Want new players? Start marketing it! Increase Silan lvl cap!

[katriell]

The main of my point is that it is not a simple black-and-white matter. It's not a fact that new players can't go places, as long as there aren't physical fences around those places. The only knowledge a player needs to explore Silan is "what kills me on sight and what doesn't" and "where I die and where I don't," both of which are gained by paying attention. Granted, perhaps there are a lot of people who might run into aggro at the edge of a relatively safe area and think "I died there, so there's no way I can pass through that area." ...My argument is deader than a gingo snack, so I'll leave it at this for clarification.

[iceaxe68]

With my first, now abandoned, character, I spent about five days on Silan. I got so tired of it that I spent the money to subscribe just so I could get off of the island. I wasn't terribly happy with that character, and didn't care too much for Pyr. (Not a slam, just a personal aversion to excessive sand...)

I then started Sasi, and was on the ML and invited to join a guild the first day. I'm glad I went through the pain of grinding my way off Silan the second time, because I found friends and fun once I reached the mainland. I doubt I would still be around if I had spent two weeks on Silan as a newbie.

So now I've started an alt on Cho, and am slowly savoring all that Silan has to offer. With the experience and knowledge I've gained on the mainland, largely through interaction with my guild, I'm able to enjoy Silan much more. I'm able to help other players (when there are any) despite being low level. I know how to pull, to sneak, how to deal with various situations which would have been frustrating and discouraging as a completely new player.

I do think that Silan is a good starting place - but some things could be improved. Top suggestion? Let us go back there after leaving. Having high level characters around to help, to advise, to add some knowledge and experience to the local scene would make the new player's experience much richer. While many run alts on Silan for just that purpose, I'd love to go back with Sasi. And it gets LONELY in Silan on Cho.

[flume641]

Well if they can remove lvl cap on island, then they should be able to remove lvl cap on q50 xp cats and allow us to use them for lvl 200+ skills! *dreams*

heh, thomas is going to stop giveing away Q 50's then*grin*

[norvic]

Not gonna comment on the lvl cap issue but with regard to marketing.

Recently in another game I have come across at least two peeps and when chatting its transpires they have never heard of SoR. These guys wer'nt mmo newbies but long term players. The game obviuosly still slips under the radar of alot of people before things like lvl caps are even an issue.

[kyesmith]

Not gonna comment on the lvl cap issue but with regard to marketing.

Recently in another game I have come across at least two peeps and when chatting its transpires they have never heard of SoR. These guys wer'nt mmo newbies but long term players. The game obviuosly still slips under the radar of alot of people before things like lvl caps are even an issue.

I think thats the main problem too, we need ryzom out in game stores for people to look and buy, online advertising helps but theres so many other MMO's doing the same thing ryzom would really have to stick out...

[tr808]

Go to http://www.mmorpg.com and try to find Ryzom lol.... nowhere to be found.

[roseh]

Not gonna comment on the lvl cap issue but with regard to marketing.

Recently in another game I have come across at least two peeps and when chatting its transpires they have never heard of SoR. These guys wer'nt mmo newbies but long term players. The game obviuosly still slips under the radar of alot of people before things like lvl caps are even an issue.

So we ignore a simple fix that costs GF nothing but a couple of minutes of their time and would help the few new people we DO get stay in game and wait until GF gathers up the funds and the marketing team to begin serious advertising?

[rushin]

we have had variously:

no free trial - ahh fond memories, the fight trainer on the zoraï island having 30 people crammed into his tiny room

a trial introduced on the old starter islands - they were split by race, very lonely. the people suggesting in this thread that silan is hard would have lasted about 1 minute on the old island before giving up. a lot of the starter villages had aggro mobs right outside the door, so you had to open you eyes

umm i digress.. the old islands had the traditional 7/14 day trials, lots of ppl complained it was unfair to people that didn’t play much. and now we have silan.

imo the best solution would be to go back to a 14 day trial with no skill cap on silan. to be blunt if in 14 days you can't find enough time to play for more than a few hours MMO's aren’t going to be for you.

Really off topic but somewhat related, but its about time we built new towns in higher level regions, our civilisations are supposed to be spreading out and growing again. Due to higher lv of refugees the starter zones on ml are mostly deserted, and with a very few exceptions the lv150 and 200 towns are *never* used, the fact they are still there just gives a bad impression i think. Move Jen-la into KoD, have an event where we rebuild Hoi-Cho in HoP, etc, etc, etc.

[blaah]

imo the best solution would be to go back to a 14 day trial with no skill cap on silan. to be blunt if in 14 days you can't find enough time to play for more than a few hours MMO's aren’t going to be for you.

they should just allow to convert current free trial to 14 day full account (mainland and all). changing unlimited time free trial back to 14 days, would be step back imho.

to devs: i kind of understand why some skills are disabled on silan, but is that really neccessary now when free trial has 21 lvl cap ? those who subscribed, but still on silan, should be able to enjoy full skills, right ?

[japamala]

Go to http://www.mmorpg.com and try to find Ryzom lol.... nowhere to be found.

Found it right away.