Server Suggestion

[soxx]

Soxx's Suggestion Thread​

*Welcome, all! This thread will consist of some suggestions I, and some others, feel should be proposed to help better the game and ArcheRage community. Please keep in mind to have the discussion be structured and cordial, as well as constructive. Any feedback is welcome!*

Suggestion 1
"Weekly Admin Issue Update Thread"

• I feel that there has recently been some lack of transparency with some of the issues the server has been facing ie. Donations (why, where, & when), Hackers (some stats maybe?), etc.
• These threads should be updated to include some semi-in-depth information to use as a reference so players/admins aren't stuck responding to the same questions every other thread and should alleviate some of the workload.

Suggestion 2
"In Game Moderation"

• This topic has been highly discussed and there is a clear need for it.
• Whether it be the noted admins in game moderating or hired staff, world events like Abyssal or ocean traders need to be watched.
• The simple reliance on players to moderate and provide proof shouldn't be necessary (without reward) as these hackers/bots are ruining the game's ecosystem.
  
• If this is already being addressed other than by the all mighty "anti-cheat" system. Do be sure to provide some sort of statistics to the players so the progress can somewhat be viewed/referenced. It is obvious the system can't handle this task alone.

Suggestion 3
"Take Gold Purchasing More Seriously"

• We all have seen the few players whose gear has skyrocketed over the past 9 days (while donations were down), yet truly shouldn't have any means to accumulate the sum of gold which would be necessary to obtain those items/grades.
• There is no way for a regular player to moderate or "provide proof" of gold buying, although how apparent it may be. Krowley has been noted telling players that they "must provide proof", or the accusation will not be taken into consideration, but in response to that, how exactly would one do that?

1. Auction listings are anonymous and there are no trade logs for listings
2. We do not have access to view other player's inventory or mail history
3. We cannot simply log into their account or get access to their credit history

• This problem is solely in the hands of the staff with access to that information (server logs) and accusations, with enough weight, should be taken seriously & be investigated by sed administration.
• This simply is only a growing problem since donations have been down

Suggestion 4
"Feeback Thread/Suggestion Response Thread"

• There is an overwhelming amount of suggestions coming in from the forums towards issues like lucky points, class unbalancing, land disparity, etc. As a fairly active member of the forums, I've seen countless times where the same issues/suggestions have been discussed and debated over and over.
• As to those suggestions, there 99% of the time has been no feedback/input from the developers. This is extremely frustrating and essentially groups the AR staff in with good ol' Trino.
• "BUT ARCHERAGE ISNT LIKE TRION, THEY LISTEN TO US" clearly not really so much... There have been some very small changes and tiny amounts of feedback given by the dev team on tiny problems such as global event times, or other previously created in game mechanics, but still no actual application of development to divert the AR from being an AA clone.
• Are we actually going to just simply follow AA or will there be some real changes and follow through on the promises made by the team? (will we simply be the same as live and or follow RU Private server?)

These are simply my opinions and some frustrations I have with AR right now. Feel free to leave any constructive comments &or add your own suggestions!

 

[Kidlat]

I totally agree with this suggestion.

At first when this server launch the admin is actively listening and actively implementing stuff that most of the players suggested, but right now specially the " donation issue " I kinda feel that we're not really getting the update that we're supposed to know it's been a week or something (correct me if I'm wrong) but it's really frustrating now. Everyone is being affected by this issue specially. I really hope that it will fix soon, I know that the admin is on hand on this issue, but at least keep us updated on this issue or at least put a temporary option
for this stuff for now. I really do love this server I just really hope that this server won't go to the path where trino go.

 

[Krowley]

It's almost like you're reading my mind.

 

[Izod]

The fix is coming give them a little more time...keep your money in your pocket for a bit longer..the game is still free to play...the fix should be soon hopefully before castle rush. Working in IT if I had to update someone about what I'm doing everyday it would be hard to get anything done.

 

[soxx]

The fix is coming give them a little more time...keep your money in your pocket for a bit longer..the game is still free to play...the fix should be soon hopefully before castle rush. Working in IT if I had to update someone about what I'm doing everyday it would be hard to get anything done.

Suggestion 1
"Weekly Admin Issue Update Thread"

>>weekly>>weekly

 

[tehfoe]

There is no way for a regular player to moderate or "provide proof" of gold buying, although how apparent it may be. Krowley has been noted telling players that they "must provide proof", or the accusation will not be taken into consideration, but in response to that, how exactly would one do that?

On this not for proof you could just submit a snapshot of the item being sold and the gold price its at, like if theres 1 potato for 10,000g its pretty obvious and they can go look at AH logs and see who sold it.

• We all have seen the few players whose gear has skyrocketed over the past 9 days (while donations were down), yet truly shouldn't have any means to accumulate the sum of gold which would be necessary to obtain those items/grades.

Just to play devils advocate a little bit here, I know allot of people purchased over 100k credits and sat on them till prices went up and some (Including myself) spent literally THOUSANDS of gold on credits, I was dumb enough to sell when they hit 160g thinking they wouldnt go higher, others were not and took advantage of having 50k+ credits and turning that into 3k gold per 10k credits or more.

 

[soxx]

I understand how flipping works, and those who stocked up on credits made thousands, but obviously, not everyone had the insight to make that sort of move. So you can't always automatically assume everyone who has achieved the higher tiers of gear or value has used that approach. For those who have, it would be very clear by analysis of their AH logs to see if they did in fact stock up and invest

As to the screenshot of AH listings, I do understand that this may be one form of possibly helping submit proof, but this doesn't necessarily consist of any association with a direct accusation (if you understand what I'm trying to say), but yes indeed these random catches should be reported to GM's!

good input

 

[tehfoe]

Sorry this is gonna not have much point towards the thread, but thanks for the reply that wasnt YOUR WORNG YOU FUCKING IDIOT in a nutshell xD. You actually made some logical points that I too agree with, just hoping that people dont witchunt certain people just because they have gear.

Yes its apparent who bought BR or Russian farmed gold, hopefully they are caught and banned or atleast the gear taken away.

 

[vulgrr]

Suggestion 1 and 2: Agreed, but you've gotta understand one crucial thing. They're understaffed at the moment, and they're running two private servers. One in russia, and one for NA. So weekly updates are a challenging task. This isn't a job they're getting paid for, at least, not in the typical sense. They can't realistically hire more bodies. People would need to volunteer, and be trustworthy.

As for more in game GMs, finding trustworthy people to administer a game is a difficult task at best, as they need higher levels of access than most other staff (ie forum mods, pr reps), something I know I would be extremely hesitant to hand out. It isn't just about playing the game and looking for cheaters, it's about administering a database. That requires access to the systems that host the game. If a malicious individual got ahold of those systems, the server could suffer irreparable damage.

Suggestion 3: This is difficult to track, but can be done, in terms of gold purchasing. You just need vigilance and cleverly crafted scripts to watch database transactions to detect gold buying. It can be done, but isn't as easy as you think. I'll point you back to low staff numbers.

However, just because gearscores are rapidly rising, that doesn't necessarily indicate gold purchasing. The server is in a state where gear score can rapidly rise, due to where everyone is, and where they're going. Obsidian weapons give a large amount of gear score for relatively little, when starting off. The jump from quest weapons/auroria trash gear to Obsidian or Delphinad++ level weapons is pretty substantial. 3.5-4k is pretty easy to hit with some basic obsidian pieces (weapon, shirt and pants).

Suggestion 4: Agreed, again, but low staff numbers make this difficult.

To add to that, though, it is highly possible there are some things that just cannot be changed without legitimate source code. We don't know if this is an emulator (a custom coded private server that someone hand coded) or legit source from a leak for 2.9. Some things may only be modifiable with legitimate source code. Those aren't details we're privy to as players, and even other developers wouldn't really know as none of us have what the Archerage team is using to host this server.

 

[Ulcaster]

Also be prepared on seeing a MASSIVE gear score upgrade the exact moment they get cash shop rolling again. Im sitting on mats, regrade scrolls and lots of shit ready to enchant when i can get charms n shit from the shop again, or simply way cheaper crédits than now. So is likely a lot of ppl just waiting to press go on enchanting the moment its back.

 

[soxx]

I understand the timidness towards bringing on new staff, but as to recent poles and by player request there is a very clear demand for it. There should be a strict vetting process to ensure there is no bias in those individuals with the possibility of corruption or favoritism towards any player, guild, nation etc. Something as simple as a GM sitting invisible and scouting objectives for a single guild can be completely game breaking, so I very much so understand the steps which would need to be taken to ensure proper staff is "hired" or brought on.

As well as the overall staff list, I do feed sparkle and iron lady are trying their best and may be doing as much as they can, but it couldn't hurt to bring more people into the loop (IE Krowley & ul-idk his tag) and allow them to post these updates. As stated, there should just be a weekly letter to, even just briefly, give an overview of the current "state of affairs" per say.

With gear score overall, I'm not targeting the simple players with maybe 1 divine or an overall just simple 3-4k ish gear score, but more so those with a full divine, full divine+ weapon sets. Essentially, the OVERgeared (in regards to the current meta). And I'm not looking for a witch hunt, but just simply stating that I feel it should be closely monitored in the current state with the credits being down and players are looking to other ways to progress their GS.

@vulgrr's last comment, I completely agree. Again going back to the transparency of the ArcheRage team, they need to state what they are/aren't capable or willing to do to accommodate the NA player base. If they can edit drop tables (for the popular proposition for lucky point drops) or procks for brasiers, say it! Yet I feel there is this slowly waking beast which will be player frustration, and I too won't want to be stuck with a Trion Jr. </3