Jump to content

Sign in to follow this  
[616]RexFortis

The Death Slope and How to Reverse It

Recommended Posts

https://steamcharts.com/app/834910#All

The Steam Chart shows a declining slope since the game's inception, an all too familiar phenomenon also known as The Death Slope meaning the game is headed to an early death.  Now, the way to reverse this is to introduce the concept of Capital Flags where if a company loses its capital flag then ALL of its flags instantly turn neutral thus making more available land for everyone.

Edited by [616]RexFortis

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Every other day a new thread about declining pop and every other day I see 17 to 20k in game.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Nari said:

Every other day a new thread about declining pop and every other day I see 17 to 20k in game.

Then at current rate, eventually you'll see they were right, but odds are you too will quit before then.

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Shintai said:

Its normal. People wont play as much after the initial time is over.

You're right, the Death Slope is normal, for a game that will die an early death.

At present rate, Atlas will no longer be in the Top 100 in about 6 months.

For example, Let's look at #12 Rocket League.  You will see no Death Slope there.  https://steamcharts.com/app/252950#All

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Alot of people dont like to play on large MP servers because of the Toxic nature of it and also Ark had a Single player option which players liked.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As a matter of fact, 8 of the Top 10 Steam games do not have a Death Slope.

4 minutes ago, sand man said:

Alot of people dont like to play on large MP servers because of the Toxic nature of it and also Ark had a Single player option which players liked.

Irrelevant.  Steam still detects player activity regardless where they're playing.

Also, it's spelled "a lot" not "alot".  Just so you know.

Edited by [616]RexFortis

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, [616]RexFortis said:

As a matter of fact, 8 of the Top 10 Steam games do not have a Death Slope.

Irrelevant.  Steam still detects player activity regardless where they're playing.

Yeh i know, what im saying is a SP option would bring in more players to the game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Now for those who are going to start preaching that there isn't anything wrong with the game, I understand that there is nothing wrong with the current state of game play for large companies with a large player base. I am addressing the game for the other half of the player base that are in small companies or solo. The game needs both groups unless it is to become a niche game that gets more or less abandoned by its devs. That being said, I enjoy Atlas and hope to play the game for as long as I played Ark...but it just wont happen without big changes. Rex is correct, I have also been watching the charts every day and watched our lawless island turn into an abandoned wasteland that we slowly took over with our small company. At this point, we have now moved into claimed land, but we feel we have experienced everything we can without joining a large company. The game has become stale, we still lose bases and ships on a daily basis that we have to replace each night because there just isn't any good way for a small company to defend them. Farming the same structures and ships every night gets boring quick. Stopping at islands for resources not available in our region usually ends with us being attacked and sunk since we have no name recognition or powerful allies. Most foreign resources we need aren't available in Freeports since there are only generic resources there, so we just do without. Something like buffing puckle guns so they have a much larger range of fire and the strength of stone structures would help us defend what we have at least. It just isn't reasonable for a defense tower to require something like 12 puckle guns and 10 cannons for 360* coverage when it takes a three man company several days to build it and only one troll a day to farm the materials and tear it down. I have played Ark Prim+, no tame, hardcore, etc. I love difficult game play that requires strategy, but this is just bordering on impossible for small companies unless you want to live like a roach under a rock and not experience most of what the game has to offer.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well said ViperGuyMike.  At one point (and maybe still the case), the total population of small companies vastly outnumbered the large companies, and neglecting them was where Grapeshot games made a catastrophic mistake.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Most games in early access lose a shit ton of players in the first month and the settle down to just the people who actually want to help test and find bugs.

There are some exceptions of course but this is normal .. we won't know for sure of it's going to totally die for a good few months.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/2/2019 at 12:15 PM, Nari said:

Every other day a new thread about declining pop and every other day I see 17 to 20k in game.

Gotta get their post count up somehow.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/2/2019 at 12:11 PM, [616]RexFortis said:

https://steamcharts.com/app/834910#All

The Steam Chart shows a declining slope since the game's inception, an all too familiar phenomenon also known as The Death Slope meaning the game is headed to an early death.  Now, the way to reverse this is to introduce the concept of Capital Flags where if a company loses its capital flag then ALL of its flags instantly turn neutral thus making more available land for everyone.

*proclaims game will die unless his and only his ideas and suggestions are followed*

*isnt currently developing his own game even though there is an obvious fortune to be made selling a perfectly designed game with no flaws whatsoever.*

*seemingly prefers to spend his time here second guessing others on a forum instead*

*doesn’t understand that charts are useful for identifying trends, but less useful for predicting whether or for how long those trends will continue in the future*

*has an admittedly cool avatar so that’s something at least*

 

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Went to steam-Hover over reviews.  36% positive of 12,288.  Also noticed game is on sale (a terrible sign if was this soon after a regular launch but Early access...........)

 

I find it interesting.

 

Goes to Ark reviews: 69% positive of 164,074.

 

IMO it is all just data.  The data for me paints a picture.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, LifelessGamer said:

Went to steam-Hover over reviews.  36% positive of 12,288.  IMO it is all just data.  The data for me paints a picture.

Paint this picture.

Just a few days after release the reviews for Atlas were ~22% positive.  Just 2 weeks ago, they were 33% positive. Now they're 36%???

Obviously this means that less players = better reviews.

Kinda cool how you can make statistics say what you want isn't it?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Vaenix said:

Gotta get their post count up somehow.

I've never understood why people care about post count. I post a lot, so what? If some guy has 3 posts and they're all genius, does that make his posts somehow less valuable than mine? Lots of posts can establish what sort of person you are and where you tend to come from, but you can't get that just from looking at post count, you have to actually read their posts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

People that worry about population in an Early Access title, simply do. not. understand. what Early Access is.

The truth of the matter is, Atlas took on a ton more "water" than it was originally intended at the launch of the project ( I dont say game or product for many reasons, mainly because it was not either at its launch, nor intended to be a complete product- quite the opposite). If that extra baggage is finally parting ways, so be it.

Anyone believing otherwise was subject to the hype of an item they really had no information about.

Tired of seeing all the doom and gloom over an EA title that's no where near being complete. No one cares about the population.

Edited by Teach
  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This game is expected to be in early access for two years, I'm sure we will see many "Death Slopes" in that time and many influxes of players to go with them.  As mentioned above this game was not releases to early access as a feature complete game, Grapeshot released it as an early development game and they are constantly adding additional features and balance changes to the game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Jean Lafitte said:

Paint this picture.

Just a few days after release the reviews for Atlas were ~22% positive.  Just 2 weeks ago, they were 33% positive. Now they're 36%???

Obviously this means that less players = better reviews.

Kinda cool how you can make statistics say what you want isn't it?

How atlas managed 22% on a game that constantly kicked you detonated your boat when leaving the freeport zone I find impressive.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm still having fun playing it but I see very little communication and the same bugs keep popping up.

My view is it won't turn out to be a great game in the future because they are unwilling to listen.

We test the game for them and point out simple bugs that have big impact on the game yet they still appear after daily patches. If they can't solve these in a short time I don't hold out much hope.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Your big drop off coincides with the end of the holiday break. That is anticipated and inflates that starting number I feel. 

And that is a totally separate concern from your suggested feature, which should be stand-alone without needing a chicken little warning of doom if it isn't implemented. 

And frankly, I think the suggestion is rubbish. Definitely would not be useful in PVE where no one has a means to get to this capital flag if it is just surrounded by gates and an active base. 

And there is plenty of land available for people. Although it does mean going to the Arctic. People don't even foundation spam, since there really aren't any neighbors anyway.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, DannyUK said:

I'm still having fun playing it but I see very little communication and the same bugs keep popping up.

My view is it won't turn out to be a great game in the future because they are unwilling to listen.

We test the game for them and point out simple bugs that have big impact on the game yet they still appear after daily patches. If they can't solve these in a short time I don't hold out much hope.

Unwilling to listen ? Nearly every update and patch they put out has content that people have directly asked for.. 

In my opinion they listen way to much and change things around when people cry to much.

 

They need to stick to their vision of what they wanted the game to be . Yeah sure take in the user's base opinion and try and mould that around the vision they had for the game.

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...