No one can deny that we've lost a massive amount of members recently, and we're not regaining any new ones. What's wrong with this server is that it inhibits PvP in certain areas, and it gets tiring to try to fight others and have to rely on luck and infiltration to get any raids in, and the infiltrations cause factions that get infiltrated to quit and leave. That is the first among multiple problems I will attempt to find remedies for in this thread, and as always, other opinions are welcome and appreciated.
I've decided the easiest way to divide the the problems into categories is by, PvP, plugins and features, and events/misc.
I'll start with events and misc, because it can help us retain members if started as soon as possible.
Events and Miscellaneous
Let's face it, the server as is can get quite stale. There's nothing to do besides grind for MCmmo levels or materials, or trying to find a base to raid, and trying to find an opening in that base. What we need is some sort of variety in the mix, to take the bland repetition out of Aggression. I mean, remember the arena and mob island events? A lot of people would wait for those, or tell their friends to get on during the event.
What we need are a set of events or even something like announcements of things like who got the most kills, or who raided the most during that week. Most events can be implemented easily, and with little extra plugins, and maybe a dedicated "Event Master". Here's a list and basic explanation of events we could hold on the server to provide alternative forms of entertainment.
Arena matches- Pretty obvious, but it speaks for itself, people love a good fight that doesn't risk anything for themselves or their faction. We could build a few types of battleground too, maybe a stealthy-style jungle where you sneak between trees and vines, or a maze that promotes being quick on the draw. Not to mention the classic 1v1, 2v2, and team v team arena fights.
Archery platform duels- This is an idea, not sure how well it would work, but groups of people are on 1x1-10 platforms, 1x1 if it's a 1v1, and higher up in length for multiple people, and the objective is to get a shot on the other guys and knock them off their platform to win.
Mob survival- Whoever holds out longest against waves of a zombie and endermen mixture, is declared the winner.
Now, these wouldn't happen often, so as not to draw from the PvP aspects of the server, but maybe they could each cycle off, with each being on Sunday or Saturday, with the next event being the Sunday/Saturday of the next week.
Ranking up- Well there's no point to ranks if we never rank anyone up is there? Just go through the list and rank people up once a month or week, based on how active they are and how much they promote others to be active.
Plugins and Features
/Rules- Okay this really needs to be fixed, the rules are things like, don't lava grief, use common sense, and go to the forums for more rules. The reason I think the sign rules don't work, is that people want to get the feel of a server before they read the rules, they want to know if the server is good, they won't read the rules of a server if they aren't going to play on it anyway.After they establish that the server is decent, they'll be more interested in reading the rules, and will be more willing to read the rules from a plugin, rather than heading to spawn to read them off a sign. (If they don't think the server is decent, they'll leave anyway so who cares?)
Promote the use of /own (Lets faction admins allow who can access land, so you can set it so only yourself and people you trust can access certain chunks.) This prevents infiltration raids, or at least makes it so that people on alts have to enter the higher tiers of factions to get things and raid the faction.
PvP
Here it is, the majority of the server, and also something needing a nice re-vamp.
Rewards/Incentive- Right now, there isn't much of an incentive to PvP, besides gaining the other guy's loot. What we need to do is raise the bounty on kills, maybe to 20 or 30% of their cash, and
coupled with rewards like "Most kills" "Best K/D" and "Best killstreak", this provides an incentive to PvP like crazy.
K/D reset- Well I got this idea from playing Halo:Reach, in the arena mode, you play a series of at least 16 matches, and get ranked in a division for how well you did, and you move up or down based on your continued performance, but the hitch is that when the new season starts, your slate is wiped clean. This also allows for rewards at the end of arena seasons, and hackers and inactives get booted from the list.
(Sub-category) Raiding
The current system totally kills the idea of raiding, and requires people to either infiltrate with alternate accounts, or to glitch into bases.
Limiting the protection area- Who really needs 250 chunks of land to build their bases? I say we cap it off at like 50. This allows for small satellite bases, but keeps the smaller factions on tier land-wise with larger factions.
Protection change- We could require bases to have a main entrance with WG on it instead of factions, this allows admins to drop the WG on that one chunk, and other factions can come in and attack if they so please. Of course, this should happen at a set time, so the defenders know to be there to protect their base. (Make factions apply to get the WG once the base is built for it?)
TNT- If it's implemented at a high price, and creepers don't drop gunpowder to make it, TNT can become a very useful weapon to add to arsenals, instead of having to fight through the small fortified entrance to the one WG chunk, TNT it apart, and allow multiple troops to enter at once.
I'll add more as it gets suggested, and as I think of it.
I've decided the easiest way to divide the the problems into categories is by, PvP, plugins and features, and events/misc.
I'll start with events and misc, because it can help us retain members if started as soon as possible.
Events and Miscellaneous
Let's face it, the server as is can get quite stale. There's nothing to do besides grind for MCmmo levels or materials, or trying to find a base to raid, and trying to find an opening in that base. What we need is some sort of variety in the mix, to take the bland repetition out of Aggression. I mean, remember the arena and mob island events? A lot of people would wait for those, or tell their friends to get on during the event.
What we need are a set of events or even something like announcements of things like who got the most kills, or who raided the most during that week. Most events can be implemented easily, and with little extra plugins, and maybe a dedicated "Event Master". Here's a list and basic explanation of events we could hold on the server to provide alternative forms of entertainment.
Arena matches- Pretty obvious, but it speaks for itself, people love a good fight that doesn't risk anything for themselves or their faction. We could build a few types of battleground too, maybe a stealthy-style jungle where you sneak between trees and vines, or a maze that promotes being quick on the draw. Not to mention the classic 1v1, 2v2, and team v team arena fights.
Archery platform duels- This is an idea, not sure how well it would work, but groups of people are on 1x1-10 platforms, 1x1 if it's a 1v1, and higher up in length for multiple people, and the objective is to get a shot on the other guys and knock them off their platform to win.
Mob survival- Whoever holds out longest against waves of a zombie and endermen mixture, is declared the winner.
Now, these wouldn't happen often, so as not to draw from the PvP aspects of the server, but maybe they could each cycle off, with each being on Sunday or Saturday, with the next event being the Sunday/Saturday of the next week.
Ranking up- Well there's no point to ranks if we never rank anyone up is there? Just go through the list and rank people up once a month or week, based on how active they are and how much they promote others to be active.
Plugins and Features
/Rules- Okay this really needs to be fixed, the rules are things like, don't lava grief, use common sense, and go to the forums for more rules. The reason I think the sign rules don't work, is that people want to get the feel of a server before they read the rules, they want to know if the server is good, they won't read the rules of a server if they aren't going to play on it anyway.After they establish that the server is decent, they'll be more interested in reading the rules, and will be more willing to read the rules from a plugin, rather than heading to spawn to read them off a sign. (If they don't think the server is decent, they'll leave anyway so who cares?)
Promote the use of /own (Lets faction admins allow who can access land, so you can set it so only yourself and people you trust can access certain chunks.) This prevents infiltration raids, or at least makes it so that people on alts have to enter the higher tiers of factions to get things and raid the faction.
PvP
Here it is, the majority of the server, and also something needing a nice re-vamp.
Rewards/Incentive- Right now, there isn't much of an incentive to PvP, besides gaining the other guy's loot. What we need to do is raise the bounty on kills, maybe to 20 or 30% of their cash, and
coupled with rewards like "Most kills" "Best K/D" and "Best killstreak", this provides an incentive to PvP like crazy.
K/D reset- Well I got this idea from playing Halo:Reach, in the arena mode, you play a series of at least 16 matches, and get ranked in a division for how well you did, and you move up or down based on your continued performance, but the hitch is that when the new season starts, your slate is wiped clean. This also allows for rewards at the end of arena seasons, and hackers and inactives get booted from the list.
(Sub-category) Raiding
The current system totally kills the idea of raiding, and requires people to either infiltrate with alternate accounts, or to glitch into bases.
Limiting the protection area- Who really needs 250 chunks of land to build their bases? I say we cap it off at like 50. This allows for small satellite bases, but keeps the smaller factions on tier land-wise with larger factions.
Protection change- We could require bases to have a main entrance with WG on it instead of factions, this allows admins to drop the WG on that one chunk, and other factions can come in and attack if they so please. Of course, this should happen at a set time, so the defenders know to be there to protect their base. (Make factions apply to get the WG once the base is built for it?)
TNT- If it's implemented at a high price, and creepers don't drop gunpowder to make it, TNT can become a very useful weapon to add to arsenals, instead of having to fight through the small fortified entrance to the one WG chunk, TNT it apart, and allow multiple troops to enter at once.
I'll add more as it gets suggested, and as I think of it.
