CONFIRMED: We'll be starting a Steam Visibility Round on MARCH 16th.
WHAT THIS MEANS
People who have previously installed, as well as those who are interested in similar games will see Subspace Continuum in various places in Steam: their recommended list, discovery queue, and so on. It will not appear on the front page or receive a guaranteed 500,000 impressions (views) like the Launch did. (We no longer have access to a "relaunch," as Steam changed how it works over the last 9 months or so.) But we should see a noticeable bump in new players for a total of 30 days. What we do with that will determine how effective is this first of 5 visibility rounds.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
New players will be logging on. If you want to keep them around, make a connection with them. Here's some ways to do this:
Time and time again, we've all seen it's this kind of connection and personal attention that converts a one-time player into a permanent one. If you're interested in helping on a more serious level, ?message me in-game. I can give you a chat that that shows some basic stats about entering newbies, such as how long they've played for and how many times they've logged in.
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
HOW THIS WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN THE LAUNCH
We'll get far fewer players from this Visibility Round than the Launch. But a Visibility Round is much more specifically targeted at people who will enjoy our game. Also, many of the problems we had for a year and a half after the launch have been fixed -- including being unable to change resolution & being stuck at very low res if it was that computer's first install of Continuum (!), a lack of tutorials linked to the installer, no baked-in key config that would work on laptops, having to download huge zone files before entering, etc. This means our retention rate should be significantly higher -- a bigger % of new players will stick around.
Thanks for all your patience leading up to this point. It's required a surprising amount of time. But for this Visibility Round to benefit SS in the long-term, we'll all have to put in some effort. So let's pull together ... for the spaceship game.
WHAT THIS MEANS
People who have previously installed, as well as those who are interested in similar games will see Subspace Continuum in various places in Steam: their recommended list, discovery queue, and so on. It will not appear on the front page or receive a guaranteed 500,000 impressions (views) like the Launch did. (We no longer have access to a "relaunch," as Steam changed how it works over the last 9 months or so.) But we should see a noticeable bump in new players for a total of 30 days. What we do with that will determine how effective is this first of 5 visibility rounds.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
New players will be logging on. If you want to keep them around, make a connection with them. Here's some ways to do this:
- Fly with them on the same freq and show them the ropes.
- Get in a terr, teach them how to attach to you, and give them a pub tour.
- Tell them what each ship can do.
- Learn the alternate laptop-friendly key config (see post with full config here, and image of the config here), and teach them the keys for it.
- Try out the new help underlay graphics with !helpon and !helpoff, which will be on by default for all new players.
- Install Steam on your own so you know how they came in and how the Steam install is different (don't worry, it won't overwrite your current settings).
- Teach them about chats, teamchat and PMs.
- If they come back around, tell them about event arenas, elim, wb/javduel/base, and leagues.
- Join ?chat=help to talk to new Steam players. They'll have this chat on by default. When they log on for the first time, a bot will give a greeting. If you see this, say hi and make them feel welcome. (Most of the unknown names on the chat should be new Steam players.)
Time and time again, we've all seen it's this kind of connection and personal attention that converts a one-time player into a permanent one. If you're interested in helping on a more serious level, ?message me in-game. I can give you a chat that that shows some basic stats about entering newbies, such as how long they've played for and how many times they've logged in.
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
- We need Steam reviews to maximize our exposure during the visibility round. Please see this thread: http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthread.php?46973 Or go here directly to review: http://store.steampowered.com/app/35...ace_Continuum/
- If you have other ways you want to help, please mention them in this thread and I'll update this section.
HOW THIS WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN THE LAUNCH
We'll get far fewer players from this Visibility Round than the Launch. But a Visibility Round is much more specifically targeted at people who will enjoy our game. Also, many of the problems we had for a year and a half after the launch have been fixed -- including being unable to change resolution & being stuck at very low res if it was that computer's first install of Continuum (!), a lack of tutorials linked to the installer, no baked-in key config that would work on laptops, having to download huge zone files before entering, etc. This means our retention rate should be significantly higher -- a bigger % of new players will stick around.
Thanks for all your patience leading up to this point. It's required a surprising amount of time. But for this Visibility Round to benefit SS in the long-term, we'll all have to put in some effort. So let's pull together ... for the spaceship game.
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