Tulga I donnow what your doing, but please do it fast!!!

[Ariwena]

I lost so much friends lately leaving the game on Unity that it isn't fun anymore.
Friends and good ppl are leaving to other games on such a fast rate that the new players can't catch up and it is one empty game now.

If I look to my own guildtown it has 21 plots, all given to members in my guild, but 3-4 of em are actively used, all the rest is standing there infinished, waiting for the owners to come back.

This is a great game, and i'm inhere since release, but you have to act quickly or the community (i only know for the european one) will slowly bleed to death, and boy its no fun[:(]

[oluviel]

I've noticed it too, just the level of recent activity on the dragon boards is evidence enough

[Vahrokh]

Unity's scaled dragon channel (oriented to dragons level 50+, mostly old timers):

I stay alone for several hours a day.

Seldom, at peak times and with lucky moon, most of my friends come and we are > 10. Else it's about 3-4 peoplefor most of the day. Plus some non dragon and my vault characters.

[Varangaard]

WoW's hit on playerbase was very noticeable. One good indication is the number of wares sold at Kion, which went down from 850-1000 to 600-700 pretty quickly. By these numbers, we're looking at roughly a 20% to 25% of the playerbase jumping ship.

[CynSage]

Long time no see everyone. Still paying but not playing, don't know why as I don't see anything in the game that really makes me want to stay. For the past six months I have logged in, spent an hour or two max each month looking around or getting in a fight or responding to a call for help. For dragons the only new thing of any consequence was claw slot. Still no updated dragon adventure quests to level 100!!!!!!!! Unsatisfactory, in 6 months you couldn't even add dragon adventure quests to level 100? Man, this is comparable to hitting rock bottom - and even then, starting to dig deeper.

The unfullfilled promises still continue, as it's 3 months after the new year and still no dragon lairs, oh wow, some eye candy in draak.

Guess my only reason for not cancelling Cynical Sage's account is I've been to lazy to look up the information needed to cancel.

All in all, my interest hasfaded considerably and if I don't see lairs and AROP by the end of April, Cyn will enter permanent sleep as Istaria disappears from his credit card forever.

To the powers that be, you have two more months of payment from Cynical then he to leaves the world to be overan by the (non paying) blight.

R/ Cyn

[imported_Lycaunoss]

I actually havn't logged in for weeks now. I still read the boards and post a bit & watch IRC from time to time. I'm not going to log in till ARoP goes live. There just isn't anything that's drawing me in anymore. I'm starting to lose confidence in Tulga as I see less and less information coming from them.

I've decided that they get one billing cycle after I complete ARoP. No wailing and gnashing of teeth, no ranting. Just another cancelled account if nothing really changes.

[Vahrokh]

Kion, the most trafficed town, 5.30pm. That is after schools have closed and people returned home, not some odd night hours or 9am.

During all of this time I had been shooting and converting in Photoshop and uploading on the pictures host and then posting here a single guy (Dustbringer) happened to come.











As of now I amseriously asking myself why I have to endure and dig and level up with more 16k granite bricks the poor character in the screenshots.

I am even ok at not having a purpose in game or having no end game at all.
But heck... I can play with the shown population even at home, in offline mode and most of all for free.

[Vahrokh]

Half an hour later.

The Newbies of Istaria.

New Brommel, Texas.

As usual, after I filled Kion with some basic tools for newbies, I continued my "help the newbies by filling consigners"route to New Brommel, the most populated newbie city.

The results are as follows:







Once again... am I having sense doing this? Or it's just me going on in some sort of desperate hope?

[Amerelium]

...I'm sure this tread will lure more people into joining.....

[Seranthor]

Sure it will Amerelium... 'Wait and See'... or is it 'Give them more time to get it right'... I forget... but I'm sure you'll correct me.

[Tryagain]

careful folks around here don't take to kindly to elephant hunters...

[Ariwena]

...I'm sure this tread will lure more people into joining.....

What wehave to do, keep our mouth shut and wait till everyone is gone ?

[Fren]

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Amerelium wrote: ...I'm sure this tread will lure more people into joining.....

What wehave to do, keep our mouth shut and wait till everyone is gone ?

I'm sure Tulga are working thier collective asses off, but you are quite right Ariwena, they need to know what is happening. The way the subscription system works, they won't notice a massive drop in income until the subscriptions stop being renewed. The people who remain in HZ are more or less the long timers that have been here since more or less the start, and when the long timers start complaining, this is the time to worry.

I've done a few threads asking what happened, as I didn't have a connection for about 8 months and so couldn't play.

Wouldn't take much to make the game fun again tbh, just to add a few fixes to fix the problems that have been so annoying for the past year, like missing form descriptions, balancing issues as to some schools not being able to solo a mob 10 levels below them, restoring the old quest system until they finish developing the new one, having a couple of events that cater for all levels, not just by spawning level 80+ monsters in one location and calling it an attack. Newbie machines in the newbie resources areas, but limited to craft rating 30 maximum to stop ubercrafter abuse instead of deleting the machines that the newbies use to learn how to play the game and forcing them to run miles to make a couple of weapons.

Then they could get lairs and AROP out of the way,as the fixes above. I know a lot of Dragons have been waiting a long time for lairs, but putting it bluntly, most of you probably have a biped char who owns a plot just now anyway, the remaining few will probably own a large plot with storage buildings. It's not like you dont have the same chance as any of us of owning a plot at the moment, so its not that urgent is it? Heck, most people dont have a plot anyway, because all the good ones are sitting on inactive accounts.

As for AROP, those who have been waiting that long for it are powerful enough to solo the highest level mobs in the game. As for the dragon being the poor reletive to the biped as far as strength goes, i've watched a mate go from level 1, to level 65 past his ROP in the space of three months. He said last night that he didnt agree with the complaints that dragons are weak, as he can solo a mob 5-10 levels above him without breaking a sweat, whereas if I use my level 38 KNOC, and hit a wolf 15 levels below me, good chance i'll earn a DP for my efforts.

So here's the long and the short of it. To all those complaining like hell for high level content, don't be so ******** selfish, or you'll be the only group of 20 or so players left to enjoy the game as everyone else will have got sick and bored, and will have left for pastures greener. There is no low level content, and while this is the case, there will be no new players. No new players = less cash for Tulga, which in turn = HZ slipping into the same level of brown smelly stuff that it was in last year.

Lets help save our game, because once its gone, we'll never find another one anything like it.

[refuse]

So here's the long and the short of it. To all those complaining like hell for high level content, don't be so ******** selfish, or you'll be the only group of 20 or so players left to enjoy the game as everyone else will have got sick and bored, and will have left for pastures greener. There is no low level content, and while this is the case, there will be no new players. No new players = less cash for Tulga, which in turn = HZ slipping into the same level of brown smelly stuff that it was in last year.

Selfish?
Well, perhaps when the last paying customer leaves then selfishness will take a new meaning.

The problem is that All the problems need to be addressed. And the "wait" attitude, really wait and keep paying, doesn't work. If many of the players "waiting" decided to wait, without paying, the game would be gone. So really we are becomming speculation investors. We pay now, hoping that later when we pay there is more to do. But we have to pay now to hopefully have something to pay in the future.

But no investment company I know would accept the lack of feedback, information, updates and general "keep waiting" response. The "let the community build the excitement" threads are really just asking the investors to generate the content for their investment.

Sure Dragons, bipeds, classes and more need content, along with beginners, mid-levelers, andhigh levelers. But saying "wait" or "don't you want them to satisfy X so there will still be a game?" really translates to "sorry, please keep paying, perhaps there will be something for you later".

Lets help save our game, because once its gone, we'll never find another one anything like it.

The problem is what does "like it" mean?

We can assume they are understaffed, and over promising (so much as the AROP is taking "all" their development staff, and their artists are hard at work) as this has beens stated other places.

We can assume they are working hard at what they are doing.

We can assume that "There are plans for the future" and I guess if I want to get on IRC I can see some of these ideas. But there needs to be something now. Or what am I paying for?

The suggestions by people that they "remove content" to add to the game has got me scared. Removing abilities, classes, and more to add content? The blaming of the players for the problems of economy and new player enjoyment?

At some time it has to come down to personal responsibility. I pay every month, that is my responsibility. What is Tulga's responsibility? And will they owe up to it?

I have had 7+ days of the game not working, but my monthly fee didn't go down.
I have had problems with the game that prevented me from using it, but my monthly fee didn't go down.
What is promised isn't delivered, but my monthly fee didn't go down.

So at what point does it stop being the "communities" problem and the owners of this problem take responsibility?

No new players = less cash for Tulga, which in turn = HZ slipping into the same level of brown smelly stuff that it was in last year.

Funny, I have kept paying during all this, my burden of responsibility (i.e. paying) hasn't been lowered during this "lowering of expectations" period.
Sure if Tulga doesn't turn it around then the game will go under.

But the implicationthat I should "lie" to make it seem rosey (you are not saying I should lie, I am using it in a general sense) to attract more players seems a poor choice. Perhaps doing what is promised (in the contract) for the cost of my membership would be a better approach.

The implication that I should get "accept less" for the good of the game is terrible. I have paid through this "bad time", but suffering for the cause is a martyr's dream, not a thing a company should ask of it's paying members.

mar·tyrPronunciation Key(märtr)
n.

1. One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.

So I guess the "hey just wait", or the "Hey we need to buck up so Tulga can get more customers", or "hey we can produce content" really strikes me as "look the ship is sinking, lets play some music to make the pain easier" (titanic reference).

What do I get except "wait for it", or "it is comming after AROP (now 3 months late)" or . . . . .

At some point, you have to realize that perhaps it isn't the paying customer's problem that this is happening. Sure we want the game to continue, that is why we play. What is worse is I know people that have 2 accounts to this game, and the other major MMOs right now. They stop in to see if things have changed, or to talk to friends. They do this less and less every week.

Nothing changes, nor do the paying customers have any ability to make it change. The only power a customer has is to play the martyr, or make an evaluation based on their values. At some point, the later people will stop paying, and no statement like "Lets help save our game" can allow the customers to do this. Nor should it be asked of the customer.

Tulga has the responsibility to produce for the money taken. As the money gets thinner, the production will slip, it is the downward spiral that takes companies to oblivian. Perhaps at the end, they will release their code and server software so it can become a fan supported product.

But as long as they take in money from customers, they have a responsibility to produce.

I know it stinks, I want the game to keep going, if it dies all these months of game play are lost.

[Rainbow]

Well said Refuse, a lot of what you wrote rang true for me.

I do still peep at the forums to see if that much needed offical statement was made that Tulga and GN have come to a good conclusion with their discussions and it saddened me to read Ariwena's post. It saddened me more to see evidence that backed Val's words through screenshots of an empty Kion submitted by Vahrokh.

Refuse summed up so well the decision that I made to stop playing and paying because it did feel like "the ship was sinking".

As Refuse put it, I had maintained my side of the "contract" with AE/GN and now Tulga/GN by paying my monthly to play fee since release and my intial cost of the game. It hit me that those costs covered me to log in and enjoy my time in game rather than sell their game for them, think of new quest type content for them, forever be patient for fixes with performance etc., and generally pay to beta test on thier behalf.I simply remembered who was paying who in this contract.

For me the time came to say enough was enough. I tried an alternative and found that I did not need to be a computer engineer tweaking my computers bits and bobs, emptying this and that to try and make the game run smoothly. I did not need to entice others to play the game so that it stayed afloat. I simply agreed to abide by their rules, gave my payment details and logged in and had a bit of fun. This is simply the way I felt and in no way reflects that I think anybody who is still patient enough to hang in there is crazy or foolish.

As harsh as it may sound, I actually grew weary of giving the "poor" dev's et al a break because they were working so hard. Big deal, so they were working late at the time of merge etc. I would work late too if my job depended upon it or I had made a big boo boo with my business that cost me money and customers. Isn't that about responsibility and self preservation?

There are those who have not reached that point of no return yet, and for those, I truly hope that they will be shown the appreciation that they deserve by the owners of this game.

I just wonder how realistic are the expectations of those managing this game. It sometimes feels that they believe that they are doing the customers a good turn and in return expect an infinite amount of patience and patience and more patience whilst they struggle to try to turn the game around. I actually believe that those remaining and those who stuck it out through the merging of the servers did the game owners a favour and not vice versa.

Hopefully, those of us who have become doubting Thomas' will be proved wrong, and those of us who have left will see something soon that is worthwhile to come back to.

Anyway, the bottom line is that we all have a straw that can break our backs. If that straw hasn't been placed on your back yet, then that's good and I do hope that your patience pays off.

Rainbow

[Isair]

Actually alot of what's been said rings true to me, and i too grew weary of the
"sinking ship" feeling. I used to love this game, and invested *alot of time in it.
But in the endi and many others decided to call it quits, to take the easy way out and try a game that offers quick and easy accessible FUN.

I still hope that tulga/Ae can deliver what's been promised for so long now,
and to that end i still hang around the boards to lookfor progress.
Latelty ive been thinking about returning to check out the lay of the land, but
knowing that nothing major has changed, it's just going to be the same old
story, only this time my guild no longer exists, or if it does almost none of the people
that made it so great are still there (if any of you from Death on arrival is reading this, Dunbaton, Jexter, Swe-hipphopp know i miss you all!).

Anyway, feels like im only repeating whats already been said but felt like
voicing my hopes that it will improve and i can one day return..

[Amerelium]

...this thread doesn't help a bit; there's no suggestions, just a lot of screenies of empty towns - really helpfull...

[Vahrokh]

...this thread doesn't help a bit; there's no suggestions, just a lot of screenies of empty towns - really helpfull...

Look at it like it was a cold shower in the morning doing military.

It's really unpleasant, but really wakes you up.

Sometimes the developers could help seeing thru the players eyes and their concerns.
Helps understanding and sometimes closing the gap that often gets created between who codes and who lives what's coded.

[refuse]

...this thread doesn't help a bit; there's no suggestions, just a lot of screenies of empty towns - really helpfull...

The helpful bit is comming.
But our helpful writier is writing their comments on the Arop. Once that is done (should be anytime soon (soon being relative)) we will try to get back to this thread and add content, value, and enjoyment.

Till then, just give the writers a chance, they are working hard, late some times, to write exciting content for you. But with the recent events we have had to cut back on the content writers, so just give us some time, and these threads will become valuable.

You can expect content, witty statements, and more soon. But until then, feel free to get together with others on this forum to generate the content you might expect in this thread, or that would keep you reading this thread. Don't forget to recommend this thread to others, but leave out the stuff you don't like, only mention stuff you like, and if you can't think of anything recommend the community that would be here if this thread met your expectations.

Please remember, it is not the writers fault there is no content you find suitable, the writers just need more time.

[Seranthor]

Shulahravaukar,

There have been literally 100s of suggestions made on bringing players back to the game, few if any are heard, and fewer still if any are considered or even acted on.

I'm sorry, I will not join in your 'wait and see' or 'give them more time to get it right' mantra. Sycophancy nor sucking up to TGwill not solve this problem as I said to your compatriots in IRC. Turning a blind eye to the problems only hastens HZ's demise. Find your voice and step up and offer some suggestions of your own instead of lambasting those that do care enough about HZ's future to take a stand and offer up what they see is wrong.