It's no secret that RoF hasn't been doing too well as of late. We, as admins, do not want to close the server and so we're turning to you guys for your input on what should be done. Discuss anything, here are some ideas to guide you:
Why you stopped playing
What would need to be done to get you playing again
What you would do if you had full control over the server
Classic/Premium modes
Ranks, currency and the like
Anything else!
For the time being, assume that anything is possible, don't leave something out because you don't think it could be done. Once some ideas have come up, we'll take those and try and make the server as popular as it used to be.
Why I stopped playing: Loss of interest (mainly) and lack of players-- as I started playing less and less, I didn't get to know new players and old friends/players slowly but surely all left. Later activity just dropped to only cloudmario and superhalo sometimes being on the server and just two regulars doesn't work.
What would need to be done to get me playing again: An active playerbase. That's all. RoF got players interested because of its unique gamemode, but it kept them because its sense of community. The sole reason (in my opinion) RoF was so popular was because everyone knew each other and worked/played together. There were often small events (parkour, spleef, directors fucking around) which kept the game interesting and refreshing.
What would I do if I had full control over the server: Focus pretty much solely on two things: Advertising (mainly on reddit and websites like that) and getting an active developer. A server dies without a developer, we all saw what happened with PTNT. Even if you somehow manage to revive RoF, it will die soon enough once there aren't any new features being added and everyone gets bored of the regular game. There need to be very small updates every few weeks and big ones every few months to keep people's interest-- as long as those updates are possible, of course.
I agree with Wimali regarding the points they made, so me saying them would just be repeating his post.
This is really just my 2 cents about the remaining questions, so :
Classic/Premium modes
People may not have the time to sit down and play 35-45 minute rounds, but making the rounds even shorter would largly change how most maps work (Lower areas being flooded by the time people get there, or the spawn would get flooded very early on, if it was low down)
A small handful of maps should be chosen to based on how they are in terms of spawn/is there much valuable things further down in the ground.
Other maps like "The Hunt" wouldn't work for it, as there is just one/two lava flows, instead of multiple.
Ranks, currency and the like
I believe RoF has enough ranks as it stands, and any more would just be filler ranks, unless we added perks like AoD has with their rank system (And we would run out of ways to customize then, unless we add even more colours/distinguishing features)
For example, the prestige ranks look like
[Exorcist]Player or
[Crypt Keeper] Player
We would have to find a way to distinguish them from prestige ranks, as non-prestige ranks would only have one colour, such as :
Solution idea:merge rof into an aod gamemode, but with much much much (seriously) shorter rounds, like 5-10 mins of lava chaos would be fun, and a lot better than sitting in a hole for 30 minutes.
People may not have the time to sit down and play 35-45 minute rounds, but making the rounds even shorter would largly change how most maps work (Lower areas being flooded by the time people get there, or the spawn would get flooded very early on, if it was low down)
A small handful of maps should be chosen to based on how they are in terms of spawn/is there much valuable things further down in the ground.
Expanding on this, I still think round times were perfect the way they were at the beginning of LSMP, with varied round times, with a certain chance of rounds being a certain length--
Something like:
45m 10%
40m 15%
35m 50%
30m 15%
25m 10%
EDIT: Vatumok, also a fan of your idea. Making RoF more casual/arcade-like with multiple gamemodes seems like it would fit perfectly with RoF.
Why I stopped playing: Loss of interest (mainly) and lack of players-- as I started playing less and less, I didn't get to know new players and old friends/players slowly but surely all left. Later activity just dropped to only cloudmario and superhalo sometimes being on the server and just two regulars doesn't work.
To expand on this, and this has been a theory floating around for a long time (not sure if it's been debunked tho), many players are getting older, and there is no flow of new players to counter that. College, jobs, some even have families. Like sooper said, people simply don't have time (and this is especially an issue with obtaining the new, higher ranks).
Imo, the way RoF is right now could almost be achieved through IRC. The new ranks just introduced a gap between players, especially since quite a few of them require several dozens of survived ironman rounds to achieve. This went into too many people's heads -- I've seen more than one person turning into a complete asshole because he was one of the 'supreme and divine', the overpowered weapons they could afford to craft no doubt playing a role there.
Speaking of overpriced items, currency is a big thing. It's been suggested before, but I think player shops should have become a thing a long time ago. Once supercookies became a thing, they were tradeable, and many sought to spice up the shops by establishing some kind of trade that wasn't possible before. But I do honestly believe an economic system that the players could control (with fluctuating prices and all) would be a big plus (and yes I am aware of the drawbacks and issues).
Also I think Vatu has good ideas (but inventories promote innovation and development so imo you should keep those). Make the game more arcade-y, short, simple, and sweet (that's how most modern smaller titles became popular, anyways. All those match 3 games, peggle, flappy bird etc).
That's what I think but I don't think I'm one to judge this server -- I haven't been on for several weeks (if not months) at a time (though partly I can justify that with a lack of time), my opinion is clouded by what I regard as the 'good old days', and my views have changed since those golden days.
I really miss the active, socially playthroughs of Rof. It wasn't about making a dirt box and waiting 30 minutes, it was about making friends and organizing some fun events for the player base.
The fun times were I forgot how late it was, because the round couldn't go on forever. Also I really loved to organize the little games we did.
Like the quizzes, True or False and the Buildings Competitions etc. We even made special halls for each. In addition to that I loved to decorate the lobby each year, to bring something special in game.
But unfortunately I am growing older and older, and I must say that I am more into the organization of games and fun activities then on the role of baby sitter.
Why you stopped playing: Loss of interest and loss of players in part, but for me the stone that killed RoF was the return of AoD.
What would need to be done to get you playing again: More player activity on RoF would probably get me on more. Unfortunately, this can't be done at the wave of a wand. I would suggest an increase in events.
What you would do if you had full control over the server: I would work with the staff team to dig up old events and make ideas for new ones.
Classic/Premium modes: Keep classic, maybe make Premium exist, but on less maps
Ranks, currency and the like: I like all of this right now. Maybe a special rank for anyone who gets 1st on the money leaderboard or the ontime leaderboard
Anything else!: Maybe get a new RoF bakery. I find too many cookies to be overcooked. I like my cookies soft.
I think RoF should be made more difficult to be honest, I've played a few rounds of it before but never really gotten to like it to begin with. Like maybe make it so that there's a chance of the lava god being furious? Additionally I suggest that all blocks will burn but only at different rates so that players have to constantly patch up their houses before they melt in lava instead of AFKing at their stonebrick house for 30 minutes.
Also, stonebrick should really be made less available. Good fire-protection blocks should be rare to begin with.
Generally, yes, make the game shorter as well and lava flow faster to include the element of panic in the players. :)
This went into too many people's heads -- I've seen more than one person turning into a complete asshole because he was one of the 'supreme and divine', the overpowered weapons they could afford to craft no doubt playing a role there.
I think you've got a good point.
For one thing, I've been Master rank for about a year now, I have 35K cookies (more than enough to get Grand Master).
So then, why am I not Grand Master right now? I also have about 25 Scookies, so why haven't I got and gotten a prestige rank?
For me, it's pretty much that I've got all I really want/need.
I have an enchanted diamond sword I renamed about a year ago that, while it doesn't one-shot unarmored players, it's still fairly strong and kind of evens the ground when dealing with someone with god armor.
I've got an ender chest full of a bunch of loot, most of it mob drops, but there are other things (pumpkin king's head, a few bows and swords I made, maybe a couple of pointless map items),
Do I really need more luxury?
It's not horrible system, but I think we could make it more friendly and open.
To start with: food.
Even at Master rank, the best food I can buy from the shops is fish. Sure, I can go slaughter some sheep, but some times the only food source available ends up being melons... which are really kind of crap in terms of food.
I'm also not quite fond of another prospect: I basically have get a cult rank to buy cooler things.
In other words, the shop keeps newer players from going and even looking at things they might be able to get later on by denying them access to certain parts because their rank is too low.
Sure, this might cause the player to become curious about what new stuff they might be able to buy later, but that curiosity only lasts as long as there are things they still don't know about, and as the days grow old, people are more interested in just exploring it right now that unlocking more areas rank by rank.
I say we scrap the ranks system and replace it with something cooler.
I also say we redo the shop; make the shop open to all players, but limit what they can buy by nothing more than raw price.
Also, making it so we can more directly give money to players would be great, since it will let people do shops and trading with more ease.
And lastly, I think ranks should be replaced with titles that can be bought at the shop. Only one title prefix and suffix can be activated at a time, and they show up by your name in chat and above your head.
But here's where titles get cool.
While some titles might as well just be there to look cool, some titles will be there to make minor changes to the player, whether to boost their abilities, or to ramp up the difficulty.
As an example, you could have one title, [The Avallis Devotee], which allows a player to set enemies on fire when punching them with open fists or a specific item. You could then have another title, perhaps [The Untouchable], which increases step-height, jump height, and speed, but the player has only one hp (a half heart) at any given time.
You could also go with prefix and suffix titles (if you want to have title combos), which basically would be like [Super] Steve [The Sloth], which would probably greatly boost all of Steve's current abilities in exchange for a lower currency award, but also make them slow and a little beefier.
The only must-haves I would say titles have is that there be at least 3 minor ones that come for free, the default prefix title, [New Guy], which acts as an active and optional tutorial, and that titles make logical sense with what ever effect(s) they have.
Title suggestions:
Prefixes: [Super] - boosts the player's abilities and any suffix bonuses that can be boosted, but reduces the end-round reward.
[New Guy] - default title, gives the player a compass that points to what important thing is cycled to through right-click, and does other tutorial things [Fiery] - gives the player cool fire particles, sets nearby enemies on fire.
[Thundering] - storm cloud particles, makes distant lightning noises when fighting
[Sparking] - has enchantment attack particles, arrows cause lightning that causes minor damage to enemies [[BCOLOR=#000000]Sparkly[/BCOLOR]] - has crit-hit particles, runs a bit faster
[Modest] - no bonus
[Cool Kid] - no bonus
[Hero] - player must attack with a sword, bow, potions, or suffix ability to cause damage, but has resistance 1 [Dragon] - fist attacks do 7 damage and inflict fire [Frost Hero] - player must attack with a sword, bow, potions, or suffix ability to cause damage, but freezes nearby water and enemies in water get totally encased in ice. [Speedster] - runs twice as fast [Strongman] - fist attacks do 6 damage [Rich Kid] - gets a greater end-round reward [Lucky] - has a chance to get double the end-round reward, and a rare chance to get triple [Aquatic] - breathes under water [One Shot] - All attacks instantly kill enemies, but the player only has 1 HP.
[Kid] - slightly increases end-round reward, has the following effect when combined with either [The Squid] or [The Octopus] suffixes: {takes damage in water, instantly drowns when submerged, and moves a 90% original speed, but has regeneration 1}
Suffixes: [The Gambler] - has a chaotically selected multiplier to the end-round reward ranging from x-1.45 to x3.5. [The Daring] - has a chaotically selected multiplier to the end-round reward ranging from x-2 to x4, but runs a 4% chance to bankrupt (lose all your money that isn't stored in a chest) and a 2% chance to jackpot (x8 end-round reward). [The Ravenous] - can eat mobs that are at 4 hp or below to restore hunger, but has hunger 4. [The Chaotic] - has a chaotic chance to cause a chaotically selected chaos effect (set nearby enemies on fire, lightning barrage, etc...), has chaotically changing particles.
[BCOLOR=#000000][[/BCOLOR]The Heroic[BCOLOR=#000000]][/BCOLOR] - has a 20% chance to not take damage from any individual source of damage, has a 2% chance to be healed to 20% hp instead of dying.
[BCOLOR=#000000][The Ghost][/BCOLOR] - has a 50% chance to not take damage from enemies, has invisibility (should be transparent to friendly player) and cannot be harmed by fall damage or Elytra damage, but catches fire in sunlight and takes double damage from fire. Has levitation when sneaking. [[BCOLOR=#000000]The Chicken[/BCOLOR]] - gains feathers instead of cookies at the end of a round, looks like a chicken, gains cooked chicken when combine with [Fiery] prefix. [The Squid] - gains dye of the title's color when eating fish, has water breathing when not combined with [Kid] prefix. [The Octopus] - gains black dye when eating fish, looks like a "squid" and has water breathing when not combined with [Kid] prefix. [The Dragon] - right click with first to throw a fire charge that harms enemies when not combined with [Kid] prefix, Runs faster and has crit-hit particles when combined with [Kid] prefix. [The Skeleton] - looks like a skeleton when not combined with [Kid] prefix, gains a jack-o'-helmet and catches fire when combined with [Kid] prefix. Fire resistance sold separately. [The Golden] - has 1 hp, but gets double end-round reward.
note: black highlight only to make white text visible.
note: the titles are not color coded.
Things worth noting: Titles should have their own specific section in the shop, somewhere big because I expect we'll have more than I suggested.
Titles, unlike ranks, are totally non-linear, so people can grab them when ever they choose.
For my reply I will just copy my response on another thread and maybe add and or remove things in the post.
I am mixed on the Classic vs Survival debate. If it were up to me to chose what game mode would be removed without making any changes to the server would be survival. But to me each game mode has it pluses and minuses. For example while classic is more fun, survival gives more meaning to playing due to the collection of items. I feel that classic does not need too much work to make it fun. However with some overhauls survival could be improved greatly. Overall I am not in support of gutting Survival or Classic unless invs get bugged like in the past
I will now list changes that I think should be made to both game modes
Fix and probably improve the tutorial and try to find a way to fix new players spawning out of the tutorial
Completely overhaul the shops and rewards / price for each rank. I would like to see the structure of the shops and ranks allow new players to buy items while having it balanced for higher ranks.
Make ores more common because many players don't even bother mining due to how rare ores are
Find ways to make being the only player - 3 players more exciting and or have rewards for being the only player - 3 players
Shorten round times to 25 or 20 minutes on some maps. I would be for 15 minute round times, but I feel there would too much trouble with timers. Shorter round times should be brought out slowly to see how players like the new round times.
Have some sort of trading system where people can exchange items for supercookies
I think you've got a good point.
For one thing, I've been Master rank for about a year now, I have 35K cookies (more than enough to get Grand Master).
So then, why am I not Grand Master right now? I also have about 25 Scookies, so why haven't I got and gotten a prestige rank?
For me, it's pretty much that I've got all I really want/need.
I have an enchanted diamond sword I renamed about a year ago that, while it doesn't one-shot unarmored players, it's still fairly strong and kind of evens the ground when dealing with someone with god armor.
I've got an ender chest full of a bunch of loot, most of it mob drops, but there are other things (pumpkin king's head, a few bows and swords I made, maybe a couple of pointless map items),
Do I really need more luxury?
It's not horrible system, but I think we could make it more friendly and open.
To start with: food.
Even at Master rank, the best food I can buy from the shops is fish. Sure, I can go slaughter some sheep, but some times the only food source available ends up being melons... which are really kind of crap in terms of food.
I'm also not quite fond of another prospect: I basically have get a cult rank to buy cooler things.
In other words, the shop keeps newer players from going and even looking at things they might be able to get later on by denying them access to certain parts because their rank is too low.
Sure, this might cause the player to become curious about what new stuff they might be able to buy later, but that curiosity only lasts as long as there are things they still don't know about, and as the days grow old, people are more interested in just exploring it right now that unlocking more areas rank by rank.
I say we scrap the ranks system and replace it with something cooler.
I also say we redo the shop; make the shop open to all players, but limit what they can buy by nothing more than raw price.
Also, making it so we can more directly give money to players would be great, since it will let people do shops and trading with more ease.
And lastly, I think ranks should be replaced with titles that can be bought at the shop. Only one title prefix and suffix can be activated at a time, and they show up by your name in chat and above your head.
But here's where titles get cool.
While some titles might as well just be there to look cool, some titles will be there to make minor changes to the player, whether to boost their abilities, or to ramp up the difficulty.
As an example, you could have one title, [The Avallis Devotee], which allows a player to set enemies on fire when punching them with open fists or a specific item. You could then have another title, perhaps [The Untouchable], which increases step-height, jump height, and speed, but the player has only one hp (a half heart) at any given time.
You could also go with prefix and suffix titles (if you want to have title combos), which basically would be like [Super] Steve [The Sloth], which would probably greatly boost all of Steve's current abilities in exchange for a lower currency award, but also make them slow and a little beefier.
The only must-haves I would say titles have is that there be at least 3 minor ones that come for free, the default prefix title, [New Guy], which acts as an active and optional tutorial, and that titles make logical sense with what ever effect(s) they have.
Title suggestions:
Prefixes: [Super] - boosts the player's abilities and any suffix bonuses that can be boosted, but reduces the end-round reward.
[New Guy] - default title, gives the player a compass that points to what important thing is cycled to through right-click, and does other tutorial things [Fiery] - gives the player cool fire particles, sets nearby enemies on fire.
[Thundering] - storm cloud particles, makes distant lightning noises when fighting
[Sparking] - has enchantment attack particles, arrows cause lightning that causes minor damage to enemies [[BCOLOR=#000000]Sparkly[/BCOLOR]] - has crit-hit particles, runs a bit faster
[Modest] - no bonus
[Cool Kid] - no bonus
[Hero] - player must attack with a sword, bow, potions, or suffix ability to cause damage, but has resistance 1 [Dragon] - fist attacks do 7 damage and inflict fire [Frost Hero] - player must attack with a sword, bow, potions, or suffix ability to cause damage, but freezes nearby water and enemies in water get totally encased in ice. [Speedster] - runs twice as fast [Strongman] - fist attacks do 6 damage [Rich Kid] - gets a greater end-round reward [Lucky] - has a chance to get double the end-round reward, and a rare chance to get triple [Aquatic] - breathes under water [One Shot] - All attacks instantly kill enemies, but the player only has 1 HP.
[Kid] - slightly increases end-round reward, has the following effect when combined with either [The Squid] or [The Octopus] suffixes: {takes damage in water, instantly drowns when submerged, and moves a 90% original speed, but has regeneration 1}
Suffixes: [The Gambler] - has a chaotically selected multiplier to the end-round reward ranging from x-1.45 to x3.5. [The Daring] - has a chaotically selected multiplier to the end-round reward ranging from x-2 to x4, but runs a 4% chance to bankrupt (lose all your money that isn't stored in a chest) and a 2% chance to jackpot (x8 end-round reward). [The Ravenous] - can eat mobs that are at 4 hp or below to restore hunger, but has hunger 4. [The Chaotic] - has a chaotic chance to cause a chaotically selected chaos effect (set nearby enemies on fire, lightning barrage, etc...), has chaotically changing particles.
[BCOLOR=#000000][[/BCOLOR]The Heroic[BCOLOR=#000000]][/BCOLOR] - has a 20% chance to not take damage from any individual source of damage, has a 2% chance to be healed to 20% hp instead of dying.
[BCOLOR=#000000][The Ghost][/BCOLOR] - has a 50% chance to not take damage from enemies, has invisibility (should be transparent to friendly player) and cannot be harmed by fall damage or Elytra damage, but catches fire in sunlight and takes double damage from fire. Has levitation when sneaking. [[BCOLOR=#000000]The Chicken[/BCOLOR]] - gains feathers instead of cookies at the end of a round, looks like a chicken, gains cooked chicken when combine with [Fiery] prefix. [The Squid] - gains dye of the title's color when eating fish, has water breathing when not combined with [Kid] prefix. [The Octopus] - gains black dye when eating fish, looks like a "squid" and has water breathing when not combined with [Kid] prefix. [The Dragon] - right click with first to throw a fire charge that harms enemies when not combined with [Kid] prefix, Runs faster and has crit-hit particles when combined with [Kid] prefix. [The Skeleton] - looks like a skeleton when not combined with [Kid] prefix, gains a jack-o'-helmet and catches fire when combined with [Kid] prefix. Fire resistance sold separately. [The Golden] - has 1 hp, but gets double end-round reward.
note: black highlight only to make white text visible.
note: the titles are not color coded.
Things worth noting: Titles should have their own specific section in the shop, somewhere big because I expect we'll have more than I suggested.
Titles, unlike ranks, are totally non-linear, so people can grab them when ever they choose.
I like the general idea behind replacing ranks with titles, but I think it can be made a whole lot simpler. (Actually what you're suggesting and I'm trying to improve on would still pretty much be ranks, just somewhat different than they are now.)
First of all, scratch either prefixes or suffixes. One will do, no need to complicate things.
Secondly, a lot of these suggestions you made are somewhat OP and others counter the OP parts with too great weaknesses (in my opinion). The specific titles and their possible effects can, of course, be discussed once people think that the system overall is a good idea and agree that it should be changed to that.
Third, let people change the title to a custom on for an extra fee, so if they want for example the [Fiery] title effects, but with the title itself actually saying something else, then they'd first have to buy [Fiery] and then for an extra fee they could rename the title for themselves, while keeping the effects. Of course, the title effects wouldn't stack, so you couldn't buy two different titles, then rename it and get both or something like that.
Finally, introduce a sort of a tier-system to give the players the feeling of progression and to organize the system better for easier understanding. It wouldn't affect the regular shops the way the ranks currently do, so you could still buy a diamond sword as a beginner-rank player.
So, let's say there's four tiers of titles. Tier 1 titles would cost little and would give little bonuses. With each tier, the title cost and bonuses would increase, until tier 4 titles would cost a lot and would give pretty damn awesome bonuses (but not enough to make them too OP or break the game or anything like that. It would probably need some balancing and such). I think there shouldn't be more than four tiers, perhaps there could be less. Also not sure if you could possibly buy a tier 4 title when you still have a tier 1 title or anything like that, but that could also be discussed. And I do believe that the round-end reward should also increase with every tier, like it does right now (or at least did when I last played RoF).
That is how I would do it.
To the questions asked in the OP, I pretty much agree with Wimali and Vatumok. My reasons for not playing also include the fact that I simply don't have a computer I could play it on, but that's my own personal problem and the general reasons why people played and probably stopped playing are the ones already named repeatedly here.
I think I have a title balancing idea.
Titles change the end-round reward based on the following:
Titles that give a serious boost decrease the reward.
Titles that give a serious challenge increase the reward.
The bigger the boost/challenge, the bigger the change in reward.
The more game-changing any given title is, the more expensive that title shall be.
I also think there should be a tier 0, which is the tier of which titles are free and only grant the least of boosts and challenges.
I don't think too much thought should be put into the titles-- The original system sounds fine (Player, Crafter, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Grandmaster). I always begged for more ranks in the past; and I still think it was a good idea at the time, but I feel like big ranks & prestige ranks won't work now because the playerbase is so small. How can we expect new players to continue playing when some other players already have prestige ranks-- something that takes hundreds of hours to achieve? The prestige ranks make it more complicated.
My suggestion on the rank system: Get rid of prestige ranks (for now-- can always add them back once the servers population is more stable and/or most people have reached Grandmaster) and/or reset all player ranks (because existing players are way too high-ranked compared to new players, which we so desperately need, and honestly no one really plays anymore so I doubt a rank reset would upset too many people).
McMMO is kinda iffy in terms of balance IMO, like a drunk person on a unicycle.
Regarding rank resets - Not everyone wants this, as they have earned the title, and have put a lot of time into it, to take it away without actually asking if they want this would be unfair/cruel.
Why you stopped playing: Lack of players, became more of a "sit here and ironman while you play other games. The community started losing people, and I lost interest of playing.
What would need to be done to get you playing again: Find ways to advertise the server more, improved player count online, shorter rounds, more goals.
I don't really have much for these bulletpoints, or anything for the others
Generally speaking, RoF is too much of a time investment with not enough reward (by itself). The main reason RoF was successful in the past was that there were enough people willing to be on to do little more than be social. Because, honestly, if people were not using their creativity to make up silly and fun ways to entertain themselves on RoF, it's boring. Dull, repetitive. The different maps are nice to look at and some are more challenging than others to survive on, but how many people here would be willing to play a round of RoF by themselves? Not many, because what had made RoF fun was the shenanigans that OTHER people did, not what the server itself provided. I stopped playing because the gameplay was mostly sitting in a house for 30-some minutes, and I betcha this is why most people stopped playing. To 'revive' RoF, the gameplay itself has to change.
We can NOT just have the same 'build a house and wait for the timer to run out' type of gameplay, we need to have more. Gameplay needs to be exciting, it has to be varied from round to round. In essence, I think the current rounds of RoF needs to be scrapped or dramatically changed. Bring back deathruns. Make short(10-15 min) and exciting rounds, where the players have to be at least semi-active for the round. Here's a list of possible ideas:
->Have a (10-25min) lava survival round where everyone has to protect a group of villagers, whom are actively trying to run around everywhere. (Maybe even have a 'special' villager or two that can break blocks)
->A short round where players run around trying to dodge lava 'rain' (streams of lava fall down randomly everywhere on the map, people can build very little/not at all)
->Reintroduce deathruns (as mentioned earlier in this post and by others).
->I can try to come up with more ideas if anyone wants me too, but there's a lot of potential fun we can have with lava that just isn't being used.
Onto the next topic, ranks. They've simply gotten out of hand. There just seem to be simply too many ranks, and the higher up (pretty much the prestige...) ranks just seem unnecessary. This is more of a matter of personal opinion, but ranks just seem to just go on and on and on... just so that the couple people that have taken the time to get to the top can go further.... and then some of the items available at these higher ranks just break the flow of the game. Again, my thoughts on ranks are more of a personal opinion, but I do think that they should be reworked to be less ongoing.
Now, these changes are nice and all, but we're gonna need a really dedicated developer (or a team of em) in order to overhaul RoF to the extent that I believe it should be overhauled, so we can talk about change, but we gotta go out there with our ideas and find someone that's willing to work with us to make these changes happen. (Advertising in general needs to be worked on in this community, we just simply don't do enough of it).
Coming from being the old controller on rof I have to say that the reason I left is due to what I felt as an overall loss of interest in RoF with all minecraft players. Lava survival was a game mode that flourished while in classic because people were easily able to build homes to the extent of their creativity and always have the melting blocks be random. Personally I feel that while more and more people joined they were also reminded of what is was like in Classic and expected it to be like that.
We did not offer that. People may have been frustrated about that and thought that it wouldn't be as fun because it was easily predictable as to which blocks would survive and those older players would always have the advantage. I think that if they (the melting blocks) were always random then it would increase activity.
However, we also have the very large issue of people griefing/destroying homes on rof. And with the ever declining staff count we have had less and less people to monitor those griefs; Less chances of a restore = Much less desire to play a game where people can die easily and lose absolutely everything.
This is just my two cents and it probably doesn't make much sense but this is why, as much as I honestly would hate to see it go, I feel like rof needs to be shut down.
I have no time I miss this server and would much rather play this server than staying up till 5 writing x essay about y subject.
I will say however, before I got so busy I lost time to play entirely I always felt Ironman mode was taking away a lot from the server. I felt like Ironman mode meant that you couldn't really do anything while you were playing. the inability to place blocks and such after activating Ironman mode meant that anything you ordinarily would end up doing (expanding the house, decorating the house, building funny structures inside the cave you were hiding in, the very little we had left to do was gone. Generally, when more content is added there is always the argument that if it's not fun you can ignore it, but Supercookies are important to ranking up, which is also important to RoF. I do not think that the new ranks were at all a bad thing, but I think an alternative to Ironman Mode should be added one that doesn't limit the restrictions on what someone can do, but actually heightens the difficulty. (maybe send 'Fire assassins' after them and have mobs occasionally spawn near them to kill them? There are a ton of ways you could add difficulty without doing things the way Ironman mode did it. I also suggest this alternative mode avoid introducing hunger because it makes the option of 'living off the land' much less feasible and that was one of the things players had an option to try if they wanted an extra challenge.
Generally speaking, RoF is too much of a time investment with not enough reward (by itself). The main reason RoF was successful in the past was that there were enough people willing to be on to do little more than be social. Because, honestly, if people were not using their creativity to make up silly and fun ways to entertain themselves on RoF, it's boring. Dull, repetitive. The different maps are nice to look at and some are more challenging than others to survive on, but how many people here would be willing to play a round of RoF by themselves? Not many, because what had made RoF fun was the shenanigans that OTHER people did, not what the server itself provided. I stopped playing because the gameplay was mostly sitting in a house for 30-some minutes, and I betcha this is why most people stopped playing. To 'revive' RoF, the gameplay itself has to change.
This is very much true, and some more challenges would be really cool! I think it's important to remember that RoF is by definition a social game and will always to some extent require other players. after all, that's what made this game great in the past. In that sense, it's important not to build a new PvP server.
what if they did a solitude-like event with a really big map where you spawn randomly, and if you die you're kicked for about an hour, and the time doubles with each death
every [amount of time] or so, an active classic-esque active_lava block spawns at the upper y-limit above every user online. survive the lava for whatever amount of time normal lava rounds last, then clear the lava
I miss this server and would much rather play this server than staying up till 5 writing x essay about y subject. 