There have been a few threads lately about needed to retain new players. I had the pleasure of talking to one of them today, and learned a bit about some of the issues a newer player faces on the server. After reading the forum threads again and walking around the lobby, I found a few key issues that might be hindering:
- Any hologram sign that is above a player head will never be read. As I was typing this, a new player spawned in and immediately went to the faction lobby without stopping. Case in point, those types of signs will not be read.
- Doing a quick server hop, I noticed many MC players play with their head angled closer to the ground. If I mimic this in the lobby, the entire sign is hidden from my screen
- The sign rooms are filled with lots of signs that don't really tell much (and may be outdated at some times.) The player I was following did read all the signs and head to the faction map, so the concept does work to some extent.
- However, even as an old player I don't like the idea of reading that many signs. It can be tedious, and most of it can be summarized with common sense.
- The important tips are in the hologram signs, which have already been addressed.
- There is a large discrepancy with the NPCs at spawn in terms of player count.
- Kit PvP has 0 players rn, and never really grows higher.
- Questing has 4, but with no replay ability the quests eventually die out.
- Creative has 17 players, which seems fine given creative is building
- Factions has 40 players, good
- Roleplay has 77 players, good but note that it is much higher than PvP
- Regalia spawn actually seems out of place:
- Why are all the market NPCs located in the RP world when most of the shop items more applicable to Factions?
- Lobby Overhaul
- Split the lobby into 3 groups: Factions, Roleplay, and Creative
- Merge Kit PvP and Factions into one "Factions" Group
- Merge RP and Questing into one "Roleplay" Group
- Keep Creative as its own group.
- Add a "Market" group that has the Massiveshop NPC
- also re-implement the premium lobby to highlight the features of the package.
- Make a tp to the player market
- Add the crate keys to this market group as well.
- Add a quick tutorial guide NPC to highlight the basic theme of each lobby.
- Server "Group" Lobbies
- Divide the various subsections across a secondary lobby
- Factions
- Has the three survival maps to choose from
- KitPvP on the side
- NPCs to explain gameplay rules, survival plugins, and other applicable tutorials in lieu of sign posts
- Roleplay
- Has Regalia and the Quest Maps
- NPC detailing Roleplay rules, Massivechat details, and MassiveQuest
- Creative Lobby
- Can simply redirect to the creative map.
- Market Lobby
- Have a tp to the premium info lobby
- crate keys around a central hub
- tp to the market
- Factions
- Each lobby must have a way to tp back to the main hub without using commands, be it an NPC or sign.
- Divide the various subsections across a secondary lobby
- This last part is a bit techy, but changing which servers the worlds exist in.
- 1 server should have quests and Regalia
- 1 for creative
- 2+ for factions
- 1 for market
- Regalia is no longer home to the Massiveshop or Crates lobby. It's a RP world, so having things that don't dramatically affect RPers makes little sense and can be confusing.
- It breaks up play styles by lobby, and combines smaller parts of the server into a overlying hub.
- tab rosters will show the players that are in your part of the community, so you'll know who is actually playing factions, who is RPing/Questing, or who is shopping around.
- The use of NPC guides will remove the sign spam and highlight Massivecraft plugins to players as soon as they join.
