Thoughts and Opinions about MCP

[pointlessbob]

(THIS IS A FUCKING WORD WALL BUT PLS READ I THINK ITS GOOD)
What kept me coming back:

Faction presence has kept me coming back to the server time and time again over the course of 4-5 years.

It was fun to get together with a small group of friends and build an op base hidden in the free world.
Competing with other groups who did the same thing was VERY entertaining.
I find that if there was 3 major groups going at the same time the server was golden.

-people would be recruited, forming massive factions, having massive riots
-bases would be raided, and rebuilt to be even better
-people had natural enemies and would KOS in the prison
-rinse and repeat until economy got out of control and server reset, put everyone back onto the same starting block and usually new factions form and things are shuffled up


Currently problems restricting factions:

1. MCP Live map & world border
-absolutely killed factions in my opinion
-part of the old fun was being able to build a massive base and not worry about it getting shanked so easily
-bases still got raided and still got found via insider whistle blowers, and that always added to that conflict which kept me coming back:  I wanted to beat anyone who fucked with me lol
-forcing bases to be within a confined space will increase raiding yes, but it's not fun if you're constantly tending to your base and rebuilding.  it was fun to flex in the prison and get your entire faction to gear up and gang up on the guards and take over the prison

actually that's about it. I came back recently to try and recreate that faction experience but I don't want to build something that's gonna get raided within a week. I quickly lost motivation to grind and get to the top once I hit the world border.


It was fun to run around the prison knowing you had allies and friends present around you to protect your backs, even more fun to gang up and bully C blockers.  The important thing I think I'm trying to get out of this is that factions were a HUGE source of community interaction.  When they were big, the prison looked like it was flourishing.  Personally, I was always on trying to get an edge on whoever the other big faction leader was.  After coming back after a long break, I found live map restricted me, world border even more, and I found no point in even attempting to get to the top.
I've literally seen new people join and ask 'do people play on this server?' and then leave.  I'm almost certain that when new people join they look for 1. people playing on the server and 2. people interacting on the server.  Right now, new players join and see neither.  With an active faction playerbase there's constant interaction, and I honestly think C blockers getting fucking shanked by some op rioters during a guard raid is more intriguing for them than joining and silently mining alone with no interaction.

I mean, this is obvious, but how to you get it back?

1. you need key players to start up factions with their homies
2. needs a competitive environment, but not so competitive that you're constantly checking your base on live map and pouring resources into making it unraidable

-how do you get these things?  idk
-if I were to suggest anything I'd say get a cool update going, advertise it, and couple it with a reset.
-something like "GUARD UPDATE: epic new guard gear, more powerful, better guard loot/drops" or "GANG UPDATE: run a gang in the prison and take control of the prison" -- both ideas I like for obvious reasons (especially the gang idea) imagine u could register a gang and you can own the prison by having killed the most guards or something like that and the top gang gets perks for owning prison turf YASYDWOIEUFH2QPI thats an idea for another day you get the point: Big update with big reset
-get people playing all at once for a taste of those sick updates
-invest people into the competitive faction environment
-pray those 'big players' get to work and keep it interesting with events, buffing/nerfing guards to keep players at bay, etc.


TLDR
MCP needs a self sustaining community like old factions was.  Live map and world border restrict ability for mega factions -> less community interaction -> less to live for
Couple a big hype update (gangs? :^)) with a reset and get big players to start up factions, keep environment competitive, keep it interesting by buffing/nerfing/updates/events to compete for things

also i agree with zs make things slightly harder to get
thats my input godspeed.  i know the last thing you want to do is dump more time and energy into this silas, so hopefully what I suggested was an easier idea for a fix.

[LaughNgamez]

Good point on the factions bob, definitely something that would be done on a new version.

Economy and everything needs a complete re-haul. The issue is a lot of features you can't really argue against, even if they take away from the classic feel. It's a tough line to draw.

[HeadlessCowboy]

Good point on the factions bob, definitely something that would be done on a new version.

Economy and everything needs a complete re-haul. The issue is a lot of features you can't really argue against, even if they take away from the classic feel. It's a tough line to draw.

I agree with bob about factions.  That is what brought me back to servers after I have felt dead on at the time.  I like the gang idea, maybe you have a choice of being in a gang or faction.  The choice determines if you get a cy plot or claimable land in the free world.  Does that sound like a reasonable tradeoff? 

I could help with the economy stuff but I know you'd rather have staff deal with it.  What I would do is see how long it takes to get an item in mass quantities (reasonable) and ratio it to the whole of the mass collection about 14-21 times (different situations for every 2-3 tests).  I would also look into server impact that items give to the server so the server would run smoother if people were going for less laggy ways of making money.  I know you'd have to do it on a mass scale of various designs, but I think it would work out.  It would probably take the entire staff team to do the test runs, but it could help get a small scale sample of the players to come.