Let us discuss the future of CB! (in General)

Where do you guys see this game being in a few years?

Will it finally become a thriving community for mobile users, with fancy new changes and a sleek shiny new interface?

Maybe we might even get shirts? :)

Or will we continue down the current path?

Tap into your inner fortune teller and lemme know what you see about the future of this game xD ..

Sadly, this looks like the most likely case.

CB will be CB, a strangely civil initially perplexing deeper than the rest text based game. What I am excited about is the future contributions of folks like Titan, Verifex, and Lamuness. They're all giving us the spare time they've got, and the results have been awesome so far.

More help is what CB needs, people to volunteer time for coding, advertising efforts, simple plain evangelism in other games.

Stock in game PM
"Hi My name is _____ and I'd like to talk to you about a plan that Jon has for you"*

Shirts... I'll see what I can do.


*In all seriousness, I'm desperate to think of a way to explain CB to my friends. I've got a circle of geeky friends that would totally play CB, but my sales pitch AFK is terrible.

^ Text based carnage.


In all seriousness, I love this game and I really do want to see it continue to survive for many years to come.

In my opinion our biggest issues are new player retention, and advertising.

Someones gotta get this game on some top 100 browser games list or something, and have a vote link somewhere on the homepage or in the community section.

I've had 4 players from the minecraft forums follow my siggy to here, unfortunately none of them stayed, but maybe I should go spam the MC forums again for awhile to grab some more.

It is not sufficient to say simply that our biggest problem is new player retention. One must explore the reasons WHY new players are not staying and address the problem from that perspective.

I'm not sure if this has been tried before, but perhaps we can send some sort of exit survey to those who quit via e-mail.

Very true, I didn't really explain myself much but that's basically what I was getting at, but I do agree that it is something that needs to be looked at.

Maybe it was a wrong choice of words to say that was one of our biggest issues, but its very obvious that most new players drop off within the first month or two of playing.

Obviously there are other issues that need to be worked on as well, but we could be here all day talking about those.

Since I have started CB has slowly gone down hill not in quality but in interest from current and new users. I think it will go this way until it is eventually is gone. Unless something is done to prevent this. I know Jon/NS don't want/plan to do certain things but for the survivability of this game maybe they should consider it.

Add in no new items/spells or changes many users are crying for this will eventually leave only the die hards. I love this game and understand that changes take time and effort and if I could code I would gladly donate some of my time to help.

How about another supporter item?
How about T-shirts/pants.
New spells?
What happened to change month?

You can't please all the people all the time but you can please some of the people some of the time.

I don't think the answer to CB's problems will be answered by new spells and items. I'm no prophet, but I don't think people are leaving due to lack of options for their minions. Something tells me that if we were to implement a survey, we would see three things popping up over and over: the interface, the learning curve, and issues related to the N*B (pace, disposable teams, the economy...).

Of course, this is all speculation on my part.

I think there are 2 reasons why people are leaving.

1. The extremely steep learning curve combined with an awful tutorial.
2. The game is a stagnant grindfest with no graphics. By stagnant I mean it doesn't matter if you are 11,936 mpr or 300 mil mpr, the gameplay will never ever change. No new spells, unlockables, nothing.

As far as solutions go, I think I will come up a little short in that department :)

A few spells are "unlockable" in that they require more xp than most others. Though this doesn't count for much.

On the item side, this is exactly what I have been complaining about with the economy since forever now. The thrill of finally getting a rare weapon after months of hard work is utterly absent from the game at this point, since rares are as abundant as air right now.

With tweaks I think a system like this could do allot for the game.

http://www.carnageblender.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002gvP

I give you, CB with graphics. Now rejoice.

this has been done, shade and i were doing it. we had to do it manually though and there didn't seem to be much reason to continue as no interest was ever expressed regarding the results.

the truly sad part is that all the tools are in the system to automate the process...

Unlocking the most expensive spell at 0.14% of the top mpr shouldn't count for anything, really. The experience needed to unlock it can be obtained in the first set of BA, even less if you score enough wins.

I've been making the argument for increasing the starting XP for attributes for ages, there are even plans for what it would look like, nice to see it brought up again.

here is some of the feedback gained over a few months last year.

Right now I would take ant change to the game, just to rock the boat. I wouldnt care if anything went up and something went down 5%. A change log comes what, every 3months(if i rememeber)? well thats alot of time to adjust as a player field only for the next CL. it will become know as the 'end times'.

Actually, brb I would like to call for my local CPC representative of Gondor and bring this to him attention.

Why is it slowly declining? Let's see...

1. The niche market is shrinking as more and more players expect graphics as a standard. We can't add Flash, but we can update to a sleeker appearance.

2. CB is brutal for new players. The GUI is severely outdated, the fight button doesn't stand out, learning how to pick targets is a mess that turns into random clicking, and the first impression is a wall of data. Basically, it's ugly and un-intuitive.

3. Vets are getting bored of nothing changing. When was the last new item? When was the last nerf? Buff? Change month? It's pretty clear that all of that stopped when Jon left.

there are several things that must be addressed in order to explain why cb is shrinking instead of growing..

1: Learning curve: We all know this is a problem and has been addressed in the past..unsuccessfully.

2: Options: what can new users do when they start? fight or...fight. New users are discouraged both by current members & NUB from doing anything else. Forging & other economic manipulation are not viable with the NUB rewards

3: Accomplishments: No sense of accomplishment for anything (rares aren't rare & character growth is easy due to N*B)

4: Dedication level: This is the only game i have ever played that requires more dedication starting off than later in game..early on with 10/20 ba maxes in 5hrs 20mins..at 6/20 its over 8.5 hrs. In order to maximize potential you have to come in super dedicated & slack off as you progress..not a good situation for begginers

ok now that I have pointed out some issues lets get into possible solutions

1 & 3: limit options for begining players on spells /items avail.."unlock" more complex & powerful skills/spells/items with pr growth (pos example only fb or mm avail as dd initially with decay CoC & SG becoming avail at higher pr..same would hold true for skills, EO, & ED and even items(note: for items tiers of weaponry & armor equipable at certain pr levels, can be purchased & forged before but not used))

2 & 4: drop N*B..reverse BA regen but maintain rewards through-out BA regen (so higher pr will still get more rewrds due to faster BA regen). This will make it easy at low pr & more difficult to keep up as you get bigger (ie more dedication needed once you fall in love with the game & community) This will also open up the ability to forge (thou it will still be more viable for larger prs due to more BA per day) & join the capitolist society earlier on with-out being so detrimental to overall growth

Just ideas on a restructure to make it easier for new players but still rewarding for vets

~WC~

oh & as far as rarity for rares...I honestly think the old spawn/camping situation was better than the current flood of "rares" thru auctions & random rewards..always feels good when you grab an ELBow or BoNe from the store even if its not useful to you :)

~WC~

1 sentence... change or fade away

Yes!

YES YES YES!!!

Two biggest problems I have with the game.

Boring, namely it is stagnate. This is far far more pronounced at the top of the game than in other places and the N*B helps alleviate this a lot for the rest of the game.

Difficulty. It is harder at the lowest levels and then gets easier at the top levels to burn BA and such. This is far different from most games that get harder as you progress because they expect you to seek the higher difficulty and you are more likely to stay. Not a good situation to be in the one we have and it just feeds into the first point of making the game more stagnate.

I've suggested changes to fix these things several times before. Hopefully some time NS and others will really get some free time to put some work into CB.

As a new user and a person who occasionally writes reviews (albiet badly, i try though!)is that it's the progress, the wall of data you have to absorb and understand, math (to some context i'll get into that later), and all the things you want to do but can't.

First off the progress, it's quick and into the fray of fighting which is a good thing for a text based game, however the tutorial feels fairly lacking, about the only thing it teaches you is how to fight and where to buy gear, and some other stuff. It tells you buy this weapon, and this [one] spell fireball with no explantion of what it does aside from "It does damage.". It also brings up Dexterity briefly, but it never mentions other spells that can be benificial. It doesn't suggest beginner strategies that involve common but popular set-ups. One thing i did enjoy from the start though is the access to all information and almost anything that needs explaining is clickable and sends you to a page that explains what it does.

Another thing about starting off is there really is no solid direction to go in the start, people told me i should just fight and not bother doing anything for quite some time until my NUB bonus wears off. My thoughts were why does NUB only apply to other things this game is involved with like forging? If the whole reason behind NUB is to catch up with the actual people who play this game? Why doesn't NUB on top of being a % bonus also grants a bonus of starting base items (I was advised the NPC shop is useless) and other benificial statuses that help them move up the ranks more efficiently or do other tasks?

Why not instead kill two birds with one stone for example and add a starter set of items and armour? Do away with the NPC shop, and like the rare gear have everything else in the shop be obtainable from fighting at varying levels with random modifiers on them but at a more common/uncommon drop rate. This way players can trade with other players in the auction house for items they don't use and get money for items for things they can use thusly adding a more efficient economy.

Also this is just a complete suggestion from me but achievements would be nice or something that is an incentive to keep going aside from "My numbers got bigger" and that i can show off to others that could or could not have a practical use too.

I'll type out my other topics later (because i'm lazy) so a recap on the first part

-Tutorial although its quick and gets you to the game, it tells you a little bit about the game and the rest it just throws to "Go to FaQs or ask someone." It could do with some more explanation on things like how training xp works (in example like how exp is given priority wise and how that effects how they choose to train their skills with fractions, and the proper order to do it).

-Suggest common but popular strategies in the begining and the pro's and cons of each one, encourage experimentation early on to try what suits them best.

-Starter items might be helpful. This could tie in with the suggestion right above in instead of going through a basic tutorial; you actualy allowed a person to choose a team they are interested in trying from the start and the tutorial builds around that and gives them the basic items from what used to be the store as their starter items, and gives them a basic linear path that they can choose to follow or do something else later.

-Forging should be involved in everyones gameplay not just higher level people and not make it linked to BA which is the lifeblood of fighting which gives xp. Perhaps make it cost something else that refreshes once daily, or have sucessful forging give chunks of xp based off the item your forging if you use BA.

-NUB needs more uses so people can do more things that help them move forward and understand the game, instead of log on fight with BA then leave.

-Incentives that make you feel like you've accomplished something in the game.

Make it so you don't have to be on every single day to compete. Ba should come slower and not cap at just 160. also you should be able to buy more (and for the guys that pay) it should be cheaper. So that you have that option.

NUB did have a forge bonus. Ask Nat to give you a brief reflection in CB history on the subject.

There is no future my friends.

CB, to me, used to be all about adapting.

Change month would come and you would have to tweak your team to stay competitive.

New items would be introduced and you'd have to try to incorporate them into your strat or defend against them.

It used to require some thought and a little planning. Now, for me at least, it's gotten stagnant.

I feel that gameplay in cb has changed a lot over the years and it has somewhat become more complicated. Not too sure whether this could be a reason. But of course, there are many other 'problems'.

A few problems some players already said it before.

Learning curve/focus on hardcore players (less on casual)
This game focus on balance (less on fun)
New player retention
Very little promotion (voting sites, web game sites)
New Content/updates takes time.

I will make new thread later where I point the strong points from other games that might be useful for cb.

I dont really see it changing a great deal (unfortunately). I do still play the game but dont spend any money for 2 years. I would like to see changes but to be honest - all the other games I play are graphical and often require money to play (or compete) effectively.

As an opposite view to some other comments I would like to see the BA cap raised drastically - players need only spend 1 hour in a day approx. to use the majority of BA - in my experience a game can hook someone much easier the more time they need to spend there to compete.