New Players Leaving The Game

I have noticed in every round I have played quite a few players will start and shortly after disappearing. I think part of it has to do with how slow the game is at the start and how difficult it can be to progress when it is a new player. People will get bored pretty fast waiting on resources to build up or make units which I may add seem very expensive at stone age. Even if they find dens, they can't do much with some hunters or braves. 

I have some ideas that might help maintain those new players entertain and keep them in the game long enough to find quests and hence keep them in the game.

I have noticed some creatures/ monsters do not have dens and that's where my ideas come from. Might also be a good idea to incorporate the level 1& 2 tools which do not have much use currently.

Spoiled Garden, in here the new player can go fight some mushrooms. The mushrooms might drop some stuff and give some experience points, but not more than maybe 100.  This place can show up every 2-3 days. The aim is not to be able to level up super-fast, but to have something to do in between builds. There can also be some attacking flowers like those in TTG. Also, maybe this garden only spuns 4-5 times and then disappears?

Anonymous Abandoned City, this can look like a town that was attacked with building partially demolished and such. In here you can find ghosts and coffins (specters from the previous town people) also with opportunity to use low level tools.

Creepy Forest, In here you can find some trees and also the creepy hands? Maybe this one can be for later on when a player can have proper units to kill these.

Another thought I had was a quest for exploring. This might entice the new players to explore more, which would lead to finding other things and stay in the game.

The goal is to keep the new players in and this will help grow the game. These ideas came with new players in mind. The veteran players and players in alliance can move fast through this phase, but for new players it can be hard. Maybe something can be done about improving the resources at the stone age?

Thank you for taking the time to read my ideas. Maybe other people also have some ideas?

I couldn't agree more! The opening stages go very slowly, and it can be disheartening to feel outclassed by every mob you encounter. Some easier monsters would give experience to new players - a fighting tutorial, possibly, that allows a new player to find out their limits, and to see how to combat them.

Unless you have a wealth of patience (or nothing else to do), getting your feet underneath you takes quite a while. There needs to be a tangible encouragement to brand new players that keeps them enjoying the game - and having fun! I'm not suggesting that everything be nerfed (made easier), but that the new player will be able to achieve goals besides Zwelstein's that give them confidence, and the desire to continue playing.

Just my 2 cents worth :-)

The first day sure is boring, once the tutorial is finished, you keep waiting about an hour to get resources to build something. Now the next few days aren't very fun either, sure you can keep building all the time, but between two upgrades there isn't anything to do for minutes. An efficient way to fill that time would be if the first town started with the garden, candies, apocalypse and perfecto puzzles.

Even the puzzles won't do much. Once they are done if you are lucky you wait til the next day to do them, if they are the other type, then who knows when they are available again.

Just to make a point of what I mean here is what Emrys has accomplished after almost 2 days. I have cleared an area 19 X 18 cells, no other player found. Today I have fished about 10 times, yeiii so much fun....Not, but nothing else to do. I have manage to make 8 explorers, so at least sending them out is something to do. I have found 2 auction houses where I can send the resources I don't have to buy "stuff", a quarry where I can send my traders and get maybe 300 stones :)) ...so much stone what to do with it?  maybe one piece of the ford at OH? A kung Fu master where I can send my 1 hunter to get super strong, 2 jails where my hunter can go visit friends, a small cave where I collected pretty stones and got a bronze badge ( to use in the near future) and last but not least some sheep and deer 7-8 cells away that I can have in a month or so.

Maybe this is why some new players make so many heroes. There is really nothing to do until enough resources are accumulated to improve storages so then you can make some braves and or hunters to go to OH where they WILL die and then you can wait for the resources to build up and make them again or use them to improve wood because you will need so much of it in Keepers.

I have also spent over 75 coins at the wheel. I now have so much "stuff" I can be competition for the antiquarian!! Unfortunately those coins yield very little in resources :(

Dont get me wrong, I enjoy the game...now..but I was very tempted to leave when I started since it is so slow and can be very boring to just do nothing for hours.

I have cleared an area 19 X 18 cells, no other player found.

Unfortunately those coins yield very little in resources :(

About the first quote: years ago we used to be very close to each other, that was changed on purpose because people complained that they struggled to have enough cells to make new towns and get some world resources. Now though, it's common to have zero neighbor even in information age and high culture, wasting the fun of lending world resources and making lending them for culture victory very problematic (not impossible if you know the game but still).

About the second one: I personally keep all my coins for months until I use them all at once to get a lot of resources when I need them, like to build the industrial oil income, it sure isn't the way they are intended to be used, you're supposed to use 1 per day to get to the best wheel, but it gives good items very rarely and while in stone age you can get just about 500 resources, you can get thousands later. What I do gives better result, but it's less fun because I get nothing for months since I don't use any. But really, the wheel tend to give awful items that you just want to give to the antiquarian once you have 10, and when you do that: she sometimes give you another awful item that you want to give her back... Also I think there is still a bug where playing a coin each day ends up after a few weeks resetting the wheel to the minimum because you basically have to play a little more than 1 coin per day.

I think the idea is good to do something for the first 1-2 weeks of the game start. Does not have to be anything big, recurring mushrooms or other easy to fight monsters in the dwelling would be great. Even for me as an 'old' player this time is boring. But I already know that it will get better after that and there will be some stuff to do. I have noticed that more younger players are coming now. Especially younger ones need more entertainment to find a game interesting and play it for a longer time. What also discourages many is that they have to restart every 5 months. On the other hand, the game as a whole is very extensive and you can't find out everything with one play. A new start then gives the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past and do better and also find out new things.

Major part of players (90% or so) leave after trying the game. This is not exclusive to TT2, but true for any game, especially free one that you haven't paid to play. This is normal as different people have different tastes. In fact the fact that people are leaving is a good indicator, because it means that there are new players coming to the game. If major fraction of people would stay like it was in early alphas, that would mean your are playing with the same group of people, because only a fan would stay over and over.

Yes, I totally understand that point, that being said, any thoughts on any of the ideas?  My thought is even if say that would increase the number of players staying by 10% that would be good, no?

I have cleared an area 19 X 18 cells, no other player found.

Unfortunately those coins yield very little in resources :(

About the first quote: years ago we used to be very close to each other, that was changed on purpose because people complained that they struggled to have enough cells to make new towns and get some world resources. Now though, it's common to have zero neighbor even in information age and high culture, wasting the fun of lending world resources and making lending them for culture victory very problematic (not impossible if you know the game but still).

About the second one: I personally keep all my coins for months until I use them all at once to get a lot of resources when I need them, like to build the industrial oil income, it sure isn't the way they are intended to be used, you're supposed to use 1 per day to get to the best wheel, but it gives good items very rarely and while in stone age you can get just about 500 resources, you can get thousands later. What I do gives better result, but it's less fun because I get nothing for months since I don't use any. But really, the wheel tend to give awful items that you just want to give to the antiquarian once you have 10, and when you do that: she sometimes give you another awful item that you want to give her back... Also I think there is still a bug where playing a coin each day ends up after a few weeks resetting the wheel to the minimum because you basically have to play a little more than 1 coin per day.

Distance between heroes isn't always vast.  If you look at my hero Illyria in the desert, which you may or may not be able to do, she had at least 5 heroes within 5-10 cells of her dwelling at the start, leaving no option but to play monarchy as she is bordered on three out of four sides.  My understanding is that victories may buy some extra cells for heroes when they are reincarnated so that could be an explanation.  Illyria had no victories but my  victory heroes tend to have more room around them.  With minor exceptions.  Having the heroes so close together resulted in battles for cells and some players complained and claimed to leave because they were constantly being attacked for space and I think, but am not sure, some small amount of extra space was provided so different dwellings weren't 2 or 3 cells apart.

As to the spending of coins, I am with Merlin.  I tend to spin that wheel looking for resources which are pretty hard to come by lol.  I like Merlin's idea of having things to do for the first week or so until getting enough experience and resources to progress further.  I also miss the days when mushrooms would appear in secondary towns for a time until the hero got stronger.  That gave the hero something to do to level up as well.

Yes victories make you spawn further from other players, but I had heroes without victories that were very far from other players, but it's just very random, rarely some players even spawn 2 cells away indeed.

Major part of players (90% or so) leave after trying the game. This is not exclusive to TT2, but true for any game, especially free one that you haven't paid to play. This is normal as different people have different tastes. In fact the fact that people are leaving is a good indicator, because it means that there are new players coming to the game. If major fraction of people would stay like it was in early alphas, that would mean your are playing with the same group of people, because only a fan would stay over and over.

As you've stated more than once, development of your game relies largely on donations. It is unlikely, that anyone would donate during their first few days, when they
have no clue if they're gonna like the game or not. Those that stay around to
settle 2nd town and/or get a glimpse of variety of all the different locations
and puzzles, are more likely to get hooked and would possibly donate too.
Majority or newcomers abandon their kingdom on day 1...3, because after a few
initial builds and quests, there's just nothing to do... and waiting for those
early resources to accumuate or spawn is worse than watching the paint dry...
So, here's a few suggestions to keep the new blood around for a little longer
and gain some extra fans.

1. During novice protection (1st week or until 2nd town is settled):

    1.1 Increase spawn rate of resource drops in dwelling by 2-3x.

    1.2 Explorers that return without finding
anything useful while scouting, could fetch (within their carrying limit) a bit
of    food/wood/stone from uncovered plains/forests/mountains.

    1.3 A few (2-4) mushrooms in dwelling could
spawn every 2-3 hours (just a tiny xp gain, yet something to wait for).

    1.4 Training time and resource cost for all
units could be halved (or at least reduced by 25%) during novice protection... easier
to suck it up and adjust/ try again if those few braves and such are
decimated by New Kyiv's skeletons for example.

    1.5 Introduce a consumable or an artifact (anything
but ring or amulet, that can be worn by lvl1 hero), that reduces building time
by 20...40%. Could be a reward for a subquest, for example at Heralds for
collecting all the gems there. (Again, effect of a consumable would end (or
artifact would become obsolete) once novice protection ends. Nothing
gamebreaking, as during that time construction speed is usually 100-140%).  

2. Reduce fishing and digging times for all (or at least for lower tier) fishing/digging spots 2x,
XP gain also halved to keep the balance.

Everything above would benefit both old-timers and newcomers equally, but an option could be, that those changes mentioned above would permanently lose their effect once
player's any hero has reached any type of victory.

s.

 So, here's a few suggestions to keep the new blood around for a little longer
and gain some extra fans.

...

I don't think it's that simple - I think majority of people quit earlier than they finish tutorial, but overall some nice suggestions there, could do some work to make first week a bit more exciting, will think about it after we will release new perks next week.

Great, at least if it doesn't bring new players, it will be more fun (maybe more like "less boring") for old players when they make a new hero. In that regard, the first thing I'd like is to be able to skip some parts of the tutorial: collecting the melons, looking at hero page, equipping the first mace, killing the first mushrooms etc, it's not very long but those few clicks at the beginning each time is seriously annoying after a few heroes. I understand it wouldn't be trivial to implement that though.