Opticraft Community

Yeah...

I don't think that the main objective should be to get more players. The main objective should be server improvement. I get it, some people do not want Opticraft to turn into a huge 300 player PvP server, and that is totally fine. For a while now there have been suggestions for PvP and team-based aspects to be added to the server from the community. If we focus on creating more game options to answer the suggestions from the players that we have, I think word will spread and more people will join.

OK I don't think anyone with a working mind can disagree that yes, the server is smaller, yes people are bored with vanilla minecraft, and yes we need to do something. I get the whole community feel and no matter how big we get I don't think that should be a option to loose it, invite them into our family. The only way I can see us loosing that feeling is if we push aside new players. OK so yes with all the modded packs and servers, mini games, and PvP things a survival server that has been around for a while seems bland. From looking at the suggestions forum I see that nearly every suggestion gets shot down. With reasons like "not enough staff", or "t much of a hasstle".  I get why people don't want this server to change but I feel like we need to be more open.

Here's what I mean. I returned about a week ago, and sure I got a welcome back, but I've noticed that after that initial few days people stopped really talking to me. They went off into their "community", and went on like i never returned. this is a big turn off for alot of people, and I get some people are doing things and don't want to talk, or don't want to say hi to everyone that logs in.....my point is if people are going to not respond and communicate with a member of the server for quite sometime, how would a new player feel. I feel like the community feel people are referring to is very closed and "high school clicky" in that they don't want to see more people but don't want to accept them into their circle. You can see it in the comments. "I want to expand, but don't want to loose the community feel" like I said above that won't be lost if we open up more and accept and greet people.

The same can be said with suggestions I feel that with this changing time we will need to invest time and make some of these possible, instead of sticking to the method that use to work. And I'm sure a lot of people are at that point where they are bored and wouldn't mind this project. Add in something,something new. There are tons of really good suggestions let's take the time and try some out and stop shooting down the idea based on personal preference.

This is just my opinion, from a player who did leave the server due to many of the same reasons others have. And all of these thoughts have come from months of sitting and thinking about what can change. And maybe that's what this server needs is a POV from someone outside of the community. -N8 p.s. yes i did write this in an open essay format for anyone asking.

Nate, its not about being open, its about being realistic. Most suggestions get shot down because they are either stupid, or are not feasible. Its easy to suggest we add something, but its much harder to add something.

N8Mathews, my point exactly. I also returned and did get welcomed back, but everyone seems
to converse solely with their trusted friends. The only way people talk to me is if I converse openly
and add to their conversation, but these responses are simply XD or lol. Also when people ask for help
many people do not respond. I try to help out everybody that asks especially my fellow members and
the default players to try to give them a feeling of hospitality. I am on man though, and cannot help
others on a 24/7 basis. If the community was more open and talkative as it was a year ago than maybe
we could have more people on the server with a community atmosphere. Of course it doesn't have to be
300 people but still we need more people for the server to thrive. We need to be more open to everyone's
questions, concerns, and suggestions. Even if the suggestion is just shot down it should be explained why it
was shot down. If this server wants to stay "alive" in the next 2-3 years then it needs to have more hospitality
to each other especially new comers.

I think we shouldn't be trying to focus on getting new members but focusing on improving the experience for out current members.

Vote!

This has been on my mind for a while, and I guess it all goes back to the fact we need someone to make the things that the sever "needs", be it optical or cschurz- prehaps someone new, but optical would need to trust them we'd have to find someone first. If they are willing to knuckle down and work on improvements we would be able to get some new stuff, but as Nick said they need to be feasible and useful, with what little resources we have. We don't have an army of Devs and they don't have lots of time on their hands.

I'm in no way saying I don't want new stuff, as I'd really like some sort of Opticraft exclusive PvP or minigames to keep myself occupied when not doing anything, but it isn't as simple as dragging and dropping files and expecting it to work. These are just my thoughts, and as new things go PvP has been the one thing everyone has been thinking about so would make sense as a starting point. But again, we'd need our own plugin if it were to attract more new players, having a simple PvP arena will do just fine as something for us to pass time but that isn't exactly going to make more people come and stay; rewards, unique features, unique maps and new gamemodes all of which are enjoyable are what keeps players on the servers, and the hidden things serverside, like servers to support maps, limits to players on maps, spawn locations, safe spots, inventory saves/kits require money, coding and time to make.

Anyway, pretty much all my thoughts on the matter. I'll help any way I can, I just know there will be a time which donations will not support the server and optical will have to either pay out of his pocket, downgrade the server or just give up - none of which (I hope) he doesn't want to do

Quote from: Tobs on July 26, 2013, 12:27:37 PM
This has been on my mind for a while, and I guess it all goes back to the fact we need someone to make the things that the sever "needs", be it optical or cschurz- prehaps someone new, but optical would need to trust them we'd have to find someone first. If they are willing to knuckle down and work on improvements we would be able to get some new stuff, but as Nick said they need to be feasible and useful, with what little resources we have. We don't have an army of Devs and they don't have lots of time on their hands.

I'm in no way saying I don't want new stuff, as I'd really like some sort of Opticraft exclusive PvP or minigames to keep myself occupied when not doing anything, but it isn't as simple as dragging and dropping files and expecting it to work. These are just my thoughts, and as new things go PvP has been the one thing everyone has been thinking about so would make sense as a starting point. But again, we'd need our own plugin if it were to attract more new players, having a simple PvP arena will do just fine as something for us to pass time but that isn't exactly going to make more people come and stay; rewards, unique features, unique maps and new gamemodes all of which are enjoyable are what keeps players on the servers, and the hidden things serverside, like servers to support maps, limits to players on maps, spawn locations, safe spots, inventory saves/kits require money, coding and time to make.

Anyway, pretty much all my thoughts on the matter. I'll help any way I can, I just know there will be a time which donations will not support the server and optical will have to either pay out of his pocket, downgrade the server or just give up - none of which (I hope) he doesn't want to do

I don't understand when you guys said "what little resources we have." like are you more thinking of donation or Devs?

Both, we only have optical and cschurz for developing plugins and they will not want to spend all their time working on them. Plus, as I said, there will be a time where optical will have to start paying for the server out of his own pocket- unless everyone continues donating more, more people would solve that issue.

To be honest i like the server as it is, more few players is good but hundreds? i wouldnt be a fan of that.
mini games etc may boost our player count, and pass some time, but i'd rather a small great community than loads of new people, invite your friends and vote, that will boost the player count, new things will come in time ^_^

Personally, I try to help new players whenever possible. If I have nothing to do, I go to the spawn and ask if anyone needs help. If someone's looking for a job, I'll try to think something up. I don't really care if I lose something in a bad trade, it helps a new player. If everyone did more of this stuff, we wouldn't have those players who are on for a day and leave.

Quote from: daniblue182 on July 26, 2013, 02:29:47 PM
To be honest i like the server as it is, more few players is good but hundreds? i wouldnt be a fan of that.
mini games etc may boost our player count, and pass some time, but i'd rather a small great community than loads of new people, invite your friends and vote, that will boost the player count, new things will come in time ^_^

Well said

Quote from: zxSM1FFYzx on July 26, 2013, 07:14:25 PM

Quote from: daniblue182 on July 26, 2013, 02:29:47 PM
To be honest i like the server as it is, more few players is good but hundreds? i wouldnt be a fan of that.
mini games etc may boost our player count, and pass some time, but i'd rather a small great community than loads of new people, invite your friends and vote, that will boost the player count, new things will come in time ^_^

Well said

thank you 

Quote from: Nick3306 on July 26, 2013, 04:13:07 AM
Nate, its not about being open, its about being realistic. Most suggestions get shot down because they are either stupid, or are not feasible. Its easy to suggest we add something, but its much harder to add something.

The following ideas are feasible, and not really "stupid" but that's kind of a personal opinion:
     - jetpacks (donor item)
     - mob spawn eggs (donation item)
     - pvp
     - allowing players to look up logblock info on a block (could reduce grief complaints if a player can look up a block to see if they, a friend of theirs, or an actual griefer placed/destroyed the block(s))
     - protection flag for animals
     - lava buckets for furnaces, but still can't place the lava

Pretty much all of the above were denied, or ignored to the point where everyone forgot about the idea's existence as the idea slowly got pushed to the bottom of the forums. Sure, there were downsides that were thought up of for the ideas, but a lot of those downsides were things that are likely to not become that big of an issue[spoiler=Example]Example: supposedly there is a glitch allowing players to place lava in laggy server conditions, but is there really going to be that large of a problem with people placing lava to grief? Sure there might be the occasional /helpop for that, but it can be fixed, and things like fire/fire spread are turned off anyways. Personally I don't think it would become a big issue, but that's the main reason why the idea got shot down.[/spoiler]

The above supports some of our claims that this server is a little closed-minded with new ideas. We just need ideas for improvement, and many of the ideas that were shot down could bring some improvement, and they can always be implemented as an idea in beta that could be taken back away at any moment should it turn out to be bad for real.