Well, at present Cyber City 404, Ace High, New Pittsburg and to a lesser extent Squat Hole are regularly in danger of being breached, and that's with several players (that I know of personally, and I don't know a lot of people :-p) making concious, concerted efforts to correct that problem. A situation in which a small group of people are struggling to keep half the Island safe and working isn't exactly ideal, though I do appreciate the challenge.

As for total membership, I don't have much of a feel for how many people we usually have active/are aiming for, so the figure of 1209 doesn't mean much to me. After all, if I 'only' had 1209 people willing to pay attention to me this week, I'd be all set. :-P

However, if we are having high attrition rates of new players, that would certainly be something to look at. A line would have to be drawn between someone who doesn't make it more than their alloted starting New Days (who are clearly not finding what they expect here, and probably can't be reeled in by a game with the same basic concept) and the folks who stick with it for a couple weeks or months and then quit in frustration. Someone who actually sticks with us a week or so is seeing some of what they want, and could perhaps be persuaded to stay if we could figure out what their problem was.

Now, when you say the first few DKs are hard to get through, what do you mean? Do early players need a better tutorial, more opening quests to sort of give them a direction to start with, etc, or do they need better/cheaper weapons and lower stamina costs for things? Personally, I found my first few DKs reasonably easy, because I very quickly hit upon the idea of getting all the crates and free grenades and other temporary items I could and selling them for the weapons and armor I needed, but I guess nobody actually told me to do that... and it's certainly true that trying to make it all the way to Cyber City 404 was a crazy idea for the first few DKs, but I didn't see that as a problem so much as something to work towards...

Anyway, it's a bit difficult to think about how to cater to the folks who don't stick around, precisely because they don't stick around... they don't talk to us, in general, so we have no idea what kinds of problems they're having that could potentially be fixed. That said, I think I've proven myself willing to bullshit on the subject for a bit and see if anything useful comes to light. :-P

Does anyone still have that link to the Google Doc that has a list of all the food, their stats, etc?

The long and scary link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvNNPhKgJ1TddDBhS1lUMm45WXZvWEVFcWxfbWp3SWc

Thanks! I was wondering if maybe the Wiki has all these Google Doc island resources listed...

I don't know if the Wiki has, but I've been making lists for ages ...

This is my master list for all the useful Island resources that I could find, on Google Docs and in the Enquirer. Please feel free to view, link to, copy, improve and distribute it, use it as the basis of a new Wiki page if you want to make one, and send me suggestions and corrections. (And if there's something in there that I have mistakenly made public, please tell me that, too!)

This will, hopefully, link to my GDocs "Island Resources" folder, which contains many of these resources.

In-game, I've made a similar list in the KIND Tower's information desk, and Escemfer has one in Soup and Pants. (And, now that I come to think of it, I have a set of fliers-for-rookies in my bio and wiki page...)

---

Improbable Reference Links - goo.gl/MRBnb -------------- Land Registry (map of Places) ---- goo.gl/bpkRR

After consideration, I'm not sure a restaurant would be the wildest thing to have. Instead (or just first), AceHigh should have a bar! And the three Sherlock Holmes stories I've read suggest to me that it should be a high-class opium den, as well. An opium den full of hookahs! ("hookah" is, quite frankly, a funny word. Even if you wouldn't find them in an opium den.) The Improbiated Water and Bar Game would still be relevant, but we'd need more clever ways to say "you get a punching buff", or cleverer buffs.

I strongly disagree with this. (a) I don't think the first week as a newbie is hard AT ALL. Especially these days. When I was a newbie (cue groans from audience), it was much tougher than it is now, with no cookies, only one pub, and MUCH less advice on what to do. I just blundered my way through things, trying everything that came my way, and learned through experience. [Side note: Asking advice is one thing ("Where is Ace High," "Why can't I find the pub in Pleasantville," etc), but I really cannot fathom why people ask questions in a text adventure game along the lines of "Should I buy the XYZ gun?" "Should I go in the haunted house?" "Should I walk the ledge?" The answer is always YES. Yes, yes, yes, do it. Do it all. Really, what's it going to cost you to click on the option? See what happens.] Anyway. After my first stumblings, I died almost never. It really isn't that hard a game to survive. Grenades, run away, buffs.

(b) Being a newbie is also not a problem in that everything is new when you are a newbie. It's novel, and interesting, and fun.

So I'm of an opposite mind, Lunatick. In my opinion, one of the biggest causes of retention is that change is so GLACIALLY SLOW for vets. I read dozens of great ideas in these pages --- improbable food in Ace High (that was mine, actually), food that affects only a certain race, revamps of Onslaught, etc. And none of them come to pass. I understand that coding is laborious and this is a huge game. I also realize that the game can't be constantly changing; there need to be some givens. So I'm not demanding that these or any changes be made ASAP. But I understand if that's part of the reason people leave the game after a couple of DKs.

BJC