Ok, that sounds unreasonable, and completely irrealistic. Indeed, it is, given the small dev crew and the few cash influx from subbed accounts.
The current situation is a vicious circle of a too small playerbase to develop fundamentally new content, and stagnation or even descent due to that lack. Even some new and nice developments in the existing areas will hardly be able to change that.
A completely new set of regions, on the other hand, may lure back old players who left because there was nothing or not much enough new for them, and also hold and motivate the existing playerbase and possibly attract new players.
So, the question is how to achieve that. First of all, it is a matter of cost. I am not sure whether that is sufficient, but with about 100k€ one might with some luck hire a small crew of idealists, best some already familiar with game architecture and code, willing to work beyond what a not overly generous salary would usually justify. I would estimate something like 3-4 personyears for coding a completely new Ancient Lands continent with several regions, some bosses, maybe missions, and some installations e.g. for Marauders, Trytonists, Rangers, and other homins.It should be clear that paying such amount of work with the aforementioned sum is an outrage and can justified by idealism only. And maybe I fundamentally underestimate the effort necessary.
Second, even if the above may suffice to pay a small crew of enthusiastic coders, still lot of work would be left to volunteers designing texts, providing translations etc., this may even extend to code reviews.
Last question, if all that is not completely illusionary, is how to get so much money. My idea would be a crowdfunding initiative, collecting in units from, say, 20€ on from individuals willing to donate .. or invest. Maybe it could be made a tax deductible investment, i do not know whether such is possible. Anyway, 4k people donating 25€ on average would suffice to raise such a sum, with more possible. I somehow believe that Ryzom has more friends than that.
Ok, comments welcome, even if someone thinks I'm finally gone nuts.
The current situation is a vicious circle of a too small playerbase to develop fundamentally new content, and stagnation or even descent due to that lack. Even some new and nice developments in the existing areas will hardly be able to change that.
A completely new set of regions, on the other hand, may lure back old players who left because there was nothing or not much enough new for them, and also hold and motivate the existing playerbase and possibly attract new players.
So, the question is how to achieve that. First of all, it is a matter of cost. I am not sure whether that is sufficient, but with about 100k€ one might with some luck hire a small crew of idealists, best some already familiar with game architecture and code, willing to work beyond what a not overly generous salary would usually justify. I would estimate something like 3-4 personyears for coding a completely new Ancient Lands continent with several regions, some bosses, maybe missions, and some installations e.g. for Marauders, Trytonists, Rangers, and other homins.It should be clear that paying such amount of work with the aforementioned sum is an outrage and can justified by idealism only. And maybe I fundamentally underestimate the effort necessary.
Second, even if the above may suffice to pay a small crew of enthusiastic coders, still lot of work would be left to volunteers designing texts, providing translations etc., this may even extend to code reviews.
Last question, if all that is not completely illusionary, is how to get so much money. My idea would be a crowdfunding initiative, collecting in units from, say, 20€ on from individuals willing to donate .. or invest. Maybe it could be made a tax deductible investment, i do not know whether such is possible. Anyway, 4k people donating 25€ on average would suffice to raise such a sum, with more possible. I somehow believe that Ryzom has more friends than that.
Ok, comments welcome, even if someone thinks I'm finally gone nuts.
---
Daomei die Streunerin - religionsneutral, zivilisationsneutral, gildenneutral