event and actually have something worthwhile to buy, collect, and show off. winning one event means nothing these days. so much work is put into winning an event and you get very little in return. it will give players more of an incentive to participate in events if there are a wide variety of affordable prizes to purchase.



Sparring

remove the detrimental aspects of losing a spar

losing shouldn't affect your death count. this is up for debate but I feel like players will be more likely to participate in sparring if they don't run the risk of damaging their k/d ratio. losing will still affect your spar losses stat.

buying revives should be eliminated and it should be standard to respawn outside of the spar level. I was actually the one who created the revive system, and at the time it was a pretty good idea. I feel like now it's unnecessary. this will definitely give people more of an incentive to spar. nobody wants to get warped to the hospital if they lose, and nobody wants to waste money on revives.

remove the $500 fee to reset your spar stats. this is an unnecessary money sink in my opinion. allow players to freely reset their spar stats at no cost at any time.

this is also debatable, but allow for unlimited ammo in spars, or at the very most have it deduct x% slower. so for example, if you have a clip of 16 bullets with a 25% return, when you deplete your clip and reload it will only deduct 12 bullets from your full ammo pool instead of 16. just an idea.

achievements and rewards

- win a spar with a flawless victory
- win a spar with a melee finishing blow
- win a spar with 20hp or below left
- win a spar with a traditional weapon (uzi/hand gun/shot gun)
- win a spar where the enemy bled to death
- win a spar within 10/20/30 seconds
- tie a spar

rewards for losing a spar? maybe you lose a lot of spars, but majority of your losses were a good fight. you only needed one more bullet to win. I think that should count for something. maybe offer a slightly higher ammo return in these cases. just a thought. this idea can definitely be expanded.

make the spar complex a hang out area where people an watch and participate in spars

move the spar complex to where the event house is now. move the event house to where the jail is because that building is rather irrelevant to be so close to unstick me anyway. bring it as close to unstick me as possible.

redesign the spar complex. have the main sparring floor in the main level. place it in the center of the level so players can freely walk around and enter other rooms with different sparring options. this idea is influenced by how unholy nation's town spar is set up. it may seem like a good idea in theory but I will admit it may look bad when actually done. it's worth a try I think.


these are just some thoughts I had that I think will improve player participation in the game. feel free to offer constructive criticism. you are free to disagree with me and even to expand these ideas with your own!

[Scoper]

Don't you dare tell me what kind of criticism I can offer >:G

I'd really like to see a huge increase in the event-bot's ability to host. Lots of people have talked about how arduous it would be to make all of the events auto-hosted (ha ETs are obsoleeeete) and I agree. However, that doesn't mean another ten or even 5 events couldn't be added to the bot.

shoot is the bot even around i haven't seen it in forever.

The rest is sparring and my opinions are mixed at best so meh

[Supaman771]

Event Bot is there, most of the events it hosts are lame though. The only ones worth voting for are Chance or Race, the others never get enough people to start and are events rarely hosted by ETs (KOTH, Sales TDM/CTF). I also don't believe these events give team rewards, and instead of a normal LMS you're forced to sit in a FFA for 5 minutes slaughtering noobs for your prize after already winning the event (You have to win 2 events for 1 EC).

Plus, I don't believe many newer players even know it exists, or know the command to start it.

Beyond that, I believe those high end items being in the EC shop give something for players to work toward and achieve. Would you rather have me keep playing events to earn something that actually has value.. or spend these 742 EC on elixers and make the server cry for an entire month about how lame I can be.

Players still have the option to buy those things, the event win is still worth the same value of Cookies (1.5). But I'm gonna disagree and say winning one event means nothing cause it takes literally zero effort. Quite literally, quote and document, Zero Effort.

All a player has to do, is press the warp button, and they can be awarded EC in half the Era events (all team events, 2 versions of chance, dozens of races where all you do is walk...). Beyond this, team awards and double-ec events/weekends spew out way more EC than ever before. In my honest opinion the EC prices need to be raised, not lowered. It is way too easy for a player to equip themselves with EC item advantages for hours and even days on end during raids.

Honestly the only thing agreeable is that the ETs need a schedule or something so events are more consistent. At times there will be 4 ETs hosting one event, and at other times there won't be an event for a span of hours.

----------- Sparring:
Why should dying, in the most balanced forum of Era PK, not be awarding deaths (or kills)?

Reviving with full health instantly in normal PK costs $20. Also with the complex being moved, you can get back as fast as you can for a raid should you not have revives. Given there's a Queue, you won't miss anything.

I agree however resetting your statistics shouldn't cost a fee. But perhaps there should be a limit to how many resets a player has; say 5-10.

Unlimited spar ammo would negatively affect businesses.

There are already sparring achievements, and sparring stat medals. The ones you proposed are just silly and show a lack of knowledge. You cannot bleed in spar arenas, nor can you tie.

Their reward for losing is learning how not to spar. Players shouldn't need incentives to seek personal improvement.

And finally, we already have a lack of sparring. Adding more rooms, complexity, and frankly useless options won't improve this.

Constructive.

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by Supaman771

Event Bot is there, most of the events it hosts are lame though. The only ones worth voting for are Chance or Race, the others never get enough people to start and are events rarely hosted by ETs (KOTH, Sales TDM/CTF). I also don't believe these events give team rewards, and instead of a normal LMS you're forced to sit in a FFA for 5 minutes slaughtering noobs for your prize after already winning the event (You have to win 2 events for 1 EC).

Plus, I don't believe many newer players even know it exists, or know the command to start it.

the event bot was in place long before the :awardguild command existed and nobody ever updated it. I didn't have the capabilities at the time to do so. having to play 2 events for 1 ec is the very reason why I had that feature implemented and the event bot should be adjusted accordingly!

Beyond that, I believe those high end items being in the EC shop give something for players to work toward and achieve. Would you rather have me keep playing events to earn something that actually has value.. or spend these 742 EC on elixers and make the server cry for an entire month about how lame I can be.

I disagree. I guess we're at a stalemate here. I think it's pointless to have items like that in the shop. unless you've been playing for years or plan on playing for years to come when you first start, you'll probably never obtain any of those items.

Players still have the option to buy those things, the event win is still worth the same value of Cookies (1.5). But I'm gonna disagree and say winning one event means nothing cause it takes literally zero effort. Quite literally, quote and document, Zero Effort.

yes, you're right. my bad.

In my honest opinion the EC prices need to be raised, not lowered. It is way too easy for a player to equip themselves with EC item advantages for hours and even days on end during raids.

I should have made myself more clear but I wasn't talking about lowering the price of items that give you an advantage. I want to see more novelty items in the shop that are easily affordable. stuff to buy and collect just to have and pose absolutely no advantage. I'm all for making it harder to obtain advantage items.

Why should dying, in the most balanced forum of Era PK, not be awarding deaths (or kills)?

I knew everything I suggested about sparring would be extremely controversial.

I never said you wouldn't be awarded kills.
I am trying to pinpoint reasons why players might turn away from sparring and ruining their k/d ratios was one of them. I view sparring as it's own thing completely unrelated to traditional "street pk" and I think removing the death count from losing a spar isn't that big of a deal. Just my opinion.

Reviving with full health instantly in normal PK costs $20. Also with the complex being moved, you can get back as fast as you can for a raid should you not have revives. Given there's a Queue, you won't miss anything.

like I said previously, sparring isn't normal pk, so why compare it? so what if it costs $20 to revive if you die in "normal pk", that doesn't mean it should cost you money to revive from a spar. it's under completely different circumstances. you aren't dying, you're losing a spar. that's how I see it.

I agree however resetting your statistics shouldn't cost a fee. But perhaps there should be a limit to how many resets a player has; say 5-10.

I think capping it would be a long shot. maybe restrict it to one reset every month or so. this way players who progress and get better will still have a chance in the future to reset their stats and build them to a good ratio.

Unlimited spar ammo would negatively affect businesses.

good point. didn't think of that.

There are already sparring achievements, and sparring stat medals. The ones you proposed are just silly and show a lack of knowledge. You cannot bleed in spar arenas, nor can you tie.

the achievements were the last thing I wrote in because it was a last minute idea. I did not know there were already achievements for sparring and I didn't even think about the fact that you can't bleed in a spar or tie. I don't lack knowledge it was just a brain fart. this is why I post my ideas for discussion so other people can catch the flaws and mistakes. I know I'm not perfect.

Their reward for losing is learning how not to spar. Players shouldn't need incentives to seek personal improvement.

it's not uncommon in games for the losing player or losing team to still get something out of their game play, especially if they put up a good fight. that was an extremely far-fetched idea. doesn't have to be implemented. just thinking outside of the box.

And finally, we already have a lack of sparring. Adding more rooms, complexity, and frankly useless options won't improve this.

I never implied that more rooms should be added. just that the spar complex lobby should have the one small arena in the center of the level. there are already other sparring options in the current complex so other rooms would have to be added. I'm not saying we need more! definitely not. if anything it should be one skirmish spar, one ranked, one bet spar, and that's it. my ideas are specifically targeted to increase sparring activity. I really don't know how else it can be improved.. I thought what I suggested might help.



thank you for your input.

[-HateD-]

There should be a capability to tie in spars. It's pretty frustrating when someone "beats" me and takes the damage it would have taken to kill them because higher ms seems to take priority and take damage however many ms later their latency is greater than mine. (probably one true "advantage" of lag)

[salesman]

I think Chris and I both worked on an event bot that awarded points instead of coins to everyone who contributed to the event in some way. Some examples:

- In Chance, you'd get a small number of points for each round you survive
- In CTF, you'd get points for capturing the flag, returning the flag, etc
- In KoTH, you'd get points for holding the capture point and per kill
- In TDM, points per kill, bonuses for kill streaks, etc
- In spar tourney, you'd get points for each round you won.

The plan was to get rid of coins entirely and convert existing coins to points (e.g. 1 EC = 100 EP or something).

Now that I think about it some more, I'm pretty sure I was in the process of converting every event to the new system, but then got burned out and quit . I think I got through all of the major events (at least, those that were major at the time). Might be worth seeing if that work is still around (or even still relevant--didn't GS3 come out?).

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by salesman

I think Chris and I both worked on an event bot that awarded points instead of coins to everyone who contributed to the event in some way. Some examples:

- In Chance, you'd get a small number of points for each round you survive
- In CTF, you'd get points for capturing the flag, returning the flag, etc
- In KoTH, you'd get points for holding the capture point and per kill
- In TDM, points per kill, bonuses for kill streaks, etc
- In spar tourney, you'd get points for each round you won.

The plan was to get rid of coins entirely and convert existing coins to points (e.g. 1 EC = 100 EP or something).

Now that I think about it some more, I'm pretty sure I was in the process of converting every event to the new system, but then got burned out and quit . I think I got through all of the major events (at least, those that were major at the time). Might be worth seeing if that work is still around (or even still relevant--didn't GS3 come out?).

makes a lot of sense. this would definitely increase event participation. sure you can join a team event and win points by doing nothing if your team happens to win, but by participating and trying to aim for objectives you'll receive more. and if you're on a shitty team but still do good you could probably even in some situations earn more on a losing team compared to a player on the winning team who did nothing. it's well balanced. I like it!

[Fiberwyre_P2P]

Originally Posted by Frankie

events should be hosted more frequently [...]

I agree with that.

Originally Posted by Frankie

consider creating new events and revamping old ones that may not be used anymore. [...]

I agree with that.

Originally Posted by Frankie

I fully believe that the ec shop shouldn't include rare weapons. I see these items in the shop that cost 750 ec. that is extremely unrealistic and pointless. it's very unlikely that anyone will ever be able to afford that. playing 750 events is a challenge in itself let alone winning 750, so why is it there? to taunt players? move these items to the mvp shop.

There is evidence contrary to this part.
People have these weapons already.
I was initially against it, but I don't really care anymore.

Originally Posted by Frankie

the ec shop should consist of mostly novelty items, and it won't do any harm to lower the prices to make them more easily accessible because these items won't offer any advantages to players. any weapons in the shop shouldn't pose any significant advantage. for example, gas and the flying bomb. they are perfectly reasonable.

There's no reason there can't be both novelty items and items which confer you an advantage.
I agree that some items could probably do with lower prices.
Who wants to win 10 events to buy glow sticks or 25 to buy a boomerang?

Originally Posted by Frankie

create prizes that only cost 1 - 10 ec that aren't consumables or only have one use. [...]

I agree with this more than anything else in your post.
I think the best way to make ECs more worthwhile is to give people more stuff to buy with them.

Originally Posted by Frankie

Sparring[...]

I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to reset your stats for free. $500 isn't that big of a barrier anyway.

And yes to unlimited ammo pls

The rest doesn't really interest me.

[Tim_Rocks]

The spar I just made recently (the other day) allows unlimited respawns. I was hoping that would help players want to spar. It also allows players to spar in a variety of ways as well. For instance, you can spar 2vs2, 2vs1, and 1vs1 very easily.

[Supaman771]

I suppose I was just pointing out the negatives. Removing the cost of respawns could reduce the barriers of entry for sparring.

The whole EC shop could use a redo at this point. I didn't even realize boomerangs were still in there, last I checked you had to craft them with boards @ the lumberjack place.

-Novelty items could be put into their own section or room, with lower prices.
-Consumables need to be rearranged with prices (gum is the same freaking thing as icecream, gas is useless since gasmasks are perm, cookies are inherently nerfed with the half-health in pk... whilst supers are buffed due to it).
-Bows, LightSabers.. 500ec for 30k.
-Ares, Sabre.. 750ec for 1m.
-Etc.

1 possible spar-stat reset/month is a good idea. Perhaps the leaderboard could even reset every once in a while (it wouldn't wipe out players stats, just start the points over again) this could give sparring some incentive... cause as-of now, newer players hoping to get into the top spots are simply years behind. The top 10 hasn't changed much in a very long time, short of players being banned/reset.

Just throwing it out there but it doesn't take years to obtain a large amount of EC. Me and Seth, and even Sebastian made fortunes for awhile by simply playing events to buy lightsabers and bows for sale. I personally bought 3 lightsabers in about 5-6 weeks time that summer (they were 475 each), and this is prior to the team rewards; Seth got even more than me. I currently have 740ec as stated prior, I began saving when Ares was introduced to Era (maybe 2 months ago?... I've been kinda slacking lately).

[-HateD-]

Idea (from anfo).
Balance guns and make everything free. even playing field for all and you don't have to do the stupid jobs or usd to make money. Game would essentially be skill based and probably revert to not lame guns (because who really wants 40 people spamming flak/aa12 in bhpk)

[Kohola_KinG]

@Frankie
Events:
Honestly 750 EC is not that hard of a challenge. You said you wanted the 'awardguild' put in place but this is how 750 EC and why EC's are so easy to obtain and makes them worthless. 750 EC is not hard to reach with this system in place. You can almost earn an EC every event you play without winning the actual event.

Also pretty sure the EC shop does not include rare weapons. The items in the EC shop are not rare, bow, flak etc. Plenty of these weapons knocking about era because of how easy EC's are to obtain.


Prizes that are only worth 1-10 EC have to be consumables. What else could you give them? Anything worth that amount can not be 'showing off' also. As everybody could afford them, so it's like not you are the only person to own this item.

However, i do believe change is needed. The EC does need an overhaul. It needs new items put in there. I don't like this 'awardguild' simply because it makes EC's to easy to earn. I like the idea behind it to give everybody a chance at getting them but it's hurting the value of EC's more than anything.

Also, there is to many events that aren't PK events. There is around 10-15 PK events compared to 50 or so races/other events. Is it any wonder people don't PK? They play the game and are to busy racing or cracking puzzles. You need to create more PK events, get more people involved in PKing and maybe just maybe people will raid more often!

Also, i agree that the eventbot needs to come back and it needs updated, more events needs added to them. Also, what happened to the special events? Ironman, battle of the bands to name a few.

We also need events that last longer than usual, the events we play only last around a minute or 2 at the most. Create events that last longer than usual, this gives people more fun and more time to win the event and it keeps people online longer.

I could share my opinions on how to really get the events back in gear but will leave that to another time.

Sparing:

losing shouldn't affect your death count. this is up for debate but I feel like players will be more likely to participate in sparring if they don't run the risk of damaging their k/d ratio. losing will still affect your spar losses stat.

I agree.

buying revives should be eliminated and it should be standard to respawn outside of the spar level. I was actually the one who created the revive system, and at the time it was a pretty good idea. I feel like now it's unnecessary. this will definitely give people more of an incentive to spar. nobody wants to get warped to the hospital if they lose, and nobody wants to waste money on revives.

I agree.

remove the $500 fee to reset your spar stats. this is an unnecessary money sink in my opinion. allow players to freely reset their spar stats at no cost at any time.

I agree.

this is also debatable, but allow for unlimited ammo in spars, or at the very most have it deduct x% slower. so for example, if you have a clip of 16 bullets with a 25% return, when you deplete your clip and reload it will only deduct 12 bullets from your full ammo pool instead of 16. just an idea.

It would be good but then how do ammo businesses make money? (I believe they should be npc owned anyway). Though this would be an issue you would face. I believe ammo should be unlimited in spars though and 1.13 speed which i think melon has added.

achievements and rewards

We already have an achievement system they started and never finished, i'd hate for them to touch the spar system as that would be left unfinished to.

However, it needs badly updated and we need new achievements and rewards for sparing.

About moving the spar complex, i totally agree with that also. I was the one who got it moved to where it is now but i would have liked it closer! I've been going on about it for months but they can't bring themselves to moving the ET building for whatever reason? You don't even need to remove it, you can either add the sparing complex to it or move the ET building where the gang gun building is and move the spar complex where the ET building is and move the gang shop building to where the current spar complex is. Job done.

redesign the spar complex. have the main sparring floor in the main level. place it in the center of the level so players can freely walk around and enter other rooms with different sparring options. this idea is influenced by how unholy nation's town spar is set up. it may seem like a good idea in theory but I will admit it may look bad when actually done. it's worth a try I think.

I agree that it's worth a try but also not sure how it would turn out.

[xAndrewx]

Originally Posted by salesman

Might be worth seeing if that work is still around (or even still relevant--didn't GS3 come out?).

Yes, it's out. As far as I know, nobody is using it.

[Frankie]

you guys have raised extremely valid points towards my view on earning event coins. I am willing to admit that I was mistaken and I have changed my mind in regards to the subject.

Originally Posted by Kohala_KinG

I don't like this 'awardguild' simply because it makes EC's to easy to earn. I like the idea behind it to give everybody a chance at getting them but it's hurting the value of EC's more than anything.

the primary objective behind the awardguild feature was to give team events a purpose. why host assault if it inevitably ends up as an LMS? ETs might as well skip the bullshit and host LMS from the very start.

it turns into a lose lose situation because if it stays in place, ECs are too easy to earn. if it's removed, team events serve no purpose. the only solution I see here is to redesign the currency and how it's rewarded through a system that salesman mentioned in an earlier post.

Prizes that are only worth 1-10 EC have to be consumables. What else could you give them? Anything worth that amount can not be 'showing off' also. As everybody could afford them, so it's like not you are the only person to own this item.

very good point.

I agree that consumables should be the only things worth 1 EC.
but there definitely should be more novelty items in the shop that are reasonably priced. maybe in the 10 - 30 EC range. like stuff that sets your gani such as the glow sticks. or look at the type writer. silly concept, but seems to be really popular (and only 10 EC!) people enjoy stuff like that. not everything has to be related to combat.

Also, there is to many events that aren't PK events. There is around 10-15 PK events compared to 50 or so races/other events. Is it any wonder people don't PK? They play the game and are to busy racing or cracking puzzles. You need to create more PK events, get more people involved in PKing and maybe just maybe people will raid more often!

I agree. maybe we need more world events. what ever happened to mars?? is that ever hosted anymore? it gets people active on the gmap pking. it brings gangs together to try and bring down the king. I can't think of a more perfect example.

We also need events that last longer than usual, the events we play only last around a minute or 2 at the most. Create events that last longer than usual, this gives people more fun and more time to win the event and it keeps people online longer.

very good point. I played a gravity event the other day and I spent more time waiting for the event to start than playing the actual event itself. maybe introduce rounds? best 2 out of 3 will work out well here. instead of players dying and getting warped out, they are just put back in their team box until the next round. this adds more pking and more time to the event and will also mean players will have to work a little harder for their ECs.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by -HateD-

Idea (from anfo).
Balance guns and make everything free. even playing field for all and you don't have to do the stupid jobs or usd to make money. Game would essentially be skill based and probably revert to not lame guns (because who really wants 40 people spamming flak/aa12 in bhpk)

I had this idea a while ago but remove half of the useless guns that no one uses and make a perfectly balanced set of 15-20 guns, take away the "free" part and make the most expensive gun per say; $100,000

I realised that it would never work because eventually William would find the best "set" of weapons and everyone would copy him just like the usually do, causing gun balances to happen every 5 minutes.