My qualms with the server and why many are leaving

I was very much looking forward to this server launching when it was announced, as I have fond memories of the game and was excited to be a part of a Minecraft community experience once more. I am aware that the developers and upper staff worked very hard over a period of a few months to get this thing launched, and the initial launch was fairly successful with 50+ players joining within the first 24 hours.

As is to be expected with any new server, significant issues and areas to significantly improve upon were present from the beginning. Some were dealt with--i.e. the severe connection issues that were mitigated by irritatingness early on--however, many were not and still persist, making the player's experience overall rather unenjoyable, if not nearly unplayable at times. The momentum led by the developers and upper staff up until launch was not maintained, and it shows. The average number of players per day is steadily decreasing, and any new players who join quickly see the broad issues and leave to find a different server. The collective issues of the server and the lack of urgency to improve upon them ultimately made the experience bland and unenjoyable for me, hence why I don't find myself playing any longer.

I'll list my personal qualms below--a portion of which may be rather opinionated and subject to my own preference:

1. The significant and persisting connection issues. This issue is probably significantly more harmful than the rest combined. As said previously, at launch, the connection issues were quite severe. After a week or so, irritatingness did mitigate the issue by a fair amount. However, there remains an obvious and unreasonable amount of lag and connection issues. When joining the server, it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes to load into the game. Additionally, when teleporting (whether it be /tpa or /home or /warp), it takes about 15-30 seconds for the player to be able to interact with the world. To ensure that this isn't just a problem on my end, I joined a number of other servers to test them, and I had zero problems like this with any of them. With any other server, I load in near instantly, and I am able to interact with the world immediately. I don't know why these connection issues are present, and it seems that the developers and player base have simply accepted it at this point and aren't concerned with it any longer. I guarantee you that any new players, when realizing this persistent issue, will not return to the server because this problem only exists with us. Any reasonable person will find another server to play on after they realize it takes minutes for them to load in each time. I believe this issue is significant enough that if fixing it requires a full server reset, it would be warranted.

2. The economy is incredibly unbalanced. This is no secret--everyone is aware of it. A month ago, Graze made an extensive post detailing the problem and exactly how it could be fixed. Implementing these fixes will balance the economy in the long-run, with short-term grievances (e.g. the balance reset) being necessary. The work entailed in implementing these fixes I presume wouldn't take much time, but I've seen no action or discussion being made by upper staff on this issue.

3. Lack of paid advertising. My impression is that very little effort is being made to expand the player base and attract new players into joining. With all of the donations, a conservative amount of paid advertising could be made in order to attract new players. I'd expect that the marginal revenue that would be made by paying for advertising would exceed the marginal cost currently. The server is currently nearly dead, with <10 players on for a good portion of the day. It will only decrease over time if the server isn't advertised. Obviously, advertising right now is pointless and wasteful until the above two issues are fixed.

4. The world size is too large to foster any sense that the game is multiplayer. This is somewhat opinionated. Unless you have friends with which you interact on the server, you will get the sense that there aren't any other players in the world. It is rare to see any sign that other players have participated in the world. You get the sense that the only difference between singleplayer and SMP on Serious Minecraft is that there is a chat to talk to other players. There is almost nil chance of running into strangers on the server (which can be fun)--whether it be in a friendly or combative manner. Combat, which is already incredibly rare, more often than not occurs through the use of /tpa. New players will feel estranged from everyone else, as if they are completely by themselves in the massive world map.

5. Rule-making and staff decisions are frequently arbitrary without much consideration. When I was mod, it seemed to me that developers would frequently jump the gun on making in-game changes or rule changes without much consideration or consultation from other staff members or users. I won't give examples so as to not single anyone out, but I'm sure the staff are aware of an example or two of this. I think that such decisions should be made collectively and not somewhat arbitrarily by the higher-ups, as the decisions may not ultimately be what the community wants.

Additionally, a suggestion: I think that a community hub needs to be created in order to foster a better sense of community and physical interaction between players. The current spawn does not facilitate this, nor does the market really.

All in all, if @irritatingness, @Deathbyrussian, and @Disruptionz are collectively happy and content with the current state of the server, that is their prerogative and entirely acceptable. However, I surely hope that is not the case. A problem I think is, with the exception of irritatingness, I rarely, if ever, see the developers and upper staff actually in-game. This leads me to think that they are out of touch with the state of the server and the game in general. I understand that schooling and real life activities can get in the way of maintaining a server such as this one, but I don't think that is a valid excuse to utterly neglect it, which I think it has been. This is not a personal attack on the upper staff, as they are friends of mine, but I do urge them to get more in-touch with the game and the current state of the server if they wish to have it improve at all.

I do believe that this server has the potential to become lucrative and popular with its already established community, but in its current state it is sub-par at best. If the momentum that was present up until launch was maintained, the server would feasibly have 50+ players or more online on a daily basis at this point. That is still possible, but it will take much effort.

Feel free to post responses or opinions.

Regards.

 

Wow it's almost like what I said on the first day.

 

Spot on buddy...

 

Although a 'community hub/lobby' may sound like a great idea to put some time and effort into, it's often wasted effort. Sure it would neat to facilitate a lobby with Easter eggs, friendly meet and greet places, and more, but these hubs are often seen as 'transit points' by most players and nothing more, often feeling like a wasted effort in the end to put too much effort into it.

This is especially true in a server with there is no value invested into traveling; /TPA, /home and /warp commands effectually kills any value such hubs would have other than what they are currently: PVP free zones to trade.

There are other ways the server should be focusing on improving, and I think a 'community hub' is on the back end of that list.

 

There is just no need to say anything else man, you put it so well.
I just would like to mention that, in my opinion, this problem roots back to the basis of Minecraft Vanilla Survival with an Economy. An Economy where the resources that dictate this economy are so incredibly easy for experienced players to find, is bound to be unstable. And im not just complaining, and it will be very ironic to say that I support a balance reset, when I have currently the second biggest balance in the whole server, and I have worked very hard for it. Its just not fun anymore. The only thing I want to do is either keep earning money (which is really hard when you are so high up), or just build stuff; but that doesnt do it for me anymore. New players are just completely unable to grow since every price has dropped by at least 1000% (not a joke), to the point where the Dragon Head is currently worth 150K in the market, and I have dozens that I cant even sell for 100 dollars.

The main problem is: EVERYONE HAS EVERYTHING, and that was bound to happen from the beginning with a gamemode like Survival.

I still have a lot of love and hope for this server, but you cannot resolve a problem if you dont realize its there, and we have to wake up and see that this cant go on like this. The last thing I want to see is the server die out, since there is a very avid playerbase, but the gamemode itself has become less interesting with time. In my opinion we have been trying to resolve 1000 problems as a community that mostly all come from the same source: the gamemode and the way its built, because its just not meant for a long lasting multiplayer experience. I believe there is still potential and hope for the server as a fun and re-playable experience like TTT, just not with survival.

But again, thats just my opinion.

 

I don't consider the amount of players at launch to be indicative of much. They could have been simply curious, among other things, with no intent to play on a regular basis. In fact, for the first week or so it was pretty much exclusively SeriousGMOD member + members of the old MC server. That has changed now, there are a few new faces that are regular participants on the server.

While I can't go into detail, I can assure you that staff have discussed the issue. We just don't want to make arbitrary changes that may or may not help things, so it has to be carefully thought out first.

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. I think the world size is at a nice sweet spot if anything.

The closer you get to 0,0 the more people you find, the further, the less you find. Some players chose to out to the border of the map to create the base. This gives them some privacy from ever having to see other players and more or less fits their playstyle. While those who don't mind other players nearby are more toward the center. I myself can very easily find other players in the world. I think the main issue could more or less be attributed to RTP/spawn teleport. Nobody wants to create their based near where those teleports put you.

 

I am currently have the #1 balance and I also support a balance reset. The market has been fucked from the beginning and the only way to fix it now is a complete reset.

 

As a person who probably has the most assets on the server, or at least is within the top three parties, I would trade in just about everything but the gear on my back and my box of spawners if it meant we could get a balance reset and fixed market. The only people who I really see against the reset are those who got their money through more legitimate means than villagers and exploits, and while it does sorta suck for them, if we combined the basic values of what me, Kemal, Alco, and Kyle own, I almost guarantee we outvalue the entire rest of the server by far. Or we would if we added one or two of the other people in baltop.

 

In a nutshell:

• The Server needs to have a "SPAWN" not that place where we go through a portal to a game mode, no. I meant having a spawn on each gamemode world. Sure a HUB is a good thing but as many said, it's not really important as people only see the hub as a "transport terminal".
• Reset the server again. Before you reset, do some checking on market issues, the limitations of players and what not. Put into account what your players say here in the forums and probably apply some suggestions into the server.
• Remove exploits, useless plugins, and do server optimization. I don't know how much work you put into doing those but please... Do it.
• There's more things that needs to be done but you can read them in here and in the suggestions sub-forum. Im too lazy to write them all down...

 

I agree with most but I have a few disagreements

First is with #4. I stumble upon peoples bases almost everytime I go exploring with my elytra. Even if your point is that not everyone has an elytra, which is true, 90% of the time I /rtp there is a base either in front of me or very close to where I have spawned

The other is a balance reset. If they are going to remove the profits the current players have made, I either would like to 1. Be reimbursed in some way, 2. Be warned about it or 3. Be garunteed the reset would in fact change anything. And to me, no matter what, someone will always find a way to exploit resources.

 

Hey Pyton,

Fair point on #4. As for the balance reset, I think being warned would be a reasonable expectation. As for exploiting resources, it would be impossible if certain changes were implemented, such as making /jobs the only way money can enter the game.

 

I spent a lot of time coming up with that plan for the market because it's the only way I can think of to give money value. A balance reset won't do anything unless the other changes are done too, and I won't stop advocating for that either. Either way, thanks for the reference to my thread.