What's wrong with iZone?
 

First of all, I am Vatec, many of you probably don't know me but I am currently working at iZone as a Developer.

I am here to ask you all, why don't you play iZone? Classic/Era were much more successful. I'm not sure if many of you know but iZone's player count has been on a steady fall and only increases when something big happens such as the free version being released.
(You can view the player count graph here, make sure to select month to get a bigger view: http://statistics.graal.us/server/show/1770)

iZone is actually very fun, it has all the things such as PK places, spar arena, hat shops and even new stuff such as robots which can be programmed to follow you. iZone also has missions, something which I haven't really seen on Classic (apart from the few quests) and I'm not sure about iEra but this is something I really enjoyed when I played. You can team up with random people or take part as a squad (guild/gang), there are a good variety of missions everything from a hostage rescue to destroying bases.

Not only missions but there is also an event called showdown, which is a free for all battle where the last player surviving wins, I don't know what the reward is (I've never won lol) but I think there is one. Also a few different things such as planets, and a 2d side scrolling gravity battle map.

So what don't you people like about iZone? What does Era/Classic have which Zone lacks? And most importantly, why don't you people play Zone?

TLDR; y u no leik izone

And if you haven't played iZone yet, why not give it a shot :)

I went online and didn't really get further than looking at the start base, it's not appealing to me. Looks boring. I didnt even give it a chance tbh :(

What was the problem, the tileset or the level design?

p2w

People have their friends, items, clothes and skill on the other Servers.
You need more stuff so it's worth it leaving iEra/iClassic.
The first impression counts a lot but when you released there was only PVP (which is also there on iClassic/iEra)
and missions... But people won't leave for missions only. So you need to keep on developing and from time to time you will grow and earn players.

The staff are not very good and it is pay2win

Hi, vatec.
Also, p2w. Plus not many of my close staff friends play anymore. Plus I don't have time for graal at all.

I rarely use my ipod anymore, I use FB graal.

From the PC zone , it looks boring.

How's it pay to win?

It's not like PC Zone, it's more of a Shangrila Era hybrid.

What is a Shangrila Era Hybrid??

Pay2win, don't bother saying "How's it pay to win?" I'm not going to reply.

Pay2win, don't bother saying "How's it pay to win?" I'm not going to reply.

Nothing is wrong with zone to be honest. I love the spar xD *spam spam* I don't enjoy the planet taking too much though, tends to booorreee me way too fast. The missions are cool to do with friends :-) Showdown is wicked, whoever suggested that idea deserves credit. I don't play anymore because sadly I'm too busy. I hardly even spar iEra anymore.

Personally not much is wrong except:
Staff team isn't great with there 'I'll have the last word*jail*' because they can't handle situations very well,

Missions are pretty much all the same(same baddys/floating ships-no different style of how they work)

Planets are DOMINATION(massive flaw) biggest team always wins and if they don't they would just reattck after losing and get.-Also needing pvp items to attack is bit annoying much prefer bases as you can take alone(if good) and hold...domination doesn't follow this in any way.

Also why players don't play is because it was hyped fair amount and everyone expected more, I mean stefan himself held it back a year, but there is not much to show for that but hey everyones now waiting for another server mention no name.
GL with keeping the playercount; would need massive changes in such small time in my opinion; may be harsh but better put upfront than not knowing what went wrong.

I wish staff would be a little better at handling situations as well, and keeping word on what they say. I won an event the day it was released and I was promised a hat.. never got it. I got ignored instead, since that I've never really played.

Yeah also to add on to the staff bit, quite a few times now I've done trivia...
And some staff don't even know the right answer to there own question like:
Who is manager of zone? I answered Matt then waited then noone got until he went hint: (s.....) meaning Stefan -.- that's wrong he's owner.

Also another question was(we was on main map):
What Island are we on now? Now at first i was like wtf? so I answered Skyworld as it was closest thing as we were on that PLANET...staff answer 'The Gralar System' Can someone please explain how a system with A Planet/s on becomes an island :s

I hate the graphics and tileset.
It just looks bland and boring.

Gray everywhere.

LOL Stefan owns all of Graal but Matt does manage zone. What happend to Jwd?

think he's took more of a backseat as he's not as active but he's still scripter for server

From what I've heard from people is that it is very unbalanced, and not ready for a full release. I no longer have an iPod so I can only play servers that are facebook apps now. So I cannot say anything negative towards the server for I have not played it. If this were to be released as a facebook app I would gladly give it a try, and leave some constructive feedback for you.

~Well I think people have covered the bases of how the staff team itself lacks in comparison to other iServers. The only reason iZone has updates is because Stefan does them tbh. The team itself is unorganized, there is barely anything to do because no one takes charge. Seriously the only update the team itself did that did not involve Stefan while I was there was the hat shop. This is due to Stefan being a little too over protective, and no one taking up initiative and getting a group to work on something.


~Also, power hungry driven tactics. iZone is handled like the iZone sub-forum is moderated. Say something Matt doesn't like and it's deleted, I've heard of a few cases of people saying a few words a staff didn't like and they were warned. Myself personally was warned for feedback not to broadcast so much.


~Zone is fun, and it is fun because of the low player count. I think that is the only reason I go on zone rather than era now, era is too crowded, zone is barren and you actually know %80 of the people on the server. However, some components of Zone was made to utilize a 500+ playercount such as the planet taking maps and the spars. There is honestly too much to do for such a little Player Count that eventually it's only 2 people doing a thing at a time.


~Too many GP's, not enough Dev's. I always said each player would soon be able to have their personal GP, whereas the Dev team was always lacking. You see more hiring for GP thread than all the other Dev fields combined.

~Also you should look into why people are leaving and fix that so more people do not leave, like with the level's team, more people come in and out of that then ever before. Is it because the head is unfit? Is it because the work is simply boring? Is it because the team is unorganized and has no real sense of what work should be done? Things like this should be considered. I for one, think that a person who will cry and proclaim to quit when someone says "know your place" is not strong enough to be a head.


~The rules on Zone are far more strict than those of Era or Classic. Best outlined by the brief declining of .gif heads. Mess with someones customs, you mess with their identity, and no one wants to be on a server where they can't use their head that is special to them.


~People already have their names on iEra and iClassic. For me, I am known on iEra, so most likely I would have stayed there if I was not inactive before I was hired on iZone. No one is eager to drop what they have already built to start new. You have to make them want to.


~All in all, zone still has my support, and the things I listed would be just a small list of things that would need improvement. Zone has so much potential, and day by day I see people leave, be it players or a staff member. I don't think the question is why don't we play zone, the question should be what can YOU do, as a staff team, to get your crap together and make us want to play.

The tileset and font. Is it supposed to look 90's futuristic cliche?

boredom resulting in me glitching offmap and getting jailed; not warned or asked how I got there, ohwell everyone will sone migrate to another server with how the staff team is like jester said really the games run like there sub forum(have last word.close/jail) Bye Zone.

I'd like to see a Classic GP ask you how you got off the map before jailing you.

Haven't played iZone, but just looked over their official staff list thread and I can't say that it filled me with confidence.

IMO, one reason iZone doesn't have many players may be that it kinda got broken early on. It's either be in a squad or have very little game to play. Call me antisocial all you want, but it's the truth.

Pay2win, and the whole getting less rewards as you level up makes it less fun.

Oh, and the missions are repetitive and boring as well.

On the bright side, the community of zone is actually pretty nice compared to era and classic. Era mostly. The only thing I ran into was someone being generally annoying because they thought I was a noob to the server. Apparently 60 hours in 2 months is a noob now, lol. That's sorta... weird I guess.

Much like Era when it first began (after most of the players returned to Classic), people slowly started to migrate over there. It wasn't a fast process, but in due time with the proper updates and resources I'm sure it'll gain a substantial amount within a month or two. Patience and determination is the key. I remember when Era had only about 50 players whenever I went on. Today, you'll see that isn't the case. So my advice is to be patient and to continue to keep the players you have, playing :).

It's pitiful, but then again, all iServers are. Hopefully iDelteria will be as amazing as I expect.

It's pay to win. Getting gralats is short from impossible. Or at least it was when I tried.

The tileset is horrible. It just doesn't look good. I wanted to really feel immersed in the world when it came out, but instead it was all a grayish-blue heap of crap. Shame.

The staff: I'm glad you're smart enough to ask such a good question, but the staff. They just aren't good.

Matt is a bratt. Hah, see what I did there? But seriously--learn to monitor a damn forum. Don't close every thread once you've said: blahh blahh email [email protected] blahh blahh *closed*

Jester is dating someone--on a video game. Some people don't really mind, but when you get down to it: that's pitiful.

Sylvia is a downright moron. (I am not an expert leveler, but I know a good one from a bad one) Sylvia's levels are ugly. Just from looking at them, they aren't good. And she's rude. She's quite unhelpful, ignorant, and all in all: bad.

Nico. I'm not a fan. But I can't really back up anything about you, so you are free of my ranting.

Sir and Nyx: Thanks for being realistic, helpful, cheerful, normal staff. Keep it up!

As for Godoco: Good job on no longer being staff. I'm glad you don't have to go through all that nonsense.

Now for content. Eww. Showdown is cool, but pet robots? NO. I'm not paying more than 1k gralats for a hunk of junk that can only dance and bomb spar.

You also just flat out don't have the content.

To sum it up: work on what I've mentioned, but LISTEN TO THE PLAYERS. They are the people you want playing your game, right?

Jester doesn't work for zone and who says its only in game? Kthx bbyxoxo

Also I'm surprised that's the best negative thing you could come up with about me :( I need to do worse.

Last time I checked you did. Hell, you seem to be sticking goopas up your arse all day.

And this relationship: If its outside of the pixels, congratulations, but it's kind of odd to be sitting on a bench in start with her when you could be actually talking to her in real life.

Why can't I do both? 0.0 who made you king of what I can and can't do? Lol you obviously have no idea what you're talking bout because me AND nico don't work on zone anymore. Go get more facts pls

Or sir

Or nyx

Good for them. Good for you. Good for Nico.

I thought I made it clear that I haven't been up to date with all this iZone stuff. Maybe I should make that more clear?

Anyways, this can still be used as a reference for the future.

That makes your argument more invalid. You do not know what's going on so therefor you cannot contribute to this discussion properly. All you did was list a bunch of crap trying to insult people. Kindly leave if you don't care about zone nor play. You're a full blown idiot.

Huh?

iEra had normally been up at 400-500 players :0

I remember 200-300 at release, after the initial surge of players.

Basically what everyone else has said.

-more bodies and heads for more customization
-no more pay2win, we want the income of missions to go up again to balance the game.
-we need a better incentive for playing, like more places to explore.
-a much better looking tileset, the current one looks like some crappy 90's sci-fi film.


Also, staff need to stop trying to counter players' criticisms with stupid reasoning, ive seen many idea be shot down immediately by a developers opinionates logical fallacies. Staff, the game would be better if youd at least attempt more, push for more player-made content, such as a contest for artists and devs to create the best levels, sounds, ganis, and such to stimulate people coming in the game who are not only more mature but also mroe experienced and respectful.

The tileset is used because the maker died in a car crash and his work is used as sort of a remembrance. His statue is in the OSL, I don't support trashing the tileset simply because it's in recognition of someone who died tragically.

See? This can easily be fixed. Just make himma memorial building to remember him using the tileset. Using his tileset forever is like holding on to a dead guy's shirt that he died in, its not appealing and you need to let go eventually. The memorial building would be a nice idea, you could have sings explaining his contirbutions to graal and some visual examples of his works and the things he improved. Using his tileset also makes it seem like the whole theme of the server is to remember him, which it isnt. Its to celebrate and revive PC Zone. You made a nice example of the logical fallacies i mentioned. Its not trashing his whole works, its merely building off him. Tell me, jester. This is a bit of a bad example, but If your friend died in a car accident, would you keep the steering wheel of the car he drove forever?

Not a wheel but maybe a painting made by him would be hung in my living room. Really depends which of my friends it is lol. I don't get why you haven't suggested a new planet all together. It's not like every single planet uses the same tileset anyways.

I'm afraid they can't update the tileset, Dave.

Some of what I said is actually quite factual, even to this day.

But I realize that you aren't staff any more. It WAS my mistake not to check the facts, but overall, the staff on iZone hasn't been very good. In. My. Opinion.

Now, quit arguing.

If you want a new planet you couldve made one, if thats what yiur instigating. Otherwise, i have asked for new planets. Multiple times. But you staffers took the "i want a planet with a new town!" And saw "i want a new place to give rise to iZone hierarchy and MORE SPARS!". Honestly, i just want a new planet with a better tileset and more to do. Hell, make a planet that looks just like the grid from tron. Id practically live in that planet if it was made.

You're the one replying? Got tired of kissing staff ass to try and get hired I see.

I can't make a new planet? I was meaning new planets would use a new tileset and the current one would be left alone.

Then please make a new start city, move that one aside for spar or events, perhaps even a PK arena? Im just really tired of that tileset, its really unappeallng to me. Its like all the other textures are good, then you see the start city.

Don't ask me. Lol I'm just offering other alternatives then just blowing up a planet that's supposed to mean something symbolic.

I'm enjoying zone but it sucks when PvP and missions don't have anyone there. Mainly what needs to worked on it the player count.