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An actual plan to help CN


GeniusInc

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Im trying to remember what really got me to stay here. When I first signed up 4 years ago, I was pretty much ready to quit after the first 3 minutes. All the text, all the waiting around, it seemed like a pretty pointless endeavour. It wasnt until I started to realize what the actual point of the game was (alliances, politics, etc.) that I actually gave it a shot. A big part of what made me stay was my interest in nation/society building games in general (like Civ, citiesxl, etc). 

 

That being said, I was fortunate enough to NOT have direct orders to make my government a certain type, become a tech farm, have to pay reps just for getting raided, etc. I see a lot of that nowadays and I honestly would not have stayed if that was the case when I was new. I think newer nations should be given more freedom and sovereignity to make decisions on their own. Government type, the answers to the government positions, improvement build order, etc are things that new players should experiement with on their own for a while. Micro-managing new nations and telling them exactly how to do things, IMO, is a big factor in the lack of retention. It just makes everything seem really lame that way, expecially when the whole point of this game is that you are the "ruler" of your own nation. This would be an effort coming from the alliance level, it would require a big shift in the cultures of many alliances out there, and as such it likely will not happen. 

 

I'll admit I'm kind of hyprocitical here. Just the other week I was telling a new player which gov positions to set, order them not to buy anything, change to communist government, etc. The guy deleted, and it hit me later that if that was my experience when I first started, I would have quit too. So I learned a lesson: give them time to figure things out and I bet they will stay longer. 

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Having been around for a short time now the one thing i can say that is killing this game is lack of content. if you cant keep your older nations interested with new stuff or revamping old stuff you lose out. Now, when i first started (a LONG time ago) i played for a year and just quit because i got bored. Now, being where I am at and doing what im doing, it keeps me interested. the ONLY thing saving this game is YOU, the community, all the alliances, the many faces to chat with and interact. its what makes this game worth sticking with. (and kinda makes me want to get back into foreign affairs... BUT i love my office) enough out of me, none of this really makes sense..

 

JtG

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I don't mean to be critical of this game but the issue is that this game is not meant to last this long, mechanically speaking. Consequentially, newer nations simply don't have interest as they don't find it fair having to engage with heavy wondered nations in their range and get slammed. We are talking about multiple years just to have a decent and substantial nation. Anyhow, I do think that suggesting a reset would certainly freshen up political aspects and possibly bring people back with keen interest. 

 

I agree. But a reset alone wouldn't guarantee growth and retention. The entire genre of internet text browser games is outdated. Look at CN's known rivals in the same genre. They aren't doing as well as CN did in its heyday. CN has to be rewritten as an app that people can play on their phones and pads.

 

There is a longer and potentially incendiary post that I made on GPA forums, but here I'll just say this:

It is nearly 2015. CN must either move with the times; or cater to its cult following - accept a smaller player base and focus on player retention/return

Edited by Dragonshy
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The server should update twice per day (the current midnight central time plus a noon central time update).

 

It would give new players more things to do and more of a reason to check their nation during the day. It is just too easy to stop checking your nation because there isn't anything to do.

 

Since we'll need an in-game nerd-approved reason to justify this, I suggest a meteor impact that adjusts the speed of Planet Bob's rotation causing each day to only take 12 hours instead of 24.

 

Besides, it will interrupt the sleep from people who live on the other side of our planet (for a change). At least people could choose to quad at noon central or midnight central. Maybe less people would show up for work looking like the cat dragged them in.

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This is a niche game.  Its player base is restricted to a very specific brand of crazy, and of that niche market you have to deduct dwindling attention spans and player burn out. You can plot and plan as much as you like, but you're not going to change the nature of this game. It is,  at its core, unattractive to potential new players.  That yields an inescapable downward trend. 

 

A much better plan would be to formulate a way to retain active players and reengage old players who still carry around nostalgia for little MS Excel game with optional Forum/IRC Drama.  Easiest way to do that is to give them something to do and/or care about.  Good luck with that given the current political climate.

Edited by Lady Red
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This is a niche game.  Its player base is restricted to a very specific brand of crazy, and of that niche market you have to deduct dwindling attention spans and player burn out. You can plot and plan as much as you like, but you're not going to change the nature of this game. It is,  at its core, unattractive to potential new players.  That yields an inescapable downward trend. 
 
A much better plan would be to formulate a way to retain active players and reengage old players who still carry around nostalgia for little MS Excel game with optional Forum/IRC Drama.  Easiest way to do that is to give them something to do and/or care about.  Good luck with that given the current political climate.


Thanks for your opinion, but save it for the "I told you so" when the rest of us give up as well. Until then, let us try without raining on our parade no matter how futile you think it is. Edited by GeniusInc
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This is the "I told you so."  I've seen this route played out many times before, all while player retention is ignored in favor of trying to artificially inflate the likability of this game.  There's a battle you can win, and a battle you can't.  For some reason, these topics always end up going down the battle you can't route.  Maybe that's the only way to absolutely insure that no one posting inside it has to do anything other than talk about the possibilities and complain when no follow up is done for lack of realistic expectations.

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Daily reminder that the game is dead, I killed it before sit in my comfy armchair.


You can say the game is dead but how about sitting in your armchair do something about it. You obviously care about this game to still be playing it, GeniusInc count me in for the people that want to save this game, or at least those that go put saying I gave it my best shot.
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CN is too stable, it needs more chaos. The problem is people are trying to make it like the real world.

Yes by all means come back and introduce some chaos because we all remember how your last attempt went

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You can say the game is dead but how about sitting in your armchair do something about it. You obviously care about this game to still be playing it, GeniusInc count me in for the people that want to save this game, or at least those that go put saying I gave it my best shot.

 

Do something about it is so 2008 man, let the past in the past.

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Do something about it is so 2008 man, let the past in the past.

Well you never know the game could always be saved I like to look at the glass half full and with thinks with hope, if others dont do the same than cool but dont try and put the guys that do down support us instead.

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CN is too stable, it needs more chaos. The problem is people are trying to make it like the real world.

Y'know, the world does have several events a year that are just out of nowhere. We're not all conformist dorklords just because you can't have your own !@#$%* little cult Edited by Neo Uruk
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I don't mean to be critical of this game but the issue is that this game is not meant to last this long, mechanically speaking. Consequentially, newer nations simply don't have interest as they don't find it fair having to engage with heavy wondered nations in their range and get slammed. We are talking about multiple years just to have a decent and substantial nation. Anyhow, I do think that suggesting a reset would certainly freshen up political aspects and possibly bring people back with keen interest.

A reset wouldn't be enough. The game mechanic that makes the game most problematic, and deters new members from sticking around and slows their growth most, is tech aid. I know a lot of people don't like to talk about this, but tech aid and tech dealing created a class system and really do more to slow new nations than help. Without tech aid, new nations are getting closer to full slots of aid, without losing upwards of 2/3 of the cash they do receive to pay for tech. Further, if you have to buy your own tech like you do infra and land, suddenly you make it much, much harder to have so wide of a gap. A reset has to come with game mechanics changes, and I don't see how anyone could justify tech aid as a truly fair mechanic. It is one that favors old nations so disproportionately and has been used to really hinder nation growth by the game. It's fundamentally broken, yet it cannot be changed without a reset because that would somehow be less fair.

In hindsight, there is no fair justification for tech aid. It just wasn't corrected when WRCs were added. I doubt many remember, but there was a day, before the WRC, where excessive tech was viewed as a huge detriment because it would cripple your ability to fight a conventional war - less soldiers than someone at your NS whose NS was based on infra meant you'd lose most GAs. Edited by Krzyzewskiville
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I don't mean to be critical of this game but the issue is that this game is not meant to last this long, mechanically speaking. Consequentially, newer nations simply don't have interest as they don't find it fair having to engage with heavy wondered nations in their range and get slammed. We are talking about multiple years just to have a decent and substantial nation. Anyhow, I do think that suggesting a reset would certainly freshen up political aspects and possibly bring people back with keen interest.

 
 

That being said, there would have to be modifications that'd mitigate effects of being a long and ancient nation that clearly has advantages.



What I believe needs to be done is increase the abilities of younger nations to compete, without destroying the advantage that ancient nations have worked for (though severely reducing it)
I can see this done through four game changes.
Implement a logarithmic tech return; the more you have, the smaller the boost each individual unit gives you
Implement a logarithmic land return; the more you have, the smaller the boost each individual unit gives you
Reduce the wonder clock for the first dozen wonders
Add some improvements that function only for nations under one year old and are significantly more useful than a standard improvement.

Implement these and younger nations will be able to grow faster, obtain wonders faster and compete on a more even footing with ancient nations, without making the work they have put into the game over the years redundant.
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