[Poll] Do you like where SFT is heading?

[Towelie]

Seing the recent changes that have been going on (namely solving some critical issues on pix, expanding to other game servers and overall what I would say dealing with some pretty important problems that have been plaguing the community), how do you rate the direction that SFT is heading to?
Are you satisfied? If not, what did we overlook? What do we need to focus more on?

If you vote "No" please explain and help us determine what we need to focus more on.
Any sort of drama starting in this topic will be stunted from the beginning. I wish this to be a way to receive feedback from you and not people arguing over stuff.

[Doctor_Thanos]

Great poll Tow!

I vote for Somewhat (yes, but I believe the changes must continue) because as we have seen in the past there is always some bad period ahead from the good one.

I think that continuing making those changes may prevent us from such periods and make SFT just perfect.

[Towelie]

The fact that there are 4 votes in "NO" is concerning but the fact that those people didn't explain why they voted "NO" is even more concerning

[Mk4]

I understand the reason for wanting to know why those people voted no, Im curious too. I guess one of the reasons for not explaining is people being too scared to voice their opinion because of how others may react to it? Maybe disclaim that any comments that may start a flame post or may make someones voice feel unwanted will be removed? That could help. <3

[Zesty]

I mean, yes but also very much no. I understand that you've had to change some things to keep the server enjoyable, but as seen on one of your other new posts, many people have been suggesting plugin idea's and you haven't seemed to do any of those. Where as some of these other ones (bikes, cars, planes) just seem a bit, too far. If you stopped with the way out there streches to keep the server fun, and just added basic stuff to your server, it'd be much better and people would enjoy it more.

[Brightpkz]

I voted a no not because of the fault of SFT. But instead mainly the fault of reality. From what I've seen for the past few months, we are heading a steady downhill, but that's not something we could change. From what I can see, it seems to genuinely be of the EULA's fault because it's been so harsh. I like what we're trying to do, but I don't like where we're heading because..

[Bakonator]

I voted a yes because, some of these was not appealing at first sight but upon closer speculations, we all know these changes are made because they were NEEDED, not just them throwing out random ideas. As long as that is in mind, changes shouldn't be too hard to adapt.

Also, as a few recent announcements have specified, we have also seen the problems SFT is dealing with, therefore changes must be made. There's only so much we can do before a change must take place, as it is fundamental.

[Lucy_23x]

I voted sort of yes, because it's all good over all, but me being a faction player and all, you know, factions is my place, not survival or anywhere else, and I don't feel I fit in extremely well. It's more a personal thing I guess.
Other than that I would say it's okay (and EULA screwing things up ofc doesn't help)

[Aelia Angel]

I think yes because I dont see a lot of problems on the PE server and there are hardly any bad things aive seen on forums, but I do think that staff may need some head ups because they arent staying on long enough.

[CCookie22]

I voted somewhat (yes, but I believe the changes must continue).

SFT has lots of players, is a nice community and is really fun but there are always some little things that can be fixed

[Ethannnn]

In my personal opinion I say, somewhat (yes, but I believe the changes must continue).

I have played SFT for around 3 years or longer and I think I have seen my fair share of highs and lows of the server,for about all my playing time I played mainly factions so I am very use to that type of environment, I see how SFT wanted to make things perfect and make every one have a SuperFunTime but I do not think every one is perfect, and will always say the nicest things to one another and i'm not saying being "Toxic" is a good thing to have on SFT. The reason I say yes is the community now is very polite and helping to one another. Why I say somewhat because a VERY huge amount of old players that do not play SFT any more but there also is the very large amount of old players that do play. This might not make since but a lot of the players (Old) I had very good relationships with and it's hard to come back and play because their, just not there. Im not saying bring them back which is most likely not a option considerably because half of them do not play this game any more. I have so MANY more reasons why SFT is good and bad at the moment for all players, but the ones I said are my personal opinions why. on another note I feel it's hard to get back into survival after factions shutting down.

Thanks to all that had read, trying to get another point of view on this topic out there
(sorry for long post)

[Fractalion]

I voted somewhat.

I feel like survival is starting to stray too far from the base game. We have trains, planes, cars, and motorcycles now. We have pets that fight for you. Slimefun is basically a lighter version of some of the stuff you'd expect to find in machine based mods. SFTMMO powerups are so completely broken that I have more ores than I'll ever know what to do with.

If I wanted to feel like I am practically invulnerable and have a ton of power, I'd play on a modded server. I know I don't have to use SFTMMO stuff or Slimefun stuff, but if I don't I'm just imposing a disadvantage upon myself that no one else on the server has.

I know it sounds kinda weird, but in a way, we've added so many things to the experience that I think the experience is no longer as good as it used to be. I'm not saying we need to go back to the number of plugins we had back in alpha or anything, I'm just saying that I think in the last few months we've strayed a bit too far from the base game, and the survival experience is suffering a bit because of that.

[What48]

I voted for "yes" because I don't really mind the changes being made to the pocket edition server and I'm sure not many people mind the changes being made to it

I voted somewhat (yes, but I believe the changes must continue).

SFT has lots of players, is a nice community and is really fun but there are always some little things that can be fixed

But as ccookie22 said there are always little things that could be fixed

[Melonmel10]

I voted somewhat (yes, but I believe the changes must continue).

SFT has lots of players, is a nice community and is really fun but there are always some little things that can be fixed

Put the words right out of my mouth. I feel the exact same

[BattleAxium]

I voted somewhat.

I feel like survival is starting to stray too far from the base game. We have trains, planes, cars, and motorcycles now. We have pets that fight for you. Slimefun is basically a lighter version of some of the stuff you'd expect to find in machine based mods. SFTMMO powerups are so completely broken that I have more ores than I'll ever know what to do with.

If I wanted to feel like I am practically invulnerable and have a ton of power, I'd play on a modded server. I know I don't have to use SFTMMO stuff or Slimefun stuff, but if I don't I'm just imposing a disadvantage upon myself that no one else on the server has.

I know it sounds kinda weird, but in a way, we've added so many things to the experience that I think the experience is no longer as good as it used to be. I'm not saying we need to go back to the number of plugins we had back in alpha or anything, I'm just saying that I think in the last few months we've strayed a bit too far from the base game, and the survival experience is suffering a bit because of that.

I voted no, for the reasons Fract put for Survival and even when we branch out to "other servers" it seems most of those servers are half-baked with the exception of Ark and Rust. But, even when time and effort is put into them, not a single dime is dropped for proper advertising and server support which leaves them to die out. Lastly, not server related, but I feel SFT has lost its touch. I remember when we used to have things like SFTNews, SFTRadio, etc. that really made us special. We don't have any of that anymore. What SFT needs is a better plan for the future of the community and its servers and unfortunately that's not the direction we're heading now.

[IPwnCreeps]

I voted somewhat.

I feel like survival is starting to stray too far from the base game. We have trains, planes, cars, and motorcycles now. We have pets that fight for you. Slimefun is basically a lighter version of some of the stuff you'd expect to find in machine based mods. SFTMMO powerups are so completely broken that I have more ores than I'll ever know what to do with.

If I wanted to feel like I am practically invulnerable and have a ton of power, I'd play on a modded server. I know I don't have to use SFTMMO stuff or Slimefun stuff, but if I don't I'm just imposing a disadvantage upon myself that no one else on the server has.

I know it sounds kinda weird, but in a way, we've added so many things to the experience that I think the experience is no longer as good as it used to be. I'm not saying we need to go back to the number of plugins we had back in alpha or anything, I'm just saying that I think in the last few months we've strayed a bit too far from the base game, and the survival experience is suffering a bit because of that.

Agreed. Slimefun is pretty much as close as you'll get to having a modded server without any mods. The direction minecraft as a game is headed is more towards hardcore(ish) survival since the beginning and it really feels like the plugins being added to survival don't flow with that play style. Minecraft, ever since the updates around 1.8 beta, has been constantly moving away from a creative/building game and more towards being a truly "survival mode" after the addition of creative mode. Their EULA is even starting to show that. They don't want people paying to win, they're constantly adding gameplay updates to make surviving harder, and one could even speculate that the new additions to the nether just recently are to encourage more people to actually use the nether and have a higher risk of dying. I'm not saying that having a survival server with plugins is a bad thing, but the plugins we're adding are almost directly going against the direction minecraft as a game is headed. The solutions implemented to keep it hard and survival-esque thus far have just been making things either really grindy or really frustrating, or both. (Ex: The 5 minute mob grinding cooldown, tools breaking stupidly fast in the nether, skeletons doing ridiculous damage, etc)

Overall, I feel like changes are definitely necessary but we need to pick a direction. Either people should have crazy good stuff and surviving isn't even a question, or we need to go in the direction minecraft is going and make the game actually feel like survival mode. Right now it really feels like we're half and half, and I personally don't like it and feel staying this way won't get us anywhere. 

[pwnswords]

I think that what is being added is improving peoples views of SFT every day please keep it up

[ButterWhisperer]

I voted somewhat.

I feel like survival is starting to stray too far from the base game. We have trains, planes, cars, and motorcycles now. We have pets that fight for you. Slimefun is basically a lighter version of some of the stuff you'd expect to find in machine based mods. SFTMMO powerups are so completely broken that I have more ores than I'll ever know what to do with.

If I wanted to feel like I am practically invulnerable and have a ton of power, I'd play on a modded server. I know I don't have to use SFTMMO stuff or Slimefun stuff, but if I don't I'm just imposing a disadvantage upon myself that no one else on the server has.

I know it sounds kinda weird, but in a way, we've added so many things to the experience that I think the experience is no longer as good as it used to be. I'm not saying we need to go back to the number of plugins we had back in alpha or anything, I'm just saying that I think in the last few months we've strayed a bit too far from the base game, and the survival experience is suffering a bit because of that.

Agreed. Slimefun is pretty much as close as you'll get to having a modded server without any mods. The direction minecraft as a game is headed is more towards hardcore(ish) survival since the beginning and it really feels like the plugins being added to survival don't flow with that play style. Minecraft, ever since the updates around 1.8 beta, has been constantly moving away from a creative/building game and more towards being a truly "survival mode" after the addition of creative mode. Their EULA is even starting to show that. They don't want people paying to win, they're constantly adding gameplay updates to make surviving harder, and one could even speculate that the new additions to the nether just recently are to encourage more people to actually use the nether and have a higher risk of dying. I'm not saying that having a survival server with plugins is a bad thing, but the plugins we're adding are almost directly going against the direction minecraft as a game is headed. The solutions implemented to keep it hard and survival-esque thus far have just been making things either really grindy or really frustrating, or both. (Ex: The 5 minute mob grinding cooldown, tools breaking stupidly fast in the nether, skeletons doing ridiculous damage, etc)

Overall, I feel like changes are definitely necessary but we need to pick a direction. Either people should have crazy good stuff and surviving isn't even a question, or we need to go in the direction minecraft is going and make the game actually feel like survival mode. Right now it really feels like we're half and half, and I personally don't like it and feel staying this way won't get us anywhere.  

[omelott]

I voted Somewhat, but I'm not necessarily pro-change.

Don't get me wrong, some changes are great! Things just don't feel like "Survival" anymore with all these new plugins and plugin additions. 

[td998]

I think that most players who have been here since the glory days when the server was always full at around 120 people would say no. It was such a shame seeing its popularity die out and all of the extreme plugins just changed the server so much that it's just no longer enjoyable. Part of the fault I think just lies in the fact that minecraft itself has just gone way downhill. Not to mention what frac and battle said about all the new crazy plugins that are being implemented. I don't even recognize the server anymore. Just the amount of plugins that have been added make it so damn artificial and overall just not an enjoyable experience at all. I like slimefun only because of the slime armor, it's fun. Other than that, I pretty much hate all of the new additions to the server. Maybe I'm just old school and hate change, but I miss the days that spheretown was a thing and there were actually enough players that you wouldn't get the "so so has entered the game" popup. The days that the spawns were simpler and not these big confusing cities. The new spawn for example is so cramped and probably very confusing to new players. Everything seems to just be inflated now and it's not a survival server it's a goddamn freak show. I've said things like this numerous times but the response has always been "well that's not possible anymore," or "I don't think that's such a good idea," and I know I'm not the only one who's heard that. Myself and others who have spoken up about it just kind of gave up because after a while we just were being dismissed and not really heard. That's probably why a lot of people who voted no didn't comment

[Jyncs]

We've had several iterations of Vanilla Minecraft. I know because I have admin'd two of the iterations. People think it will be cool, play for a couple of weeks and then quit leaving only 2-3 people playing on the server.

I think the problem is that Minecraft in general is just going downhill in popularity.

We are all reminiscing about the good old days of the servers but it was different then it is now. Before we were just happy to have a server to make awesome builds on together. Then we were happy when we had mobs on the server. Then we were happy when Leaves would decay. Then they added new items and we could make more epic builds. Then we got the nether which was new and cool! Then the ender and the ender dragons! Somewhere in there we had Bukkit and some really cool plugins came to the server to help enhance it. We had a lot of "firsts" with the game for those of us that have been playing it for a long while. Our first time joining a minecraft server with a supportive community. Those firsts are no longer there for us. There are new things being added but they are not like we experienced in the past which makes us nostalgic. It was kind of a mini "Age of Encoding" for us.(video for help explaining it https://youtu.be/JDh6XMyseQ8?t=3m8s)

That being said it is harder to convert the minecraft players over to other servers. They played minecraft and on this server for a reason, but they might not like the other games we have to offer.

With our Rust server when it first started this time there were about 10 SFT players on it. I was excited. Towelie, Combine Sniper, Dpa, Staryii, Battle, IPwn, Rally and myself all playing on the server and attracting other players. Once the initial "newness" wore off(and yes there was some drama that contributed) people stopped playing altogether and/or moved on to other games they found more enjoyable. We have had a steady 10-15 players per day join but they are not from this community and don't necessarily join up to the community. I have created events for it a lot to the point that one person even got mad because I made "too many" events(on day steam was being slow for me and caused it). Every time I make one of those events no one shows.

Ark was doing well but then I heard it started dying off. No clue how LiF:YO is doing either.

I think a large problem is trying to convert players over to our other servers from Minecraft which is not easy at all.

My theory is that your presence on the servers makes a difference. I know you spend a lot of time on our Minecraft server(s) because they are the most populated. I think that they stay the most populated because of you. You are the leader of the community. People know that. People want to play games with you. If I say Play Rust with Jyncs! no one really cares, I am not a big enough name even though I have been around since the beginning. Dpa might draw in some players because he has a big enough name a lot of players know him. Towelie I think would gather the most players into the game servers if they knew you were playing it. They want to be where the owner is, the guy who is running all of this. Whether it be they think you will give them something that will help them be better in the server or if it is just playing the game with you. Be it Ark, Rust, LiF, Don't Starve, etc. Again that is just a theory and I have no facts to back it at this moment.

Overall I somewhat think we are heading into the right direction. As the Admin over Rust as long as we have a small player base of players joining every day I see that as a positive that we could grow to be bigger. I just wish some of our current minecraft player base would transfer over but the Rust server has such stigma of being a very combative server. However I have not seen that even though I see a lot of raiding going on. Even when people get raided it is still easier to get back up and going better than vanilla Rust. It is hard to make a balance of the right mods and I am still working on it but with some players help I know what tweaks I need to make for next weeks wipe hopefully to make game play a little better.

The side of me that does not see us heading in the right direction is as I said many times in this post, not being able to convert Minecraft server players over to our other servers.

[Jyncs]

I should note that I have been drinking so if none of that made any sense I apologize. Just ask what I meant and I will explain it better tomorrow.

[IPwnCreeps]

-snip-

With rust and ark being mentioned I may as well add the reason why I haven't been active on either of those servers anymore. I really never had competition. The last two bases I had on Rust didn't get raided once (legitimately) and the only time my base on Ark got touched I didn't lose any of my items, only several dinos. They're both PvP servers and I not only caused drama when I PvP'd but was never met with resistance. I had more items on both servers than I could ever need so I just started throwing stuff around willy nilly. It got boring fast.

[Sparkle_Sun]

I think SFT is going in the direction it needs to. People complain that Survival is boring and needs to be spiced up, so we add plugins. And then it's too many plugins. It's impossible to please everyone. But one thing seems clear, SFT is primarily a Minecraft community and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. What Towelie's been saying is right; there aren't many games like Minecraft with such customization and server potential. The ones that are out there- Ark, Rust, LiF- aren't getting many players since our community as a whole attracts Minecrafters, because that's what we do.

Personally I'd love to get back to the actual survival aspect with a Vanilla server that's maintained well. I think it'd be a nice change after having everything you could possibly want at your fingertips on Survival. Especially for me, I have zero challenge in Survival anymore.

I think SFT should focus on the thriving servers it has and its cut losses on what's not working. And we've done that in a sense. We're doing the best with what we've got, and that's all you can do.

[Fractalion]

I think SFT is going in the direction it needs to. People complain that Survival is boring and needs to be spiced up, so we add plugins. And then it's too many plugins. It's impossible to please everyone. But one thing seems clear, SFT is primarily a Minecraft community and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. What Towelie's been saying is right; there aren't many games like Minecraft with such customization and server potential. The ones that are out there- Ark, Rust, LiF- aren't getting many players since our community as a whole attracts Minecrafters, because that's what we do.

Personally I'd love to get back to the actual survival aspect with a Vanilla server that's maintained well. I think it'd be a nice change after having everything you could possibly want at your fingertips on Survival. Especially for me, I have zero challenge in Survival anymore.

I think SFT should focus on the thriving servers it has and its cut losses on what's not working. And we've done that in a sense. We're doing the best with what we've got, and that's all you can do.

Don't get me wrong, I think some of the plugins that have been added are actually fun, but it's the ones that give you a lot more power that are ruining the experience for me, and based on the number of likes that every post about plugins is getting, I have to assume I'm not alone in this.

The problem with SFTMMO and slimefun, (Some others as well, perhaps) is that they give you so much extra power that you don't need to spend nearly as much time actually surviving. Even in hard mode I can one-shot most things using my bow, and I have so many ores from mining that if I were to play four hours a day for several months without mining, I'd probably still have a large stockpile of ores to work with after that.

Of the normal mobs, skeletons are arguably the most annoying to deal with, but both SFTMMO and slimefun give me a chance to reflect incoming arrows. If you combine that with the fact I'm already trying to dodge them, each skeleton has maybe a 90-95% chance to hit me.

I think the reason people keep asking for more plugins to keep things entertaining is that the game itself has become far too easy. Once a player has established themselves, it becomes very unlikely that they will die or face any other challenge. Events and shiny new plugins can only keep people entertained for so long before they start looking for something else to entertain them.

Personally I would also like to get back to survival. I'd like to see a server where there are only a small handful of plugins. Just a few anti-griefing plugins, and that's it. No warps, no crumbling economy, no trains, no planes, no cars, no pets (other than the ones you are normally capable of getting, of course), no overpowered tools. Automatic farms would be allowed, because it wouldn't be possible to gain incredible amounts of money by making them. The value of mob drops and crops would be determined by how desperately the person you're trading items with wants them, after all. If you want to get to someone's house, you'd have to walk. There'd be actual interaction between players, because people would want to build roads and tunnels for minecarts to get from place to place.

...But I know that those days are gone. I'm just hoping we can take a few steps back to when it wasn't possible to obtain incredibly broken tools and become near-invulnerable.