[Suggestions wanted] - Monetising TLK!

Post by **Nuvelle** » Thu Jan 23, 2020 1:36 pm

TLK is free to play.

It always has been, I intend to always keep it that way.

It used to be supported by advertisements, but I removed them for various reasons, including improving the player UI and issues with the advertisement agencies.

BUT as a business we need to make money. We need money to pay the server bills, to advertise for new players, to pay for extra development time.

What ways can you think of we could monetise TLK?

A few notes:
Must be non "game breaking" - We are not Pay2Win - Nobility is as far as I will go on paid boosts ingame.
Must be completely optional

I want TLK to be free to play, but I also need to make money to grow the game. Any ideas?

ProtonTorpedo · Post by **ProtonTorpedo** » Thu Jan 23, 2020 1:36 pm

I suggest the ability to Change Username in Settings->Profile should cost a small fee.
This is purely a cash grab, but not the bad kind. It's a "support this game and its development" fee.
To see if developing the feature is worth it, i'd take a look at the frequency of username changes (if you are collecting that data) and the growth of the player base.
It probably is not worth spending time on currently, but if the game begins to grow more rapidly I'm confident it would be cash/time positive.

Post by **Nuvelle** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 1:54 pm

This ties into other ideas I have had, I will make a new post and merge this into that

Post by **Nuvelle** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:03 pm

Bump to fix the merge!

Post by **Tiralan** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:20 pm

Well, the most sense is in the Hero-part of the game, if you ask me.

I think it would be fun to have a visual hero, which you can modify with outfits, weapons and other misc. items.
Half of the items could be earned by achievements or task to do for them, and other half for the people who like to spend on this.

However, this requires something rather difficult first. Which is 3D animations of the heroes.
In our current dev-team nobody has the skills to program that (afaik..) and without that this whole plan falls apart.
This could potentially also lead into animations of the hero tournaments, to give that part of the game a bit more excitement and something to look forward to.

This also opens a road for monetising, think about new celebrations, several horses/animals to mount on, banners and whatnot.

But all of this is fun, but we need somebody who can make that stuff then :/

Bialy · Post by **Bialy** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:25 pm

Maybe add the possibility of 4th Hero - it doesnt do much in terms of gameplay in terms of SF,PVP or MvM but can be useful for Hero Tournaments or gold gains

Post by **Tiralan** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:32 pm

That would break the game balance.

Think about trainer, healing, merchant, leadership and all the support stats a hero can have.
They are all balanced based on 3 heroes. For one, another healing will likely loop ranking for sure.

Also I don't see why a 4th hero would be desired by anybody

ProtonTorpedo · Post by **ProtonTorpedo** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 4:14 pm

Suggestion #1 - Extra map vote(s)
Fairly self explanatory.

Suggestion #2 - telegram bot commands
The telegram bot commands are really nice. Potentially i'd look at having a standard set of commands available as part of the game, and an additional more advanced set for players paying for it (part of Duke perhaps).
Standard Commands

/set
/disband
/m /move
/j /join
/l /leave
/slackers
/borders
/scout
/pin
/unpin

Duke/Paid Commands

/whois
/map
/result
/officers [NEW!] Prints the list of officers in your current army, including their current soldiers and MP.
/mota [NEW!] Sets the parameter as marshal of the army.
/2ic [NEW!] Sets the parameter as 2ic of your army.

Suggestion #3 - API access
This one I can't actually decide where I sit.
For those unfamiliar - providing API access would allow people to build their own tools that can do things like the telegram bot, and potentially much more depending on what the API exposed. The danger is it could also make automation based cheating more accessible.
Personally i'd like this functionality so that I can build an external planning tool.

Suggestion #4 - PvP Spy report saving
With this feature you would be able to look at old PvP spy reports

Post by **Myth** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 5:34 pm

3: if you have ideas and skills for creating an sf planner, why not just help us and incorporate it into the game

4: could be easy to implement as they already are saved in the database

ProtonTorpedo · Post by **ProtonTorpedo** » Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:19 pm

@Myth - unfortunately I don't have the webdev skills necessary to create an integrated SF planner.
If had API access I'd build something with Excel/VBA and have it request the relevant data. Note that I'm not convinced exposing an API for users would actually be a good move at all.
I'm happy to spend some of my time as I have it contributing to this project & community though.
---------------------------------------
My next post seems to have disappeared into the abyss (possible forum bug when double-posting?) Pasting the content of the post below for now:

Suggestion #5 - Extended online status time
I acknowledge that you don't want to create anything that feels more 'pay to win' than the current Duke benefits however this is an area that I think needs to be cleaned up as-is, and while doing that an opportunity for non-game-breaking profit.

I haven't had anyone give me a clear answer on what the current online status time-out actually is, the last I heard from anyone was that nobody actually knows, but it's about 3-5 minutes.
I'm making quite a few assumptions here, but the time-out doesn't appear to be destroying the session which suggests to me it's defined somewhere, and even if it was destroying the session that would either be defined somewhere too, or at least set as a default in php.ini>session.gc_maxlifetime()
So a question first: Can we get an answer on what the current online status time-out time is?
And now the suggestion: Extend the time-out by 100% for a fee

ProtonTorpedo · Post by **ProtonTorpedo** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 2:09 am

Suggestion #5 - Extended online status time
I acknowledge that you don't want to create anything that feels more 'pay to win' than the current Duke benefits however this is an area that I think needs to be cleaned up as-is, and while doing that an opportunity for non-game-breaking profit.

I haven't had anyone give me a clear answer on what the current online status time-out actually is, the last I heard from anyone was that nobody actually knows, but it's about 3-5 minutes.
I'm making quite a few assumptions here, but the time-out doesn't appear to be destroying the session which suggests to me it's defined somewhere, and even if it was destroying the session that would either be defined somewhere too, or at least set as a default in php.ini>session.gc_maxlifetime()
So a question first: Can we get an answer on what the current online status time-out time is?
And now the suggestion: Extend the time-out by 100% for a fee

Post by **Tiralan** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:15 am

Given the fact, that Nuvelle is more likely to introduce online-pvping, than extending the online-timer, I don't think this idea will ever pass.
Also this really touches pay to win, and I don't see big money in there. Like, I don't see people do mini-transactions for extending online-time. And I certainly don't want it to make a nobility-feature. Sooo, I like the thought-process, but I dont see this as a valid option.

Coffee · Post by **Coffee** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 12:13 pm

Hey! Longtime no talk.

I think the current monetization status of TLK is fine without being abusive/intrusive. I think the real issue that the game has is accessibility. I can say this from personal experience, I haven't played for over 100 ages and haven't played seriously since my only ranking medal age. While I think the game has made strides in becoming more accessible (mobile browser friendly, removing the IRC dependency), the only real way for it to gain additional following is developing a mobile app. People in general, like quick access (a lot of younger folks don't even have computers), being able to click an app on a home screen is key. Combine fast access with a lazy mobile gaming culture and you should see an influx of nobility subscriptions. There is obviously overhead in developing an app, but once developed a lot of the controlling factors would be on the backend so making any mid age tweaks would still be possible without pushing an update. You would really just need to update the app for any frontend/asset changes. One game that does text based app pretty well is TitanConquest.

I've always wanted to see this game succeed and grow back to the glory days, hence my years of lurking. It has a good concept, a strong/small/supportive community all of which can help promote it longterm. Add in some of those annoying Instagram ads and you have a good foundation for a growing game.

Sayonara · Post by **Sayonara** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 8:51 pm

In the old days of TLK/KnC there was advertisement for non dukes. What if you change that for advertisement WITH dukes? You 'pay' players with x days of duke for every day they have advertisement allowed on their account. This is a way to get companies interested in your site actually advertise on it.

A way to improve the player base is to reward people for inviting new people. Just checked and couldn't find it. But let's say duke for a week when new invites reach a certain rank or plays active during a certain period.

Distance · Post by **Distance** » Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:05 am

With regards to making the game less pay to win i had a suggestion:

- make everyone get free HTs
For example:
Everyone gets a free HT every 6 hours.
If you pay for duke, the HT is earned every 4/5 hours instead.

This would reduce the difference in a free account and duke account and still gives people an incentive to support the game by getting a duke
it might

Post by **Nuvelle** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:26 am

Hi, I will like to suggest some things to you guys. I understand you are thinking of ways to Monetize TLK and needs suggestions, so i have this idea i came up with based on an Online game i do play randomly.

1. The first thing is advertisement. You don't want to disrupt gameplay which gives you less ideas to work with. But looking at most pages on the game, there are alot of pages with more than enough spaces for advers. You can work with the City Center, the Border, Hospital, Training and lots more. You can use 728 x 90 banners, Square Banners or Sky Scrappers. These three should fit well. Using a container as in the side pane will make it very easy and provide a very smart view. That won't reduce gameplay and won't be irritating. You can also introduce a package called an Ads remover (Subscribing to the Package will remove adverts from your account).

2. Including Tokens: Token can be used to get extra things Gold can't buy and can be used as a secondary ingame currency. There are times whereby some resources are needed very urgently maybe to FH or others, giving a chance to buy a few extra HTs would be nice and to me, that won't give a boost over others since you can wait few ticks to get one if needed. Moreover, Token can be used to buy Extra Hero Items. For more explanation you can check (www.onlinesoccermanager.com) for a better understanding. A Token can be used to speed up Healing time unlike the Heal Turn that Heals all at a time etc.

3. Mobile App: Having a Mobile App will be one of the greatest boost to the game, I have played tons of online games and looses interest over time when they don't have an App. It sucks going to the browser every time.

I don't think they are in the best composition but i hope you understand what i am try to say.

Have a nice time,

Post by **Nuvelle** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:27 am

Thank you for the suggestions - I will post them and these answers in the forums for others to see as well.

1 - Ads - We used to have ads on the game but had major issues with the ad-serve companies due to our massive click rate - 3 of the biggest companies blocked us and refused to pay out. Due to that we took the decision to be ad free. There is a potential to bring optional ads on a specific page for rewards, but that it still in early disucssions.

2 - Tokens - My main rule for the game is for it to NOT be pay to win. This has led to a lot of changes being rejected from the game in order for it to be kept fair. Anything that allows HTs or similar to be bought on the spot would break this rule and make the game pay to win.

3 - A mobile app is in the works

Godriic · Post by **Godriic** » Sun Jun 27, 2021 11:57 am

Is there any update on the mobile app part of the game? Would love to be able to play using it

Zipoo · Post by **Zipoo** » Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:18 pm

Yea a mobile app would do it if it can be done.

Post by **Nuvelle** » Sat Jul 17, 2021 12:31 pm

Our issue with a mobile app is time and expertise.

All devs work for free - none of us get paid.

We were working on a PWA which is a hybrid website that looks like an app, however work on this stalled as devs have other commitments such as full time jobs and family.

Id love to be able to just pay and get a mobile app, however they are not cheap, or quick

Zipoo · Post by **Zipoo** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:58 am

Thanks for the answer. I've allways been hoping for a mobile port at some point. It runs good on mobile nowadays lol compared to before so thanks for that lol. It would just be awesome to get a whole new group of players and exposure from that platform.

7th · Post by **7th** » Sat May 21, 2022 8:41 pm

i remember a time when an "archery" minigame was available, that would increase your ranged accuracy. This type of minigame is a way of spending time when nothing happens (no sfs, no pvp, can't train) and you can have adds on those pages i guess?
It's not breaking game balance since everyone can do it, and it doesn't refresh as often as a tlk page would. more minigames, more adds to be viewed.
Good luck with the game, it seems to be going in a good direction