I've just finished my first go on Disco for several weeks (finally got the graphics drivers to work) so I did a circle about the Houses in my BTE, rustle up some RP and so forth. There was roughly 100 people on, bound to get something going or so I thought.
In grand total I met six players, five of whom were pirates and not the fun kind, the 2milordie kind in cruisers and gunboats no less and as a personal rule I don't pay pirates unless their RP is decent. Doesn't need to be Shakespeare or a life story but something more than pay or die. The sixth guy was trader whom I warned of the pirate cruiser (Not a fan of the rule change, hint hint) not exactly what I'd call RP.
I know there is usually a lull when the next patch is close to release, or when people suspect it's close but to only meet half a dozen people whilst circling the sector is pretty dismal by any standard. Have all the factions simply closed shop until .87 or did i just hit a low ebb?
Yeah these days you'll rarely meet players outside Liberty unless you go actively looking for them. Checking on player list where they are, or flying to hotspots usually works best. eg flying to mining zones like Alberta, Humbolt or Tau-23 usually works well.
A few months ago I saw a really interesting server wide activity graph showing how total number of players peaks (as you'd expect) after new versions then gradually drops. However overall it has kept on rising since first ever versions of Discovery were released.
As for official factions taking a break? I dunno, most in factions I expect organise and fly together. In my experience your best actively trying to make RP encounters happen, whether that be organising cooperating with players through forums or skype or doing events etc etc. Hoping to bump into RP keen players by chance will give a depressingly high failure rate I suspect.
Last massive krieg in Omicron Zeta assured me disco is well fine. I tend to keep distance from houses.
The lulls will continue to happen, as with the activity peaks. A couple of weeks ago we had fairly regular 200-online periods in the evening, just now it is a bit quieter.
The location of activity also shifts - a lot happens in the Taus these days.
Tau's or Nomad worlds have a lot of activity lately, Core & Nomads etc, Are you aware of the threat? read about us
http://discoverygc.com/wiki/Order
Also, Chat system is really OORP but its the best way to track people and not get bored to death.
I try to avoid using the chat system to find people but if the Houses are quiet I'll sneak a peak.Next time I'm on I'll pop down to the Nomad worlds, see if I can offer the Order some supplies and maybe a trade deal.
Yup to the taus you go, much going on there. I spend a lot if time there and in the omegas. Of course one of my maybe uses a jump drive, so I can always be where the action is. Helps.
Finding the playerbase dull? The first step to fixing that is by playing more, in more interesting ways. Build a base, start some RP, join a faction.
I really can't stand bases, I find them too high maintenance to be anything but a chore. As for the last two suggestions I'm trying to create a faction rather than join one but smuggling at the moment is long winded and tedious, fingers crossed the next patch may change that. Until then I'm doing my best to contact various factions ingame which led up to my original post.
Doing something different is always an option though I'd prefer to direct all my attention to getting BTE up and running.
I think I am going to go into deepest and harshest Omicrons with my Starblazer.