SLA (service level agreement) with the players
This latest emergency shutdown and the one that is planed for tomorrow got me thing.
In many places where people depend on the IT systems the one that makes the system makes a service level agreement with the those that uses the system. Sometimes there are payback from the makers to the users in term of money. The same can be applied to this game. Just with what people really want.
1. The advance option
Each time the system is down for maintaince (including the regular onces) the players get X amount of SLA coins (sure you will find a better name) and those SLA coins can be used to fix what you didn't get to do while the game was down. So you should be able to buy stuff like arena boost, alliance quest energy, alliance war energy, quest energy and maybe also more. That way you never have to discuss what compensation is needed as it will automatic be delivered to the players. No more need to discuss shorter AQ and AW timer as players can buy energy for these game modes.
2. The easy option
Sure you already have a measurement of how many hours the game is down and in which region. And sure you also know how much a player as been online through a month. Use these two measurements to pay out a monthly compensation to players. Maybe in form of alliance quest energy, alliance war energy, energy and maybe some more than this. Those that are most active get most rewards as those are the onces that are mostly affected. This can be implemented without any game update as you already got the needed information.
/SC
