Graal has always been a casual game. Eras core systems are geared more towards dedicated players much more than classic's. On Classic you can just hop on and play and dominate towers, have fun exploring, or pk even if you haven't played in months. On Era this isn't the case.

lets see how frustrating it is to a casual, occasional player:

I think the #1 thing making players like classic more than Era is the things we have to purchase every week to keep up, and the hospital.
Lets say you took a break from Era and came back after 3 months.
You don't have any gralats. You want to go to the beach party or the newest thing on era but everytime you try to get there someone kills you. You try to make money for a potion by shoveling but crabs keep killing you. So you decide to go pizza cooking instead. It took forever, but you finally make enough money for a potion. Now you are ready to dominate. You go out with your dual uzis(you're a casual player and didn't feel like working to get a 8k gun) and realize they aren't doing that much damage because they are rusty. you have to spend even more money to repair them.

repeat every time you come back.
lets look at all of the individual systems and how they can be improved.

unlimited ammo:
this isn't really needed for those who don't play much, but those who play a lot will need it. However, many do not like having to go running around looking for ammo. it costs $1000 a week.

ways to improve: We should get a daily bonus of ammo just for logging in, maybe like 500-1000.


weapons repairs: this is the 2nd worst system ever implemented in Era. As a gun collector I absolutely hate having to spend $500 plus mining ore just to get my weapon to be useable. I would have to pay about $6000 just to get my guns back to top shape since I quit for a while.
ways to improve:
make rusting slower
make rusting based on shots fired
make upgrades permanent with no rusting, but harder to do:

you start with a m4 that does 8 damage.
the first upgrade costs $1000, 10 iron. 8.5 damage
the second upgrade costs $3000, 30 iron, 10 silver 9 damage.
the third upgrade for the hardcore costs $10000, and 50 of all minerals. 9.5 damage
fourth upgrade for the dedicated costs $50k, and 100 of all minerals. 10 damage.

or have individual upgrades with special names like a scope that increases accuracy or something. The point is don't make us have to pay constantly to keep up with the game.

hospital:
the by far biggest cause of quitters. Of all of the player from classic that told me they quit era, all of them replied that they hated getting killed and sent all the way back to a hospital and they don't want to pay $1000 weekly to respawn.

solutions:
give the potion to everyone/remove hospitals
add some form of noob protection or non pk mode
make a pk and no pk map(seperate "channels")



fix these problems and you will find Era much more populated than classic due to better management and more frequent updates. Of course not everyone will like Era because they like classic combat and the theme better, but this will greatly boost playercount.  

you do realise youre complaining about everything that makes era what it is? if your a casual player and you're just on fro chit chat or such then don't buy the potion and stay in the no pk zones. Rusting forces you to either A) plan ahead and mine more than you need for the week and B) makes the wepons more leveled out seeing as the better wepons take more money and ores to repair. A Perfect shape uzi can take out a rusty M16. Besides it is not like you need to repair every single wepon you own. For instance i own every gun but i only repair the guns i actualy use. Ammo is not an issue. You can find 3000 ammo in 6 minutes ezpz. I do agree with you on one point. Era is for dedicated players and you can't exactly come on and dominate. But then again that's why era has more active players than classic. notice i said active. and also the fact that you can't just come in and dominate is a normal game feature. Look at is as a leveling system. New players Being Level 1, and so on. You gain "experiance" if you will by making money. When you have enough "Experiance"(money) you can then "level up"(by a new gun) that will make you a better player. nothing is handed to you in era. you earn it or you lose. that's why eras community is filled with legends.  

Zodiac is harder than era and I won't be surprised how many people will quit on the first day it's released for iPhone cuz it's too hard  

But for a server as hard as Zodiac you step into a whole new area of gaming where the truly hardcore players stay and the noobs leave after a few days. This results in a good community for the dedicated players and an overall happier gameplay setting. However, you can only imagine how harsh some of the iTunes reviews will be xD  

I agree with skill. It's obvious how stefan is sacrificing the fun and enjoyment of the game to try to make us need to buy gralat packs to have fun, and the pk is just Annoying, and the respawn stuff is clearly designed so you'll keep going back to the hospital while trying to get money and will have to purchase a gralat pack to get the potion If you actually want to play when you get on.  

I'm really sick and tired of it when many games can survive and stay fun, making money without ruining the game. Hardcore gamers can make it harder on themselves, casual gamers can't make the game easier.  

Classic : Social - Most people like socializing
Era : Pking - Not that much people like shooting guns all day  

Posted by InuKaT

Zodiac is harder than era and I won't be surprised how many people will quit on the first day it's released for iPhone cuz it's too hard

You're making a big assumption that Zodiac iPhone is just going to be a straight port of Zodiac PC. (It's not going to be).

I do plan on using a similar class system though, and definitely require less button/hotkeying. That's not what this thread is about though.  

I think iEra needs missions.  

Zodiac is going to be epic! I can just tell that it's going to become addicting and will accumulate lots of players.  

Posted by Jatz

I think iEra needs missions.

you mean besides the "drive the bosses daughter to mafia"? lol  

Posted by Jester Lapse

you mean besides the "drive the bosses daughter to mafia"? lol

No i mean like "Collect a group of 5 friends and rob a bank, killing 50 enemy npc's".  

Posted by Jatz

No i mean like "Collect a group of 5 friends and rob a bank, killing 50 enemy npc's".

that is a smexy idea. put into production now!  

Doc to the rescue! Ummmm..... Doc? Dude your supposed to come out and make that level! -_-" I'm just joking. Doc already has enough on his plate, don't overgorge him.  

I could do it, but i don't have level rights.