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Declining Player Population | YunaMS Forum

Declining Player Population

Stax

Member
Member
Nov 13, 2022
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3
Those who play on the daily can obviously tell there has been a decline in the server population by roughly 50% just in the past week. While this is bound to happen with any PS, this has happened before a single end game boss (empress) has even been defeated. At this rate, we’re going to see prices for cs/ws, books, and just about everything else skyrocket over the next week or two. I was wondering if there were any plans to address the current population drop-off and what could be in-store in the near future to help get some players back to the server.

Would also love to hear concerns/suggestions from everybody else as well.
 

yuna

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Sep 13, 2022
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From my experience, MSP's lifecycles follow a certain trend: things start off strong with a high population >population dips > increases slightly > dips some more > stagnates > shuts down. This is especially the case when we consider our competitors (both old and new), where players tend to switch between servers, or are interested in trying new ones. This is absolutely expected, and I personally encourage others to play any and all games that they truly enjoy, especially if it's with friends (not just MS).

As for YunaMS - the plan is simple: stay online, and listen to players. This is, obviously, easier said than done, but I believe that players will organically come to the server if they see it is A) online and B) stays online with minimal restarts, and C) the people behind the server tend to their players. To support this goal, I'll need to recruit 1-2 members to the team, as doing things alone is definitely not sustainable. This is in the works - however, coming from my POV personally, it's tough to trust nowadays. But that's a "me" problem that I'm working on. This would also allow me to focus more on the code and development, rather than administration and moderation.

I'm confident that by staying online and listening to the feedback of the players, YMS will continue to grow. We definitely see a dip in players, but this can be attributed to a number of variables: player sentiment, what games friends are currently playing, school/work, new servers launching, or just pure boredom. I anticipate that the population will always fluctuate until a point where we can prove to the community that we're a worthy name. Considering that we've launched for only 2 months, it's plausible that the population is undergoing some cyclical change, which will inevitably change again in the coming months, depending on how we manage it.

To those reading: I have no plan to shut down the server, even if funds run low, in which case I will front the cost personally since I know many have already spent so much time and effort. YMS is, and always will be, my passion project, and being able to serve dedicated players is icing on the cake. It's truly rewarding to see players happy!

I feel I've been speaking for hours, so I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks!
 

4thJobHokage

Member
Member
Nov 24, 2022
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I don't think things like Chaos will get more expensive with less people playing. More people generally causes inflation as there is just more total mesos floating around. It's still quite easy for the higher level people to get 70+ Spirit Points in a day to get a Chaos or White Scroll so I don't think it'll get to a point where stuff is too expensive.

The thing I see going up in price is stuff from Chaos Horntail because Damage Reflect wasn't working before at CHT and now it is. Getting through a run will be more rare & therefore that stuff will be more expensive, but I personally think that's a good thing, as it's the 3rd to end-game boss & shouldn't be easy.

I agree with Yuna on point C "C) the people behind the server tend to their players." Sure players will try other servers as the population on one server declines, but from my experience only 1% of servers "make it", as in they are around for years. So many servers people try will die out & as long as YunaMS keeps having a lot of "C" (which looking at the Changelog that is currently happening) I think as other servers die people will trend towards servers that have stuck around. So if 2 or 5 months from now a couple servers die off, people from there might think "YunaMS, hmm, I've seen that constantly in GTOP for the past 5 months, may as well try it, doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon".
 
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Catzi

Member
Member
Dec 17, 2022
15
13
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I think YunaMS has lots of potential to attract more people in. But as my opinion, there’re some points needed to be changed.

Point 1. Vote : 3 times per day is really time consuming, and this related to Point 2

Point 2. Cash shop item too expensive:15k nx buy a VIP TP rock then gone. Not to mention owl. Back to Point 1, we need make multiple account to vote, or we wont have enough NX to do anything. Need add new way to get more NX, such as weeklies.

Point 3. Certain Skill book too expensive.
Point 4. No server boss run.
Point 5. Death count in Czak、CHT
——> These 3 points make this server hard to play for new players. Unless they find a good guild and willing take him to do these important boos run, and willing to split with reward or fund them skill books.
I don’t think shall put CHT as end game boss, CHT shall be mid game boss and not really hard to take down. The true end game boss should be PB and Empress.
CHT have many important skill books, like MW. Now 1 MW cost 100+m. If I was a new player, I already quit.
CHT and Czak item shall be cheap, that new players dont need to strggule earning meso and spent it on skill books and failed.

Point 6. Market is dead. Many scrolls need farm myself. This really time wasted. Maybe adjust drop rate?

Point 7. Too many commands, we need a powerful widget instead of lots of inconvenient commands.
———
I used to played DreamMS. Yuna is familiar as Dream. I think to survive, we need to learn other server’s advantage. These points are I compared to Dream, and I think shall change.
Take it for granted or not, all good.
 
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Stax

Member
Member
Nov 13, 2022
15
14
3
I was a little too late to reply to the "Wipe post" that was created earlier today; it has since been closed. I'd like to at least give my personal input and some suggestions as a pretty active player and a level 250. When I created this initial post roughly a month ago, I saw the writing on the wall.. the server population was steadily decreasing and that was before a certain PS released which I knew would take away even more of the population.

In my opinion, Yuna is the greatest server I've ever been a part of. It is vanilla in the way classes, skills, and bosses function, yet has its own twist on certain aspects that I've come to really enjoy. However, YunaMS from day one has always been a small server. The group of us can definitely say we found a home here, and that's why we stay no matter the player count. However, a majority of PS players jump from server to server to enjoy exciting, new content. We cannot keep all of them obviously, but we need to figure out how to keep some more. Because lets be honest with each other, once the player count dips below roughly 20 players online, there is no coming back. As a prospective player looking for a new server, would you join a server with 20 people online? The answer is no 99/100 times and you can't blame them. So although the population has been steady between 40-50 players online at all times, this is crunch time.

Before I get into what I think needs to improve here, let me preface by saying that I think Yuna has done an amazing job. She has always been kind, open-minded, and on top of the server with little to no delays. So I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you and keep up the great work.

Below are some improvements I think the server needs:

1. Yuna needs to add people to her team. I know it is easier said than done to trust people enough to help you with your "baby", but you cannot do it all! Add people to take care of the day-to-day nonsense or look for people to strengthen your weaknesses. You aren't a great developer? Reach out to people who are. (Just an example) There are a handful of loyal players who I personally think would be great GM's for this server. Pretty and Natalka come to mind immediately.

2. Get rid of/add changes that were previously made to adapt with player population. When the expedition SP point fiasco happened, I understood why the change was made. Now the player count is cut in half and I think a revert is necessary. Let the more funded, more experienced players help the new players without them having to worry about losing out on SP points.

3. The burning event was genius, but it was implemented a little too late unfortunately. People had already made up their minds about joining the new server hype. However, events such as the burning one would normally boost player count and keep players engaged, especially during the lower level grind. I think another event such as this in the near future would help significantly once the new server hype dies down.

4. Maybe it's time to add some hyper skills or even link skills. I'm not saying lets get every class to 250, but maybe every class you hit 150 on, you get a passive buff or something of the sorts. Adding even one feature that sticks out compared to other servers will go a long way.

5. I'm going to add this suggestion, but I'll be honest when I say I have no idea how it works. Maybe marketing the server in other places would catch more eyes. Whether it be mmorpg, old school maple, gaming websites, an ad banner or something of the sorts may bring new people in.

Like I've said, these are just my opinions. But I keep seeing people say things need to change, yet they give no input whatsoever. If I can atleast get people thinking, maybe somebody can come up with even better suggestions.