| Author |
Promoting DS |
Light404
Grand Admiral
Joined: May 10, 2002
Posts: 54
|  Posted: 2009-01-24 15:54
Okay, I was thinking about this for a while, and now I think I'd finally like to post my thoughts. And if this has already been tried before, I don't know, havent played since '03.
Obviously Palestar is a small (or is it even a...) company. And in a way I think anyone who is an active player on DS is a part of it. So here is my (if it hasn't been tried before) idea.
For those people that live in Canada or use Rogers Cable, do you watch a channel called G4 tech TV? Its basically a channel dedicated to video games, technology and the industry around in. In the place of commercials, they'll run a spotlight on a game -> basically for about 45 seconds, they show you images/video of a game, describe it and talk about how great it is. Im sure there are channels like this in the US/EU that do similar things.
What im thinking is (and I would have no problem with kickstarting it), we contact Tech TV, and tell them about DS, and find out how much it would cost to get DS as one of their "Featured Games" Obviously if its gunna cost $20 000 than thats way too much money. But if its something like $3000, than with 200 odd active players here on DS and if everyone is willing to contribute for the good of game that, despite its problems (which is 95% attributable to a lack of funding)- thats $15 each. If it came to, I can honestly say I don't mind parting with $30 or $40, because even over the course of a week I wouldn't notice it missing.
Now, I understand that not all of you work full time, some of you may be in school, unemployed or 12 and living off your parents, but I really think this could work. Now, of course to be realistic, we'd have to pick one station, get our air time, and then wait for that perod of advertising to finish and see if there is a noticeable increase in subscribers.
Now, to accomodate the (hopefully) increased subscribers, 3 MAJOR things would have to happen:
1. Scenario servers would HAVE to make their return. The MV is simply too big and overwhelming for new players and small ships. My memory is little fuzzy here, but if there wasnt a rank cap on them before, there would have to be now. Admiral would be highest possible rank, and naturally the fact that each game is starting from scratch and resources have to be built up before dreads can be gotten will hugely even things out.
2. It would probably be a very good idea to give a prestige bonus to new subscribers. Something along the way of "a gold ticket" whereby if you purchase 1 month, no bonus. 3 month package, you could get say a 25% increase in prestige, and a 6 month package would get 50%. There should be a rank cap on this, so say once you hit First Rear Admiral then the bonus disappears or something along that line, because I for one don't want to see 100s of overnight Admirals, the vets among us should still have the upper hand in terms of ship selection
3. We would ALL need to take time to train and help the newcomers. Go to the scenario servers and show them the ropes, retreat to the MV when you feel like fighting station to station. I think that along with the return of missions, players who are of a high enough rank could get missions like capture a planet, and simultaneously, a newer player who is in say a frigate or supply ship, would be givin an order to accompany the veteran player and gain an additional prestige bonus on top of mission complete prestige when veteran players completes his/her mission.
The goal of the above points to get any new subscribers into a position where they can contribute- without getting blown out of space every five minutes- as quickly as possible while still making them earn and the rank and feel proud they got there, we're not going to spoon feed them prestige, just leave it in the cupboard where they need a chair to reach it (bad analogy I know)
Long post, but its almost over. Again, I really think this could work, start small, see what we get, and as the community (hopefully) grows, we could start advertising in more places to enlarge the subscriber base even more, return DS to its former glory.
This is what I'd like to try, let me know what y'all think and if you'd like to contribute. Anything would help.
Thanks!
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MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
| Posted: 2009-01-24 17:03
Interesting idea, but this version is not new player friendly and there's a few bugs that need to be squashed.
Other than that, this is a good time for reviewers to play. There's a lot of people in the MV every day and some really good battles taking place.
Oh, having a capped scenario server is a bad idea. It splits up the population and we wind up with not enough people in MV and not enough in scenario.
[ This Message was edited by: MrSparkle on 2009-01-24 17:04 ]
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Tommas [ USF HunnyBunny ]
Chief Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: February 04, 2006
Posts: 581
From: Norway
| Posted: 2009-01-24 17:13
bad idea atm...WAY to many bugs in this game to start promothing it...when new ppl come on they simply dont know what to do..and the only help they get is beeing slapped the manual at them..who reads it? no one.
I would never promote a game thats so bugged like this..beacuse its simply not smart...ppl leave because it just dont work..
Anyways a good idea when they fix the game of course.
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Rae
Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: May 23, 2002
Posts: 284
From: 10 minutes away in a fast boat
| Posted: 2009-01-24 20:40
Quote:
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On 2009-01-24 17:03, MrSparkle wrote:
Interesting idea, but this version is not new player friendly and there's a few bugs that need to be squashed.
Other than that, this is a good time for reviewers to play. There's a lot of people in the MV every day and some really good battles taking place.
Oh, having a capped scenario server is a bad idea. It splits up the population and we wind up with not enough people in MV and not enough in scenario.
[ This Message was edited by: MrSparkle on 2009-01-24 17:04 ]
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What do you mean by this version is not new player friendly? DS has always had a rather steep learning curve, and as far as I'm concerned this is the best reincarnation of the game since the day I started playing! I agree with you about the scenario servers, they are a thing of the past, lets let them die with dignity.
As far as the original idea goes, I'm all for it and think that Richard should set up some advertising and we'll go from there. I personally have no problem giving DS a one time donation (maybe even twice) of up to $100 or so (plus my subscription, cause this version rocks), provided that it goes to the promotion of the game. A big thanks to Faustus and devs for a much needed and great revival of DS.
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MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
| Posted: 2009-01-25 07:07
I'm always hearing ingame and out how new players feel useless. I also see it for myself, when they attack my dread in their cruiser or destroyer and it barely scratches me. It's not uncommon for a new player to ask what he should do vs the dreads and stations, and the only answer is "supply".
There's not much new players can do aside from supplying. That's definitely not how the game was when I started. They can't do much engineering because of ai engineers, capping planets is theoretically possible if they can learn bombing but it's tedious this version (not saying bad, but tedious), and their lower ranked ships aren't worth anything in a fight.
I know I would not want to be a new player right now. I'm happy I was new back when destroyers had decent fighting capability, there were tons of planets in the scenario servers to build and tons of planet to capture.
I've been saying, and I think it's been falling on deaf ears, that it's the device level system that's the problem. Back in the old days a dread's super firepower came from the fact that it had lots of weapons compared to cruisers and destroyers. In this version (and .483 although I wasn't around long for it) not only does the dread have more weapons, those weapons are higher level meaning they do more damage. It's a double whammy. A destroyer's level 4 torpedoes and cannons do little vs a dread's level 7 armor and weapons, and the dread has many more of those higher level weapons. (the levels may be off; you get the idea)
I know some people keep saying it's because they don't want dreads killable by destroyers, but that's ultimately doomed thinking. It's not good for the game in the long run. This game needs new players or it's doomed. A lot already left after the change to ai prestige.
I'm wondering how many people don't realize there's an auto-level system? In .483 you had to level things yourself, in this version it's automatic. IMO, they need to remove levels entirely. We might wind up with a game that has varied fleets again, instead of 9 dreads and 4 stations vs 8 dreads and 5 stations, with little cruisers and destroyers flying around being ignored because they are no threat.
It would be great if new players could post here their impressions of the game. Not too many people post on the forums though.
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