Sad sad truth of Pika Network's Survival Server

[DJRedNight]

To whom it may concern,

I haven't been apart of this server long, however considering I am Warlock rank I do believe I have a right to say this. Also with Multiple other donators and even helpers in agreement with me on the following, I do believe that this post is justified.

There have been multiple changes made over the past 72 Hours that have been very shockingly brought to my attention. Redstone farms now inoperable, item frames being cleared by Clearlag, Armour stands, depthstrider boots, and many other "bugs" with the server. As well as the economy in general (meaning emerald) has been very flawed since the beginning.

There have been on the old forums, and the new one about suggestions that should be made to the Survival Server and yet our (meaning the players that support your server by playing on it) voices aren't heard.

We would like to have an economy where it is like the factions server on pika. notice i said like... maybe not the exact same but money in game shouldn't be taken up by items in game. We should have a currency system where you can type /money and it will display the amount of money that particular character/username has on the server. Every item from dirt to obsidian and more should have a price. I've played on other servers where dirt is $1 and obsidian is $10. We all know how this system works, I have no idea why I'm even explaining it.

As for the bugs. We donate to this server so that bugs and glitches are actually fixed and taken care of. I know at least 10 people that have warlock rank. Thats $50 times 10. $500... for just those ten people. Sure, paying for the server is expensive. I get that. However we are donating our real life money so that your (meaning admins who can actually fix bugs) time is paid for to fix things and not just sit around arguing about what to do, or even worse, doing nothing at all.

When fixes and changes are made, they need to and should be put into a changelog here on the forums. This should be updated weekly. Letting your players know that their issues and concerns are actually being addressed and not just talked about helps alot with morale of the server. When you have players that feel that their issues and concerns aren't being heard, you get upset and angry players who even though they've donated will move on to a different server where their issues and concerns are heard.

You might be thinking to yourself, You've already given us your money, so why do we care if you leave. Well, its about reputation. And let me tell you, from Helpers, all the way down to Fighters you have a view that Head Admins, and Moderators dont do anything and are "a bunch of 12 year old little kids that aren't mature enough to run a server". (note thats what has been said to me by multiple other players) I'm sure that you obviously dont want thie view of head admins and moderators to continue... neither do I personally. I want to help this survival server become a great server and welcoming server where there are no bugs, no issues, and things run smoothly. Both internally rank wise, and externally gameplay wise.

Redstone farms do not lag a server if made correctly. Plus if the farm is unloaded it wont lag the server at all. If you have someone using a continuous redstone clock with two redstone dust and two repeaters of course its going to lag. Instead of banning the person or destroying the entire redstone device, why not break the clock til they're online and then show them how to make a better redstone clock. Hopper timer. Or whatever. Show them that a redstone clock can be used to power multiple redstone devices.

As for the recent change of getting rid of farm and food villagers for trading. Thats unfair to the players that have worked hard to create a redstone device(s) that helps them in the game by using Pike Networks established economy system. If you say that the redstone farm lags the server, heres a great suggestion. Take the money that is donated to you and upgrade the server. Also dont forget this very important fact... the amout of ram on someones personal computer that they play on directly effects their perceived lag. I'm currently running on 8 Gigs of Ram with a decent video card. I've also run the java argument to increase the allocated ram on my machine for minecraft to 4 GIGS. I have NO lag issues. AT ALL. Ever. So for all those people complaining about "lag"... maybe its not the server... maybe its your computer and your lack of maintaining an environment where minecraft can run. (i.e. upgrading your ram, allocating more ram to game, upgrading video card, not having 30 web browsers open while playing minecraft etc.)

To penalize the entire server for a few players creating redstone clocks that "lag the server" is a do or die, one extreme to the other way of solving the issue. Thats also known in business management as having a poor sense of judgement and a lack of experience when in a managerial position.

So, to conclude this forum post, that most likely will get locked, deleted or otherwise because people dont like to hear the truth and dont like negative attention.... let me tell you... you already have negativity in your server... I'm just pointing it out so that it can be fixed.

Lets fix things. Lets get things done. The people that donate to your server should have a say in what they would like to see implemented in the server. Maybe a weekly meeting of all "donator" ranks should be in the teamspeak? Listen to what your players want, say, and the feedback. If you dont, you're quickly going to loose people that have made the survival server what it is today.

Thanks for reading,
DJRedNight

Edit: Took out the caps locked items for @DutchSmash

 

[DJRedNight]

Here are some links to threads about suggestions pertaining to the survival server. Some might find these suggestions interesting.

http://pika-network.net/threads/ideas-of-how-to-improve-survival-re-upload.1412/

http://pika-network.net/threads/some-suggestions-to-make-survival-better.291/page-2#post-9454

http://pika-network.net/threads/higher-difficulty-d.1021/

http://pika-network.net/threads/trade-system-for-survival.1028/

Also increasing the spawn rates so that farms like Squid, Pigman, and guardian farms are possible would be my suggestion. Seeing how i just spent the better part of the day building a squid farm, and no squid spawn in it. (Yes i did build it correctly)

 

[DirkieXP]

Ima read this on my pc in 3 hours and reply in full length.

So i quickly read it. Typed this on my phone sorry for the gramar mistakes:
First of all we will not delete this since this is criticism based on arguments and solutions ar given. Thats good.

Depth strider is a 1.8 feature but the NoCheatPlugin on survival is 1.7 thats why it doesnt allow having depthstrider.

For the money sytem you want with /ballance and /sell hand. We used to have a money system like that for a month or two. I was a warlock back then. It resulted in everyone building insanely big redstone-clocked farms which resulted in global server lag. And that isnt caused by my ram since i can run minecraft with 300+ fps normally. (16 gb ram, and radion r9 seriez). Because of this issue we decided two reset survival after two months since the lag made it not fun to play.

I dont know if you have knowledge about compressed emeralds, but we used to have that. 64 emeralds = 1 compressed emerald. 64 compressed emeralds = 1 fushioned netherstar.
People were able to trade their emeralds to these items at warp bank, but for some reason warp bank got deleted. I have been trying to get warp bank back the last couple of weeks, but no action has been taken yet by the head-admins or dutchminerhd.

 

[CloudAP]

Please do make a point of view to the server too. You are right, we have tons of bugs that needs fixing. But what server does? :)

Our admins and devs are trying their best to make a PERFECT server. For autofarms, I don't like that it is not allowed. But I guess they are still trying to test if that would improve the server from lags. Redstoneclocks does lag the server, we encounter it in creative several times.

For the donations, you are right that 10 warlocks are like 500 already. But keep in mind that warlocks donated ONCE since ranks are lifetime. Unless you want it per year

For economy, a lot of people hate it. but we have different opinions about this. For me, I agree for emerald system. For economy system, survival would look like faction with giant cactus farms and stuffs. In our emerald system, I can actually see players making farms to survive. This is Survival, not Towny or Factions.

Lastly, if you ever found a bug or glitches, please do inform us as staff will try fixing it. :)

 

[Cirty]

I do agree with some aspects of this, but as far as the technical side of things regarding red stone I've no idea how Minecraft chose to work this mechanic.

If it were me thinking how I would've done it I would've figured some way to execute as close to O(1) as possible. But from it appears if redstone is the cuplrate of lag it would be executing in O(n). Meaning that instead of executing things in parallel, like multi threading when referring to something like Java or asynchronously its executing based on a threaded queue.

That's the only thing I can think of that would cause a large amount of redstone powered devices to cause lag. I'm probably talking with my nerd side now though, hehe.

 

[DJRedNight]

I agree with what most of you are saying.

Ok so economy system like Factions probably wont be the best, however how can big farms on factions be "allowed" and yet not lag the server? I dont play factions. I dont know. However i think the very RASH and HASTY decision made to just REMOVE my primary source of income (pumpkins) is not very fair. No warning, just remove your farm or ban. Very.... curt. Not a very good way to go about things. Making the game more multiplayer friendly while keeping the single player survival feel is a balance that has to be constantly maintained.

I think that my suggestion however of a changelog, and an active bug forum post that are constantly updated would bring a sense of "hey things are being noticed, and are getting done".

Dirkie, pertaining to your NoCheatPlugin, if that plug in was made for 1.7, why not update it? If theres an issue with a plugin thats causing a feature in the server to bug out, why isn't there something being done about it? Maybe find something else? I TOTALLY get and understand the mentality of not wanting to learn something new... Like a new plugin. However thats what server admins are supposed to do. Learn and learn and learn and fix and learn and more learning with a side of "would you like learning with that today?"... lol

I dont believe that making donations a once a year thing is honestly something i would go towards, however I am aware that we donate ONCE. Ok, i get that. But that "donation" shouldn't be looked down upon. its still a donation, and its still SOMETHING in the collective pot. So i still think that all donators should get a say in what goes on.

Why not a once a week or bi-monthly vote post on the "next new thing" to come to survival? That only donators can actually vote on.

Because theres no changelog, i can't go on an support the argument that "the admins are working to create a perfect server"... really? how? what have the done? i dont see any notable changes. I'm not being overly critical or even saying that the admins dont do anything. i'm sure they do. But i dont see it.

DJRedNight

 

[Hoopless]

Hey There!

As i saw you talk with caps on this thread, please don't do it again we work hard (if you think we don't, than you can think that) for the server but we have also a life, exams, learning so don't think we don't do anything everyday. you have your points so we want also that survival is 100% great but there are many opinions in the world.

Redstone farms now inoperable, item frames being cleared by Clearlag, Armour stands, depthstrider boots, and many other "bugs" with the server.

So you want not that Armor stands and all the items not being cleared by clear lagg.? that can cause server problems with the CPU also. We can think about some things of course.

e. Sure, paying for the server is expensive. I get that. However we are donating our REAL LIFE money so that YOUR (meaning admins who can actually fix bugs) time is PAID FOR to FIX things and not just sit around arguing about what to do, or even worse, doing nothing at all.

Admins don't get paid, we do this for fun. and if they are bugs we can just suggest them to the developers because they are there for these stuff.

Take the money that is donated to you and UPGRADE the server. Also dont forget this VERY IMPORTANT fact... the AMOUNT of RAM on someones PERSONAL computer that they play on DIRECTLY effects their PERCEIVED lag

so just upgrade survival, nothing more just pay around 200 euro more? pika doesn't have support from hosts, we host from ourself. i don't call the price here since you can't talk normal to us people.

When you have players that feel that their issues and concerns aren't being heard, you get upset and angry players who even though they've donated will move on to a different server where their issues and concerns are heard.

Do you know what i hate the most? people who think that they money isn't used for what they need it. as i told you before we do not have support from hosting.

So, to conclude this forum post, that most likely will get locked, deleted or otherwise because people dont like to hear the truth and dont like negative attention.... let me tell you... you already have negativity in your server... I'm just pointing it out so that it can be FIXED.

Why should we delete this thread? it can be useful.

 

[Hoopless]

Will also thinking about suggestions thread and stuff for this. will make a good thread

 

[XxAlienware69xX]

I agree with everything you said djred. The survival is going downhill very quickly. There is tons of warlocks and they pay a lot for the server to be better and less buggy. Unfortunately it is not happening.

 

[XxAlienware69xX]

You have no idea how long i been wanting to say this about the server. The problem is that the staff will be disrespectful towards me and just ban me from the forums. The staff seems cocky to me for some reason.

 

[Hoopless]

You have no idea how long i been wanting to say this about the server. The problem is that the staff will be disrespectful towards me and just ban me from the forums. The staff seems cocky to me for some reason.

Is there any reason why we ban you? no, we don't abuse our powers. and how are we disrespectful against you? tell me this..

 

[xJasperMx]

You have no idea how long i been wanting to say this about the server. The problem is that the staff will be disrespectful towards me and just ban me from the forums. The staff seems cocky to me for some reason.

Honestly staff is pretty honest and can deal with some criticism like this, but when you say stuff like "I'll probally am gonna be banned for this etc." I can see that staff feels... betrayed? I dont know exactly how to explain it but well... they aren't like you think they're

 

[Cirty]

You have no idea how long i been wanting to say this about the server. The problem is that the staff will be disrespectful towards me and just ban me from the forums. The staff seems cocky to me for some reason.

There's nothing wrong with speaking your mind as long as it's constructive. Staff aren't going to ban you for that and even if they did I doubt it would go unnoticed. As numerous staff have said, this isn't a jail.

 

[DJRedNight]

Is there any reason why we ban you? no, we don't abuse our powers. and how are we disrespectful against you? tell me this..

The fact that you're saying "tell me this..." seems to imply a sense of dismissal and abruptness. Also the "You know what i hate" part in your reply to me.

Dutch, I would suggest you start viewing this thread as a helpful post. Not a negatory one. and stop with your attitude, whatever that current state its in, its a negative one and is reflected as such. I've discussed this with other admins, helpers, and warlocks and alchemists and they are in agreement with me.

Seeing how you're an admin you should act as such and not immediately FLAME someone because they dont know information such as i did when i came to the server and how it works... How the server is hosted by pika network and no one else... Oh and the reason i use caps is to put extra emphasis on words... sort of like bold...

As for the server and the money, you are correct in that I'm not an admin and the allocation of funds is none of my business. To an extent. However Now that we have a Dev Forum and are able to see the changes being actively made on the server that has already been a HUGE improvement and i can already see how people are happier within the survival server.

The armour stands, item frames, etc etc. No i dont want them cleared from the game. The game should be able to run with the items in the game or else mojang wouldn't have created the items in the first place to be used by players.

As to your studies, life, etc etc... i'm not saying divert your attention from these things as college was a major part of my life and i did graduate with my degree in emergency medicine and robotics. However if the total consensus of a group is such that "nothing is being done"... then maybe its time to get some new admins, or moderators that show an online presence more often and engage with the group. Maybe if those studies take up too much of your time and you aren't able to be as present online as you'd like, the good sign of a leader is to know when he/she is overwhelmed and either diverting responsibility to other admins/mods or step down all together.

HOWEVER, i'm not making this a personal attack on you. I'm saying this to ALL admins who think that they are overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to run a Minecraft server.

 

[Hoopless]

Seeing how you're an admin you should act as such and not immediately FLAME someone because they dont know information such as i did when i came to the server and how it works... How the server is hosted by pika network and no one else... Oh and the reason i use caps is to put extra emphasis on words... sort of like bold...

Next time use bold, its better than caps. And also, because its caps i get irritated.

Maybe if those studies take up too much of your time and you aren't able to be as present online as you'd like, the good sign of a leader is to know when he/she is overwhelmed and either diverting responsibility to other admins/mods or step down all together.

tell that to @DutchminerHD hahahaha

And also, i don't see it the negative way. i also see it to update some things, of course they are needed, but how you say it in that way is not good.

 

[Hoopless]

http://pika-network.net/threads/about-survival-information-and-tips.1527/

 

[Nignogery]

I won't even read this all. It's too much for my brain to handle!

 

[GWG_iKnowledge]

I can see how these complaints are real problems (besides the admin ones) but honestly this topic can cause arguements... (My opinion.)

 

[MouraThat]

you have the right to your opinion
and a lot of these points i agree with but they are implemented to make the server a better place to

 

[MouraThat]

You have no idea how long i been wanting to say this about the server. The problem is that the staff will be disrespectful towards me and just ban me from the forums. The staff seems cocky to me for some reason.

No staff arent cocky
only ever once has staff member given me a rude reply which was long ago . You wont get banned but you shouldnt disrespect staff/ you can have a opinion just not offence.