A Couple of Things

Just a couple thoughts, questions and concerns for Brawl staff that I and other members of the community have. I know some other things have been mentioned before but I would like to go over it again. Thanks for buying CTF and keeping it alive. You have no idea how much this means to some people.

Date Released

Are you going to give us the date and time the server will go live before it does?
I think this would be a good idea to get people excited about it coming back.

Skype/Teamspeak

Just a quick note here. I understand the benefits of teamspeak but I just want to say that match calls and team chats will stay on skype. You can’t change that and don't try to. Mods won’t have a problem with using teamspeak as you require but that won’t stop them from also using a skype mod chat whether it’s official or not. Another benefit people haven’t mentioned about skype is the ability to video call. The mods were actually in a video call when they heard MCPVP was sold.

Chat Filter

Typing in all caps is us trying to express ourselves over text and doesn't need to be removed. CTF doesn’t need a chat filter. CTF has always been a place where cursing is more tolerated. Besides, lots of CTF players have alternate accounts, some have multiple and some already contain curse words in the IGN. It’s simply censorship and is completely unnecessary for the CTF community. I’ve never heard anyone ask once for a chat filter or complain about swearing. In fact mods themselves would sometimes swear in chat. If you feel it's absolutely necessary to add a chat filter have a command to turn it off. The CTF community has always been a place for some people where they are free from the restrictions of real life. Don’t ruin that.

“Adding 1.8 features”

Any changes that you do make I suggest you make an option to return to the old way. Also when you guys figure out what features you are adding if you could ask the community and/or mods about the changes for feedback. That would be awesome. Thanks.
Are you planning on making any changes to the GUI? I would highly recommend not doing so and can explain in more detail if you wish.

Maps

You guys mentioned wanting to add new maps to CTF. This is great but I don’t recommend making new maps if you have never played or have little experience with CTF. The CTF mods should approve all maps. Gameplay of certain map designs can ruin the “CTF balance” and how gameplay plays out. It’s hard to explain what makes a good or bad flag room, spawn location, terrain, use of sponges and midfield area but feedback can be given easily.

Steak

I’ve heard some suggesting about changing the steak. In my opinion why change something that isn’t broken. It works well and I don’t think it’s that hard to figure out steak = health. Plus what would we say instead of “I forgot to steak ;-;” ?

Zone Control

Zone Control was an old variation of CTF that was retired when it couldn't be updated to latest minecraft version and coding time on it couldn't be justified due to the lack of player count/revenue from it. (Someone correct me if my memory is failing me here). Did your purchase of CTF include this code? It would be great if we could revive it sometime in the future. A lot of people here really miss zones and I think it would be really popular.

Clans

I’m wondering if CTF could keep the clan tags we had in front of our names and have a clan page on the website like we did on MCPVP. It isn’t needed but it was a nice feature to have.

Mcpvp/Brawl Website

Back on MCPVP on our player page it showed us what clan you belonged to and had detailed stats for each gamemode. The CTF game page had daily, weekly, monthly and all-time leaderboards. Also the stats for every game were saved and the most recent games stats could be seen. I would recommend including these features when CTF is released and integrating it with the Brawl website. Did your purchase of the mcpvp domains also include the website code? If so could you use the existing webpage designs? That would be great because they were nicely designed and worked well for us.

IP

What will be the new ip for the servers?
Back on mcpvp all the regulars mainly connected to a01.mcctf.com or b01.mcctf.com so we could all play together. Are we going to be able to do the same? Also any plans on opening servers in other locations? Right now your server location heavily favors the east coast in terms of ping. CTF has community all over the world from an Australian community to an EU community.

Stream Team

Back on MCPVP we had a stream team who had special permission to spectate matches to record for youtube or stream to Twitch. These commentaries and recordings were very successful and enjoyed by the community. It’s also a great way to try and increase the player base. An example can can found here. I suggest we continue the stream team here at Brawl. Back on mcpvp MiningRyoHD was in charge of it but he was very inactive and I don’t believe he’s transferred over to Brawl. Quarrelt would be willing to take over this.

HRC

Like others have said the Hacker Report Channel has been a very effective for mcpvp in catching hackers immediately so they don’t ruin the game for players. You seem happy with your current system so I suggest either CTF continues to operate the CTF hacker report channel on slack or move it back to skype. It allows any player to type the name of the hacker and the server they are on. Since most mods always have skype or slack open when they are on there computer it allows them to quickly come on and ban the hacker before they can ruin a player's game. That way a mod doesn’t have to be on minecraft or on the website to see hacker reports.

T Server

For matches we need at least one server that can have time slots reserved for matches, practices and special events. In the past due to lag issues on the T Server mods would often just whitelist a regular server. Also setting up a whitelist in the past was a pain for mods and took a long time so it would be nice if an easier way to do it could happen. Perhaps have a whitelist setup so you can just add the list of the rosters of the two teams that are playing instead of doing them individually. (In big important matches like the tourney the mods would have to manually enter sometimes 40+ names as team leaders would want to sub out players for different maps and have lots of subs in case players have lag issues, a frequent problem on mcpvp.)

Bugs

One major bug that should be taken into account immediately. One of Nom’s recent server updates messed it up. Players who receive the strength splash potion (or buff as we call it) from chemists deal more damage than they should. The damage values are way off and I suggest fixing this immediately before CTF is put live.

Crits

MCPVP a while back made a global change to the damage value critical hits do. CTF was not consulted on the change and I would recommend a discussion about reversing this change. An important part of previous gameplay, mainly team matches, was that a buffed ninja could kill a pyro in two hits. This is no longer possible. However the crit nerf was a good thing because it slightly reduced how powerful chemist was. The mods were planning on nerfing chemist anyways in the future so if they can continue with those plans changing the critical hits back shouldn’t be a problem.

CTF Mods

This is a big one and probably the most important. First of all CTF mods should not be given trial mod “for now”. That’s just a slap in the face. They’ve already gone through a trial mod process and have spent plenty of time moderating CTF. They know CTF way more than any of you and they know the players way more than you. The next rank “Global Moderators” is a joke and that gives them extremely limited powers.
I’d like to suggest you keep CTF moderators separate from the rest of the server. They would receive the rank “CTF moderator” and would continue to have the same powers they had in the past on CTF servers. CTF needs the previous powers they had for reffing matches anyways and it helps them interact with the community (also good for catching hackers). Another thing is CTF mods like to start events whenever they feel like it for the community. This has been very successful in the past and would be great if it can continue. They can make games a lot more enjoyable for players and in doing so help keep the player base.
In addition, I would suggest that people who want to be CTF moderator have a separate application process. Your system is heavily based on forum activity but that doesn't mean the player will have a good relationship with the other players which is key in CTF. Plus its easy to get anyone to vote their support on an application. Almost all communication comes from skype chats and calls which is a better judge of a player. I suggest that we have the same “CTF trial moderators” that we had back on MCPVP. To be given CTF trial moderator you had to be selected by the current moderators. This system we used was separate from the rest of MCPVP and worked extremely well for us and I suggest we continue it here.
I’ve seen how restrictive your current mods are on the forums - please don’t bring that type of moderating to CTF. We don’t need that at all. Our CTF moderators know how to moderate. In fact I would recommend that Brawl moderators don’t moderate CTF.


I would be glad to help set up any of these things and feel free to pm or ask me any questions about it. Once again thank you so much for taking care of CTF. Sorry if anything came off too harshly.

EDIT: CTF Tournament

Another concern that was recently pointed out to me is the continuation of the CTF Tournament. It has been said before that we would be able to continue this tournament. This was the first official tournament CTF has ever had. Don't even try to remove it. This is something everyone cares about deeply and has been the most popular event CTF has ever had. @way2

Thanks for reading,
Moose

Thanks to,
@Decelvice, @Xelia_, @Quarrelt, @Hanatamago_San, @aRandomBob157 and @wintergreen3 for feedback and support.


Tags:
@chickenputty (I don’t know who else would be relevant here).

 

EDIT: Added CTF Tournament Section