No one joining Heroes who has not played conquer before would have any interest in it. They'd be confused and stuck. Advertising it to non conquer players would be a waste of resources. People play it due to a combination of nostalgia and the custom content and features we've been able to develop.

It exists as a driving force for initial demand for the coin. Once the gambling games are ready for testing outside of the game then that is when advertising to crypto groups would become relevant.

In regards to communicating with the existing crypto community (not discussing paid ad campaigns and news articles here). That's why we focus on making it to the beyond bitcoin talks so we can discuss what we're working on, what our goals are and the underlying technologies behind it.

Our facebook ads are live - we've reached over 125k facebook users since the start of the ad campaigns. We have a second round of ads starting this weekend and are looking into multi-site ads through gaming news websites. We're directly targeting our ads towards those who will have an interest in playing the server and as what we're releasing shifts closer to the crypto community then so will the advertisements.

The show went quite well. It was a bit less crypto focused than the previous ones as our focus was on discussing the launch of heroes, the jewels shop, the progress on the gambling games and the upcoming stuff we're working on in regards to token based assets/limited run cosmetics.

We will continue to use Reddit for the forums. For documentation of features and guides we have a wiki set up . The sub Reddit was a good option because most people who are willing to use a forum already have an account and the main use of such a form is player suggestions and feedback. No additional structure was relevant

Obviously if given the option of spending money or not spending money and getting the same results we would choose to not spend money but we were aware from the start that there is often a listing fee associated with bittrex, it's not something that would turn us away from being listed there and I wanted to make that clear as there seems to be some misinformation regarding the status of our application (we've done our part, simple as that).



Bringing up advertisement leads me to a handy little segue though.


Current Status of Advertisements/Roadmap

Facebook

In regards to heroes, facebook is always our #1 advertisement tool as it allows us to easily target those who are already fans of our previous projects or those who have played conquer online/similar games in the past. During the weekend we had a number of advertisement campaigns running with significant success. According to our webstats we had around 3,000 unique viewers on our website throughout the weekend and a large percentage of those came from our facebook advertisements.

As we've seen in the past, it's unlikely to expect these players to necessarily join right away (if ever) but it does help a lot having the name of the server already out there so people are aware of it before they encounter it from other sources. That first step has gone quite well and we've seen quite a few players joining the game as a result.

Newsletter

During the launch we sent out a (fairly basic) newsletter documenting the launch of the server. This was sent to approximately 10,000 unique email addresses based on past mailing list data from apex, the beta of the heroes server and the jewels project. The intention behind this is quite obvious but it gives us a good rush of initial players who are passionate about our projects who are now aware of the project and will join in the coming weeks.

Overall this campaign went quite well. I've always been personally a bit disappointed with the percentage of people who follow links from these emails but in comparison to past emails this one was quite effective and according to our stats had a solid conversion rate. It also allows us to update our contact list by filtering out those who unsubscribed from this most recent message and accounts which are marked as invalid. Obviously heroes has forced email validation which will improve the reliability of future newsletters.


Referrals

Referrals are going to be a huge part of growing the heroes project because when a project like this launches there really isn't that many people in game and it can be quite daunting for new players. The best strategy is to join with a group of friends. The referral system is designed so you can bring your friends with you, let them know about the project and help both you and them get some rewards in the same process.

Referral links can be found by logging into your account dashboard on our website. When someone who signed up with your referral link reaches level 70 both you and them will receive 3 days of vip service, a random garment (7 day duration) and 1 hour of double experience.

This is something we've not done with our past projects but the player feedback has been quite positive. We're excited to see how it goes in the coming week(s).


News/Gaming Media

I've submitted some information on the project to a couple of mmo news style sites. I obviously can't say if we'll see anything come from that but it's still totally worth doing for the hour or so it may take to compose the various emails. I'll of course be sending out some more similar messages in the coming days.

Upcoming campaigns

I really dislike top100 style sites as they tend to be unreliable and filled with fake votes but there are undeniably some players who use them to find projects. I've signed us up for a number of them and will be introducing in-game vote options in upcoming patches. If nothing else it provides good SEO for search results.

We have said repeatedly - we are completely willing to pay the 3 BTC for a listing and we've told that directly to their staff. They requested the documentation (which we have provided) and we are waiting on their decision. This has nothing to do with a listing fee, we are simply waiting for them to process our application.

Heroes referral system is now live!

This will be a big boon for the server because with it being launched so recently, word of mouth is incredibly important. Helping players invite their friends and rewarding them fairly for their efforts is the main purpose of this new feature. Players can grab their referral link by logging in on the ConquerHeroes.com dashboard.

That's not the issue - we've submitted our documentation, clearly stated we have no complaints with paying the listing fee and are waiting on their response.

On our side we've done what we can and are waiting on their decision.


Yes of course - there are many players actively using jewels right now in game. We've only been on a few days but we average 30-40 players in game at any given time. I predict within the coming weeks we'll see that climb closer to 100. Right now we're ironing out a few issues with the referral system. Once that's in place and tested that will help players advertise through their own communities and make the game grow at a much quicker pace.

When someone buys using paypal, we need to be able to distribute their coins instantly. If it was staking then that would not be able to be done.

It's funny when people come in with posts like this because that's exactly what we state in the announcement... it specifically states apex and heroes are a private server (we developed the server software from nothing, it's not using any hacked/stolen/publicly developed server tools).

You aren't unlocking some grand conspiracy or undermining anything because you're literally re-stating what we as developers said from the start we were doing. We're expanding our existing servers, integrating them completely with the jewels currency to create consistent and immediate demand for the coin and expanding its uses by developing custom provably fair gambling games (available inside the servers and out).

We're under a month from the ICO ending and our crypto portal is online and functioning, our first use case is launched as promised and our gambling games are in development as promised.


So yes, thanks for pointing out we're doing exactly what we promised from day 1.

In regards to sig campaigns, we will actually be doing a referral system bonus for the first month of the server. Players who refer their friends will receive a small amount of bonus jewels (referrals are linked to our HWID system so the same computer may not be referred multiple times).

This is a quick and easy way for us to encourage our first batch of players to advertise the new game for us and help it grow. It also introduces them to the concept of jewels so they know they exist and how to spend them. This system will be going live tomorrow after its final testing this afternoon.

Just a quick update. The first (minor) set of advertisements have begun!

We've notified our mailing list that the server has launched with a (little) bit of information on what the server consists of and have placed a quick advertisement on our facebook page targeting people who already like our page to make sure they are aware.

The main ad campaign targeting wider groups will be going live throughout the next few hours as well as various community posts.

Just to clarify (although I'm sure people are aware), we will be making sure that the paypal price does not act as a 'cap' as that would damage the currency itself. it will always be maintained at significantly higher than the exchange price both to encourage people to use exchanges but also to make sure we don't have to constantly re-adjust the paypal prices which would be confusing and inconvenient to players.

We have not flipped the switch yet - we are doing final testing and breakpointing final error checks. We will make an announcement when it's open to the public.

<edit>

The auto patch server is online and logins are all working.

The server is technically available to players now but due to the changes in the website structure there is a couple broken links (invalid news articles when launching the client). This is a minor inconvenience but obviously something we need to get fixed up. I'm working on updating the client links and will have a new patch launched within the next hour.

A Discussion On Account Security

Heroes comes with a lot of improvements for users to manage their account. I wanted to make a quick post covering how they work so everyone's on the same page.

Standard Security Practices

This means salting+hasing passwords, forcing SSL on all pages, forcing email confirmation on signup and when making any significant changes to account settings. This is nothing special and should be expected from any online service but it's still worth mentioning as it's the foundation on which everything else tends to rely.

HWID Whitelist

Sharing accounts in online games is a very common practice. As game owners we might not like it because of the headaches inevitably caused when someone tries to scam you or take your items but we know it will never be fully prevented. Our job is to make sure that players are aware of the risks they are taking, and have the tools to keep themselves as safe as possible.

When logging into your dashboard on our website you will notice there is a HWID Whitelist feature. It is off by default but we will strongly recommend those who are concerned with the safety of their in-game items enable it (and in the cases of scammed characters we will turn it on for them to avoid repeat issues).



When enabling or disabling the feature, the server will send an email to your registered address confirming the change. This is necessary for obvious reasons so that you don't accidentally lock yourself out of your account and to make sure if someone has access to your username/password, they can't simply turn off the safety features you have.


Once enabled, when you log into the game it will check if your computer has been verified to use that specific character, if not it will check if a validation email has been sent within the past 10 minutes (to avoid spam). It will generate a shared authentication token and will send an email to the registered account warning them that someone is trying to access their account.



When following the link in your email, you will be able to Block or Allow the computer in question as well as assigning a nickname to it. Blocked connections simply blocks that computer sending new email requests to your account. You should obviously still change your account details but you can be confident they wont be able to play unless they also have access to your email. When clicking allow, it whitelists the computer permanently - or until you remove it from your dashboard.

Removing blocked/allowed computers from the dashboard simply re-triggers the standard validation procedure when that computer is next used.


Login History

If you are suspicious that someone else is using your account, you can log in on your dashboard to view a history of everyone who is logging into your account. This includes the following details.

Time of login
IP used
Nickname (if any) of computer

It's worth noting that computer nickname is a very useful feature to identify who is using your computer. Simply turn on HWID whitelist and name each computer something unique (EG: "HomePC" "Joe'sPC") and you can easily tell who is using your account at a glance.




In-Game Protection

Player can 'lock' their items using an in-game interface. Locked items cannot be dropped, traded or sold except to players they have added as "Trade partners". Adding a trade partner and unlocking an item each has a 7 day confirmation period which means that you can easily trade valuable items between your alternate characters or even trusted friends without worrying about them being lost.

Players who lose items by PKing large amount of players have their items confiscated which involves a similar 7 day waiting period before the slayer may claim their rewards. In the case of your account being compromised, as long as you bring it to our staff's attention within a week, restoring lost items will be very trivial and will not involve inconveniencing any other players.


Obviously there's plenty more we could talk about but I just wanted people to be aware of some of the improved security features added to the game  as we're pretty happy with how they turned out. Obviously the project is constantly evolving and growing and improvements will continue to be made.

Paypal Processing and Jewels Shop ONLINE






We've finished integrating the paypal jewels processor as well as the items shop to purchase cosmetics, boosts and more! We will of course be releasing new items in the jewels shop in the coming weeks. These items can then be claimed inside the game and used as needed.

Just my own 2c to add to this.

It's been a crazy busy week behind the scenes and we're rushing to make sure that everything's in place and properly tested for the launch. While we enjoy doing the beyond bitcoin hangout, it would take at least a few hours away from the initial launch of the server (and the inevitable player support, advertisement and emergency troubleshooting associated with all that!) and so this week will not be a good fit. As part of our workload tomorrow though the steemit update will contain a full announcement regarding the status of the heroes release, documentation on the new features added and the experience we had with the initial launch.

Following this weekend we will be able to return to a more 'normal' schedule in regards to updates, announcements, the beyond bitcoin hangouts, etc. We're super excited for the coming weeks and can't wait to show you guys the results of the hard work that's gone into the heroes project and of course the jewels gambling games.


In regards to advertisements, they will be going live once the switch has been flipped to ensure that none of their effect is lost (people are unlikely to return if they follow a ad only to find it's not ready to play yet). We have them all lined up and ready to go throughout tomorrow's launch.

https://www.youtube.com/user/EnterTheHellmouth/videos

We've been uploading videos of features as we finish them and add them to the new project. We will also be releasing a proper full 'trailer' for use in advertisements once the server has launched and the player base has grown to the size where more entertaining gameplay footage is possible.

Happy to address some of your concerns.

Dev Updates
We're incredibly busy right now finalizing the new heroes website, getting the game ready, dealing with the contractors we've hired to work on graphics assets for the gambling games. Admittedly that's taken some of our time away from this thread. I would expect to see more being posted here following the launch once we're ready for people to start joining.

Hype-o-meter
We don't particularly want a large rush of players right as the clock strikes midnight in heroes. While we've done plenty of internal stress testing, brought in various members of our community to gather their feedback and test new systems, we cannot guarantee that there will be no complications. We fully expect the launch will take time to build steam in terms of player base.

In terms of advertisements, we have our newsletter, facebook and youtube ad campaigns all ready to be started directly targeting both former players of apex, players of other similar projects and those who have played the official version of conquer online. Those will be started once the new website is online, in advance of the official launch of heroes.

Investors vs gamers/split of advertisements

Heroes was developed completely separate from the ICO. No funds from investors have been used towards heroes or its development. This was made clear throughout the entirety of this thread. The funds are being used to develop the following.

-Jewels backend: web wallet, account management, paypal>jewels portal, transaction management, gambling api, etc)
-Jewels gambling front end: Two phases of gambling games playable with jewels made available to existing players of apex/triumph as well as on their own dedicated gambling website and mobile apps.
-Full jewels integration for heroes followed by apex: Jewels will be the premium currency inside the game used to purchase cosmetics and character boosts, to unlock additional content, etc.
-Project rebirth playable prototype (saved for after all initial jewels integration and gambling games are live)

The jewels web portal is online and gaining in functionality every day (that's were the vast majority of our efforts since the ICO ending have been placed)
The gambling front end is in development. It's taking a bit longer than planned but we have a number of contractors working on visual art assets for it and we have finalized the phase 1 design document and started on programming the individual mini games. There will be more to post publicly on that as the contractors complete their tasks so there is more visually available for us to post (right now it's all console apps and statistics sheets)
The jewels integration into heroes will be finalized and the new website launched in advance of the server being launched. That is our primary concern right now and what we are focusing our efforts on at the moment.

We're waiting on the new website to be ready. It's mostly there but once it's live it will contain the official launch countdown for heroes.