Open letter from unknown pilot

[Kosmiker]

Alexandria System
August 2115



"And then silence arrived.

It's everywhere, the voices have gone mute and the brainstorming collapsed. All current activity is nothing but a breeze when compared to the strong winds of the past.

The pilots are deep down in a fog of doubt, hidden somewhere, empty of objectives.  Why returning to the old habits? Some may ask.

The question I make myself is what would make me pick the helmet and enter the ship one more time? What is still there for me to fight, to discover or even to love?
Something is missing, that’s for sure, I just don’t know what. There used to be plenty of life on this corner of the universe, criminals and law abiders used to fight all the time, sparkles of emotion clashed every single second. That’s what I miss. It could be heavy sometimes, I don’t deny it, but at the end we all kept coming back… for a bit more of that.

Blind faith and awkward dedication was, most of the time, the cocktail that made ourselves feel we belong here, there was no complaint in that.
Here, in this dark room of this almost empty base, I still glare at the stars. They remain the same.

It’s that background noise that I’m missing…"

[Hash]

Nice words m8.

No worries. Soon you'll have something new to fly, discover ...and fight. And you'll love it.

[[BLK_LGN][X]Zeus]

The silence is the vermin running unchecked. Too late, now.

[Burn]

Something is missing, that’s for sure, I just don’t know what.

A lot of things are currently missing:

- Pvp Ladder+Rewards for most skilled Pvp'ers  
- Reward System for players reaching a certain number of npc kills,certain rank level,certain time spent online,a certain money donation for the server etc etc
- New Website
- New Mod
- Admin activity in the forum

To the last point:I've just checked vector-x's profile and found out that his last post on the forum was made on May 05, 2010 - that's 4 month ago
Also checked Elessar's profile who announced his great return however he last posted something more than 2 month ago
And the list can go on...

I have also been informed about several admins who actually enjoy playing other games more than Freelancer.
It should not come as a surprise then that the forum activity and online activity has dropped dramatically.What else did you expect?
Most agree that it is the Community that needs to be restored first around here.So i ask myself how could this be acchieved if the admins have decided to distance themselves from it?

Keep on hiding behind your colorfull nicknames and inside your admin lounges! See where it will get you.

[AlphaWolf]

Right, let's get something clear.

The things mentioned are already in the works.  I'm expending a lot of time, effort and expense, as are all the staff and dev team right now, to get those things in place and moving forward.  I don't have the time to spend but instead of saying "I can't do it" I'm juggling tasks and running on the bare minimum of sleep I can manage with.

Why?  I wonder when I see posts like yours constantly and consistently whenever you have the opportunity to make a dig at someone.

There are issues yes.  There are ways of dealing with things that help and support those who are actually putting in alot of effort, rather than put them down.

Seriously, colour again?  I'm getting more than a little tired of persistent prejudice and discrimination against someone because they have colour in their nickname.  Seriously, just wow.  That's all I can say about it right now.

I'm going to leave the post right there because while this post doesn't seem exactly calm, it's barely a shadow of how I actually feel right now.

-Alpha

[Kosmiker]

I don't mind having this topic for a debate on what we would like to have on the server, in matter of fact, I appreciate it.

Just a note, I don't write here as a staff member anymore and even if I did there is no real truth on the " hiding behind your colorfull nicknames and inside your admin lounges".  When the staff worked their arses to make the wheel spin very few seemed to care or even to say a simple thank you, now that some have gone missing (like most of the players) you decide to go accusatory, sorry Burn, imho that's simply wrong. Best you could say is "We need staff back" nothing else.

Back to topic:

1) What kind of rewards and how would the pvp ladder work? I'm not very fond of the idea of rewards, maybe credit prizes but other than that.. I don't see how.

2) The new mod is necessary, we all know that, but I can assure that the Dev team is working is best to get it done. We just don't have it already because some major issues came by, delaying its release. Can't really say much more.


*edit*

Alpha posted 1st  #-o

*edit by Alpha*

Yes but yours was so much more eloquent

[Shounen]

As we always said in the past it wasn't the mod, the ships, the npcs, the weapons or other things like that that made this one the best freelancer server...it was the community. But a lot of bad decisions of admins made the core of the community leave and so the stability of the server collapsed. In an old game like this admin tried to search for popularity instead of taking care about old hardcore players and now no one is interested anymore in this old game.
i think its too late now to search again for something that is forever missed. Good luck

[Shadows-Neuromancer]

I don't post as often as I used to I admit, Now I reserve my few words for only the times I really have to add my bit, or try to calm flaming between people when another way is staring them in the face (eg. events that really don't need to be as they are rp anyway.)

So as that said the point I make here is that since I have returned fully active as to popping on here and there the players seem to have dropped alot in numbers since this "New Mod" was announced to be out soon, As they are al waiting for it by not playing (strange imho)but seems to be a fact, So as the players (most not all) have seemed to take an AFK approach until release I comend those who are preparing the mod to spent more time on it than on the actual server, where they are not needed as much with the low count. As it seems as soon as its done and running the players will return also, And from there the other issuse's ... Tourney's etc can be looked into with more success.

Maybe if New Mod was kept quiet then the players would not be away until release, But on flip side that way Admin could not ask for input  :-?

Remember the players make the server work, Admins run it .. and working together gets the results we all want.Get it together people we're all on the same side and want a server to play on

On a side note anyone can run a tourney, and we (well I) don't need a prize for it, the fun of it is the only reward I require


-[SHADOWS]-Relentless
-[SHADOWS]-Sinnar
-[SHADOWS]-Harvester
Marduk

[cmdrsaman]

Okay, first off, I take it people are wondering about the new mod. We didn't post a release date, because we know something unexpected might come up, we could get delayed and everyone would be complaining then. We were planning on having the mod out for open testing by now, but guess what? Something unexpected did come up, and as Kosmiker has said, it delayed development. (Can't tell you more than that, so don't ask for details.) Both Luke and I went on holidays in the second half of August, so here we are now. We're not going to release the mod for open testing while there are major unresolved bugs that we know of, and there is still one. Unfortunately, solving bugs is not something you can schedule: maybe I'll finally figure it out five minutes from now on, maybe it'll take several days for the whole dev team to find its cause. You'll get a release date when we know when the server's going to be taken offline for transitioning it to the new mod. (Which is a process that takes several hours.)

Thing is, the mod doesn't make or break the server. Quote for truth:
[quote="Shounen";p="229533"]As we always said in the past it wasn't the mod, the ships, the npcs, the weapons or other things like that that made this one the best freelancer server...it was the community.[/quote]
I completely agree. As for the rest of your post: past decisions are in the past, even if they're changed, they're hardly going to affect much by now. Personally, I'm all for giving a second chance to persons (not whole clans), but only one second chance. After all, bans did have their reasons.

The new mod is going to attract players and attract players back, sure. That's going to mean a rise in activity. If that'll be all, however, then after a couple of months, things will be back to the same old. We need more changes than that, and that means the community too. People will come back to play, so we'll see how things will be going with it then. You can't really plan on how attitudes of players is going to better, or worsen.


Oh, and Burn, you repeating the same things over and over is getting really old. If you really want to do something worthwhile, then you should elaborate on what you meant by that reward system. Otherwise, nothing's going to happen if you keep droning the same tone like a vuvuzela. However, take care not to piss off the people who're working on the server or the new mod, because if you manage to get them to get fed up and leave, where will that leave the server?


Also, at Neuromancer: if you take a look at the stats, you'll notice that player numbers dropped when the end of August was approaching. No surprises there, to be honest: activity is seasonal, with the three months of summer usually being the highest. Other servers have dropped too.
[quote="Shadows-Neuromancer";p="229534"]So as the players (most not all) have seemed to take an AFK approach until release I comend those who are preparing the mod to spent more time on it than on the actual server, where they are not needed as much with the low count.[/quote]
I hope you meant "commend", and not "command": that sort of thing wouldn't fly well with anyone, because this is a hobby, nobody working on the server is getting paid for it. Not sure who you're talking about, though: from what I know, Luke, AW, Hash, Zsoca and me spend a lot more time on preparing v9 than on playing on the v8 server. (I wouldn't know well, though, because I don't spend any time on it.) If we didn't, we'd be nowhere as near to release as we are now. So, I ask that everyone be patient while we iron out the new mod, and in the meantime try discussing your ideas with your fellow players, and if you come up with something that interests several others, try implementing them. After all, it's not like you can't do anything for the Void.


Edit: my bad, maybe I just got jumpy about such statements after Burn's post, sorry for misunderstanding you.

[Shadows-Neuromancer]

I did mean Commend, poor spelling sorry ,and the player drop as I know too is a sure thing during this time of year, But have heard many of people have stated that they are awaiting the new mod before becoming active also while flying about. (tho for the life of me I can't understand why)

Im happy with the mod enough to play as it is, The mod will get here when it does as it always has done, The only reasons for me wanting it is for the activity to return. (not much on the menu for eating atm)

Rele.

[Verminard]

FFS play a new record Burn, this one has got boring, you have had your way and the coloured names have been removed.

[Asmodeuseswife]

1. I haven't got a coloured name.

2. My husband is on from 10 till 4 most days testing the new mod, or in game

3. I have a family to care for.

4. Its summer and nice weather permitting I am not going to sit in a house all alone playing on the pc when I could be out in the sun.

Sorry, but although I love the community and the game REAL LIFE IS MY MAIN PRIORITY.

[geromix]

Hello everybody

Its been sometime since i said anything here. RL continues to bother me, however, i do hope to return here sooner than expected.*Fingers crossed*

Even for somebody like me who has dropped in here after a long time,a drop in activity levels is quite visible(at least on the forums).
Its unfortunate that the mod release has been delayed by a bug. I hope that the technical issues get sorted out as quickly as possible.

I also hope that  the large number of ''changes'' that were discussed and agreed upon(CRT) gets implemented with the release of the mod as had been envisioned earlier .
The absence of Strail does bother me. Where is he?  It would have been good if he were present here to implement the ''changes''. I don't want to be critical but the absence of a central figure of authority and leadership in Void does make the server appear as if it were drifting without any direction or purpose.  Stagnation is quite palpable here.
The return of Strail had certainly infused hope and energy into the community and most of all his vision for a new Void gave everybody a sense of purpose. I do hope he will be here to change the course of this community for the better and his presence will be (more) visible.

As has been said earlier, a mod is only one part of the equation for a successful server. A good community and good administration are other factors that need to be taken into account.

Its a humble request to the admins here that they adopt a more ''hands-on'' approach. If the community lacks the ''buzz'' about it then the admins have to recreate that ''buzz''. A number of things can be changed and has to be changed and this has been well discussed in the past. If there is a lack of man power/ working hours due to RL on the administration side then have new admins and void guards who have more time on their hands. Somebody has to do the job.

I wish the best for Void.

Regards
Geromix

[LIMAN]

Bring back those coloured names they are nice.
Coloured names for all !

[QUASAR]

[quote="LIMAN";p="229563"]Bring back those coloured names they are nice.
Coloured names for all ! [/quote]
yeah! and add extra colors pls  =P~
lol

keep up good work guys, I bet new mod will be awesome