Hello!
I’ve been thinking a lot about how it was for me when starting to play Star Conflict, and how it could be for others. When I looked at the forums the first time, I was very confused what was what. When you’re a new player approaching the game, if the forum organizational structure isn’t clear, you’ll probably leave the game. So, from this I propose the following changes:
Stargem wants to share news about the game primarily, so it should be at the top, in it’s own section. Players typically want to know what’s going on with the game to begin with anyways.
After that, the patch info section that details what the devs have done in the recent patch, and in past patches. This is commonly the second thing players look for, and quickly answers the question, “where are the patch notes??”
Then we move to information sector, which covers more about the forums, faq, and guides for gameplay. People need to know the rules for the forum and in game. They also want to know how to play the game. That information should be here.
After these, we move to the community section. After players get past the basics, they typically start reaching out to community to find others to play with. So, this is the fourth section. It contains community events, polls, and community projects.
Then we move to the Corporation section, which makes sense to follow the community section along with trading. Corporations want to make money right?
Then, once you learn about and play the game for a time, then you start think about things that could be improved, or things you don’t like. That’s where the Discussion topics come into play at the 6th level of priority.
Then we get into the section where we can directly make suggestions to the development team regarding things we’d like to see added or changed.
Then, a lower priority to players generally, is sharing art between each other about the game. So, that goes at the 8th level of priority.
The Q & A section might answer questions someone has about bugs, so it should be close to the bugs section.
Then we get to Bug reporting itself, which is very important, but shouldn’t be the highlight of the forums.
Foreign Language and Off Topic sections finish off the forums.
News
- News (read only)
- News Discussion
- Developer Blog
Patch Info
- Patches (read only)
- Patch Discussion
Information Sector
- Rules
- Violations and Penalties
- FAQ (read only)
- Guides
Community
- Events & Tournaments (read only)
- Events & Tournaments Discussion
- Polls
- Community Projects
Corporation and Trade Sector
- Corporations
- Round Table
- Trading Classified
Current Game State Discussion
- Game Modes & Maps
- Balance
- Leveling and Economy
- Miscellaneous
Game Suggestions
- Visuals
- Social
- Game Modes and Maps (again, makes sense if you change the game discussion title to Curent Game State Discussion)
- Balance (why this twice both here and in Game Discussions? - makes sense if you change the topic header for Game Discussion)
- Leveling and Economy
- Controls
- Miscellaneous
Community Created Media
- I.I.N. (Independent Intergalactic News)
- Videos and Screenshots
- Writings
- Fan Art
FAQ and Q & A
- Q & A from Developers
- Q & A from fellow Pilots
Bug Reporting
- match maker
- mac version
- linux version
- launcher, game client, and connection issues
- open space
- graphics
- sound
- leveling, balance, and market
- controls
- texts
Foreign Language Sub Forums (keep same)
Off Topic Discussions (keep same)
This is the beginning of changes I propose toward making the Star Conflict forums a go-to place to get information about the game. Steps after this include giving each topic an index sticky and categorizing the threads under each topic in the index.
Here’s to making Star Conflict Forums great again!
HC5 out.