Is the server dying?

[DevulTj]

I know it's not ideal. But it's just a matter of how we're set up. Monolith's a side thing for most of us, I'm in full time employment, I'm currently 4000 miles away in another country with not much access to help make updates, nor do I have much drive to do so as I'm on vacation.

It's nice to take a break, and I'm not too fussed that the server's in a rough state playercount wise. It peaks and troughs, and that's okay. We will be releasing our Riverden update very shortly and that'll probably help for a while - but I think it's naive to expect an outstanding level of update frequency every month, it's just not a viable thing to request. I've been working on Monolith since December 2016, it's now 2022. That's over 5 years. It's hard to expect a consistent level of updates from me because I get burnt out on the project over time. We're also transferring some of our efforts for the next generation of Monolith in S&box, which takes away some manpower from the Garry's Mod server.

All I can say, is that we listen, and we see what you see. We're not blind to it, and we won't turn a blind eye to it either. I care very much for Monolith, and always will - but I won't put it in front of life priorities, nor should anyone else.

I'd like to add, that some of us have thousands of hours of gameplay in Monolith, and a simple game update isn't gonna replenish that. It's the same with any game, no level of updates will replenish your desire to play. And that's okay.

 

[Skadoodle]

I know this might be stupid but why don't staff get paid?

Why not take 20%, 30% of that premium money and put it toward a staff salary fund?

Obviously there's no way in hell you can pay all staff minimum wage but for christ's sake how about a modest paypal check every month dependant on hours active or tickets solved

I know you guys have money to invest in the server you sponsored PsySyndicate and other creators to promote the server not to mention premium members proceeds

I'm 100% sure that if I were staff on my favorite gmod server, and got to play on the server and have fun while handling reports AND got paid like a modest $100 in PayPal every month for my trouble???

I'm sure all staff are great and they are trying their hardest so how about the big boy staff members show their appreciation a little huh?

 

[Jordan Vercetti]

I know this might be stupid but why don't staff get paid?

Why not take 20%, 30% of that premium money and put it toward a staff salary fund?

Obviously there's no way in hell you can pay all staff minimum wage but for christ's sake how about a modest paypal check every month dependant on hours active or tickets solved

I know you guys have money to invest in the server you sponsored PsySyndicate and other creators to promote the server not to mention premium members proceeds

I'm 100% sure that if I were staff on my favorite gmod server, and got to play on the server and have fun while handling reports AND got paid like a modest $100 in PayPal every month for my trouble???

I'm sure all staff are great and they are trying their hardest so how about the big boy staff members show their appreciation a little huh?

there’s a lot more that would go into paying staff then “just sending a paypal check” lol

 

[Skadoodle]

You NEED. STAFF. for the server to work. period. but these positions are given to volunteers, people that want to help out

But imagine trying to start up a business that makes money with employees that are all volunteers and don't get paid, how many people will want to work for you? Sure a few that are nice and believe in you but certainly not enough to maintain a whole fucking business and not have it be a mess

 

[Skadoodle]

there’s a lot more that would go into paying staff then “just sending a paypal check” lol

You can figure out the accounting side of this very easily. With payments that small relatively speaking nobody will be on your ass about it

If you really don't want to deal in the oh so traceable us dollar you can also I guess resort to steam games, giftcards, etc. award them to the top 5 top 10 staff members of each month again not an expense so big it breaks the bank

 

[Jordan Vercetti]

You can figure out the accounting side of this very easily. With payments that small relatively speaking nobody will be on your ass about it

If you really don't want to deal in the oh so traceable us dollar you can also I guess resort to steam games, giftcards, etc. award them to the top 5 top 10 staff members of each month again not an expense so big it breaks the bank

its still a payment for a service that would need to be filed yeah they can fly under the radar but im not so sure it would be worth the risk when they obviously have people that would do it for no pay

 

[Skadoodle]

its still a payment for a service that would need to be filed yeah they can fly under the radar but im not so sure it would be worth the risk when they obviously have people that would do it for no pay

Sure you have people that would do it for no pay but wouldn't you like these motivated and talented staff to be a lot more active and take a lot more reports? A way to get them to do that is by encouraging them with some steam games, giftcard or a paypal

This would also drive in more people that were like meh on the fence on whether to become staff or not because of the time commitment but the promise of a reward for their efforts might convince them to join

Trust me man you can say "Oh mY GOd We ApPreCiAtE oUr StaFF TeAM SoO MuCh fOr VoLunTeErInG" all day long but the best, most honest to god way of showing people you appreciate them is to fucking pay them

 

[Bob Ross]

I know it's not ideal. But it's just a matter of how we're set up. Monolith's a side thing for most of us, I'm in full time employment, I'm currently 4000 miles away in another country with not much access to help make updates, nor do I have much drive to do so as I'm on vacation.

It's nice to take a break, and I'm not too fussed that the server's in a rough state playercount wise. It peaks and troughs, and that's okay. We will be releasing our Riverden update very shortly and that'll probably help for a while - but I think it's naive to expect an outstanding level of update frequency every month, it's just not a viable thing to request. I've been working on Monolith since December 2016, it's now 2022. That's over 5 years. It's hard to expect a consistent level of updates from me because I get burnt out on the project over time. We're also transferring some of our efforts for the next generation of Monolith in S&box, which takes away some manpower from the Garry's Mod server.

All I can say, is that we listen, and we see what you see. We're not blind to it, and we won't turn a blind eye to it either. I care very much for Monolith, and always will - but I won't put it in front of life priorities, nor should anyone else.

I'd like to add, that some of us have thousands of hours of gameplay in Monolith, and a simple game update isn't gonna replenish that. It's the same with any game, no level of updates will replenish your desire to play. And that's okay.

FIX THE PHONE IT'S BEEN 4 MONTHS

 

[Weedle]

the server gonna be dead in 2 months from this shit map @DevulTj @Mark

 

[Bob Ross]

the server gonna be dead in 2 months from this shit map @DevulTj @Mark

is the map that bad?

 

[Weedle]

is the map that bad?

fuck if i know

 

[Bob Ross]

fuck if i know

wtf nvm then

 

[Weedle]

wtf nvm then

gotcha

 

[PhaseBootz]

They don't know how to take any responsibility and want to seem like they do everything right and the player is wrong. There are still tickets on the forums that are from December/January.... It's a volunteer role but that doesn't mean you literally do nothing. If you don't want to staff, don't apply.

Staff = useless

 

[HypeRNT2]

Putting just ONE committed staff member on payroll would alleviate a lot of strain. Every time you play, you see a sparse staff count with reports being taken incrementally or not being taken at all. Maybe half of the reports that are submitted, ever get answered on a good day. If you had just one staff going report-to-report, like an actual employee on a shift, it'd do a lot more good than just a morale boost.

There's also the prospect that money would create an incentive for efficiency. People who do things out of "kindness" aren't going to sacrifice a good chunk of their day managing disembodied voices on a shitty broken source game. Give 100 a month to a kid who has no other means of employment and all of a sudden you have a fucking robot doing the workload of 3 unpaid staff.

That premium money better be paying for counter-terrorism cause it sure as shit isn't paying for stable updates.

 

[HypeRNT2]

All these takes are assumptions without information. Played Monolith back in 2017-2018, there has always been periods of extremely low activity and this is usually one of them. Right after Christmas break where there was a spike, some people have midterms or straight up exams. Lax period + big map = less interaction, which overall = less player retention.

I don't know how much I'm allowed to talk about, but putting this all on development is just wrong in multiple ways. If you knew the individual workload for just one of the developers you'd probably change your tune. I know I didn't appreciate the devs fully until I was told some things. Nothing development wise is as simple as it lets on. The amount of complaining and lack of any appreciation leads down a dark and depressing path and point of view.

The staff comments are just coming from a position without empathy towards a volunteer role. It's hard to take it seriously when you follow it with stuff like "Meanwhile the higherups playing Scrooge McDuck with that premium money". Only the development team gets paid, no SA, no SD, no CM makes money off Monolith. As for tickets... imagine you go to work at a store as a volunteer and it's been 2 hours, you decide to take an early lunch break to shop around like all the other people. During that 15 minute break a customer walks in the door, up to you, and starts demanding help immediately, insulting you and saying how useless you are and that you don't deserve to be there. You explain to the customer that you're on your break, but instead they point to your company shirt ignore what you say and demand you drop what your doing for them because you're an 'employee' regardless of the circumstances.

Obviously something needs changing. The fact that you're not allowed to talk about finances, development, or anything else to ease peoples unrest indicates you have no intention on keeping people informed. How can someone give you useful criticism if you leave us in a position where we can only assume? How much of the profits are reinvested into the server? The fact that you guys added even more microtransactions since the last time I played means desperation or expansion, yet you refuse to let us know which one it is. If the workload for the dev team is monumental then expand the dev team. Pay them more or steal assets for Christ sakes. Where else could the money possibly be going besides the founders pockets?

What does it do to the players morale when the main features of an update are rolled back? It looks to everyone like four bugs appear every time one is patched. Staff aren't always going to be appreciated if the quality of their moderation is subpar. The fact that they stick through it despite the abuse and bleak outlook is respectable but honestly it seems like some of these problems can be fixed by throwing money at it. IMO people aren't giving you guys shit because they want you to fail. They want to be sure that their concerns are acknowledged and being worked on.

 

[DevulTj]

This thread's getting out of hand - so I'm locking it. Please refer to my previous message.

I know it's not ideal. But it's just a matter of how we're set up. Monolith's a side thing for most of us, I'm in full time employment, I'm currently 4000 miles away in another country with not much access to help make updates, nor do I have much drive to do so as I'm on vacation.

It's nice to take a break, and I'm not too fussed that the server's in a rough state playercount wise. It peaks and troughs, and that's okay. We will be releasing our Riverden update very shortly and that'll probably help for a while - but I think it's naive to expect an outstanding level of update frequency every month, it's just not a viable thing to request. I've been working on Monolith since December 2016, it's now 2022. That's over 5 years. It's hard to expect a consistent level of updates from me because I get burnt out on the project over time. We're also transferring some of our efforts for the next generation of Monolith in S&box, which takes away some manpower from the Garry's Mod server.

All I can say, is that we listen, and we see what you see. We're not blind to it, and we won't turn a blind eye to it either. I care very much for Monolith, and always will - but I won't put it in front of life priorities, nor should anyone else.

I'd like to add, that some of us have thousands of hours of gameplay in Monolith, and a simple game update isn't gonna replenish that. It's the same with any game, no level of updates will replenish your desire to play. And that's okay.