Necessary Changes

[Foxey]

We all saw Jayarr's post a few weeks ago...

In this post he pointed out numerous issues within the community that he and others believed needed to be handled. Attached to the post was a poll, wherein an overwhelming 98.8% of respondents agreed either slightly or entirely. Since the post, several of the things Jayarr brought up have been addressed, either partially or entirely.

•  A Community Discord was made and linked up with all of the battalion discords in an attempt to increase communication and provide an emergency comms system if the teamspeak goes down. 

 

• Events seem to be a little on the rise recently, or at least I've noticed that I've had more to do than I did when I returned recently.

 

• The Teamspeak Rule for TR has been removed.
   
• High Staff has worked to emphasize that simulations are both beneficial and generally okay so long as your sims follow certain rules, such as the fact that FFAs cannot simply be "Run in and shoot" but must have pre-determined rules or wave-based objectives and whatnot. 

I feel as though something else from that post could be addressed, and simply hasn't been. MAPS. There has been a suggestion in pending to add the revised & optimized Venator Extensive into a rotation since June 20th. As of this post, that's 56 days ago.

I'm not sure whether Extensive is already in the main server map pool and we could just begin the rotations tomorrow, but I'd say we definitely need to place map changes on top of the priority list. 

Map Rotations is something the server decided we wanted a long time ago- with the first accepted Rotations Suggestion being created on January 20th of this year and accepted on February 4th. As of this post, that's 193 days ago.

I'm familiar with the argument that rotating to the Venator drives the player population down and then after a few days we switch back to a base and it goes back up. Is that the case? Yeah. But the potential provided to game masters, pilots, the navy, is that not worth spending maybe even just 3-7 days per month on a Venator? 

Variety is good! Change is good! I understand that it's hard to keep up with constant big updates and new content, but I strongly believe the server will benefit from switching maps once a week, or once every two weeks. Rapid rotations will keep things from getting stale, it will benefit some and hurt others for only short periods of time, and it will generally just breathe a bit more life into the server. Will rapid rotations (or rotations at all, for that matter) be chaotic and hard to navigate at first? Probably! But once High Staff works out the permaprops and the community adjusts to each of the maps in the rotations pool, things will go on as they always have. 

My personal appeal here is for rotations. Any kind of rotations. Preferably a Three-Map rotation between one base, a Venator, and another base. 
While these don't have to be the maps, I think Venator Extensive, Anaxes, and Titan Base would make for a fine rotation to start us off, since we're all familiar with those maps.

Since there's already a pending Server Suggestion for a map rotation involving the Venator, I figured I'd post this here and start a discussion instead.


 

[Conrad]

I'd like to thank you for your comments and acknowledgements on what we've improved on. It means a lot when the community recognizes our work and it means we're doing our job correctly, not just with what we do, but by keeping the community informed.

As for the map rotation. This is something that is up to the founders and so i want to comment on it as a player instead of as a HA. I agree i think Variety is the spice of life. I think a rotation would be really good. IMO i think two base maps that we're on for two week, in between which at most 1 week on a venator would be a fun rotation. I think it would allow for a lot of cool role play potential and allow different things to shine at different times. For example if we're on our current map mini deployments shine, on the venator we see more aerial combat. Even if its the same 3 maps being off one for a while gives you time to reset on it and thus when you return it feels fresh and new.

[Darkk]

@Conrad Personally I feel 2 weeks is too short. I've been on during the map roations. It seemed like the map was over too early and we were back onto a new one. Personally I'm thinking a 2-3 months rotation would work. Example:

2-3 months on Felucia

1 month on Extensive

2-3 months on Anaxes

Reason I say this is because it takes around 2-3 months for a map to get boring in my experiance atleast

I also only say 1 month on extensive as from previous experiance not many people seem to like extensive plus bounty hunters have nothing to do on extensive unless if they're maybe friendly. This way bounty hunters will pop back off when the map switches back and we won't switch immedietly after we go on one map.

Let me explain the reason I say Anaxes and Felucia. This is mainly to input variety. Instead of switching between the same two we have more variety. This also allowes for some more interesting events. Anaxes and Felucia are sort of similer however Felucia has multiple planets and such that can allow for more RP. 

If anyone has any criticsm for this idea then by all means please quote me and state so however this was just my idea for what I would like to see as a map rotation.

[Forseen]

The topic of Map Rotation has come up many times and I have been part of many discussions with the Founders about this very topic. The decision was made that Venator Extensive and most likely Venators in general will not be used due to the Community reaction when we switch to one.

Generally speaking everyone keeps asking to move to a Venator map, which is fine. However, statistically our active player numbers drop by about 20% every time we switch to a Venator map. We have attempted to switch to Venator and specifically Venator Extensive multiple times within the last 12 months and all these times we have lost a lot of activity from the playerbase.

This leads to the Founders not wanting to use these maps as it is clear statistically that the server does worse when we are on Venator. We have also found that there are optimization issues on Venator Extensive, which they claim to have fixed with their latest update to the map, however from playing a 60 person event on the map I can tell you, they didn't fix it.

 

Now, with the suggestion that was made that you referenced. The suggestion has been left in Pending so that if we can find a map that we can effectively do a rotation between, then it will be implemented. It is in Pending as it still open and being looked into. When/if we begin a rotation it will be moved to accepted. If we decide to cut our losses and give up on a rotation, it will be denied.

 

Hope this cleared things up a bit!

[Shockpoint]

Here is my take on this.
Venator Extensive is hands down, the most versatile and used event server map on the server. period. It has loads to do, ships to spawn, and ive used it more times than I can count during events in the past two weeks. However, when you take such a phenomenal map, put hundreds of props on it, and an entire server, it really cripples the deployment potential of the map and most of the functionality, and not only does it ruin the main server, it feels like there is no point in using it on event server as it simply seems lazy and has zero variety because, you're already on the map. It kills the viability of the map, and its not like youre gonna use bananakin as an event server map lmfao. Just completely kills the viability of the map as a whole, and I can see the nostalgia for some people, as I was there in like, early 2018 when we were on it, but like, just not worth killing a map ive used like 6 times in two weeks by making it main and bogging it down with more props than I can count.
Just imo

[Ratio]

I've seen another community do this one thing in favor of rotations. But that was back when GMOD had a healthier playerbase. Basically, they had an event server as well, and what they would do are these things called "passive deployments". One or two battalions would be sent to the event server for a specified amount of time and set up an FOB on the map they were given. 

I remember one instance in which I was in the 41st. Their main map was a Venator... and the deployed planet was Rishi Moon. Everyone on there would typically make their own fun and it would be as if the GAR was really deployed elsewhere. As far as I know, when it came to bad behavior, it was usually handled by staff.

It'd be hard for something like to work today because of the lower player count and the fact that a few might think it ruins the point of the event server. But it was an idea so the Founders wouldn't have to be  plagued with "we want rotations".

[Foxey]

@Forseen

I understand that the overall population of the server takes a 20% hit every time we switch to the Venator as a main map- but there are still parts of the server that benefit from being on a Venator. Naval, for instance, has seen their active numbers skyrocket for the brief periods we move to a Venator- and pilots generally also gain a boost in things to do and therefore more pilots hang around. 

I am presently the Chief Flight Officer for the Navy, and the complaint that I have heard most from PLTLs and other people on the server is that Titan Base is killing the pilot program. The map frankly sucks for flight. So, whether we switch to a Venator or simply rotate between Anaxes and Titan Base, I highly advise doing something. Perhaps something like this would work...

7 Days on Titan Base ---> 1-3 Days on the Venator --> 7 Days on Anaxes

I propose shorter rotations as opposed to the longer ones like @Darkk proposed because some people aren't a big fan of some maps, and shorter rotations guarantee that activity for certain people will only drop for a few days. It will also give Game Masters and the playerbase overall more variety, spending a bit of time on each map before switching. Most people have dupes built for both Titan Base and Anaxes when it comes to tryouts and old events, so the transition between the two would be easy!

At the end of the day, this post isn't so much a plea to switch to Venator Extensive- or any Venator for that matter- it's a plea to have rotations of some kind. Some way to give the server a constant breath of fresh air. Also, moving to Anaxes or Extensive would be like shocking the pilot program with defibs. Having a skybox is half the battle!

 

[Korm]

We've had this discussion many times.

Yes, We want a map rotation, but if we go on a venator we lose population because people find them boring.

[Matt-Matthos]

As long as we get a rotation id be good