Aaron Sool wrote:Shadowmine wrote:There are a million small things you could do to keep a few extra players around. But the fact of the matter is a little bonus ep for new players isn't the magic fix you seem to think it is. Sure it might help, but its not the real solution or reason for the current state of the game. Having the game ready for steam, and steam itself is still the biggest and best thing the devs can do for the game atm.
I'm NOT saying it's the only reason. The opposite. I'm saying serveral things have led to this, and the EP-gap is one of them. And if doing something bout that particilur reason, if doing something bout that WOULD lead to more players, then why not test it? As I said, the worst that could happen is you still only have 100-200 active players. Can you tell me what is wrong with trying this?
Edit. And I see the steam release, as another chance for the game. And why not minimize the reasons for peeps to leave, by doing something bout the EP-gap amongst other things? I don't want us to take the risk to loose some due to the GAP-issue. Don't let the Evil GAP win!!!
Here's the kink in a GAP arguement, time doesn't stop.
Assuming the devs expect the game to continue into the future, a gap reduction between 2 year players and Newbs would still create a gap between NOW players and players joining 1 or 2 years from now.
Addressing the issue of GAP means redoing the whole concept of Perp, which is players earn EP based on elapsed time into a fixed maximum level system; because that is the only way to create a rolling EP leveler.
The only response is simply that isn't the way Perp is designed.
Eve is continually getting new players and they stay despite the GAP, while some do not.
The difference in Perp is that because the population is so low, and so few new people are trying the game, even losing 2 or 3 people that don't like the EP Delta, results in a 5 or 10% retention rate; which makes it FEEL significant.
Taking a different perspective, the largest current Corporation probably has 10 to 15 players on their most active night.
If an outside guild of 200 active players joined Perp, they would have a significant impact within a few weeks and would dominate the server within 90 days if there were no other corps formed, after which they would quickly get bored and quit, but that's not an EP GAP issue.
If after greenlight, Perp gets 20-30 players per day, after 90 days the impact of the GAP would be very small GLOBALLY. Sure, individual players or solo players that encounter vets will be sent to the nearest outpost in flames, but from an overall viability of a corp to prosper, they will not be greatly hindered by EP.
Ideally, a large % of those new players joining will go into existing Corps. In this case we end up with 4 or 5 active Vets supported by large numbers of new players, which is fantastic.
tl-dr; If losing a few players to 'GAP' is a significant number of new players, then the game simply isn't viable, because the GAP is how the game is designed.