Well, reading through this, it surely is a hmm topic. More so in a interested manor, for me personally. Always fascinated to know more about things around here. Now before I say anymore, I must say thank you for making this thread to answer our questions. I sure am pleased to understand more of, well, basically everything about this, as well as everyone else here I would assume.
I don't have much to say as of right now, but I thought I might as well post before I lie my head down to rest. Had a rather long day pff.
For the General Chat concept, making it so that players have to wait to post again to advertise their group is a rather nice idea. If you could make it work, I would definitely give it a shot. I can see how it can help keep the advertising rage and frustration down.
As for Game Pools, I would have to agree. Not only does it help you get a general idea of what everyone thinks and feels, but it also allows a space for them to chat and speak to one another about ideas and options. Then the staff can see and consider, and play around with such ideas allowing them to come up with something a very wide majority of players, if not everyone will enjoy.
As for staffing questions, concerns, issues, and suggestions, I don't have much to say other than a few things. It is really hard picking and choosing people for staff, so do take your time and don't rush. A lot of pressure is on you, but it seems you're taking it rather well. I admire that pff. I don't have any suggestions as to who in particular that would make a good addition to a staff team, so I apologize for lack of assistance. All I can say is, as said before, take your time and consider many options. People who want to listen to the community, but also want what's best for the game, people who can consider ideas and talk about them to see if they can be worked out or not. Narrowing it down carefully to a satisfying select few I believe would be your best bet as of right now. I pray you can find the best options!
Happy to hear you're still adding the snowy map (I has forgotten the name of the beautiful snowiness, oops...) I really liked that map. Props to Lady_Alizarin and LaughingWolf, it looks just downright amazing. I know I'll be spending a lot of time there cx I do agree with you on wanting to release it whilst other things were being worked on. With prior experience seeing people wanting updates, getting updates, ext. ext., if you have a lot planned but a significant amount of time would have to pass by the time you would've been able to finish it all and release it, it would just be best in the long-run to give them a little something here and there to see and admire. It will keep them interested and coming back for more. So as for your comment; "I had suggested much more regular smaller patches giving the community time to focus on each peace as its released." I agree. Now, yes this can raise the issue of weather they will demand more updates or not, but, that's merely just a possible outcome that could happen. It doesn't mean that it will, 100%, but it's a possibility, just as hoping members will keep coming due to the almost constant updates. But with that new map I'm sure everyone will fall in love with it once it's implemented into the game. As for the deal with the older maps and trying to merge them into the newer maps, I did like that idea, but I did see how it was confusing and kinda strange. At first it felt great, due to the nostalgia shock, and hype to see the progress of all of it. But looking at it now I can see your reasoning. Personally, now that I think about it, I think if you were to add the old maps back into the game, then I'm sure you can find ways to connect them to the newer maps without having to edit and change them, other than adding in a portal and some decoration. It would be interesting to try and see how one could do that.
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huff- Took me longer than I hoped to type that, nor did I think much would come out of my tired mind x) Person me if I seem to speak gibberish, I am quite tired lol Eager to see what you reply with, as well as everyone else!
Welp, that's it for me. I need to sleep XD