I have a disgusting amount of hours into this game in a very short period of time, I love this game! However, for someone who might not instantly fall in love with it, I can see plenty of reasons why this game might push a lot of people away.
Bugs: Not a problem at all, that is fixed with time. It’s early access, get over it.
Quick side note - I have no idea what the intentions for this game are, I am simply giving my opinion on how to make the game easier for newer players to keep playing the game. New players = more support, right? If these ideas go against the way the devs see the game, who am I to say they’re wrong!
Base Building:
The glaring issues I see are geared toward new players. Mainly, the camp set up. By the time you get a turret, the game is more or less already over. The whole point in griding to get your tent upgraded is the thought of “safety”. Turns out, that getting a house only gets you a long-term place to respawn. Aside from that, there is no value to getting a house. Turrets are the only way to stop others from taking my 4 bushes on the ground because I’m trying to save up every single dollar I have to get a little further in the game. Of course, by the time I get turrets, the measly profit from farming is useless. On top of that, not only can you not farm with any consistency, you can’t even get a turret until you complete the farming book! I can’t upgrade my house because I can’t make money. I can’t make money because leaving my base is going to get me killed. New players need a farm to be able to afford that first gun. I’m not saying the COST of building up that beautiful white picket fence with patio blocks as far as the eye can see is too high, just the early game accessibility of it. (TLDR) Farming is useless. Late game, by the time you can protect your land effectively, its a waste of time.
Some ideas on ^
-make fences with a tent unable to be destroyed/taken and reduce the size of your available land to one compost lot (or whatever its called)
Natural Progression:
I got to the point about halfway through my total hours where it was MUCH easier to go out and kill other players to make money than it was to do anything else. You get to the point where you have the extra money to buy more guns, only to go out and kill to get more guns. After that, you go to complete the book just because you enjoy the game (or continue to terrorize new players) The book progression is great, but easy to achieve with a quick “Longvinter map” google search. Maybe go the Runescape route “You must have lv 30 farming before you can harvest cloudberry”, maybe something else, I’m not sure. I feel like the “shoot people” aspect comes first but it still feels like a game centered around grinding for resources. It can be both, it can be one or the other but it cant be easy to terrorize the passive farming players, and near impossible to grind without being constantly tormented.
That being said, I love the game and am very excited about all the ideas being voted on. I think this game will go on to be right up there with all the big names but not without retaining new players. Those who are easily frustrated will move on quickly. This game has two main issues, allowing new players to get comfortable and keeping old players from getting bored. Increase the grinding 10x but also make it so when new players lose their inventory along with all the money they spent on the gun they can throw their mouse at the wall, walk away, take a breather, come back and sell some sugarbeet.
few other ideas (not player retention related)
-Add fishing bait, actually makes some other type of money-making strats viable. Do it like the “ammo costs more than the gun” idea
-Some dumb, crazy expensive items that are so expensive and rare that it takes forever to reach.
-Dramatically reduce loot from crates during the server’s slow hours. It’s so easy to go on when it’s dead and be geared to the teeth with zero opposition. (go play on a Korean server and you’ll see what I mean)
-A way to see outside your house/tent without going outside to get shot in the face by the guy whos been stalking you for the last 5 minutes
-Items placed into loot containers by players are replaced if they are under a specified sold value. I’m not sure what kind of monster goes around and puts paintings in EVERY SINGLE CHEST and they stay that way but you’re a menace.
-Chance to catch items
-Improved fishing poles, increased chance of better loot
-Turrets have lights just before they shoot at you, knowing when you’ve walked too close
I’d love to see this game turn into a several-month-long grind for skill stats, only for players to immediately start on a new server to do it all again.
See you out there,
sits when I see you so you don’t kill me and take my 2 poppy seeds I spent an hour to grow
Waves (Mansy)
