Communication

Through the process of this patch, and some instances beforehand, I have discussed with several staff members the issue regarding a lack of communication between the staff and playerbase. The following is a more than sufficient example of what we as players would like to see:

Please note that this is only an example.... Also, while this would absolutely be expected during long downtimes, we don't need anything to this extent for shorter ones. A quick announcement of a short downtime is fine.
As far as communicating other things, I absolutely feel that there could have been more back and forth about the New Source itself. While I can respect the decision not to give an exact release date for so long, you could have taken steps to ensure that you were more prepared for the patch. If more testing was needed, for example, a simple statement to inform players that the new source was imminent but needed more testing would have pulled in hundreds of people more than willing to assist (and quite possibly could have prevented the issues causing such a long extension).

"Hi Royallers, As we get ever closer to a finished product on the new source, we need your help in quality testing several aspects. Once we have cleared some of these issues up, we will be able to announce a tentative release date! While all testing is important, we ask that you pay close attention and report any bugs concerning (for example) Skills, the ______ Quest Line, and Weddings. We thank you for your continued help in making this possible, and hope to get this new content out to everyone as soon as possible!"

Would have been better than having to do this:

Hi Royallers,

There will be a patch on Sunday 1st January 2017 and new files will be available for download. You will need to use the latest files to enjoy the latest content and avoid experiencing gameplay issues after the patch.

The downtime will begin at 00:01 Server Time (GMT) and last for approximately 24 hours 42 hours 90 hours The game will be unavailable during this time, and there may be intermittent website access. Additionally; voting and purchasing RP will be disabled during the downtime.

The patch has been extended for an additional 18 hours, and will now end at approximately 18:00 on 2nd January 2017. We apologise for the inconvenience.
During the process of implementing the patch, we have found an issue regarding the coding of several changes made to classes and skills associated with them. There are no problems regarding the database, and a wipe will not be required.

The patch has been extended for an additional 48 hours, and will now end at approximately 18:00 on 4th January 2017. We apologise for the inconvenience and seek for your understanding while we continue working to get the game up and running again.
Upon applying fixes to these skills, we have become aware of several deeper issues and will require more downtime to resolve them. ***We have also acquired much more information into the workings of the client, such as proper formulae used for calculations and a better understanding of how packets should be handled. Because of this, the source code was revamped yet again since the testing, which is why we are having to go over everything once more. (-via Matt in forums)***

We are confident that we have nailed down the root of the problem and do not anticipate any further downtime.

Patch notes will be posted in a separate announcement prior to the end of the patch.

Thank you,

The MapleRoyals Staff

 

I understand your frustration, trust me I do. As someone who's had to deal with Valve's total lack of communication regarding csgo over the past 3 years the first thing we players want is just a heads up on what's going on. But you're making it seem like the staff here haven't been communicating at all which is far from the truth. They've constantly been updating us over in the patch thread and most of them are active on the shoutbox answering questions whenever they get the opportunity to. In my eyes they've been doing a good job communicating with us. Could they be doing a better job at it like you mentioned in your suggestion? Absolutely, but keep in mind that this is a private server run a very small group of dedicated admins who have other commitments to do so is it really fair to be expecting that much?

 

The shoutbox is not the right place for that. While it's great info for everyone that happens to be in the shoutbox at that time, it will either need to get repeated by them in shoutbox hundreds of times or will get miscommunicated when someone that heard it in the shoutbox tries to repeat it to someone else. Making one simple post makes so much more sense when you're trying to inform the thousands of people rather than the 30 or so paying attention to a chat screen.

As far as "constantly keeping us updated" goes... on some things, sure.... What's going into the new source when it finally does come out. That was communicated... but never a date, or even a window until 2 weeks before it came out. They never even said they were getting close. It literally went from June 2016 "we don't want to give a release date because we don't want to disappoint if we're wrong" to "it's coming in 2 weeks" to "it's coming in 4 days, but we're not going to say why at all."

I understand they all have lives to live outside of Royals, and I understand that it is a small team, and that this isn't the easiest thing in the world to do... but they voluntarily took on their roles knowing all of that as well. If this was a hobby that they didn't give a shit if anyone else enjoyed, ok... do your thing and we'll roll with the punches if we want to play this server. But that is not the case. They rely on donations to run the server, they venture to build an even bigger player base, and they want us to enjoy it. I'm not saying they're not trying, I'm not saying they're doing a horrible job. I'm just saying that they could be a bit more on point with communicating what exactly is going on.

 

Try looking at it through their perspective, do you think they intentionally wanted to keep us uninformed? Do you think they wanted to extend the sc? Do you think they wanted us to wait 24 hours only to tell us last minute that we gotta wait another 48 hours? Maybe my standards are low from having to deal with Valve's bullshit so seeing the gms actively respond in the shoutbox is more than enough to satisfy me. But regardless of what happens next, this is literally a once in a lifetime occurrence, once this whole shitstorm is over it'll likely never happen again. And I'm not trying to be insensitive by saying this but this is just a game after all, not being able to play it for a few days is not that big of a deal, it only is if you want it to be.

 

First of all, i don't sense any frustration in @Texas post at all. This does not disregard any good things done by the GM. No doubt MapleRoyals and the staff are the best in providing this no pay2win server. This thread is solely to suggest that improvement can be done on Communication aspect.

A simple line of announcement thread ends all the speculations from players. The update don't even have to be too detailed either, the brief example update given by Texas are more than enough. Of course, we players have to be polite, and don't speak in an interogation tone.

 

Again, the shoutbox is not the place to make announcements. Thousands of people play this game, and *maybe* 50 are active in the shoutbox at any one time. So if you are lucky enough to be there when they say it, great... but a forum post that all have access to is the more appropriate place to announce things like this.
Again, I said I don't think they're doing a terrible job in all aspects or that they aren't trying at all. I'm not shitting on anyone. I'm giving feedback - hence the title of this sub-forum.
No, I don't think they intentionally just decided "fuck the players, we're not telling them anything" but rather just didn't think to do it. That's why I'm posting. To suggest that they do so in the future and to ask for more than just a vague "it's extended" post.
Also, this does not pertain exclusively to this situation, but rather everything that's going on. Announce when a Server Check is going to take place if you know of a future scheduled restart. Obviously they don't know when they'll all be. Yes, they started doing this... after I made a feedback post about it. I'm asking them to think about the playerbase when decisions are being made, and to have the foresight to announce these things in a reasonable time.

I feel like you're taking all of this as me bashing them, but I'm not. I'm simply giving feedback.... that's what this entire thread is for.

 

@Mouthbreather Keep in mind this is a feedback. And it's a very constructive feedback from a frustrated player as well. That said, what's done is done, and we can only hope that this will improve in the future. And hopefully there will be no more extensions after extensions.

 

My thoughts as to why there hasn't been any official announcements is either they didn't think it was necessary or they didn't want the delay to be "official" by dedicating update threads to it if that makes any sense. I'm sure this has been discussed amongst the staff, it's hard to believe it hasn't, so there has to be a reason for the "lack of communication". I mean I can't be the only person here who's okay with how they handled it so it's not unlikely that they think so too. We'll see in the coming hours what they decide to do, hopefully if all goes well we won't be needing any announcement as the server will be back up.

 

This is definitely a key aspect the Royals team can improve on. A lot of servers have floundered in the past because of this. A lack of communication only increases the tension between staff and players. Had the problems or progress regarding the new sauce been communicated clearly, a lot of player frustration (except me, I'm extremely patient) would have been alleviated seeing as we've all been waiting a long time without much word on the update. Hopefully they acknowledge this oversight and we will get to enjoy new sauce soon.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Thank you for your feedback!

We have acknowledged in past that communication between staff and playerbase has not always been the best. While I won't make excuses for it, I will point to the generally large playerbase in comparison to our small staff roster; with the resources that we have, it is difficult to cover every base in times like these, when we're essentially in damage control mode, and secondarily the fluid nature of the proceedings of the last few days.

I'm sure you all can understand that the way the 1/1/2017 patch has played out is not the way we intended. As such, a lot of staff hours from Kevin right down to the GM Interns and everyone in between has been donated to getting everything as in order as it possibly can and minimizing the extensions of this patch. Oftentimes, we honestly haven't been sure what the next minute, hour, day could hold, and it's resulted in not always knowing what to say. Every post that administration has posted on the matter has been a post when we've decided upon something, including every post that was an extension of the intended patch length. We've all had to make sacrifices for this; late nights, early mornings, hard decisions and, the one that you all see most, a lack of proper communication between us and you.

I do sincerely apologize for not being able to properly extend informative communication to you all, and do want to assure everyone that it is something that we are doing our best to rectify.