Thoughts on BnS active player count?

[Snatchyy]

I'm not sure how to approach this subject but i would like to know as I'm looking forward to actively playing again. I've already started a little over a few weeks ago when soul boost v2 was announced and don't want to burn myself out like i previously done during the first soul boost event. (we all know how fun those /21 achievements were per character xD)

A few simple questions for this thread really is,
1. How many active players are there currently? (Some people play only one character throughout their account on bns, while other individuals have 10+ characters but really is only one person technically)
2. Are there more active players online now for soulboost v2 vs. soulboost v1?
3. What reason do you have for wanting to continue playing? (I'm not here to bash anyone, just curious. I myself enjoy getting limited time cosmetics that appeal to me)
4. Is there a current way to view the game population? I noticed there is sometimes 1-3 max channels for most areas and F8-Lobby doesn't look active lately.

What are your thoughts?

[Uldrum]

5 hours ago, Snatchyy said:

How many active players are there currently?

I'd say at most 3000 unique daily logins.

 

Don't take this as Validation, Proof or "Facts", i have no idea, this is just my speculation and maybe it's even more than i think?

 

But maybe a 400-600 online at the same time (for EU) on prime time.

 

Again, Don't take this as Validation, Proof or "Facts", i have no idea, this is just my speculation and maybe it's even more than i think?

I don't know, Noone knows. This is not certain at all.
 

5 hours ago, Snatchyy said:

2. Are there more active players online now for soulboost v2 vs. soulboost v1?

I think the overall population of the game has dropped by a lot between V1 and V2.

 

5 hours ago, Snatchyy said:

. What reason do you have for wanting to continue playing?

Only reason i can think off is to just see your dmg numbers go up and up and up.

 

That's the only reason i play every day at least, to gather up materials and upgrade my stuff.

 

5 hours ago, Snatchyy said:

I myself enjoy getting limited time cosmetics that appeal to me

I personally think they have not released a good outfit since like 2018/2019

 

5 hours ago, Snatchyy said:

Is there a current way to view the game population?

There never is, Unless a game is Only on steam for example, then you can check.

 

But most MMORPGs like Blade and soul have their own launcher and there is no way to check the games population.

But to try and put into perspective i guess. Vindictus & skyforge both feels like they have same or less than Blade & soul.

 

Again, Don't take this as Validation, Proof or "Facts", i have no idea, this is just my speculation.

I don't know, Noone knows. This is not certain at all.
 

 

I don't really know any other very low pop games to compare Blade and soul with.

Most other games feel like they have more.

 

5 hours ago, Snatchyy said:

What are your thoughts?

I hope they "fix" the new player situation, Because currently it is.. very bad.

 

New players start out at very low gear, I personally don't play any alts because going from like 150Million dps down to like 10-20 is just depressing.

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Uldrum

[Desmodos]

https://mmo-population.com/r/bladeandsoul

 

The folks over at MMO Population have a "method" of calculating player population.  No clue on how accurate their methods are.

 

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1. How many active players are there currently? (Some people play only one character throughout their account on bns, while other individuals have 10+ characters but really is only one person technically)

 

Honestly, people place a little too much importance on player population.  In Blade and Soul roughly 80% of the content involves groups of 4 or 6 people.  Having 3,000 or 30,000 players won't change that.   

 

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2. Are there more active players online now for soulboost v2 vs. soulboost v1?

 

From my perspective I would say more, but that's entirely anecdotal.  Since Soul Boost II, I've encountered more new and returning players than in prior events. 

 

Something is drawing in new players and enticing past players to return.  

 

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3. What reason do you have for wanting to continue playing? (I'm not here to bash anyone, just curious. I myself enjoy getting limited time cosmetics that appeal to me)

 

Are you having fun?  Only thing that really matters.  Enjoying the game, keep playing.  Dreading the grind, then move on.

 

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4. Is there a current way to view the game population? I noticed there is sometimes 1-3 max channels for most areas and F8-Lobby doesn't look active lately.

 

IMHO, this is the only REAL issue when folks ask about player populations.  Players try to base "active players" based on Faction chat or F8 recruitment.   Unfortunately, neither has been true for years.  

 

Active players aren't in Faction chat.  Faction chat is the dribble you watch and/or participate in while waiting for your friends/clan members.  While you are not actvely doing content.   The majority of content requires you to go in F8, where you can no longer see Faction chat.

 

F8 Lobby locks you out of Faction Chat, DMs from anyone not in F8, most clan functions, crafting, ect.   While in F8 Lobby all you can do is sit there.  Not surpriingly, no one sits in F8 and recruits.  Most recruiting is down outside of F8.

 

Regardless of how robust or anemic BnS population is, in game chat and recruiting is outdated and inadequate for the active players.  

Edited August 3, 2022 by Desmodos

[Amane]

34 minutes ago, Desmodos said:

https://mmo-population.com/r/bladeandsoul

 

The folks over at MMO Population have a "method" of calculating player population.  No clue on how accurate their methods are.

 

 

That is the absolute worst site to ever look for estimated playercounts. 

Their numbers are completely randomly calculated, no logic behind anything whatsoever. 

 

Currently, I would estimate the same as Uldrum... around 3k unique daily logins, while having around 400-600 players online at the same time (for Jinsoyun/EU) and even less players on the american server (NA/Yura), maybe not even half of EU. 

[Desmodos]

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That is the absolute worst site to ever look for estimated playercounts. 

Their numbers are completely randomly calculated, no logic behind anything whatsoever. 

 

 

To claim "it is the worst site to look for estimated playercounts," is to suggest there is a better site.  However accurate or deeply flawed their methodology may be, it is a methdo they utilize to analyze all MMOs. 

 

If there is a better site for this kind of info, I would love to know about it.

 

 

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Currently, I would estimate the same as Uldrum... around 3k unique daily logins, while having around 400-600 players online at the same time (for Jinsoyun/EU) and even less players on the american server (NA/Yura), maybe not even half of EU.

 

I doubt the active players is that low in NA.  I can't speak for EU.  Player observations of active users are too anectotal to be taken seriously.  

 

An active an individual player will only group with 4-6 players at a time (outside of raids).  During raids you can group with 12 players.  As an active player, you can never observe 100, 500, or 1000 concurrent players.  

 

If 60 players formed 10 teams of 6 and farmed RT,SSM,or/and EL; it is unlikely more than 2 of these teams would cross paths and it is highly probable 2-3 of these teams never sees any of the others.  

[Veru]

On 8/2/2022 at 6:17 AM, Snatchyy said:

1. How many active players are there currently? (Some people play only one character throughout their account on bns, while other individuals have 10+ characters but really is only one person technically)

 

EU has more population and that has already been kinda answered by others who do play on there. I'm from NA so I will give my take on our server. It is a bit of a struggle. The "busiest" times would be during reset (8am EST) with some groups going around. It picks back up slightly during lunch time (12pm est) but very few. There is more going on during dragon time (3pm est). It is decent from them on but I wouldn't say fantastic or indicating a healthy population. Starts to slow down near 11pm EST. It is completely dead or even fewer groups than the other times after 1am EST or so until reset again.

 

Unlike EU, we don't use F8 to recruit so you won't find anything there. All recruiting for any dungeon run or daily train is done from faction chat or people have statics they run with. World chat is coming this Wednesday that aims to merge the factions better but Cerelean is our active faction.

 

On 8/2/2022 at 6:17 AM, Snatchyy said:

2. Are there more active players online now for soulboost v2 vs. soulboost v1?

 

Soul Boost #1 had more people coming back but was also completely ruined by the myriad of bugs within it that didn't even get fixed until almost the end cycle of that SB season. There are a few people coming back now for SB #2 and it is being handled way better by GreenStorm in terms of addressing some issues it has. I heard there are a few returning that left to play Lost Ark and realized it's bad, too. kek
So they came back to BnS.

 

On 8/2/2022 at 6:17 AM, Snatchyy said:

3. What reason do you have for wanting to continue playing? (I'm not here to bash anyone, just curious. I myself enjoy getting limited time cosmetics that appeal to me)

 

Well, I'm a day 1 player that also got into the Beta. Prior to that, I waited for BnS to come to the West for a few years. I've been playing MMOs for over 15 years now so I just enjoy the experience and genre. BnS is my favorite MMO despite the "dying" population. But also, don't think that I will defend this game as I am always criticizing it harshly. When you love something, you will pick it apart.

 

It's a very unique world they have created. While I do ranking and ultimately also play to make my characters stronger, at my core, I'm also a creative person so I like to work on the lore for my two characters and do art of them.
I feel that the older MMOs from Korea, such as Tera (RIP) and BnS had more creativity to them, specially in terms of the races. BnS really just has humans, taller humans, and Lyns but the art direction of the game is what makes the humans stand out from just being stuck inside another generic MMO with elves and gnomes. They look more appealing to me than, say, the FF14 humanoid races. Other MMOs without much customization suffer a lot from "same face" syndrome. It's one of the reasons I can't really get into FF14, which is a competitor to BnS. I believe BnS has the best customization system for your character to date. Some people will argue BDO's is better but I think they look generic because it has that more realistic look, which I'm not really a fan of.

Currently, the MMO genre is not doing well so I will just continue to play BnS because I already tried everything else out there and nothing really has a unique experience to offer or good looking races.

 

I'm also lucky to have a good static to run with but I know many are not as fortunate. So I have this "cushion" of sorts to continue playing. However, I don't let my privileged position as a veteran blind me from the real issues the remainder of the population faces. I try to give feedback from what I see other players struggle with in the game or the complaints they are vocal with in faction chat. When I came back to the game 2 years ago, I exclusively made it my goal to pug everything with my best friend (who sadly quit), despite being invited back into my old clan, because I wanted to really assess the typical player experience and identify the issues. These issues still stand today so I have a good understanding of what the average player without a static would go through.

 

On 8/2/2022 at 6:17 AM, Snatchyy said:

4. Is there a current way to view the game population? I noticed there is sometimes 1-3 max channels for most areas and F8-Lobby doesn't look active lately.

 

In terms of exact numbers, I can't help you there. As far as the low channel number or F8 lobby, like I mentioned above, NA doesn't use the F8 lobby so if you were playing here then you won't see anything there since our population is small.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Gengar

[fruiteaterz]

millions at downtime, possibly billions when busy.

[Saito Sacchi]

he asked for playing folks not for botting afk content