Player retention

Hello,

I'm concerned that you are losing out on a lot of players for this game, because of how you setup your public servers. You don't have any PvE servers. So someone new starts playing the game, lets say they have 100 hours in it. A considerable investment, but honestly they are probably still horrible at the game. They want to play with others, because the game is pretty empty otherwise.

They get on a Keen public Server, they play say 50 hours with their friends building something together, and learning about the game, then they have their first encounter with another player.

That encounter consists of the players visiting a trade station, and when they go to leave, another player shows up. A player who has been on public servers for years attacking and killing other players. They are excellent at that aspect of SE... which takes a very LARGE time investment.

That experienced player attacks the new players with his finely honed combat ship. He mercilessly pounds the new players into dust, then taunts them over chat.

This experience... this is a common experience, just happened to me and my friends, playing on a Keen public server... for the first time. Most of your players have jobs and lives, they aren't little kids with nothing but free time. Most of your players are adults. As an adult...

They don't have time to invest in playing the only game that realistically can be played on these servers. Be a pirate or a victim.... which requires you to spend all of your real world time doing that... or you are a victim. Most adults don't have time for that... and honestly, it does not sound fun. It sounds like a waste of time.

Those "new" players, who are builders, who are your core audience... They just had a really bad experience on your public server. Your server was not Keens "Pirates and Victims" server. It was Keens Public Server. The new players... they aren't going to come back. They don't want to play "Fight against an already well entrenched highly experienced faction when you have no experience and aren't interested in that." This is the only game available on your public servers.

You need to have PvE and PvP servers, they need to be clearly marked as such, and that needs to be enforced. Clearly delineating which experience the player will have is more likely to retain players.

If I was a new player, a couple of hundred hours in and not 3,500, I would not play Space Engineers again. I would play something else that did not feel like.

1: A total waste of my time

2: A merciless shark tank

I know this experience it not something you directly caused or planned for, but you are enabling it. It's negative for your players. It's turning away new players. It's a common experience. I think more people would play this game, if this wasn't the "new" player experience.

Clearly communicate to your players just what you servers are, or create servers that are clearly PvE/PvP only. The real world has enough jerks in it, that's why I play this game. I don't want to spend my time with jerks. Give me an option to play with others I do not already know that is not "Fail wildly against a far superior foe, who is going to taunt you." That's the only game currently being played on Keens servers.