I was typing my two cents. Laptop turned off, come back and see this was posted last month...... Still want to share my views.
What Rewas posted for the most part makes sense. I didn't read the jobs section because I'm a douche and I'm sleepy. Anyways, we all know the server isn't what it used to be. Instead of dwelling on the past, the focus should be put on the future.
With this being a Pokemon based server, inevitably its populated by children. The admins are basically the internet parents to these kids so I understand how annoyed and stressed they can get.
Concerning players getting pissy over a stat reset. Rewas is right, I've always agreed with a server wipe ever since it was brought up. If players actually are loyal and love the server like they say they do, they will brush it off and continue playing. But really, think long term, how the hell would it look for a new player joining a server with half the player base jacked up with level 100s? Or 1000+ stats on all in PvP server. They will most likely not even attempt to give the server a go. I thought about a bi-yearly server wipe, maybe add some incentives and whatnot. I was always on the lookout for RPG or Factions servers just starting up because I feel as if the beginning is always the most fun part of any server. What with everyone learning what the server has to offer, no one has a gigantic lead over another, its precious.
Keeping players interested.
This is the hard part. Pokemon is a straightforward game, get an animal to fight other animals and catch more animals, then be #1. There's not enough pokemon related activities you can do to keep interested. More or less its just battle this guy or battle her, catch this then make it battle. It IS a pokemon server and having things like skywars or hunger games wouldn't make sense. Unless you Pokemon-fy it. But that's a lot of work and or impossible. So you have to rely on user created events.
Community.
Servers are run by the community. This community is well populated with kids. If I had to take a guess I'd go with most of the players are middle school based hitting freshman year. Then come the sophomores and juniors. If the community denies and denies change there's close to nothing the admims can do to fix anything. Other than the obvious kick all and advertise. With a few loyal, responsible non complaining players, the community can improve.
The server has the capability of running on its own, it just needs the right people willing to work hard and care for it.
Economy is probably the most important and painful thing to work at in any server (other than permissions fuck permissions all the way to hell, even though they become manageable). Make things hard to get and limited to an extent. As stated this is easiest to do after a reset. I read you tried with it already, but keep at it, its all trial and error. With what Rewas said about money being practically useless, you can have things like decoration blocks and weapons for sale, then have actual Pokemon for sale for nuggets (if that's possible). Wasting money is an easy deal. Unless of course the ideas I have are either too Mich trouble to implement or are impossible.
If you are going to add in game purchases then keep it under control. Nothing that gives you a HUGE advantage over another player just because they decided to toss a couple bucks as a donation. (Which wasn't the case, the donation packages started at 10$? Still it doesn't mean the donators deserve a huge advantage.)
No need to worry about the server being huge with little amount of players. Nothing a simple and quick Reddit post or advertising campaign can't fix.
I thought the pixelmon server was going decent. I don't know how it is now but with the "we can't get money" complaints. Again these are mainly kids, born into technology, they don't know what patience is. Rule them out, tell them to be patient, kill meowths. Simple. Hard work and dedication is what they need to learn.
If I made something unclear I apologize beforehand. I really don't feel like re reading again considering I'm on my phone and its late and I'm tired but I hope all is understood.
I don't have WiFi anymore... AGAIN >.>.I barely open my internet browser and I'm too busy with other games so if I forget to check back here for another couple months I hope progress is made
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