[SFT Pixelmon] What do you dislike the most?

[Towelie]

Recently, we've noticed some older players leaving, as well as the server playerbase decreasing at what i'd call an alarming rate.
@Dpa1991  and I would like to know what caused this in order to be able to fix it / prevent the server from dying.
So please post your #1 gripe with the server (What do you dislike most / what isn't being done to your liking / etc)

Thank you, we appreciate your feedback!

Current list of reported things
Staff Issues:
- Staff ignoring players in chat (when they ask questions)
- EventHosts not hosting events / Lack of events / things to do

Other issues:
- New players complain about pokemon spawn rate
- World3 needs revamp
- A better help system for new players (new players don't know how to do this or that and leave due to frustration)
- Minigames such as MobArena and Paintball being broken
- Lack of Pixelmon updates
- Lack of resources and buildable land (aka world reset pls)



NOTE: I have deleted all the posts due to things getting too dramatic. I have made the above summary from the post. @Leafwhisker  Please report all staff issues with proof, via forum PM to Dpa and I and we will personally investigate. I expect this topic will remain calm from here on and no drama will be continued.

[Towelie]

If I see one more post here that starts/continues drama/personal attacks I will remove it and warn the selected person. I don't care about drama. Only use this topic for constructive criticism or staff reports with proof.

[GotAnError]

In all honesty, isn't a big reason the lack of fast updates on the Pixelmon creators' side? To me, having only a select amount of Pokémon hurts the replay value of Pixelmon as a whole. I don't think SFT can do much about it, sadly.

[Towelie]

In all honesty, isn't a big reason the lack of fast updates on the Pixelmon creators' side? To me, having only a select amount of Pokémon hurts the replay value of Pixelmon as a whole. I don't think SFT can do much about it, sadly.

Yeah, we can't really do anything about the updates. Pixelmon made the next update be MC 1.8 and over half of the mods the modpack uses are not compatible.
To add to that, Pixelmon added a "DRM" system which blocks the pixelmon mod from running on technic (because they only want it to be ran standalone and not part of a modpack).
Even if we could somehow bypass all this, it would still take a FULL RESET (REQUIRED not like because we want to) to update.

[lioneatszebra]

A reason I am less motivated to play is because there's less resources and places to build. But I know there's a world reset coming and I know there's going to be a couple more people playing more frequently when that happens.

[Dday694]

In all honesty, isn't a big reason the lack of fast updates on the Pixelmon creators' side? To me, having only a select amount of Pokémon hurts the replay value of Pixelmon as a whole. I don't think SFT can do much about it, sadly.

Yeah, we can't really do anything about the updates. Pixelmon made the next update be MC 1.8 and over half of the mods the modpack uses are not compatible.
To add to that, Pixelmon added a "DRM" system which blocks the pixelmon mod from running on technic (because they only want it to be ran standalone and not part of a modpack).
Even if we could somehow bypass all this, it would still take a FULL RESET (REQUIRED not like because we want to) to update.

Im honestly all good for a reset on everything, however that is another problem with it as we have to figure out how to fix/compensate people who have donated beforehand. 

And honesty I do agree that the biggest issue is that we cannot update to the fullest extent possible without losing more features (as a lot of the mods we have in the modpack have not updated to 1.8 so we would sacrifice a lot for some).

[Tombo_]

When I returned last month to see what was new and what wasn't I noticed the difference in the chat between pixelmon and survival. I'm not saying they should be the same, nor that pixelmon is below survival rather that it's not being managed sufficiently. Now this could be a result of laziness yes, but it could also be a result of a changing player base and therefore staff and players alike must adapt to this however much we don't want to.

One thing that is a common occurrence within the majority of the posts on this thread so far is that events and the hosts of said events are not pleasing people. The gaming world on pixelmon could do with a refresh it's true. However in order for that refresh to be most effective, and I know having read the previous posts I'm in no position to comment on staff, the frequency of events and the variety of events must be increased. Furthermore, I believe recruiting more hosts would also benefit the server to allow the new events, should they be made, to be fully utilised and boost the morale of the server overall - things have been somewhat low as of late.

A highly controversial topic is whether to add sftmmo to pixelmon or not. I've seen on many occasions valid arguments for and against from both staff and players. In order to boost the dwindling playerbase I think mcmmo has to be removed and replaced. The issue of super breakers ruining tools and whatnot would be eliminated and it'd give players something else to do on the server besides training pixelmon ect.

To add to the aforementioned unresponsive staff team to chat issues I personally didn't think it was too bad. The only problem I noticed was often newer players who perhaps didn't understand quite how X worked or how to make X would ask for help time after time after time and would not get a response. A solution to this is as snipe mentioned edit the broadcasts with useful links as well or possible forum tutorials. Alternatively, we could simply encourage people to use the forums more though I doubt this would be effect.

Finally and in my opinion the most saddening issue I see is the conflict and contrast between the older players with others who have joined the server. There's little to no interaction between the two parties. This issue is exaggerated by the broken economy, the ever increasing need of a (world) reset which I believe is in the works but I'm not really sure and the lack of change/ circulation of possessions between the servers players. As mentioned previously by others; the older players already have everything. This discourages newer players from working to get their items. As a result the server is not maintaining the new players it's attracting. Additionally, the w1 spawn despite being extremely wel built as all the towns are; it's confusing to navigate around, buildings are misplaced and the design itself I think doesn't particularly suit that of what a spawn town would be, though this is purely my opinion now.

In conclusion I think that the server does have its issues. Some are easier to fix that others. In order to prevent the almost inevitable closure of the server at this point action should be taken to maintain the new players that are joining. Having older players is important yes, but at the end of the day the money is going to come from new players.

I probably wasted my time giving my opinion as it'll just be picked apart and complained about like everyone else's but I tried at least. I tried to avoid repeating leaf whiskers post as I have very similar views which seem to be unpopular amongst many...

[CaykoMarie]

As a player that quite frequently plays pix, I have never seen any issues with the staff that are online when I come online. They have always been helpful to me, and always very nice. Is a staff team ever perfect? As a HoS, I can easily say, absolutely not. It's a lot of hard work, and I think the HoS team works as hard as they can to maintain all of the staff without being too overbearing. Because I can imagine a lot of the staff is younger seeing as it /is/ a modpack based on Pokémon. Perhaps implement an anonymous complaint form like Survival has. That way, a player has a place to go that does not require confrontation of any kind.

My issues with the modpack itself are as follows:

Spawn Rate

It is very rare for any of the Pokémon that people really want to spawn. I have not seen one legendary spawn at all when I've been there. I know it obviously happens though, because the older players that already have everything pretty much always jump on it, and then try to sell/trade them for a lot that newer players just won't have. It's a bit disheartening. My little brother stopped playing awhile back because while he was the first to get to a legendary, an older player rushed in a master ball right in front of him to catch it, and then tried to sell it to him for a stupidly high price. (He doesn't remember names anymore, as it was awhile ago and he's only 11.) It's just not very fair to newer players, I think. But this is only my opinion.

/talk

Due to the EULA wrecking house, /talk is no longer available for purchase in the shop, and I unfortunately was not able to buy it before it had to be taken out. Is there a rank that automatically has /talk? Is there a way to earn it otherwise? I'm not sure, but if there isn't,  it would be nice since there are two main worlds and typing /sh before everything you say can get very annoying. It would also help staff see more of the chat and be able to answer all questions.

Older Players

While losing older player is a huge issue, I feel that some of the older players add to the issues. Some tend to act very entitled and rude to newer players, often ignoring them or not offering any kind of help themselves. I also feel that they tend to get away with a lot of the things said in chat that probably shouldn't be said in a chat for a Pokémon based modpack. I don't have any sort of set proof, so I won't call out names, but if this could be monitored, I believe it would be a huge help. But again, opinions.


I really adore pix and the people I do play with/talk to on it. It's a fun modpack, and I think it could be really huge with just a few tweaks here and there.

[Zesty]

As Dday said a full reset, I got bored with everything so I gave everything I owned away and left to play Factions, a pon coming back I noticed it was so much fun to start fresh, way more fun than just sitting there, with op pokemon. It just gets well, boring. On the other side, it was still somewhat boring as there was no where to build, and having 'low leveled pokemon' again, everyone else now was running around with these pokemon just again making unfair. I'll admit, it took me a week to get a full lvl100 team due to my friends *cough @Smxay cough* <3 but I came back to the original problem so I just ended up leaving again.  Having a full reset + updating to the latest versions of the game will not only bring in new players looking to enjoy pixelmon as it is, not how it was and will stop the power hungry people playing now. However I do see the problem with a full reset, possible complaints from people working for hours if not days to get the right things/donations and just losing it. Well, you can have some take overs, such as donated pokemon (as long as the person has proof that they donated for it) and having to pay emp/irl money (which will help financially) to have certain pokemon/possibly builds taken with them so they aren't losing absolutist everything. There would however have to be a cap on how many things they can take as it would make that person have a hugely unfair advantage right from the start.

Just a suggestion, but it seems like I'm not along on it.

[lioneatszebra]

the hosts of said events are not pleasing people

I recently put myself in charge of the hosts in an effort to make more events be hosted. Additionally, I've been working on cleaning up the gaming world, getting rid of random builds and such.

I'm welcome to some ideas on what events you'd like to see hosted more and if you have an events in mind that could be built!

Additionally, I'm trying to put together a weekly or monthly Manager+ only hosted event such as TreasureHunt, Towerspleef competition, Building Contest, those types of things.

Would really appreciate your feedback on events and what we can do to improve that!

[CaykoMarie]

Building is awesome on Pixelmon thanks to all the modded blocks. I think building contests would be great, and I think it could also help you find builders to add to the team. Win win for both parties.

[lioneatszebra]

A highly controversial topic is whether to add sftmmo to pixelmon or not.

I'm on the add SFTMMO side xD It is a good economy drainer and offers a lot more than mcMMO has. I always just wish people would give it a try before freaking out about it.

[Tombo_]

Positives of the current running of events:
- many players are encouraged to participate
- There are very few if any issues from what I've seen when they're hosted
- There's usually more than one hosted at a time. For example wipeout would be hosted followed by a spleef which gives players more chances to win

Negatives of the current running of events:
- Too little variety
- Prizes are not adjusted accordingly to each event. By this I mean one day a wipeout with 15 participants will have a prize of 10k, reasonable right? Howver, in contrast the same event being hosted with less players has a higher prize.
- Insufficent number of players for the event. Now I'm aware we cannot force players to get involved but if issues one and two are sorted this issue will be resolved also.

Suggestions for how to improve the running of events:
- Revamp the gaming world. Make it suited to pixelmon.
- Utilize the servers attractions. In a previous post the sponge hunt event was mentioned. The w1 spawn in particular would be perfect for this event as it's very detailed and large.
- Again, I'm in no place to comment on staff related situations; but possibly adding more event hosts to the team. This could also be solved by encouraging manager+ to host events. Personally I miss the times when unique events that only those ranks could host were done.
- Large weekend events


Suggestions for events to add and/or revamp:
- Spongehunt
- Wipeout courses
- Board game (not sure if that's the correct name but it's fairly new to survival)
- New parkour courses (ninja warrior)
- Events to utilise the pixelmon mod itself. I do not know what events could do this but it could be made a thread itself with a competition to design one.

[lioneatszebra]

Utilize the servers attractions. In a previous post the sponge hunt event was mentioned. The w1 spawn in particular would be perfect for this event as it's very detailed and large.

I actually was building up the gaming world spawn to double as a sponge hunt area

As for getting more hosts, I am also working on that. Expect a couple of new eventhosts in the next week or so.

And thanks for the constructive suggestion! I'll be sure to work that stuff out with the staff team and see what we can do to improve the event hosting situation.

As always, I welcome anymore suggestions you can offer.

There's actually an event on survival that I'm interested in either recreating or having a schematic made of it and moving it over to Pixelmon. I can't remember what it was called, but I think it was like Mud Run or something like that. I do agree that we could add Ninja Warrior games.

What about a possible contest to have players build events in the regular world and global voting on which event would be the best?

[Dpa1991]

A highly controversial topic is whether to add sftmmo to pixelmon or not.

I'm on the add SFTMMO side xD It is a good economy drainer and offers a lot more than mcMMO has. I always just wish people would give it a try before freaking out about it.

I'm on the MCmmo side mostly because its always been what I loved about MC. But I can agree, MCmmo is broken and should be replaced. It just won't happen due to the outlash people would have.

[eye_nine]

Building is awesome on Pixelmon thanks to all the modded blocks. I think building contests would be great, and I think it could also help you find builders to add to the team. Win win for both parties.

Agreed ^

[CallOfTheElements]

I personally think that the biggest issue is incentive dor players to stay. We get many new players each day, but only about 1/10 stay for more than an hour. We need something unique like actual champions, elite 4 and a set number of unique gyms.

[SnipeMasterShark]

As far as a full reset, I am one of those against it. I see why its attractive to old players, and they feel like they have everything already, but as someone who is constantly finding more things to do (and has more than anyone that quit due to "having it all") it isn't really an issue if your seriously trying.

But this discussion has happened millions of times. and having both w1 and w3, with "one world resets" no items are actually lost, and it just floods server with fossils found in the ocean etc. leaf stone ores/fire stone/waterstone in the new world

Honestly as long as money/pokemon arn't touched i don't care, and everytime i build again it gets bigger and cooler so if we wanted to like reset both w1 and w2 for total item reset like we did what, 18 months ago, I am cool with. If you want to reset your money, give it all to the local event host. If you want to reset your pokemon, theres a trashbin in your pc explicitly for that purpose. Ranks may be reset due to the kind admins we have.

As far as SFTMMO, in its unbroken state I liked McMMO better, BUT its broken. If i remember SFTMMO was added for like 2 months then changed back (i remember a thing called "haste" was introduced, assumed it was SFTMMO) and it worked fine, and honestly anything is better than the broken crap we have now haha. So count my like #3 in mctop vote as in if it matters.

I am gonna chime on the event hosting a little and add an idea:

Honestly I am usually too busy with my own thing to participate often, but I 100% support the idea, and have even funded some events monetarily, probably 1-2m over the last several months randomly. Zach has done a pretty decent job hosting, but its hard for him to have decent prizes since his budget is constantly drained by his autoshop. Like I have actually witnessed people plotting to bankrupt him as a joke, probably not realizing it hurts the events later on.

It is also not fair to take it away from him or force him to pick one, have a shop or be eventhost. Here is an idea I am currently having brain things about: community accounts for eventhosts  only, like 2 or so, that get admin funded, so that eventhosts can also play the game earn money etc while also being able to enjoy hosting events? And maybe somehow logging how long they used that account per week?

If I ever seem offensive that is hardly ever my intent, my speaking just doesn't come out right sometimes

also I agree with lavish, though i think the reason people leave quickly is the hassle to get pokeballs. Who wants to play pokemon when you cant get pokeballs for a few hours?

[lioneatszebra]

@SnipeMasterShark

Back in the day when PaintballKitty played on survival, she had a prize room dedicated to the winner of the events she hosted. In there, they chose a chest that they wanted the prizes from. It was completely in their hands, however, the chests would include enchanted tools, gems, and other things. I've been in the process of making this type of room where you have an option between four types of prizes: money, Pixelmon items, enchantments and one more undetermined prize (open to suggestions). This way, it's sort of like a mystery chest, but you still get a prize ranging from 5k-25k (again, open to suggestions on what kind of prizes there should be). I thought this could be an option for eventhosts. Instead of always paying players, they could have the option to have the mystery chests.

[lioneatszebra]

Oh, how about a vote reward revamp. Literally we always get great ball materials when we vote and have the chance to get a rare prize of a hat or experience levels or a crystal chest. It would be nice to have a variation of prizes instead of the basic prizes always being great ball materials.

[CharlieClasher]

@SnipeMasterShark the autoshop that Zach owns shouldn't impact his balance anymore, as he is currently transferring it to an alt account that he owns.

[SnipeMasterShark]

@SnipeMasterShark

Back in the day when PaintballKitty played on survival, she had a prize room dedicated to the winner of the events she hosted. In there, they chose a chest that they wanted the prizes from. It was completely in their hands, however, the chests would include enchanted tools, gems, and other things. I've been in the process of making this type of room where you have an option between four types of prizes: money, Pixelmon items, enchantments and one more undetermined prize (open to suggestions). This way, it's sort of like a mystery chest, but you still get a prize ranging from 5k-25k (again, open to suggestions on what kind of prizes there should be). I thought this could be an option for eventhosts. Instead of always paying players, they could have the option to have the mystery chests.

I think this is an awesome idea, especially if newer people win, they can get some nice starter materials instead of just plain cash.

Heck it could almost be almost a secondary game, like one of the prizes being a ticket for a bigger prize drawing? Idk just a funny idea i just came up with.
Either way I think this would be really cool and creative idea

@SnipeMasterShark the autoshop that Zach owns shouldn't impact his balance anymore, as he is currently transferring it to an alt account that he owns.

Awesome, glad this particular issue got resolved. I'll still try to do a little supporting here and there regardless

[Towelie]

A highly controversial topic is whether to add sftmmo to pixelmon or not.

I'm on the add SFTMMO side xD It is a good economy drainer and offers a lot more than mcMMO has. I always just wish people would give it a try before freaking out about it.

I'm on the MCmmo side mostly because its always been what I loved about MC. But I can agree, MCmmo is broken and should be replaced. It just won't happen due to the outlash people would have.

And also, do we even have a SFTMMO that works with MC 1.7.10 ?

[Towelie]

As soon as we get a comprehensive list of gripes/complaints, @Dpa1991 and I will split it and try to each fix some of the things. I want to get involved in fixing this. We need to make pix players happy and restore pix to its former glory or near.

[Towelie]

Have talked to @Dpa1991  - This saturday will be pix day for us and we will both work on things on that list.
Until then, please tell us things that bother you / should be fixed or improved.