Any ideas to bring back players?

[Emissary]

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.

Same problem here I am too old to continue to pump 8 hours a day into a game, heck even 3 to 4 hours is hard anymore due to summer activities and my job. On live I had 24 characters and all over rr 80 and 3 at rr100, but I was also in my late 20s early 30s and did not have the farm I have now to take care of. I have asked my old guildies to come back from live and everyone of them says they are not leveling another character in this game to 40.

NA is getting scary low in population and all my friends that played NA have either gone destro or left the game because of the NA imbalance (most have left). Now that Diablo Immortal is out I may follow them. People can say what they want but I have been back now 9 months and NA has been one sided for destro 80% of these 9 months the only time it isn't is when destro gets a wild hair to play order. The biggest nail in the coffin is when they came out with the keep wins and bo wins objectives that sent everyone over to one side in our NA times.

[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.

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

i dont think its easier, i always obtained more royals,crests etc before i got renown, same as now,yes everythings cheaper, but even if you make it free, it doesnt matter cause you cant equip it untill you hit the renown.

[Grobi00F]

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

A good start would be to make small scale (both Solo and 6v6) more interesting. Right now it's Blobs vs. Blobs because solo players have no reason to not trail the WB's for some kills which results in big blobs forming unintentionally. Another thing is gutting some of the power of WH's/WE's and AM's/Shamans by either reducing their escape tools or healing. As it's right now these classes are terrorizing the lakes and force solo players to form blobs and to never leave the side of the Zerg in fear of getting caught pants down by either of the classes.

I remember a time when lakes were a vibrant place with wb's, solo players looking for Duels or 6man groups running around fighting others but that's been gone at least since city was released.

[mynban]

Came to drop my 2 cents. I used to play RoR heavily, but there were a flurry of updates that constantly pushed message of 'Take it or leave it!'. Mind you it was a time population was thriving and well above 600+ average on non prime time and still well over 400+ on lowest. I think devs got the wrong idea about the state of population and thought it was time for culling the herd. Changes started to happen where devs would be insane not to know it would be divisive in population. And then there were the kind of massive efforts put into content practically noone cared or asked for.

I watched population drop under 200 in my timezone's primetime. Practically killing all activity of any form. I was one of the more stubborn ones among my friend group, but eventually I also stopped. Once every few months I check on population to see whether it would be worth coming back at all. And at the times I checked, I was baffled to see MORE of the kind of changes that pushed people away were being done.

Formula is not rocket science; 'Do NOT fix what's not broken'. Yet devs couldn't help themselves and found things to break apart and rebuild in controversial ways. There are things that have been broken for years, and fixing them would have a non-divisive positive reception on playerbase. There are so much that begs for attention in this game that if dev time went for it everyone would be appreciative, yet devs managed to find focus for a different change that would cull another up to 50% of remaining pop, while creating a toxic division in remaining population over the change.

Considering amount of grind the game demands; the kind of uncertainty what devs might take away next, makes you question your time investment.

P.S. NB is STILL in the game. with 2 different versions! This is the kind of pointless changes I am talking about, killing half the playerbase for not even achieving keeping NB out of a nonexistent dead ranked scene.

P.S.S. I get that this game is devs' sandbox and we should be thankful to play in it. Well, we all had that kid in our neighborhood who had a ball, and we should have been thankful that he would let us play with it. But we all know there comes a time where you said, ' you know what I will just join those kids jumping over a wall rather than deal with the attitude'. I think this is what happened to the playerbase.

[aarestad1c4]

1) Don't just bring back NerfedButtons, endorse it. Level the playing field by stating this as intended. Point to NB tutorials and make it an intended and optional part of the experience. Invite players to use their own NB from their own logic or to play without it. Allow the game to lead them to success or failure by that logic's own merits. Using NB, at least for casuals, enables players to focus on higher-tier aspects of the fight, such as maneuver, target focus, communication, and situational awareness. If you, the oldskool fan and hardcore player, want a satisfying experience and player base against which to pit yourself, you NEED casuals, not just your fellow meta-competitors who know their character inside and out. There are simply NOT enough of us that are sufficiently dedicated from having been there for the "good old days" to feed this population need. Without casuals, we might as well be DAOC's Uthgard freeshard.

Most MMO's are NOT a button-hunt anymore, but ROR still is. One of the still-successful games out there that is closest in many ways to ye olde MMO's is Guild Wars 2. There, you have at most 14 buttons to use, and they don't move. That game has a TON of customization within the use of those 10 buttons, not to mention fully changing them out with different weaponry and abilities from specs, but there are still only buttons 1-5 for basics, 6-0 for spec stuff, and F1-F4 for other class specials.

It is UNREALISTIC to expect to work interruption mechanics, which are hugely intended in WAR and now ROR, by strictly visual observation. Picture trying this in a large keep battle, especially in a game that will almost never be lag-free with all graphics engaged. NB facilitates the use of this INTENDED mechanic.

2) Plussing up the new user experience is a MUST to draw and keep new players. The original UI is almost worthless once you start your first WB or scenario. New players and casuals don't want to have to customize everything to even start out.

3) PVP boredom and burnout are a giant problem. Getting ROFLstomped 5-10 scenarios straight by a good premade is frustrating and leads to absence. The best answer IMHO is "make your own premade", which I often voice in response to such complaints. However, the in-game tools do not support creating effective groups, or at least does not facilitate them well.

[zulnam]

What's that old saying? Ask how to improve an MMO and you will get 104 different oppinions. Or was it 105?

Reality is that RoR is a 14 year old abandoned MMORPG surviving solely on a voluntary rogue server with zero income is not gonna win over a lot of new hearts. Hell, it survived longer than the original.

There's few things that can massively improve RoR, and most of them so ludicrous and expensive or time consuming, no one in their right mind would do it. It would involve EA, GW, lawyers, and a lot of money.

Some of the people I had the pleasure to play this game with wouldn't even consider paying a subscription if it was an option. And as we all know (since we are all adults here): no cash, no gas.


I think the best way to increase player count is for the core community to be more positive, friendly (towards old and new players alike) and to spread the word about RoR and all the great things it has to offer. I know; putting the responsibility of increasing the community on the community. How dare I?

After all, if I was a new player who never tried this, had zero investment in the game, and I opened the forums and saw the latest thread named "Any ideas to bring back players?" with 11 pages of replies... I'd probably skip it.

[rejndjer]

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.

is there a proof of this? can you show me one guy that got offended by random internet person and left game for it? /mindblown

P.S. gotta agree with amdus guy. i can play dota2 with THOUSANDS of other players. russians, ukrainians, whateer, talk about war or corona or whatever. you can flame all you want, worst thing that could happen to you is to get sent to "low priority" and that happens very very rarely( actually never for flaming). and it is still among most popular online games. how :O

[Everdin]

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.

is there a proof of this? can you show me one guy that got offended by random internet person and left game for it? /mindblown

P.S. gotta agree with amdus guy. i can play dota2 with THOUSANDS of other players. russians, ukrainians, whateer, talk about war or corona or whatever. you can flame all you want, worst thing that could happen to you is to get sent to "low priority" and that happens very very rarely( actually never for flaming). and it is still among most popular online games. how :O

Not by a random internet person, but by a generell toxic environment. I know people left such "Hey feel free to insult everyone"-Games where a racist, homophobic and generally toxic attitude is part of the game experience.

As mentioned before, there is of course the possibility to filter these things out when discussion get toxic, but there is not enough manpower here to realize this. Thats why a strict "Don't talk about those things"-Rule is the best way to make sure discussions dont escalade.

The question is, why should they allow it? If you want to cry out your political or ideological opinion, feel free to do this in your guild/group with your friends, I'm pretty sure there will be no sanctions against you (as long as nobody from this group is reporting it). There is no need to involve the whole server. And if you need a public audience go in a bar and shout to the people there, but if you go in the wrong bar with the wrong opinion chances are high you get banned there too.

[emiliorv]

P.S. NB is STILL in the game. with 2 different versions! This is the kind of pointless changes I am talking about, killing half the playerbase for not even achieving keeping NB out of a nonexistent dead ranked scene.

Yeah, they finally managed to turn NB into a real issue...

[Lawmay]

I think the NB issue in and of itself wasn't the problem. It was how it was handled by the staff, and the community that was against the addon. There was no discussion on the matter, it was "It's banned now, this is our game. Don't like it? **** off". That's the staff portion

The community portion was that any argument in favor of NB (an addon that had been around since live, available to everyone) was met by 'lol git gud cheater, or **** off"

At this point, I don't think bringing the addon back would help, as that attitude from staff and the community more than anything is what turned people off.