Hey! In our crusade to make our game appear more interesting and active, here's a suggestion.
Why don't we reduce the number of haven servers available for Spiral knights.
Also, lets merge the zone chat for all the haven servers into one. The appearance of number of people standing in haven affects the game a lot. We continually lose the opportunity of new players and returning players to stick around, when they see a haven with 4 people, and then assume the game is empty and quit.
So if we are nicely cozy with our people stacked in few servers we look healthier. Plus, people selling stuff have greater visibility, zone chat looks more used. Happy days for all
For complaints regarding lag caused due to higher population, I think that's a concern for few years ago when the population was 5-10 times higher. Right now, having all people clustered in fewer servers will not raise the pop enough to cause lag. I would even go as far to make that ONE server, but hey.
I find that global/zone chat is far less sales based with idle healthy chatter in other games, can you guys provide input as far as why you think that is the case? How can we better utilize server chat for a fresh sense of life? What do you think is the answer?
i somehow like the idea but the problem comes with "some people" in the community, in the past, the glorious days of the game spanish haven used to be lot crowded and the next thing im going to say its not with the intent to be racist or something, but sometimes brazilian players used to come heaven and always ask "br??" which is their way to ask if you are from brasil, when they asked me that to me i usually says "Lo siento pero no soy de brasil / sorry but im not from brasil" or "solo hablo español o ingles pero no portugues / i only talk spanish or english but not portuguese" and they always insulted me back (because you can understand their insult as they are not different from spanish).
but leaving that besides which could be a minor issue i think the real problem is community behavior to new players, i mean one day i just went to english haven to see if there new players prolly need help with a mission or boss i saw 2 players chatting, i dont remember most of the chat, but basically resumes on new player looking for power orbs while "vanguard" player told him that orbs drops in levels or he can buy some from him for 22k cr, despite the new player clearly says he needed power orbs (or red orbs) and 22k cr were too much for 1 orb the vanguard player just told him he was a noob and he wouldnt get it for 2-3k cr from another player. then the new player just log off (as i tried to whisper him and got the this player isnt online message) we cant expect new players last longer in the game if there is such toxic community i know not everyone are like that. i know also new players arent little angels but the ones that really want to play and learn from the game should get a more supportive community and not just closed to "hey join my discord and you will find people there!" i know is useful and all, but we should be helpful with or without discord regardless the person want to join or not.
if we want the game look healthier we should start on being a healthier community, if we look for someone asking help we can always tell them with what they need help?:
helping in missions
need carry to vana < no, we shouldnt make players vanadicts, we should teach them if there isnt a guildie to carry them trough it (or their friends) they still can make cr not so fas as vana but they still can instead idling waiting for someone or log off cuz they cant get their vanameth dosis of day. this is just my opinion we can differ, but i feel most of the game magic died when vana mission was just available for 1 button 8k cr easy. most players dont want to play anything else if isnt vana. want you to leave in vana lobby? welp i guess we can, if they ask that maybe they can run the mission alone.
Need help with missions like fall or rise, alone in the darkness etc any mission? < yes i remember a lot of people in haven asking "hey can you help me with this mission i tried and i cant i dont want to spent more sparks, they tried and still fail to do the mission" giving them at hand isnt bad.
answering their doubts and questions without telling them "hey join discord and we can tell you" we shouldnt condition an answer behind something, just guide them tell them later if they want to friend you or joning discord by their own will its ok, i have meet a lot of people that just were forced to join discord just to get the answers their need for the game and never talk in discord or just leave both game and discord. its not the same:
"hey i want to know something" "oh sure its like this and that but on discord you might find more info" "but why i cant just get the info here now? why do i have to download a program to just get an answer?" "dunno but thats how it works"
than "hey i want to know something" "sure, you can do it this and that and if that not work prolly you need this and that but there also another options and bla bla" "oh nice! thank you, hey if i have more doubts can i add you?" "sure! you can friend me or addme here or if you have discord or steam you can add me too".
and *sigh* sorry for the long wall text
TL;DR: if we want a more healthier game, besides asking GH to do something we also should start for being a better community for new and old players.