Some Needed Discussion

[Pythin]

So this is a discussion that I believe should happen, and as a Liaison, I think I should make this discussion made public for the community to discuss. After discussion's with other community members, there needs to be a discussion had about the future of our community. A couple members of the community have expressed there concerns about the following topics:
 

• Founder's Interaction with the Community 
• Leadership of Dev. / Management team 
• Livelihood of the server 
• Communication from the Leadership team to the Community members

 

Now this Discussion thread is going to be used to discuss these topics, and present either your problems with each, or if you think there aren't any solutions. If you also present a problem make sure to present a solution to the issue so the Leadership team can look into it. 

Please do not go off topic in this thread as it pertains to Important topics. 

If you also have any topics on here that I didn't hit please feel free to address them 

[Whataburger]

ok lets start

Where's the update?

The server is slowly losing population and it feels like the update at this point is being delayed.

[ToasterBath]

Just now, Whataburger said:

ok lets start

Where's the update?

The server is slowly losing population and it feels like the update at this point is being delayed.

June 1st

[Maddoxx]

9 minutes ago, Pythin said:

A couple members of the community have expressed there concerns about the following topics:
 

• Founder's Interaction with the Community 
• Leadership of Dev. / Management team 
• Livelihood of the server 
• Communication from the Leadership team to the Community members

Are there any examples of this or just a general catch all. 

[Pythin]

Just now, Maddoxx said:

Are there any examples of this or just a general catch all. 

I made this post as a discussion for those topics. Members who have brought this to my attention will bring examples up then 

[Ccmonty]

for me personally i think founder interaction is good. blue barrel supreme is fun to pick up and watch it bounce

 

 i think people are mainly concerned about server pop because back in the day we would get 60-70+ people on everyday even in down time but honestly where we are at right now is about average for most star wars rp servers

[Jad]

1 hour ago, Ccmonty said:

for me personally i think founder interaction is good. blue barrel supreme is fun to pick up and watch it bounce

 

 i think people are mainly concerned about server pop because back in the day we would get 60-70+ people on everyday even in down time but honestly where we are at right now is about average for most star wars rp servers

It's just a barrel.

Yeah I get the server pop being a concern, but thankfully we have a solution. Main thing hurting population right now is how long it takes our server to appear on the server browser. It can take upwards of 1-3 minutes before ours pops up and other servers are already there. Newer players will just join one of the ones already appearing before ever letting the rest load in. Next update should address this! (Thank God)

[Dono]

I think the founders just need to communicate more with the rest of the community directly.

Discontent toward the people up top will always grow when the people below them receive little amounts of information on when things they are concerned about will be addressed. For the past year + I have been in this community, there has been a pretty strong underlining discontent with founders / management due to the repeated lack of communication for development and delays. The trello is great but honestly it doesn't really tell any of the players in this community what is actually going on with development and server suggestions in real time. I think a lot of hype and excitement could be built with more communication on what is being done behind the scenes to keep making the server better. If there was some discord channel or something on the main discord that just listed progress of development as it goes, people would be more engaged to keep playing on the server. Having a couple weeks without any information about development is fine, going months without any development updates is draining for the entire community. I would like to think that every person here understands that the founders and developers aren't going to be always free to do gmod stuff - I dont think anyone thinks they should either. Don't take this as we need updates every day on whats going on, that's not what any of us are asking for - just give out status updates on regularly. It would go a long way in boosting server morale. Releasing bits of information more often doesn't lessen the impact of an update coming out. You dont have to spill every secret thing your working on, just give people something to look forward to over time instead of leaving the community in the dark, time and time again.

Edited May 24, 2022 by Dono

[Hanz]

11 hours ago, Jad said:

It's just a barrel.

Yeah I get the server pop being a concern, but thankfully we have a solution. Main thing hurting population right now is how long it takes our server to appear on the server browser. It can take upwards of 1-3 minutes before ours pops up and other servers are already there. Newer players will just join one of the ones already appearing before ever letting the rest load in. Next update should address this! (Thank God)

Whats the plan if the update doesn't fix the population? It will of course bring in lots of players for a few weeks for all the new things, but the Venator did that same thing, but we see where that took us.

[Jad]

4 hours ago, Dono said:

I think the founders just need to communicate more with the rest of the community directly.

Discontent toward the people up top will always grow when the people below them receive little amounts of information on when things they are concerned about will be addressed. For the past year + I have been in this community, there has been a pretty strong underlining discontent with founders / management due to the repeated lack of communication for development and delays. The trello is great but honestly it doesn't really tell any of the players in this community what is actually going on with development and server suggestions in real time. I think a lot of hype and excitement could be built with more communication on what is being done behind the scenes to keep making the server better. If there was some discord channel or something on the main discord that just listed progress of development as it goes, people would be more engaged to keep playing on the server. Having a couple weeks without any information about development is fine, going months without any development updates is draining for the entire community. I would like to think that every person here understands that the founders and developers aren't going to be always free to do gmod stuff - I dont think anyone thinks they should either. Don't take this as we need updates every day on whats going on, that's not what any of us are asking for - just give out status updates on regularly. It would go a long way in boosting server morale. Releasing bits of information more often doesn't lessen the impact of an update coming out. You dont have to spill every secret thing your working on, just give people something to look forward to over time instead of leaving the community in the dark, time and time again.

Honestly I agree to some extent, I have something in the works which I talked about in Square's update on development thread. I'll be announcing it soon once I have everything setup. I've wanted to do it for a while but was waiting for a couple puzzle pieces to fall in place first.

[Jad]

1 hour ago, Hanz said:

Whats the plan if the update doesn't fix the population? It will of course bring in lots of players for a few weeks for all the new things, but the Venator did that same thing, but we see where that took us.

We've had the Server Browser issue for a good while now so I'm sure it will address the issue. Obviously population won't immediately explode, but give it time for us to normalize again and it should be fine. Also, server performance above 95-100 players has been horrendous. Most players would leave around this point as it is way too laggy. One of the largest points of the full server box clean is to also address this issue.

[Hanz]

1 minute ago, Jad said:

We've had the Server Browser issue for a good while now so I'm sure it will address the issue. Obviously population won't immediately explode, but give it time for us to normalize again and it should be fine. Also, server performance above 95-100 players has been horrendous. Most players would leave around this point as it is way too laggy. One of the largest points of the full server box clean is to also address this issue.

But whats the plan if it doesn't work

[Jad]

9 minutes ago, Hanz said:

But whats the plan if it doesn't work

I have a couple ideas I can push forward which would definitely boost population as backup. Unfortunately announcing them early kind of defeats the excitement factor players would be looking for. I know how much it sucks to be told there's a plan but not given any information. Just bare with me, I feel the same way.

 

Edit: The update also has a lot more content than just a new map.

[Ccmonty]

13 hours ago, Jad said:

It's just a barrel.

yes but its a BOUNCY barrel

[Hanz]

15 minutes ago, Jad said:

I have a couple ideas I can push forward which would definitely boost population as backup. Unfortunately announcing them early kind of defeats the excitement factor players would be looking for. I know how much it sucks to be told there's a plan but not given any information. Just bare with me, I feel the same way.

 

Edit: The update also has a lot more content than just a new map.

We are a small community, we don't really need hype, we need confidence to keep the server going. This cycle of dips will continue if all we rely on for the pop is updates, and especially with this update taking so long to drop it shows that we can't rely on updates to keep the community going. 

[Finn]

In my view, the biggest issue is still communication between the Management team and the rest of the server. 

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the mindset of wanting to keep the updates a surprise, and I also understand not wanting to disappoint the community by telling us a date or thing to be added, then something fucks up, preventing it from being released. But I think you guys as Management+ are seriously overreacting in that mindset. There's a middle ground that can be taken of hinting at things coming, teasing smaller things, and trying to communicate the broad progress of the update, without giving any specifics. I'm at the point where I'd rather you tell us stuff, even if it doesn't end up working out.

The lack of communication about the direction of the community has seriously impacted the trust I put into you guys. I want to believe you're doing the best you can to make the community good, but it's been a LONG time since I've seen that in action. I understand logically that you're doing a fuck ton of work that we don't see, but it doesn't really lessen the worry I feel when the community is slowly stagnating and dying off, and all I get is radio silence. I'm not sure how much has reach the management level, but there's a lot of discontent in the community about these issues, and if things continue how they have been, I'm not sure how long we can keep going.

 

That being said, I think the recent update you guys gave was a great first step, and I hope that we see increased communication similarly in the the future.

[Piff]

Future founder here, best way to keep server pop is by keeping people involved and updated with monthly or weekly things like a newsletter and giving people attention where it’s needed like a game basically where where roadmaps are set which you don’t need to put a deadline for when a update drops just let people know it’s in the working and giving attention to people in the community for something they did if it’s needed I mean I could take or leave this one but it exposes people to things that they didn’t know where going on.

anwyays I go back to unlocking all the capital ships in Lego star wars

[Jad]

12 minutes ago, Piff said:

best way to keep server pop is by keeping people involved and updated with monthly or weekly things like a newsletter and giving people attention where it’s needed like a game basically where where roadmaps are set which you don’t need to put a deadline for when a update drops just let people know it’s in the working and giving attention to people in the community for something they did if it’s needed I mean I could take or leave this one but it exposes people to things that they didn’t know where going on.

:)

[Bbstine]

23 hours ago, Pythin said:

Founder's Interaction with the Community 

I don't think there's a problem with this at all, Square and Jad do a pretty good job at updating the community on current developments. And I'd be as so bold to mention that it's not a lack of the Founder's interaction but a lack of certain members of Leadership in-general. And yes, I will state their names because it's not feedback if you hide it. I wish Dragon, Forseen, and Woeny would do better, I am primarily in channels where leadership hangs out in and they are the 3 I barely see.

 

23 hours ago, Pythin said:

Leadership of Dev. / Management team 

I'm not entirely sure what an issue is with this, Maxwells is doing a fantastic job with the development team. Jayarr is hard at work on the map whilst the model maker is probably working his ass off to blast out our packs. Nothing is wrong with Management either, it's just Sock, not a whole lot that needs to be said in regards to leadership lol.

 

23 hours ago, Pythin said:

Livelihood of the server 

As it has been said for the past 4-5 years the server has been around, from the old Founders to the new, Garry's Mod is a dying game, we are aware that this is the case; that is why we are working on future projects to help stimulate the community's population and to hopefully bring in more members. Being a new member and seeing a forum post asking why our server is dying isn't exactly a positive thing to show people.

 

And as for your last point, it's just a copy of the first so I won't bother on that one.

 

Pythin and to the members of the community who are worried, as long as you hold strong and have faith this community will never die. The community isn't just Garry's Mod or any server we release, it's the playerbase and friends we have all made, and as long as you all keep coming into the Teamspeak and saying hello and making more memories, we shouldn't ever have a problem.

[Bud]

1 hour ago, Bbstine said:

I don't think there's a problem with this at all, Square and Jad do a pretty good job at updating the community on current developments. And I'd be as so bold to mention that it's not a lack of the Founder's interaction but a lack of certain members of Leadership in-general. And yes, I will state their names because it's not feedback if you hide it. I wish Dragon, Forseen, and Woeny would do better, I am primarily in channels where leadership hangs out in and they are the 3 I barely see.

 

I'm not entirely sure what an issue is with this, Maxwells is doing a fantastic job with the development team. Jayarr is hard at work on the map whilst the model maker is probably working his ass off to blast out our packs. Nothing is wrong with Management either, it's just Sock, not a whole lot that needs to be said in regards to leadership lol.

 

As it has been said for the past 4-5 years the server has been around, from the old Founders to the new, Garry's Mod is a dying game, we are aware that this is the case; that is why we are working on future projects to help stimulate the community's population and to hopefully bring in more members. Being a new member and seeing a forum post asking why our server is dying isn't exactly a positive thing to show people.

 

And as for your last point, it's just a copy of the first so I won't bother on that one.

 

Pythin and to the members of the community who are worried, as long as you hold strong and have faith this community will never die. The community isn't just Garry's Mod or any server we release, it's the playerbase and friends we have all made, and as long as you all keep coming into the Teamspeak and saying hello and making more memories, we shouldn't ever have a problem.

Bbstine I do recall in the past correct me if I'm wrong square and other leadership stating we want Clone wars to thrive first then move to other projects I think the problem is its clear based off data that I think we spread wings and fly and when you say your gonna move on to projects like a rust or whatever examples actually do it it shows progress if you stay on one platform you wonder why you have stagnation 

[A-a-ron]

I think updating the trello page is the easiest way for you guys to update the community on what's going on, its been like 3 months since the last update

[Comics]

14 hours ago, Bbstine said:

Garry's Mod is a dying game,

Lmao this is not a good excuse

Gmod is doing really well. Why can IFN and SUP stay afloat so well? 

I think it's a little embarrassing the level of disconnect from the community you're personally speaking from. You're the only person, which includes jad, who believes communication between the leadership and community is actually very decent. 

It is evidently not because its one of the biggest complaints players have. They never know whats happening, so the assumption is nothing is happening at all. Like even updating the trello might make us a little happier. 

People don't think the devs are shit at their job, people don't think they ever communicate progress. Which seems to be an issue entirely solved by using the trello.

People are talking about the server dying because they care about the community and want it to keep growing. We can't always be positive when our peak player count in the last week was 58. People feel like progress on updates isn't good enough and that they're left in the dark. If this update is being worked on its clear the community wants more information about it or anything as proof.

14 hours ago, Bbstine said:

community isn't just Garry's Mod

This is the only current server we have open. Synergy is a community but one built around a gmod server. People who resign from the server often rarely come back to teamspsak so there's clearly a correlation between the server pop and synergy community population. People don't join the community through teamspeak.

The server is not self sustaining as players are always leaving, we cannot rely on a core base of people if everyone leaves eventually. We need new players and gmod is how we get them.

[Bane]

This may be in the works, but systems to 1. Get value from credits (Giving us more stuff to spend credits on such as cosmetics or consumables), 2. Passively entertain the community (Such as PES from WILTOS for the GM team and Minigames like making/selling deathsticks or buying and selling illegal cargo to npcs ), 3. Giving some sort of leveling or progression system tied to skills (like leveling up in an RPG), and 4. Making the Kits of clones/clone jobs more varied/useful would be some really good ways to retain and boost player count. 

To expand on 2, there's all sorts of really simple systems that can be put into place to just make the game and our roles more engaging. SUP uses a system that allows engineers to run around and fix problems with their ship systems, fix pipes, etc. I don't know how intensive something like that would be, but little things to boost dopamine, reward small amounts of credits, increase interaction, and encourage RP would be greatly valued