Avicus Archive

Changes... by OPTOBAT October 11, 2016 at 9:10 AM UTC

Avicus both has made and needs some changes, some of which need to be done asap if this server is even going to see it through to mid-2017.

In this post I would like to list and suggest some changes that have either been made or that I think need to be made that are/will effect(ing) the server significantly.

Please - I request that if you agree with any of these suggestions/points that I make, please leave a +1 as a comment to show moderators that this isn't a solitary rant/complaint, but that a vast number of people agree that these things should/shouldn't be taking action for and in Avicus, and if you do not agree with any of these points, I just as equally urge you to state your opinion so that we are all communicating and understand each other's thoughts.

  1. Voting: Where did it go? Some of the largest web pages dedicated to publicising and sharing MC servers all show servers that have the highest amounts of both votes and players. The higher a server has of either, the more visible it is on the internet and websites. I'd be urging us all to keep voting everyday, but now that isn't even an option. So why and where did it go? We need a voting system.
  2. Hacking: Probably one of the biggest problems of the server that has been ascending over the last couple of years. The amount of hackers that stream into the server are now become a daily thing. Literally. Every day. And it isn't the fact that there are hackers, it is a combination of how easily they get in, hack and get away with it and how long it takes for them to be taken care of by the staff. I'm not a staff member, so i'm not  going to criticise something im not a part of, however I think we can all agree that this is NOT the best effort to getting rid of/diminishing the amount of hackers for a server that used to and should be harbouring around 500 - 1000 players. 
  3. Game Changes: Do I really need to give an explanation to this one? The staff decided removing QUINTUS and Fissura from all rotations (AKA the one remaining Nebula rotation) would be a good idea. They were very popular, old, classic maps and I know for a fact I am not the only one in disagreement with that decision. On top of that, there is only ONE Nebula rotation left, that I know of? Even a year ago, when the server was battered down to only 70 - 120 players, there were still 2-3 Nebula rotations keeping things refreshing, now with even less people, everything is crammed into one single rotation, and remember me saying this because without something being done I am positive this will happen: One rotation of Nebula is going to get boring for people (especially new people) VERY quickly, hell maybe another 10-15 players have been knocked off from this reason alone. ALSO, there are new premium revolving things that are a little too silly, such as requiring an upgrade just to check somebodies OLD NAME or premium to chose what team you want to go on... 
  4. New Games: I've seen the signs in the Hub stating that 'Arcade' and 'Skywars' are coming soon. I am not opposing to this at all, in fact re-adding Skywars (finally, only 3 years overdue :') ) may be the one move that will save this server's population and upcoming abandonment, but I just want to know when it is coming? I'm simply curious. I mean, if you had just joined Avicus as a new person for the very first time and saw those signs, but a week, two weeks went by and nothing about the server changed, you'd be onto another server pretty quickly wouldnt you?
  5. Old Games: Control the Hill and Walls are now gone as well. If this is not some catastrophic glitch or something temporary then maybe the staff are trying to make the server extinct? I'm just being raw and honest, I've had multiple staff members tell me over the last year that Avicus is still doing well, that the staff is working hard around the clock to improve everything, etc. etc. and I've returned recently to, what, a game of Nebula, 3 removed classic/(used to be) popular games, and two other games that nobody has ever bothered to play since they've been around. Capture The Wool, from what I can keep track of, was added (or re added, I don't know) around late last year sometime. I have played about two games of that. Two low player count, bland, boring games. As for the Walls and Control the Hill? Well, all you would have had to do is check my stats, I have been in over 100 games of EACH, and have witnessed both games full and overloaded with players in the past. But nah it's okay, let's remove them!
  6. Cheating, but not hacking: Another slightly smaller, but undoubtably growing issue is that people in game, who don't even hack are cheating to benefit themselves, their stats and to ruin the game for others because they know the odds of them getting caught or punish nowadays are pretty balanced with that of winning the lottery. I've been deprived of bow shots and pvp kills numerous, countless times because the other person simply quits. This combat/void logging is extremely unfair and irritating, and i am sure more can be done to prevent this.  Developers, or whoever the hell works on the mechanics of the server, is it possible to add a 3, maybe 4 second timer to doing /hub? Or is it possible to try and get more staff from different time zones? Things can be done. For all of these issues. Try to seriously tell me otherwise and i leave the server :D
7. Voting - Part 2: Somebody mentioned how when voting WAS around nobody ever bothered and it hardly made a difference. Well I can already think of about half a dozen contradictions to this, some complex, some obvious af. For starters, people aren't voting is the staff's response? Well is that really a case closed answer? In fact not only is that an invalid answer, but it also points that I have been trying to make for literally YEARS. Publicity. People aren't voting enough because when the voting was around it was hardly accessible, noticeable or rewarding. You want players to vote? Make them WANT to vote. Create voting messages in the chat in bold and colourful text every 15 minutes, have links to multiple voting websites, offer motivating, pleasing rewards, like credits, badge chances, add another reward system. Anything. Make voting practically part of the culture, don't just have some "vote here" text peaking out in the corner of the screen, make it eye catching, wanted, make people chase after it. On other servers, one of the very first things people do is their daily vote. Because the reminder is everywhere and they enjoy the rewards. Avicus needs to reconfigure and create a new voting scheme, it can't just be some random entity that doesn't even give players enough motivation to click a link and spend 20 seconds voting.
And this isn't such an urgency just for current players benefit, remember, voting is the server's internet publicity. If Avicus had a higher voting count, it becomes more visible and higher ranked on websites, which means more people see the server and become intrigued, which means - you guessed it - more players. I've never even been a moderator and i've figured this one out in 5 minutes.

Yes, I am gonna start editing/updating this now, because the issues either never end or keep being created, so again, please show everyone and myself on the forums what you +1 (agree) with and share your thoughts, i'm not trying to state these as facts or amendments, i'm just giving my genuine opinion, and want to hear everyone else's too.

SnowSX3 October 11, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

The fact that the Admins are more concerned about newer gamemodes as opposed to legitimately working on attracting and maintaining a healthy player base is mind boggleing in my opinion.

Survival games was hyped to save Avicus and bring in a lot of new players but 1 week into it, all the Survival games servers were dead.

We don't need new gamemodes, we need to find ways to not only attract new players, but we need to give them a reason to come back.

Every server has SkyWars, Survival games and Walls.

Avicus needs a Unique Selling Point.

If you want to attract attention, you need to stand out.
Work on  features that are unique to Avicus.

Working on gamemodes that bigger servers already do better is a complete waste of time.

Dont even get me started on the staff..rip Australian players.
It seems the only player base that is constant on Avicus are the hackers unfortunately.

gyalchester October 11, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

1. +1
2. Plz +1
3. Don't really mind, it is just to minimize the server lag since Avicus doesn't usually get that many players anymore but votes should have been in place to remove or keep those maps
4. +1

OPTOBAT October 11, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

The fact that the Admins are more concerned about newer gamemodes as opposed to legitimately working on attracting and maintaining a healthy player base is mind boggleing in my opinion.

Survival games was hyped to save Avicus and bring in a lot of new players but 1 week into it, all the Survival games servers were dead.

We don't need new gamemodes, we need to find ways to not only attract new players, but we need to give them a reason to come back.

Every server has SkyWars, Survival games and Walls.

Avicus needs a Unique Selling Point.

If you want to attract attention, you need to stand out.
Work on  features that are unique to Avicus.

Working on gamemodes that bigger servers already do better is a complete waste of time.

Dont even get me started on the staff..rip Australian players.
It seems the only player base that is constant on Avicus are the hackers unfortunately.
Utterly agree with you, however I haven't really seen Walls on really many other servers, plus I feel like adding Skywars and Survival Games could/could've worked despite them already being everywhere IF Avicus constructed them in (like you said) a unique, or altered way to create a fresher experience to attract players. 
I couldn't agree more with working on what we already do have, I think that expanding and fine tuning Nebula and trying to perfect it in any way possible should be one of the most immediate priorities, as it is literally the only thing that has kept the server alive the last 2 years...

I won't get started on the staff, because i'm sure we're thinking the same thing hahaha :')

And exactly, everyone is very sporadic with playing on Avicus, and half the time the player count only gets past 10-20 people because of hackers accumulating onto the server. 
We need changes.. :/

OPTOBAT October 11, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

1. +1
2. Plz +1
3. Don't really mind, it is just to minimize the server lag since Avicus doesn't usually get that many players anymore but votes should have been in place to remove or keep those maps
4. +1
Thank you, and yeah that's fair enough, I was going to mention the one credible thing that has changed to a positive extent is that the lagging has gone down a little, but still... Quintus :'(

Posighdun October 11, 2016 at 12:10 PM UTC

Voting still exists, the links just aren't displayed on the website anymore due to the fact that next to no one was voting when they were there.

I agree with the bit of hackers, I know it causes a lot of issues but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be easy to deal with it. 

As for gameplay, I disagree. https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/a62dee462 The majority of people wanted quintus removed. I do agree with the rotation bit though.

As for Skywars and Arcade, we've already done Public Testing on the gamemodes and there will be more public testing to come, so I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the two gamemodes launches soon.

PieZ October 11, 2016 at 2:10 PM UTC

1. I do not find that voting (Bringing in new players) is the problem with the server as of this moment. I find keeping the players interested in our server is the trouble we are currently having. 

2. Developing an anti cheat or Ip banning the hackers would help a little, but I do agree with you this isn't an easy problem to solve but it is a problem the server faces.

3. The rotations are terrible. Quintus and Fissura were terrible maps for bringing in new players. They belong in events such as the one happening this weekend. There are a couple of maps (I can name them later if you want) that do not stand in gameplay with say new maps. This is only the DTM rotation I am talking about. The Capture rotation is rushed and poorly done, same with the Competitive server. 

4. I am going to quote Snow more than you in this one because he brought up a point I 100% agree on. We need to fix up the other gamemodes (Competitive, Capture, Frenzy) before we bring in new games hoping if they will do well or not. 

OldManTigerMask October 12, 2016 at 5:10 AM UTC

I agree to everything,  OPTOBAT!
Although I will say not to get me ranting about the staffing & map system 
(r.i.p. Aussie Staff, only Cammy & Posi ;{ and hugWulf I still love you xD)

OldManTigerMask October 12, 2016 at 5:10 AM UTC

The fact that the Admins are more concerned about newer gamemodes as opposed to legitimately working on attracting and maintaining a healthy player base is mind boggleing in my opinion.

Survival games was hyped to save Avicus and bring in a lot of new players but 1 week into it, all the Survival games servers were dead.

We don't need new gamemodes, we need to find ways to not only attract new players, but we need to give them a reason to come back.

Every server has SkyWars, Survival games and Walls.

Avicus needs a Unique Selling Point.

If you want to attract attention, you need to stand out.
Work on  features that are unique to Avicus.

Working on gamemodes that bigger servers already do better is a complete waste of time.

Dont even get me started on the staff..rip Australian players.
It seems the only player base that is constant on Avicus are the hackers unfortunately.
Which is why they shouldn't of removed Control The Hill. It was one of Avicus' unique gamemode....
*cough* *cough* Who did it? was it you  Posighdun

AtditC October 12, 2016 at 6:10 AM UTC

Voting still exists, the links just aren't displayed on the website anymore due to the fact that next to no one was voting when they were there.

I agree with the bit of hackers, I know it causes a lot of issues but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be easy to deal with it. 

As for gameplay, I disagree. https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/a62dee462 The majority of people wanted quintus removed. I do agree with the rotation bit though.

As for Skywars and Arcade, we've already done Public Testing on the gamemodes and there will be more public testing to come, so I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the two gamemodes launches soon.
Well the thing is only forum users voted on Quintus. Quintus has been the favourite map of most people since MCZone and just to let some regulars decide about it is pretty disrespectful towards Avicus' history and the players who don't use the forums.

If you want a fair vote, you should add a message which is repeated each 30 minutes ingame with a link where you can vote yes or no, if you want Quintus or not. There would be way more people who would vote and it'd be fair.

AtditC October 12, 2016 at 6:10 AM UTC

1. I do not find that voting (Bringing in new players) is the problem with the server as of this moment. I find keeping the players interested in our server is the trouble we are currently having. 

2. Developing an anti cheat or Ip banning the hackers would help a little, but I do agree with you this isn't an easy problem to solve but it is a problem the server faces.

3. The rotations are terrible. Quintus and Fissura were terrible maps for bringing in new players. They belong in events such as the one happening this weekend. There are a couple of maps (I can name them later if you want) that do not stand in gameplay with say new maps. This is only the DTM rotation I am talking about. The Capture rotation is rushed and poorly done, same with the Competitive server. 

4. I am going to quote Snow more than you in this one because he brought up a point I 100% agree on. We need to fix up the other gamemodes (Competitive, Capture, Frenzy) before we bring in new games hoping if they will do well or not. 
How is Quintus a terrible map? When it was first released, Avicus/MCZone had over 1000 people on at the same time! Why didn't the guys at this time say "Remove this terrible map!"? And yes, the current rotation is the worst I've seen so far. Removing Throwback was imo the most stupid decision the Map Devs or whoever made it, made so far. Also, there should be 2 subservers for Nebula, not only Destroy1 and Capture, there must be a Destroy2. (Or Throwback, of course.)

PieZ October 12, 2016 at 9:10 AM UTC

How is Quintus a terrible map? When it was first released, Avicus/MCZone had over 1000 people on at the same time! Why didn't the guys at this time say "Remove this terrible map!"? And yes, the current rotation is the worst I've seen so far. Removing Throwback was imo the most stupid decision the Map Devs or whoever made it, made so far. Also, there should be 2 subservers for Nebula, not only Destroy1 and Capture, there must be a Destroy2. (Or Throwback, of course.)
75% of the games led to spawn killing. I rather not advertise a map where new players could judge the server when 50% of the time they could be spawn killed. It was a terrible map. Same with Throwback, it was getting very stale and was not attracting players because they would play the same thing every time. The answer would of to add fresh new maps to the rotation, not Haunted Hallow which is one of the most amateur maps in the current rotation.

Edit: 2 years ago the meta was different and simple maps with flaws like that were loved, the map did not update well through the years. Also a reminder that people thought Quintus was a great tournament map at the time, I don't believe Avicus had a huge sense of gameplay as well

OPTOBAT October 12, 2016 at 1:10 PM UTC

Well the thing is only forum users voted on Quintus. Quintus has been the favourite map of most people since MCZone and just to let some regulars decide about it is pretty disrespectful towards Avicus' history and the players who don't use the forums.

If you want a fair vote, you should add a message which is repeated each 30 minutes ingame with a link where you can vote yes or no, if you want Quintus or not. There would be way more people who would vote and it'd be fair.
+1 ^

ProfessorUtonium October 12, 2016 at 1:10 PM UTC

How is Quintus a terrible map? When it was first released, Avicus/MCZone had over 1000 people on at the same time! Why didn't the guys at this time say "Remove this terrible map!"? And yes, the current rotation is the worst I've seen so far. Removing Throwback was imo the most stupid decision the Map Devs or whoever made it, made so far. Also, there should be 2 subservers for Nebula, not only Destroy1 and Capture, there must be a Destroy2. (Or Throwback, of course.)
I swear if you think quintus is the best/a good map, you don't understand gameplay

also for the 2 servers, we had two servers during atlas launch. We only had one server for destroy on and never both which would remove the need for 2. (Plus we can use that extra server for something else, skywars, frenzy (which it was used for), arcade...)

and refer to piez

OPTOBAT October 12, 2016 at 2:10 PM UTC

I swear if you think quintus is the best/a good map, you don't understand gameplay

also for the 2 servers, we had two servers during atlas launch. We only had one server for destroy on and never both which would remove the need for 2. (Plus we can use that extra server for something else, skywars, frenzy (which it was used for), arcade...)

and refer to piez
I disagree with what you mean about Quintus. I think it is an excellent map. 
How the gameplay goes for a map isn't the only factor to having the map at all, in my opinion. 
There is literally no such thing as a map that is going to have perfect gameplay, and surely you can agree that we have maps that ARE in the rotation that have worse gameplay then Quintus. 
Besides, i'm sure alot of people would have still been content with perhaps some changes and alterations being done to improve Quintus, removing it all together was not necessary. It's not even something that should be last resort.
Even if the gameplay wasn't great (in your opinion), it doesn't mean people didn't find it fun. Games on maps can finish very quickly or after a long time but people still enjoy the time they played on it, as well as the excitement of waiting for the games that DO play smoothly and are intense and fun. 
Quintus did not have to be removed. My opinion.

ProfessorUtonium October 12, 2016 at 3:10 PM UTC

I disagree with what you mean about Quintus. I think it is an excellent map. 
How the gameplay goes for a map isn't the only factor to having the map at all, in my opinion. 
There is literally no such thing as a map that is going to have perfect gameplay, and surely you can agree that we have maps that ARE in the rotation that have worse gameplay then Quintus. 
Besides, i'm sure alot of people would have still been content with perhaps some changes and alterations being done to improve Quintus, removing it all together was not necessary. It's not even something that should be last resort.
Even if the gameplay wasn't great (in your opinion), it doesn't mean people didn't find it fun. Games on maps can finish very quickly or after a long time but people still enjoy the time they played on it, as well as the excitement of waiting for the games that DO play smoothly and are intense and fun. 
Quintus did not have to be removed. My opinion.
The current rotations is what we care about. We understand that you have "favorites" but we can't keep maps that we've had for 3 years. It's called change and that's what we wanted. This is also the reasoning to why we have events like these https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/96726d4b0. We care about gameplay in rotations. Also maps like these are really the reason to why new people leave. If you are new to the server, would you like to walk out of spawn than get mauled by 6 guys in diamond gear?

ElementalAssasin October 12, 2016 at 11:10 PM UTC

+1 to Optobat

OPTOBAT October 12, 2016 at 11:10 PM UTC

The current rotations is what we care about. We understand that you have "favorites" but we can't keep maps that we've had for 3 years. It's called change and that's what we wanted. This is also the reasoning to why we have events like these https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/96726d4b0. We care about gameplay in rotations. Also maps like these are really the reason to why new people leave. If you are new to the server, would you like to walk out of spawn than get mauled by 6 guys in diamond gear?
Yes, but that's why I said it would have been a better move to change maps like that - make alterations, not remove them. Also updating and evolving the server is something i agree with and am all for, but to be fair, every since Avicus was introduced and the proceeding major changes were applied it has been a steady decline since. 
The staff may be focused on changing the server and replacing portions of it, but at least make an attempt to communicate with all players, both IG and on the forums and see what everybody wants, not just doing it.
However, I do agree with what you just said more than your previous comment, I would leave for sure if I were new to the server and just got killed and kill farmed straight away, but that's where minor changes should occur to fix that, not full on removal, in my opinion. Also if you want to empathise for new players, then wouldn't there be far larger priorities like taking care of the amount of hackers that get into the server, get away with it and how long it takes for them to be removed?
Let alone taking care of any of the issues i've just mentioned above.

BoldAndBrash October 12, 2016 at 11:10 PM UTC

The current rotations is what we care about. We understand that you have "favorites" but we can't keep maps that we've had for 3 years. It's called change and that's what we wanted. This is also the reasoning to why we have events like these https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/96726d4b0. We care about gameplay in rotations. Also maps like these are really the reason to why new people leave. If you are new to the server, would you like to walk out of spawn than get mauled by 6 guys in diamond gear?
Most of the new maps hardly stick out and have really bland gameplay. You guys should try getting more community feedback on maps before accepting them because they look nice in the official release thread.

ProfessorUtonium October 13, 2016 at 1:10 AM UTC

Yes, but that's why I said it would have been a better move to change maps like that - make alterations, not remove them. Also updating and evolving the server is something i agree with and am all for, but to be fair, every since Avicus was introduced and the proceeding major changes were applied it has been a steady decline since. 
The staff may be focused on changing the server and replacing portions of it, but at least make an attempt to communicate with all players, both IG and on the forums and see what everybody wants, not just doing it.
However, I do agree with what you just said more than your previous comment, I would leave for sure if I were new to the server and just got killed and kill farmed straight away, but that's where minor changes should occur to fix that, not full on removal, in my opinion. Also if you want to empathise for new players, then wouldn't there be far larger priorities like taking care of the amount of hackers that get into the server, get away with it and how long it takes for them to be removed?
Let alone taking care of any of the issues i've just mentioned above.
we did not "just" do it.
https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/4044e3fa1
https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/a62dee462
https://avicus.net/forums/discussions/d6abfc985
We had entire public discussions regarding throwback. These are the players who have are regularly active to see what happens to these servers. We actually did get community feedback before removing it.

Also for your priorities thing, yes we understand that hackers are a big problem. Just like everyone else, us staff members are humans and are sometimes not available to ban players and anti cheats (as shown by Avi core) is good but affects gameplay which is worse. Hopefully this will change soon though.

ProfessorUtonium October 13, 2016 at 1:10 AM UTC

Most of the new maps hardly stick out and have really bland gameplay. You guys should try getting more community feedback on maps before accepting them because they look nice in the official release thread.
I'll try to do something about that

imryaan October 13, 2016 at 6:10 AM UTC

Also... Prestiges!!!

OPTOBAT October 13, 2016 at 9:10 AM UTC

Also... Prestiges!!!
^ That removal was such a bad move xD. I'd say in my opinion, but i can think of at least 30 players who agree

Eklip_Z October 13, 2016 at 9:10 AM UTC

- There should be a voter of the month, possibly year reward which will give the player a unique award. 
- Walls being removed was a serious mistake.
- Voting link needs to be fixed. We should also be voting on a website that actually appears on the first page of a google search for 'Minecraft servers'        (minecraftservers.org)

Some very solid and well developed points and ideas here.

gyalchester October 13, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

Most of the new maps hardly stick out and have really bland gameplay. You guys should try getting more community feedback on maps before accepting them because they look nice in the official release thread.
A community voting + toughts system for each map? +1

gyalchester October 13, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

- There should be a voter of the month, possibly year reward which will give the player a unique award. 
- Walls being removed was a serious mistake.
- Voting link needs to be fixed. We should also be voting on a website that actually appears on the first page of a google search for 'Minecraft servers'        (minecraftservers.org)

Some very solid and well developed points and ideas here.
Since Avicus started getting less popular their have been like no one playing walls...

Eklip_Z October 13, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

Since Avicus started getting less popular their have been like no one playing walls...
And removing the game mode completely isn't going to encourage those who still played Walls to stay.

gyalchester October 13, 2016 at 10:10 AM UTC

And removing the game mode completely isn't going to encourage those who still played Walls to stay.
In my opinion you need at least 3v3v3v3 to play walls, im pretty sure that avicus only gets enough to fill 1 game of DTM or Capture and the majority of players play avicus for Nebula/DTM/Capture. To me it was good to have back in MCZone but just by sheer numbers now it is not worth having now, it just creates unnecessary lag. I might be wrong but these are just my thoughts

Eklip_Z October 14, 2016 at 5:10 AM UTC

In my opinion you need at least 3v3v3v3 to play walls, im pretty sure that avicus only gets enough to fill 1 game of DTM or Capture and the majority of players play avicus for Nebula/DTM/Capture. To me it was good to have back in MCZone but just by sheer numbers now it is not worth having now, it just creates unnecessary lag. I might be wrong but these are just my thoughts
I agree, if it were to be added again, not many people would play. What I was saying is that when Walls was removed, a lot of people left because of it.

DaFrozenBlaze October 14, 2016 at 7:10 AM UTC

I agree, if it were to be added again, not many people would play. What I was saying is that when Walls was removed, a lot of people left because of it.
It's coming back if I'm not mistaken?

OPTOBAT October 15, 2016 at 2:10 AM UTC

- There should be a voter of the month, possibly year reward which will give the player a unique award. 
- Walls being removed was a serious mistake.
- Voting link needs to be fixed. We should also be voting on a website that actually appears on the first page of a google search for 'Minecraft servers'        (minecraftservers.org)

Some very solid and well developed points and ideas here.
^^^ This guy knows what's up! hahaha i couldn't agree more. +1