Hey Gamedev.net Community!

I am working on a mobile builder game that's already running for 8 years.

In its early days, the game had a nice content progression until level 30(current max level is 140). With content progression, I mean at what level items unlock in the build menu. However, over the last ~4 years, the previous developer decided to unlock all the content between lvl 1 and level 30 (reasoning that the new content should be available for all players). This results in 1200 ~available items at level 1 and ~3300 items at level 30. Overwhelming players at the start and missing any content progression after level 30(can be reached within a few weeks, while a big part of the community is playing since multiple years).

But how should this be addressed in a running game with a considerable user base across all levels?

Internally we have a passionate discussion between moving existing items to later levels(and risking to anger existing players) or just adding new content to later levels(don't address the too much choice issue at the start)

Since we are kinda stuck in the discussion, it would be nice to hear some external input

Thanks!

Maybe calculate a level where some large percentage of your player base is already higher than that and then distribute everything inbetween level 1 and this level. This way most people will not notice a difference  but new people will not be overwhelmed.

Another idea I have is to let everyone keep their current unlocks, but redistribute the unlocks for people who still need them. This way you wont anger your current playerbase, but the game will not be overwhelming for new players, as you wanted.

For longer-running games i recommend a new server/gameworld every five years.

Regarding your question, i don't know exactlyhow the unlock-system works right now, but just locking items for purchase(and not usage) should fix the problem.

On 10/14/2018 at 10:50 AM, wintertime said:

Another idea I have is to let everyone keep their current unlocks, but redistribute the unlocks for people who still need them. This way you wont anger your current playerbase, but the game will not be overwhelming for new players, as you wanted.

2

You mean applying the locks only to new players and keep the existing player unchanged? we discussed this too, however, this would handicap new players and also bring in confusion.

Your first idea would definitely reduce the impact, thanks for the advice.

@Dramolion Its planned to only lock the purchase and don't touch the existing items, but we are still concerned about the backlash :/