A temporary fix and a bitter pill would be to eliminate spawning on all but the core islands. This means all outposts on other islands would die off, but the pop density on the cores would increase. This is assuming, of course, that increasing population density would benefit the game somehow.
I have said and will continue to stick to saying that rot is meaningless no matter how it's implemented. It's a means to get rid of an over-flow of items that build up. It does nothing IC and never will.
Rot was over-implemented, and the subsequent outcry against it caused a knee-jerk swing to under-implementation to the point where it is now meaningless. I personally think somewhere in between what we have now and what we had originally would restore rot to being a force to upgrade to better tools and also acceptable to most players.
But whatever, that's irrelevant at this point.
Please focus all your energy on what I'm about to say:
I have said it many times before, but I'll repeat myself: I think the current depressed state of the game is entirely natural. The Cantr I play is not fundamentally different from the one I played when I first signed up a long time ago. The biggest difference is the lag, which honestly doesn't bother me. I enjoy playing, enough that I'm willing to wait a few more seconds to do it. Players will get bored with any game over time, and when they do, they make excuses for it because they don't -want- to be bored, but there's no way to stop it. It just happens. Eventually bored players quit, and as long as they are replaced, there's no problem.
However, Cantr's players are not being replaced. I wasn't around at the creation of this game, but based on my observations of many other games, I'll take a guess at how Cantr started: A bunch of folks made the game and they told their friends, who told their friends, who told their friends. The number of players soared. Eventually, people ran out of friends to tell, but no big deal, because there were tons of people playing. Eventually, people started getting bored and found excuses to leave, and we are where we are now.
Cantr is replacing players at a rate equal to its marketing efforts, and nothing more.
Eventually, the player numbers will reach a new homeostasis based on this influx, and the player numbers will level out at greatly depressed levels.
If Programming focuses it's efforts on lag reduction (to encourage player retention), and Marketing comes up with a sustainable marketing strategy (to get new players), Cantr will be back on solid footing. Unfortunately, I honestly believe that at this point, neither of these can be done without spending money. PLIT games is the only free game I've played that has continual player growth, and I know they spend money on advertising.
I honestly believe that this is a Truth, and I'm going out on a limb and saying so. Money makes up for a lack of expertise, so unless we get a crack team of university trained marketers on staff, I don't see any more happening there than we already have. I'm also going to say that we need to get more people in the programming department. I see we have some new aspirants, so lets get them trained and working. If some oldbies on the GAC have to come out of retirement and lend a hand, then that's what has to be done, but having only two programmers is not sustainable. If Chris or Marol quit tomorrow, what do you think would happen to Cantr? This game is one tragic accident away from extinction.
Jos, I know that you're not really involved in Cantr anymore, and that you're probably not even going to read this, but you're still the Programming Chair, and you're still the creator of this game, and you're the guy that controls the money. You're the only person that can stimulate and authorize the things I've outlined above. If you don't do something, no one else can.
Kudos to all the staff that have kept this game running under the crappiest of conditions. You're all heros in my book.
Hamsters is nice. ~Kaylee, Firefly
