Hello PR Smod?

[kthx]

Mr PR Smod, how is it that we have some random clueless dipshit going around changing resolution sizes in trenchwars all crazily even though the majority of players didn't want it to be changed and the tw player elders didn't want the resolution changed? How many more shitty and unwanted changes are we going to have to deal with in the future from this Stabwound character who seems to be pitching a perfect no hitter in terms of good changes for this zone?

Why aren't the lag limits being lowered instead of cowtailing to the same group of crying and whining pussies who already had the fucking resolution limits changed like three months ago and came back to cry and bitch even more about fucking resolutions when we have had people like brokenfist playing in TW for like 10 years. I think you need to step in and shut down this little "experiment" before enough players get discouraged enough from playing this game and all of its "changes" that seem to be being implemented against our wishes.

Thanks ahead of time for axing this shitdick and sending him the way of Qan, Distension, and Sarien.

[Summa]

Mr PR Smod, how is it that we have some random clueless dipshit going around changing resolution sizes in trenchwars all crazily even though the majority of players didn't want it to be changed and the tw player elders didn't want the resolution changed? How many more shitty and unwanted changes are we going to have to deal with in the future from this Stabwound character who seems to be pitching a perfect no hitter in terms of good changes for this zone?

The head of PR is H.M.S. Stargazer. He will hopefully respond to this in a timely manner, but I will attempt to address it unofficially for now. Stabwound is not a "clueless dipshit". He has proven to be the most active head of TWD we have probably ever had. Under his leadership the untaken TWD op calls have significantly dropped and there have been monumental strides in cutting down on double squading. Almost all of his choices as head of TWD have been constructive in the eyes of staff.

You are exaggerating and using hyperbole a bit (wark using hyperbole? NEVER). While there is a significant portion, in this case a slight majority, of the forums in favor of the resolution remaining as it was, there is also a significant portion of the population who is in favor of it. Amongst staff, there was overwhelming support for the raising of the resolution limit. If you feel that there is not enough public opinion in staff, then that is another issue (one which I propose we should potentially make a players union or something to address). As for Stabwound's ties to distension which you seem to believe illegitimize everything that he does, he has officially stated that he loved distension and believed it to be fun; he supported it until it proved to be detrimental to the zone and ceased being updated. At that point he ended its tenure in TW.

Why aren't the lag limits being lowered instead of cowtailing to the same group of crying and whining pussies who already had the fucking resolution limits changed like three months ago and came back to cry and bitch even more about fucking resolutions when we have had people like brokenfist playing in TW for like 10 years. I think you need to step in and shut down this little "experiment" before enough players get discouraged enough from playing this game and all of its "changes" that seem to be being implemented against our wishes.

In terms of lag limits in TWD and TWL, we have a group of people working on adjusting them. Until recently, with the help of Arobas+, we haven't exactly had the means to do much work on the TWD bots with any great effect. Editing the bots that run our most stable and valued league has always been frightening for fear of crashing it. Now that we have proven we can adjust them in minor ways, they may receive more substantive changes (some involving lag limit adjustment). However, we have to figure out which lag limits to make more strict and which ones not to. This will require more testing than simply raising the res cap and viewing the results. Hopefully, we will keep you notified on the lag adjustments as they are being worked on.

Thanks ahead of time for axing this shitdick and sending him the way of Qan, Distension, and Sarien.

I highly doubt stabwound will be getting axed from staff. He is an asset. Even if you disagree with the man's choices, he works his ass off for the zone; something that is very hard to find today.

[kthx]

Listen Summa I have to leave for work but it isn't that I don't understand what is trying to be done, it is just annoying that some people aren't big picture thinkers and don't look at the entire cost before buying into an idea. This games "charm" is that it is 15 years old, and no amount of bot coding, mmorpg events, resolution and lag changes, or anything else is going to bring this game up to the level of games released on PC or for Xbox360/PS3. So obviously you keep what sold the game originally, and kept people playing the game originally instead of trying to change with the times and kill off a specific part of your playerbase who hates this idea. You never side with a minority when changing things like this because like I said before you spoil your niche market for the game when you change things within a game that you will never get back.

[Crescent Seal]

If you feel that there is not enough public opinion in staff, then that is another issue (one which I propose we should potentially make a players union or something to address).

+1

definetly need a players union

[Bioture]

When I think PR Smod, I think...

[kthx]

Yeah a players union, thats a great idea.

I can imagine it now.

Violence> Staff, how do you allow resolution 2 change?
Cres> allow urself to explain staf...
Saetep>me not like this change for the war of trenches.

-----


How about we just do what we always did and let staff think they have power to do things but secretly have 5-10 of the old players make all the true decisions regarding the way the zone should be ran, it seemed to work for us for like 10-12 years or so. But now some random hotshot wants to come up and start doing retarded things, and then another staffer wants to ask a bunch of retarded players to create a union. The truth is we don't need to do all of this bureaucratic shit to come to the final answer that generally if you just ask the fucking players who have played TW for 10 years or so what should be done generally they give out the proper answer.

[Summa]

Listen Summa I have to leave for work but it isn't that I don't understand what is trying to be done, it is just annoying that some people aren't big picture thinkers and don't look at the entire cost before buying into an idea. This games "charm" is that it is 15 years old, and no amount of bot coding, mmorpg events, resolution and lag changes, or anything else is going to bring this game up to the level of games released on PC or for Xbox360/PS3. So obviously you keep what sold the game originally, and kept people playing the game originally instead of trying to change with the times and kill off a specific part of your playerbase who hates this idea. You never side with a minority when changing things like this because like I said before you spoil your niche market for the game when you change things within a game that you will never get back.

While it is true that we can never compete on the scale that mmo's and console gaming do, this game would have a fucking renaissance if we managed to double our population (considering that the population is so minuscule, that's not too hard.). I cannot speak officially yet, but there are plans in the works right now to potentially launch one last ditch effort to expand this game before we resign ourselves. When we get the information we need (hopefully within a few weeks), we will outline the plan to the public (I hope).

[Fit of Rage]

Sounds good, summa. If it's a well laid out plan (as has been addressed in some previous threads regarding advertising) then I'd be willing to bet that a bunch of long-time players (including myself) would donate to such a campaign. Needless to say, "google analytics" and "number of clicks" should not be the end-all figure of merit.

[curse]

OMG SUMMA I JUST GOT ALL EXCITED AND WET AFTER HEARING ABOUT SS'S LAST STAND. THE FINAL FIGHT FOR A DYING GAME. LETS MAKE THIS ONE TO BE REMEMBERED THROUGHOUT THE FUTURE!!!!!!!!!!

me and vys were just gonna play xbox after he got settled with his new family member in his new house but now we could actually have his dream spider dueling come true if we can really get more population. i'm so happy now. Gives me gr8 hope for future of ss.

[kthx]

Right Summa and the majority of new players who play the game are going to play the game on the default resolution for the game which is 800x600, if stabwound really wanted to fix something because there is going to be one last hurrah of advertising for this game he would have gotten together with someone who could change such things and made the default resolution 1280x1024 like a majority of normal human beings use so that when they first logged into the game they didn't think it was retarded. Unless you are planning on announcing in the advertisement

"15 year old trenchwars... now allowing beautiful 1920x17something resolution"

[Crescent Seal]

vio doesnt use commas idiot

[Summa]

Right Summa and the majority of new players who play the game are going to play the game on the default resolution for the game which is 800x600, if stabwound really wanted to fix something because there is going to be one last hurrah of advertising for this game he would have gotten together with someone who could change such things and made the default resolution 1280x1024 like a majority of normal human beings use so that when they first logged into the game they didn't think it was retarded. Unless you are planning on announcing in the advertisement

"15 year old trenchwars... now allowing beautiful 1920x17something resolution"

The following is my opinion, not that of staff:

I can't say whether what you claim is the case or not. We haven't drawn enough statistics yet to see what people play on for the most part now that the res cap has been lifted. However, in combination with the attempt to expand population of this game, we may want to become as welcoming and accommodating as possible to incoming populace. Not frustrate new pubbers or players by making them have to log out or get disconnected for having too high of a resolution when they enter a DD arena. I, personally, am in favor of a universal resolution like we had before w/ 1280x1024; I don't care if its 19x14 or 12x10, I simply believe we need consistency.

In terms of the plan we are working on, I will let you know when we have what we believe is a solid enough plan to try and gather money.

[kthx]

I am generally right about these things in the long run to be honest. But before you do that huge marketing campaign we should really do something about the public arenas. Either that or include some sort of mini tutorial about what a public arena is, how you can get involved in leagues and squads eventually, how to join chats and talk on them, and how to fly each ship and use each of its specials in an attachment that is included whenever you download the game and then add an intro in the news that you download when you enter the zone that if you are new reading said manual could help you out a ton.

Also by telling people things that are the addictive qualities of this game you would get people to login more.. let them meet some interesting people in pub and get into a chat with them and they will keep logging in to chat when they are bored and probably play a bit anyways.

[Summa]

I am generally right about these things in the long run to be honest. But before you do that huge marketing campaign we should really do something about the public arenas. Either that or include some sort of mini tutorial about what a public arena is, how you can get involved in leagues and squads eventually, how to join chats and talk on them, and how to fly each ship and use each of its specials in an attachment that is included whenever you download the game and then add an intro in the news that you download when you enter the zone that if you are new reading said manual could help you out a ton.

Also by telling people things that are the addictive qualities of this game you would get people to login more.. let them meet some interesting people in pub and get into a chat with them and they will keep logging in to chat when they are bored and probably play a bit anyways.

There is a tutorial arena/bot in almost every primary zone in this game except TW. It has been something "in the works" for ages in staff, but no one has ever really completed it or put substantial work into it. It is not something I am not particularly good at, but if push comes to shove and we find that we need it done before we launch this thing, you're damn well sure I will be busting my ass to get something up and running.

I will inform those who are even thinking about investing any money at this point that we aren't simply considering an ad campaign here. That is probably only 1/3-1/4 of the plan. This is not going to be some dipshit effort put forth by morons setting up advertisements on websites easily blocked by any advertisement blocker. We are hopefully goin balls out on this one.

[H.M.S. Stargazer]

I am sorry for the lateness of my response, my net has been inactive the last few days due to huge thunderstorms/hail/tornados. I can't even get in game due to 4200ms lag.

The few points being raised in this thread:

The disapproval of the new zone-wide resolutions. This will always be a work in progress, for the short-term, I request a little patience from those veterns who dislike it. We may yet change back down to the 'old days', buty we need to do testing, as we are trying to get new players to stay.

The disapproval of Stabwound: I strongly disagree with the negative publicity he has received. I agree with Humid and his overall views on Stabwound. He took over the TWD when there was a lot of issues ,he has been filling in the nedds of the players of having TWD Ops who are available and well-trained at all hours. There are still some holes to fill, but he has a plan.

The advertising/marketing: There was a plan being discussed at the upper levels a few months ago, but nothing has been formalized. As Humid touched on in a prior post, we want to do an all out marketing plan, not some half-assed idea.

A player union: This 'could' be done, however, who would be part of this? How would they be chosen? How long would the terms be? How would abuse of the positions be handled? There is a lot of things that would have to be ratified by the players in general and the staff as well.


I think I covered everything there was issues with. Feel free to respond back to this in game or in forums. It may be a day before I can respond due to the internet issues at home. It's a national holiday, so no one is going to be available to fix the net. (I'll steal from work during the nights!!!)

-H.M.S. Stargazer