Increasing player traffic to CND

[Redster]

This topic is probably on the minds of all property owners and ND constantly. I am currently drafting up a scenario that might increase traffic but want to get everyones thoughts on reasons why traffic is low and how to increase it.

One of the big issues I see is that most players just can not afford to make the trip. Second would be the wait time for the flight up or back, finally third (dont flame me please) , I feel a lot of players just do not realize what CND has to offer besides the club. There are some low to mid level domes, where mobs could be sweated and/or hunted. Mining deposits are larger though sometimes harder to find for some. The pricing in the shops is reasonable and shop are closer together with wider variety so why are there not more players up at CND.
Unless I missed something about CND just being for mid to upper level players, how can we get the newer players up here. We can not rely just on web sites as again, most newer players do not utilize that source of information. Ad's are too short to really influence anyone. Continually discounting flight prices is only a short term fix for events. Your thoughts please.

[Sally]

I agrea with you that a lot of players do not understand or know what CND is or even who NEVERDIE is, Also with the Crystal Palace Space Place then a new player may think why is this place cheeper than going to CND ( arrive @ CP ) and it looks poor compared to the wonders of CND and you instantly get killed in newb armour and its more or less deserted . Mind Ark really should look at updating CP so it looks a bit nicer and not like its going to fall appart and add mining and a few domes or something there they also have the way back TP to Port Atlantis fr 10 ped. ( no waiting for pilots )

I personally think if you went to Crystal Palace and had the expirience I did you would not realise the potential of Club Neverdie and it been so different I am in a small soc with appx 16 other players and I would say 12 of us have been up to CND and a couple of us go 1 may be 2 times a month and so we do promote it within the soc and have good times up there.

We do promote the shopping but it can be a pain to get up and down I am not the most patient of people and if i decide I am going to do something then I normally want to do it there and then ( why not this universe is not the real world and I can ) I have a lesser tp chip and love to hyper jump around ( cant do this at CND very annoying when a mob in the middle of the dome kills you and you actually have to run ) .

Also you can get addicted if again like me you are on a smaller monthly budjet because of the real cash economy you can blow way more ped than you thought you would ( just another 50 bombs or 5000 ammo ) and before you know it thats like another 300 ped gone. This isnt just at CND but throughout and so sometimes if your loots been crappy then you just want to go home.

If you went to CND found you had some skins & wool at present there is no where to get any molisk teath exept the auction ( then you need to pay transport costs ) making crafting hard for new people up at CND also people get heavy. It can be a pain that there are no storage terminals and you cant access your kit that you have on the islands. not all of us can afford an 800+ ped appartment. But then i dont belive NEVERDIE should have to reduce his appartments. After all CND property is an exclusive investment nice work to the person that has installed a dance floor and allowed it to be public THATS WHAT THE CND COMMUNITY NEED !.

When the flights dropped to 15 ped it was great and made it seam cheeper yes i know in real life we are talking nothing - sorry i really switch off in game and every ped & pec counts 5 ped to me in game is quite a lot 30 ped instead of 40 is even better and I would come up even more to CND if it stayed like that.

No one has ever advertised the actual cost to a pilot of the flights ( yes I know there is an investment there but how much is it really costing you to fly those ships ) I think geeze that pilot has just made 80 ped in 10 mins for me to get 80 ped loot back takes a long time. look at the loots 50 ped globals are common with occasional 100+ and the whacking All Time highs are there for the minority

How to fix and get more poeple

1) have storage terminals rather than having to dump a global in the auction and pay 1 ped for 7 days storage and then pull it out to fly back
2) allow tp chips to be used ( I may be dreaming on this one )
3) introduce some molisk to the place ( thats if there is even dna for them yet ) so you can craft basic pants from a technician
4) try and get MA to improove CP and its area so it looks more inviting
5) have an instant tp to the space resort for + 2 ped more than a current pilot price with the ped going in to loot pools both ways
6) Make the animation on the space ships better inside when you are flying ( externalls look great ) its better
7) have a wider range of space ships so that you dont have to have 4 people on a trip you could have 1 2 or 8 with different prices
8) dont have all of the domes as pvp again a lot of players are worried that in pvp you can get looted - try explaining it is only the red ant shock area it takes too long and they forget. people are skared of loosing there kit and most new people dont like the thought of pvp.
9) It must be very annoying being a pilot and I have sympathy for you but it is sometimes annoying when all you see at the control room and twin is tickets for sale and then when you want one theres no pilot - I heard the other night there were 3 up at cnd and non down at the islands and so had to wait ! ARGH ! ( If you pay 40,000 ped for a hanger dont expect to get this back in a hurrey unfortunatly you cant tax this)
10) ask MA to have a TP installed that you can use for free for 1 version update ( yes I know pilots and hanger owners wont like this ) but open it up to everyone so they can come and see for themselfs if its then worth paying for a flight up as you can go to tresure island free.

Sorry theres a lot in this but look forward to the comments & remember because its a real cash economy people have different budjets I may be able to blow 1000 ped a month but others may only be able to blow 300 / 400 a month and then there are some with unlimited funds ( 40 ped return trip = 3 hours play according to MA $1-50 hour unnoficial play rule )

[Epictetus]

Perhaps I'm a bit biased but I agree with you Redster. The shopping experience at CND is unparalleled to the surface. The shops are all very big and concentrated in a circle shape. Have you seen the gymnastics required to find a shop in that large deer of New Oxford?

As far as getting people to stay there and getting noobs there I think the download client should be promoted HEAVILY. Most people I talk to are still unaware that there is a way to start EU from CND.

Is there any way to put this on a cd like those AOL disks and hand them out at clubs or other venues? Or even better, buy an advertisement in a video gaming magazine (like PC Gamer) or a pop culture magazine (like Entertainment Weekly) and have the cd stuck to the page!

[awilford]

I fully agree. CND is not being used to it's full potential.
And yes the same is for pilots.

Either lots of passengers and no pilots or lot of pilots and no passengers.

Pilots are on the receiving end of that dilema too.

As for different prices, I do take different prices depending on the number of passengers.

Sometimes I wil fly just 1 person up at a certain price (Not 4 times the single seat price).

Maybe 1 free trip up and down per member would be a good thing.
So new people can go there once for free to see for themselves.

Unfortunately as it goes, on the day they go they could have bad luck which is no way due to the fact that they are on CND.
This thoguh leaves them with the impression that CND was the problem and it was not just another unlucky day in EU.

I have heard people say that one many times.

"I don't want to go there cause I lost all my money when I went there the last time."

People need to understand that bad luck is all over the place and not only CND.

These people that have this bad luck then spread this around to others thinking of coming to CND.

[Sally]

I agrea with the cd covers / dvd covers Dennis Publishing seam to do a lot of computer type titles and the CND client could get on one of these

maybe this should be suggested in the marketing area

[RexDameon]

It's 100% the cost of flying IMO

cause lets face it if i don't like the way hunting goes at CND i loose time waiting for a flight there and back 40 PED on flight cost and whatever hunting costs i encure. Thats a big gamble to take just to expericence a new enviroment because the new mobs up there are all uber mobs..

I dont blame ND he's doing an awesome job of developing CND i blame MA

To be honest a new lower hp atrox hatching out of that egg would be better then a new uber one for ND.

[gp1]

Originally Posted by Redster

This topic is probably on the minds of all property owners and ND constantly. I am currently drafting up a scenario that might increase traffic but want to get everyones thoughts on reasons why traffic is low and how to increase it

I would suggest to organize interesting events at CND, not necessarily related to EU - this is already done - dance parties etc. - just organize more things to do at CND. How about round tables and debates.

For transportation - I thing there should be a shuttle service scheduled at regular hours.

[awilford]

I unsderstand what you mean. I myself had to pay these prices.
The problem is that it does cost money to fly.
Oil isn't always that easy to find at a low % and lately the prices have gone up quite a bit.

What needs to be done is that MA needs to lower the cost of flying for pilots so that pilots can lower their prices.

My prices are 18 instead of 20 and even though this is a little cheaper it is still a lot if you cannot deposit.

As with shuttle services at a certain time. I have thought of this already. The problem is getting all pilots to agree. There will still be those that want to not get involved with others and do their own thing.

I am all for a system which can make us work better together and hopefully bring more business to many.

What we need is a central point where people buy tickets.
A central office where pilots clock in and out and passengers are assigned to you.
This would make things run a lot smoother and you won't have to stand selling flights.

[Redster]

So far, from your comments, my idea seems to be on track. My basic idea is to give pilots another avenue to make money instead of just ferrying passengers. It had been mentioned at one time that ships could become fighters. If we could get 30% of the pilots/ships on hunting trips other than passenger flights. The rest could concentrate on passengers and be able to make more runs in less time and still make the same profit with a lower price.

[awilford]

To clear things up about price differences.
Crystal Palace is a lot closer to Calypso than CND.
Oil and decay are a lot less.

If you go to the main complex in CND you will see a 3D diagram in the dome of the solar system.

You will see the CND at the outskirts of this solar system.

And all the others close to the center.