Theryon Wars: Community Q&A: One Week

I hafan't!!!

 

I see here a bear trap, intended or not, but have no problem going through...

"Interesting": holding the attention or arousing interest. Entertaining? Fun? Ok, let's check...

Players often roam non-PvP areas for four types of reasons:
- Hunting/Sweat gathering (hostile NPC interaction)
- Surveying/Mining (equipment/environment interaction)
- Completing quests (various tasks assigned by friendly NPCs)
- Exploring (... well, that says it all)

Even searching for dung fits one of the above, so I think it's mostly ok

I could now go on and write 3 to 30 pages on how different player profiles find different experiences more appealling or "interesting" than others, and then what's T:W's approach to each of them. What I couldn't do right now (and before thursday for that matters thread-wise) is making such a document enjoyable, entertaining, not boring... "interesting". Pun intended.

There's hunting, original creatures "seeded" in the areas according to a system of ours based on Ecopyramids. We've also talked about "free activities" and the least of those involve PvP, so PvE mostly rules that realm. I haven't gone into detail about mining, apart from our goal of "no BPs without materials, no materials without BPs (except for one)". This also impacts surveying and its other uses, which I know I haven't exposed but that's mainly because I'm not ready to. About the quests/missions, expect the neutral faction to have far less than both warring factions. And exploring will have little twists for story development and secrets unveiling.

I shall not elaborate on a similar question related to space areas, before any of you ask

 

See Misao, we haven't yet finished here and you already got this other little thread...

I'll let you ask and will continue/start answering tomorrow, over 1:30 A.M. here...

People, the day will come when I'll only reply during office hours!

 

I do make mistakes, typos... more than those typical from non-native English speakers

I must say I've noticed, from the first time I dropped by EP, that in this community people make an affort to understand and respect each other. That's not very common all over the Internet, so participants (grin) and staff deserve high compliments.

So half the merit of what I say or write here goes to how you read it and understand it.

 

It's not like we're planning to steal players from other planets; we're counting on two facts for having considered this:
1.- Current players move from planet to planet, it's a Universe after all.
2.- New players will sign up before T:W is launched to "level up for Theryon"; I already know one such case, we should celebrate...

I want to make clear that we must bring new players to EU, and by "we" I'd also like to include you, players. Word-of-mouth is important. On T:W's side, the selling point is the game, not the PED. If the game is good enough, players will come and play, and some of them will put money into it just for playing. Becoming wealthy in RL because of your in-game achievements is the goal of many, specially newer participants. The road to that goal is long and it can also lead to other places. With T:W we intend to make that road more entertaining, satisfying, enjoyable. This way we can appeal not only to participants, but to players and gamers.

This approach hits you, current and veteran Entropians. And to do things right, it must: we need your opinions to make the right efforts, achieve the best results, fine-tune the most satisfying experiences within our IP and according to this Universe.

This means we have to be original but must abide to rules and satisfy expectations.
Again, veterans can be involved.


Summing up: We're not aiming for parasitizing other planets, but for a symbiotic relationship with players, both from our planet and from others.


Edit: Typos!

 

I'ts being a very busy morning, but here I am for the final entries...

I do remember some of my own experiences with such ghost towns. Once I admired the buildings and found where the terminals were, I soon wondered what could be done there. I felt lucky if there was a "kill some thousand mobs" quest-giving NPC. This comment is not negative: it depicts the typical ghost town players didn't get attached to while, on the other hand, many have been to.

Now, let's think of player dispersion. If we have few "big settlements" (and we will) then player concentration away from them can only be related to (in no particular order):

1.- Activities in given areas​

2.- Estates ownership​

3.- Revival points​

4.- Teleporters​

​

No-one would seriously believe one area to be "wild and unexplored" if it had 6 fixed TPs in it, right? And if it had, it'd better have some buildings near each TP. Now there you go, a new ghost town!

So we start with a few "big settlements" and outposts far from them; if you were to go from one such settlement to an outpost, you should find revival points and terminals every once in a while along the route, resembling stagecoach stations. Having "station-related activities" (checkpoint-based quests, for example) can help players discovering and using them, and even considering them as temporary bases for hunting, mining, exploring... Yes, without nearby TPs. This should help concentrating players in settlements than organizing raids and expeditions to less populated areas (including missions). We'll keep an eye on which stations, outputs and zones players use the most, develop them accordingly over time, and make adjustments to other zones. Although we may have our initial forecasts and expectations, your activities shall impact this "zone development" over time more than other factors.

This approach makes vehicles pretty desirable. Before any arguments:
- There are and will be cheap vehicles
- All our avatars can walk, run, swim and climb slopes
- Teamwork can come into play in meaningful ways, and not just for sharing fuel consumption and vehicle usage fees

For our plans to get your attention within the settlements and outposts... please, be patient and let us surprise you

 

We're minutes away from o'clock.

If another question comes through before that happens, it shall be the last one to get answered in this round...

 

I'll take "one of the opposing factions" (they're not native to this planet, just in case someone joins us now...).

Ok, the one for which you have no pictures yet.
They're dark, grim, gloomy.
Deep-reddish is what comes to my mind as a color.
Cold. So cold, it burns.
Industrial. Edgy.
Selfish within the greater good of the State.
Devious. Twisted.
Somehow Harkonnen, somehow Klingon.
Insinuating, yet straight-forward.

A bit like this:

(I guess you'll get my point after clicking on the picture...)

 

... and this has been the final answer for the final question of the first Community Q&A for Theryon: Wars.

I hope you've enjoyed this week, I'll be now back to my other duties and tasks.
I'll drop by every once in a while.

Feel free to comment but remember the Q&A is over!

Thanks for reading, asking, commenting, liking, disliking and, overall, being yourselves!

Also, thanks to EntropiaPlanets staff. It's great being 'round here

 

Dear Softhart,

The size of the full-sized image was part of the answer