Hello everyone,
For those of you that are new to Demigod, welcome! I’m pacov and have been around here for quite some time. I don’t work for Stardock or Gas Powered Games, but I am a forum moderator here and a long time fan of Demigod. I just wanted to take a moment to bring you up to speed with some of the things I’m planning on doing and provide a little behind the scenes info.
How big is the MP community?
A little background on the community. Demigod was released about 2 and 1/2 years ago on impulse (digital distribution platform formerly owned by Stardock) and at retail. The community started off with a fairly substantial population that dropped off over the following years. Prior to the release of Demigod on Steam (Dec 2011), the remaining online population was generally hardcore, dedicated players that were mostly mid level to expert players (25-50 dedicated players worldwide I’d say at that point). That said, after the release of Demigod on Steam, the population has experienced a surge. We went from 25-50 hardcore players up to around 150 players on the day of release. Looking at historical data from 12/19/11, we peaked at around 280 players online with 180 players in games. So, it might not sound like a huge number, but odds are we will continue to see it to grow. This will make it much easier to get games going quickly.
Stat reset/pantheon changes
New players won’t notice much of a difference here, but for everyone else, you are all aware that we recently had a stat reset. This way we clear out the old ladder and can start fresh with just the active players and put everyone on even starting ground. The pantheon has also been modified so that tournaments no longer last substantial amounts of time. I currently project that each epoch (or tournament) will end in 6 days or less based on current settings. As you may or may not know, you are committed to one side (light or dark) for the duration of the epoch. Reducing the duration means that folks will be able to switch sides more frequently and should also drive a little more competition between the sides (as the end of the tourney is actually in sight instead of something that will happen in months).
Modding
Be sure to check out the modding forum’s pinned threads for information on the best mods. Believe me, you want to use some of these mods as they improve your experience quite a bit IMO. I strongly recommend that everyone use the enhanced UI mod as it is a great value add to your experience in game.
To do list/quick notes
- Update the strategy forum with some of the better character build guides – add a sticky. We have several good, up-to-date guides out there, but you need to dig through a lot of stuff to find them. Might see about getting a new “character build” forum created or perhaps just forum pages called “erebus builds,” “oak builds,” etc.
- Get a few contests going for prizes (talking with SD about this and something we’ll likely see early in the new year) – this won’t be a tournament, but perhaps some time trials (beat the AI on X setting in X minutes, etc)
- We might see an updated opengames.asp sometime soon with some new, much more useful data. It will be easier to identify folks that quit as a host so you won’t be all that tempted to join them. It should also be easy to check a simple list to see folks that commonly dc or drop from games to avoid them as well.
For you all of you legacy players: please do your part to welcome all of our new players to the community and help them learn the game.
