ShardWarrior

As far as suggestions go I do not think it a horrible idea. However with that said, I also do not see it necessary. All we need to do is look at other servers like Rebirth that are more geared to how the game was at the time. P2W is not in the starter zones and AE is a ghost town like the rest of the server. Not to mention the market there is essentially useless as there is no supply of materials or recipes. As much as some may not want to admit it, farming goes a long way to having a thriving market. Of course I doubt HC will maintain two separate code bases to remove AE from one shard.

Quite a lot of us actually. Are you honestly suggesting you never see level 50s running lower level TFs/SFs for the WST or any of the story arcs for badges and such? If so, that strains credibility.

What server do you play on? Reason I ask is, there is a DFB or SBB being advertised every few minutes on Excelsior. At least during the hours that I am usually playing.

No thank you. Locking costume pieces is something the Homecoming folk have said they are not going to do.

Well no, no one is forcing anyone to join a farm nor is anyone running a farm telling anyone how to play the game. Players who ask for or accept an invite to a farm are doing so of their own free will. There is plenty of non farm related activity being advertised daily on the LFG channel - at least on Excelsior and Torchbearer. Once again, you are blinded by your own personal view here and simply cannot or will not accept that others may hold a different opinion. Your view is not "more right" than theirs and vice versa. I am still here and the large group of people in the channels I belong to are all still here and we use farming to level up alts. None of us are the "flash in the pan" players you are describing and none of us are any different than any newcomers to the game. New people coming on board are going to find something that holds their interest or they will not, whether that be slow play or power leveling. The beauty of this server is the options that are available for both to exist and enjoy the game. I can only speak for myself here, but I enjoy having a fully slotted, fully built character that I can go back and run any content with. I really do not care for struggling through low levels waiting for endurance and for powers to recharge and using low level, essentially useless enhancements. That fun does not come until I am 50+.

Yes, I was suggesting some sort of in game zone events coupled with player run events that can be advertised as a recruitment event to help attract new players to come and check out the game. I was not suggesting any complex programming for unique sets of rewards and/or various account wide unlocks such as what Star Trek Online offers in their recruitment events. I said that the latest recruitment event in STO got me to thinking about a recruitment event here. As to your earlier reply, players already will have options to allow them to play as they like. They can slow level and run all the story content or they can purchase double XP boosters and speed through whatever they like. There is no need for programming anything new. This game already has quite a lot to offer and as many have said here, all the content is going to be new to a brand new player.

This is what the double XP boosters and other P2W perks are for.

I am very familiar with how the Recruitment Events work in STO having played the game since BETA and participated in every recruitment event they have run over the years. I was not suggesting coding a whole slew of new rewards to be unlocked by various activities, rather just some kind of fun events that can be run as a way to attract new players. Rewards/perks like STO have in their recruitment events would be nice to haves, not requirements.

I have been telling a few people about it. The kids have told their friends about it and they are checking it out. In my experience, getting people to try it is the easy part. Those same people finding something in an 18 year old game that holds their interest is another.

This absolutely without question is not true. First, claiming level 50s are not taking the time to play lower level content is demonstrably false. Any given time of day there are groups being formed by level 50s to run lower level TFs/SFs or story arcs. Second, if a new player would like to be powerleveled and then experience the content they may be interested in via Oro or exemplaring down, that is unquestionably their decision to make. Forcing those new players into a style of play they do not like or enjoy is not going to keep them here. You truly have no idea what the majority of new players may or may not want to experience here. I do not mean this to be an insult, you are blinded by your own perspective.

For some content yes. Not for the entirety of the game.

Star Trek Online is currently running their Delta Recruitment Event, which got me to thinking - why not hold a recruitment event here to generate some interest? Come up with some fun activities for new players to experience while diving into the game. Might be fun to hold a mass Giant Monster event where there are dozens of Kronos Titans and Babbages invading Atlas Park or Mercy Island. The story can be that the villains are banding together into a new Axis of Evil Doers and the current heroes are not enough to fight them. Some kind of event that can be advertised on social media and MMORPG sites to entice some new players. This can be combined with player run events. We used to hold regular Supergroup Faires on Triumph back in the day. SGs would run costume contests, sewer runs, badge tours etc.

I am not sure how feasible it is to use what other servers have done (if at all) since the code is going to be different. With that said, I totally agree and would love to see more costume additions here. The options and choices Rebirth has added to their costume editor is vastly superior to what we have here.

That is very true. With that said, "could be" are the keys words here. Trying to lay blame squarely on farming as the sole reason the game has a low population or is not attracting new players is problematically subjective. Again, people are different. New players may be interested in PvP and have no interest in grinding repetitive story content ad nauseam or they may want to experience the content with fully decked out characters. Or they may want to experience every bit of story content they can get their hands on and level up that way. As others have already pointed out, there is something for everyone here to enjoy. What specifically is preventing you from forming a team and running it? I have seen people advertising respec trials outside of them being the WST. Granted, they are rare to see in LFG, however people are running them. People run them for the badges and they can be a nice diversion from the usual TFs being run. The very same thing can be said about DFB, DiB, SBB or any other content that can be sped through for high rewards with little to no risk involved.

While I do not doubt your personal experience, it is definitely not universally true of everyone nor would I say it is even representative for a majority of people. I personally belong to several chat channels filled with players who farm alts exactly as you are describing and are still actively playing every day. They have been here since Homecoming opened up and most if not all would not be here if they could not farm alts as they can. None of us have any real idea why others outside our social circles come and go. Ascribing blame to activities we may not like is very easy. Anyone here can just as easily point the finger at the utterly toxic disdain some here have toward ostracizing people who might enjoy farming. Those trying to impose their attitudes and opinions of "how to play right" like @Krimson mentions above can be another reason people were driven away. Many may have left simply because this is an old game and does not have many of the modern QoL features newer games have. Several people I know have left because they are older and at a different point in their lives and do not have the time to devote to the game anymore. Bottom line is no one knows for sure. Trying to paint AE, farmers and farming as the sole reasons is very short sighted in my opinion, not to mention referring to the people who enjoy it as "addicts". Those kinds of toxic behavior and attitudes are doing more damage than AE ever will in my opinion.

I am, but do not tell anyone. It is a secret.

Cannot say I found this one to be all that entertaining. Definitely the weakest of the Disney+ MCU series. No fault of the directing and acting though. Cast was very solid. The writing suffered in my opinion. C+ for this D+ show from me.

The idea that the solutions to any of the "problems" put forth here in this and other similar threads are needed for player retention can demonstrably be proven wrong. Quite easily as a matter of fact. I cannot speak for everyone, however I am still here despite AE being in starter zones, free XP boosts from the P2W vendor, fire farming, DFB or whatever other "issues" others have with the game. There is no question a great many of us continue to be here and continue to be involved with the game and/or the community on one level or another. None of the suggested changes or "fixes" introduced in this thread were required to retain us and there is no reason to believe the game as it is now cannot and would not attract new players with some of them finding parts they enjoy enough to keep playing. It worked for us, it can work for others. As others have (correctly in my opinion) pointed out earlier in the thread, word of mouth will help advertise and a helpful community will go a long way toward player retention.

Well said! Could not agree more.

I cannot help it if you are wrong and are contradicting yourself with your own posts. But whatever, good day to you.

@ForeverLaxx I am not sure why you keep directing this at me or what you are on about, but I would kindly ask that you please do your research for clarity. There have been many posts made on these forums over the years by players who have expressed their opinions about power leveling and AE and have gone so far as to suggest its outright removal. You are even admitting there are a few here in this thread. There is a history there and if you frequent the forums enough, this would be clear. A few have made suggestions about removing the AE building from starting zones and removing XP from everything other that Developers Choice missions, which as you know would be a rather large nerf toward the farming and power leveling community. Again, it is perfectly fine for people to dislike farming, dislike power leveling, dislike AE and feeling that it hurts the game and offering suggestions. Those pointing out that power leveling and farming was around long before AE existed and removing AE from starter zones or even entirely would do nothing to stop those activities are making a legitimate point.

I disagree with this entirely.

Whether it be a trickle or a flood of players, I would still very much like to see this empirical evidence of yours that points to farming and DFB being the main reasons new players are either not trying or trying and then swiftly leaving the game. I am happy to wait for you to post that data here so we can all examine it. What has been posted here ranges from subjective opinions and edge cases to pure speculation and hyperbole.

Again @TheZag no reason to doubt you, however I have to admit I find this part of the story a bit suspicious. I can see someone brand new getting a few bars or even a whole level on farm before they realize what is going on, but 6 levels before it dawned on them? Just being honest here, but that is a bit of a stretch to me, especially since this was supposedly a returning player. No one other than that player accepted that team invite to the farm and they could have asked what a farm was before joining. From my experience, farms are advertised as such in LFG. A person brand new to gaming can ask what a farm is before joining a team. I know I have had people send me tells asking what things like SBB or DiB stood for, which I was happy to explain when asked. While I agree the community here can be a big help in supporting new players, I am not sure we want to start imposing hard rules on what language to use when advertising for farms or specific instructions when running and inviting "new" people to farm teams to make sure they really want to join or not.

@TheZag - not that I doubt your story here but how can you be certain this person actually quit the game? There can be any number of reasons a person has not logged in for a period of time. Also, unless that person told you farming and power leveling is what specifically drove them away, then it is as you admitted, just an assumption. Totally agree there are a lot of people advertising or looking for farms on Excel. It is entirely up to the individual though. No one is forced to join a team they do not want to be on. There are also a great many people advertising non-speed, defeat most runs of various TFs and SFs. As for getting the word out being up to us, I completely agree. There seems to be a lot of people with good ideas on what to do, but do not want to put forth any effort and look to someone else to implement them.