New Players' Front

[Akroma 0]

Well, having just joined uni 9 again, I noticed the relative low amount of players. I recently opened a topic in our alliance forum for uni 30, which dealed with this issue. I'll make a direct copy of the article I wrote, and although I didn't apply to uni 30 just yet, I think it can make a difference in uni 9.

 

Allrighty, this is something I had to think about when taking a shower (and no, I am not obsessing over Ogame, it just kinda struck me Razz ). About a year ago, I was still playing the dutch ogame. We had a huge problem with near-empty older universes, and I know that .org faces the same problems. Now I know that this isn't very applicable to uni 30, but it isn't exactly excluded from it either.

 

Well, one of THE best players .nl had ever seen (Skimovic) was at first rather annoyed with those account beggars too lazy to build up their own account. A long discussion followed, where experienced players stated they couldn't be bothered taking the slow route of starting up a whole new account in an old universe, where there was no competition for starting players (unlike new universes).

 

Well, to get to the point: A huge amount of top players, Skimo at the front, organized a crude system where the established players in old universes took some new-to-the-universe-but-otherwise-experienced-players under their wing and made a real quick build-up work, getting the players to their maximum amount of colonies, and decent mines to start taking care of their own. As soon as a certain goal was reached, the mutual cooperation ended and normal gameplay continued, but now with yet another established player able to take under his wing a new player.

 

It worked pretty good, or at least it provided the established players with new and known farms of quitters. Each old universe gained about 500 new players in a relative short period. It was an increase of about 20% in player numbers, which is a huge achievement.

 

There's not really a pressing reason I post this here, other than keeping it in mind for future purposes, when perhaps our universe is emptying. I know I participated, but I also knew which other players did. The community was rather tight, so those who didn't participate and thus gained an unfair advantage were nuked and attacked and harassed by others. It was a basic system, but it worked. It could work on .org.

[Blade 1]

Looks like a good system, but I would not be a good one to help about with it, just quit u9 today.

 

I just don't know if most of the top players in .org are active enough to implement that system.

[trd 0]

I tried with a couple of kids recently, one is now inactive and two still haven't broken out of nub protection after a month. had tried giving them rez, pointing them to oboard forums and giving them safe inactives to attack so that they may learn a bit more mechanics of ogame than handouts. at least if the plan you outlined doesn't keep them over a few months, at least they will make decent farms once they quit. short of no interest, really not sure why the kids I offered assistance to are not progressing, when one can break top150 rank in less than six months in uni9

 

add/correct to ways to help if I am wrong:

1. mentoring/advice

2. free resource shipments

3. safe inactives as targets

4. debris field coords that are left in orbit otherwise

 

account beggars be gone, but they will always exist as elite players need suck ups to make them feel important

[Akroma 0]

Oh you are incredibly right trd, and most probably will abandon their account or just get lost along the way. The thing is, when you have about a million points or more, 100k resources isn't all that much to miss once a week (or two weeks if you will) whereas this amount is enormous for beginning players.

 

You are right about the ways to help new players, but I'd add just one more point: 5. Add the player to the alliance

 

I know many will be hesitant to do this, being afraid too much of their average ppp score, and perhaps even the alliance reputation, but what do you really have to lose in the end? A player you helped that has been crashed is hardly a blemish on one's good name is it?

 

PS. No that was not an approach to get into D.A.R.K. because I can manage on my own quite well

[th3undon3on3 0]

TLA have always been willing to take players under our wing, support them, and help them grow. Unfortunately most prefered to join the wing of one of the "elite" alliances, recieve little to no support, and quit after getting crashed repeatedly.