Hi again,
(better 2 not so long posts but 1 huge wall of text I thought, hope it's OK ...)
on topic again:
do we have enough users atm?
IMHO clearly
no.
I'll try to explain now why I think so, what is an important reason IMHO, and point to a possible solution. Anything following is my personal opinion, your mileage might differ.
There's
another thread discussing similar things, just
posted there. In short:
[...] the main trade centers have steadily lost population since 07/08, and that they are today ghost towns compared to what they used to be.
OK, the architecture has changed, and made them less usable IMHO. But somewhere the people buying and selling stuff must be, that earlier populated Twins and PA in huge numbers.
If I go there today, I see max. 10 people.
If I went there years ago, same week days, same time, there was a vast multiple.
Street trading - should it have become so out of fashion?[...]
For me it's obvious that we have just a fraction of the population now compared to the times of the early 8.* VUs, just judging the amount of street trade. And this heavily hits the in game economy.
It has become kind of "insider trading" meanwhile. A few big, old, established players are creating gigantic turnovers, but mostly trade among each other. Uber hunter sells his oils to uber crafter, as does Uber miner with his ore, and both then buy uber amps & gear from uber crafter.
"Joe 'Average' Player" doesn't find a place in this circle. He just cannot hunt/ mine enough to get the amounts of loot needed by the big crafters, the stuff he's able to craft is crafted by many others like him, and the auction fees are prohibitive for the amounts of low TT loot he gets.
So "Joe 'Average' Player" will TT a lot of stuff that could bring a small MU. Or fulfill auction orders for very low MUs. Trading isn't an viable option anymore, too few people selling and buying anymore.
This way we actually have two economics - the one of the big, old players where insane amounts of PEDs are moved every day, and the small, ever declining of the average Joe's.
A vicious circle.
Read an interesting thread recently, don't find anymore, friggin forum madness ...
Ah,
here it is!
In short: It says that there might be different "loot variation variables" already, for instance for Hell, where you'd get a chance for even higher HoFs for the cost of a lesser normal loot. Dunno.
But imagine MA would allow to set this "loot variation variable" individually!
Maybe for not-LA areas on a planet by the planet partner, and for LAs individually by the LA owner? Within certain limits, for sure, and without a change in the absolute loot value. A smaller variation for the planet side areas, and a bigger variation for LA's, maybe even a very big variation for the high cost LAs (Foma, TI, Hell, CP etc.)?
Wouldn't this be a way to break this above mentioned vicious circle?
Any change to less max. loot and more normal loot (without changing the absolute number!) in any beginner areas would immediately:
win back, draw in, make more happy, make stay longer, make spent more money
huge numbers of participants.
This would, in turn, stimulate the "poor participants economy", so making life in game even more enjoyable for our "Joe 'Average' Player". He would then tell all his friends how great this game is, instead of just dropping for good after a while, frustrated. More friends coming, more money spent, more fuel to the economy, a better game.
Another circle. But maybe a beneficial one.
And it wouldn't hurt the old big ones. They could benefit, too, with being able to better customize their LAs, or enjoying even higher ATH's in the Uber Areas.
For sure, there'd be need for a split between the loot pools for the different kinds of areas.
We need more participants, IMHO, and not just a few. A few Ads, or another high profile deal will not do the trick. People come in, have a look, determine that it's ways to expensive & past any hope to ever even reach the status of a middle class player *1), and leave, frustrated. This is what hurts the game, this is why there's no real improvement, this is why this game will die one day if there's not a change.
The few high profile spenders are, well, few. MA shouldn't rely on them. They might grab their money & run, at any serious enough bad news. MA needs a healthy basis of beginner and middle class depositors, or they're doomed over short or long.
Have a good time!
*1): "Middle class" is a thing of definition. I was told that it needs at least 50 - 60 in your major profession, and at least 175 HP. I know that it's harsh - it makes me an advanced nOOb, playing since late '05 ...
So, I think the translation of the client wasn't a good move from MA, and using a non-English forum is something that I rarely do and never would recommend. Reading about EU in German makes my eyes bleeding ...