Raising Server Numbers
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@Chips said in Raising Server Numbers:
Disgruntled players looking to vent about unrelated things put aside.
Had a great time IG today, we spent a good 5-6 hours looking around for the 5 new mini event areas, found one of them that an adventurer had apparently found before us and tried to solo (regretably dying) but we were able to recover his body, which means he won't have to respawn when he comes back the next day. Might be a load off his chest.
Then we found another after a bit of patroling and adding another pc to our patrol. Had some good rp in between and during and a blast clearing it. On our way back to Arabel we heard that another player had found another such area, tried to clear it. Couldn't, requested some reinforcements. They reconned the area and decided they needed a bigger group, made a sending and we gathered up a larger group for that one area than we've had players online at any one time in the past week to do it.
It was overkill but we had a blast. Sufficed to say that we've got some pretty decent proof of concept so far for that idea, it really shows merit. I hope it's not too hard to make such things in the present/future because I'd love to see more of it. But yeah, throw in a metaplot and some interesting faction goals in the mix and we've got ourselves a party :)
We did something similar. I used my neat scouting skills to narrow down where one of the portals might be in terms of areas. Grabbed a group for plot patrol, but knowing it was out there was good. Had all of my party die minimum once, but they did not seem to mind, goblins on spiders are nasty after all. The reward there was enough to warrant using what supplies we had, and overall, it was a fun night.
I agree, this is the stuff that makes the server come alive. And if Zool or Discord were not busy, I would suggest quickly building a tool that will allow these things to survive across a reset, so that Puffy and Gmork and the rest do not have to reimagine it every time.
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Personally I think the charm is that they are temporary and new :)
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I had fun killing Puffy's goblins last night with some folks. We should do that more often.
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@Puffy it was fun right up to the bit where i died, being alone on the server meant i was alone in the minispice and 3 spell casters dispelling then holding you sucks for anyone.
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Never heard of sinfar Chips but wasn't this about raising numbers or is it about saying no no everything is fine when clearly it isn't.
You can bet most of the old players don't even know CoA is still around,I thought it had folded when the forums vanished and the autolauncher stopped working. was about a month before i was told it was still open and made any effort to find it.
My suggestion was focused on this fact of letting others know it's still here
and a way to keep them.Because 3 players is a terrible peek time number.
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@Puffy said in Raising Server Numbers:
Personally I think the charm is that they are temporary and new :)
I agree, knowing that while there would be new areas put into the server the next day (maybe). The ones that are in there right now might not be there tomorrow, is what motivated us to log on Today.... rather than tomorrow.
Moreover the fact that the events pop up in different areas every day rather than stick around until found, means that after I patrol one area I shouldn't just declare that area (explored) and proceed to not go there again for a long time.
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A little over ten were on last night. Server always dips this time of year.
I myself hate losing and consequences, so I'm with veln on this one.
It's time to accept coa isn't about immersive storytelling, it's about gaining as much power as possible and never feeling like a failure. Anyone who's here for anything else is here for the wrong reasons imo. Not that I care either way, the fact that I log in periodically to complain is purely coincidental. I'm just trying to help you guys out of the kindness of my heart.
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@petey512 ouch. I really thought adding gimmicky stuff was a good idea! CoA is my main girl. I worry about her.
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There's always been peaks and troughs, the issue is the troughs are getting lesser and lesser. You can say its cyclical, and it is, but every revolution is seeing the crowd thin. How much of that is down to the fact NWN is ancient I'm not sure, that's probably a big reason, but I definitely don't think the community should turn a blind eye to the multiple other contributions which are turning people off.
Nonetheless, just as the comings and goings are seasonal, so is this exact thread and conversation, and little ever changes in-between. In before the lock.
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So, I can go over my theories of what will and won't work and some of them might even be right, but I figured I would use a real example rather then conjecture.
Back in may/june of 2015, I logged in to coa for the first time in almost 3 years. It was 5 pmish my time and there were 6 people on. 5 pm my time (new york baby!) is the gateway time between the euros and the americans, and is traditionally the most populated the time the server sees. So, needless to say, I was a bit disappointed.
But, I went through the time to get logged in, figured I would poke around a bit. Ran into a guy named goatman (that was his login, can't remember the characters name), and the two of us started jamming quests. I made a comment about it being a bad day, and he said "6 people on, thats a good day!". Somewhat deflating, but I was having fun running through some of the old quests from my heyday so fuck it.
Next thing you know, we had a few people joining our group. Now personalities are starting to come out, people are getting into the rp, and we are questing away, having a good time. The next day, our group grew by one or two more. Three days later, we were worried about the max amount quests would allow, and there were ten people on at the same time goatman had said it was great to have six.
Within a week, out of nowhere, another old face appeared. This time on the DM side. Now, I have a theory that polaris secretly has a crush on me and is my internet stalker, but since its still just a theory we will for the sake of this story call it just a coincidence. wink wink.
So, now we have 10-12 people logging in, a dm that goes nuts for his first few months back like clockwork, and the server feels alive. Pol makes a few posts on the forums, says a few things on irc to get people in game, and now we are up to 15 people less then three weeks from when it was exciting to have six. A week later, PDs are coming back, and its time to hide your wife and kids. Moloch hath returned as well. For almost an entire summer from about 5 pm my time to around 10 pm, we were hitting 25 people. We had a cool plot, and stuff. The server was alive once again, in just a few short weeks.
Now, things changed fast again. Plots ended, players went back to school or whatever, and DMs while enjoying their short burst of energy over the summer were people who had been there done that before and that will always lead to faster burnout the second time. That's when I was asked to join the team. In my two years, we had lulls, and we had high points. I came two away from 40 people on for one of my events, still a point of pride.
Now, you may be asking, is there a point to this or is LaF just on another rant about how awesome he is? And the answer is yes, to both. I am awesome, and the point is that logging in and having fun, and taking the time to spread that fun around, is the key to getting the server back to where it was just a short while ago. More DMs, more players, more plots, more player driven stuff, ect ect ect...these are all just pieces of the big puzzle, but the point has always been and likely always will be one thing. Have fun.