Crypt and Mag do exactly this in the SoTS (in addition to enumerating why content can be pushed back), so if you haven't yet had a listen, I'd encourage you to do so.
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Suggestion Changes to Loka are needed.
- Thread starter FroggyFruit1357
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Crypt and Mag do exactly this in the SoTS (in addition to enumerating why content can be pushed back), so if you haven't yet had a listen, I'd encourage you to do so.
Quite agree with this, and from talking with Crypt/Mag I think they want to be more open about things. Would love to implement this with social media. We do have articles coming, but we're waiting for the site to be updated before starting those.
You have been saying you have been adding some stuff for ages but where are they? You just added the new nether thing but it has been all focused on conquest. What about the PVE Side? If it isn't involving conquest you guys push it to the end of the list. If you look all the players get on for the fight and get off. We need to keep the players engaged by keeping it 50-50 from conquest and pve things.
One of the things I mentioned above as being enumerated in the SoTS was why content can be pushed back. Recently, with Conquest having popped off on Kalros and Garama it was more important to shift focus to Conquest related content, whether it be the balancing changes suggested by Phoenix and supported by many members of the community, or performance fixes to help improve the server. That's just one example, but it's definitely very important that Loka continuously evaluates what its priorities should be in terms of development and this month certainly was an example of that.
Also, as was mentioned in the SOTS, people need to voice their opinions more on the forums. I keep very closely up to date on new threads; most of the suggestions have to do with QoL and Conquest. You want PvE content? Tell staff on the forums! This is the easiest place for them to track suggestions.
That's what PvE team are meant for. While the owners are dealing with conquest what has the PvE team been doing? There haven't been many PVE Things in the last couple of months.
FroggyFruit1357
Well-Known Member
During the SOTS, there is always a suggestion section. Lots of town progression and finding ways to implement 1.13 items suggestions have been made and also put to the bottom of the to-do list if put on at all. We make suggestions, it's not always on the forums
As was also mentioned during the SoTS, PvE team is mostly reliant on the new Questing system that will come out, which gives them greater range to create content without Crypt needing to be involved (Somewhere around 36 minutes in). Honestly, CHECK OUT the recording if you haven't/weren't able to listen to it.
That’s a fair statement. As someone not involved with the PvE Team I can’t give an answer on what they have/haven’t been doing lately, however, as Sparky said, I think this new Questing thing is going to spark a lot of PvE involvement. Regardless, though, I think staff and the Web-Art Team specifically need to find ways to be more transparent about things going on without giving things away too early. How to broach that exactly is a difficult subject.
Absolutely, SOTS was a great way to voice thoughts, but SOTS is not a regular occurrence at this point. (Should it be? I think that’d be epic!) The best way to let staff know what a ton of players want is NOT to PM staff about it, NOT to talk about it in Loka Discord, but to plop it right here on the forums and spark discussion in an organized manner that Discord can’t provide. I know Mag especially loves forums for this reason and also because he’s a prehistoric caveman.
The “Implement in Future” section, albeit long and arguably not very well mapped (timeline, priority, etc), is something super, super easy for our devs to check and review and discuss. Let staff know what you want there, and get other Lokans to contribute to the discussion!
I'm not entirely sure what the focus of the suggestion is in this thread. I believe it revolves around more PvE content but please correct me if I'm wrong.
We are a good 6+ months behind schedule in terms of content as a result of 1.13 and 1.14. The majority of this is performance-related, which is always our top priority. There is no point spending time adding new content if the server is unplayable because of lag etc. Sadly just upgrading the server hardware further is not the answer, otherwise, we would have done that already. New conquest features are not very time consuming, most of the time is spent optimizing and maintaining the performance of the server. There have been some great suggesting related to town progression, quality of life improvements etc. which we will revisit when we tackle that specific feature. It's not efficient for us to jump between features randomly, but instead tackle and revamp or implement it all at once. Hence why many posts are tagged with implement in future. We are constantly aware of the suggestions we want to implement in the future and they do not get ignored or forgotten. Jobs 2.0 is a massive upcoming feature, which you guys will see sometime after the new market is out. We have put a lot of dev time into this because we feel it will be able to provide the server with endless content.
I don't think it's fair to attack the PvE team. They are a group of players who volunteer their time to help out the server. Myself and Crypt (also volunteers) are in the process of providing them with the tools to get fresh content to Loka. They cannot simply code a new feature as they do not possess the skill set to do so. (it's not an easy thing to do either)
The point about building hype for a new feature would be great in an ideal world. However, we want to get content out the second it is ready rather than hanging onto it to build hype for a week or two. The hope is in the future we will have a consistent stream of content and as a result will be able to hype the things coming up.
We also have a bunch of content coming that is locked behind 1.14. (ocean content etc.) I know the last 6 months to a year have been frustrating at times because they have been for us too. We managed to push out the void storage feature earlier in the year along with numerous quality of life additions and smaller features. Now we have a ton of content related updates lined up, which I'm genuinely really excited about. Fingers crossed Mojang doesn't mess up 1.15 and it should be plain sailing.
Brief Roadmap:
We are a good 6+ months behind schedule in terms of content as a result of 1.13 and 1.14. The majority of this is performance-related, which is always our top priority. There is no point spending time adding new content if the server is unplayable because of lag etc. Sadly just upgrading the server hardware further is not the answer, otherwise, we would have done that already. New conquest features are not very time consuming, most of the time is spent optimizing and maintaining the performance of the server. There have been some great suggesting related to town progression, quality of life improvements etc. which we will revisit when we tackle that specific feature. It's not efficient for us to jump between features randomly, but instead tackle and revamp or implement it all at once. Hence why many posts are tagged with implement in future. We are constantly aware of the suggestions we want to implement in the future and they do not get ignored or forgotten. Jobs 2.0 is a massive upcoming feature, which you guys will see sometime after the new market is out. We have put a lot of dev time into this because we feel it will be able to provide the server with endless content.
I don't think it's fair to attack the PvE team. They are a group of players who volunteer their time to help out the server. Myself and Crypt (also volunteers) are in the process of providing them with the tools to get fresh content to Loka. They cannot simply code a new feature as they do not possess the skill set to do so. (it's not an easy thing to do either)
The point about building hype for a new feature would be great in an ideal world. However, we want to get content out the second it is ready rather than hanging onto it to build hype for a week or two. The hope is in the future we will have a consistent stream of content and as a result will be able to hype the things coming up.
We also have a bunch of content coming that is locked behind 1.14. (ocean content etc.) I know the last 6 months to a year have been frustrating at times because they have been for us too. We managed to push out the void storage feature earlier in the year along with numerous quality of life additions and smaller features. Now we have a ton of content related updates lined up, which I'm genuinely really excited about. Fingers crossed Mojang doesn't mess up 1.15 and it should be plain sailing.
Brief Roadmap:
- Updated Market
- Jobs 2.0
- 1.13 Ocean Content (this will happen once we update to 1.14)
- 1.14 Update
- Achievements Revamp (rewards and over 1k cheevs)
- Events (think fishing tournament)
- Treasure Knives
- Town Progression Improvements
all i see is this
Great points, very helpful!
As for the “can’t hype because we wanna release ASAP” thing, I think it’d be cool to release little slices of content to the Web-Art Team and have them advertise it and hype it up while still in development. Unfinished stuff, partial builds, little clues, etc.
Certainly possible. My only concern would be that it could come across as misleading or disappointing if we had to switch focus from something we teased (to something like server performance) and it got delayed. On the flip side if we don't set dates or expected release times then maybe people don't mind waiting for something they saw teased if the worst case happens.
I'd rather get a teaser and wait then just be waiting around with nothing, teasers are fun to talk about and really build hype and at least give the players something to be excited for
Agreed!
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Even if it got canceled. Teasers let everyone know there's stuff in the works and they have something to look forward to. Looking for just words burns people out too quickly
FroggyFruit1357
Well-Known Member
I think that what we need is some way of seeing things coming out in the future and knowing that things are in the works and not just a pointless bulletin of things that may or may not come out.
One thing that I see a lot of games in development using is a Trello roadmap (for example Unturned II: trello.com) to define categories of stuff such as:
If Crypt or Mag would like to look into possibly using Trello, it might be a good way to show players what is upcoming. Otherwise, I agree with a lot of stuff Grubul said about building hype. Most of it comes from the SOTS and dies out until the next one.
I think that through the social media team building hype can be accomplished pretty easily.
For example with the new shrines, A picture of one in the nether with a caption something like "Upcoming changes to nether mobs are coming soon" or Nerdie adding a part to a video where he shows the picture and talks briefly about it would be a great way to tell the community that something is coming and would get more views from the community on his videos, giving him a better chance in the horrible YT algorithm (Nerdie I know how hard it is to gain subs and get more views) and eventually, putting the server out there.
I think that the original goal of this thread was to say "Hey, the server is kind of dying and has been for a while, are we going to fix it?" and now has moved to how can we better involve the community in active development and building hype. I hope that we can take some of the stuff from this thread and implement it.
One thing that I see a lot of games in development using is a Trello roadmap (for example Unturned II: trello.com) to define categories of stuff such as:
- In development
- Suggested features
- Conquest or PvE
If Crypt or Mag would like to look into possibly using Trello, it might be a good way to show players what is upcoming. Otherwise, I agree with a lot of stuff Grubul said about building hype. Most of it comes from the SOTS and dies out until the next one.
I think that through the social media team building hype can be accomplished pretty easily.
For example with the new shrines, A picture of one in the nether with a caption something like "Upcoming changes to nether mobs are coming soon" or Nerdie adding a part to a video where he shows the picture and talks briefly about it would be a great way to tell the community that something is coming and would get more views from the community on his videos, giving him a better chance in the horrible YT algorithm (Nerdie I know how hard it is to gain subs and get more views) and eventually, putting the server out there.
I think that the original goal of this thread was to say "Hey, the server is kind of dying and has been for a while, are we going to fix it?" and now has moved to how can we better involve the community in active development and building hype. I hope that we can take some of the stuff from this thread and implement it.
Trello would be cool to use so long as its kept up to date. Would definitely like to do more social media teasers; I can’t until I have some way of knowing what’s currently in development and how much I’m allowed to share. That’s outside my control, but I’d absolutely love to do teasers.
My channel isn’t an official source of Loka news. While I think it’d be good to tease stuff on my channel (going off the teaser idea - stuff I know I’m allowed to talk about a little bit), we’d want to focus more on doing this on social media or maybe even Loka’s YouTube.