Ideas to bring new players to Ascent

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I do not think that expensive commercials will help to get (a lot of) new players. Especially not longterm players. Mainly since this game is kind of specialized in who will like it. And the people that are hungry for a game like this usually find the games themselves. Since, and lets be honest, it's a bit of a niche sector for the most parts. A game in a space setting that takes massive ammounts to learn how to play and can be very difficult (for me at least) at times. A game that might get you frustrated even at times. So only people that want a payoff with a lot of effort will be interested. And of course they have to be people that like the sci fi/space/sandbox scene too.

You dont hire 10 people to find a needle in a haystack. You just buy a magnet. Something cheap that is directed at one specific thing.

You have good points Doodstamper. I just want to correct one thing:

The whole thing where you lose any colonies after your first 3 if you don't pay for a while makes me lose interest. Since If I would lose a colony, I would probably never come back. This is the problem with monthly payments to keep everything going. I, for instance, don't have that money every month.

You do NOT lose colonies, or anything else, ever, (unless bugs) in this game. Doesn't matter if you don't have premium and run out of SC, nothing happens to your colonies. You have to actively abandon them to lose them. You will not be able to establish new colonies without enough SC, but can keep running your old once as a free player. I am just a free player now myself, as I am not actively playing, just drop in from time to time and check on things and can do everything I did when i had premium except use certain ship modules above class 5 or establish new colonies and OSBs.
Beware though after returning to this game after some time away your old colonies has drained all SC from your account, so to be able to establish new colonies buy SC just before you establish the new one, to avoid all new SC go into old debt from inactive period.

I am only explaining how things currently work, not saying its a good or bad.

Since, and lets be honest, it's a bit of a niche sector for the most parts. A game in a space setting that takes massive ammounts to learn how to play and can be very difficult (for me at least) at times. A game that might get you frustrated even at times. So only people that want a payoff with a lot of effort will be interested.

True, still way easier to learn to play than Dwarf fortress

Ah, I must have misunderstood then. Thought I heard Ram say the other day that you did lose colonies. But I am know for misunderstanding and/or misreading stuff :p So thats probably it. Thank you for the clarification in any case. And although your colonies wont go away, I still think that a system where you can buy colony slots would work way better. But that is my opinion. Just seems so much easier and clearer. Never really understood the whole SC thing to be honest. But I never really looked into it either

The point is you can always return to this game, no problems and nothing lost
The game will remind you those things that it needs premium for and you can just reactivate that whenever you want.

This is true. But it does feel like an unnecessary obstacle to returning players in my mind. It feels a bit like punishing people for taking a break, when what you should be doing is telling returning players how happy you are for them coming back. And I do know that isnt really what it is, but that is how it feels And besides that, it still feels unnecessarily complicated haha :p