On 2014-05-05 02:41, Fluttershy wrote:
This game is in exactly the same boat as Allegiance.
Only a few veterans hang around, new players come and go regularly.

There's just no easy solution, the game is dated and rough around the edges.
It's unforgiving and confusing as hell on account of the lack of hand-holding.

What I want to know is what brought all the players to Darkspace and Allegiance all those years ago, when there were hundreds of active players.

On 2014-05-05 00:54, Orkan [OO-XII] wrote:
The problem is lack of players. The map is fine. Its size is just right. The problem is lack of players. It always comes down to this. People tend to gravitate to one side because it is great fun cooperating in a large fleet to roll things over. You need a large fleet to effectively fill all the roles. Plus a lot of us know each other and want to play together on the same side. Even if we used to be on different sides in the past.
The play frequency of veteran DS players are bound to rise and fall at times no doubt peak and then wane. It is easy for interest to wane if there are no players to fight against or play with and so we come full circle.

If there is no way of telling the world that DS exists there can only remain those that know of it. Those that know of it will eventually tire and move on or die of old age and so be unable to log on again.

The game needs promotion. There are hundreds of thousands of people playing criminally inept pieces of browser based code the names of which I shall not lower myself to mention who would be a lot happier if they knew of this game's existance. Some may join and leave only to leave and play something else some however will stay and stay for a long time.

This game would be ideal with 10-20 active players per faction online 24/7. That means 60 players online at one time on the weekends to begin with. To achieve that you would probably need 200 new players who stick around. I truly hope for a renaissance. I am doing my bit to spread the word but I am one person and really it's none of my business.

Maybe I am missing something. Either this game wants to attract more players or it does not. If it does then action must be taken and effort expended. If not then we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that it seems that this is simply someone's pet project and we are merely people who saw a playground that appealed to our ideas of a great space game but did not realise that perhaps the games developers had surrendered to using it as a place to practice their coding so they can put it on their CV/resume for later use. I don't want to believe that. DS is a labour of love. The staff are voluntary. Let's make a push and get more people aboard.

I do apologise for sounding so pessimistic about how things seem for DS but I simply see no attempt to attract new players which are the lifeblood of any game. The model is here, the structure is here, everything is in place for it to be a success as some worse games make their developers money. On many occaisions you can only come to know of Darkspace if you know the name of the game beforehand. There are only so many fans of a certain deathmetal band that shares the name that will want to play...

This game needs exposure outside of itself and that requires time, effort and possibly funds to acquire new players on behalf of the developers. If that is not forthcoming then its fate is sealed as that of a small star. With no more fuel it will burn out and fade away.

On 2014-05-05 00:12, Crim wrote:
Isn't this the same thing we talk about every two years or so? We'll change it to smaller and people will eventually bitch for a larger map. Then they'll bitch for a smaller map, and so on until the end of time.


Make up your minds, folks

On 2014-05-05 11:15, Fluttershy wrote:
What exactly is this game missing in the graphics department anyhow?

The HUD is rather plain, and maybe that's part of it, but idk what else could be enhanced.