Suggestion Why less and less player are joining herocraft

[J2BH]

Please keep in mind that this post is not close to a rage post and i will be stating actual facts as to why less players are joining herocraft. After this, i will include multiple suggestions as to how we can prevent the decline of herocrafts playerbase, and actually inscrease it


Why more players are quitting, and less are joining: I will be listing the reasons and then going in depth afterwards

1.) Old map

2.) No new classes

3.) Lack of advertisement

4.) Lack of staff representation (Or just lack of staff)

5.) Grief everywhere

6.) Quite simply, the playerbase itself.

1.) Old Map
- Ok so, the new map has been released for a good amount of time now, the amount of land that hasnt been adventured/built on is little to non existent. What this does is ward off new players as they are trying to settle somewhere, and it is very hard and nearly impossible to settle on the map present currently. Once a new player finds no new land, they are forced to just log off. On top of this, the amount of resources still left on the map are also minimal with all the strip mines underground.


2.) No new classes
- Very simple, the same classes have been available for over a year or two with samurai as a comeback with abilities missing... this makes posting class suggestions a waste of time, and this also makes players lose interest in the game. There are of course, many drawbacks to adding a new class, such as all players selecting it, the coding involved and balancing, it's all a lot of work which is understandable. However, players spamming the class can be easily resolved by simply resetting the server and/or classes, money of players. The new class would of course have to be unique to really punish users who just pick the class for fun, all classes should be something that connects to you.

3.) Lack of advertisement
- originally this was not on my list, but then i realized something drastic. On minecraft-server-list.com, herocraft is COMPLETELY removed from the 'rpg' tab. Personally, i think herocraft is the absolute best you will get at an rpg server for minecraft, but not having it even LISTED? that's a huge kick to the private parts. Even worse, minecraft server list isnt the only website that doesn't view herocraft! quite a shame honestly

4.) Lack of staff representation (Lack of staff)
- The amount of staff online recently, is so minimal you wont even notice it. Staff is a HUGE part of ANY game, they are what make the game what it is. When new players go online to see no staff, they are instantly reverted. No staff online gives people an instant idea as to how the server operates. The wiki is an excellent thing, but is not expressed a lot, if not, at all in game. So players who haven't already logged off to the fact they can't find a place to settle, will log off to the fact that there's no staff. I myself have been trying to help all new players who join but I fear what happens when i am not online.. To be fair though, the community is very great and is willing to lend a helping hand at all times.

5.) Grief everywhere
- It's honestly disgusting, and everywhere. This goes hand in hand with the lack of staff, and old map. New players are repelled away by seeing random dirt towers and destroyed buildings everywhere, it's quite sad.


These are the reasons players are leaving, and these are the reasons players refuse to stay. These are the reasons as to why we only have 40-50 players online at a time, sometimes less. BUT IT ISNT TOO LATE

I am a player from around 1-2 years ago. I remember when there were 100+ players online at a time, and sometimes much much more. It saddens me to see howw much the server is declining. This server can and will get back on its feet, because it IS without a doubt in my mind THE ABSOLUTE BEST rpg server in minecraft, and it deserves much more than 100, maybe even 1000 players at a time.


So long as the server improves, advertises, gets staff (A lot of it) and starts fresh, i know we can get back to how we once were.

 

[Watermelon_01]

Please keep in mind that this post is not close to a rage post and i will be stating actual facts as to why less players are joining herocraft. After this, i will include multiple suggestions as to how we can prevent the decline of herocrafts playerbase, and actually inscrease it


Why more players are quitting, and less are joining: I will be listing the reasons and then going in depth afterwards

1.) Old map

2.) No new classes

3.) Lack of advertisement

4.) Lack of staff representation (Or just lack of staff)

5.) Grief everywhere

6.) Quite simply, the playerbase itself.

1.) Old Map
- Ok so, the new map has been released for a good amount of time now, the amount of land that hasnt been adventured/built on is little to non existent. What this does is ward off new players as they are trying to settle somewhere, and it is very hard and nearly impossible to settle on the map present currently. Once a new player finds no new land, they are forced to just log off. On top of this, the amount of resources still left on the map are also minimal with all the strip mines underground.


2.) No new classes
- Very simple, the same classes have been available for over a year or two with samurai as a comeback with abilities missing... this makes posting class suggestions a waste of time, and this also makes players lose interest in the game. There are of course, many drawbacks to adding a new class, such as all players selecting it, the coding involved and balancing, it's all a lot of work which is understandable. However, players spamming the class can be easily resolved by simply resetting the server and/or classes, money of players. The new class would of course have to be unique to really punish users who just pick the class for fun, all classes should be something that connects to you.

3.) Lack of advertisement
- originally this was not on my list, but then i realized something drastic. On minecraft-server-list.com, herocraft is COMPLETELY removed from the 'rpg' tab. Personally, i think herocraft is the absolute best you will get at an rpg server for minecraft, but not having it even LISTED? that's a huge kick to the private parts. Even worse, minecraft server list isnt the only website that doesn't view herocraft! quite a shame honestly

4.) Lack of staff representation (Lack of staff)
- The amount of staff online recently, is so minimal you wont even notice it. Staff is a HUGE part of ANY game, they are what make the game what it is. When new players go online to see no staff, they are instantly reverted. No staff online gives people an instant idea as to how the server operates. The wiki is an excellent thing, but is not expressed a lot, if not, at all in game. So players who haven't already logged off to the fact they can't find a place to settle, will log off to the fact that there's no staff. I myself have been trying to help all new players who join but I fear what happens when i am not online.. To be fair though, the community is very great and is willing to lend a helping hand at all times.

5.) Grief everywhere
- It's honestly disgusting, and everywhere. This goes hand in hand with the lack of staff, and old map. New players are repelled away by seeing random dirt towers and destroyed buildings everywhere, it's quite sad.


These are the reasons players are leaving, and these are the reasons players refuse to stay. These are the reasons as to why we only have 40-50 players online at a time, sometimes less. BUT IT ISNT TOO LATE

I am a player from around 1-2 years ago. I remember when there were 100+ players online at a time, and sometimes much much more. It saddens me to see howw much the server is declining. This server can and will get back on its feet, because it IS without a doubt in my mind THE ABSOLUTE BEST rpg server in minecraft, and it deserves much more than 100, maybe even 1000 players at a time.


So long as the server improves, advertises, gets staff (A lot of it) and starts fresh, i know we can get back to how we once were.

1.) I agree that good land and resources is beginning to get a little bit stagnant and annoying (though there is still available if time and effort is put in) but the map itself isn't old in the slightest. This was supposed to be a very long standing map since longevity was one of the major goals of this swap from the last map.

2.) Nothing to say about other than balance issues, partly due to the focus placed on other parts of the server.

3.) There does need to be more advertisements and recently there was talk of giving heralds the job of working on the youtube channel.

4.) Most times it seems there is at least one person that can represent the server in some way. That being said, the are times, especially during my time zone's early mornings that there are very few players, including staff. I do understand that everyone has things to do sometimes but maybe some encouragement to the masses to sign up for staff or some position may be good. I know for myself that I would like to help but I don't know if I meet the requirements or have the time so guidelines like that would be helpful as well.

5.) Grief would probably be better if the petitions got filled more often. I don't think that this is the fault of the lack of staff because I'm pretty sure that there is a sizeable amount of people with permissions to check and resolve petitions.

In my opinion, what we really need is a little more coordination. A lot of the issues lie in problems with gameplay and the effectiveness of the staff. Gameplay issues can be resolved if the devs, coders, etc. focus more on what is here now and the come near to making it perfect as it is. To define, PERFECT means fully balanced or with few issues, as few bugs and mishaps as possible, and will be interesting when it comes out. This does not mean that it has to be the perfect plugin and will never be touched again. For example, townships has been updated to solve nobody's problems and has not improved as it should have in its' last 'improvement'. I know a lot of focus has been put into the adventure world and I hope it fits my definition of perfect else it becomes difficult to handle like the rest of the server. If everything at least works well at the time and people are happy enough then the devs will have time to make and perfect another component for the game.

Lastly, the staff needs to get it's act together. I don't know specifics of how everything works and where the exact issues lie but I know petitions take a LONG TIME to get even acknowledged and even after that, resolved. The heralds seem to be lost and have very little to do except wait for orders. As I mentioned before, the devs' have not been delivering on what they intend. The wiki team, until J2BH made a few changes of late, has seemed to stop changing and imporving the wiki page, having not done anything in several days. Not I DO NOT mean to offend or harm any of the staff by saying any of this but everyone seems to be out of order and working so independently that it's like trying to make power for a house with a tiny rc car solar panel when there is no sun out in the first place.

Tell me what you think, I have said my peace and apologized in advance for any damage I may do.

 

[J2BH]

1.) I agree that good land and resources is beginning to get a little bit stagnant and annoying (though there is still available if time and effort is put in) but the map itself isn't old in the slightest. This was supposed to be a very long standing map since longevity was one of the major goals of this swap from the last map.

2.) Nothing to say about other than balance issues, partly due to the focus placed on other parts of the server.

3.) There does need to be more advertisements and recently there was talk of giving heralds the job of working on the youtube channel.

4.) Most times it seems there is at least one person that can represent the server in some way. That being said, the are times, especially during my time zone's early mornings that there are very few players, including staff. I do understand that everyone has things to do sometimes but maybe some encouragement to the masses to sign up for staff or some position may be good. I know for myself that I would like to help but I don't know if I meet the requirements or have the time so guidelines like that would be helpful as well.

5.) Grief would probably be better if the petitions got filled more often. I don't think that this is the fault of the lack of staff because I'm pretty sure that there is a sizeable amount of people with permissions to check and resolve petitions.

In my opinion, what we really need is a little more coordination. A lot of the issues lie in problems with gameplay and the effectiveness of the staff. Gameplay issues can be resolved if the devs, coders, etc. focus more on what is here now and the come near to making it perfect as it is. To define, PERFECT means fully balanced or with few issues, as few bugs and mishaps as possible, and will be interesting when it comes out. This does not mean that it has to be the perfect plugin and will never be touched again. For example, townships has been updated to solve nobody's problems and has not improved as it should have in its' last 'improvement'. I know a lot of focus has been put into the adventure world and I hope it fits my definition of perfect else it becomes difficult to handle like the rest of the server. If everything at least works well at the time and people are happy enough then the devs will have time to make and perfect another component for the game.

Lastly, the staff needs to get it's act together. I don't know specifics of how everything works and where the exact issues lie but I know petitions take a LONG TIME to get even acknowledged and even after that, resolved. The heralds seem to be lost and have very little to do except wait for orders. As I mentioned before, the devs' have not been delivering on what they intend. The wiki team, until J2BH made a few changes of late, has seemed to stop changing and imporving the wiki page, having not done anything in several days. Not I DO NOT mean to offend or harm any of the staff by saying any of this but everyone seems to be out of order and working so independently that it's like trying to make power for a house with a tiny rc car solar panel when there is no sun out in the first place.

Tell me what you think, I have said my peace and apologized in advance for any damage I may do.

Thanks for the response!

 

[Kainzo]

Please keep in mind that this post is not close to a rage post and i will be stating actual facts as to why less players are joining herocraft. After this, i will include multiple suggestions as to how we can prevent the decline of herocrafts playerbase, and actually inscrease it


Why more players are quitting, and less are joining: I will be listing the reasons and then going in depth afterwards

1.) Old map

2.) No new classes

3.) Lack of advertisement

4.) Lack of staff representation (Or just lack of staff)

5.) Grief everywhere

6.) Quite simply, the playerbase itself.

1.) Old Map
- Ok so, the new map has been released for a good amount of time now, the amount of land that hasnt been adventured/built on is little to non existent. What this does is ward off new players as they are trying to settle somewhere, and it is very hard and nearly impossible to settle on the map present currently. Once a new player finds no new land, they are forced to just log off. On top of this, the amount of resources still left on the map are also minimal with all the strip mines underground.


2.) No new classes
- Very simple, the same classes have been available for over a year or two with samurai as a comeback with abilities missing... this makes posting class suggestions a waste of time, and this also makes players lose interest in the game. There are of course, many drawbacks to adding a new class, such as all players selecting it, the coding involved and balancing, it's all a lot of work which is understandable. However, players spamming the class can be easily resolved by simply resetting the server and/or classes, money of players. The new class would of course have to be unique to really punish users who just pick the class for fun, all classes should be something that connects to you.

3.) Lack of advertisement
- originally this was not on my list, but then i realized something drastic. On minecraft-server-list.com, herocraft is COMPLETELY removed from the 'rpg' tab. Personally, i think herocraft is the absolute best you will get at an rpg server for minecraft, but not having it even LISTED? that's a huge kick to the private parts. Even worse, minecraft server list isnt the only website that doesn't view herocraft! quite a shame honestly

4.) Lack of staff representation (Lack of staff)
- The amount of staff online recently, is so minimal you wont even notice it. Staff is a HUGE part of ANY game, they are what make the game what it is. When new players go online to see no staff, they are instantly reverted. No staff online gives people an instant idea as to how the server operates. The wiki is an excellent thing, but is not expressed a lot, if not, at all in game. So players who haven't already logged off to the fact they can't find a place to settle, will log off to the fact that there's no staff. I myself have been trying to help all new players who join but I fear what happens when i am not online.. To be fair though, the community is very great and is willing to lend a helping hand at all times.

5.) Grief everywhere
- It's honestly disgusting, and everywhere. This goes hand in hand with the lack of staff, and old map. New players are repelled away by seeing random dirt towers and destroyed buildings everywhere, it's quite sad.


These are the reasons players are leaving, and these are the reasons players refuse to stay. These are the reasons as to why we only have 40-50 players online at a time, sometimes less. BUT IT ISNT TOO LATE

I am a player from around 1-2 years ago. I remember when there were 100+ players online at a time, and sometimes much much more. It saddens me to see howw much the server is declining. This server can and will get back on its feet, because it IS without a doubt in my mind THE ABSOLUTE BEST rpg server in minecraft, and it deserves much more than 100, maybe even 1000 players at a time.


So long as the server improves, advertises, gets staff (A lot of it) and starts fresh, i know we can get back to how we once were.

1) we're bringing out resource maps and a new network.
2) There's new paths coming (Chaos Order) read hc.to/chaosorder here, along with tons of new items to help.
3) We're dumping $1000-2000 on advertising spots once the new Network hub is here.
4) We're always recruiting and its not easy to just hand out admin positions.
5) We're going to be putting in GriefPrevention to help with this.

 

[barbas0l]

Fortunately these are all things that are being addressed as we speak Get excited!

One thing I try to explain to people is that there is no such thing in life as a perfect system, they just don't exist in any facet of life. This doesn't mean you shouldn't strive to improve and create better methods, it's just a fact of life that nothing is perfect.

Fortunately we're behind the scenes working on solutions to nearly everything both of you have voiced opinions on. I've been a part of the herocraft community for many years, and can attest to it's cyclical periods of activity. The solutions to the aforementioned issues will take time and effort to resolve, but rest assured they are being heavily focused on.

We're also very welcoming to constructive ideas and insight, and are all ears for anything you might think would benefit the server. Step one to solving a problem is defining the problem, step two is brainstorming on solutions, etc. Herocraft's biggest goal is quality content, with fair and effective balance to issues that arise for a multitude of reasons. We've got a lot of content being developed and prepared for release, and it's things we've been working on for quite some time now.

I know a few of the other staff members have been under fire in their personal lives, and I'm in the same boat I fortunately just spoke with my boss about switching my schedule up, and this will free a bunch of time up for me in the near future (we had 3 people quit/leave in less than a month, and our dept. only had 8 people XD )

All in all, we're constantly evolving and working on improving a quality gaming experience for the player base.

 

[Jrr_]

when are attributes on armor coming out?

 

[spiralz]

There is loads of land that hasn't been built on. You must not be venturing out far enough because I am able to easily travel through unclaimed/unbuilt territories, especially in some parts of PvE (PvP also has much untampered land). You just need to get far enough away from spawn, man.

As for the unsightly grief, I would like to have a Grief Control team that is given perms to quickly and effectively clean up map grief. When I refer to grief, I'm thinking cobble pillars on mountain sides or cobble/dirt/wood cube homes that are unclaimed and unused. I think a good Grief Control team could clean that stuff up to keep the map looking pretty. But that's just an idea I have... maybe I should make a Suggestion post for it... hmmm. :3

 

[LordZelkova]

Lastly, the staff needs to get it's act together. I don't know specifics of how everything works and where the exact issues lie but I know petitions take a LONG TIME to get even acknowledged and even after that, resolved. The heralds seem to be lost and have very little to do except wait for orders. As I mentioned before, the devs' have not been delivering on what they intend. The wiki team, until J2BH made a few changes of late, has seemed to stop changing and imporving the wiki page, having not done anything in several days. Not I DO NOT mean to offend or harm any of the staff by saying any of this but everyone seems to be out of order and working so independently that it's like trying to make power for a house with a tiny rc car solar panel when there is no sun out in the first place.

Pe's are assigned and dealt with pretty regularly and quickly. The ones that sit usually need an admin.

Heralds are dead yes. The lead seems to be MiA and most aren't working on things. Ahrall was working on spotlights again and I've been busy with adventure and other things.

Wiki: I haven't had much to do with due to other obligations recently but the wiki doesn't need 24/7 updates. Things are changing/being added so for now the wiki is fine. Once all the new stuff (chaos and order, new network etc) is out the wiki will reflect those.


As someone who felt the same long ago, I feel the need to stress that thing are happening behind the scenes. We can't always share the details right away.

 

[xMJay]

7. Server lag. Idk if it's a server box problem or conflicting plugins, but the lag is extremely unappealing. New players will be less likely to stick when they are lagging.

Hopefully, the other servers won't have survival's lag problems. Or according to staff, I hope my client side lag isn't as bad.(this is bullshit considering I don't lag at all in arena server on hc.)

 

[Kainzo]

7. Server lag. Idk if it's a server box problem or conflicting plugins, but the lag is extremely unappealing. New players will be less likely to stick when they are lagging.

Hopefully, the other servers won't have survival's lag problems. Or according to staff, I hope my client side lag isn't as bad.(this is bullshit considering I don't lag at all in arena server on hc.)

Hoppers broke, its being addressed.

 

[J2BH]

1) we're bringing out resource maps and a new network.
2) There's new paths coming (Chaos Order) read hc.to/chaosorder here, along with tons of new items to help.
3) We're dumping $1000-2000 on advertising spots once the new Network hub is here.
4) We're always recruiting and its not easy to just hand out admin positions.
5) We're going to be putting in GriefPrevention to help with this.

Its really good to know all of these issues will be resolved in due time. Thanks for the response, but i did want to ask if this new netwrok is going to kill/reduce lag, if that's the case then we're good to go.

 

[J2BH]

Fortunately these are all things that are being addressed as we speak Get excited!

One thing I try to explain to people is that there is no such thing in life as a perfect system, they just don't exist in any facet of life. This doesn't mean you shouldn't strive to improve and create better methods, it's just a fact of life that nothing is perfect.

Fortunately we're behind the scenes working on solutions to nearly everything both of you have voiced opinions on. I've been a part of the herocraft community for many years, and can attest to it's cyclical periods of activity. The solutions to the aforementioned issues will take time and effort to resolve, but rest assured they are being heavily focused on.

We're also very welcoming to constructive ideas and insight, and are all ears for anything you might think would benefit the server. Step one to solving a problem is defining the problem, step two is brainstorming on solutions, etc. Herocraft's biggest goal is quality content, with fair and effective balance to issues that arise for a multitude of reasons. We've got a lot of content being developed and prepared for release, and it's things we've been working on for quite some time now.

I know a few of the other staff members have been under fire in their personal lives, and I'm in the same boat I fortunately just spoke with my boss about switching my schedule up, and this will free a bunch of time up for me in the near future (we had 3 people quit/leave in less than a month, and our dept. only had 8 people XD )

All in all, we're constantly evolving and working on improving a quality gaming experience for the player base.

I really do appreciate the work you guys do, I wish it wasn't behind the scenes so more people could thank you , aside from that, i'm really glad these issues are being resolved. I just wanted to point them out is all

 

[J2BH]

There is loads of land that hasn't been built on. You must not be venturing out far enough because I am able to easily travel through unclaimed/unbuilt territories, especially in some parts of PvE (PvP also has much untampered land). You just need to get far enough away from spawn, man.

As for the unsightly grief, I would like to have a Grief Control team that is given perms to quickly and effectively clean up map grief. When I refer to grief, I'm thinking cobble pillars on mountain sides or cobble/dirt/wood cube homes that are unclaimed and unused. I think a good Grief Control team could clean that stuff up to keep the map looking pretty. But that's just an idea I have... maybe I should make a Suggestion post for it... hmmm. :3

Before typing anything i did on this post, i made sure i did my research. As for the land being minimal, me and my friend ran a border test that took well around 5 hours or so, we traveled all the way to the border of the map, with the bedrock. Then ran in line with the bedrock border, surveying all land every 1000 or so blocks, wwe only found around 6-7 spots where the land was untouched ABOVE ground, but no land wwas untouched beneath. Thank you for the reply

 

[kperkins1982]

I'm always seeing people complain about the map being "mined out". This is certainly not the case.

I know we all like to mine virgin stone, but just because you see criss crossed tunnels doesn't mean the ore is gone, anything not exposed is still there. Just go a couple right or left and mine there. Also, most of these tunnels are at certain y= levels. I find if you dig a little higher it isn't as touched. When I mine between 45 and 16 I rarely run into tunnels.

With a 10k x 10k map there are 4.5 billion blocks to mine under y=45. Yes I said BILLION

 

[Ccrazymaster]

honestly i don't know much but one or two of the things may be right the rest looks like you were trying to fill some space first off we all know the server's been inactive but that you can't take that as a reason against itself you can't say someone's sick because they have sickness so obviously a lot wouldn't be explored what i agree with is that there is strip mines every where which gets annoying but that doesn't mean there's no ores. second as kainzo said above there is the new classes. but also as far as i know one can't just add a class or skill or whatever just because someone thinks it'll be cool stuff like that need to be balanced and tested a whole lot. third i won't really go into something i really don't know about or that is not really my busniss, fourth personally i've never seen someone on the server ask about something and not find at least 2 people to help staff or not there's usually help on the server. fifth i've been thinking about something for the grief but i won't talk about it here nontheless i don't see it as a reason for someone to leave.

but i respect your opinion and these are just my thoughts.

 

[kperkins1982]

Man that was hard to read. Punctuation and paragraphs dude.

 

[Ccrazymaster]

Man that was hard to read. Punctuation and paragraphs dude.

lol sorry i guess

 

[Dwarfers]

For me personally, from the moment PvP and PvE split apart a few maps ago, things started to change. I'm the kind of player who wants to build, but also wants to be in danger of PvP, but not a full fledged PvPer. People with these similar characteristics I find hard to find and those who used to be like me have moved on from the server or simply are tired of the state of PvP and have retired to PvE.

I also was one of those who left the server, but for the reason of not having the player base around me that I want. Those I have with me now only care about the Heroes classes and PvP while I'm alone wanting to build and PvP, but mostly build. This leads me to take on large building projects that give me a hard time to stay motivated to build since I am alone. Honestly, for me, Herocraft isn't fun unless I have the right group of people with me.

Another thing that pushed me away a little bit is the constant incoming of new content. Sometimes I just feel the new content is rushed and isn't prepared for release when it was released. I'm all for new content, but to me it appears there is too much being done at once and that we need to slow down a bit even if we do have designated groups of people for each thing which also is effected by the amount of active staff we have which, in my opinion, is less than needed.