House Cleaning & Advertising Prep

Hello Brawlers,

I always love it when simple cosmetic improvements can be made to the servers. We got a little sidetracked today on some well needed appearance updates. Along with the addition of polls and a new server banner, this update serves well as some good advertising preparation. Be sure to read until the end and answer the thread poll!

I'll get back to that, but first here are the tweaks we did...

Tweaks

​

1. Server menu:

• We've finally updated the old Brawl logo to the new fist. We couldn't part from the old one <3
• The 2nd line is a random message advertising the gamemodes. Expect to see this when nothing super special is happening.
• The gray dots, they are important, they look fancy, right?

​

2. Lobby tweaks:

• Gamemode descriptions now show above each portal
• The type/style of the gamemode is is listed above its player count
• All gamemode statues now have a fancy outfit on (oooh!)

Just some general fixes to ensure that new players have as much information as possible. Surprisingly, the lobby is a lot more characterized and colorful with the new additions.

​

3. Polls added!
They can do the question above and anything else we can dream of! Imagine all the possibilities

The poll above will help us find out where we should be putting more (or even less) effort into future advertising at. Your honest vote is appreciated, you may for this poll on the lobby!

You will probably be so tired of answering these because we already have so many questions already in mind. We can make the polls specific per gamemode, so it is a really helpful feedback tool for us. #communication


4. More in-game tips!
The staff whipped up some helpful messages for the in-game auto announcer. These have been added in attempt to help players understand the server better. Why not, right?

Spoiler: Click for the specific list

mcctf.com: &eGetting hit by an Archer's arrow from 20+ blocks will instakill you
mcctf.com: &6See a Pyro with enchanted armor? Run away if you're on fire!
mcctf.com: &bBlock with your sword to avoid Assassin's instakill
mcctf.com: &dStay alert for Ninjas, they can pop out of invisibility at any moment
mcctf.com: &aHit an Engineer's turret to break it
mcctf.com: &9Type &7/qq &9while looking at a teammate and holding an item to ask them to wait up
mcctf.com: &6Type &7/md &6to signal to your team that you're in need of a medic
mcctf.com: &bCoordinate with other players on offense to increase your chances of a clean steal
mcctf.com: &dUse the steak in your inventory to heal 4 hearts during battle
mc-war.com: &dRight click to scope in, it makes your bullets more accurate!
mc-war.com: &eLearn the maps and their names at &7http://www.brawl.com/wiki/maps-war/
mc-warz.com: &dRight click to scope in, it makes your bullets more accurate!
minecraftparty.com: &bWant to move around freely to spectate a minigame? Use &7/spec
minecraftparty.com: &aDon't forget to use power-ups to give you an edge in the competition!
minecraftparty.com: &eGetting good at this? Use &7/coins &eto view how many coins you've picked up from placing in minigames!
raid.mcpvp.com: &cWant to learn how to track players? Learn at &7http://www.brawl.com/wiki/tracking-raid/
raid.mcpvp.com: &eSoup can be created with mushrooms, melons, cactus, potatoes, carrots, and even cocoa beans! Simply combine them with bowls
raid.mcpvp.com: &aGet mob-eggs by crouching and throwing a chicken egg at any mob in exchange for XP levels
raid.mcpvp.com: &eThere is a KOTH Event every Saturday at 3PM EST. The winner gets prizes!
raid.mcpvp.com: &5A Nether and End portal can be found under spawn in the waterfall
raid.mcpvp.com: &dRunning low on health? Drink some soup to instantly heal some hearts
raid.mcpvp.com: &6Make sure you &7/deposit &byour gold ingots as money!
raid.mcpvp.com: &bTry not to stay at a warp too long, you might get tracked!
kit.brawl.com: &dJoin the free-for-all arenas! Right click with the compass in lobby
kit.brawl.com: &6Use &7/kbstats &6to view all of your current stats
wildwest.brawl.com: &dRight click to scope in, it makes your bullets more accurate!
wildwest.brawl.com: &aWant to learn how to become an experienced cowboy? Read our wiki at &7http://www.brawl.com/wiki/wildwest/
mc-hg.com: &dDrink some mushroom soup to restore 3.5 hearts instantly!
mc-hg.com: &eDoing &7/spawn &ebefore the game starts will put you on the map. Use it to find a swamp!
mc-hg.com: &aTo get new kits, buy them with credits. You get credits by killing, winning, and surviving!
mc-hg.com: &bFinding souping difficult? Find a ravine and get full iron.
mc-hg.com: &cThe feast has lots of diamond gear and potions, use &7/feast &cto find it when it's announced.
mc-hg.com: &6Right click with your compass to point to the closest player.
mc-hg.com: &2Finding a minifeast? Use F5 to see a larger area around you.

Advertising Prep Talk
​

Now back to the thing about advertising. We're trying to make the network player friendly enough that advertising strategies will work. I don't want to spend tons of effort and money on getting players on to have them leave immediately. With multiple gamemodes around the corner from major updates and improvements, its the perfect time to begin.

Spoiler: Get one!

small (317 KB)

http://i.imgur.com/KNzKDA4.gif

medium (733 KB)

http://i.imgur.com/pcYoqjh.gif

large (1.6 MB)

http://i.imgur.com/8Re4P6N.gif

We recently had a new voting site banner made to get the ball rolling. Feel free to use this on any site (respectfully) to advertise and to represent Brawl.

Other plans include restructuring our voting system and to implement some concept of a "reward" system to encourage daily logins along with rewards for supporting Brawl via social media, the forums, etc.

These will come down the line after the new cosmetic system is implemented. You may have noticed a few staff using some of these new titles or gadgets (its pretty hype). We just need to figure out some more specifics and work on implementing them into each gamemode.

I also plan to get in touch with a web developer to see if we can get the site spiced up. There are some major functionality improvements that can also boost our search engine ranking.

Regarding this thread's poll
​

Lastly, regarding the poll on this thread. I'm asking if you would be fine with making non-specific (not numbered) IPs go to the hub instead of a random server for that gamemode. So for example it would function like this:

brawl.com -> goes to hub

minecraftparty.com -> goes to hub (currently goes to a random Party server)
1.minecraftparty.com -> goes to server #1 Party
2.minecraftparty.com -> goes to server #2 Party

mc-war.com -> goes to hub (currently goes to a random War server)
1.mc-war.com -> goes to server #1 War
2.mc-war.com -> goes to server #2 War

etc...​

The pros of this is that everyone is kind of forced to visit the hub. This means that people finding the gamemode IP from a specific YouTube video or advertisement will learn that Brawl has even more gamemodes. In return, the player could find interest in our other gamemodes too.

The cons of this would be that it could slow regulars down that use the specific IPs. For example, most players on Build probably just log on any random server with "minecraftbuild.com" with no interest of joining the hub before. However, perhaps a we could allow you to put "random" in place of the number to join a random server.


Let me know your thoughts (on everything),
chickenputty

 

Already fixed, as you know from staff chat