Goblin Squad Member
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The settlements are established.
The next official step is for the autocrat at each location to determine what the settlement will train and what it will support. Part of this is internal as you can lose the support you have.
And part is external, what can your companies train near by? WHat are others offering and what can you provide in trade. And how will they support you in the tower war. Yes, only your companies can hold the tower, but around the tower, others can help. Neighbors helping hold your towers so you provide training.
The autocrats make the decision, but not in a vacuum. In fact it may be high pressure, esp for the small companies. What can you provide to get help? But if you are too small, you may need a loan of characters or companies to help hold enough for your training to be beneficial.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Some of us have done this already, in general terms. But until we are in-game, we won't really know.
As for high pressure being placed on the small companies who hold settlements, they already had high pressure placed on them to consolidate.
They choose not to do this, and some will remain small and unable to train skills any better or even not to the same level as the starter town. Even after months of EE, they will still remain small, because new recruits gravitate to larger groups.
During the WoT, those small companies will not be able to take control of even their alpha six towers, let along hold them. After the great catastrophe they will not have the numbers to clear their own hex, to start their settlement. Or if they manage to do that they will still remain smaller than the Top Ten.
Then OE will roll around, along with settlement warfare, and they will be the first targets of the OE or larger, expansionist EE settlements.
I hate to paint a gloom and doom picture for the smaller companies / settlements but that is the picture that the Devs have said all along.
Even though they have won a spot, they may be better off trying to sell it to the OE crowd and settling in with a more established settlement, with their pockets filled with a great amount of coin.
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I can assure you that these conversations are going on as we sit here. I'm looking forward to many great new relationships being forged here in the coming days, and helping coordinate Role Training is only the tip of the iceberg.
Next after this is WoT coordination and diversifying the Settlement Buildings among alike Settlements.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Some of us have done this already, in general terms. But until we are in-game, we won't really know.
As for high pressure being placed on the small companies who hold settlements, they already had high pressure placed on them to consolidate.
They choose not to do this, and some will remain small and unable to train skills any better or even not to the same level as the starter town. Even after months of EE, they will still remain small, because new recruits gravitate to larger groups.
During the WoT, those small companies will not be able to take control of even their alpha six towers, let along hold them. After the great catastrophe they will not have the numbers to clear their own hex, to start their settlement. Or if they manage to do that they will still remain smaller than the Top Ten.
Then OE will roll around, along with settlement warfare, and they will be the first targets of the OE or larger, expansionist EE settlements.
I hate to paint a gloom and doom picture for the smaller companies / settlements but that is the picture that the Devs have said all along.
Even though they have won a spot, they may be better off trying to sell it to the OE crowd and settling in with a more established settlement, with their pockets filled with a great amount of coin.
Doom and gloom could be a picture they paint for us. Like if those small companies just play their prepaid time best they can, & then go find a game that's a better fit with their dreams.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Doom and gloom could be a picture they paint for us. Like if those small companies just play their prepaid time best they can, & then go find a game that's a better fit with their dreams.
This is why I believe GW is going to have to bring some of the PvP systems into play, perhaps earlier. They are also going to have to create a lower price point for entry into EE (beta) and extend the free months of EE overall.
It does GW no good to have a server population of less than 50,000 by the time OE begins. Considering only about 10% of population is online at one time! that would be about 500 characters online. In a world as large as PFO has, and most players will be in their settlement areas, the world is going to look empty.
They should not stagger entry during OE. They will need a flood of players.
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Goblin Squad Member
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You probably meant 5000, not 500 online at the same time. Also, I thought the formula for concurrent players vs total playerbase was more like 20%, not 10%? Could be wrong.
However, I certainly agree with you that the price-point of 100 dollars for EE is too high of an entry-level. In another post I advocated for a quick admission of any Kickstarter backers in the first 3 months, including the 35 dollar backers who currently would have to wait untill the last month of EE. You have to get these people in first imo before you start discounting EE-entry in any serious way.
But I am sure we are preaching to the choir here, no need to teach Ryan a 101 on monetizing a MMO. He knows all this. :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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This is why I believe GW is going to have to bring some of the PvP systems into play, perhaps earlier.
That's possible, but Ryan and Lisa have been pretty clear that they aren't interested in succeeding by doing what everyone else is doing.
If their goal is to build a game unlike any other based around the existing PF user base, then a rush to include more PvP sooner may not be as high on their priority list as enticing the non mmorpgers who backed the kickstarter to join the party.
I'm sure they have a participation rate in mind for their milestones, and without knowing those, everything is speculation.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If their goal is to build a game unlike any other based around the existing PF user base, then a rush to include more PvP sooner may not be as high on their priority list as enticing the non mmorpgers who backed the kickstarter to join the party.
How much of that existing PF player base has shown up for KS, on these forums, for Land Rushes 1 and 2, for Adventures with Bonny, etc?
I know this question could really not be answered but, How many KS pledges would there have been without the PDF offers?
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Goblin Squad Member
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\After the great catastrophe they will not have the numbers to clear their own hex, to start their settlement.
As a detail, land rush winners will not have to clear their settlement hex. Clear-and-build is only for people establishing net-new settlements, not for landrush settlements.
With that said, though, if I were leading a settlement in the bottom half of the leaderboard right now, I'd be thinking very hard about making sure I either had a solid and realistic recruiting plan or a merger ready to go.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Doom and gloom could be a picture they paint for us. Like if those small companies just play their prepaid time best they can, & then go find a game that's a better fit with their dreams.This is why I believe GW is going to have to bring some of the PvP systems into play, perhaps earlier. They are also going to have to create a lower price point for entry into EE (beta) and extend the free months of EE overall.
It does GW no good to have a server population of less than 50,000 by the time OE begins. Considering only about 10% of population is online at one time! that would be about 500 characters online. In a world as large as PFO has, and most players will be in their settlement areas, the world is going to look empty.
They should not stagger entry during OE. They will need a flood of players.
hmmm, you know, I am going to Ideascale with a great idea to get the PVP going.
RE: Population/Success, I feel PFO's best hope is for us EE'ers to make big bright, shiny kingdoms full of busy folks, to show off on teh youtubes.
The TT playerbase will see a living Golarion to PVE from, and the PVP communities out there will see phat targets. Get them both in game with a thriving economy to fuel both playstyles and we might make it somewhere.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The averages change from game to game, around 10% to 15% on average at any one time. These numbers usually peak around 20-25% during US primetime. Open works tend to have less of a peak than Themeparks, probably due to everyone being in one world/shard.
As far as what they can do to get everything started...
I agree we need a player economy up and running, they need dungeons finished, maybe a level or two of the Emerald Spire, as well as formations. A strong economy with unique game features will draw people.
As far as the price for entry, 50$ with 2 months of game time is much more reasonable than 100$ for a lot of people. I know quite a few that would join right now for half the price.
Actually if you break down the products individually here's what it looks like.
Game Client Download+1 Month= $35.00
2 Extra Months= 15+15 = $30.00
New Player Pack= $15.00
Total of $80.00
So your extra $20.00 you are chipping in is for the vanity message board tag and (x) amount of months head start.
When you start talking $80.00 plus people expect collector edition exclusives and that kind of stuff. One could argue this was done via kickstarter, but at face value people see it as $100.00 for paid beta after 3 months has gone by.