Hello there fellow citizens, some of you may or may not know me so let me introduce myself. I am zainmz (aka zain), the creator and mastermind of mccities (Jason was only an investor i met on planetminecraft). I was 15 years old when I created this server.
As you may have known few years ago there was a massive internal conflict among the higher staff and the investor over some very petty stuff which ended up messing mccities up and losing a lot of very valuable players and staff.
Over the years that I was banned i never really could let mccities go to waste, so i kept observing my creation from a distance and kept track of competitor servers ( Even though i must admit I was so angry that my anger forced me to create another cities which was as successful as this, however life caught on to me and minecraft had to leave me for a while). That did not mean I gave up on mccities, as long as I live i will always look to mccities as my greatest creation of my childhood.
Kiri (nibble) was indeed a good administrator and was a fast learner but however I must admit that he was way too serious and not much fun (Pretty much a robot at times). This led to the boring phase of mccities where the server actually lacked the fun we used to have a lot before and this ended up with the server in so called stagnant phase. (I bet even faheem should remember the amount of fun we had).
The stagnant Phase - What I really mean by this phase is that, the amount of players joining and staying on the server had stopped. Only few players who really had some intellect managed to stay and play (as is the case of now).
When I went through the forums many people had made it pretty clear, however no one really bothered about the problem.
A post referring to the server dying Can be found here (Made by a Veteran player) : Here
It is very apparent since I have been observing the server for years, the player base has not increased and is not increasing, it is very much stagnant and this may be due a variety of reasons that I will be pointing out below.
My Suggestions
a) The first and the most important part of the server is it's first impression. First impressions is clearly how this world works.
When players first join the server, the first thing they used to see (when I was still owner) was the view of the city (Cayman). The first view sparks a light in the player that gets him interested even further as he sees there is some potential in playing here.
The second part after the first view is the tutorial, where the player learns the basics of playing. (Trust me this part was always the hardest since finding the fastest and easiest way for players to learn was always a pain in the b*t) However, right now the current tutorial is just... what you could call an encyclopedia that new players dont really need to see at the beginning. New players are generally kids or teens (rarely adults) who hate reading alot (I Hate reading signs XD).
Even though I understand Faheem's intention of creating a big tutorial to cover everything is worth it. It is however the worst way for a new player to start on the server.
Solution: Small, fast, interactive and to the point tutorial system. (Possibly GIFs showing how stuff is done - Ive seen this on other servers and know how to do it already).
b) The second most important part is the LAGGGGGG. Yes the lag is currently the biggest issue facing this server even though the server is running on a dedicated machine with loads of RAM in it. This is due to the lack of knowledge on lag control.
It is always easy to add in new features when ever we want, however one does not notice the side effects of these features until later on. (Players keep connecting and disconnecting and it must be annoying when that happens all the time)
Solution: What needs to be done in my point of view is very clear, each and every plugin must be re configured from the core. Configuring all the plugins properly and removing things we dont need right now should be made the top priority. Adding Slimefun limiters and armor stand limiters to reduce FPS lag in the city area should be very helpful to players .
Another issue is when players leave and dont return their items tend to remain (especially slimefun machines), these unused items give additional load to the server which is another reason for the lag.
C) The third important thing is advertising and staff interaction with players. When it came to how i successfully achieved 100+ players on this server was the way I advertised. Advertising the server at different time-zones was the trick to achieve players on at all times. Since I live in Asia at midnight most of the players are from the US and UK. In the mornings and afternoons we used to have Netherland, Europe and Australian players, in the evenings we used to have Asian players. So during summers which is usually the peak season everyone had no time limit and was on most of the time causing the player base to explode (the good times).
This cannot be seen on the server, I have seen the server have 0 players at times and that just shows how the player-base has dropped drastically.
As for staff interaction, back in the days whenever a new player comes I used to personally help them around and teach them (even though i was owner and all) and that made new players feel happy and welcomed, and that was why most players stayed. However right now that is not the case , yes ofcourse the staff help out the new player when they are "asked to". That should not be the case, giving new players a welcoming feel (Not just by telling the player Welcome to the server) is very important and helping him out even if he didn't ask for it is a top priority.
D) Last but not the least I request everyone who plays and the staff to give me a chance to fix this server , not as an owner since I pretty much do not deserve it anymore due to what had happened before before , but as a developer to help bring back the glory back to the Cities and its Citizens. I know Faheem is doing his best ever since Kiri left, however he can't do everything alone and he should realize that by now.
If something were to ever happen to him in real life who would look after the server then (Stan is just an investor, who earns from your donations, he doesn't really care about what happens as long as he gets a return for his investment into the server) if worst come to worst he would hire a random guy by paying money to look after the server and what would you think would happen then?
I have nothing to gain here, no money or fame or fortune , I only want whats best for my creation and their players. Your support is gladly welcome. I am a fun guy with no intention of harming anyone or anything. I know I have what it takes to bring this server to its prime once again.
This is not all the ideas I have , I pretty much have list I have been collecting over the years and would not want to bore you with it any further
.
Thank You, Zain
I will be willing to answer any of your further questions here.
As you may have known few years ago there was a massive internal conflict among the higher staff and the investor over some very petty stuff which ended up messing mccities up and losing a lot of very valuable players and staff.
Over the years that I was banned i never really could let mccities go to waste, so i kept observing my creation from a distance and kept track of competitor servers ( Even though i must admit I was so angry that my anger forced me to create another cities which was as successful as this, however life caught on to me and minecraft had to leave me for a while). That did not mean I gave up on mccities, as long as I live i will always look to mccities as my greatest creation of my childhood.
Kiri (nibble) was indeed a good administrator and was a fast learner but however I must admit that he was way too serious and not much fun (Pretty much a robot at times). This led to the boring phase of mccities where the server actually lacked the fun we used to have a lot before and this ended up with the server in so called stagnant phase. (I bet even faheem should remember the amount of fun we had).
The stagnant Phase - What I really mean by this phase is that, the amount of players joining and staying on the server had stopped. Only few players who really had some intellect managed to stay and play (as is the case of now).
When I went through the forums many people had made it pretty clear, however no one really bothered about the problem.
A post referring to the server dying Can be found here (Made by a Veteran player) : Here
It is very apparent since I have been observing the server for years, the player base has not increased and is not increasing, it is very much stagnant and this may be due a variety of reasons that I will be pointing out below.
My Suggestions
a) The first and the most important part of the server is it's first impression. First impressions is clearly how this world works.
When players first join the server, the first thing they used to see (when I was still owner) was the view of the city (Cayman). The first view sparks a light in the player that gets him interested even further as he sees there is some potential in playing here.
The second part after the first view is the tutorial, where the player learns the basics of playing. (Trust me this part was always the hardest since finding the fastest and easiest way for players to learn was always a pain in the b*t) However, right now the current tutorial is just... what you could call an encyclopedia that new players dont really need to see at the beginning. New players are generally kids or teens (rarely adults) who hate reading alot (I Hate reading signs XD).
Even though I understand Faheem's intention of creating a big tutorial to cover everything is worth it. It is however the worst way for a new player to start on the server.
Solution: Small, fast, interactive and to the point tutorial system. (Possibly GIFs showing how stuff is done - Ive seen this on other servers and know how to do it already).
b) The second most important part is the LAGGGGGG. Yes the lag is currently the biggest issue facing this server even though the server is running on a dedicated machine with loads of RAM in it. This is due to the lack of knowledge on lag control.
It is always easy to add in new features when ever we want, however one does not notice the side effects of these features until later on. (Players keep connecting and disconnecting and it must be annoying when that happens all the time)
Solution: What needs to be done in my point of view is very clear, each and every plugin must be re configured from the core. Configuring all the plugins properly and removing things we dont need right now should be made the top priority. Adding Slimefun limiters and armor stand limiters to reduce FPS lag in the city area should be very helpful to players .
Another issue is when players leave and dont return their items tend to remain (especially slimefun machines), these unused items give additional load to the server which is another reason for the lag.
C) The third important thing is advertising and staff interaction with players. When it came to how i successfully achieved 100+ players on this server was the way I advertised. Advertising the server at different time-zones was the trick to achieve players on at all times. Since I live in Asia at midnight most of the players are from the US and UK. In the mornings and afternoons we used to have Netherland, Europe and Australian players, in the evenings we used to have Asian players. So during summers which is usually the peak season everyone had no time limit and was on most of the time causing the player base to explode (the good times).
This cannot be seen on the server, I have seen the server have 0 players at times and that just shows how the player-base has dropped drastically.
As for staff interaction, back in the days whenever a new player comes I used to personally help them around and teach them (even though i was owner and all) and that made new players feel happy and welcomed, and that was why most players stayed. However right now that is not the case , yes ofcourse the staff help out the new player when they are "asked to". That should not be the case, giving new players a welcoming feel (Not just by telling the player Welcome to the server) is very important and helping him out even if he didn't ask for it is a top priority.
D) Last but not the least I request everyone who plays and the staff to give me a chance to fix this server , not as an owner since I pretty much do not deserve it anymore due to what had happened before before , but as a developer to help bring back the glory back to the Cities and its Citizens. I know Faheem is doing his best ever since Kiri left, however he can't do everything alone and he should realize that by now.
If something were to ever happen to him in real life who would look after the server then (Stan is just an investor, who earns from your donations, he doesn't really care about what happens as long as he gets a return for his investment into the server) if worst come to worst he would hire a random guy by paying money to look after the server and what would you think would happen then?
I have nothing to gain here, no money or fame or fortune , I only want whats best for my creation and their players. Your support is gladly welcome. I am a fun guy with no intention of harming anyone or anything. I know I have what it takes to bring this server to its prime once again.
This is not all the ideas I have , I pretty much have list I have been collecting over the years and would not want to bore you with it any further
.Thank You, Zain
I will be willing to answer any of your further questions here.
