09-24-2018, 10:19 PM
Purely looking at this from the new user perspective I think that removing the Building QL is a good move and different ways can be tried for gating the progression.
As a new user reaches space and starts exploring, they realize that, "hey, i'm flying around in a QL 32 spaceship and it will take me a nearly a year to reach the QL of the existing player base". Even landing on uneven terrain damages my spaceship right now. So if the new player stays with the game and tries to develop but ends up staying offline waiting for the universities and building QL to level up to do anything else meaningful. When that happens the new player says to themselves, why am I paying for entertainment that I can't enjoy?... bye bye SoH.
I don't have an answer for what would be the next iteration of progression or progression gating. Perhaps consider adding some form of online research buff? When the emperor is online the populous is more inspired to work hard? Yes, you'll get the AFK emperors that feed their toon once every few hours, but you'll also be promoting a more active and vibrant online community.
As a new user reaches space and starts exploring, they realize that, "hey, i'm flying around in a QL 32 spaceship and it will take me a nearly a year to reach the QL of the existing player base". Even landing on uneven terrain damages my spaceship right now. So if the new player stays with the game and tries to develop but ends up staying offline waiting for the universities and building QL to level up to do anything else meaningful. When that happens the new player says to themselves, why am I paying for entertainment that I can't enjoy?... bye bye SoH.
I don't have an answer for what would be the next iteration of progression or progression gating. Perhaps consider adding some form of online research buff? When the emperor is online the populous is more inspired to work hard? Yes, you'll get the AFK emperors that feed their toon once every few hours, but you'll also be promoting a more active and vibrant online community.