analysis & evaluation
 

• What is Era?
• What is Era now?
• What can Era become?

From a player "perspective", I would suggest that Era is:

i. A server that consists of guns.
ii. A server that consists of gangs.
iii. A server that consists of businesses.
iv. A server that consists of an economy.
v. A server that consists of events.

Because Era consists of the following; it offers each individual the opportunity (not limited) to:

i. Player kill, organized in raids/events or otherwise.
ii. Form social groups within which Era consists.
iii. Create goals aimed towards which Era consists.
iv. Spar, testing (expressing, to state and affirm) personal skill.
v. Accumulate personal wealth (which is without reasonable doubt, a persistent ambition to many).

You might take notice that most of which era consists and offers is in some way -- dependent, proportionate, consequently relative to one another (i.e. gangs not raiding will decrease profits for businesses, businesses not making money will decrease personal wealth, lack of personal wealth makes it difficult to afford the necessities to pk, etc).

I will try to evaluate (and critique) briefly, and subjectively, what I feel Era (consisting of, prima facie) is now:

i. Guns

There is a wide gap concerning the performance of every gun vs. Mp5/TG/DR, which may discourage some players due to the inaccessibility. If something is overpowered, it should not be exclusive (especially widely exclusive), I believe this upsets balance, and players.

In my personal belief, a game with such a small community should not put such a giant emphasis on material value. Not only does the illusion of power turn some (not all) players rotten (consquently driving off new, curious players), but it also creates very unequal footing for any new player that wants to participate in our community, which is already in my opinion, xenophobic (in lack of a better word).

ii. Gangs

Gangs are a social group with an emphasis on being a squad or team.
They're players who share a common, like-minded goal; who will usually work together to accomplish said goal.

The problem here is that gangs lack a goal; if only to kill opposing gangs for no reason. Though this might be fun for a bit; it's sequentially a waste of money, waste of time, and unrewarding. Especially if one gang boasts the larger, more active, more well equipped team.

Since gangs have no concrete goal, I would assume that gangs have no concrete purpose. With no purpose, there's consequently no incentive to join.

In short, gangs have no value.

In result; extremely inactive gangs, little raiding, less to do.

(*On a side note; previously Era had gang guns which offered very acceptable stats at an affordable price. They'd sometimes be exclusively distributed to the most loyal members. This not only gave players incentive to join, but leaders incentive to be strict regarding who they recruit.)

iii. Businesses

I will address why businesses are suffering (and are somewhat pointless).

• Raids are not often, demand for supplies are low.
• Money is scarce, disposable income is not as much frequent.
• AM/GP and DH/DD share the same product and prices.
• There is little incentive to work at a business when basic NPC jobs offer better pay.

iv. Economy

Squirt stated "There's no more millionaires!", I'm only left wondering how this is actually a good thing. Not only is the economy dead (with an irrational gap between the poor and rich in terms of guns of performance), but the absolute essentials (i.e. caps, revs, ammo) are becoming more and more difficult to afford, creating less motivation to raid or even actively play.

I feel as if the only means to adequately make money is through "merchanting", which is pretty much the art of ripping off other players.

v. Events

Events have been left untouched for the most part. The only thing I disagree with is how they've recently put a larger focus on instruments instead of weapons (i.e. when somebody says "EC", I automatically associate it with "instrument" instead of "bow" or "flak cannon" now).

_

Finally, what can Era become? Or how can Era move (and improve) from its current condition into a new one? It's very difficult to pinpoint what would be a welcome condition for Era from one perspective, so I will try to cover some things that (I hope) everybody will agree on without being too specific, in hope of resuscitating Era back into a healthy, more playable and friendly state.

Here are just a few:

i. Readjust or introduce some sort of method that will create any type of equal footing for PKing, regarding guns. (accessibility)
ii. Utilize gang points so that they can be exchangeable for something. Perhaps even bring back gang guns. Make gangs and players interested in one another. (incentive)
iii. Somehow stabilize businesses, make them worth while. (economy dependent imo)
iv. Stimulate the economy.

A step in the right direction is communication, what do you guys think? We can only assume what we sense, and as of late the only thing I've seen aside from the stagnant are mexican/german alien invasions(?) and that cross server event thing.

tl;dr

Interesting thread.

What they should try too fix first is:

1.Gangs
2.Business
3.Events
4.Economy
5.Guns

The gangs are so pointless, so I agree with you there.

so basically sliekz wants to take the economy out of era
does anyone really play just for the pk? its about gett'n rich and owning everyone else with the guns you played 2k hours for.

Hi, I had this page here as starting page so i took a look ;o

@ Seeya, I don't even like to PK to be honest.. All i did on Era was having fun with my friends and collecting nice items

I'm pretty sure you're one of the most intelligent players of this game Sliekz. Chris and Squirt seem to be somewhat smart, but I bet you no one will give a **** though. This game was ruined a long time ago and no one can/will commit to making any big changes. Era was ruined years back, and we are just walking around on the barren wasteland now.

Squirt: Grow a pair and take Sliekz' statement into consideration because it is VERY logical. I'm sure he wouldn't even mind you taking the credit for the brilliant idea's in return for a server worth playing.

Why try to start ****?

voicing my opinon

It's nice to see someone interested in helping Era, however, concentrating on how to solve the problems would be a bit more helpful than just simply addressing that they exist. You've got such a long post, and yet you really didn't say very much. At least, nothing that everyone doesn't already know.

Hopefully this thread will spark some ideas and discussion.

Agree 100%. I know the plan was to make every weapon available somewhere to all players at all times for a reasonable price, and I'm pretty sure that hasn't changed since I left. I just wish I had had the balls to go ahead and do it instead of waiting for Era Dev to finish because I didn't want to upset everyone.

Probably the single most important thing that needs to change on Era, imo.

Been said a million times. Saying "give gangs a purpose!!!" isn't very helpful unless you're sharing what you think that purpose should be.

People liked gang guns because they were dirt cheap compared to everything else, but 100 times more powerful. On top of that, people were praying for a gang to die so that they could turn around and make 500k out of 50k. Totally disagree. If gang guns return they need to be balanced, and SEPARATE from the economy.

Do you remember when Nub lead BB? He added everyone in the world and let them buy the Desert Raven (lamest gun on the game at the time). How strict a leader is has nothing to do with anything but the leader. Guns should probably the last reason people have for joining a gang. This is not a solution to providing incentive.

Somewhat agree, although the primary reason businesses are suffering probably has to do with the ~50 player count.

I feel like this would be the perfect time to introduce ALL weapons to shops and re-balance prices. Sure, it would piss a lot of people off, but it's the right thing to do and needs to be done sooner or later.

Selling instruments for ECs was my idea, and honestly was a terrible one looking back...however, flak cannons and bows should NEVER be sold for ECs again. Selling overpowered weapons for a ridiculous amount of ECs creates that "gap" you've been addressing in all of your previous points.

Please! The easiest way to do this would be to make guns available; even to noobs. This was the idea behind the selling guns in the pawnshop, but apparently everything else is overpowered in comparison. The good thing about having fixed buy/sell prices though is that you can nerf and buff the weapons without worrying about "upsetting the economy".

A small update for gangs would probably do wonders. I'd bet anything that promotes raiding would simulate gang activity for some time...at least until an entirely new gang system can be made.

If gang guns come back, it would need to be with the gun rack idea.
"Somehow"? That's helpful :p
How?

Go back to the basics.

5$ says none of that ever happens

Economies themselves don't usually work because people don't realize where the concept of an "economy" even comes from and in what context it was intended to be used in. I could go into detail but it won't make a single bit of difference so nvm.

Make gun-getting based off fricken skills, stop all the money horse-**** where people USD to get it anyways.

Howevermanykills=howgoodurgunis.

Sorry if it was rehashed, I feel it's best to thoroughly observe and analyze something before taking measures to change it.

As for the actual change, I would rather lay down a general foundation for the community to build (and hopefully agree) on, perhaps provide canvas for the players to paint; rather assert my own ideas which would be painfully subjective. I just wish we could all be one big happy family.

How would that solve anything? It would just mean the people who are decent at the game get all the good stuff and all the new players who are crap get nooby guns and were back at square 1? :noob:

My sentiments exactly, you would be just widening the gaps between old experienced players and players new to the server.

I don't believe the current gap between weaponry is too diverse anymore, that was changed long ago and everyone took it with a grain of salt and a brave face (A $3000 Daewoo can still blow holes through a $1.5million Desert Raven). However, I don't believe that the current administration should be the ones authorizing weapon statistics... or anything for that matter. These people were never era players, which is why I've been scratching my head since the induction of deophite. And unfortunately, as deophite's lapdog, Squirt made his way through administrative rankings a little too quickly and sooner or later found himself as manager.
Management and Administration should be composed of intelligent, mature, and talented era players who have been playing on the same level as the rest of the community for several years, someone who once had to lift a shovel or pick a flower to buy themselves an uzi. Current management are foreign aliens brought by other foreign aliens who in turn hire their foreign alien friends to take over when they are no longer deemed fit to idle on RC.
What has Squirt and Deophite brought to us? German/Spanish Aliens, UN-like NPCs like instruments and Nukes, and UN vs Era bullsh*t. Where's the era-based substance?

As for gangs:
Realistically, IRL, the real world, Gangs are organized groups of members who have earned each other's respect and control territories for business purposes (aka, prostitution, drugs). Every now and then they will brush with other gangs (Territory Invasion, disrespectful behavior, so on and so forth). Fact of the matter is, they're choosing this lifestyle because it not only places them into a family, but they're making a shiny nickel.
Now lets look at Era's gangs. Remember KOTH with Mongrel Mob where three out of four metal storms were taken home? Now its been diluted to 5 Event Coins per participant (WHICH IS STILL TOO MUCH ACCORDING TO ADMINISTRATION). Gang guns (although I agree with sales), were still a form of motivation to be an active participant in a gang. Points hypothetically were also suppose to have value for unlockable purchasable extentions to a gang (Helicopters, the suggested base sentries, the suggested fortified doors).
So what's left? Consumption of ammunition, time, and patience, what have gang members earned for being active raid and event participants? Bragging rights? GTFO

What about the current sparring system? Whatever happened to that weekly tournament? It just got up and left? Too much work for the current staff? It doesn't seem like it, Chris Vimes still has time to make little scripts to ensure no one is recording his immature corruptive behaviour.

For the past I don't remember how the f*ck long ago Era has remained neutral and changed in the slightest most insignificant ways, because management always feared being opinionated by the community. Fact of the matter is, there's nothing you can do to avoid it, but better being remembered for something rather than nothing. Manager/Administrative names I can still remember in the next five years: Chrisz, Jenn, Smu, Icarus/Frankie, Ocelot.
Who the f*ck was sales, daz, ningnong, squirt, and deophite?

Nailed it on the head. We need people who actually have Era experience, rather than any of the current classic servers such as UN, maybe when this happens Era will start to dig it's way out of the mess it's currently in.

Well thats how it is now, the only way to not have a new and old players gap is to reset everyone about every 6 months.

I dont think anyone wants to be reset every 6 months. The noob and good player gap will always be there, no way to eliminate it by fairness.

Maybe there should be a thing for everyone, in order to get good things. Money making for noobs, pk for experienced players, quest for noobs?

IDK.

If that's the case then how is it possible that there was a time when there wasn't such a huge gap?

A time immediately after a reset or during Old Era when there was only a dozen or so guns, and once you got any of those guns you just pked and didn't trade up through the now dozen TIERS of guns.:asleep::asleep:

"your just jealous you can't afford anything"
Sad when noobs take over era...

It's nice to see someone who s actually intelligent and cares. Though our administration doesn't take the PLAYERS opinions into perspective.


@trak: I remember when I got a bamboo rod, worth 12k but it was expensive for that time. Though I lost it about 2 weeks later after the reset

what are you talking about? the only guns available after the reset for MONTHS were only ak, uzi, shotgun, and handgun (Another thing I don't understand is why the current noob staff are altering the statistics of these weapons). I can recall after a countless amount of time TSA tried introducing the Tommy Gun, and Kinetaro went ape sh*t.

Guns could easily be balanced by an equation if you could determine what weight to apply to each of the stats.

i.e. How much firing freeze would you be willing to add to increase damage by 1.
How much firing sleep would you be willing to add to reduce firing freeze by 0.05.
How many bullets would you be willing to reduce the clip by to increase damage by 1.
How much reload time would you be willing to add to increase spread by 0.05.
For every possible combination of stats.

That would imply an equilibrium, meaning that every gun may as well be sold in an NPC shop for the same price, completely derailing one of the server's main attractions. Like I stated earlier, the market is completely player based, but was greatly affected by the amount of money brought into the economic system through duping and spawning throughout the lifetime of current era. And once again even a daewoo can blow holes in a desert raven. The only way to reverse the mentality of the era players is to start them anew, and make sure the same mistakes aren't repeated.

I think you should even out gun stats but if anything not nerf, but bring old ****ty guns up to par with what we have now.

like why is the uzi so ****ing bad, back in the day the uzi was able to take down anyone because it did 15 dmg but was up to par with freeze and fire rate of any gun

Not really. You could make it so that Guns for ~$1000 all have a total of about 30 stat "points" distributed.
Guns ~$5k all have 40 "points". etc.

The idea isn't to make every single gun equal.
It's to make it so that there isn't a single gun that is the best, and to have clear tiers of guns based on stats and price.

I'd like to see an expensive gun similar to the crizen but with a larger clip, or faster recharging. But under the current trend for gun stats damage is just going to stay at 20 while freeze gets lower and firing rate gets faster.

stop working on era dev and work on the server everyone is about to quit

Last time I was on I saw alot of new people, oldbies go, newbies come. ^^

Xelnaga for Manager!

I agree, at least he's got some sense of Era.

i lol'd at this

He'd do a better job that the current management XD

xelgana would be the best manager ever

Hahaha

sales is like obama promissing us change and then not finishing ****

xelnaga is my hero!!!

Sales stop using sarcasm, you confuse me.:confused:

i. Readjust or introduce some sort of method that will create any type of equal footing for PKing, regarding guns. (accessibility)
ii. Utilize gang points so that they can be exchangeable for something. Perhaps even bring back gang guns. Make gangs and players interested in one another. (incentive)
iv. Stimulate the economy.

My main focus in this post is to provide resolve (which are relative to each other) concerning guns, the economy, and gangs; hopefully in result, welcoming new players while keeping old players happy.
___________

i. and iv

I would first like to point out that while auctioning rare guns did successfully sink money from the economy, it did not make these guns any more available. As of now, there's only an (exclusive) abundance of these guns controlled by perhaps 20% of the population. These guns are only traded within that specific 20%, while the other 80% are suffering from the dry economy.

If somebody owns an Mp5, why trade it? The only reason I can think of is if it's for something equally powerful and exclusive. What I'm pointing out is that while the very select few are trading within their own economic circle, the vast majority are both underpowered and trying to access the inaccessible.

This leads me to the question, "Why and how are these guns inaccessible?"

My answer is simple;

• There is no way to make legitimate money that would be rational concerning the amount of time invested.
• Prices are controlled directly by the players.

Sea shell digging makes $700 an hour.
Mining varies, but the casual player will make about $1500 an hour.
Picking flowers will make about $2000 an hour.
Car missions, $2300 an hour.

In the current state of game, do you think players will want to work over 10 hours for a Mp40? (while it's inadequate in comparison to what the other 20% have?)

Furthermore, do you think these same players are willing to work 400 hours for a rare/powerful gun? (assuming they're making a consistent $2000/hour for a gun that costs $800,000)

This alone turns many potential players away from era. What needs to be available is not accessible through a rational time frame.

Lastly, like I said before; prices are controlled by the players. It doesn't matter if the economy is deflated or inflated at this point.

___________

i. and iv. suggestion:

I like the idea of exclusive guns. I don't like how these guns overpower every other gun on era; and how the availability of guns that suck in comparison, are still very hard to obtain.

I won't propose a nerf to these guns, but instead an addition to what is (and what can be) available to those that cannot access the inaccessible; in hope of narrowing the gap to some extent (and to create additional content and opportunity that hopefully, players will agree on).

1.) Expand on the pawnshop extensively

Add a large variety of already non-exclusive guns. Since gun price (as dem stated) follows a trend of freeze/firerate, create an equation like:

Base every 20 damage gun off of Ak47.

Gun Stats for 'Ak47':
Rate of Fire: 0.25
Freeze: 0.15
Reload: 0.25
Spread: 0 (0°)

For every 0.01 decrease in Rate of Fire; increase $15000
For every 0.01 decrease in Freeze; increase $15000
For every 0.01 decrease in Reload; increase or $1000

With this formula, some example gun prices would be:

Daewoo - $15,000
Mp40 - $30,000
M4 - $30,000
M1 Carbine - $32,000
Sg552 - $35,000
Fn2k - $45,000
Sten - $45,000
PPSH41 - $60,000
Metal Storm - $75,000
SMGPK - $92,000

While making these guns more available to players, you could also reintroduce (and adjust the stats of) some guns that currently don't have a use as a means to narrow the gap (introducing a middle-tier between the available and inaccessible). For example:

FN Mark 46: 25 damage, 0.12 freeze, 0.29 rate of fire. - $150,000

Mp44: 25 damage, 0.11 freeze, 0.32 rate of fire. - $150,000

Para-Tactical: 20 damage, 0.09 freeze, 0.23 rate of fire. - $150,000

HK416: 20 damage, 0.08 freeze, 0.26 rate of fire. - $150,000


If available guns become more accessible and this middle ground is introduced, I see no problem in keeping the exclusive exclusive.

Other guns that are 15 damage or aren't equatable by a formula (or unreasonable) should be released, but their prices set as staff sees fit. In fact, some guns such as UMP/Angels/G36k could be buffed to better fit a formula. (UMP due to its rarity, Angels/G36k due to them being almost identical to an Ak47.)

2.) Increase the amount of money generated by NPC jobs

It's extremely evident that these do not pay enough. Many new players will try these jobs and soon after; quit because the hope of accumulating enough money to purchase anything worthwhile is far too time consuming. With the introduction of an extended pawnshop offering many toys for players old and new alike to experience; the amount of money earned by tasks such as flower picking, digging, mining, and car missions should be increased greatly. 10 hours to make $20,000 is far too tedious for anybody to enjoy, especially those who are new. This is a game, a game with a dwindling player count, and a game that many new players abandon soon after starting. There should be no slaving for money.

If the pay rate of every NPC job were to be increased by 5x, not only would raid supplies be affordable, but players would realize the pay is worth the time invested (because of a set price on available guns, negating inflation).

At 5x, 3 hours of continuous work would earn a player an Sg552 or Mp40. Which is in my opinion, way more reasonable than 10 hours.

This would obviously cause inflation if players start working, but inflation would only affect the 'exclusive' guns, raising their price. This won't be much of an issue if the available is (more easily) available, and the middle ground is introduced to narrow the gap of performance.


ii.
ii. suggestion

With all these new toys, you'd also want active gangs right?

The problem here is also clear; gangs have zero reward or purpose. Gang members and non gang members share no difference other than a tag and a chance to win KOTH for 5 ec.

Gang points are the first thing come to mind. I propose that gang points be exchangeable for some kind of reward, either spendable by the leader and/or each individual.

(*Note, for this to work gang points would have to reset at the beginning of each month, and would only be 'spendable' on the last day of each month. Also to give greater incentive, perhaps calculate points by +2 for each kill, -1 for each death. That way we'll see less of one gang leading by 400-600 points while other gangs sit at 0.)

This could be (but not limited to):

1.) Stat boosters

For the reward of a gangs hard work, members would be able to exchange their points for 'drinks' that temporarily boost stats (like caps).

BH would have a damage increasing drink. (i.e. +3 damage)
BB would have a damage reducing drink. (i.e. -3 damage)
LC would have an advanced speed increasing drink. (i.e. 1.18)

These drinks would not be usable in a spar/events/etc, and effects would be canceled upon entering a spar/event/etc area if used prior.

They could also be sellable to non-gang members, turning gangs into a type of player owned business.


2.) Guns

Self-explanatory, but perhaps points could be exchangeable by the leader to acquire temporary gang-guns for himself and his (select) members (via some sort of GUI). These guns could be separate from the economy and would disappear upon dropping them or at the end of each month if not 'renewed'.

If both ideas are valid; perhaps the separation of individual and total points would be acceptable. Guns could be purchasable by the leader, and drinks by each individual member without any conflicting event.

__


Aside from points, I've also had the idea of a neutral base that readily activates (for raids) every 3-4 hours.

The gang controlling the base at the end of an hour gets a reward; opposed to koth which is based on time held. This gives players the motive to not give up if they're 'losing' and will hopefully keep them fighting until the very last second. The reward could range from gang points, to event coins, or even cash (a means to make money in a gang would be nice).

To stop the base from activating, perhaps there could be a script that checks how many members of each gang are on (they don't have to be on tag). If there's more than x members of at least two gangs on, it'll automatically activate, if not, it'll skip a session until there is.

^ this dude knows whats up

In the current state of game, do you think players will want to work over 10 hours for a Mp40? (while it's inadequate in comparison to what the other 20% have?)

Furthermore, do you think these same players are willing to work 400 hours for a rare/powerful gun? (assuming they're making a consistent $2000/hour for a gun that costs $800,000)


qft

Hahaha finally someone who knows what he's talking about.