Open Beta and more content

I think DoW has a lot of potential and can be the best turn based multiplayer rpg in the market for a long time, but I am worried that the slow pace in which the game is developed may cause it to lose the initial player base from open beta over time instead of increasing it. The current content of the game couldn't keep the closed beta alive and certainly won't keep the open beta alive for a long time.

Looking at the rank list, we can see that hundreds of players tried the closed beta, but there is not enough content to keep them playing, so the active closed beta player base decreased almost to zero over time.

3 paths with 8 units each and a few maps is all the content we have after many months (over a year? dunno) of closed beta. I know this time was important to fix bugs and refine the system, that's why I do have high hopes and expectations for this game. I want it to be the huge success I believe it can be.

I am just worried about the speed in which new content will be added after open beta starts, because I think the success of the game will depend on that. At least until we have all 3 paths for the current 3 factions and a few more maps to give DoW the variety it desperately needs.

I tend to agree with OP. It’s a bit of a grind to build up units currently. I am having fun with it as I really really enjoy the game. I’m just afraid that many with stop playing because of the initial grind.

If possible I suggest making the missions more of a linear quest type with maybe 5 or so missions in succession at each level of difficulty. This will keep the initial learning curve interesting as well as teach players the basic.

Having an end goal is important as well as keeping the player base interested. A grind can become very tedious and boring.

I don’t mind the grind, but fear many will.

Thanks for listening.

[Jigoku]

Thanks for your feedbacks !

I don't think you are both saying the same thing, but I will try to address your concerns as best as I can.
About the "grind" and the lack of objectives (being it midgame or endgame), it finally came to the very top of our priority list, so you can expect things to change a bit in the weeks to come (slowly, maybe, but steadily).

Looking at the rank list, we can see that hundreds of players tried the closed beta, but there is not enough content to keep them playing, so the active closed beta player base decreased almost to zero over time.

There may have been a bias here, because we did a stress test weekend, in which many thousands players tried the game; however, once the weekend was over, those people could not access the game anymore. So the rank list would probably not be a good way to evaluate the interest of our players in the game.

The overall volume of players of the closed beta was way lower than that particular week-end, and did not decrease that much over time (it tends to be the opposite, actually). Of course, there was a lot of turnover, but please keep in mind that many of them did see a game, several months ago, that was very different from what it is today.
Also, every game has a different lifetime for each player, and some left just because they felt they had their fun on the game, but wait nothing more out of it (which is perfectly fine).

But that doesn't mean we're not concerned with our players presence in game, or that we are not working hard to keep them in. On the contrary.

3 paths with 8 units each and a few maps is all the content we have after many months (over a year? dunno) of closed beta. I know this time was important to fix bugs and refine the system, that's why I do have high hopes and expectations for this game. I want it to be the huge success I believe it can be.

I am just worried about the speed in which new content will be added after open beta starts, because I think the success of the game will depend on that. At least until we have all 3 paths for the current 3 factions and a few more maps to give DoW the variety it desperately needs.

Well, we added a lot of new content during the closed beta stage, but maybe not what you would expect.
As for the maps, the Factions, and such, it was never planned to add more than what you have during this Closed Beta stage.
It is planned (of course) for later stages of the game.

I agree with the OP... while i understand adding new races can be problematic (in the short period) due to balancing issues i always wondered why we have so few maps. At the current stage if i dont consider ancient battlefield and the training one we have 3 unique maps, one of them only available in conquest. This is in my opinion much more problematic than the lack of races/new units as you keep fighting over and over again on the same maps.

I know that you are not willing to share exact dates about new content (i'm pretty sure you learnt the lesson about the open beta announcements ) but do we have to expect new races/maps before the official release?