how to bring players back

[LuxDez]

I bought ED to fly spaceships and do stuff with them that lets me keep flying that doesn't require me to interact with humans unless I wish to, the only reason I bought an online game with multiplayer opportunities was because it wasn't available as an offline single player game, so yes I probably do.

No one needs anything from you at all. They made a special single-player mode for you, and you have the right to play as you want.
You yourself wrote to me and started arguing with me that the reason why I and all my friends left the game was wrong.

The fact is that the game is sold as an online project, people bought it to play the online project. We have video proof that the game should have.
This is not my invention. People just want to get what they paid for - an online game.

No ship interiors will bring players back because they are empty.
No new weapon will change the lack of gameplay.
The new ship will be just a welcome development, and will bring back some players for a while, but the main problem will not disappear.

 

[LuxDez]

See comments above...

So you have an idea why people leave.
But when a person who left the game writes to you why he did it, you think that he is simply wrong.
How could I be wrong in my opinion about why I deleted the game. How does this fit into your head?

 

[Rat Catcher]

But when a person who left the game writes to you why he did it, you think that he is simply wrong.

I suggest you do not attempt to comment thus.

How could I be wrong in my opinion about why I deleted the game.

Your opinion is entirely your own and can never be wrong - just because it is opinion, you know this.

So you have an idea why people leave.

Precisely what I said above... I assume you read it?

 

[angusmadmac1]

Leave the old commanders out of it ... We've done our bit . If numbers are dropping ( for whatever reason) then the failure is not getting enough new players in to replace the "old "commanders who leave . As it stands the numbers are fairly static and have been for years so it's the lack of new players in my opinion at least rather than ones leaving .

 

[LuxDez]

Precisely what I said above... I assume you read it?

Yes.
Let's just go back to the title of the main topic.
I know enough people who love this game and would come back if something good happened.
People like what they were promised before purchasing.

 

[wrmiller]

I dont wanna speak about recent situation. Lets skip it and discuss some possibilities how to bring CMDRs back.

1) squadron stickers
Lot of people and squadrons want wear on ships their own squadron stickers. It could be some CG or possibility to obtain it via ARX currency.

2) another step to RAXXLA
just realse some new rumor or story. There are still lot of people searching for mysteries.

3) weather on planets
I dont think its to much dificult for fdev create some clouds and rain. It should be easy and it could be really big step for game imersion.

4) Build another Colonia
Its about the time do a CG and build third home for humanity. Maybe in the centre of galaxy?

5) Allow to comunity create content
then authorize or not authorize it and in positive case, add it into game.

6) Add possibility to create missions and left messagess on fleet carriers.
People play mostly alone. We need to avoid of loneliness. We need socialization

7) Squadrons should have their own headquaters
the place for role play purpose, for hiring, meetings, diplomacy stuff, events

8) Owning a systems should bring small amout of ARX currency for squadron
There is still no purpose to control systems. It has no benefits

9) investment
Lot of players dont play because have everything, bilions credits included and there is no option to invest such amount of money. We need some new economical mechanism. People in phase of dead end game could do something for comunity.

10) In game squadron alliances
Is nice to have more friends and do stuff together

11) personal emotes for ARX currency.
There is so many skins, but only few emotes. Allow players to buy more.

12) ship interiors
I know its pretty hard to do this, but what about to enter into ship interiors familiar way how to enter into SRV from ship? It could be few rooms depends on ship. And it could be completly separate from instance with current ship location. People love idea of ship interiors. Also there could be purchaseable items via ARX store. Or ship interiors could be a DLC. I guarantine everybody will buy it.

Fdev need to discover they need a money and players need a new content, therefore create something for sale.

Nice list, but none of this would bring me back, even if it was to happen, which is doubtful.

 

[aRJay]

No one needs anything from you at all. They made a special single-player mode for you, and you have the right to play as you want.

Much as my ego would like to agree with you but the modes where created before I started playing in 2016 and I have employed all of them as the mood and occasion required.

You yourself wrote to me and started arguing with me that the reason why I and all my friends left the game was wrong.

No actually I wrote to everyone who is reading the thread, not to say you were wrong about why you left but to counter the impressions that your reasons where somehow universal.

The fact is that the game is sold as an online project, people bought it to play the online project. We have video proof that the game should have.
This is not my invention. People just want to get what they paid for - an online game.

No ship interiors will bring players back because they are empty.
No new weapon will change the lack of gameplay.
The new ship will be just a welcome development, and will bring back some players for a while, but the main problem will not disappear.

As a point of interest what do you consider as gameplay?

 

[Rat Catcher]

I know enough people who love this game and would come back if something good happened.

Oh, I'm sure you are able to speak for yourself, and what you consider to be good...
How many is "enough"? Is it in the thousands, preferably hundreds of thousands?

Frontier are not going to sink any worthwhile development time into ED, nor are they likely to unless their fortunes change (very unlikely). People would have to return to the game as it is, then spend much money on cosmetics or alt accounts, and wait a few years for any change in the game - so it just isn't likely to happen at all.

Decide to take the game as it is, or remain an ex-player - it isn't going to change in the near future - no matter how many 'suggestions to improve the game' are posted here.

 

[varonica]

Fact is there may be some changes that will bring old players back, but if someone writes, "this change will bring me back to the game," that's one single player, there's no guarantee that will flow on to anymore players, FDEV need to put resources towards developing the game, but to go back and start changing old parts of the game because some players say this will bring them back, that's not a good argument to spend a lot of time and money doing that.

It's also possible that this player return will probably be temporary, I have gone back and looked at some old games that have made changes I like, but purely out of curiosity, it didn't "bring me back to the game" except in the most cursory sense of tourist for a few days even if I did enjoy playing the game at the time, I have moved on in the meantime.

Then we have the conflict of things that will bring players back, we have a ship interiors thread, a gas giant and other things thread, and somewhere here we have a "Stargate" thread where the player wants FDEV to bring all of the Stargate ships and assets into the game, I think I saw a Star Wars thread a while back as well that wanted Imperial Star Destroyers for players to pilot. Seriously FDEV is going to look at all these and continue doing exactly what they are currently doing, and it may fulfill some of these desires or it may not, but the number of things people claim will bring players back/attract new players is probably on the order of the number of players to the power of something or other, and maybe a couple of them will appear in the game in the future, but it certainly won't be because we all argued over it on the forum!

 

[Jack Winter]

Frontier are not going to sink any worthwhile development time into ED, nor are they likely to unless their fortunes change (very unlikely). People would have to return to the game as it is, then spend much money on cosmetics or alt accounts, and wait a few years for any change in the game - so it just isn't likely to happen at all.

Or maybe just buy the Odyssey DLC instead of harking on about a substandard FPS or I don't like Thargoids. Who knows some might even find the gameplay engaging if they gave it a chance, I know that I find it engaging enough and a fresh change to being welded into my seat popping pirates.

 

[Rory12]

As I said. I flew into invasion zones - there were no people. Previously, there were dozens of online players defending each station in the invasion zone. Why do I need 5 anti-alien ships now? I can't fight the hydra alone. In addition, it is long and boring, unlike group battles.

 

[amigacooke]

Stop trying to tell me what to do.

Oh the irony.

 

[Screemonster]

Most of the rest has been discussed endlessly, the reason why 99.999999% of the galaxy is perfectly safe, despite being anarchy systems, is because that's the way players want them.

Yeah, a significant proportion (and certainly the loudest) of the playerbase are hilariously risk-averse, treating every instance where a player sees a rebuy screen as a failure of game design.

And even then it's not necessarily wrong that 99.9999% of the galaxy outside of civilised space is completely harmless. Just... you start putting danger there, and I can see people complaining about it. Even if it's openly telegraphed.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Leave the old commanders out of it ... We've done our bit . If numbers are dropping ( for whatever reason) then the failure is not getting enough new players in to replace the "old "commanders who leave . As it stands the numbers are fairly static and have been for years so it's the lack of new players in my opinion at least rather than ones leaving .

And from their most recently published figures, it's not even as if they're not getting quite a few sales to new players.

At the end of 2020 (just before the Epic giveaway) they had 4 million (paid) accounts.
In late 2023 their investor presentation said they had 5.1 million paid accounts.
So that's still roughly 400,000 new sales each year still - or over 1,000 a day - despite the game being nearly a decade old, despite Odyssey not working out, despite the console situation, etc. (Previous releases suggest their record was about 750,000 sales per year when the game was newer)

That's not enough to sustain the busyness it had before, certainly - but on the other hand most measures of player activity do seem to have stabilised at a new level since July or so.

 

[angusmadmac1]

And from their most recently published figures, it's not even as if they're not getting quite a few sales to new players.

At the end of 2020 (just before the Epic giveaway) they had 4 million (paid) accounts.
In late 2023 their investor presentation said they had 5.1 million paid accounts.
So that's still roughly 400,000 new sales each year still - or over 1,000 a day - despite the game being nearly a decade old, despite Odyssey not working out, despite the console situation, etc. (Previous releases suggest their record was about 750,000 sales per year when the game was newer)

That's not enough to sustain the busyness it had before, certainly - but on the other hand most measures of player activity do seem to have stabilised at a new level since July or so.

I have to admit that is still fairly decent numbers but we don't know how many of those "new accounts " are from existing customers ?
Take myself Xbox signed across to PC in the of chance I get a PC ? So does that account for a new player ? And I would assume that nearly all Console players did the same , would that "increase new accounts "by say a third ( a best guess scenario of console numbers ) ?
And then you discount multiple accounts ?
Along with the free give away ?
I'm not trying to discount you numbers as Fdev hold that card closely to their chest and I don't think they will ever release .
I agree player numbers have always been stable using what information we have . In the okay area . But as Elite is quite Niche for it's long term playability this may not play into what the younger gamers want ?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I have to admit that is still fairly decent numbers but we don't know how many of those "new accounts " are from existing customers ?

Frontier probably doesn't either, of course. Probably not all that many, though - the pre-Odyssey monthly active player count they said was about 500k, so a substantial fraction of monthly active players (including a lot of once-a-month or less frequent players) would need to be buying a new alt every year for that to be a significant contribution to base game sales.

These are new paid accounts so console transfers probably wouldn't be included in those figures.
(There are figures including free accounts ... either Frontier don't include the console-to-PC copy as a new account at all, or the numbers transferring were probably <100,000 - which might still be most/all active console players)

With the sales figures being almost three years apart it's also possible that the pre-Odyssey and post-Odyssey rates were quite different ... though that doesn't seem to be the impression from the monthly revenue graphs, which are fairly static.

 

[Cosmo]

Some good ideas in this thread.

Edit. I will post my suggestions in a separate thread.