Ideal World Lifecycle (W16 and Steam?)

[Leon232]

I'm not exactly sure if there is already a thread covering this since im not actually calling for a World Reset:

We are 4 months in to this new world and I want to say i remember there being talk about this current World State being a W7-eske map that stays up while the 'Steam Version' took over. My question is:

-Do we think that the Steam Launch was legitimately successful at this point? Enough to justify that initial rumored plan? or do we think that the worlds will retain their traditional reset structure of 'Whenever a Major Update is needed or Devs decide it's time to bring back up the player count.

-If the Steam Plan somehow DOES come to fruition and there is a World that resets at regular intervals.......How long do we think that World Cycle SHOULD be?
+PvE players (RPers, Quality Fanatics and Hermits) What are the aspects that keep you playing in a world and what aspects start to feel more like arbitrary goals (i.e. I enjoy developing the industries and establishing the quality spiraling but once i cross about 200+ Q it feels rather arbitrary and i kinda just let it be passive.....then i devolve into a Mining Fanatic and Real Estate Agent/ Base Builder)
+PvP Players (Large Faction Play and Rogue Mercenaries) Im not actually too deeply versed in the deeper aspects of PvP in the form of Realms. Do we actually like this system? How do the Timeframes feel? Does the system cater more to a Perpetual World or do you feel that a specific World Cycle would work well with the current system? does there reach a point where the system just feels arbitrary and hollow?

I'm genuinely curious what everyone's opinion is on the whole World Cycle concept and how people actually feel on such matters....or if anyone has heard anything about the intentions regarding such things?

I personally am fine either way as I dont do much PvP and as i said i feel Q gets slightly arbitrary at this point so I just play and enjoy myself.

[beansahol]

It did not attract enough players to justify 2 worlds. The world should just reset every now and then, between 6 months and a year I guess. By the way I want a new world right now lol.

[MaltGrain]

-Do we think that the Steam Launch was legitimately successful at this point? Enough to justify that initial rumored plan? or do we think that the worlds will retain their traditional reset structure of 'Whenever a Major Update is needed or Devs decide it's time to bring back up the player count.

Steam appears to account for roughly 45% of the playerbase throughout w16's history, according to Steam Charts and the Brodgar Population Tracker.
Compared to w15, there's an initial 15% increase in players that tapers back to previous levels after about 4 months. This might indicate that many of the retained Steam users are not new players, only platform migrants.

If it's not obvious, I don't know data science - here are the numbers I've used if you want to help improve my assumptions.

Code: Select all

      Steam | total | Steam playership
1 nov:   987   1853   (53%)   (world start)
1 dec:   709   1514   (47%)
1 jan:   419    958   (43%)
1 feb:   295    725   (40%)
1 mar:   203    464   (44%)
1 apr:   137    344   (40%)
               45% average

w15   population
13 oct:   1566   (world start)
13 nov:   1200
13 dec:    815
13 jan:    555
13 feb:    470
13 mar:    335

I think much new player retention fails because of a lack of clear direction in gameplay. It's really strange that a lot of the gameplay loop is simply to explore, especially when as a new player you've no idea why you'd want to beyond a brief curiosity. The reward structure of the game doesn't lead you well toward certain activities - you're essentailly left to do 'whatever you want', without a clear indication of why you'd want to do it.
With that in mind I think it'd be beneficial to produce a community walkthrough of sorts to handhold new players through the early game, with less focus on security and how dangerous the world is and more encouragement that !losing is fun! Maybe that should be my own project

I'm not really sure if these comments are relevant but I'll leave them here and see what happens.

[Antvgr]

!losing is fun! Maybe that should be my own project

That's kinda the thing. Loosing is not fun. The only place where losing may be fun is dungeons and there are extremely small amount of them. They spawn very rarely and, having world limit and no decay, most of them are blocked by spawning in someone's claim.

>PvE players (RPers, Quality Fanatics and Hermits) What are the aspects that keep you playing in a world and what aspects start to feel more like arbitrary goals.
I fall completely in that category. What keeps me playing after initial larping sets in is either quality spiraling or social engagement. Quality spiraling is pretty much soft capped at q200/300 depending on industry and at that point I would consider it the end (i am long from that point this would though, as my mines are incredible barren). Social engagement without PvP is pretty much inexistent in Haven. Last world I was very lucky to find a village of cool and chill folks to do stuff around in the end game. This time I only have a couple of friends I engage with in game. I would love if game had more consistent and playable dungeons, as hunting is objectively most engaging gameplay and their randomness makes them not stale.

[animary]

"Social engagement without PvP is pretty much inexistent in Haven."

A major concern with those who prefer an rpg style of play. Without PvP there would be more cooperation, more interaction; there could be caravans of mobile traders traveling between villages, people bartering services for goods. This would also promote longer lasting worlds, which I greatly favor, and more exploration; the most fun I've had was three worlds ago, when it lasted about 16 months (and I had met someone the previous world with whom I built a village in both worlds, we had such a good time together we had to limit ourselves to about two hours each afternoon so we could attend RL, lol). PvP promotes a lonely, paranoid, style of play; "better safe than sorry", you hearth home at sight of another player on the map rather than say hello. I've met players who did their best to be self-sufficient within their farm/village, only venturing outside their pali when absolutely necessary.