Levels
Here are some suggestions regarding level structuring. These are merely guidelines, yet they have proven to be reliable, although it depends on the operators to decide how many levels and their mechanics/logic.
Don’t try to build all levels in advance. Make 10-20 levels, it should be enough to make new players busy for a period of a few weeks and control the speed of players' progress, do rebalance if needed, or add more levels. Keep in your Terms and Conditions place for movement (change points accumulation rules, points required for the next levels, definitions of missions, and rewards for them).
Keep every next level 1.5 times more complex than the previous. E.g. if the 2nd level player has to collect 100 Points, for the next level it could be 250 (because 100 he already has, and now he will need an additional 150).
Keep first levels simple enough, they should be achievable during one game session. We can assume that during one game session the beginner player should complete current goals and unlock new goals. This means that the New player should finish some of the existing missions, collect points and upgrade to the next level that will unlock new challenges for him. The longer a player stays online and engaged, the more time he can spend on the new goals.
Give a good explanation for every level - what kind of benefits it’s giving, which missions it’s unlocking. You may want to keep the description as a storyline and not a schematic. Keep in mind that each level will show what missions it will unlock when clicking on the information of the level.
Don't expose all levels. Even if you designed 20 levels, don't show all of them - make the first 10 visible in the beginning, show more as soon as players are reaching high levels (refer to "Setting up the levels").
Build communication for level upgrade
Realtime - show the level to which a player upgraded, benefits that he is getting, what he is unlocking by reaching that level.
Scheduled - for churning players, remind them about the next level and benefits waiting there.
Control player's distribution among levels.
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