Any ideas to bring back players?

[ReBiff]

tbh i quit because leveling alts is way too much of a pain compared to what it used to be, after all the renown nerfs. just doesnt seem worth the time commitment anymore (and im someone that plays/played 8-12hours a day) lol. Like if your someone that enjoys making alts and starting fresh, this game really does kick you in the groin.

[Sulorie]

tbh i quit because leveling alts is way too much of a pain compared to what it used to be, after all the renown nerfs. just doesnt seem worth the time commitment anymore (and im someone that plays/played 8-12hours a day) lol. Like if your someone that enjoys making alts and starting fresh, this game really does kick you in the groin.

You feel that despite it is easier than ever to gear up?

[Amdus]

If there is any interest into keeping the project active and alive, there are a few things that must be taken into consideration as soon as possible.

First and foremost, it's necessary to acknowledge something that's fairly evident. The model being used for so many years, simply doesn't work. It didn't work for mythic, it's not working for RoR. What I mean by this, is that drastic changes are in need if you want to see any type of change.

I'd suggest focusing on a solid base to begin with. It may be the hardest thing to do, but I feel it's possibly the #1 real issue on why most newcomers quit, and many vets don't play as regularly as you'd like to.

-Fix the engine/launcher. Many of us have NASA computers for AoR standards and yet, we lag, we get dced and we crash. This is the main reason of why this game isn't attractive, it should be the number 1 priority at all times to solve this.

-Understand that it's the community who makes the game culture the way it is, not staff. What I mean by this, is that enforcing gameplay or absurd rules isn't going to have a good impact, but rather the opposite. In example, if you want to force us to play a "hardcore" game, that's not going to happen. Most of us are casuals. Hardcore players are a very tiny minority, possibly not over 48 players.

The majority of us have responsabilities as adults that we are, and we simply can't play 8 hours a day. And if the game is aimed for anyone to require 8 hours a day for a month in order to get on pair with those 48 players, well I think the result is very obvious. All those years playing MMO's have taught me that, there's a big difference between hardcore content and mindless grinding. Right now, this is mindless grinding. Gear isn't locked behind requirements, it's locked behind currencies. How to obtain the gear? grind, grind, grind. This isn't playing for fun, it's grinding in the hopes you'll have fun once you obtain the gear.

On the same line, the majority of the community are supposedly "adults". I don't understand this "nobody asked for" need to have a thought police. Why so many petty mutes and bans? There's a mature language filter and an ignore list, so why the staff meddles so much with what players say to each other? What adults say to each other. On a personal note, this last one is the reason of why many in my guild, myself included stopped playing. We try to understand that it may take time to have a working and enjoyable game, but why put any effort when we're getting constantly muted for the most petty stuff you could possibly imagine? I feel like I'm being treated as a toddler when I'm 30 years old, it's dumb and even insulting. I personally don't think you're in a position to spare players with petty bans. It's not like the influx of new players is bigger than the influx of exiting players. Of course ban people that "cross the line", but getting banned for saying that "Joe Biden is a robot"? I literally got 15 days ban for saying that.

With this solid base I believe things would go much better. How do I know this? Because I have taken a look at private server projects of many MMO's that actually work. The biggest wow private server is just like I mentioned above. You make a ticket because somebody called you the slur for a mentally disabled individual? The GM tells you to use the ignore function. Simple as that. And the community there is much more younger than the one here, like you just need to check the birthday section to find out. Same goes with the optimization of the client and bug fixing. The content was put there by the original creators of the game, all we want is to be able to enjoy it without crashes, bugs, lag and other stuff.

Moving aside from the solid base:

Pretty much the same as previously stated. Take a look at functioning projects, at modern MMO's. What works, what doesn't.

-Identical classes like wow has been doing for years? Doesn't work.

-Imbalanced classes? Doesn't work.

-Enforcing gameplay like the goddamn dailies and weeklies in wow instead of having fun? Doesn't work.

More specifically to keep old players I'd say that the entirety of game sets need an urgent rework. Almost all classes have the same set options stat wise, but not all classes are the same, this creates an undesired imbalance. For example:
Why all tank warlord sets are the same when all tanks have different mechanics? Why give arpen to SM and Chosen? Why not 6% parry instead? or 6% disrupt for Chosen and 6% crit for SM?
Make the sets more unique and more accordingly to classes so we can have a more diverse and enjoyable experience playing all classes. It doesn't make any sense that a WH has the same passive parry as all tanks if he wants to though RR points and defensive sets and yet have one of the most powerful defensive CD's in the game. Make classes more unique in the supposed role they have. WP and DoK are as tanky as Tanks, yet they have more damage than most tanks and even some DPS classes without any serious trade-off. Tank damage is currently the lowest, and if you want to have some, you need to sacrifice 33% of armor making you squishier than healers and dpsers despite having still less damage than them. There's a fundamental issue with this that makes many veterans get tired of it rather quickly.

I know that there are many things that should be discussed if we all have the best interest of the server and the continuity of this project at hand, but ultimately if the staff is unwilling to have a dialogue and take serious non biased suggestions into account, we're going nowhere. This also includes the absurd requisite for people to have an immaculate CV in order to join the staff or in order to be taken seriously as in example a realm champion. I said that Joe Biden is a robot so all the doors are closed, despite knowing how to code and use 3D software. Maybe myself, or someone else that has been muted could be able to make weapon models, or rewrite the code to end the clunkyness. But we'll never know, atleast not in RoR.

[Sinisterror]

If there is any interest into keeping the project active and alive, there are a few things that must be taken into consideration as soon as possible.

First and foremost, it's necessary to acknowledge something that's fairly evident. The model being used for so many years, simply doesn't work. It didn't work for mythic, it's not working for RoR. What I mean by this, is that drastic changes are in need if you want to see any type of change.

I'd suggest focusing on a solid base to begin with. It may be the hardest thing to do, but I feel it's possibly the #1 real issue on why most newcomers quit, and many vets don't play as regularly as you'd like to.

-Fix the engine/launcher. Many of us have NASA computers for AoR standards and yet, we lag, we get dced and we crash. This is the main reason of why this game isn't attractive, it should be the number 1 priority at all times to solve this.

-Understand that it's the community who makes the game culture the way it is, not staff. What I mean by this, is that enforcing gameplay or absurd rules isn't going to have a good impact, but rather the opposite. In example, if you want to force us to play a "hardcore" game, that's not going to happen. Most of us are casuals. Hardcore players are a very tiny minority, possibly not over 48 players.

The majority of us have responsabilities as adults that we are, and we simply can't play 8 hours a day. And if the game is aimed for anyone to require 8 hours a day for a month in order to get on pair with those 48 players, well I think the result is very obvious. All those years playing MMO's have taught me that, there's a big difference between hardcore content and mindless grinding. Right now, this is mindless grinding. Gear isn't locked behind requirements, it's locked behind currencies. How to obtain the gear? grind, grind, grind. This isn't playing for fun, it's grinding in the hopes you'll have fun once you obtain the gear.

On the same line, the majority of the community are supposedly "adults". I don't understand this "nobody asked for" need to have a thought police. Why so many petty mutes and bans? There's a mature language filter and an ignore list, so why the staff meddles so much with what players say to each other? What adults say to each other. On a personal note, this last one is the reason of why many in my guild, myself included stopped playing. We try to understand that it may take time to have a working and enjoyable game, but why put any effort when we're getting constantly muted for the most petty stuff you could possibly imagine? I feel like I'm being treated as a toddler when I'm 30 years old, it's dumb and even insulting. I personally don't think you're in a position to spare players with petty bans. It's not like the influx of new players is bigger than the influx of exiting players. Of course ban people that "cross the line", but getting banned for saying that "Joe Biden is a robot"? I literally got 15 days ban for saying that.

With this solid base I believe things would go much better. How do I know this? Because I have taken a look at private server projects of many MMO's that actually work. The biggest wow private server is just like I mentioned above. You make a ticket because somebody called you the slur for a mentally disabled individual? The GM tells you to use the ignore function. Simple as that. And the community there is much more younger than the one here, like you just need to check the birthday section to find out. Same goes with the optimization of the client and bug fixing. The content was put there by the original creators of the game, all we want is to be able to enjoy it without crashes, bugs, lag and other stuff.

Moving aside from the solid base:

Pretty much the same as previously stated. Take a look at functioning projects, at modern MMO's. What works, what doesn't.

-Identical classes like wow has been doing for years? Doesn't work.

-Imbalanced classes? Doesn't work.

-Enforcing gameplay like the goddamn dailies and weeklies in wow instead of having fun? Doesn't work.

More specifically to keep old players I'd say that the entirety of game sets need an urgent rework. Almost all classes have the same set options stat wise, but not all classes are the same, this creates an undesired imbalance. For example:
Why all tank warlord sets are the same when all tanks have different mechanics? Why give arpen to SM and Chosen? Why not 6% parry instead? or 6% disrupt for Chosen and 6% crit for SM?
Make the sets more unique and more accordingly to classes so we can have a more diverse and enjoyable experience playing all classes. It doesn't make any sense that a WH has the same passive parry as all tanks if he wants to though RR points and defensive sets and yet have one of the most powerful defensive CD's in the game. Make classes more unique in the supposed role they have. WP and DoK are as tanky as Tanks, yet they have more damage than most tanks and even some DPS classes without any serious trade-off. Tank damage is currently the lowest, and if you want to have some, you need to sacrifice 33% of armor making you squishier than healers and dpsers despite having still less damage than them. There's a fundamental issue with this that makes many veterans get tired of it rather quickly.

I know that there are many things that should be discussed if we all have the best interest of the server and the continuity of this project at hand, but ultimately if the staff is unwilling to have a dialogue and take serious non biased suggestions into account, we're going nowhere. This also includes the absurd requisite for people to have an immaculate CV in order to join the staff or in order to be taken seriously as in example a realm champion. I said that Joe Biden is a robot so all the doors are closed, despite knowing how to code and use 3D software. Maybe myself, or someone else that has been muted could be able to make weapon models, or rewrite the code to end the clunkyness. But we'll never know, atleast not in RoR.

Everything you said is true, sad but true. Shield dok/wp is insanely op compared to what melee healing was before shield and point of the shield was to " not have everything in 1 spec " But shield is exactly that. They get Block best def stat in game, they can do 2k aoe healing to def target/all within +15ft with 1 skill and in next attack that uses AP(all ap based melee heals are now shield only) you heal your grp for 1k easily.

And so much of the unique, versatile and fun has been removed from classes instead of adding more. And the fact that BEST sets in game are copy-paste even when there is 3 different versions of that set? I mean why? Old Overlord/Imperator is good example of what unique and interesting 2-pc set can be. Same for Old T4 Epic Wpn Procs like Magus/Engi/Zealot/Rp got 10% on hit chance to increase cast times by 1 second and worked for melee skills as well. Alot of classess that has 2H wpn could get +12% Critical dmg increase/+9 % Crit. Tanks had Taunt procs on those Wpns. None of these exist anymore and there is like 3-4 MORE wpns with procs now compared to when only old T4 Epic quest wpns were around.

Now it's always "300 dmg on hit" or "450 dot dmg on hit" if you are lucky you can get 3% chance on being hit to get absorb and 10% on being hit pilfer 150hp but those are only for tanks/some casters. With ranked sets in game (although basically just a bit upgraded Vanquisher/Oppressor...) and Vale-Walker (Beastlord like but actual new set bonuses for some if i remember right) but still basically same Set bonuses with a slight twist for better or for worse. Be Brave and add something like Sorc Warlord AoR had " Dealing 20% more dmg to your target but -20% to everyone else"

And it just does not make any sense how they are monitoring and banning/muting people for NOTHING. Nothing that matters and just gives Illusion of Control to someone who has need to control how people play/think/write/make jokes etc. There is too much more to say about gutted specs, gutted classess,pets not getting grp buffs/heals + gutted petpathing which worked good enough before changes, and now slower pace to play when we all were used to 1.15 GCD instead of 1.5.

Oh last but not least. 24 Ae Cap has always been choice that encourages zerging because now 1 dps can hit full WB and it used to take 3 Dps to hit 24 at the same time. This makes positioning less important and kiting with WB impossible. Just make it 9 again and add Aoe HD's to Dps RP/ZE.

[Acidic]

One simple method would be for all players to actively promote the game in their circles

[Orgruk]

Just curious, are there any ideas by the Dev's or others players suggestions to help lift a lagging population?

IMHO what made me slow down the game (beside the fact I'm, at 40+ yo, currently back to intensive studies so I can give my carreer a full 180°) was :

• lack of content and also original content
• lack of things to do solo
• x-realm after a map cap
• lack of roleplay tools, for ideas just see the post I initiated.
• after RR 80 there's nothing more to gain beside titles and roleplay cosmetics but grinding RR is still maintained as a real pain

[Everdin]

...
The majority of us have responsabilities as adults that we are, and we simply can't play 8 hours a day. And if the game is aimed for anyone to require 8 hours a day for a month in order to get on pair with those 48 players, well I think the result is very obvious. All those years playing MMO's have taught me that, there's a big difference between hardcore content and mindless grinding. Right now, this is mindless grinding. Gear isn't locked behind requirements, it's locked behind currencies. How to obtain the gear? grind, grind, grind. This isn't playing for fun, it's grinding in the hopes you'll have fun once you obtain the gear.

On the same line, the majority of the community are supposedly "adults". I don't understand this "nobody asked for" need to have a thought police. Why so many petty mutes and bans? There's a mature language filter and an ignore list, so why the staff meddles so much with what players say to each other? What adults say to each other. On a personal note, this last one is the reason of why many in my guild, myself included stopped playing. We try to understand that it may take time to have a working and enjoyable game, but why put any effort when we're getting constantly muted for the most petty stuff you could possibly imagine? I feel like I'm being treated as a toddler when I'm 30 years old, it's dumb and even insulting. I personally don't think you're in a position to spare players with petty bans. It's not like the influx of new players is bigger than the influx of exiting players. Of course ban people that "cross the line", but getting banned for saying that "Joe Biden is a robot"? I literally got 15 days ban for saying that.

With this solid base I believe things would go much better. How do I know this? Because I have taken a look at private server projects of many MMO's that actually work. The biggest wow private server is just like I mentioned above. You make a ticket because somebody called you the slur for a mentally disabled individual? The GM tells you to use the ignore function. Simple as that. And the community there is much more younger than the one here, like you just need to check the birthday section to find out. Same goes with the optimization of the client and bug fixing. The content was put there by the original creators of the game, all we want is to be able to enjoy it without crashes, bugs, lag and other stuff.

Moving aside from the solid base:

Pretty much the same as previously stated. Take a look at functioning projects, at modern MMO's. What works, what doesn't.

...

Most of the gameplay stuff you wrote is solid and something that could be considerd, so I won't comment on this.

While you are probably right with the assumption that most of us can not affort 8hr of gameplay every day, there are people doing this, and they have to be targeted as well, you will loose these people much faster if they are bored, then you loose people constantly held a carrot in front of. The targets for weekly quest are not astronomical, they are reachable for one or two alts in this week, depending on the rvr situation, of course if the opposit side is zerging the whole week with 60vs40% it's hard, but that is not a fail design of the weekly itself.

Regarding ban, while you are right saying that bans are bad if the population is low, you are wrong saying they are not necessary. The question is why it is necessary to use strong language? And Bans regarding political or "special" situations are maybe to hard, but at least a mute is necessary to prevent things escalating. While maybe you and your friends like to discuss current events and be happy with insulting each other, some other could be offendet and quit because of this.
While the example you postet is just a comment on political flavour, other comments can escalate real quick and hit people from different originis in way harder ways it hits you. Where would you draw the line? There is no big division in the dev team that can evaluate things like that on a constantly base, so the easiest way to prevent bad situations is to cut these things at the root.

Last but not least, the performance. You are referring to other MMOS in multiple parts of your answer. While it might be right that other projects are able to provide a very good performance, you can't ignore that some MMOs with big (payed) development teams are performing much worse. Without saying perfomance shouldn't be on the agenda as long as this project exists, take the time to appreciate what people here doing in their free time to provide us with RoR, and what ammount of work it was to get all this alive with a small amount of information there was at the beginning regarding the codebase.

[GorkaBorka]

tbh i quit because leveling alts is way too much of a pain compared to what it used to be, after all the renown nerfs. just doesnt seem worth the time commitment anymore (and im someone that plays/played 8-12hours a day) lol. Like if your someone that enjoys making alts and starting fresh, this game really does kick you in the groin.

I'm also an altoholic and now thinking about quitting RoR. I'm just tired of grind eternal, and despite I can afford to play ~6-8 hours a day on some lucky days (3-4 hours is what I can afford my self every evening without problem) I'm tired of rr grind. With massive zerging it becomes even less attractive, cause your gains are abysmal. Solo play is meh. Small group... All my friends I wanted to play small scale with have left RoR long ago.
I tried to promote this game and invited a couple of my old MMO comrades, but it didn't work for them. On some point they faces the same grind and told me they're too old for that and don't want to commit.

[GorkaBorka]

Edit: deleted. Accidentally quoted my last post.

[Caduceus]

I think there needs to be something to keep rr80+ players in the game.

Small rewards, cosmetics or perhaps items aimed at being more of an asset to your side. Just something that keeps experienced players interested.