Trench Wars pub arenas will eventually kill Subspace

[Stabwound]

When a new Subspace player first downloads and installs the game, they are most likely going to pick the zone with the most players. By logic, the zone with the most players must be the best zone, and Trench Wars has been the most popular zone for a long time now. The first and most important impression of the game to most new players will be from the Trench Wars pub arenas.

Why is the game slowly dying? Sure, the newer and flashier online games will have something to do with it. However, there is a bigger problem in my opinion. The pubs aren't hooking people long enough to give the game a better chance. By being the most popular zone, it is Trench Wars' duty to hook the new players long enough to get them interested in the game. The real meat & potatoes of the game isn't in the pub arenas, but in the various sub-arenas and leagues that newbies might not even get a chance to discover if they get turned off too fast.

1) Stop blindly screwing around with the ship settings so much. Every time something is changed, it seems to piss off people more than anything else. Making huge changes to the ships really screws with people. Maybe we could set up a poll of some kind to ask the players what they think could/should be changed in the ships, and go from there.

2) Create a new tileset for the pubs. The one we have now is ugly and drab. With current tools you can make very nice graphics for pubs without increasing the download size by much. This would not be much work, especially for anyone experienced in making tilesets. The default graphics of Continuum are not very nice to begin with, and making a nicer map surely wouldn't hurt.

2b) Consider the idea of permanently changing the pub map. The one we have now is ok, but I think that a new one wouldn't be a bad idea. It has been a long while since the TW map was last changed, and I think it might be due for another change. SpaceHiker suggested the ?go boki map. The map is an expanded version of the standard pub map and is actually a pretty good map. Other than completely redesigning a brand new map, I think the boki map might be great for pubs, with a few tweaks and maybe a tileset overhaul.

3) Create a newbie-friendly FAQ/guide to the basics of Trench Wars (chat system, squad and the various sub-arenas). Explain the basics of base, elim, TWD, TWL, etc. Link to this in the pub arena message. I would be willing to tackle this one.

4) Host more games during peak hours. Maybe it's just a dry spell, but I have seen very few games being hosted in the last few days. Hosted games give players a taste of TW outside of the pubs.

These are just a few ideas for now.

Any comments/ideas?

[Scurvy]

give new players a $50 signing bonus.

[Kolar]

Moot and his group are working on updating publics. Testing is a necessary part of it, it sucks but I think a lot more work will go into updates before they're tested and implemented. I don't think we will see a significant change from the current flag room layout, maybe making it a bit bigger but the goal (Moot or TK will probably correct me on this) was to get all ships involved in Basing.


There is a player guide here: http://www.trenchwars.org/Trench/ind...n=PlayerGuide&. I'm not sure if it's in the proper format for what you're suggesting but if you want to create a new one I'll see about getting it up on the entry message.

[Facetious]

Damn Stabwound you really have a way of making things happen.

[genocidal]

People don't care about having all ships involved in basing. When I first started playing the game I didn't just base - I usually flew around in jav or wb killing things. Basing is for more advanced players - especially when flag points really don't mean much in TW. For newbies, killing shit is good enough and all the ships can do that to various degrees.

[Reaver]

When a new Subspace player first downloads and installs the game, they are most likely going to pick the zone with the most players. By logic, the zone with the most players must be the best zone, and Trench Wars has been the most popular zone for a long time now. The first and most important impression of the game to most new players will be from the Trench Wars pub arenas.

Why is the game slowly dying? Sure, the newer and flashier online games will have something to do with it. However, there is a bigger problem in my opinion. The pubs aren't hooking people long enough to give the game a better chance. By being the most popular zone, it is Trench Wars' duty to hook the new players long enough to get them interested in the game. The real meat & potatoes of the game isn't in the pub arenas, but in the various sub-arenas and leagues that newbies might not even get a chance to discover if they get turned off too fast.

1) Stop blindly screwing around with the ship settings so much. Every time something is changed, it seems to piss off people more than anything else. Making huge changes to the ships really screws with people. Maybe we could set up a poll of some kind to ask the players what they think could/should be changed in the ships, and go from there.

2) Create a new tileset for the pubs. The one we have now is ugly and drab. With current tools you can make very nice graphics for pubs without increasing the download size by much. This would not be much work, especially for anyone experienced in making tilesets. The default graphics of Continuum are not very nice to begin with, and making a nicer map surely wouldn't hurt.

2b) Consider the idea of permanently changing the pub map. The one we have now is ok, but I think that a new one wouldn't be a bad idea. It has been a long while since the TW map was last changed, and I think it might be due for another change. SpaceHiker suggested the ?go boki map. The map is an expanded version of the standard pub map and is actually a pretty good map. Other than completely redesigning a brand new map, I think the boki map might be great for pubs, with a few tweaks and maybe a tileset overhaul.

3) Create a newbie-friendly FAQ/guide to the basics of Trench Wars (chat system, squad and the various sub-arenas). Explain the basics of base, elim, TWD, TWL, etc. Link to this in the pub arena message. I would be willing to tackle this one.

4) Host more games during peak hours. Maybe it's just a dry spell, but I have seen very few games being hosted in the last few days. Hosted games give players a taste of TW outside of the pubs.

These are just a few ideas for now.

Any comments/ideas?

I agree with everything you said. The original settings need to be put back into place. We've had the original settings for so many years and it's a big reason we not only attracted people to the zone but kept them here, until recently.
I know it's offseason and we've traditionally had fewer people playing at these times, but it seems drastically low at times now and I believe the reason is only partially because it's offseason.

[Troll King]

People don't care about having all ships involved in basing. When I first started playing the game I didn't just base - I usually flew around in jav or wb killing things. Basing is for more advanced players - especially when flag points really don't mean much in TW. For newbies, killing shit is good enough and all the ships can do that to various degrees.

I don't think anyone in the pub committee actually wants all 8 ships to be "basing ships". That idea came from others in the thread about the levi setting adjustments, and people started thinking that's what we were trying to do. I don't think it's a realistic goal, nor would it do much to attract and retain new players.

A bigger debate, (though it isn't as active a discussion as I hoped. Come on committee, start posting more) is on the philosophy of making all the pubs identical in rules and settings. I suggested a compromise between that and what we currently have, and that was to make half of all pubs pure and half regular. Even if it were only for a temporary test, at least it would then settle the arguments about whether pure pubs are more popular or whether there's a bias towards people winding up there by default and not bothering to switch.

[Mootland Farmer]

Because this zone had branched out so much, there are lots of small communities as opposed to a few, like we did only a couple of years ago. The Zone Objectives are there to give this zone a direction, however that may be too late. When you have quite a few small communities within a game, you're bound to piss someone off when you make a change.

Regarding Publics, I have already started a Public Committee which is involved in making changes to Publics with player input. We can only do so much. It would help if the more "experienced" players came and played in Publics, but that is unlikely, unless there were some changes.

I have given Pure_Luck about 12 base maps which are 'good' in my opinion. In other words they could be possibly be used for Publics every once and awhile so that it 'spices' things up.

Regarding the FAQ, I have a few ideas about this. If you want to contact me Stabwound about this, that's fine.

Also, I would like to say thanks to Left_Eye <ER> and Chao <ER> for their hosting. They have pretty much hosted non-stop since their rehirement and promotion respectively, and I hope they continue to do so. I'm sure you'll find them hosting a game during peak times, or it may be a timezone issue. We are trying to get <ER> activity up, and the ECT, Diakka et al are doing a good job I reckon.

Going back to the public issue. I am slowly becoming more inactive due to University work, and giving my PR position to Kolar was to lighten the workload, so I can put more effort into making Publics better. Before I go, I would really like to see Publics become a great place to play in, and I will do everything I can, aided with others, to make this happen. Sadly, changes happen slowly, but that's the way it goes. For now, bear with us, while Publics get the overhaul they need. Thanks.

[Vykromond]

Why is the game slowly dying?

In't she pretty?

On a more serious note, your suggestions seem pretty good.

[Darkmoor]

Agreed on points 1, 2, 2b, 3 and 4 (host more during all times).

[Denon]

I agree with everything but the mention of using ?go boki for pub (I know that wasn't YOUR suggestion). Terrible idea.

Considering a new pub map is a good idea though. I have been saying that for about 2 years, just as I have been about the new tileset.

[Denon]

... and I log in and what map is in pub? ?go boki.

Stupid.

[Doc Flabby]

dont make any new pub download heavy. The best thing about tw and reasons it is so popular with newbies is it takes about 2 seconds to download the pub map....compared to nearly every other zone where it takes ages. when i was a new player i couldnt be bothered to wait 5 mins to download a new zone.

[Revolve]

Axing wark killed the game, he told you.

[404 Not Found]

I actually enjoy pub. At least the 1st arena with a timed match. 1st pub is always packed and not too many in spec either. Any pub after the 1st arena is usually a waste of time, not to leave out 1/2 the players sitting in spec. Make the 1st 3 arenas a timed match and it will get popular.

?go base is a useless arena for anyone new to the game, as the captains picked will most likely never choose someone they do not know.

So if it about getting players to become interested that have just discovered TW, then either dump the pub's that are not timed matches or change them to become timed matches. Not to say that everyone in a timed match will work on playing for the flag, as you will always have those that sit below the base and neg kill.

Make the levels of pub vary perhaps? 1st pub on the arena list could be for those with so many hrs playing time and so on.

Does elim still have the setting that prevent players from playing w/o so many hours under their belt?

Many of us enjoy pub, but I would most likely say that it is only the 1st pub on thelist that attracts players.