A lot of users have been picking lots blindly over the past by picking the ones on top of the list and then ending up with A-row lots. They then complain that the lots are too far away and rage-quit.
So I have now inserted a calculation into the settler test how far a lot is away from spawn. It assumes about a minute to cross one single lot. So every empire lot now shows how long it will take (up to 22 minutes) and also lists the 5 lots that are closest to spawn with their images. It further pre-selects one of them in the dropdown:
I hope this will reduce the amount of people who give up before they ever set foot on their lot. If you have a more accurate time how long it takes to walk over the map, I am happy to hear proposals.
I also changed the answers for the quiz question “How do you get to your lot” to
- I try to walk there after the test as a mortal settler and die 50 times
- I walk there now, as an immortal guest
- I beg the admin to teleport me there
Further I reworded the whole explanation to make it more crisp and down to the point. I hope this will encourage more people to actually read it.
I hope this will increase out conversion rate from Settler to permanent user a bit. It should also help to cluster people around spawn a bit more, and to make people think for what reason they pick what lot.
I like this one. Good job unc!
That seems to be quite an intuitive and forward-thinking change. :)
This is an awesome change! I like it.
Also, is it possible to shorten the 30-day expiration for newly registered users? I noticed some people logged in only once and then disappeared, but his/her lot will have to wait for a month to be available to the next people. For example in the Empire subway project, we are having problems with inactive users near spawn. For Settlers, I think 7-day expiration would be enough.
This may be a long shot and by all means is just an idea I am throwing out there, but what if there was a rank that only lasts for 30 days (or less). For instance:
[b]Rank:[/b] [font color=”green”]Traveller[/font]
[b]Duration:[/b] 30 days.
[b/]Perks:[/b] Same as Settler, except a 7 day lot reset period.
[b]Description:[/b] This rank would be short in duration, and would prevent anyone from logging in once, securing a lot, and then preventing someone from having that lot for an entire month.
I am not sure if implementing this would be tough to do or not. Again, this is more of an idea than anything and can be ignored. This is just what I thought of when reading your reply to the blogpost.
Thanks Unc! This will help a lot of the new Settlers out and is a great improvement. I love it. :)
This is a great new feature! I have escorted a lot of new players to help them out and often been curious why they choose a lot so far from spawn.
Very cool.
Wow. This is a great new addition to the system! Great work Unc!!!