This subject isn't new, but I just wanted to break it down and try and work out the root cause of it. I'll begin by giving some context to set the scene. At the very end of the post, I'll list the key points so if you don't want to read my amazing essay then scroll down.
Genuinely new towns on loka don't last long. There's usually a week long period in which they set up their storage/base area, build some walls, get the basic stuff set up. But after that, their members slowly begin to come online less and less. And we all know how this ends; their tgen runs dry and their town falls. In other cases, they constantly get raided and harassed by people from older towns. They then give up and leave. For example, Wardorian. Some just don't like the toxicity of the server, for example, Winterfell.
Some of these problems aren't unique to new towns, old towns often have the same fate as in the first problem I mentioned. Inactivity. The solution to this isn't just new content, because adding new ways of getting loot without a reason other than conquest won't motivate them to keep active and keep grinding. The only real goal loka creates for towns is to conquer the world, and these new towns usually don't do much conquest (because the world is already conquered by big old towns whom they don't stand a chance against). In this case, there is a clear way of solving this, by adding more reason to level up a town separate to conquest, more reason to get resources, more reason to manually farm to get these resources, etc.
I also talked about raiding/harassment. You could say that ''well it's a raiding server and it's only fair because other towns can be raided as well'' And in a way you're right, but the big old towns built by experienced lokans often can't. Anyone wanting to have a good raid has to go to a new town because they're less experienced. Essentially, preying on the weak. These new towns never get anywhere close to having infinite pearls before they give up and leave. There isn't really a solution to this. Maybe certain PvE town defences could be added to make raiding and defending against raiders more interesting.
Earlier in the post, I mentioned people leaving because of toxicity in the community. Unfortunately, 1.9 PvP is a niche skill, and you can only really enjoy it if you're good at it, so you'd expect players to be toxic about it. But I think this is a more recent thing. I wasn't around when old towns like Auru and others actively took part in conquest, but I don't think they'd have been as toxic as the modern PvP towns. (if I'm wrong about this then everything I'm about to say is useless) These old towns would have had more dilute PvP communities, or very little at all. They'd fight each other to have fun, not to win. As they levelled up, the non hardcore PvP people began to get bored due to a lack of content and progression, and left, leaving the PvPers in charge of the server. Now, this concentrated community has turned loka into a very toxic place.
If what I said above is true, then toxicity is a impossible problem to solve. There's not really a way to reverse the damage done in the past. Players aren't going to make their communities diverse, if anything they'll do the opposite. They won't add a questing system to their towns, because they only invite the best PvPers who don't care about that. If the goal of loka is to be just another PvP server, it has succeeded. I've said how loka needs to be more accessible in the past, so it can be fun for different groups of people, but to be honest I don't think that's possible any more.
I hope that the next combat update makes combat fun for everyone, and makes people less toxic, but I know that some players will do their best to exploit it so I doubt that.
I know some of you are gonna start crying and say 'oh but it conquest server' so before you do that remember that some people come here for the town progression, exploration, roleplay, raiding, among other things so don't dismiss them because one feature of the server is owning land.
Summary
- Loka can be boring for people who aren't here just for conquest.
- Some players leave after being harassed by other towns,
- Others leave because the community is increasingly toxic.
- Toxicity is caused by the high concentration of PvP players
- Anyone not into conquest or PvP tends to leave pretty quickly
- The simple solution to that is more progression tailored to them.
All these negative posts I've made aren't because I hate loka, they're because I want it to do well. And I think for it to do so, it has to address the problems it faces. That's why instead of suggesting content to solve the problem, I decided to outline it so the dev team can work out their own solution.
Genuinely new towns on loka don't last long. There's usually a week long period in which they set up their storage/base area, build some walls, get the basic stuff set up. But after that, their members slowly begin to come online less and less. And we all know how this ends; their tgen runs dry and their town falls. In other cases, they constantly get raided and harassed by people from older towns. They then give up and leave. For example, Wardorian. Some just don't like the toxicity of the server, for example, Winterfell.
Some of these problems aren't unique to new towns, old towns often have the same fate as in the first problem I mentioned. Inactivity. The solution to this isn't just new content, because adding new ways of getting loot without a reason other than conquest won't motivate them to keep active and keep grinding. The only real goal loka creates for towns is to conquer the world, and these new towns usually don't do much conquest (because the world is already conquered by big old towns whom they don't stand a chance against). In this case, there is a clear way of solving this, by adding more reason to level up a town separate to conquest, more reason to get resources, more reason to manually farm to get these resources, etc.
I also talked about raiding/harassment. You could say that ''well it's a raiding server and it's only fair because other towns can be raided as well'' And in a way you're right, but the big old towns built by experienced lokans often can't. Anyone wanting to have a good raid has to go to a new town because they're less experienced. Essentially, preying on the weak. These new towns never get anywhere close to having infinite pearls before they give up and leave. There isn't really a solution to this. Maybe certain PvE town defences could be added to make raiding and defending against raiders more interesting.
Earlier in the post, I mentioned people leaving because of toxicity in the community. Unfortunately, 1.9 PvP is a niche skill, and you can only really enjoy it if you're good at it, so you'd expect players to be toxic about it. But I think this is a more recent thing. I wasn't around when old towns like Auru and others actively took part in conquest, but I don't think they'd have been as toxic as the modern PvP towns. (if I'm wrong about this then everything I'm about to say is useless) These old towns would have had more dilute PvP communities, or very little at all. They'd fight each other to have fun, not to win. As they levelled up, the non hardcore PvP people began to get bored due to a lack of content and progression, and left, leaving the PvPers in charge of the server. Now, this concentrated community has turned loka into a very toxic place.
If what I said above is true, then toxicity is a impossible problem to solve. There's not really a way to reverse the damage done in the past. Players aren't going to make their communities diverse, if anything they'll do the opposite. They won't add a questing system to their towns, because they only invite the best PvPers who don't care about that. If the goal of loka is to be just another PvP server, it has succeeded. I've said how loka needs to be more accessible in the past, so it can be fun for different groups of people, but to be honest I don't think that's possible any more.
I hope that the next combat update makes combat fun for everyone, and makes people less toxic, but I know that some players will do their best to exploit it so I doubt that.
I know some of you are gonna start crying and say 'oh but it conquest server' so before you do that remember that some people come here for the town progression, exploration, roleplay, raiding, among other things so don't dismiss them because one feature of the server is owning land.
Summary
- Loka can be boring for people who aren't here just for conquest.
- Some players leave after being harassed by other towns,
- Others leave because the community is increasingly toxic.
- Toxicity is caused by the high concentration of PvP players
- Anyone not into conquest or PvP tends to leave pretty quickly
- The simple solution to that is more progression tailored to them.
All these negative posts I've made aren't because I hate loka, they're because I want it to do well. And I think for it to do so, it has to address the problems it faces. That's why instead of suggesting content to solve the problem, I decided to outline it so the dev team can work out their own solution.
