Poll: Diamonds offer for new accounts joining a fellowship

[Pheryll]

There are far too many players that join, begin upgrading their main hall, and then quit thinking that there is little to the game. These tiny cities that could offer the person quite a few diamonds, if they ever choose to return, rarely do anything for the community at large. So I am looking at the possibility of Elvenar advertising free diamonds to any new account that is able to join a fellowship. The question is: what seems like a reasonable diamond offer to give the proper incentive for new players to not just drop the game without learning about it? Any thoughts or comments are also appreciated.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

I voted 'none.' I think it makes more sense to have a declinable quest of "Join a Fellowship", and have that quest give a nice chunk of tier 1 goods (5,000 each) to kickstart a player's supplies. Or give them a bunch of units.
I honestly think the entire Chapter 1-2 quest structure should be revisited to speed up the early game for new players. I think goods/resources/units are much more useful than a few diamonds. Can you even buy anything with 50 diamonds?

 

[SoggyShorts]

Would it be limited to 1 time per account? If not, everyone who only wants to play 1 city would have 7 cities, 6 of which they'd drop after getting the diamonds.
That would lead to even more abandoned cities.
I think I prefer tedious' approach.

 

[Ashrem]

As with Tedious and the soggy one, I don't think diamonds are the answer, though it needs something. Maybe troops? or joining your first fellowship could trigger an awesome building that will be worthless after a month or so (100 culture/square or produces 5 casters or heavy ranged per day) It should be something that is valuable to a new player, but in no way worth creating a city just to get for your other cities.

 

[DeletedUser8187]

I voted 'none.' I think it makes more sense to have a declinable quest of "Join a Fellowship", and have that quest give a nice chunk of tier 1 goods (5,000 each) to kickstart a player's supplies. Or give them a bunch of units.
I honestly think the entire Chapter 1-2 quest structure should be revisited to speed up the early game for new players. I think goods/resources/units are much more useful than a few diamonds. Can you even buy anything with 50 diamonds?

I agree. Giving the new cities some tools, goods/coins would be a better idea. INNO/developers need to do something to speed up the growth of new cities. I remember the first bit of the game as dull, limited to what you were able to do. I'm sure thats one of the reasons so many stop playing. I kept running out of everything-coins, tools, goods. Trading was harder as new cities have small numbers to trade. I pretty much just did those quest lines.

 

[Pheryll]

Would it be limited to 1 time per account? If not, everyone who only wants to play 1 city would have 7 cities, 6 of which they'd drop after getting the diamonds.
That would lead to even more abandoned cities.
I think I prefer tedious' approach.

Soggy, it says new account in the title, poll question, and in the description. It indeed is limited to only once for new accounts (not retroactive).

 

[Pheryll]

I voted 'none.' I think it makes more sense to have a declinable quest of "Join a Fellowship", and have that quest give a nice chunk of tier 1 goods (5,000 each) to kickstart a player's supplies. Or give them a bunch of units.
I honestly think the entire Chapter 1-2 quest structure should be revisited to speed up the early game for new players. I think goods/resources/units are much more useful than a few diamonds. Can you even buy anything with 50 diamonds?

While this solution is quite practical, it is designed around a per city approach rather than limited to once per account.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

While this solution is quite practical, it is designed around a per city approach rather than limited to once per account.

Agreed, and I apologize for derailing your suggestion. But I think if the goal is to get new players to play longer, "join an FS" is not the panacea we might hope it to be.

I've played a lot of mobile/browser games where you are encouraged to join a guild, or clan, or whatever during the tutorial. And what you end up with is a lot of clans that just load up on newbies and don't go anywhere. Unless people are joining fellowships with higher-ranked players to provide advice and guidance, the act of joining an FS doesn't change the game too much in chapter 1.

If you want to go the diamond route, I think it would be more meaningful for the quest reward to be not a number of diamonds, but rather a choice of 5 rewards:
1. expansion
2. builder level
3. magic residence
4. magic workshop
5. diamond culture building
Let each player decide how they want to jumpstart their city development to fit their playstyle. It might require decisions that a newbie player doesn't really understand/comprehend, though.

 

[Pheryll]

Unless people are joining fellowships with higher-ranked players to provide advice and guidance, the act of joining an FS doesn't change the game too much in chapter 1.

Even a fellowship of one has tournament access, which is a good access to relics for boosting production. It is much better to join a high ranking fellowship, but what is missed is that early players can benefit from many features that are only available to those within a fellowship.

 

[shimmerfly]

I tend to agree more w/Tedious. I knew nothing of FS's when I started my city. I didn't look at the Forum thinking it was just a chat room. I decided to play because I like the challenge and played alone so I chugged right along not knowing much of anything!
I continue to play solo simply because I enjoy the challenge. Silly? Probably, but I don't like "groups" anyway.
But! if you were to offer something for joining, an expansion would be lovely when your new or if the Devs would let it be known when you start the game that there is such an animal as a FS, that would also be nice.
No offense @Pheryll because your idea does have some merit. I just don't think diamonds are the answer.

 

[Ashrem]

If the primary goal is player retention, it's too easy to spend 200 diamonds without actually engaging the game in any meaningful way. I'd prefer a reward that takes a fair amount of time to use and/or has an ongoing benefit (that hopefully also reminds you of why you got it).

 

[Pheryll]

I knew nothing of FS's when I started my city. I didn't look at the Forum thinking it was just a chat room.

... or if the Devs would let it be known when you start the game that there is such an animal as a FS, that would also be nice.

The thought of a fellowship as being nothing more than a collaboration, is why I think a "hook" is needed, rather than just an announcement. The new players play solo and quit solo.

 

[Pheryll]

If the primary goal is player retention, it's too easy to spend 200 diamonds without actually engaging the game in any meaningful way. I'd prefer a reward that takes a fair amount of time to use and/or has an ongoing benefit (that hopefully also reminds you of why you got it).

It is not the reward that I am particularly interested in. It is the hook.

 

[Ashrem]

It is not the reward that I am particularly interested in. It is the hook.

I absolutely agree. I think a hook needs to be distributed over several days. That a hook you can use in a few seconds isn't sufficiently helpful in a game where convincing them to be patient and wait 4 hours for the next upgrade to finish is the problem. If they use diamonds to get more space, it might keep them busy for a while. If they use it to finish the Main Hall or factory upgrade, then the next one will take even longer.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

I absolutely agree. I think a hook needs to be distributed over several days. That a hook you can use in a few seconds isn't sufficiently helpful in a game where convincing them to be patient and wait 4 hours for the next upgrade to finish is the problem. If they use diamonds to get more space, it might keep them busy for a while. If they use it to finish the Main Hall or factory upgrade, then the next one will take even longer.

Exactly. My complaint with starting this game is that you start with some absurdly quick builds (10 second factories, etc.). And that's great for getting someone's attention. But then its quickly up to 90 minutes for level 3 for residences, and even longer. So a new player starts playing, gets to see pretty quick growth, and then BAM!, nothing happens for a few hours.

On one hand, get used to it newbie, its a slow-paced game.
On the other hand, if we could soften that construction time curve, it might lead to more player retention.

*all numbers from memory.

 

[Ashrem]

I was thinking the other day while shepherding a baby city that the game could benefit from chapter 1-2 quests handing out fewer coins and supplies (they were throwing supplies in the trader every few minutes), and more 3, 5, 10 minute instants.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

i am a new player and joining a fellowship when new seems more for the fellowship and it's tourneys and such than what a new player needs to grow

 

[Deborah M]

I vote none. Joining a Fellowship is a benefit to the player so doesn't make sense to me. I do think that it would be a good idea to have diamond reward at the end of each chapter. Maybe smaller diamond prize than higher chapters would be a good idea?

I did think it was VERY interesting that there are at least a couple of new offers to new players that I had never heard about until my husband's niece started playing. One is some diamonds every day for x number of days. I thought that one would be nice for all players! Then there was a bundle one that included a few magic buildings, troops that included advanced ones, a couple of premium expansions and I'm not sure what else. I thought that was really nice too. The bundle is a bit of a marketing ploy though since it costs diamonds to upgrade them. If diamond subscription was available though it would be great IMO.

 

[DeletedUser17339]

There are far too many players that join, begin upgrading their main hall, and then quit thinking that there is little to the game. These tiny cities that could offer the person quite a few diamonds, if they ever choose to return, rarely do anything for the community at large. So I am looking at the possibility of Elvenar advertising free diamonds to any new account that is able to join a fellowship. The question is: what seems like a reasonable diamond offer to give the proper incentive for new players to not just drop the game without learning about it? Any thoughts or comments are also appreciated.

I’m a new member (Started 3 days ago) and new to this type of game.
I think people quit because they end up in an inactive club. I spend more time on forums, wikis, and blogs than actually playing. I feel like I’m stumbling around here.
If I wanted to keep my new players active, I would give them information on the clubs’ activity - maybe a percentage rating of active members. Or better yet, only allow active clubs to recruit.
Being in a good club forms bonds and keeps people coming back.

There are far too many players that join, begin upgrading their main hall, and then quit thinking that there is little to the game. These tiny cities that could offer the person quite a few diamonds, if they ever choose to return, rarely do anything for the community at large. So I am looking at the possibility of Elvenar advertising free diamonds to any new account that is able to join a fellowship. The question is: what seems like a reasonable diamond offer to give the proper incentive for new players to not just drop the game without learning about it? Any thoughts or comments are also appreciated.

 

[Ashrem]

f I wanted to keep my new players active, I would give them information on the clubs’ activity - maybe a percentage rating of active members. Or better yet, only allow active clubs to recruit.
Being in a good club forms bonds and keeps people coming back.

I'm not sure how easy it will be to get Inno to do anything about this, but @elvenstats website elvenstats.com already supplies a lot of useful info of this kind, and it might be possible to use it as the nucleus of a community-driven recruiting-site/Leaderboard.