We ask ourselves, "Why don't we have as many cool players join like back in Mondas or Kobol?", and "Where are all the nice old players?" There are many answers to that question, but I believe that with the large number of players joining again with the 1.4 update, we should use this advantage to revamp our server.
After Kobol, PvP in the main world died down, and we added a Badlands map for PvP. A good compromise at first for hardcore PvP'ers, this map later served as a starting place for new players.
The reason we have not had as many good players join since Vaalbara as before is not because there are no good players joining, but it's because we cannot retain players for a long time. That problem is because Badlands is a poor place to showcase our server and who we are.
With many players coming back to Minecraft, and more players starting to play it, we should use this opportunity to expand our server. My plan is one that neither benefits nor hurts any group of players on the server, it is as follows:
1. Removing Badlands Map, and reinstating PvP to the main map. PvP would be off in Spawn and Res's if one chooses to. Of course this time around, there should be rules regarding PvP such as no spawn killing, no PvP Logging or compassing away, etc. This would also help A LOT with lag, as Badlands consumes almost as much server memory as Novo.
Badlands has more appeal than even the main world, so that says something about what players think about PvP.
2. New players should be given a set amount of time where they cannot PvP and others cannot PvP with them(for example 3 days or 5 days), so they are not killed constantly.
3. To accomodate player groups with the removal of Factions, we should add the plugin Towny. This plugin allows admins, mods, and players to create Nations and Towns, with set players in them. This is a much better vent for PvP as opposed to stealing bases with Factions. Most small players have their bases easily taken over by the dominant faction, and quit as a result. PvP can also be toggled. This plugin is also updated frequently.
4. As many can see, the economy of the server sees very little activity. The only way to make money are from shops, dungeons, and leveling up. The struggle of many players is finding enough money to protect their stuff, and that should not be what most players spend their time on. People should be having fun, mining, building, not scraping money together. We should have a system of selling items to the server, with player serving as sellers, the server as a buyer. Most well-functioning iConomy servers have players earning money relatively easier than selling items for like 16 or 20 bucks. This would also go well with Towny, as each chunk could be valued at a certain amount of money.
I know this is a big change, but we really really need to quickly take advantage of the 1.4 update to gain some dedicated players. Please leave your input; support, opposition, and suggests are welcome!! I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this matter!!
P.S. Reassessing the situation with staff and our positions.
1. Many of us staff members are forgetting that we are held to a much higher standard. I've taken a look at what I've done in Badlands, and truthfully I regret killing and upsetting all those players. Even in Badlands, we are Admins, or Mods, or Mentors. Badlands has been used as an excuse for many to kill without opposition. Just look at the top players in Badlands, we have two Mods(Rli and Coos) and a Mentor(myself) basically terrorizing a whole map. If you love to kill people, play on a hardcore pvp server, but on Boss we have a responsibility above whatever rules or policies, and that is to HELP players, not kill them.
Comment below on what you think!
. 
