Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Discuss anything and everything about PkHonor.

Move everything in Varrock to Edgeville?

Yay, Edgeville!
62
75%
Maybe, you present good arguments but I'm personally not in favour
4
5%
Nay, keep it as it is
11
13%
Don't care either way
6
7%
 
Total votes: 83

User avatar
Mike
Programmer
Posts: 6298
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 8:00 pm
Location: PkHonor HQ

Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Mike » Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:17 am

In the early days of PkHonor, every new player who joined the game would spawn in the Edgeville ::shops room. Edgeville was also the respawn point and home of the server. In 2013, due to a sharp increase of the public interest into RSPS - along with the release of our construction and the prime days of PkHonor - we decided to move home to Varrock, since Edgeville was simply getting *too* crowded.

The last couple of years, there haven't been nearly as many players in the RSPS scene and neither our Varrock nor Edgeville could be considered too crowded anymore. I also believe that we have long underestimated the importance of ease of access and first impressions towards new players.

For the past few weeks, I have thought about moving the home teleport back to Edgeville and the starter location back to ::shops. The Player-Owned House portal, estate agent, construction expert, Mage of Zamorak, Vote/Donator store salesmen and Item Set Exchange Clerk would also move to Edgeville, effectively rendering Varrock empty and unused.

I'm sure that that some players prefer Varrock as home location, but there are many upsides to be considered about moving everything Edgeville. Some of you may think "having Varrock as home is more original, almost every RSPS has Edgeville as home and starter location", which is true, but just because we're unique in that regard doesn't mean we're better. Every single major RSPS in the history of forever has had Edgeville as home. In my experience, the only ones that don't are either dead or never managed to take off in the first place.

Firstly, I have observed that new players are having trouble finding all necessary shops. By showing them all our shops from the first second, they will have far less trouble finding everything they are looking for. Most do not even know about ::shops in the first place.
Secondly, the combined player amounts of Edgeville and Varrock will make a far better first impression than just those currently in Varrock. It will make the server look more popular, which is almost always considered a plus. Players don't tend to stick around very long if there don't seem to be many players online. This might actually be somewhat problematic for us in the low hours of the day, between 4AM and 1PM CEST, when there are often only as about 90 - 120 players online.
The proximity of the wilderness to home will also make players more tempted to go PK'ing. It's a simple mind trick - just like the mere presence of a soft drink vending machine at a school will make children more tempted to buy a drink (a fact proved by several studies, one that companies are all to eager to abuse).

Another compelling reason to do this is for statistical analysis. A quick database lookup has shown us that in the last 6 months, out of 43,000 new players:
  • 16,000 have played for less than 1 minute
  • 2,500 played between 1 and 2 minutes
  • 1,600 played between 2 and 3 minutes
  • 1,100 for 3 - 4 mins
  • 900 for 4 - 5 mins
  • 21,000 played more than 5 minutes
Of course, a lot of these are due to mass hackers who have obtained a passwords database from another RSPS and are creating lots of new accounts rather than trying to hack into existing accounts, but even so, there's no denying that most players give up their PkHonor experience within the first minutes. When we move everything to Edgeville, we will be able to clearly see whether new players tend to stick around longer or not. So even if we wouldn't move it permanently, we should at least try it just to measure the difference.

If anyone has objections or improvements to this idea, please let me know. I would like to do this transition within the next couple of weeks at the last - the actual transition is less than an hour work, I just need to know if the community is in favour of this.

User avatar
Edonist
Honor Player
Posts: 510
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 8:23 am

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Edonist » Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:24 am

Mike wrote:So even if we wouldn't move it permanently, we should at least try it just to measure the difference.
No harm in trying it out for a while, support.
Image

User avatar
Ruler
Honor Player
Posts: 7541
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:13 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Ruler » Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:46 am

Awesome idea. Put some time in making a logical place of putting everything though. The house in the west (under ::Shops) and northeast (east of shops) can also be used. Would be nice if you could remove some stuff then though, like the fence around the house in the west.
Try to concrentate the logical npcs together.

User avatar
Mike
Programmer
Posts: 6298
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 8:00 pm
Location: PkHonor HQ

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Mike » Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:49 am

Sverre wrote:Awesome idea. Put some time in making a logical place of putting everything though. The house in the west (under ::Shops) and northeast (east of shops) can also be used. Would be nice if you could remove some stuff then though, like the fence around the house in the west.
Try to concrentate the logical npcs together.
Quite right. I'm also not entirely sure about all the current shops in the ::shops room - I'm thinking of using the second house nearby (the barn with the woman and 2 men), open up an extra doorway to the West and put some shops in there as well. I haven't settled on that yet, can always use some ideas.

The Player-Owned House portal seems most logical to put it just South-West of ::shops, with the same orientation as the current PoH portal

User avatar
Ruler
Honor Player
Posts: 7541
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:13 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Ruler » Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:56 am

Wouldn't you put the poh portal together with zamorak mage close to pk portal? Then all the teleports are nearby and people immediately see the pk portal as well.

Maybe divide the combat and the skilling npcs. Could have general store in both houses because you would need it for both. One would contain bh, pkp, melee, mage, range, general, skillcapes. Other would contain herblore, crafting, perhaps zammy mage, general store. You get the point :)

User avatar
Mike
Programmer
Posts: 6298
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 8:00 pm
Location: PkHonor HQ

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Mike » Fri Oct 20, 2017 12:03 pm

Sverre wrote:Wouldn't you put the poh portal together with zamorak mage close to pk portal? Then all the teleports are nearby and people immediately see the pk portal as well.

Maybe divide the combat and the skilling npcs. Could have general store in both houses because you would need it for both. One would contain bh, pkp, melee, mage, range, general, skillcapes. Other would contain herblore, crafting, perhaps zammy mage, general store. You get the point :)
Agreed with splitting up shops that way. As for the portal, I do think the PoH portal (along with the estate agent and construction expert) South-West of ::shops would be the most ideal position. Especially since I'm also considering to move our altars & fountain of Heroes next to the East building (near the PK portal), put an extra bank booth very close by and have players respawn close to the wilderness ditch, to lower the time needed for PK'ing preparations.

User avatar
Tezey
Honor Player
Posts: 1677
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:13 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Tezey » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:31 pm

Remove poh portal, update the spellbook portal to work like the poh portal does. Estate agent and construction expert stay close to shops. Add bank booths on the north side of shops house and the spawning point between shops and men house.
Add a slayer master(or all of them) somewhere, possibly near the ruins south of the big bank.

Yay edgeville!
Image

User avatar
Grizzly mint
Premium Donator
Posts: 2327
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:08 am

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Grizzly mint » Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:37 pm

Didn't even bother reading it, the title says it all. Support, support!
Image

User avatar
Skiller
Developer
Posts: 2029
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2015 11:50 pm
Location: Generally ::skilling

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by Skiller » Fri Oct 20, 2017 3:48 pm

TBH let's go to Grand Exchange!
Image

I2aw origins
Premium Donator
Posts: 3774
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:38 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Goodbye Varrock? Hello Edgeville!

Post by I2aw origins » Fri Oct 20, 2017 3:50 pm

Completely agree. As of now it's almost like there is 2 homes. I think it'd do good to either put it in Edgeville or to move it to the Grand Exchange.

Locked