Community Newsletter #1

Welcome to the first edition of Community Newsletter! These series of threads are made to inform the community on what is going on behind the scenes, as our developers are constantly working on new updates and they often go unnoticed. A new edition will be posted whenever we have enough content to fill a thread (roughly 2 or 3 weeks), so stay tuned!

Staff - Teams System
For over a year, SMods have been responsible for managing Brawl (ranging from server management to writing the Brawl newsletter). However, a few JMods and Mods have always been helping SMods manage some aspects of Brawl. We've recently introduced the teams system to allow all staff members to help out with the roles they enjoy doing. The teams are as follows:

• Spoiler: Applications

  Task: Gather information about applicants who are good enough to possibly be accepted. Look at forum activity to gain information about character.
• Spoiler: Brawl News

  Task: Create the Brawl News each month. Write articles when needed, select featured media, brawler and literature, find a trivia question.
• Spoiler: Community

  Task: Ensure the tools for community interactions are used and that all servers get enough attention. Support the server managers with the community interaction by providing ideas and offering help.
• Spoiler: Events

  Task: Come up with event ideas, plan events through and help with the organization. Write announcement threads for events where needed.
• Spoiler: Hack Test

  Task: Create a hack test consisting of at least 20 questions every 2 months for staff members to take. Ensure all questions and answers are correct and not too difficult or easy. Judge the responses to the hack test.
• Spoiler: Marketing

  Task: Advertise Brawl on third party platforms, mainly PlanetMinecraft & Minecraft Forums.
• Spoiler: Media Team

  Task: Come up with ideas for videos and streams, create the videos along with the media team members and ensure they are appropriate for being published.
• Spoiler: Quality Control

  Task: Ensure that the looks - mainly the chat and scoreboard - of all of Brawl's servers are similar and good. Look for differences in design between different areas of Brawl and come up with solutions.
• Spoiler: Social Media

  Task: Come up with ideas for Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Write tweets/posts and ensure they are appropriate for being posted.
• Spoiler: Statistics

  Task: Keep track of statistics like player count, forum posts etc. and constantly update them with new numbers. Look for trends and try to find reasons for those trends.
• Spoiler: Wiki Team

  Task: Look through the wiki to find areas that are unfinished or incorrect. Resolve the issues or forward them to other wiki team members. Coordinate work with the wiki team members and encourage them.

Note: Media Team and Wiki Team will not be replacing the current teams. Rather, they will be managing the current Media/Wiki team and help them fulfill their role.

These teams will not only allow lower staff members help with management, but will hopefully improve areas where Brawl has previously been lacking. For example, many players have criticised Brawl's community interactions and lack of transparency, so the community team was made to help fix the issue and one of our roles will be making these threads every 2 or 3 weeks.

CTF - Necro Buff
Firstly, Necro has had a small buff. The aim of the buff is to make Necro a slightly more viable class, as it is very underused and is weak compared to other classes. The following has been changed:

• Necro can heal their mobs again. Hit a mob with any item, and they will receive a regeneration boost.
• Medic can also heal a Necro's mob - simply hit the mob with your sword, as if you were healing a player.
• Added some sweet particle effects when a mob is being healed.

Thanks to @chickenputty for update! For more information, click here.

Wild West - Map Update
Wild West has received a small map update. The changes are as follows:

• Added some trains along the train track
• Updated Wild Grass base by adding a few corridors

Huge thanks to @ANIMELOVERPYRO and the Wild West staff team for the changes!

KitPvP - UHC Duel Update
The UHC duel in KitPvP has received a small update. Players will now receive a diamond axe to quickly mine wooden planks they place, and the duel's description has been updated.

KitPvP - Removed Health and Regeneration Potion Drops
Very self explanatory update - the health and regeneration potion drop events have been removed as they are not very useful and generally ignored. However, they may be buffed and brought back at a later date. Thanks to @Removers for the suggestion! https://www.brawl.com/threads/69345/

KitPvP - "null" Bug Fixed
Have you noticed players having "null" at the start of their name in KitPvP?

Poor @JayOG

Thanks to @Mario, that glitch should be fixed. Let us know if you see otherwise!

HG - Kit Update
HG has received a small kit update. A while back, we removed a lot of underused kits in attempt to make the game less complicated for new players. Due to complaints from a few returning players, we have decided to bring every kit back. Every kit (other than Castaway and the challenge kits) are now playable again!

Misc - Lobby Update

The lobby has received a small update. We have separated the gamemodes into 2 sections: PvP and Guns. These sections contain the following gamemodes:

• PvP:
  • Raid
  • KitPvP
  • Capture The Flag
  • Hardcore Games
• Gun:
  • Battle Royale
  • Wild West
  • War
  • WarZ

Gamemodes that do not fit into either of these sections (Party and Build) have been placed at the front of the lobby. See here for more information: https://www.brawl.com/threads/69452/

Brawl Community Team​

 

Correct, but for the time being we've been put in teams that higher-ups think we'd be good in. We should definitely expect some people to change teams for the time being. Further down the line I think having a list the staff list would work well (could be done by making ranks that don't show up on our profiles, which is possible to do with XenForo I believe).

 

I completely agree that consistency is important, but even more important than that is staff being in teams they actually want to be in.

A month down the line, if we still have people switching then there's an issue, but for the time being it's acceptable imo.