Sergey’s knowledge is helpful as he can help compare TOS to other MMO’s. I should ask him specifically about higher end botting programs though to see what he knows. The important thing to remember is the vast majority of players don’t bot. That’s not to say that high end botting isn’t a problem, it’s one of the biggest, and the GM Papaya mentioned that being more of a problem than lower end botting which is what I was referring to.
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Actually what I mentioned was low end botting because those players are just users of bot programs. They probably have no coding skills at all. High end botting is minimal in every game and it is hard to catch them because they know how to constantly improve their bots. Well we are derailing here. Back to the topic, I still think that average concurrent population should be used to measure server population.
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Remember those guys attacking forever at the same spot during OBT
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I attribute the drop in playerbase to the wall R8 created in order to match the power creep in which transcendence brings. Eventually players get bored trying to get enough shards just to be able to quest in the new maps, and they have to do so for every single character they have. Yet all their characters need to pool their resources together for 1 character just for that 1 character to be able to proceed into R8 comfortably without much trouble.
Players just feel tired to log in everyday to farm shards and silver. There is zero progression at all for their characters.
Granted this can be easily solved by
- Lowering power creep level
- Introducing white/blue equipment to bridge the gap in the 270/315 bracket.
This has been highlighted by the community since the very start of R8, in October. Now we are well into the 5th month and nothing much has been done to address this.
The speed in which iToS receives the balancing updates is so slow that it is causing more player outflow.
Let me highlight another boring game, Diablo3 and how Diablo3 manages to retain its playerbase (besides how good its brand is). Diablo3 is actually a really simple and boring game when broken down to its fundamentals, every stage is the same, monster fights is the same, progression in storyline is the same. Similar to ToS, it collects gear to get better and has power creep problems. Yet players still feel good while playing/grinding.
The main reason to that is the sense of being able to progress when players devote time to grind. If a piece of equipment drops and it isn’t for the class, it might be good for another class. Diversity of equipment also means there are numerous equipment combinations to try out.
Compared to ToS, what we have is low progression, we spent more hours of our time grinding for shards on our alts but those times aren’t for our alts to progress at all, it is for our main. Alts don’t get any progression at all.
The equipment variety we have is also very small as compared to the times we had in 170s and 220s. We have
- 1 white 270 set (don’t even know where it drops),
- 2 blue 270 set,
- 1 purple 270 set,
- 0 white/blue/purple 270 weapons.
I like it when the developers come out to say that optimisation and balancing is their priority this year. But do realise that balancing come ahead of optimisation, and balancing means more than just balancing between classes. It comprises, at the very least:
- Class balancing
- PVE content balancing
- Equipment balancing
- Rewards balancing (rewards vs time/effort)
Things have to work on the design level first, put more focus on balancing and making players feeling they are progressing without huge artificial walls will give ToS the player retention it needs.
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I can’t wait for Rainbow gears 
.
One day someone like GM_Papaya should share information about a /who to see how many players are online. Then instead of disconnecting/banning bots or what ever it is they do start corralling them into a map without escape. If that number is in the 100’s then it shows that there’s a real problem here especially if the total player count on a server is 1000 or less being one out of every 10 people is a bot.
Would love for them to show the numbers transparently instead of guestimating and having to take an obviously biased paid word of an IMC employee which is a company know to censor their Staff. While the data collection of what Sergey is basing his numbers off is nice whose not to say half those botted accounts aren’t phished real ones from stupid people buying off RMT sites or power level services?
IMC says a lot of things which are not true and all I have seen is absolutely bad mismanagement here that I’ll flat out never trust anything they say at this point without solid proof. The RMT people botting could also own multiple F2P games because it’s not exactly like these people specialize in just one game. Just take a look at their site since there’s a lot more little things to consider for data collection.
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Will be hard for GMs to share stuff though. Open discussion on issues is a no-no for IMC employees since it will open up more cans of worms and show the embarassing side of the company.
But sometimes open discussions can lead to a better product in the end instead of clamming up and hush hush about almost everything.
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They already show it through their mistakes and silliness all the time.
It’s better to talk about it and be realistic than tossing lies like a 5 years old kid that wants candy.
That’s pretty much it. I enjoy communication (the real one, not hiding behind Q&As and re-doing them 6 months later), even if it does not bring the best answer, a game gets often praised for its staffs’ communication.
And it’s clear to say that this game gets praised for nothing at all.
I do thank the staffs and GMs trying to do what they can in game and on the forums, some of them should take example on their colleagues.
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Let’s make our players hit 1 and watch, silently , they leave our game.
Let’s make a good server to our bots!! They dont need fps, endgame, pvp, gvg, balance, good events and runs only one class. And know the best part of our beloved bots?
They do not use the Forum! !
IMC logic
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RO has had better performance (fps) from the start.
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/effect
+202020202020
Ro is full of buggs too…
The main problem for tos is all the R8 Bs.
Prac from rng boxes …and just 1 per char my Murm needs 3 …
I have the feeling that many ppl left when they reach the r8 wall.
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3000 population,
hury find real girl in game
and ask her to date and play another games
haiwhidhheiwhiwe
-■■■■■■,2017
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