Keeping the game fresh into the wipe

Keeping players interested in the game throughout the wipe isn't a topic I see mentioned here too often so I wanted to reignite the discussion, because this is an aspect that could be improved on massively.

Currently we experience a huge surge in playerbase at the beginning of each wipe (lasting for around 2 weeks) before a natural attrition kicks in and a slow decay of the playerbase continues until a pre wipe event which tends to bring a few people back – and then the cycle repeats.

How can BSG reduce the amount of people leaving and retain player interest?

This is a question I asked myself, as after reaching level 42 about two weeks ago I found my interest in the game decreasing. For myself (and the people I play with – note – we've all played 4-5 wipes now) the real "lifetime" of a wipe is about 1 month. Majority of it is spent doing the same quests we've done before, to then focus on PVP after max traders, have some fun and eventually getting bored and quit until next wipe. And I'm sure this is not a unique case, you probably go through this too, with the difference being how quickly or slowly you get to that point.

I don't quit the game because its too hard, too buggy, unoptimised, frustrating or unfun, but purely because there is nothing fresh for the next 5 months – and hell, I'm sure this is fine for some people – that's cool! People still play CS 1.6 to this day and that's OK, these players are gonna play regardless.

So what would I suggest?

Monthly or bi-weekly events. And when I say events, I don't mean ones like the Halloween event or the water/fuel shortage events ran before. I don't think anyone has said "WOW this fuel shortage event is amazing, I'm jumping straight back into EFT!"…

The Christmas event this year was really good and this is what future events should be based on.

• Adding a "new" location or point of interest to each map – for example – heli crash sites or truck convoys now occur on each map and they have specific weapons or items that can only spawn there.
• Passive NPCs you can interact with to get unique items or weapons (passive NPCs with their own voicelines, unlike santa).
• Temporary map changes – e.g areas of the map becoming inaccessible (difficult to implement with the current quest system but could still be done – for example – forest fires on woods, changing the natural flow of the map).

I don't think that these suggestions are outlandish or too crazy either, I would love to have a constant stream of new maps to play, but we all know that EFT maps aren't COD deathmatch arenas and take a very long time to craft. Rewards don't need to be tied to items or weapons, they could be unique PMC clothes or other items like armbands or dogtags (vanity), or perhaps meta-achievements that carry over to future wipes.

Adding more high level quests was a good idea as that portion of the game severely lacked in content, but let's be honest, quests in EFT are a chore we have to do to get the trader rep/items we want to buy. At this moment I have more money than I could spend in a wipe, I'm done with all the quests I consider worthwhile, and there are only so many times I can run Customs / Lighthouse / Labs / enter_map_name_here before the game gets stale.

Extending the "early game" is fine I guess, but it doesn't solve the lack of content down the line. It may now take you longer to get max traders, but once you do, nothing will change. With EFT perhaps moving away from the wipe-centric gameplay loop in the future, this topic will become more important than ever imo.

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How would you keep the game fresh 4 months into the wipe?