Open letter to Alta (A Township Tale Developer): Help Us Help You!

Hello. I am a Manager of "A Township tale" Community that runs multiple Quest and PCVR servers.

Leaving the supporter and Oculus revenue aside, the core revenue stream for Alta seems to be the sale of cosmetic items. Somewhat of a "Free to play" Business model. Which is all good.

However, because of this and how the game is structured, this does make people like us quite key to Alta's business. We are like Franchise Owners within Fast-food chains. We are the ones that keep people playing long enough to buy cosmetic items. And we desperately need support from Alta.

Let me elaborate. The result of the FREE to play(ish) business model of this game is that the survival of the game depends on 2 things. People need to be playing continuously for months. And People need to be playing together. Vanity cosmetics items tend to not be as valuable if there is no one to show them off to. Now comes the key problem with the game "A Township tale" and its business model. (Mostly focusing on the Quest version but PCVR also applies)

One. "A Township tale" simply does not have enough content. Using the Quest server and serious players as an example, for a player group of less than 8 serious players, it took less than 2 weeks to max out most of the content in the Quest version of the game. (Kitted players out with best weapons, reached the lowest levels of the mines, got 8 skills, etc.) And I know there is additional content on PCVR that are intended to come to Quest version “someday”. Some of the previous serious players and some new players made a PCVR server. Took less than 2~3 days to get through the Climbing towers. Less than a week to get through Combat trials. And the forest... To basically max out all the content in Both Quest and PCVR servers took a little over a month.

Now, you can say that is for serious hardcore players. For casual players, it would take 3 months or so. Here is a problem I noticed. Serious hardcore players are the ones that log into the game when it is empty or has just one player or so. Casual players end up not playing if the server is empty or low of people. So, once the serious hardcore players max out the content and stop logging into the game, the casual players also stop logging in. This process ends up being a month for the Quest servers. From full in peak time to almost Zero in peak time. Alta's revenue comes from the sale of cosmetic items which rotate every 2 weeks. However, the game's content gets consumed before 2 rotations pass. Thus, at best, a player only buys cosmetics once.

Two. You can say content max out is a common issue with MMO games. This is true. However, with the Quest server limitations, it is almost impossible to have a large enough starting player population for the number of casual hangout players to maintain a decent active player base after a few months. (to some degree PCVR servers too). Usually, MMO games have a lot of progression systems, achievements, collectives, competition events to keep a player base active. However, Alta seems to be not interested in these aspects as the game is very barebones in this area. There is no mention of intent to do so in the future even though it is far more cost effective to do so. Spending months of man hours to make a climbing tower will net the serious player a few days’ worth of content while an achievement system that takes a few weeks’ worths of man hours will have that same player playing for months.

Three. So, after the game's content is maxed out, it is left to server hosts and community managers to entertain the players. We are the ones that keep players logging on to the game and thus increase the probability of a cosmetic purchase happening. And we are happy to do so. However, Alta does not seem to be much help here. I know that there are server dashboard commands and programmable strings, etc. But the tools provided is very limited. At least PCVR servers can import modded assets which do entertain players for a while. It is not well organized and easy to use but it is there. Quest servers have spawning assets disabled because of hardware limitations. So, Quest users don’t have even that. At this point, I am personally gifting new users with copies of the Quest game (with my personal money) to try to maintain the community. I put too much effort into it to let it just die. Help Us Help You make money. And it would not cost that many man-hours.

So, what kind of stuff can be implemented fast that would be helpful.

One. Why not have a leaderboard? Technically, (With PCVR Servers) if you spawn in an infoboard and use programming with the dashboard, you could make something like it. However, why not just make an official one that a server host can easily utilize? Just place it in the townhall. The easiest would have it track your gold coin ATM account. Gold is basically useless in most of the game especially for Quest servers with very limited use of markets. You can use it as a point system. This would not take that many man-hours to implement. If you want to be more ambitious, track monster kills and such. Have something that players can compete over. Competition keeps players logging in.

Two. Why not have a Town Quest giving bulletin board that server host can program using the dashboard? It may go something like “Bring a certain number of resources (normal or monster related) or items. Then, insert them to get the reward.” Just combine the functions of the item sending post box and automatic trade machine. Use the lever to select a quest and you put the requested resource into the machine. Then, a reward pops out. The game currently has a very limited resource sink system in which many resources become useless fast with abundance. This would help that situation too. Think of it as an automatic buying machine. Sometimes people want to be directed to do mundane things.

Three. Why not expand the personal storage box limit? Collecting is a major reason to play an online game. If I was going to collect all kinds of lanterns, where do I put them? This game seems to discourage personal property ownership a lot by limiting the personal storage box to 6 slots and you cannot even store bag in it. As a result, many end up using the floors of the townhall and places you hang bags and store personal items. This is very cumbersome and awkward to do. In addition, why not have Personal and Server based achievement system? There seems to be an infrastructure already in place. So, implementation would not be from scratch.

Four, why not make it easier to scale the monster levels? The Quest version seems to have nerfed the monster difficulties compared to the PCVR game. You could use Dashboard commands to adjust player damage and spawn rate but not precise enough. Why not have a server command that easily and selectively adjusts monster difficulties? It would be nice if the game automatically scales the monster difficulties based on player levels but that seems to be more work than what I am talking about. Challenge keeps people logging in.

This is just the start of things that could be done but I tried to limit it too suggestions that cost limited man-hours.

A bit of a long-term suggestion.

I know Alta has designs for housing which will be placed right on the map Ultima Online style. For PCVR, I wish them success on that endeavor. However, for Quest servers, I think it is the wrong direction considering that limitations of the hardware. Seriously, the game’s overall lag, instability, popin issues are already bad for the Quest after you run a server for a while. My suggestion is why not have the house placed in a separate instance rather than right on the open map?

What is a purpose of a house in this type of game after all? It is not required to exist. It is the ultimate collector’s item and display/storage space for the stuff you collected. People still play Ultima online to just maintain their houses in which they hoarded their stuff. In order for people to keep playing, this feature is a must that needs to be implemented fast rather than later when you fully optimized the code and Quest 3 or 4 will be out. I know it is romantic to have everything on a single open map but you do have to cheat a bit with hardware that is basically a smartphone strapped to your head. It is not like Alta has not cheated a bit already. Rather than placing the customization station in the open map, they placed a portal to a separate customization station.

The implementation would not too difficult. Could even recycle the general menu map world design and replace the settings furniture with the tables, storage and stuff. If you want to be more ambitious, you could make a craftable house which would just be a larger version of building a bag. Place the house design on the holder planted on the ground…etc. You get the picture.

Overall, I am saying that improvements that can be quickly implemented should be fast tracked to keep players logging in rather them playing for a month and moving on like most VR games on the Quest. This does not make Alta money. And Alta cannot keep up with player demands with developer made content. Even multibillion-dollar game companies cannot keep up. A small developer like Alta has no chance. And Alta does not seem to get the situation there are in by trying to focus on developer made content. Why focus on content that will take months to make and be consumed in a week? Putting months into making Climbing, Combat Trials, Forest will not keep people playing and buying cosmetics. I have about 100+ Quest version members waiting for more content and not playing anymore. Not sure how long I can keep them interested. It is not like new content comes out every month. Usually, it takes more than half a year to get more content from Alta.

As an “A Township Tale” community manager, I am asking Alta to focus on fast tracking low man-hours features/tools that help server hosts and players themselves make their own fun rather than ambitious one-shot content. That is not how Alta makes money. “A Township Tale” is not a single player game after all. It is a “Free to play” Online co-op game. Alta should treat it like a Free to play” Online co-op game. Achievements, monthly events, monthly content, etc. If you are a “Free to play” Online Co-op game, be a “Free to play” Online Co-op game. Not a Single player game developer that put out DLC every half year or so.

Help us Help you make money.