North American Server Quality

[Horizon]

So, I've been playing Nord Invasion for quite a while and I have to say, I am getting a bit disappointed in the quality of the NA servers, in several ways.

I know this may not be by any fault of the Dev team or anything but it has just gotten to the point where I have to bring it up. I know this game has a far larger EU following and sometimes it feels like maybe the NA servers are being a bit neglected as far as A) admins presence and B) Server Quality.

I realize that to simply make this claim without elaborating on my experience would be ignorant and rude, so allow me to explain how I've come to these feelings.

For the last year or so I've noticed a turn for the worst in the communities attitude when on North American servers that frankly angers me and takes quite a bit of enjoyment out of the game. Many players from EU (and of course a number of players from NA) come into servers with a dismal attitude towards new players in the game, and even toward not so new players of the game. I've seen 5, 8 ,7 hell, the majority of a server quit because of some of these attitudes that not only are unsportsmanlike but generally speaking rude and contrary to expanding the Nord Invasion Mods playerbase.

Many of these attitudes go unchecked by admins and other veteran players who should know better and who should have an interest in encouraging newer players, not dismissing them and leaving them with a sour taste in their mouth for the entire mod.

The recent influx of new players to Nord Invasion has been great for the community and as a result I've seen many more North American servers getting filled up at prime time but that being said, I've seen a pointed decrease in in-game Admin activity on the same North American servers. A poor admin presence allows for some veteran players to continue with their poor attitude and slowly thin out the new players joining the community.

I feel that the overall quality of North American servers is severely damaged by the very low admin presence to control poor attitudes not only shown by veteran players, but in some cases by newer players who aren't entirely aware of the rules of Nord Invasion. For that reason, if I may make a suggestion to the dev team, Please review the active-status of NA admins and assess whether more of those positions need to be assigned.

In addition to the aforementioned issues, the quality of the NA servers is approaching (at least for me, and many players I've spoken too) dismal and nearly unplayable at times due to severe lag, presumably server side. I know that the NA host had some issues a while back and that it was meant to be addressed. For a period of time, albeit brief, it seemed as though the issue had been corrected and NA servers returned to a playable state. This issue is so pronounced at times that I would rather play on an NA server with 175 ping then on an NA server with 60 ping. I've waited for this issue to be correct as I was under the impression it was still being addressed, though it has been several months since the issue has been apparent, and still present.

Is there any intention of dealing with that issue server side? If not I feel it would be very damaging to the Mods NA player base in the future. I personally have donated to this game (admitedly, not enough) and I intend on making another donation at the end of this month as this mod has brought me far more enjoyment then just Native warband alone and the dev team deserves to know that via a decent donation.

The issues I've stated though, I feel need to be addressed before I will feel good about that donation that I will make regardless.

I hope my words have not seemed to condemning of the dev team or the admins that are currently active in game and know that its not intended to be that way, just my 5 cents. I hope it is constructive and the opposite.

Cheers,

Horizon. 

[Sargent Q]

For the players,  Are you talking about the VM and NO members?

[Horizon]

I'm not really interested in starting a flame war so I'll leave names and houses out of it entirely.

[Maroon]

For the players,  Are you talking about the VM and NO members?

I don't see how that's relevant.

I'd like to point out, by the way, that (as you probably know, but hey), you can always jump on the NI IRC when you see a player acting like a prick towards newer players, or breaking the rules in any way, and try to contact an admin there. That's probably the quickest way to get a response. Another way is jumping on the NI TS, and trying to poke some admins there.

In regard to admin activity, I think part of the issue lies in the fact that, in order to be sure someone is qualified as an admin, he has to have been with the community for a long time, and long-term players tend to not go on public servers a lot, myself included. If you can send a message to an admin, they will always come to help you, or point out someone who can, or contact someone else themselves. That's probably the most reliable way of getting an admin when it's needed.

As for whether NA servers need more admins, I'll leave that to the NA side of the team, as they can assess that the best.

[Horizon]

[quote author=Sargent Q link=topic=32130.msg197857#msg197857 date=1410820605]
For the players,  Are you talking about the VM and NO members?

I don't see how that's relevant.

I'd like to point out, by the way, that (as you probably know, but hey), you can always jump on the NI IRC when you see a player acting like a prick towards newer players, or breaking the rules in any way, and try to contact an admin there. That's probably the quickest way to get a response. Another way is jumping on the NI TS, and trying to poke some admins there.

In regard to admin activity, I think part of the issue lies in the fact that, in order to be sure someone is qualified as an admin, he has to have been with the community for a long time, and long-term players tend to not go on public servers a lot, myself included. If you can send a message to an admin, they will always come to help you, or point out someone who can, or contact someone else themselves. That's probably the most reliable way of getting an admin when it's needed.

As for whether NA servers need more admins, I'll leave that to the NA side of the team, as they can assess that the best.
[/quote]

I appreciate your response.

While IRC and TS are a decent way to get ahold of an admin when needed, not all new players are fully aware of these avenues. As an experienced player I feel it is my responsibility to report things like I've mentioned and in that case, IRC and TS are a viable option. However, the presence of admins should not simply be a reactionary measure nor should their services be in any way limited for newer players to request. Although that may not be intended, that is the result that is produced when the mindset seems to be, and please don't take offence, "Admins are around, but you'll have to find us if you need us" This attitude also presents a situation where players must be vigilant in taking screenshots and videos and 'proving' their case when reporting other players. That kind of environment is not an environment that positively encourages new players to remain in the player base, in my opinion.

The issue of most admins being older players and preferring to remain in private or closed runs is a big one as well. This keeps admins in rooms full of people who already know the rules, and already have a place in the community instead of in public servers where sometimes rules need to be enforced much more often and newer players need to be supported and in some cases, defended from some negative veteran attitudes.

Again, thank you for your response!

[Sargent Q]

[quote author=Sargent Q link=topic=32130.msg197857#msg197857 date=1410820605]
For the players,  Are you talking about the VM and NO members?

I don't see how that's relevant.
[/quote]

Just want to know so that we could have a chance to change IF people are seeing us that way. 

As for whether NA servers need more admins, I'll leave that to the NA side of the team, as they can assess that the best.

I know that NA lost at least 1 admin over the summer.

[Hypernoma]

My apologies regarding lag on the US servers. This is something we will monitor and see if we can find a solution or if we'll need to move server (again).

In regards to the US admin team, we are currently looking at changing up the admin team. In fact we've been looking at changing it up for all 3 regions. As maroon has pointed out, jumping onto IRC does tend to get the fastest response. A few admins hang out there while doing other things in RL and are happy to jump on to servers to deal with any issues. Otherwise I can just strike out with the mighty banhammer... Hopefully we'll have some fresh blood out on the field in the next few weeks.

It is a shame that you have encountered such negative attitudes. This is something we do try to stamp out and I hoped I had rooted out most of the trouble makers in my last ban sweep. Perhaps it's time for the next purge. If there is anything you would like to discuss in private then please feel free to message me.

Lastly, thank you for your kind words and donations!

[Maroon]

I appreciate your response.

While IRC and TS are a decent way to get ahold of an admin when needed, not all new players are fully aware of these avenues. As an experienced player I feel it is my responsibility to report things like I've mentioned and in that case, IRC and TS are a viable option. However, the presence of admins should not simply be a reactionary measure nor should their services be in any way limited for newer players to request. Although that may not be intended, that is the result that is produced when the mindset seems to be, and please don't take offence, "Admins are around, but you'll have to find us if you need us" This attitude also presents a situation where players must be vigilant in taking screenshots and videos and 'proving' their case when reporting other players. That kind of environment is not an environment that positively encourages new players to remain in the player base, in my opinion.

The issue of most admins being older players and preferring to remain in private or closed runs is a big one as well. This keeps admins in rooms full of people who already know the rules, and already have a place in the community instead of in public servers where sometimes rules need to be enforced much more often and newer players need to be supported and in some cases, defended from some negative veteran attitudes.

Again, thank you for your response!

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. Having to look for admins to solve issues instead of having them at hand can logically be a pain. I hope what I said makes it a bit more clear why there's not always an admin around, but having been reminded of that fact, I'll be hopping on public servers, especially NA ones, more often myself.

[greekdragonkdl]

My apologies regarding lag on the US servers. This is something we will monitor and see if we can find a solution or if we'll need to move server (again).

Yeah I was a bit disappointed that the host switch didn't seem to make much of a difference, but did some more research on that host, and seen various people say that their network isn't quite the best for gaming. I can't speak for their E3 lineup, which runs on a lower quality network than their E5 servers, but the E5s seem to do perfectly fine for things such as Minecraft servers, but these kind of games need a much higher quality and consistant connection and framerate. I feel a bit of the blame here for the shoddy performance as I did kind of recommend this host to Kip a few months back since it was so cheap and NI is on such a tight budget, but I was assuming the performance would be a bit more like their enterprise lineup, and it turns out that isn't the case.

Not sure how what the CPU and RAM usage of all the NA servers are, but if it isn't all that high it might make sense to even downgrade a bit to a lower CPU dedicated server if it means being able to pay an affordable price with a host with a much better network. Heard great things about SecuredServers/PhoenixNAP, although their E3 lineup is a bit pricier (starts around $98/month), network is great and support is very good. ServerMania isn't quite as good, but does have cheaper E3s (around $79/month). More pricy, but if the performance is a lot better, might be worth it. Could maybe do some kind of fundraising deal to encourage more donations to sustain a higher monthly cost.