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Old 07-19-2015, 07:21 PM
Xenoith Xenoith is offline
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Exclamation Zodiac - A Foreshadow of Maloria

I'm posting here because my words on the Zodiac forum hold no weight there and it's high time the Graalian community knows a few things. As it stands right now Zodiac is in disrepair, there are multiple bug issues. Class imbalancing and a very hard lack of actual Player Relations/GP's. Development time's are anywhere from 4-6 months for simple updates and dungeon development is at an all time low along with Level's which only seem to be done by 2 people. 1 of which doesn't really LAT. The Manager (Fowlplay4) has lost interest entirely in Zodiac, which in itself is a fine RPG server. However there is very little order and players run rampant. Zodiac had a very golden moment 3-4 months ago when someone posted on Reddit about how our server was dying.

Well it's still dying and Management (FP4) doesn't seem to really care about what happens. Our current head of Graal Police is MIA (Raven613) and our current GP's are only on tag once in a blue moon, so cases of harassment and other issues go unsolved and ignored. These problems are not only destroying the server, but they're driving players from it. It would be in Global's best interest (in my opinion) if they stepped in and looked at the server. Our last update was the Summer Dungeon which came out about a week or so ago. That's driven the player count up quite a bit. But no where near what we used to have. 100+ players daily.

If there is a possible way to save Zodiac or to some how restructure it so it doesn't collapse on itself, then please let me know. Because in the direction of which it is going, it's going to end up a lost cause much like my old server Maloria.

The current real issues are the following.

Inactive Staff, players who are inactive for about 5-7 months. Yet still have rights. When they do return there is no removal of rights.
Abusive Staff, no server is free from this. We've had staff that have been corrupt. Our last LAT/GFX staff members almost destroyed the server by abusing an NPC Script.
Player Harassment, It's become common place here on Zodiac. Our remedy? Place them on Chat Ignore. Which is our block function. We also have a Ignore/Blacklist, but that does only so much. Players can get on alternate accounts and just continue to harass others. There is no GP intervention unless it's putting the server itself at risk. Players who do these kind of things should be barred from the server to lessen the toxicity of the server and increase the overall enjoyment of the current playerbase and new players who join the game in hopes of finding a server they can settle down on.
Development Issues - Our server has lost most of it's development team. Currently from my knowledge only 3 people are developing things. But only 1 of them is non-staff and works on events. Head of Development: Ketsomaru and the assistance Developer, Symmasolan. These are the only 2 people who have been working on the server. We have lost about 3 devs. 1 Quit. 1 Fired. 1. Resigned, then fired after abusing rights.
Player to Staff Interaction - There is very little player to staff interaction. Not that this is mandatory, but it helps if the staff members can be more involved with the player community and vice versa. We have plenty of talented individuals who would be willing to work on the server, but staff tend to turn a blind eye.


Thanks for your time. - Xenoith
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Old 07-20-2015, 07:33 AM
Crono Crono is offline
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Maybe I'd be more active if they stopped being *******s and reverted their blanket nerf that completely ****ed monks over. No point in playing when the only class you play gets targeted and the rest of the classes are uninteresting/dumb.

Either way it's nowhere near the point where PWA have to get involved.
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Old 07-20-2015, 07:40 AM
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Old 07-20-2015, 09:09 AM
Xenoith Xenoith is offline
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Maybe I'd be more active if they stopped being *******s and reverted their blanket nerf that completely ****ed monks over. No point in playing when the only class you play gets targeted and the rest of the classes are uninteresting/dumb.

Either way it's nowhere near the point where PWA have to get involved.
Kinda is when staff are literally letting the server rot. Raven is missing so 0 discipline is being handed out to people who are openly destroying the game via e-bullying. Sure you can go "Get a thicker skin." But some people shouldn't have to be subject to these kinds of people. It's why the player count takes nosedives.

Plus there isn't enough active content to keep players interested. The devs don't think of the players, they really don't. They push updates on us with little concern for our input and then they wonder why we lash out. They then turn around and go "Well if the players weren't so mean to me I'd actually want to get things done!" Well ya know if you actually listened to the community for once, maybe we could get the game to grow and prosper, not rot and die.

The changes to Monk. A prime example. People suggested for months that Monk got a nerf, but that was not the right way to go about it. It not only killed the class into obscurity, but made it useless. Right now Dark Knight is the easiest faceroll class in the game. It's been nutured/babied and overall spoiled by the devs. The classes are heavily inbalanced. If a global were to step in and just come check the server out for let's say a week, then they'd get a rough idea of where the server is at. I'm more or less looking forward to when N-Pulse comes back.
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Old 07-20-2015, 03:38 PM
Elk Elk is offline
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monthly salary and ill transform zodiac into something cool!
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Old 07-20-2015, 10:05 PM
Crono Crono is offline
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Zodiac is self-sufficient for the most part, as are most MMORPG systems. The only problem is when garbage is added and not reverted (remember how many people quit after Ryu's FL?)
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Old 07-21-2015, 01:17 AM
Xenoith Xenoith is offline
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Zodiac is self-sufficient for the most part, as are most MMORPG systems. The only problem is when garbage is added and not reverted (remember how many people quit after Ryu's FL?)
Yup. It destroyed the server. Right now what's destroying the server are a lot of the old players. They're trying to dictate how people should enjoy the game. If someone doesn't like you, they "OSL" you. Endlessly PKing you until you decide to quit or log off. Which is a passive aggressive way of bullying someone into doing what you want them to do. "Either sell me this item or I'll OSL you Noob." This kind of behavior is why Zodiac is currently in shambles. No new person wants to log in, see that and continue to be there under the pretense that players are just generally toxic and selfish, doing things for their own benefit. We even have players who have USD or in this case RMT (Real Money Trading) and nothing has been done about it over the past 3-5 months. The ends never justify the means in Zodiac. I am simply asking for a Global to login for just a week, see how the playerbase is and then give a good judgement from there. In my opinion, either the server is reset or deleted. No need for a server if it's not going to be developed. PC Graal as we know it is in ruins and one more server for the chopping block won't phase it at all.

So it's high time either Zodiac is shut down and it's mobile iVersion comes out or globals actually step in, reset the server and cut off all the cancerous lumps of toxic players. There has also been wait too much bias in staff hirings, as we have a few staff who do literally NOTHING. They don't even talk to players and or help them, yet they have full staff rights. These players need to be removed from staff, Zodiac honestly also needs new management. Jerett or Fowlplay4 only shows up like once every 2-3 months. He doesn't answer player questions and only caters to a few individuals who know his personally.

Let's take a look at old servers that died off.
1. Zone
2. N-Pulse
3. Delteria (Came back.)
4. Atlantis
5. Old West
6. Maloria (Where I am from)

A lot of these servers should've been given over to new management. Maloria made me sad, since it was such a good server and I loved it. There was so much RPG elements in that server I didn't think it'd ever go down. If Maloria were to come back one day I'd drop Zodiac in a heartbeat. I miss my Spirit Mace. But sadly, the server was left in the hands of I believe Joshua Xanadu and Smirt. The server ended up going into ruin, when so many players loved it.

@Elk - If you can't contribute to the topic, delete your post and leave the thread. You're one of the main reasons why Zodiac is like a dying cancer patient right now. Nobody should have to pay you, if you don't want to work on Zodiac, relinquish your staff rights and quit and go work on the mobile device servers.

I can also give a full on list of account names who should be banned but are not. All for the reasons below.

Severe Player Harassment
Sexual Harassment
Verbal/Racial Slurs.

Did I forget to mention the N word is a common insult on the server now.
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Old 07-21-2015, 07:53 AM
Elk Elk is offline
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i do very much enjoy working on levels, graphics and overall everything on graal, i enjoyed it the past 13 years, but at some point in life you cant just work for free anymore when you know someone is majorly profitting off you without you getting anything in return aside from grattitude, you cant live off it

i very much agree that its the current players that prevent the server from growth, i would have made updates that would have had them gone, but gaining a fresh playerbase

and no, zodiac is not a dying cancer patient because of me


i cant think of anyone being cappable of taking over management of the server with the effect of flourishing


there is no need for me to relinquish my rights as it bears no harm
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Old 07-21-2015, 01:12 PM
Xenoith Xenoith is offline
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i do very much enjoy working on levels, graphics and overall everything on graal, i enjoyed it the past 13 years, but at some point in life you cant just work for free anymore when you know someone is majorly profitting off you without you getting anything in return aside from grattitude, you cant live off it

i very much agree that its the current players that prevent the server from growth, i would have made updates that would have had them gone, but gaining a fresh playerbase

and no, zodiac is not a dying cancer patient because of me


i cant think of anyone being cappable of taking over management of the server with the effect of flourishing


there is no need for me to relinquish my rights as it bears no harm
My question to you is this, what exactly have you been doing the last 2-3 months. I see you sitting in the corner of OSL idling all the time. You seriously can't tell me you've been working on the server. I also have a fresh list of players who need or should be removed from the server entirely, without the need of a full reset.

A lot of the players Elk have gone rogue from gaining gear and every day it's someone **** talking someone else and it just has to stop or Zodiac isn't going to get any better. I've been asking for quite awhile now to actually be hired as a GP and I even did an application. But Raven refused to hire me due to personal bias and I quote. "That account has been passed around more than a New York hooker." Symmasolan, after talking to Raven613 about hiring me as a GP. Those were the words he told me that Raven said to him. So because I move around a lot and my PC/IP Changes, doesn't mean I'm not the account holder. I've used this account for the past 10 years I've been on Graal as a whole.

People need to stop being so secluded from the community (staff) and need to start giving chances. The closest thing I had to staff position was ET and even then people enjoyed it when I hosted simply because I actually listened to the players. Which is what they need, they need someone to make their voices heard. Now mind you, a lot of those voices are negative, but they can be sifted through. There are a lot of good players who enjoy the server but there are others who purposely go out of their way to make people's lives miserable while they play.

There are people on Zodiac who go "Stop being such a baby over a game." Yet they're the first ones to flip out after you kill them. The logic is completely backwards. These are also the same players who will get their friends to harass you and just make your experience on Zodiac very miserable, since that is their goal. How would you like it if every day you left work, three or four thugs just beat you up. Just because they could do it? That's how it is on Zodiac. The fact that the entire Gmap is a PK Area is ridiculous, there are players who don't enjoy PKing and enjoy being outside with their friends. But that's here nor there. The point I am trying to make Elk is that the majority of the higher end players with the good gear. Are the most toxic, they berate, belittle, bully and verbally abuse players weaker than they are and it simply has to stop if anything the GP's don't do their job and when you sit there and say it to them, they can't handle it or make it a personal issue.

I understand the work is counted as "free" but if Zodiac gives scripters/editors a chance to improve their work in a gaming environment, then they should be happy. It's better than going into a field of that same work, scripting and your boss goes, "What the **** is this?" At least Graal gives you enough leeway to script and if it helps a community game. Even better.

tl;dr - Too bad. Read it. Not writing one.
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Old 07-21-2015, 10:20 PM
Elk Elk is offline
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Quote:
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My question to you is this, what exactly have you been doing the last 2-3 months. I see you sitting in the corner of OSL idling all the time.


im not even online most of the time, only at critical times
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Old 07-22-2015, 11:02 AM
Xenoith Xenoith is offline
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im not even online most of the time, only at critical times
That still doesn't answer my question. What exactly have you and Ketsomaru been doing as of late? I don't even know what you do. Most of the time it's Ketsomaru who is putting in the work to do class balancing. You're kind of back there, twiddling your thumbs. You're a developer, but what exactly do you work on in your spare time?
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Old 07-22-2015, 01:30 PM
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That still doesn't answer my question. What exactly have you and Ketsomaru been doing as of late? I don't even know what you do. Most of the time it's Ketsomaru who is putting in the work to do class balancing. You're kind of back there, twiddling your thumbs. You're a developer, but what exactly do you work on in your spare time?
You're not even aware why it is and was a mess before as far as class balancing goes

If many people play around with class balancing, it obviously gets messy

Classes never were my responsability, I created content, and please dont make me list the things I made the past 10 years on Zodiac, its too much

Of course you dont know what to do, thats why you make a thread out of desperation trying to get things rolling, but thats not easy for adults

In my spare time, I do things that are fun. Making high quality AAA game assets for free isnt fun. In the past 1-3 years I just happened to have time occasionally to do things on graal, only ever when I felt like doing so, its not my duty.

Thats why I said I would need to be paid to do such things


Of course I would know how to get things on a way better course than it's going right now, but as I said before, when lots of ideas collide, it takes so much more time for evaluation
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Old 07-22-2015, 02:51 PM
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Alright Zodiac has had people saying it was going to "die" for a few years now yet it peaks #1 on playercount every evening. Even though it probably won't reach 100+ players like it used to it's still pretty popular as far as Graal servers go. I'm not active enough to give a current opinion but whenever I'm on a different server I do press f8 and see Zodiac #1. Anyway on regards to staff... FP4, Raven613 and other staff do a lot of stuff behind the scenes but people are too ignorant to see. It's just ridiculous because people talk smack about them even though they do a lot of work for the server they just don't publically tell anyone what they've done.

However I would like to see Zodiac start publically hiring Developers because we are in a lack of them compared to other servers. I think this would help us improve the game and also having rules of the server enforced. I mean the stuff me and other people get away with saying is ridiculous and deterrents new players from playing due to all the toxicitiy and GPs not doing anything about it. I would also like to see more noobie quests for players to help them get a legit full idea of the server and where everything is. Maybe add a notebook to their inventory which has notes of basic information in case they forget e.g. which island is which, how to see what dungeon you should go to on what level (Open map+Hold D) etc.
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Old 07-22-2015, 03:47 PM
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Old 07-22-2015, 04:38 PM
Xenoith Xenoith is offline
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Sticking Together.

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Alright Zodiac has had people saying it was going to "die" for a few years now yet it peaks #1 on playercount every evening. Even though it probably won't reach 100+ players like it used to it's still pretty popular as far as Graal servers go. I'm not active enough to give a current opinion but whenever I'm on a different server I do press f8 and see Zodiac #1. Anyway on regards to staff... FP4, Raven613 and other staff do a lot of stuff behind the scenes but people are too ignorant to see. It's just ridiculous because people talk smack about them even though they do a lot of work for the server they just don't publically tell anyone what they've done.

However I would like to see Zodiac start publically hiring Developers because we are in a lack of them compared to other servers. I think this would help us improve the game and also having rules of the server enforced. I mean the stuff me and other people get away with saying is ridiculous and deterrents new players from playing due to all the toxicitiy and GPs not doing anything about it. I would also like to see more noobie quests for players to help them get a legit full idea of the server and where everything is. Maybe add a notebook to their inventory which has notes of basic information in case they forget e.g. which island is which, how to see what dungeon you should go to on what level (Open map+Hold D) etc.

This. Now I'm not saying I'm a perfect person. I'm not , nor will I ever be. It's just human nature. If you get angry you're going to lash out. Regardless if it's online or offline. For people to sit here and say, "Don't take it seriously." Then don't make it a serious matter. People go overboard with their insults and make them "personal" i.e - Talking about someone's real life. That's a line you're not supposed to really cross.

As for the staff not keeping in contact with the players. They "should" keep in contact with us, but they're not obligated, I mean they're doing work for 0 pay and nobody wants to do that. But at the same time, if staff go "Oh hey, we just finished this. Here take a look." Then players would on the other hand go "Sweet! You guys made this! Keep us posted on what else you make!" It gives staff the proper recognition they deserve and it does feel nice when someone tells you you're doing a good job or yuou did something cool that the players appreciate. The community has lost that Dev to Player connection. So while were kept in the dark, sure staff are working. But we don't see that, then when a buff or nerf drops on us out of no where, are we supposed to really be happy about it? Since we had 0 input on the matter. Were the one's who end up having to play the game, the least staff could do is listen to our input and consider the options given.

Hell, let me give you a prime example. Now mind you these guys aren't games. But they started from the ground up and are now pretty damn famous over Youtube/Twitter and everything else. Epic Rap Battles. These guys did their first Rap Battle 2-3 years ago. John Lennon vs Bill O'Riley. It was their first shot at something they've probably never done before. Turns out it went over very damn well and you know what they tell you at the end? "Who won. Who's next. You decide." It's a developer to community connection they make. Which is why people support them and their ideals. Some people have even donated money to them for doing such a good job. Now I'm not saying we should just open up our wallets/purses and just shower Graal/Zodiac with money, no. But if staff do something positive and come open into the community and go "Hey! We put this together for you guys. Tell us how it is and we'll go from there." Then I think Zodiac would get a better overall health as a game/server and community.

Hell. Even Triple A MMO companies do that. Prime example, Final Fantasy XIV. Every month or so, we get "Letters from the Producer." Where Naoki Yoshida goes onto the Squareenix forums to answer player questions, give them feedback and show them what's coming up next, what changes are being made. What things are being put into the game. Without that bond from Dev to Player, the game wouldn't be where it is now. Go look at FFXIV 1.0 and that's a prime example of a developer not giving a ****, which is why the game almost bombed and hit rock bottom. Yoshi-P picked up the game, trusted his community with their feedback and it is now the most talked about or recommended MMO to date.

This is what Zodiac needs to start doing. Ketsomaru/Symmasolan/Raven613/Darkus. They all need to be more interactive with us players. I mean Ketsomaru talks time to time, which is a very good star. However Raven doesn't talk at all and I've never even seen Darkus talk unless he's trolling around with his shop. (Which is a Rickroll...) But overall, the only interactive staff I have legit seen has been Symmasolan and Natey. Mostly Natey since he is well liked, even though he does LAT work, he is liked all the same due to his funny nature and overall jolly good sense. If the other staff took up Natey's overall good nature, then trust and believe Zodiac would be in a better place than it is now.

Hell. Look at Indie games, these are small time developers who make their own games and ask for feedback from the community to make it better. A good player of these Indie games is Markiplier. He's a very good example, he tells Indie game developers to keep trying and work harder. Hell I think if we even tried hard enough we could push Graal itself into the Steam Market as a Free MMORPG. The Steam Community would eat it up. It's a Zelda-like classic MMO and the community would give ratings right off the bat. It's just these small things that can lead to much bigger things and give Graal itself more longevity. Indie developers usually are looking for work, I think it'd be a good idea to start finding Indie Game developers to come script or try to script for the Zodiac server. I have no problem going to forums and asking around for developers/scripters or whatever is needed. I love Zodiac itself, the game is fun. The cute pixels and the ability to make heads/bodies/weapons and upload them. That's freaking fantastic, I've never been in an MMO where we could do things like this. Which is why I usually keep coming back. It's one of a kind and Graal itself is a jewel in the rough.
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