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MystLeissa

Free2Play and Premium Rebalancing

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Something that keeps a lot of Wurm Online Players away is the lack of any real meaning to Free To Play Accounts, we all know this but until now nobody's had a good answer for balancing;

 

I want to put forth a suggestion of a different economic model altogether:

 

Right now Free2Play players are Capped at their Skills at 20, or 30 if they've been premium before, additionally you cannot Priest or Preform most religious interactions without Premium, to me this is at the core of the free-to-play equation problem: no skill, no ability = no fun. What I would suggest is we take a page from Second Life's Economic Model and Turn Premium away from skill caps, and more towards land-ownership and settlement creation/size/retention.

 

The Biggest Change to the actual code (in my opinion) to make this system work would be  the creation of a second form of "Currency" similiar to SL Tier, this "Allocation" would be given to all premium players and shared between their village; the idea being a village that has more premium players can grow larger, and has more stability than one that only has a few. Do note: Unlike Silver this would NOT be a currency you could drain via PvP Actions, instead it's more of a "Land Allocation"; All Current Settlement In-game Currency fees would be unaffected, this one would strictly be used for settlement creation, retention and resizing as a sort of "soft cap" towards size and amount of guards.

 

The Next biggest change (in my opinion) would be raising the skill caps by almost 3x, granting numerous abilities to free to play players that would other wise normally not having INCLUDING Spellcasting via Priests, I was thinking along the lines of Non-characteristic Skills being Capped at 60, and Characteristic Skills being capped at 25 (30 with Prior Premium). This would mean suddenly many free-to-play players would share a sense of fulfillment in the game, and would get more enjoyment out of it (it also means they would finally be able to ride horses :P). Faith is somewhat up in the air but I'd say cap it around 35 or 40 just for the sake of having a cap.

 

Finally this new currency "tier" would need a website-based interaction where settlement mayors could artifically "increase" their amount of tier by paying real money (e.g. USD) for a grant of a bit more tier, this would be a monthly fee (or whatever time scale the devs decide) and would be quite expensive because it would want to be a "safety net" feature at best.

 

Combined these changes may draw a lot of former Wurm Unlimited, as well as informed players (the kind you honestly want in an MMO) to the table, and allow them to "Ease in" to the lifestyle of Wurm Online a little more comfortably than the current system while still proving a way for the devs to securely provide servers for the masses.

 

Apologies for not Searching this Idea before posting, but to be fair this is a fairly significant undertaking I wanted to explain. If it needs to be moved or merged with another, I give explicit permission to the forum moderators to do so if they see fit (not that they need it but as a matter of principal) but I would request that the devs think about this plan rather than shoving it out the door just because it's "out there".

 

Edit for clarity: To be perfectly clear, Free to play Players would LOSE the ability to create settlements as a  result of this change, but seeing as those are limited to 1 person settlements this is a fair trade-off in my opinion.

Edited by MystLeissa

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12 minutes ago, MystLeissa said:

Right now Free2Play players are Capped at their Skills at 20, or 30 if they've been premium before, additionally you cannot Priest or Preform most religious interactions without Premium, to me this is at the core of the free-to-play equation problem: no skill, no ability = no fun. What I would suggest is we take a page from Second Life's Economic Model and Turn Premium away from skill caps, and more towards land-ownership and settlement creation/size/retention.

F2p have skills capped at 20, faith is capped at 30( you can prepare to be a priest and grind to 30 faith as f2p, just to actually convert to priest and use any spells - you need to be premium )

If you prem and get your characteristics to 30 or beyond that point.. you can keep them at 30.0 or whatever you had them below 30.0 as f2p when your premium is not active, but any other skill besides characteristics & faith returns to 20.0 when you're no longer premium(until you premium again.. than you continue from where you were.

 

It's a subscription model game... unsure why you think pulling casual WU players into game.. to ride horses and grind skills to 40 is of interest to the devs/publisher or wu players...

As most of the fighting in wurm requires usually higher ql items, 40 faith priest cant cast most of the useful spells, allowing f2p priests will allow a .....storm you cant imagine.. besides being wetdream of many probably to do certain things cheaper(for free)

 

I'd see something like this possible.. only if f2p have much much slower skillgain and premium boosting the gains by default.. maybe even disabling sleep bonus to f2p.. so you get that dream 40-50 skill.. but it can just as easily take you months to get somewhat useful skill.. vs 2 days grinding to that point as premium and spending a coffee-cup worth of coins on few enchanted tools. Might seem like harsh alternative.. but if the game isn't making b2p sales, dlcs or the big bucks from microtransactions ... what's left is.. going big on the subscription benefits to give you a reason to not waste your time and the server resources.

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37 minutes ago, Finnn said:

F2p have skills capped at 20, faith is capped at 30( you can prepare to be a priest and grind to 30 faith as f2p, just to actually convert to priest and use any spells - you need to be premium )

If you prem and get your characteristics to 30 or beyond that point.. you can keep them at 30.0 or whatever you had them below 30.0 as f2p when your premium is not active, but any other skill besides characteristics & faith returns to 20.0 when you're no longer premium(until you premium again.. than you continue from where you were.

 

It's a subscription model game... unsure why you think pulling casual WU players into game.. to ride horses and grind skills to 40 is of interest to the devs/publisher or wu players...

As most of the fighting in wurm requires usually higher ql items, 40 faith priest cant cast most of the useful spells, allowing f2p priests will allow a .....storm you cant imagine.. besides being wetdream of many probably to do certain things cheaper(for free)

 

I'd see something like this possible.. only if f2p have much much slower skillgain and premium boosting the gains by default.. maybe even disabling sleep bonus to f2p.. so you get that dream 40-50 skill.. but it can just as easily take you months to get somewhat useful skill.. vs 2 days grinding to that point as premium and spending a coffee-cup worth of coins on few enchanted tools. Might seem like harsh alternative.. but if the game isn't making b2p sales, dlcs or the big bucks from microtransactions ... what's left is.. going big on the subscription benefits to give you a reason to not waste your time and the server resources.

SIndusk Created a mod For Wurm Unlimited that "fixed" alot of the Wurm Unlimited "Stock" Problems with "Low Skill" Priests, by simply requiring a permission to enter on an unlocked building to cast diety spells inside, I am honestly surprised such a change hasn't been merged to WO yet, albeit I would expect with an explicit permission setting... Wurm has never been good for "Fighting" IMO, it's more the work you put into each day that has the benefit for me and tbh most of my friends, artifically limiting skills at all is a bad idea in today's free-to-play world. People can and will take their business elsewhere when they get tired of Wurm (which with paying for it monthly is going to add to)

 

Still not sure why they abandoned Wurm Unlimited, it was a good answer to alot of these problems but they decided to stop dev'ing for it...which upsets me greatly, and I'm just trying to close the gap tbh, between Wurm Unlimited and Wurm Online's New Form.

 

Edit for Clarity: Also you may think Wurm Unlimited Players "Filthy Casuals" but in reality many of us play on the same game you did in 2018 virtually for months if not years at a time, we are not /all/ "Casual"; I took great care to setup my Wurm Unlimited Single-player game with the same standards as WO - and I still played it for a good 7+ Months all told, before I finally decided I wanted to "Start something new" (that was more because I lost the data files in a PC Transfer than actual intention), I even got a mod to modify the starter conditions to allow for QL 10.0 items to be given to "newbies" like on WO.

 

Also if you want proof of my dedication just look at my usage time on the dedicated server software on Steam

 

Image Link (imgur)

Edited by MystLeissa
Dedication

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38 minutes ago, Finnn said:

It's a subscription model game... unsure why you think pulling casual WU players into game.. to ride horses and grind skills to 40 is of interest to the devs/publisher or wu players...

 

Nailed it.

 

41 minutes ago, Finnn said:

but if the game isn't making b2p sales, dlcs or the big bucks from microtransactions ... what's left is.. going big on the subscription benefits to give you a reason to not waste your time and the server resources.

 

... and (though they are few) the paid developer and administrative resources.

 

29 minutes ago, MystLeissa said:

artifically limiting skills at all is a bad idea in today's free-to-play world. People can and will take their business elsewhere when they get tired of Wurm (which with paying for it monthly is going to add to)

 

If they're not paying customers, it's to the business's actual benefit that they take their "business" elsewhere -- because there's no business!  

 

25 minutes ago, MystLeissa said:

Still not sure why they abandoned Wurm Unlimited

 

I'm not sure why you're not sure. The reasons have been explained by staff and were pretty clear to me even before-hand. You can't continue to pay money out (to developers or servers) when money doesn't continue to come in (from a steady stream of one-time buyers or from monthly subscribers).

 

25 minutes ago, MystLeissa said:

Edit for Clarity: Also you may think Wurm Unlimited Players "Filthy Casuals" 

 

He never said "filthy". Not only are you implying that he did by putting quotation marks around it, you're attempting to turn his well-reasoned argument into an ad hominem attack -- which it wasn't.

 

 

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3 hours ago, MystLeissa said:

Also if you want proof of my dedication just look at my usage time on the dedicated server software on Steam

Image Link (imgur)

105days.. is hardly a lot of time.. especially after the last 1 year where people were literally NAILED to their couches or chairs.. staring at tv/monitor :)

+ the server running doesn't mean that m/any were playing on it... (whatever.. about the usage of it..)

 

Do not waste your breath convincing me(I'm just a random player) into anything... try to fix your suggestion to offer a better business model(guessing that was the idea here).. that will lure in more f2p 'filthy casuals' and ALSO MORE whales to play wallet-warriors, at the end of the day.. it's a company having bills, not running on smiles

 

For example there's plenty of room for microtransactions.. more unique skins.. adding all the flashy awesome effects to just them.. while keeping quality to jackal or monthly loyalty token shop skins(lol btw.. no way to preview what you buy.. these are oddly purchasable only ONCE.. than they become unique DEAD CONTENT), think about somewhat more awesome skins... do you think somebody able to spend more.. wont do it to stick out of the crowd wearing all the same trash that looks all the same.. fashion sells.. game just wont adopt the microtransactions to sell unique items.. they come for free as gifts or free content, which is ok.. but the door 2 is right there.. just nothing behind it.. no cashshop for something MORE.

 

Plenty of good ideas not breaking the balance in the game in the forum suggestions.. none of that is picked up as content either. Haven't bothered to check if warframe made it for another year.. but for several years.. the game was in top money makers for steam, why.. how.. it's f2p game.. skins.. just the microtransactions.. and boosters that the game sells to players for few bucks..

 

You might want to get some inspiration watching this🤔

 

Edited by Finnn
fixed 1 of 1000 typos
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9 hours ago, Kohle said:

If they're not paying customers, it's to the business's actual benefit that they take their "business" elsewhere -- because there's no business!  

Actually a non-premium character might well be a paying customer in the form of silver purchases for a deed.

 

However, even if this were not the case, this statement makes a stark assumption - free players add nothing to the game.

 

I'll disagree based on a well known model; i.e. Bartel's player types.  Specifically, social players being drawn to games with a high population.

 

There will always be a larger pool of possible free players compared to paying players, and thus to establish social critical mass (something wurm lacks as it is in cluster collapse at the moment) it needs more free players.

 

Sitting there and saying they should move in for the good of the business is rather like saying you should let someone bleed out so they're easier to carry to hospital.

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Not quite sure why you think SL is a good game to take after for financial decisions when linden labs has a notoriously awful system in place and the company struggled to stay afloat for years, and a majority of revenue doesn’t even come from land ownership

 

though to be fair with the amount of money wurm rakes in theres zero reason for the game to be in the state it is now anyways lol, at least we can see the return on investment from SL

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On 1/2/2021 at 5:50 PM, MystLeissa said:

Edit for clarity: To be perfectly clear, Free to play Players would LOSE the ability to create settlements as a  result of this change, but seeing as those are limited to 1 person settlements this is a fair trade-off in my opinion.

 

I don't know about balance or about economic models or profit margins... What I do know is that, as a gamer, the single biggest thing that turns me off from a game is when the existence of a paid or premium game tier causes the free (or base) game elements to be lessened. Call me crazy, but ... I don't want to play a game that starts players in a "free" deficit and allows paid players to get up to the ground floor. Talk about casting the devs and publishers as money-grubbing microtransaction pay-to-win villains. Whether the game is pay-to-play, free-to-play, subscription, or free-to-play + paid options, all players should start on the same ground floor, and premium content should be optional upper floors. The VIP areas. That's what makes it "premium." 

 

The free level of game play should involve player access to ALL core game mechanics, levels / zones, and playable content. If I opt into higher, paid / premium tiers - I want those to be ADDITIVE. I'm looking for access to stronger buffs, to larger deed sizes (first 11x11 tiles free?), or discounts on upkeep, to vanity options like skins, costumes/outfits, vanity pets, access to an extra material set or housing/decorative accessories (expanded decor crafting catalog? ability to build structures with a non-European architectural style?)  

Basically - if you market and offer a game as "free to play" ... then the base game & core mechanics should actually be free to play. 

 

I want real money unconnected from making the basic game and core mechanics accessible (there lies pay-to-win BS).... I want people who pay money for "premium" to be playing the same game as free players - but with the opportunity to be (excuse the expression) more badass. Games that offer full base content and paid extras and buffs typically end up with people actually wanting to pay. More shinies! More awesome looking options! Weapon skins! Adorable vanity pets! A "far East" architecture style pack! Things I crave and can see other players showing off.... gimmie gimmie gimmie!! 

 

But I don't enjoy paying for those things at the expense of other players getting shafted unless they pay too. 

 

Screwing players because they can't always afford to spring for premium = bad

Turning paid premium into additive / vanity content, instead of "unlocking" core mechanics = good. 

 

If Wurm wants to continue marketing as a "free to play + premium options" game, this is what the gaming industry has come to expect from that economic model. As I see it, Wurm Online can either make the necessary changes to get on this properly.... OR ...  Wurm Online needs to stop blowing smoke, and market the game as a subscription based game, with occasional "free weekends" or "two weeks of free play!" promotions. And subscription sales - "this weekend only - purchase the 1-year WO sub, and you can lock in this discounted rate for the next 12 months!" or whatever the subscription model games are always doing. 

 

(this has really been bothering me)

 

~ Lady Amata 💜🌱✌🏼️

Edited by Amata
there's always a typo
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I am a bit reserved if not opposed to any "I want the game free (or whatever)" demand. In fact, the company running the game is the one having the informations as well as the right to decide. We may wish for different models of payment, subscription, whatever but should accept that we are merely speculating, and not bearing any responsibilities.

 

"The gaming industry" consists of a dozen of mainstream mass games and hundreds if not thousands of market starters or games struggling, 90% or more of them dying every year, even better funded ones than Wurm. While certainly Wurm's economic model is not the most successful it at least has made the game last since .. dunno something like 2003. That indicates, all problems and crises notwithstanding, that the company has not been all wrong.

 

As to the allegedly deceptional "free to play" tag Wurm makes clear, on the home pages as well as on steam, that the core game is subscription based. Better expression of that fact may be proposed, but I doubt that more than a minority enters the game believing it would be completely free to play, relying e.g. on a couple of whales paying insane amounts for some prestige stuff while the normal player has to pay nothing.

 

A more interesting question is that one Etherdrifter raised (his habitual "everything is collapsing" aside), namely that an extended free to play range might help to attract more players and will keep them in the game. I am not sure about. Two possible outcomes could be predicted, first that indeed more players stay, playing free to say, skill 40, 50 whatever in all or some skills and/or characteristics, and several maybe eventually subscribe. Otherwise, the outcome may be that less players decide to subscribe, and more players determined to subscribe decide to sub later, and extend the period between subscriptions. In the first case, the game and the company would benefit, in the second case, the game would not win, at least not much, and the company bleed money. It is important to see that both possibilities do exist. And it would have to be decided how to deal with priests with an extended f2p model, should f2p be allowed to be a restricted form of priests, or not at all?

 

What should be more crucial for the company would be inquiring about the very high churn rate and possibilities to do something about. It would possibly a good idea for the company to start a survey among the former Wurm subscribers. They should still have the data, and could choose samples by last date of playing Wurm, asking the former players for the core reasons to leave the game, and their opinion about it. Participants could be offered e.g. a 1 month premium, and maybe participation with a lottery of 10 1year subs or so. The survey should include former long term players, but mainly those who left the game after the steam launch.

 

I do not know whether that is a good idea, but so far my impression is that everyone is just speculating and heeding her or his pet theory about raising participation and keeping players.

 

 

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31 minutes ago, Ekcin said:

What should be more crucial for the company would be inquiring about the very high churn rate and possibilities to do something about. It would possibly a good idea for the company to start a survey among the former Wurm subscribers. They should still have the data, and could choose samples by last date of playing Wurm, asking the former players for the core reasons to leave the game, and their opinion about it. Participants could be offered e.g. a 1 month premium, and maybe participation with a lottery of 10 1year subs or so. The survey should include former long term players, but mainly those who left the game after the steam launch.

 

I do not know whether that is a good idea, but so far my impression is that everyone is just speculating and heeding her or his pet theory about raising participation and keeping players.

 

 

webshop have been only an idea for few years now..  good luck finding somebody to think about something more complex and pulling the idea into more than that. 

 

"The survey should include former long term players, but mainly those who left the game after the steam launch."

I'd make that a bit more hairy.. in the checks.. who played from where, if other from same ip/range are playing still, who else have used same ip/range.. and tune it around details like that...

You'll mainly tickle a large group of alt accounts for sermons etc.. making half of the "research's" data useless.

We've wondered why nobody ever tracks who leaves or why.. and why there's no practice to remind them of the game... at some point the new content spam mails were born maybe hinted by these questions..

Think I've seen ubisoft using qualtrics to check their user's engagement with their services, games, offers, etc...  other companies or games usually have a survey to fill when you uninstall the game, for example genshin impact...

 

There's nothing more than speculating to do when it comes to changing the model.. you need some solid idea what you're doing.. else you're just dipping into a different pond.. variety of unknown outcomes await there... good and bad.

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On 1/4/2021 at 5:53 AM, Ekcin said:

I am a bit reserved if not opposed to any "I want the game free (or whatever)" demand. In fact, the company running the game is the one having the informations as well as the right to decide. We may wish for different models of payment, subscription, whatever but should accept that we are merely speculating, and not bearing any responsibilities.

 

If this was a response because of something I said, then please allow me to clarify. I don't have any demands about what specific business model Wurm Online should or could use. As you've said, the people behind the curtain are the ones with the actual data needed to guide that kind of a decision. Whatever business model they think works best for Wurm is more than I could suggest, so yay for their decisions. 

 

What I DID say, however, is that no matter what business model this computer game uses, Wurm Online needs to take a serious look at the official webpage, the Steam WO store page, and any other places where Wurm Online is representing itself officially to the public. Right now Wurm Online has an overall public presentation that doubles up on Free-to-Play / "Free" / "Freedom" messaging. Even if a F2P model was an accurate description of the game's economic type once upon a time... "Free to Play" is NOT an appropriate way to shape messaging about Wurm Online in the current game market. 

 

 

On 1/4/2021 at 5:53 AM, Ekcin said:

"The gaming industry" consists of a dozen of mainstream mass games and hundreds if not thousands of market starters or games struggling, 90% or more of them dying every year, even better funded ones than Wurm.

 

Regardless of what any one of us thinks or feels about the modern state of the gaming industry, the common use of tags or labels, and the relative merits of various game business models... The fact is that the gaming industry exists and, like any industry, has developed industry-specific labels and tags that convey well-defined meanings to game consumers. Referring in any way to your game as F2P or F2P+ sets up the basic shape of a new player's expectations. If the game publisher has used those terms carelessly, those players are expecting an experience that they will not have - leading to dissatisfaction with what they do have, and in many cases, new players leaving the game.  

 

 

On 1/4/2021 at 5:53 AM, Ekcin said:

As to the allegedly deceptional "free to play" tag Wurm makes clear, on the home pages as well as on steam, that the core game is subscription based.

 

Thank you for your input, but I do believe you are wrong. 

 

I invite you to take a closer look at the official Wurm Online website and help me recall exactly where WO clearly and consistently informs potential new players that the core of the game is a subscription based model. I know that by the time I was done digging up information about Wurm Online, I was aware that I was getting into a subscription based game... but to be honest, I genuinely had trouble retracing the steps I took to go from the Wurm Online main webpage the whole way to that information.

 

I would suggest going to the WO website and performing word searches on each page. Search for "Premium" Search for "Subscription" and Search for "Free" and for "Freedom." You will find an overwhelming number of times free and freedom are discussed, including specifically "Free to Play." On the other hand, in the entire website, you will find 4 occurrences of the word "Premium" and 2 instances of the word "Subscription." I will hint right now that you will not find those instances on any of the primary pages of the website. And when you find them, they will not be used in clear and direct explanations of the "free game demo + subscription game"  hybrid model that Wurm Online uses. 

 

As for the "tag" (I think you are referring to the way Steam game pages are tagged with searchable keywords).. just as there might be a broader issue with overall messaging on the game's official website... the same broader problem with ambiguous or mixed messages exists on the Steam page too. Only, if I recall correctly,  shortly after Steam launch there was a strong negative reaction by players being introduced to WO for the first time specifically because of this lack of clarity. I believe this led directly to WO adding or amending the Steam page messaging to include specific, clear statements about what comes free in the game, and what a paid account unlocks.

 

 

I took a little time with the website and the store page on Steam, and noted the messaging elements shaping the incoming player's expectations about the game. I've got a folder of screenshots I'd be happy to share with anyone who wants to see them. 

Edited by Amata
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 To bring this all back around to the context of the OP..... 

On 1/2/2021 at 5:50 PM, MystLeissa said:

Something that keeps a lot of Wurm Online Players away is the lack of any real meaning to Free To Play Accounts, we all know this but until now nobody's had a good answer for balancing;

 

I want to put forth a suggestion of a different economic model altogether:

 

Right now Free2Play players are Capped at their Skills at 20, or 30 if they've been premium before, additionally you cannot Priest or Preform most religious interactions without Premium, to me this is at the core of the free-to-play equation problem: no skill, no ability = no fun.

 

 

Option A: Better Manage Player Expectations for the Game As-Is 

  • Maintain current business model (Wurm is a subscription game with limited cash shop available)
  • Realign messaging and marketing to eliminate ambiguities, mixed messages, and any inaccurate terminology such as "Free to Play"
  • Increase visibility of simple, direct statements such as "Wurm Online is a subscription based, sandbox MMO life simulator" or "Subscribe to Wurm Online to explore a fantasy based open world entirely player-built," etc. 
  • Leave the size and scope of free game content alone... however - 
  • Stop using "Free to Play" and F2P as a descriptor of one possible type of Wurm account. Wurm only has subscription accounts. Wurm also has a free in-world game demo available for players who want to "try before you buy." (This is actually a great promo point. Most free game demos are not online inside the actual game world; most free demos are single-player packaged linear chunks of representative game play. Why is WO not capitalizing on this? WO should be shouting from the rooftops that it allows players using a free demo to actually get a head start in-game on what could turn out to be their main character in their actual subscription account?!)

 

 

Option B: Better Balance for a Truly Hybrid Game Model

  • Expand Free Account access to better reflect industry standards for "Free To Play" content. 
    Free-to-play (F2P) business models are video games that provide players access to a significant portion of their core content, game mechanics, and all aspects of gameplay features like skills, levels, classes, and main plot lines - without requiring payment.
  • Most current F2P games are using an evolved model Free-to-play Plus (F2P+) where the core content is free and game revenue is generated by the use of microtransactions, in-game purchases, and cash shops; in addition to "premium" content such bonus characters, plotlines, missions, gameplay advantage buffs, and various cosmetic / vanity items and objects. Games that specifically allow players to use real world money transactions to purchase items conferring game play advantages or buffs, are typically derided as "Pay to Win" (and we hate them, except for when we're winning).
  • With core game content provided F2P - expand development of microtransactions & cash shop to better reflect industry expectations. Frequently enjoyed microtransactions available to "Premium" subscription & real money players includes cosmetic and vanity items like weapon and armor skins; pets and mounts; bonus multipliers for resource gathering and/or crafting, etc. 
  • Marketing and Promotional content need not be altered, as the game structure changed to meet the expectations generated by WO messaging. 

 

 

Option C - All About Property Value
(MystLeissa's Suggestion as I Took It)

  • Expand Free Account access to better reflect industry standards for F2P content
  • Realign Premium content around a Land Ownership theme
  • Allow for microtransactions related to the theme, such as increasing land allotment or discounted upkeep rate, extra guards available, etc. 
  • "Premium" (subscription) payments would more closely align with Reward Tier systems in popular use today. Maintaining a character (or account) at the Premium Tier unlocks bonuses, buffs, and rewards in keeping with the theme. More "premium tier" accounts in a village results in an increase in the village's allotment or land allocation. Perhaps other rewards include resource gathering or crafting buffs for villagers. Etc. 
  • Expand into the Reward Tier system to incentivize maintaining / increasing subscription levels as well as daily / weekly log in activity. Premium tier can be raised to Silver Tier, to Gold Tier, to Glimmersteel Tier, etc. Each rank of the tier system increases or improves on relevant buffs and extra land / village privilege unlocks. 

 

 

Option D through Z: Basically Option C, but with different Themes for Content Unlocked by "Premium"

  • Finnn says "Fashion Sells"
    skins; cool particle effects applied to weapons, armor, animations; bonus cosmetic / vanity items (unique hairstyles, etc); rare or unique dye packs
  • Everyone Loves Animals
    vanity pets, mounts, unique saddles or saddle skins, unique vehicles / skins, animal name-change token, bad-trait-remover token, various breeding buffs or bonus multipliers, token enabling you to tame +1 animal, token granting +1 care-for capacity, collars that make a tamed & branded animal behave like a domestic animal (dogs and cats and seals wearing collars no longer have to be tamed and re-tamed to lead, groom, brand/unbrand, breed, etc.) 
  • Bonuses & Buffs
    non-tradable tokens or potions or powders for all the buffs and bonuses! Skill gain multipliers, Quality level buffs, action speed increasers, bonuses to success chance, and tokens of "seeking" (increased chance to harvest specific resource. Example: token of seeking herb, token of seeking flint, token of seeking white-dotted flower (LOL) Also,  30 minute / 1 hour / 5 hour / 12 hour potions to buff combat rating, stamina regen, decrease food and water loss... really, sky's the limit on this one. 
  • The Good Life
    food & drink available from bartender NPCs again. access to bonus furniture and decor items, unlock crafting templates for bonus furniture and decor, unique skins for larders, food bins, ovens, beds. Access to crafting templates for bonus building styles (Roman, "Far East," Aztec / Mayan / Olmec, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavic, Norse/Viking, etc). Access to crafting instructions for a gazebo. Ability to "construct" above-sea-level water tile (for mountainside lakes, private pools, fishin' ponds, etc). 
  • [Insert Your Premium Access Here]

 

This got a lot longer than I meant it to be. Again.  

Edited by Amata
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The current p2p model is an old relic not fit for this time, you are absolutely correct on that.

This game is already extremely niche and adding a prem system on top of that is beyond foolish.

 

That said your suggestion is not a solution either. While placing focus on a combination of land ownership & skins + cosmetics is likely the way to go, adding another pointless convulated currency system is not.

Wurm will absolutely need changes in it's prem system to help it survive long term. This just isn't the one.

 

Edited by GroeneAppel

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I was thinking a while now about this. Back in 2013 and now with the Steam release. Wurm is not a game you can come back and look what changed without going into at least a month of full subscription (if you don't want to die to the next spider that attack you) what make it for returning players hard. On top the Demo part of the game maybe give you acces to a lot of the mechanics of Wurm but that don't mean that you can be efficient with it. Get stuff from point A to B is nearly impossible in a good time frame. Yes you could make a cart and drag it but let's be honest its not entertaining gameplay to walk 3h just to move your stuff 100 tiles because you can't ride a Cart with horses. The Demo Wall keep the new player around the spawn point waht kill one of the strongest aspect’s of Wurm, the landshaping and the organic medieval setting of towns created by players.

Wurm have a big design problem in regard of Player base. The amount of land a single player can (and there for will) claim is huge and this creates a problem if the player base of one server is to big (we see first singes of this during the steam rush) and to less players lead to a bad first impression and directionless that make newer players quite even if they would maybe enjoy Wurm in the long run.

I think these suggestions go in the right direction in a lot of points. But also will probably fail as long as underling issues in the design of the game are not fixed that keep players from getting engaged.

 

So some basic concepts how I would change the business model (and probably fail) without touching too much gameplay features (so problem in this regard I will ignore)

Non Prem:

You can only possess one building (you keep the ones you have build during your prem time)

Skill loose on death is double as high and hit more skills (no punishment in skill gain but if you stupid you get a harsher punishment than a Prem player) and skill loose beside Body, BS and Fighting in PvP (unsure about this one because we really need more people that are a bit more reckless in PvP to get more fun in it and this would be counterproductive)

Affinity's don't work (so even if you PVP and win some you will not benefit from it)

10% harder Imping (well we would not tell it this way we would make imping harder and give Prems a "boost" in the background it comes down to this, and we just claim it's a boost not a "nerv")

No Sleep bonus

No bridge planing

The lower Supreme and not existing Fantastic chance is a thing we keep

 

Prems:

No building Limit

Monthly Upkeep of a deed you are Part of is reduced by 20% (50% for the Mayor) of a Month worth of Premium (up to 50% of the not discounted Upkeep)

Skill lost is like its currently in the game on death

On PvE death you only lose one or two equipment slots and your Inventory (PvP is still full loot)

Marks can be still a thing if what they offer is more unique and decorative

 

On top, I would change the respawn to be possible at one of your Houses (you can mark the one you want) under the criteria the house is complete (have all outer Walls) and is with all tiles inside your kingdom Influence.

 

I am quite liberal to the free players. And I know that. But I think there would be still enough landowner mentality and premium need to put money into the game. If Wurm would not get more Money than now, but we would have a higher Player base I think a lot of players would be way happier and not so pessimistic about Wurms future. I don't think we need more money but more players what will lead to more Money in the long run by higher player engagement with the game.

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I really dont think the game is losing players due to this. The game has kept around 1/3 of the population burst from steam, honestly I'd say from a niche game that's pretty good.

 

New players also have a ton of opportunity to earn premium, personally I've been having one doing tasks for me and he earned half a months premium yesterday. 

 

What the game really needs is to be further advertised to get more eyes and hands on it. 

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6 hours ago, IllusiveEn said:

I really dont think the game is losing players due to this. The game has kept around 1/3 of the population burst from steam, honestly I'd say from a niche game that's pretty good

 

okay. 
but, just because it's done "pretty good" doesn't mean it couldn't be better. 

 

This might not be the biggest issue when it comes to player retention - but the dynamic interplay between the new player experience, the balance between free content and paid content, and the publisher's efforts in marketing / PR to guide player expectations is definitely a part of it

 

Sometimes I give attention to the little stuff because it is little - I don'[t know what the devs are juggling right now, but I know they're busy. Maybe a small thing can be done quickly, by one person over one week... maybe getting that small thing out of the way will clear a path down the road for something bigger. We're always coming up with really great, really big ideas in the Suggestion forum... maybe something small, with barely any impact, is the only kind of project they can take on right now? 

 

I just figure... someone could take some extra time over a weekend & tweak a couple phrases on a website, and huzzah, we've expanded the player recruitment window just a little bit. That's a plus. Even if it's a small one.... I'll take it. 

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Maybe, when your premium runs out you shouldn't be dropped to 20/30 for skills/characteristics, but to the average of your prem levels and the non-prem caps.  That way going non-prem is still a hit and therefore there is incentive to stay premium, but there is still incentive to stick around for a bit post-premium so it is still good to play, but better to premium.  This way, post-premium free is good but with premium subscription is better.

Edited by TheTrickster
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