SWG Tales

Seeing as we have quite a number of Lost city people on the forums now, I was hoping you could clue me/us in. In Nocturnus we love our town, but we're finding that growth is coming excruciatingly slow. We lose a person before we gain two, etc. Overall we have grown significantly, but it seems like we just lack something that other towns have. An example is Ank Mork Pok; we found this town on accident one day, it was small and appeared to have just started - it wasn't even on the map. Then 10 days later it was on the map and had a shuttle port. What the heck?

Even thought it was a ways back, I know that at one time Lost City was without a marker on the map or shuttle port like us. What did you guys do to grow? Any suggestions on getting more people in to Nocturnus and declaring residency?

We were close to 35 for a cloning center a few days back and we seemed to have recessed back to sub 30's again. While some of us really like the small town feel, there are others like me that are just plain frustrated.

Coiyonite

And just to add a thought to this..when you consider that some of us have several accounts and characters living in Nocturnus, we'd probably be below 25 if you took the alt accounts out.

Wanna loan us some citizens???

Zannon wrote:And just to add a thought to this..when you consider that some of us have several accounts and characters living in Nocturnus, we'd probably be below 25 if you took the alt accounts out.

Yeah, thats the other thing that just stings, a lot of our growth is because we're uber geeks with two sometimes three accounts per real person!

Coiyonite

Most cities have a good number of alts as citizens.

Being a relative newcomer, I might be able to share the perspective of an "outsider". This is not meant to be negative, just informative.

1) Location. Lok is an okay planet. Not much traffic. I can relate to this because I used to live on Rori with my former guild. We decided to build a city. The problem that arose was that there was absolutely no reason to go there. We never grew.

I am not suggesting you move. However, because of your location you need to work a little harder to give people a reason to go to your town and get interested.

2) Awareness. Until Zannon started communicating with me, I had no idea you even existed. You have a great comminity that nobody knows about. Compare yourselves to LOST. Grendel is a visible presence in the SWG community, so I am sure he has an easier time getting new people.

Open up your events to more outsiders, post some of your RP on the SWG forums. Let people know who you are, what you are about, and what kind of roleplayers you are looking for. This may help you grow. New life is always critical to the survival of a group.

Ekade wrote:Open up your events to more outsiders, post some of your RP on the SWG forums. Let people know who you are, what you are about, and what kind of roleplayers you are looking for. This may help you grow. New life is always critical to the survival of a group.

You're right, I should be more active on the SWG/SOE forums. I just started doing some serious reading there in the last few days.

Coiy

registering on the map is a big deal...if that can't see it on the map, they don't know it's there to join

Skarr wrote:registering on the map is a big deal...if that can't see it on the map, they don't know it's there to join

Exactly, but the problem lies in getting enough people to even register. If we had 35 we could do it.

X'an Shin wrote:Exactly, but the problem lies in getting enough people to even register. If we had 35 we could do it.

It can't be that hard if we just got 5 more people in town...

Coiy

Coiyonite Adaks wrote:

X'an Shin wrote:Exactly, but the problem lies in getting enough people to even register. If we had 35 we could do it.

It can't be that hard if we just got 5 more people in town...

Dude, we were at 34 last week. We're at 29 last I checked (which was about 2 days ago). We've been hovering around 30 for almost a year it seems. People come, but at the same time, people leave, let counts lapse, let houses poof, etc.

X'an Shin wrote:Dude, we were at 34 last week. We're at 29 last I checked (which was about 2 days ago). We've been hovering around 30 for almost a year it seems. People come, but at the same time, people leave, let counts lapse, let houses poof, etc.

Ok... Five of us gotta buy another account.

Coiy

I would say tote your RP atmosphere! There's several RP Imp guilds, RP Rebel guilds...but who else has a pirate RP city? Find what makes you unique and tote it like rolling luggage everywhere you go! I can't answer the part of the question about Lost's growth, because I haven't been here that long, honestly. ^___^;;

Coiyonite Adaks wrote:Seeing as we have quite a number of Lost city people on the forums now, I was hoping you could clue me/us in. In Nocturnus we love our town, but we're finding that growth is coming excruciatingly slow. We lose a person before we gain two, etc. Overall we have grown significantly, but it seems like we just lack something that other towns have. An example is Ank Mork Pok; we found this town on accident one day, it was small and appeared to have just started - it wasn't even on the map. Then 10 days later it was on the map and had a shuttle port. What the heck?

Even thought it was a ways back, I know that at one time Lost City was without a marker on the map or shuttle port like us. What did you guys do to grow? Any suggestions on getting more people in to Nocturnus and declaring residency?

We were close to 35 for a cloning center a few days back and we seemed to have recessed back to sub 30's again. While some of us really like the small town feel, there are others like me that are just plain frustrated.

Coiyonite

As a resident Lostite who was there when we laid down the city....I'll answer. *grin*

First, Ekade is correct. Grendel is HUGE on the forums. So is Cat Steppenski and many other Lost folks. I'm trying to get back in there more but it's too full of children for me to want to be in there for long.

Grendel is a natural charasmatic guy who reallly wants to help people. We have actually snagged many unhappy people *from* the SOE forums who were guild hunting. Many people have been burnt out on the game and we have reeled them in.

And on that same note, I've done my own share of recruiting. Mostly from LiveJournal, as I own the largest and longest running SWG community. That's where I snagged Dwilah actually, along with about 10 other people.

I find it harder to find people to live in a RP environment than a non-rp environment. There are *tons* of people who play this game who aren't RPers. I myself started as an RPer but was so dissolutioned, I never even bother any longer. I'm happy to be meeting more Rpers and look forward to really developing my character.

When Lost, as a city, started, we already had enough people in the guild to get put on the map. Grendel I swear, has been recruiting since Day 1. You should read his story over in the Mayor's forum on our website. You can see how he's that good.

I met him in Theed WAY back last summer. I came up under that "personality match" thing for him at 100%. we've been together in friendship and city building since then.

It's helped that we're also One City = One Guild. It's a lot less confusing that way for many people. We're just all Lost. *giggle*

Reaching out to other folks and establing your site like this is an EXCELLENT idea. Gang up with those wonderful folks at SoD also. They're always picking up people for hunts and things.

Cheers!
Sti

Dwilah wrote:I would say tote your RP atmosphere! There's several RP Imp guilds, RP Rebel guilds...but who else has a pirate RP city? Find what makes you unique and tote it like rolling luggage everywhere you go! I can't answer the part of the question about Lost's growth, because I haven't been here that long, honestly. ^___^;;

Yes, like Dwilah says, you need to pimp yourselves.

Your 2 venues for this are the SWG forums and in game.

In game, you may want to have a group of you roll into Mos Eisley (or some other high traffic area) and start RP'ing with eachother. Be sure to discuss things that reflect your town.

Ideas:
- Act as though you in in the middle of some drama, or critical situation.
- Perhaps you are in the process of setting up some sort of smuggling deal.
- Set it up so you are bribing an imperial officer or some other official.
- Be looking for someone. "Catch" him in the cantina and shake him down, get the info out of him with a pistol in his face. Afterwards be mockinly thankful and say "the <insert name of your group> is grateful for your cooperation, friend".

All these would be great "scenes" that might get some people hooked. Be sure to make mention of who and where you are. "Come on, let's get back to Nocturnus before the Empire shows up.", or some such silliness.

Also, when you are hunting as a group be in character in public places. Be very helpful. You want people to say, "wow, those are a bunch of cool people". Reputation helps a lot.

Sti-Fi wrote: I find it harder to find people to live in a RP environment than a non-rp environment. There are *tons* of people who play this game who aren't RPers. I myself started as an RPer but was so dissolutioned, I never even bother any longer. I'm happy to be meeting more Rpers and look forward to really developing my character.

Sorry to hear you fell into an RP wasteland. I was in one myself about 4 months ago. I started the game RP'ing, but that group sort of gell apart after about 3 months. I still refer to that time as the "golden age", when everybody was so excited about the game. There was no such thing as an AFK entertainer, etc.

Ack! I am starting to wax nostalgic again. /slap self

Anyways, I crawled out of my RP rut and have been going strong ever since and am having an absolute blast.

The problem Nocturnus is having is very common. Roleplayers are spread too thin on Gorath. There are many, but they are all in small groups. I think small groups are good, they will never go away. But there needs to be some larger interaction with others to keep things interesting, and to keep new people coming in.

Part of the reason for forming the RP Council is to address this issue.

[quote="Ekade"]

Sorry to hear you fell into an RP wasteland. I was in one myself about 4 months ago. I started the game RP'ing, but that group sort of gell apart after about 3 months. I still refer to that time as the "golden age", when everybody was so excited about the game. There was no such thing as an AFK entertainer, etc.
quote]

Oh yes! I remember how we used to actually create routines with the dancers and musicians, working on songs, taking turns soloing while others doing group flourishes. AND...always being there to make an actual bar-like environment. Someone selling melons behind the bar, someone acting like a bouncer. So much RP'ing going on that non-rpers became engaged in the conversations even against their own nature.

Ahhh yes...the good old days.