Longevity

[Pollux]

-snip-

I don't see the point in trying to find something to blame, especially since it's not really any one big factor. It's easy to blame change, but you're ignoring that any change we did was a correction in response to any noticeable decline. FL hasn't really ever had proactive development, everything done was mostly always a reaction to a drop in players, and our corrections were usually quite successful considering how long we managed to keep it going for, even if a little short sighted.

One of the things FL did well was catering for a wide range of players. While there were many players like you who enjoyed aggressiveRP many years ago, there were just as many like me who didn't really touch it until much later, and some who have never gotten involved. The mistake you're making here is assuming everyone is like you, which isn't the case at all. The aggressiveRP side was definitely the loudest, but it wasn't even close to being the largest. FL has always had a somewhat fragile balance between these very different groups of players, and I don't think we did a good job at maintaining that.

I know what we're doing is a shot in the dark, and you've definitely made your opinion on some parts known. While feedback is important, I don't see a situation where you're ever going to be happy with our direction, at least given the discussion so far. There are things we agree on, such as economy stuff, but I heavily disagree with your assumption that the server was always aggressiveRP, and that we should primarily cater towards that. Doing so would come at the cost of the other groups who have already been neglected quite a bit. The balance has definitely shifted towards aggressiveRP and the adjustment back towards the middle might be disappointing for some, however, it's a necessary change for the enjoyment of others. It's easy to forget that as fun as aggressiveRP can be, it often comes at the cost of someone else's enjoyment. It'll be hard to change that, but I don't think it's impossible. My personal view is that aggressiveRP should involve more of the RP part, rather than it being the TDM it usually is. We are ultimately a roleplay server, and many of the changes being made are to try and correct us back to that.

A lot of the changes planned are also focusing on the passiveRP and govRP side, which will help them be as "fun" and rewarding as the current aggressiveRP gameplay loops are to those who do that. The deciding factor shouldn't be how much money something will make or one loop being too boring, but rather what someone actually wants to do. If someone feels like opening a shop, we should have the gameplay loop to support that and make it just as fun to them as raids may be to someone who does aggressiveRP. The key part for me is everything still being fun, as that's what keeps someone on the server. Some of the changes to do that may be seen as drastic but it's definitely worth trying if it may result in FL being more enjoyable to most.

We have an ultimate vision for how we see FL working, and while feedback is important and will help shape that vision, it can't completely change it. We're not going to try and please everyone, as doing so is an impossible task, and is definitely a mistake FL made many times in the past. I'm afraid that you may be part of the group that can't be pleased, at least given the discussion in here so far, and there isn't much that can be done to resolve that. The most I can hope for is that you won't completely hate it, but at least find it somewhat tolerable.

I'm going to move this to discussions, as we're not going to be opening up the old gamemode, but I don't want to move this to declined since the recent discussions are more generic rather than being related to the suggestion.