What can the devs do to help grow the population?

Cmdr Rouz

C
With the release of Odyssey and update 9 (bringing the first ever new SRV), we saw very little change in the playerbase overall count. Population spiked initially at release, of course, but then went back down to what it was in late 2019 and early 2020. Update 9 barely made any change at all. The population is stable to where we're not seeing in drastic increase or decrease. This worries me as I do like this game and want it to do well. But at the same time those population trends are troubling and could potential hint at an issue with the game's direction. We also saw similar behavior with Horizons. We had a large spike, then a drop off. This is a pretty normal behavior for this game where we have a sudden spike on "major" releases, then a sudden drop.

  1. What is going on with the game currently that drove away players that we've had in the past years
  2. Why did Odyssey's new features/offerings (not talking about bugs, just the features) not have a greater impact on the game
  3. What can the developers do to bring in new players/increase new player interest
  4. What can the developers do to bring back older players who are not playing

Now I do recognize that the pandemic helped boost numbers. But to me I really want to see this game's population grow. So what do you think the answer to the above 4 questions are?
 

Go'Gen

Go'Gen
More Snowman skins? Maybe Rudolf red nose for 100 arx? How about gingerman skin?
I bet kid Cmdrs would love that and storm the Odyssey (btw hey, FDev, when is inside-fleet-carrier PvP pew-pew coming!1?)
Us old folks from 1985 who seek imershun in Elite? Who cares...

Yeah, I log in just to collect free arx crumbs. Still can't force myself to setup all firegroups again.
 

Ettanin

E
Cmdr Rouz said:
What is going on with the game currently that drove away players that we've had in the past years
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Buggy release (beyond repair it seems!), minimal gameplay content, maximized grind. Especially on the non-combat front.
Cmdr Rouz said:
Why did Odyssey's new features/offerings (not talking about bugs, just the features) not have a greater impact on the game
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It didn't bring anything to the core game. It's a completely different, non-coherent gameplay loop that doesn't add to the core game but is a separate gameplay loop not attached to the entire game as a whole. On-foot gameplay is completely separate from spaceship gameplay. They could have made it a separate game.
Cmdr Rouz said:
What can the developers do to bring in new players/increase new player interest
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Bring gameplay, not grind. Respect and add non-combat activities. ED is not COD or Battlefield and shouldn't become either.
Cmdr Rouz said:
What can the developers do to bring back older players who are not playing
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Fix bugs, rebalance earnings, lessen the grind, give purpose beyond the grind's sake, make the game (optionally) more challenging for those who had been there, did it and got the t-shirt. Add more features that add to the core gameplay and do not open a separate unattached gameplay loop. Ideally add new activities that provide more variety that make sense for your ship but does not introduce power creep nor make your ship obsolete.
 
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Sighman

Sighman
Seen quite a few 'got fed up with star cit now back to Elite' stream titles and other comments lately.

For some the grass is always greener elsewhere, until they discover the lawn beetle and end up knee deep in cow manure.

But to answer the OP, if fdev continue working on the game - as they have for something like 7 years now, on and off - people will keep picking it up. It's always going to be niche though.
 

LeoBartlet

LeoBartlet
Cmdr Rouz said:
  1. What is going on with the game currently that drove away players that we've had in the past years
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The
Cmdr Rouz said:
  1. Why did Odyssey's new features/offerings (not talking about bugs, just the features) not have a greater impact on the game
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Game
Cmdr Rouz said:
  1. What can the developers do to bring in new players/increase new player interest
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Is
Cmdr Rouz said:
  1. What can the developers do to bring back older players who are not playing
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DOOMED!
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
From taking a few months off, its so clear... all they have to do is finish building the game. In every possible consideration. Playing other games makes the standard of maintenance of elite come across as strong neglect (even with considering the frequency of patches...?)

They're coming to a sea of expectations with nothing but minimums for every point of view.

At this maturity, the community of people that only play elite (i did this for years too) and kickstarter handwavium might not be enough to take whatever we're given and still be looking up? If someone likes elite its pretty strong and will always be there, but connecting to modern gaming will probably be tough going forward, at least without slapping a perpetual early access label on it like the other company.
 

RogerO18

R
Sighman said:
Seen quite a few 'got fed up with star cit now back to Elite' stream titles and other comments lately.

For some the grass is always greener elsewhere, until they discover the lawn beetle and end up knee deep in cow manure.

But to answer the OP, if fdev continue working on the game - as they have for something like 7 years now, on and off - people will keep picking it up. It's always going to be niche though.
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I play SC 80% of my game time, only 5% for Odyssey. The reason I don't play more Odyssey is there is not enough non-combat gameplay.
 
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Pigletslastand

Pigletslastand
FIX
THE
BUGS
​
Then Keep adding content just like they are doing now, flesh out the features and prove to the community there is a future for the game. Bring it successfully to console and keep dropping content. Players will eventually trickle back but it will take time...quite a lot of time because they've damaged their own reputation and lost the trust of 50% of their playerbase.
 

LeoBartlet

LeoBartlet
Pigletslastand said:
FIX
THE
BUGS
​
Then Keep adding content just like they are doing now, flesh out the features and prove to the community there is a future for the game. Bring it successfully to console and keep dropping content. Players will eventually trickle back but it will take time...quite a lot of time because they've damaged their own reputation and lost the trust of 50% of their playerbase.
Click to expand...

100% of the people I spoke to take issue with your stat.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Bigmaec said:
What you really wanted to say :LOL:
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tenor.gif
 
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