Increased Transparency from Admin Team
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Since I'm on such a roll with my suggestions anyway, here's another more innocuous one:
It would be extremely helpful towards player retention and luring back former players if the Admin Team had a thread somewhere (maybe in General Discussion) where they could provide a very brief update every now and then on what's being worked on. Nothing specific, just "made progress on implementing X system" or "discussing Y changes" would be nice.
There's always been an approach of staying mum until things are ready to roll out, which is fine if the server has lots of content but that isn't really the case at the moment.
Once again, discuss and thank you.
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I would add this would result in less questions and/or frustration from players knowing what is being worked on. New factions for example- players would be fine if the feedback is "this is being worked on but its going to take a few more weeks" rather than "soon"
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So, if you had read the actual post, you would see that I specified progress updates. As in, telling players what you're working on before they're done so we have an idea of the general direction of where the server's going.
Linking the updates post is exactly what I suggested the Admin Team avoids doing.
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Generally what I work on is fixing bugs and trying to implement as many suggestions as I can. Also adding new content like the Halls and coming up with puzzles to make your brains hurt.
How's that?Edit: also the crafting system. the whole thing.
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Generally we have a list of things to do, either RL gets in the way or there is an emergency IG/OOCly. IG/OOC issues always comes first.
Sometimes are in the back burner for years. So not sure it's mega fun to get to know the details until it's closer to release.
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There's a perception that nothing changes on the server and suggestions fall by the wayside. Open and frank discussion about what's being worked on, what's being changed to address the dwindling player population, and other such things are a necessity.
You do not have the luxury of keeping everything behind closed doors anymore.
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I agree with this.
I can be pretty sure the Admin team at this point is mildly frustrated with the low level stream of mild to moderate discontent that's been bubbling up, but a lot of that could be mitigated if people had some idea of the Whats and the Whys going on behind the Scenes. If nothing else the comments and suggestions would be made from a point of better understanding, and could be more easily addressed since more information would be available for reference.
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I know this is going to come off as Snarky, but I mean it sincerely.
If people are saying you need more transparency and openess, and you are having to point to where it's happening, it probably isn't enough.
People either aren't seeing it, or aren't feeling like it's enough, both of which lead back to the same issue.
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I've deleted my equally as snarky post.
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I'm just going to leave this here:
The current server design is not working. This is not up for debate. If it were the case that low player numbers are simply due to NWN being a 20 year old game server populations should be low across the board and yet they are clearly not.
If you want the server to succeed, you need to start providing updates on a more frequent basis so when I do try to reach out to people and say "hey, this is what's changing," I can say more specific things other than "Zool's back."
It would also be useful if the Admin Team was more transparent about why they're insisting on doubling down on design choices that are clearly unpopular. Time and time again the same suggestions are made and yet nothing really changes. The current iteration of CoA has great factions, interesting plots, and motivated Storytellers but they're hamstrung by poor game design.
Give me a reason to believe that Suggestions posts regarding the server's so-called "vision" aren't just ignored and pushed aside because of a stubborn refusal to acknowledge that unpopular ideas are, in fact, unpopular.
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I share your concerns and applaud you for stepping up and tackling the issues head on. I think a good way to improve things would be to give the players more power in their feedback, such as a voting system for certain issues like rules, content, player voting for new DMs etc. The server as you can see by our population is failing.
While unprecedented, drastic measures are needed to salvage things before it’s too late. The DM team being open with the player base and finding a common ground on what changes to make and how to move forward would be a good start.
Another thing to consider would be holding an election for one person or a group who would be responsible for the server, while the DM team all coming to a consensus has worked in the past it might be time for a more clear chain of command. Another server I played on had roles from host, managers, admins and then moderators. There was a clear code of conduct for staff and each level of management was responsible for certain team members. It was very efficient.
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I see often there are very common suggestions that are brought up in Discord a lot over the past 4 months that often get brushed to the side.
Topics that include:
Low hp
Low loot
Low consumables
No DM in EU
Continual nerfing of existing gear
Massive areas in server that are empty
Wanting to have old fun quests backIt happens so often that if/when a DM responds to the suggestion its with a "The hp discussion again?" or "The loot chat again?". The reason why its brought up so consistently is because its commonly felt amongst the community of active, recently retired, and inactive players that all want the same thing. Its brought up consistently for a reason.
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Just for the sake of illumination.
The screenshot of player populations above, is misleading.
Those account primarily for console players, for which only a limited number of Persistent Worlds is available.
By all accounts there is a particular approval process that worlds must follow in order to be available to console players.
I'm going to look into it...See the following comment by Julius Borisov (Beamdog developer), and the surrounding thread for further details:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1150654/#Comment_1150654
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Certainly possible, but the 0/55 can't really be explained away. We have enough of a community built over the years that numbers should be much, much higher, and asking why those people aren't logging in is a valid question. Some we've lost to time, simply a matter of people getting older and having other priorities, but there are a fair few who just aren't logging in or left for greener pastures.
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@gDarDog said in Increased Transparency from Admin Team:
Massive areas in server that are empty
This is being discussed by the Team. We want to keep maps credible and represent distance, but not be a chore to go from one town to another.
How do you recommend representing the 30 miles from Arabel to Eveningstar, for example?
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https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/54720/zools-journal
This the kind of thing you mean?
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@Zool Love it, that's great. Didn't even need to be this detailed tbh b/c that'd be a PITA to update more frequently. I suppose if anything gets added there a simple "+1" reply would be enough.
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@Echo Through a sign that states "Eveningstar, West - 30 miles" along the road. Perhaps another sign in one of the transitory areas that states "Eveningstar, West - 15 miles."
Realism is already not a thing given 30 miles is only two transitions anyway, there's no harm compressng things a bit further.
