When it comes down to it, it's not just NI that's losing players, it's also Warband. Warband is very old and survives through its cult following, and is most likely bleeding even more players due to the wait for Bannerlord. It makes sense that people would want to distance themselves from the gameplay so it feels fresh when they play the sequel. NI is in the same boat - it's been around too long without any form of -accessible- endgame to most players. After all, Warband is a niche game and NI is an even more niche mod.
Besides that, the slow grind of NI certainly isn't appealing to everybody. There's been some ideas that have been tossed around (I favor some form of Nord kill points), but no definitive decisions. There are some more things we can do - one of my favourite choices would be a quest rework. Being able to do things like having daily / weekly or house quests that all players in the house could participate in, or maybe even 2-4 person participation quests, would at the very least reward players more for playing. Even further, though, daily quests could establish a rewarding routine beyond just logging in to clock your hours every day. Having loot be obtainable outside of RNG and through effort would absolutely make the game seem more appealing, in my eyes. This same idea is applied in NKP (Nord Kill Points) as well, in which you get NKP for killing / being alive for boss kills and a certain amount of NKP can net you legendaries. Again, would allow players to obtain loot outside of RNG - it wouldn't really matter how long it would take because it is a GUARANTEED loot instead of something you have to pray for on every boss death.
Besides the grind, the new player experience is relatively poor. It used to be worse, as there didn't use to be a beginner mode or training equipment for players to try out. Beyond that, though, it's very lackluster. There's no in-game tutorial for players beyond players setting up their character, there's no videos to watch, nothing tells new players that the forum is the central hub of trading and communication, nothing tells players what materials and legendaries are and what players can do with them, nothing that explains the three crafting trees and what they contain, the wiki doesn't have an introductory / explanatory page for new players explaining game concepts and notions (although it does have a lot of good pages about the marketplace, the auction hall and crafting rarities), and new players get punished and ridiculed by old players for placing barricades incorrectly and not knowing the importance of barricades / BP. If you don't have a friend to explain everything and show you how to manage barricades and when to heal and what drops are rare or not, you're essentially lost, and it's incredibly hard to know what to do unless you ask someone. It's fine if old players teach new players - but new players shouldn't be FORCED to take that route. The lack of any real tutorial in this mod, inside or outside of the game, is incredibly detrimental to new player experience, and more often than not is a deciding factor if a player stays or goes.
Edit: A really long time ago, I planned to do a tutorial series on YouTube way back in 2016 to attempt to solve some of these issues. Beyond tutorial videos for new players, I was going to do a long video on barricade management and how bots interact with them, how to place them anywhere effectively, and how to heal effectively (before it was an ability). Basically, I'd take threads from the Strategies and Guides part of the forum and put them into a visual form as to more easily allow players to access it, understand it and learn. Extended tutorials for things like boss handling, barricade and healing management and usage, cavalry tactics and shieldwall tactics would be a large boon to the mod.
It'd be incredibly cool if a player / group of players made an introductory and extended tutorial series. We would most likely endorse the videos and put them somewhere very visible, like the front page of the forum or the website itself. I believe there's a NordInvasion community channel as well, where multiple people can have their videos uploaded instead of on personal channels. Beyond tutorials, if people want to make gameplay videos, stream VODs, or any other visual content for NI, that would be great as well. I would be more than willing to endorse and manage a NordInvasion community youtube channel if people are interested and make videos for it.
Outside the game, though, there's a couple of things that could help. The mod doesn't really have any active outside communication with typical mod areas, such as ModDB or the Steam Workshop - updating those and keeping them up to date could certainly help, as a ton of people browse for mods there, and active multiplayer mods for Warband are rare these days. Updating the visual style on the website / forum / other accessible areas could help NI look more modern, although this probably won't appease anybody but me. Updates to the game are certainly a factor, as it can make the mod appear more active. It's been a long time since we've updated because we've all been doing real life stuff, so ideally once all that's through we can get back to updating semi-regularly.
This is all my personal opinion, of course.
Besides that, the slow grind of NI certainly isn't appealing to everybody. There's been some ideas that have been tossed around (I favor some form of Nord kill points), but no definitive decisions. There are some more things we can do - one of my favourite choices would be a quest rework. Being able to do things like having daily / weekly or house quests that all players in the house could participate in, or maybe even 2-4 person participation quests, would at the very least reward players more for playing. Even further, though, daily quests could establish a rewarding routine beyond just logging in to clock your hours every day. Having loot be obtainable outside of RNG and through effort would absolutely make the game seem more appealing, in my eyes. This same idea is applied in NKP (Nord Kill Points) as well, in which you get NKP for killing / being alive for boss kills and a certain amount of NKP can net you legendaries. Again, would allow players to obtain loot outside of RNG - it wouldn't really matter how long it would take because it is a GUARANTEED loot instead of something you have to pray for on every boss death.
Besides the grind, the new player experience is relatively poor. It used to be worse, as there didn't use to be a beginner mode or training equipment for players to try out. Beyond that, though, it's very lackluster. There's no in-game tutorial for players beyond players setting up their character, there's no videos to watch, nothing tells new players that the forum is the central hub of trading and communication, nothing tells players what materials and legendaries are and what players can do with them, nothing that explains the three crafting trees and what they contain, the wiki doesn't have an introductory / explanatory page for new players explaining game concepts and notions (although it does have a lot of good pages about the marketplace, the auction hall and crafting rarities), and new players get punished and ridiculed by old players for placing barricades incorrectly and not knowing the importance of barricades / BP. If you don't have a friend to explain everything and show you how to manage barricades and when to heal and what drops are rare or not, you're essentially lost, and it's incredibly hard to know what to do unless you ask someone. It's fine if old players teach new players - but new players shouldn't be FORCED to take that route. The lack of any real tutorial in this mod, inside or outside of the game, is incredibly detrimental to new player experience, and more often than not is a deciding factor if a player stays or goes.
Edit: A really long time ago, I planned to do a tutorial series on YouTube way back in 2016 to attempt to solve some of these issues. Beyond tutorial videos for new players, I was going to do a long video on barricade management and how bots interact with them, how to place them anywhere effectively, and how to heal effectively (before it was an ability). Basically, I'd take threads from the Strategies and Guides part of the forum and put them into a visual form as to more easily allow players to access it, understand it and learn. Extended tutorials for things like boss handling, barricade and healing management and usage, cavalry tactics and shieldwall tactics would be a large boon to the mod.
It'd be incredibly cool if a player / group of players made an introductory and extended tutorial series. We would most likely endorse the videos and put them somewhere very visible, like the front page of the forum or the website itself. I believe there's a NordInvasion community channel as well, where multiple people can have their videos uploaded instead of on personal channels. Beyond tutorials, if people want to make gameplay videos, stream VODs, or any other visual content for NI, that would be great as well. I would be more than willing to endorse and manage a NordInvasion community youtube channel if people are interested and make videos for it.
Outside the game, though, there's a couple of things that could help. The mod doesn't really have any active outside communication with typical mod areas, such as ModDB or the Steam Workshop - updating those and keeping them up to date could certainly help, as a ton of people browse for mods there, and active multiplayer mods for Warband are rare these days. Updating the visual style on the website / forum / other accessible areas could help NI look more modern, although this probably won't appease anybody but me. Updates to the game are certainly a factor, as it can make the mod appear more active. It's been a long time since we've updated because we've all been doing real life stuff, so ideally once all that's through we can get back to updating semi-regularly.
This is all my personal opinion, of course.
if you have problem of the model variety send it to winter xen winter me winter me xen because it'll piss him off