Hooray for Small Milestones!

Fleet Combat Online has reached 500 users!

OK, that's not a huge number, but still not too bad for a game that has done essentially no advertising. We average between one and two people signing up per day (1.43 to be exact). The game started in February of 2008.

So in honor of the occasion, here are some more statistics about the game:
61% of our traffic comes from Google searches
13% is direct traffic (people that type www.fleetcombat.net into their browser or use a bookmark).
10% comes from this blog :)
6% comes from www.mpog100.com -- don't forget to vote, it helps!

This is a pretty big change from six months ago or so. Back then, most of our traffic was direct or from the voting sites. Google searches were a lower percentage. It means that the site is gaining relevance in Google which allows more people to find it just by searchng. Here are the top search terms that sent people to the site:
1) fleet combat online wiki
2) fleet online +browser game
3) fleet combat online
4) fleet combat online ranks
5) starship combat simulator

Funny that it seems like most people searching are actually searching for the game by name. Also funny, is the breakdown of browsers used on the site:
65% use FireFix
24% use IE
6% use Safari
4% use Chrome
.25% use Opera

And in case you think I am in this for the money:
Hosting costs so far: $240
Advertising costs so far: $100 (I experimented with some Google ads a while back)
Advertising revenue so far (from ads on the site): $44.85

So, it's not exactly a get-rich-quick strategy ;)

The came is coded in 30,553 lines of Asp.Net code using C# and MS SQL 2005 and Adobe Flex for the game client.

The 500 players have fought 870 battles. There are currently 55 battles in progress. The AI have played in 795 of those games (wow!). The player who has played the most games is 'Kirbs' with 99 battles and 77,218 command points.

The top ranked player on the player ladder is 'Jinntann' who has fought 59 battles and has 57,334 command points.

There are currently 1,696 ships in the game. The top ranked ship is 'D.J. Supremacy' which is a Victory Class Heavy Carrier owned by 'Voydwalker' with a huge 66 kills and no defeats. The most successful ship class is the Hermes Class Battleship with 155 kills and 11 defeats -- thats a 14:1 kill ratio.

So, I think the game is pretty healthy overall. It could always use more players and I could always use more feedback. I am still surprised by the large number of players that never post in the forum or play against other players. It seems most players want to be left alone and play against the AI ;)

I am also surprised how few people vote using the voting links at the bottom of the home page. Only 13 registered players have EVER voted and most of them only did so once. Remember, you get free command points for voting AND it helps drive new players to the site. I might have to increase the CP reward for voting to try and improve this stat.

My major goal for the next few months will be to get the Galactic Era up and running. That should be a whole other battle experience with new strategies. Beyond that, I will be trying to just build up the community more and mature the game even more.

I hope you all have enjoyed playing it as much as I have enjoyed writing it!
-cb