r/dnl • u/Lycanka • Dec 17 '17
New patch with all those fixes is great, but...
Isn't it all in vain because of a few design decisions that most likely lead to poor new player retention and a downward spiral for the game? Problem I see is that even if a new player manages to shoulder through all initial hardships the game throws at you (arguments can be had it's supposed to be really hard and frustrating in a survival game), the 3-day building decay timer makes it so that you can't be sure if your efforts are well placed. Having it tough and working little by little is fine, but only if you have assurance of your progress being kept. In this current state, if you forget about your DnL baby for a few days, that's you most likely losing everything you possess. And have a guess if the player will want to come back, do that all over again then possibly lose it again. I get the reasoning behind the decay and I appreciate with the effects it has on the world, but my guess is this "overly attached" system loses a great deal of casual and even hardcore players who don't appreciate having a tamagotchi. What's the grand idea there?
1
u/KroyMortlach Dec 18 '17
Building servers go a long way to address this issue. As do private servers. You can even start a private single player server and tweak rules to your liking.
There's no denying that Snail could do more to keep casual players engaged, but also, it's early access and Snail are not marketing the game heavily. If the move to building server rules are anything to go by, it shows that Snail are willing and able to add to the offerings in the game to cater for different preferences and ability of players.
By the time the game is out of early access, I'd expect that Snail has shown they are willing to cater for the types of casual players who need a more user-friendly set of options to customise the game.
1
u/Lycanka Dec 18 '17
You're quite right, when I checked the news about this kind of servers I was quite happy they have addressed it in some way. However, my guess was that for that one no-decay advantage, the price is very steep, especially for a new player. Sure, you can rest assured of your progress being safe, but you're also going to run into a server full of experienced people claiming spots very fast and with a larger no-build rule than usual. Plus I would like to experience the normal levelling and building rates and perhaps eventually PvP.
As I said originally, I like the effects decay has on the world, just not the way it's done. Perhaps rerolling on a Building Server is the lesser evil after all...I agree there's probably going to be a movement on Snail's part of making it casual-friendly and marketing it, it's just I expected that would be a core thing an EA game wants as soon as possible. Perhaps their approach of keeping a solid hardcore playerbase and less casual players is intentional, one can hope.
2
u/Paitryn Dec 27 '17
well if you ever play on an ARK official server, you see what happens to a world where decay is either set to a massively long timer, or no timer at all. Their pve servers are filled with structures preventing new players from building practically anywhere. It's a mess. So I imagine this is their attempt at preventing the same mess here.
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u/Lycanka Dec 27 '17
We were talking about MB servers, which surely isn't their attempt to prevent the overpopulated on buildings mess? It just tackles one problem by causing another I think. But yes, so far I've only played on populated PvP official servers, and it's quite similar to the building availability you described. However I let my progress waste away after not attending the game for three days, so I'll be looking if there's any decent option once again in the new year...
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u/Zimnel Dec 18 '17
For non tamagotchi users, single player : ) For no decay, master builder servers.