Observer Mode.
 

What a load of rubbish.

I am personally finding this cop-out feature to be more irritating then innovative to encourage trial users to upgrade. Indeed, it may get a few extra account sales but it's more forcing people to upgrade than a good marketing scheme.

The observer mode feature annoys the hell out of new players, upgraded players, and staff members alike. For example, I am a Game Coordinator (Events Team) on Classic, and before this trial players used to enjoy the events that the team hosted. Right now, trial accounts hinder the development of most events, when they are frequently disappearing or pausing, and the staff can't even remove them due to this outside mode. Another example is when players and trial players are PKing each other, then being withdrawn. That is a prime example of how the players get irritated, and yet we expect them to be somewhat nice to new players. While I can only speak for Classic, I can imagine this is an issue widespread on Graal.

The trial players aren't getting the "full experience" and I understand that, but withdrawing them from the game while allowing them to watch is just frustrating, rather then playing on curiosity, or giving them access to the 'full members club'. I really dislike this concept and in my opinion, it is a genuinely poor decision.

I hate it, you can't even move around like you could in ghost. Just sit in trading GK watching people idle.
Not to mention I'm stuck in observers mode and never really got to play again at all. And I think it'd been a month, not sure... even if it hasn't been, it seems like a month is way too long to not let someone play again.

But there must be something that pushes people to upgrade. Before it was resetting players at each login, which was frustating when people see that they lost what they worked for and was not encouraging people to upgrade. Now it is switching people temporary into an observer mode. For important events it would be better to exclude trial players I guess.

Why do the trial's player objects need to hang around whilst in observer mode? They get in the way of pk'ing :frown:.

what do you mean?

I noticed serveral times on Zodiac and i believe a couple on Classic that when a trial goes to observer mode, it leaves the player image behind (i.e. the body, head etc). It's blocking so it gets in the way. Why does it leave the body?

normally the player should completely disappear

Just give them so much gameplay a week - 5 hours of game play a week or something... that's an hour a day in the work week or a graal-mistpha on the weekend.

Yeah, it's called good servers. Something Graal needs.

You keep updating new features for developers to use, but you're forgetting to add content. Something that new players will get addicted to, something that will make them want to upgrade.

When you guys first totally blocked out non-payers, you had Graal Kingdoms as a reason for people to upgrade. That was 2002. This is 2007, the only new Gold server is Zone and honestly that alone is not worth upgrading for (it was originally a classic server too). It's time you make a good, graphically pleasing, 2D server that will take the place of GK.

So totally signed.

Totally agree.

I agree with that, but also propose removing Observer mode.
In place of observer mode, let the player play as if there is no hinderence... except that they can not interact with other players and there is no saving. It would be like a mix between the ghost mode and classic no saving. Of course, allot the player a few hours every week to actually play with no limitations. This way they can get a chance to play Graal to its full extent, but when that time runs out, not be left there with nothing to do.
I ran out of time and now stuck in observer mode. I never played Zone, and when I went to, I was stuck at the planet selection screen. Wow... what an experience that will give me to observe.

I completely and utterly disagree with this. In the past week, because I have shown some guys the ropes, and gave them some time three of them upgraded to p2p. The game relies on community, it's pretty weird to suggest that x_x

It might work if trials could see players, and could interact with staff/other trials, but again they're missing out on a lot of the integral parts of Graal's gameplay through that.

I remember GK having trial island, Gold accounts were able to get off trial island. I think this worked pretty well for non p2p accounts (+ bomb is so full now).
For the classic servers it might be an idea to turn observer mode to ghost mode. This way there will be still some opportunities for the players, though limited. Sitting there just watching the screen isnt that motivating to buy a p2p imo.

Did you even happen to read the rest of my post? You know, where I said give the player a few hours a week without any hinderence? What I suggested would be just like what they have now, except replace observer mode with no interaction.

Also, to say the game relies on community is true, but not to newbies. Newbies are treated like **** most of the time.

The observer mode is basicly a mode where you can just view, no interaction, and it only lasts one minute

You act like this was a long time ago. :rolleyes:

P.S- That trial island was the old overworld. I loved it.

Oh you're right, I didn't, and with that I believe it'd be nice if they could talk to other trials when their time is out, or what have you. The game does rely on community though, no server provides enough entertainment through itself alone. I've also noticed recently that the majority of people are nice to new people these days (although it might just be the people I interact with), especially on Classic.

Ya, I had a little 3 year stop so it's been a while for me :)

Might be an idea to let the people in observer mode change directions. I hate going sideways

I'm always stuck in observation mode. I have been since Graalv5 came out.
And most of the time there is nothing to observe... :/ just idlers.

I would be much closer to releasing either of my two servers (The Gold one and the Classic one) if I had the graphic artists to make it graphically pleasing.

Esteria or Bomy Moon (if they come out) are probably Gold Sever quality.

I meant something that was more like G2k1 and GK.

I mean G2k1 came around, and I was a complete n00b at the time but it was a bit revolutionary in terms of it's quality. Light effects and such.

GK came around, 3D terrain woah!

Your server is more oldskool style, we need one thats Graalian and not some random thing.

How long can you play before entering observer mode? Once in observer mode - how long does it last before you enter normal play mode again?

I don't think G2K1 is going anywhere anymore.
I never see staff on, and when I asked if I could work, Konidias sai no for some strange reason.

When the time has ran out or on login you are 1 minute in observer mode, then you can play 10 minutes, then one minute observer mode again etc. Sometimes the observer mode can last a few seconds longer if there are many trials on the server.

You could say the same about Esteria, but thats most likely my fault...working on it! ;o

maybe because you are an owner of a server and have jobs on a lot of servers, and he needs more active staff. :P

i personally think, trials should he 5 hours of p2p. then reset each time they log in again..no obserer, and when they upgrade, they get whatever stats they had back again =]

I always wanted trials to just get limited to how far into the game they can play. No observer mode: just having alot of restrictions. I.e. capped stats/bank account, limited access to the world etc. They could play but they will have a desire to upgrade.

I think the 800x600 mode would turn alot of people off the game altogether. It could be working for all I know.

If there wasn't an observer mode then I wouldn't see trials with ice shields or have someone listen on my conversation then come out of nowhere saying "I heard what you said of (blank) what is this (blank) you speak of" Usualy something about items. I have been scared into using pm's instead.

We could display some icon showing that someone is near, like on classic servers. There is a script variable "ghostsnear" for that.

Those in observer mode shouldn't see custom chat systems scripted via WNPCs (I dunno if observer mode can see gani scripts or not but they still suck regardless). All the more reason to make one (or use ChatBar++).

Observer mode should be cut off from everything and a message that comes up saying if they want to see more then too purchase a gold account for said server.

And can we take away the numbered accounts. They are extremely annoying.

Could you fix them on zone so they can't come back into a deathmatch rond after they go into ghostmode. Ghostisnear would be nice. Maybe a ghost will appear into normal world in 3,2,1.

Is there any type of flag a player receives when they're observer mode? That way I can disable players being able to PK them while they're just standing there waiting to come out of observer mode.

It'd be great if there was, good idea.

Players disappear for scripting when they are in observer mode. May be I can add an event when the player switches from observer mode to normal mode again (onSwitchObserverToPlayer) and add a time variable when the player switched to normal mode (player.lastobservermodetime)

Players using Observer mode on my server are getting messed up. Our GUI apparently covers half of their screen while some of the vital flags and weapons aren't being added to the player. X_x

Instead of Observer mode, we should take the KISS approach: Keep It Simple Stupid. Trial players would have half a month of saved free play that includes Gold Servers, Classic Servers and Hosted Servers. This way, they can find which kind of server they like the best, test it out for a reasonable amount of time then finally be pulled back out of the game and asked if they would like to sign-up for a full account. No Observer Mode. No Ghost Mode. Just a genuine, full-bodied Graal experience. And if/when they sign-up for their desired subscription, they get to continue where they left off when they were in trial mode.

Any takers? Eh? Eh?

good ideas but Unixmad won't take it i bet, I really like it, but what if the trial says no? eh? eh? eh? EH? EH? EH? EH? EH? EH? EH?