Hey @everyone,
with the great help of @hopskotch we have the normalized and analyzed results for our first HWS survey which was to be honest a HUGE success!
We really thank you very much for your participation. (and hope you liked the 10 Auto Miner Cores as a reward ;))
By the way: we got the two winner for our 200 vote goal!
Congratulations to
You have won a brand new Elemental Garage ship! (not yet released!)
We will sell it tomorrow and you can choose which one you want for free!
You can read the new hardcore modifications tomorrow in the dedicated Topic
###First HWS Experience Survey
Results are in!!! And we have a massive amount of fantastic data to chew on and use to make your experience even better!! It will take quite a lot of time and effort to incorporate it all into the meta. We are happy to share these result with you in full transparency as we partner together to create the best gaming destination ever!
Analysis: Newbie ratio of 25% to Vet 75% (100+ hours)
Analysis: Fairly even split for both EU and NA, with EU holding the majority of players.
Analysis: Numbers matter - a crowd attracts a crowd! In addition, HWS sports a community of friends, where over 33% responding joined with or because of a friend!
Analysis: The utility and convenience of the hotlinks in the server window, accessible quickly via steam overlay (shift+Tab), is not widely known or found useful. It would be good to know if this is a lack of knowledge or if its just not that useful and people prefer to alt+Tab out to their browsers.
Analysis: While the “Verified” server badging system is new, it does appear to be a value to at least 29% of the respondents.
Analysis: Well it’s great to learn that nearly everyone who responded to the surveyuses HWS connect to enhance their gameplay on HWS… Now how do we reach that 6%??? This helps illustrate the value that the external interface has in helping to augment the in-game experience.
Analysis: Unsurprisingly, OCD, OAM, STATS, Elemental Bank, Structure Commander, taxes and the good old Intruder Log remain to be the most used (and oldest) features of HWS Connect. Will need to capture feedback about the other newer features to see how timprove their value to players.
Analysis: Well then. Looks like we need to work on the starter text! This indicated that the few lucky souls who researched the forum had better luck with a good start than folks who read the starter text alone. 69% of our players shot darts in the dark for their origin. This will need to get an overhaul!
Analysis: 46% of the responding players thought their starter experience was pretty fantastic! While only 5% thought the starter experience was horrible. Those are fairly decent numbers considering the compromises made this season for performance. The goal will be to move all of those numbers to the right.
Analysis: The PDA Is Your Friend!! Well, for most of you… for some of you, you are only barely tapping the value - and for 27% of you, it’s completely un-used. We need to uncover the secrets to making the PDA useful and effective. It requires an enormous amount of upkeet, so tuning it to whats important to have at the players fingertips appears to be key. Commands, rules and Missions may be the answer.
Analysis: It’s clear: Missions are a hit. While surprisingly, 18% of the players responding would prefer we abandon missions and work on other cool features, the rest of the players appear to want more! More variety, more solo, more coop, more easy, more hard, more everything!
Analysis: WOW! Almost EXACTLY HALF of the respondents (1 more on the side of the PDA) USE the PDA to read the guide. This is interesting and drives the need to ensure the data is updated and accessible. If the guide is handy in the PDA, perhaps it is worth the additional time investment required to keep it accurate.
Analysis: It is clear, the HWS Population is a PVP Centered population, with nearly 3 quarters of the responders saying that PVP is extremely important to their HWS game. On the other hand, 50% of the same players also said that PVE is extremely important to their game in HWS. It shows a strong Bias towards PVP, but over half of you have a carebear inside you. In contrast, while only 2% of responders say PVP can go away and they would be happy, 11% said they could do without PVE entirely.
Analysis: A raw breakdown of importance, it is clear that PVP is a critical component to the player experience at HWS; passionately so for 58% of the responding players. While this may seem obvious to many, with this level of detail, it is clear to see that almost nobody thinks there should be NO PVP.
Analysis: The good news: only 13% are not very happy with the way that origins work. 86% of responding players LIKE the idea of the origins and how they work in concept. When we dig deeper, however 59% of responding players thought there was “too many” (10%) or the existing origins needed to be more unique (49%) and different from the other classes to have real meaning, even suggesting combining some that seemed too similar. 37% of responding players thought we Nailed It and love the origins as they are.
Analysis: The usual suspects top the charts, with OCD and OAM’s and Elemental Bank topping them all. Surprisingly, several people found Taxes to be well implemented and beneficial to the HWS game, and w few even mentioned the admins (Off camera, of course. 
)
Analysis: 40% of responders feel the current Universe is great and well balanced, where 29% feel like its OK, but they liked a former universe better. Balancing that with the 31% that feel we should scrap it and start over, the message appears to indicate that we want a new universe in general, but that some of the concepts here in 6.x are good to keep.
Analysis: Interestingly enough, this graph disagree’s with the “Favorite Universe” chart above, which seems to indicate that the Universe is not the only thing that stands out to players when recalling their favorite seasons. Other features, and also community meta, plays into how ur seasons resonate. That said, Season 5 appears to be a resounding success and we should take some lessons from it.
Analysis: Perhaps surprising to many, the majority of responding players AGREE that Class 3 limits are the right way to go. Since we have been operating with this restriction for some time, we can assume this is based on actual experience and not just assumptions. The next largest selection was Class 4 unsurprisingly, however it is also surprising and interesting that nearly 19% of the players feel a class 1 - 2 restriction would be appropriate.
Analysis: We’re quite pleased to see that the sadwich planet idea has been a success and created some new opportunities and tactics for gameplay. We are aware that there are also some exploits as well, but we are dealing with those harshly until the lessons are well learned. Based on this, we can expect to see this feature in future seasons!
Analysis: 63% of people love Golden Globe! Feeback includes comments that the conepts are great, and they like the idea of the planet, with some tweaks like regenrating deposits, more/less meteorites, etc. Also, its clear that almost of third of the responders felt like either gold SHOULD ALSO be in PVE, or that Golden Globe should rotate, much like Armageddon did.
Analysis: Results are similar to Golden Globe – most players (59%) are happy with the current deployment of the Homeworld system and planets and how the resources are distributed. 30% feel that there is something missing and there needs to be a little something extra added that makes them truly viable magnet planets.
Analysis: It is clear – You love missions! the overwhelming majority of players really enjoy the mission content and want to see more. Interestingly, however, 20% of the player base who responded felt that we could better use our time on other features and efforts. While it’s not likely we will stop our efforts on Missions (opposite, in fact – MORE!) it is interesting to know how this aligns with usage patterns of missions and PDA content.
Analysis: That is a quite awesome result! Not too easy, not too hard. Good time / risk / reward balance. Let’s just call it “The heritage of @Achilles” 
Analysis: Another sad insight we hope to improve significantly as we build back up after the many change following 6.0 release. We have only 38% of our population considering gameplay on HWS is Great. 56% of the player base feel that its “OK”, but could improve, and 5% feel like its shit. We desire this chart to look like a sick Ski Jump with the right side as high as we can make it! If we hit our mark in other areas, we hope this follows suit and we can give you what you want!
Analysis: This helps indicate that our website is functional and useful! It does also indicate that a growing minority of the base feels like it can be updated and improved. The good news is that we are actively working on improving performance and features offered from teh HWS Website and hope this continues to be a useful part of your HWS experience.
Analysis: Command website is a huge success as well, providing key information with how to use the many features provided by HWS in-Game. We did get some great feedback, even from those daily users, on ways to improve it and how we can better enhance your experience when using the Commands pages.
Analysis: Overwhelmingly, the Forum is a major part of our general players’ lives. That said, there was some key feedback in there around it being somewhat disorganized and hard to find some things. While this is a true “forum” in its implementation, we will consider ways to better organize key content and make it more easily accessible to you.
Analysis: We have learned that many of you seem to stay in touch with the Eleon servers in terms of forums or steam groups. While this does not necessarily mean you voice your opinions there like you do on HWS, we hope you do! 44% of you, however, never even look in that direction and get your information from HWS. This is why we act as a conduit between you and Eleon to pass your feedback between each other in addition to your direct voice.
Analysis: Unsurprisingly, a very large majority of responders utilize Discord as a means for communicating with the HWS User community.
Analysis: The Concept of HWS being Pay to Win is something that ebbs and flows with the tide. What the players say, however, is by and large in a general sense, they feel good about the balance and way we implement donor options.
Some feel that there is a leaning towards pay to win by offering perks and donor features; however a majority of those comments also note that the advantage diminishes as you grow in the game, so the benefits tend to “accelerate end game” as opposed to give endgamers any advantages.
Analysis: We feel great that the majority of the player base feels good with the admin support you receive! While there have been many challenges with our support staff’s availability over the past year, we try our best to keep up with the demands while also pouring ourselves into enhancing the HWS gaming experience. While we know we can never please everyone, our persona goal is to make that last bar soar!
Analysis: Overall - HWS is a huge success and people feel great about the gaming experience. ~ 70% of the population are Extremely happy with their overall experience, and ~ 30% feel like the experience can improve – and we are aligned. We are always striving to improve the experience we provide in HWS to you, our players! THANK YOU for all your support and feedback
HWS 6.X.X preparation
Take your time to think about all of that above but come back and read here some of the steps for HWS 6.X.X!
Two key facts straight away:
1. We won’t wipe / it will be no cut of the season runtime!
But we will change couple of playfields with a whole surface wipe. More about that later
#2. HWS 6.X.X will be released on 7th August*
*) that is under consideration since there MIGHT be Alpha 7.0 coming which would change our general plans. Not probably in full wiping this time but in delaying the 6.X.X release since we might update so playfields
Ok, ok, you are even more confused now.
All I can and have to say is: if nothing bad happens expect HWS 6.X.X around 1-7th august but don’t fear about a full wipe (for now!)
Moving on to the content of 6.X.X.
Why are we doing another change during a season?
Short: because we have to.
Long: because not only the survey showed us some points need to be addressed as soon as possible but also our overall experience how people play at the moment on HWS.
We know there are some people out there who say “let it settle, too many changes would disturb people”.
This might be true here and there but some things, especially in this alpha game needs continuous updates and fixes. We feel responsible for your experience and fun. So we don’t let things go die and do a big bang later - if it’s maybe even too late.
What changes are coming?
You saw the survey results. Not that we are able to tackle ALL problems for the 6.X.X patch (for example less Origins) but we try to patch really the important ones like the balancement between PvE and PvP.
At the moment the official state is obvious: too much PvE and even that is too clumsy, not good. Overall PvP is not that fun. Be it due resources or offline raiding or or.
We also do some meta changes like better RP gaining for Traders and Freelancers since they are at the moment bad lacking in that.
Then a lot more things like finally full NPC Traders set and ready and much much more.
The main purpose of this post is to show you the results. Show you what the mass things of HWS and if your cries or screams are in a minority or not.
The second purpose is to let you know that couple of surface wipes of planets are coming. The list for now is:
- Golden Globe
- Ju
- Athos
- M31P
- Sienna
- Xion
- Xeno
- Nox
Reminder: A surface wipe means your placed Auto Miner Devices will be wiped if you don’t pick them up! (and other placeables like survival constructor) Your underground bases are filled with terrain again! Deposits are refreshed again. POIs are refreshed again!
6.X.X Teasers
Now I think I will release again some parts before the actual release to not only show you the new stuff but also to get probably your feedback on some things. It is actually quite a lot for this post again.
For example a brand new, crazy, awesome(!?!) EGS feature… really excited on your feedback then…
But for now… let’s start with that one 
2 of maybe 5 new planets will have a new fun mode: Battle Royal (cough PUBG cough).
One will be a new alternative Hunter Startplanet where you will start with nothing except the jetpack parachutes in the Airplane and have to jump! Find your gear! Be the last man / team standing and escape through the portal at the end! (Daily wipe)
- Nothing allowed to build there!
- Only way to survive is by finding better gear
- PvP as its best
The second Battle Royal planet will be also available for the rest of the players with a Stargate version. The same rules are applied there. Only FPS action but great rewards are waiting for you!
That is just the beginning…
Thanks again for all your feedback!
We read every single comment. Everything. All of you got heard and we try our best to not disappoint you!
- Your HWS Team
