Getting the Community Populated, First

[Krypton:)]

As any player who has been around from the start or at least for a number of years will know, the community just isn't the size it has been in the past. There will obviously be a number of reasons for this, and therefore it CAN and should be countered. Whether or not it can be fixed is something that cannot be known until honest attempts are made to kick start the community and get our population back up. When discussing with newer players, of course the obvious things come into play such as:

1. bugs
2. server stability (can't lie, it is absolutely atrocious)
3. staff

In my opinion, the staff has gotten considerably better as a few people have left and new ones have came in. The only current issue I have with the staff right now is that they do not seem to play the game in a competitive way. The development team also has a big history of not fully understanding the extent to which bugs and issues impact the players who regularly (talking hours a day, making this game their HOBBY) play the game effect the gameplay. Of course, an example is the new prison. It, in my experience, is nearly impossible to succeed with even a full group of competitive players against an EVEN number of cops. If the staff took part in the rebel side of prison breaks for example, they would potentially see it has really serious issues.

Secondly, I see so many suggestion threads, however the higher authority in the community (Devs, including Paratus) have no system implemented to respond to serious suggestions. One potential fix is taking the polls the community generate seriously. The money cap that came with 6.0 was hated, and I have no doubt that is when population went down-hill. It has been amended and is in a balanced state currently in my opinion, however, the community was already split and many people moved on due to that and other issues. (Who wants to play a game where your HARD WORK no longer gets you anything until you die and buy more gear, only to be capped within 30 minutes again?)

 

Server Stability and bugs are of course noticed by the development team, the matter seems to come with fixing them. On top of there being issues with the staff realizing how the bugs effect gameplay, it can take months for minor to moderate bugs to be fixed.

 

The biggest thing we as a community can do is reach out to people and advertise it. When the server was at its fullest points, streamers and Twitch users were involved in streaming, watching, and PLAYING the server. It got us TONS of attention, and it was amazing. We need to reach out to popular streamers again, and encourage them to play. Possible ways include:

1. Offer starting money and help guide them through what there is to offer
2. Host more community events and actually try to get players to come together

Unfortunately, the fixes for the community require everyone's input; share the game, share the server, and spread the word. On top of that, we need a 'bug-less' server that is playable and not infuriating to engage with.

Please spread this around, vote in the poll, and please get people to notice this post. Do your part if you want the community to grow, and then we can make sure never to let it lose population like it has (if a patch infuriates 50% of people, please don't just force it down their throats, they are YOUR community, and serve you)

[hamsham12]

I was talking to someone about this as well, yes the prestige system is good, its giving us a reason to work for our money. However, the prestige system currently in place blows. You get a sports hatch, a jet, then increased money cap. In my opinion other rewards need to be added, or have the prestige system give access to more money cap at a lower prestige. Let's be honest the game was infinitely more popular when money-cap wasnt a thing. Sure prestige system is cool, but what is it exactly doing? It's doing pretty much the same thing the non-money-cap was doing. Giving us the ability to get more money.

 

Also, literally EVERYONE can agree, server stability sucks. Whats the issue behind this? Pre 6.0 the servers were insane, 100/100 all the time and I never experienced lag/kicks or desync. The only possible solution to this is to open a test server and remove things that might cause this issue and give rewards for players help test the server. For example, give us the ability to get gear for free and fight cartels while on the test server, and either monetary or material rewards on the live servers.

 

Nostalgia could be altering the current asylum for me, however I think a lot of people can agree that the money-cap alone kind of ruined things, for me at least. Money-cap/Lag/Kicks and the fact that the current gangs of asylum don't have the same vision and motto of the old gangs. I knew Asylum reached a bad state when gangs had to set up fights, why is that a thing? To me that's rather gross, you shouldn't need to set a date, time and whereabouts a fight should happen to get one on Asylum. You should log on with the motto to keep, hold and defend your cartels regardless of whos attacking it and at what location. 

Edited June 30, 2017 by hamsham12

[Krypton:)]

Oh yeah and

@Gnashes

@bamf

@Paratus

for good measure

[Krypton:)]

ANother thing was insurance...I don't see the big deal with it, Olympus now has 3 thriving servers and has had it for years and they are growing at a massive rate....when we removed vehicle insurance it made the server far worse...in fact, Olympus insurance is way more aggressive than ours because it lasts UNTIL the vehicle blows up, even if it is stored...yet the server is doing just fine...PLEASE reconsider.

[Tusken Raider]

Honestly just put up a server with 6.0 code and don't link it to the DB, make everything free and no rules besides cheating, racism, and exploiting. If it is stable add a feature that we currently have and keep working in that direction until you discover the problem and the code is the same as what we are playing on now.