Losing crops

[viktor]

taking an idea from another topic, the concept of the difference between simmers and rpers
it only takes a few simmers to build nations and empires, but it takes a lot of rpers to sustain social culture

communication between people in a town help keep it more vitalised and overall interesting, even if this communication is a few phrases in a day vs nothin but mindless working
ensuring some basic level of participation as opposed to all events being like water off a ducks back. (real life example is like democracy, if only half the people vote, the results suck, but if everyone got out and voted at least everyone giving that little time will at least give a proper representation of the whole land)

we do still need the simmer so the rpers have a framework to rp around but if we have no rpers and everyone falls to sleeping illness even the simmers fade out.

i know even i'm guilty of having the odd period of dormancy, i've played for 7 years and gone dormant maybe 4 times only logging in to avoid timing out, and to feed SOME of my chars that can do it without anyone seeing them expecting interaction... then when i finally start playing againj i realise... damn if i had only just logged in to be at least a poor player instead of a non player, i'd have soo much done... so don't be like me, be like what i wanna be

[Wolfsong]

I still take offense to the idea that "simmers" and "roleplayers" are mutually exclusive. Roleplayers build, and roleplay both. There's no distinction between doing and acting - you can roleplay building a bus, and actually build it, for example.

[viktor]

i think it's more of a polarity, some are more to one side or the other, some vary far to a side, some more towards the middle

[Doug R.]

They're not mutually exclusive, but simmers don't have their characters mentioned in the praise threads.

[Chris]

Updated with numbers for Day 3400:





As of 3400, Cantr had 810 players and 4609 characters. That is down from 3300, when it had 887 players (9% loss) and 4849 characters (5% loss). Since 3000, player loss has been 30% and character loss 20%.

[Snickie]

Net loss. It's not all loss -- we have been getting new players. I guess just more players have been timing out or hitting the horrible green X.

[Alladinsane]

Loss is loss. The world is growing smaller and will probably continue to.

I wish I knew how to stop it, its not in my limited skill set though.

Lets hope! and...


Be well

[Chris]

Updated with numbers for Day 3500:





As of 3500, Cantr had 823 players and 4572 characters. The player number is up slightly since 3400, and the character number is down slightly.

[SilkShuffle]

Why not to try solve the "reset" debate through the creation of different rounds? I played a game called Hyperiums (its fairly large, has a pretty vibrant community) where multiple rounds exist, exactly the same game, except for the fact that one round had everything occur much faster then the other (slower one was called "real life friendly"). The same thing could apply to Cantr except instead of game speed we could have rounds based on how long before a reset occurs. The original game would get a round called "everlasting" or something like that and the other round(s) would have timers on them (say 500-1000 days) before they reset again. Thus we would preserve the original game and give those wishing for a reset a chance to test out their theory. Obviously this isn't a fully thought out suggestion but does anyone else think this is worth exploring?

[masterekat]

Ha, that would be kind of awesome...a much smaller Cantr world that only lasts 500 days? Somehow I think there'd be many more wars in that world. On the downside, I'm sure that suggestion would take even more characters away from the original game.

[Chris]

Why not to try solve the "reset" debate through the creation of different rounds? I played a game called Hyperiums (its fairly large, has a pretty vibrant community) where multiple rounds exist, exactly the same game, except for the fact that one round had everything occur much faster then the other (slower one was called "real life friendly"). The same thing could apply to Cantr except instead of game speed we could have rounds based on how long before a reset occurs. The original game would get a round called "everlasting" or something like that and the other round(s) would have timers on them (say 500-1000 days) before they reset again. Thus we would preserve the original game and give those wishing for a reset a chance to test out their theory. Obviously this isn't a fully thought out suggestion but does anyone else think this is worth exploring?

Based on a quick look at the website, Hyperiums is a strategy/war game. In other words, it is competitive by design. The game is built for conflict, so a time limit makes sense — see who's still standing. That's not Cantr.

However, I could see a Cantr beta with a select population that ran parallel to the real game. The staff could try out changes to get an idea of how they work in a mini setting.

[Arenti]

It's no use to discuss that even more, since I'm certain nothing like this would happen. What I think would help is to make vehicles and buildings deteriorate and roads. Though very slow. Also what's being a pain in the ... is so many islands. Also a big problem is, towns without active leadership. Chars spawn but aren't able to do much , especially for new players this is a big scare away from the game

[SilkShuffle]

Ha, that would be kind of awesome...a much smaller Cantr world that only lasts 500 days? Somehow I think there'd be many more wars in that world. On the downside, I'm sure that suggestion would take even more characters away from the original game.

You could have a smaller limit of characters, obviously when it first started out characters might shuffle around, but I doubt their would be some kind of mass extinction. Eventually I envision the timed round drawing newer players in (since it would be a much more friendly environment to start playing in) who would eventually transfer to the permanent or "everlasting round" once they became more interested in the aspects of the game that require large amounts of time to really experience. I can even in vision a simple 250 day round that would simply exist for extremely new players to get acquainted with the game (both rping and mechanics) and some stone age rping. Honestly this system has the huge benefit of giving a wider range of rping opportunity that simply can't exist in the game as it currently exists.

Based on a quick look at the website, Hyperiums is a strategy/war game. In other words, it is competitive by design. The game is built for conflict, so a time limit makes sense — see who's still standing. That's not Cantr.

However, I could see a Cantr beta with a select population that ran parallel to the real game. The staff could try out changes to get an idea of how they work in a mini setting

Obviously Hyperiums is a little different, and yes its not even of the same genre, but I think the same principle applies. They have a timed round because it would be impossible for newer players to have any sort of fighting chance if they did not. While Cantr you can easily start a new character and not have them killed by older/more experienced players, but its still quite daunting, especially if you just started to play.

[SilkShuffle]

It's no use to discuss that even more, since I'm certain nothing like this would happen. What I think would help is to make vehicles and buildings deteriorate and roads. Though very slow. Also what's being a pain in the ... is so many islands. Also a big problem is, towns without active leadership. Chars spawn but aren't able to do much , especially for new players this is a big scare away from the game

Decay would of course solve many problems but its a massive project that will take (from what I've seen/heard) a long time to implement. It seems simpler to me to just create some new world as a short term solution. Also some things that you mentioned just can't change within the current system. Deleting islands would be extremely destructive and would definitely cause some kind of fallout amongst the player base that people so desperately want to avoid. The town leader problem can't be solved within current game mechanics without massive in game intervention by the player department

[Snickie]

However, I could see a Cantr beta with a select population that ran parallel to the real game. The staff could try out changes to get an idea of how they work in a mini setting.

This already exists. It's called the test environment, and I have no idea of how to get in.