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Hi everyone!
Hope you’ve all had a nice summer so far! It’s certainly been an exciting one for us here during the last few months. With this newsletter, I hope to give you some concrete and specific information around what we have been working on lately and where we seek to take this community going forward. The goal is to offer you devoted members facts and complete transparency.
Finances & Development
Monolith has probably been the most financially risky project I’ve ever undertaken. Almost 17 000 USD have been spent on it - which admittedly is an insane amount for a Garry’s Mod project with nothing much to show for financially till just a few months ago. Fortunately, Monolith and ServerGuard (our other project) combined, have brought in 12 500 USD in the same time-span. If we want to be pessimistic, we can conclude that we’re still at a loss, but hear this out:
Since our relaunch 9th of June this year, Monolith and ServerGuard brought in 8300 USD! That’s quite some money for 3 months, and the trend continues to look favourable.
Now, why are all these numbers relevant? They really define our potential going forward - because here’s where almost all of it will go: development! Our development team has expanded this month and we pushed out one of the largest gamemode updates to date. 180 files were changed from Update 2.10 to 2.11 - there are over 210 commits on this update alone. 6000 lines were added in this update, and we removed over 3500 lines! We hope you keep an eye on our Trello page, where you can keep track of our gamemode development.
Some things we're reviewing for the gamemode at the moment are:
- A playerdriven real estate system, where you can invest in properties and rent them out
- Ability to invest your money in both real-life stocks, and in-game business ones
- Extensive new business systems, creating an eco-system of the existing and new activities. For example: steel and plank mills/plants to refine mining and woodchopping, oil resourcing and oil refinement - linked up with fuel sales.
- A bounty system for both the black-market and the police (top wanted list style)
- A completely new robbery system
- Fun gambling, games and casino activities
- Roadwork system
- Laser-focused optimisation work
- New premium features
- More cars, cosmetics, clothes, variety in general!
RP_Monoford
Or whatever we’ll name it? We’ve contacted some passionate and experienced mappers and will commission a large mapping project to create our very own custom version of Rockford. It’s going to take a long time to reach completion, but we’ll make sure to keep you posted! There’s so much potential in improving our game experience with this project. Rockford is a great base, but there’s significant room for improvement and additions. A custom map is a true key to our vision of a unique, distinctive and unprecedented City RP game experience, and will help us make Monolith something legendary in Garry's Mod.
ServerGuard 2
Imagine our relatively lean administration team and 110 players without the !report system you’re all familiar with. It would be quite the mess, and it shows how important good administration software is for a community’s ability to uphold a well-managed game experience and player satisfaction. We’re already underway in developing ServerGuard 2 and its web panel, and we hope it will improve our staff team’s ability to serve the community effectively. Another reason ServerGuard 2 is important for us is because it gives us a chance to focus on optimisation. With our current playercount, this is becoming more and more important. ServerGuard 1 is old and optimisation is certainly an area where it can improved considerably.
Administration
Unfortunately we’ve had to demote staff members occasionally here, and some have resigned over time. Yet, what really ought to be said is that there is an amazing group of people in our staff team voluntarily keeping our community stable and ambitious every day! They have combined claimed 27 000 reports submitted by players in-game.
I’ve ran some communities before, and I’m glad to say that we have some of the most serious and committed people here that you can imagine. One key issue however, is that we need more good and active staff members. We are gradually expanding, and a large enough staff team is critical for it to go well. My message to all of you is, if you feel confident in your ability and have the motivation, don’t hesitate to apply for staff!
The leadership of the staff team also need to be sharpened and delegated admittedly. The server is a large operation in all time-zones, and we’re working hard to delegate leadership and responsibility to people who can keep everything razor-sharp and ambitious. It’s not a task to be rushed, but as the expression goes, we’re hurrying slowly to move this forward.
Premium
Going back to the discussion of how big of a role money plays in our potential, we are determined to continually make Premium Members rewarded for their immense contribution. Soon, their already boosted bank storage will be doubled, and yesterday we made sure they got 50% less of an OOC cooldown. They really deserve all of our gratitude - since without them, none of what we have achieved would have been made possible, and all that is now within our grasp would be impossible.
Vision
If you are impressed by what we’ve managed to achieve here in Monolith so far, I have one message for you: you ain't seen nothing yet! I’m highly confident that our brightest days are still ahead, and we are committed to give our all in making Monolith the most unique, enjoyable and successful experience in Garry’s Mod ever. With that said, it relies on that we continue to have your amazing support, generosity and contribution! 542 people here have at some point subscribed for Premium Membership, 37 talented people are doing a highly impressive work administrating our intensive server, and over 3000 members have signed up on these forums! And hear this out: 25 000 people have played on our servers! Of course there will be less good days and a bit of trouble every here and there in this community like any, but with your patience and support, nothing can stop us!
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