Discussion on the new server change request process

    First:


    I want to take a moment and thank everybody who as posted in the Server setting suggestions thread! I am absolutely impressed with the response and turnout of this community. With so many responses we should really have a good poll which will allow players to get the changes they really want for their universe. I also hope some who rarely post on the forum hang around and show how active this community really is. :thumbsup:


    Second:


    I want to know what you, the community, thought of this process. My job as an Admin is to have my finger on the pulse of this community and advise Gameforge what is happening so I really want to know what you think of this so I can make changes if needed. I want this process to be easy for all of you. Here are some ideas of possible discussion points but feel free to add anything you want (so long as it is within the rules - sorry, mandatory disclaimer required. :smile2:):

    • How transparent did you find the process?
    • Was the process easy to understand?
    • What did you think worked well?
    • What would you improve or how would you do it differently?



    I will start with things I would change:

    1. More notice. This was a really short notice exercise which was caused by several different factors including the fact I am new as a GA. The next time, I intend to provide more notice but it is certainly a valid criticism for this instance.
    2. I would prohibit editing of comments once the votes are counted. I noticed people went back and changed things and even removed my comments. To make things easier for me in the next iteration, I will prohibit editing after I comment the post to save everybody this confusion.
    3. I feel the first post which had the rules had too much text. Much of this text will not be there for the next iteration because we will have more notice and I will not need to apologize. Still, I feel the text volume prevented people from reading the entire post to know what was allowed and what was not so I think this was an issue. Perhaps the rules should have been at the top and then the examples below.

    I look forward to your feedback!

    1st off @[Admin] kewlness

    thanks for your time and effort i know its not easy, well done

    hard to get players to post here, have to say took lot of effort to spread the word to alliance members in game and others that dont visit often, not just me but others in uni Tarazed,,,

    like you said some just reposted other votes as was easier but didnt count,,,, so had to pm them them in game to edit, maybe in future allow posts


    Again cheers from us here and look forward to some changes :thumbsup::beer:

    Thank you for your feedback.

    I really appreciate it. :smile2:


    Right now I am basically "winging it". Once [ex-team] v0ldem0rt is back we will be working together to figure these things out instead of me just going it alone, but I am glad my process worked this time and if the feedback is generally positive we might do it this way again next time.


    Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to notify players their post was edited because it is a limitation of the board software. I know Queen Leo used to do this via PMs and emails (which allowed the notification) but was not very transparent (I do not think people realize how much work it is to tally all these ideas). I really like the transparency aspect because I think it is important for everybody to know how these polls come into existence but I can certainly understand the frustration of people who do not post here very often not knowing their post had issues. Of course, the obvious solution is to encourage more people to participate on the forum which is something with which the already active members could possibly assist us. I will have to make some thoughts about how to improve this (if it is even possible). :hmm:

    If you or anybody else has an idea, I am open to suggestions. :smile2:

    I feel the transparency here was fine, especially forcing people to type out what they want themselves rather than quoting and agreeing, like we'd seen on the Tarazed thread. With the impact changes have on a server, is much better to have everyone typing exactly what they want changed.


    The process was easy to understand. I shared it with as many as I could ingame and on various Discords for Tarazed. We saw a few fail to mention the Universe at the top, but most got that sorted out in the end.


    Overall, given the limited time frame here, I think it's went fine. You've done a good job here. We've gotten quite a few more to participate than usual for Tarazed. Bout a third of the server's active population I believe.


    ----------------------


    The issue I saw was the lack of explanations about each settings change option. Especially the newer War/Holding/Peaceful fleet speeds. Having a brief explanation of each setting on the "Possible Universe Settings" thread would probably help some people out. Especially with those new fleet speed options. As is, players on older servers have never been exposed to those before, and the explanation is on a thread few will see.


    I know most participating will have an idea of what the settings mean, but there's always going to be people that don't fully understand. Especially those newer fleet speed settings. Have seen some think that war speed means that all combat ships go at that speed, rather than it being based on what the fleet action is.

    You raise a valid point which I have now fixed in two places:

    I hope this helps everybody in the future and thank you for your feedback! :smile2: