Java Stone rank: party and friends limit and not able to choose maps

[Deleted member 373055]

Discrimination against stone rankers
Once, I saw a guy chatting: 'Wie wil er party? Alleen rankers.' or translated: 'Who wants a party invite? I only invite rankers.' We cannot do anything against this of course, but the way the server is made also discriminates stone rankers in a way.

I do not have a rank but still, I play almost every day on this server, whenever I have the time to do so. Sometimes, I play with friends. However, when I play alone or with friends without a rank, I face some difficulties and annoying things, which I think could be easily solved by updating a few things, or to undo some updates that created this problems.

I categorised this thread in different sections, so feel free to read only one and to vote for only one particular problem. This is a mega thread after all.

Party limit
First of all, I want to address the problem that we - as I do not have a rank - cannot invite more than two players into our party. This is an old thread I made about it: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/party-limit-of-2.207038/#post-1088858
Exactly 1/3 of all respondents says that they want to remove the party limit, I think we should at least increase it, as it is very annoying to join at the same time with a friend, because you have to count down and there is a chance that you do not join the same server actually, so you have to rejoin. After all, it is more difficult to join the same map than it was a few years ago, when we could just choose maps as stone rankers. That way - let's say we are playing Team Skywars - we can choose which map to join. More about that, in the section about the ability to choose maps.

You can say that we have to buy a rank to solve the problem, but there are other servers as well where no party limit is given. With an unlimited party limit, however, there is the possiblity that players invite everyone and such big party's can crash the server, and so on. But, you still have to accept a party invite. And, we can at least increase the amount of players you can invite as a stone ranker, for we will not play with ten players, because the chance that one of them has a rank is big. When you play with three people, the chance is small that one of them has a rank. So, increase it, I would say.

Friends list limit
Another 'problem' that annoys me is that we cannot have more than 10 friends. I do not think that it is a real problem, because you can still invite eachother, you can just not see when a friend joins the server. Some friends are inactive as well, and we can just remove them from our friend list, but again: it is very annoying to keep your friends list up to date. For rankers, it is not a diciding factor to buy a rank. It is only annoying for people without a rank. Even, friendships can be undone because of this, because you will not see it when an old friend joins the server again, and thus, you have to find other ways to contact him or her, but that is not always possible. For example, I have a friend who join the server almost never, but when he does, I ask him how life is going and things, but I had to remove him from my friendlist, simply because I had too much friends, and wanted to keep some space for new friends.

Missing the ability to choose maps
This is a weird point because this was possible a few years ago. Do you remember the signs system, where you had different lobby's for every gamemode? There was a wall with signs where you could choose from. You could choose almost every map. I think the change has something to do with the decreasing popularity of Minecraft at that time, but now, more players are playing Minecraft again, and thus, there is no lack of servers. So we must be able to choose our own maps again. This could be a deciding factor for players to buy a rank, though, but the effect will be small. It is more difficult to join the same map together when the party is full, and it is very annoying to come in a map in Team Skywars where there are teams of five players when you are in a party of only three.

We can also just make it the way it is on some other servers. You can keep the NPC's, but let players choose with how many players they would like to play. Do they want to play 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 for example? That way, maps are still a ranker's privilege, but it does not ruin gameplay for players without a rank. This would have a very small impact on Cubecraft's finances, so Cubecraft will not shut down thanks to a lack of money.

The NPC's now look professional, but functionality (the signs) is more important. With the solution introduced above, you have a combination of professionality and functionality for stone rankers. @S4nne made a topic about bringing back the old lobby: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/change-the-main-lobby.226561/

Missing the ability to vote
In some gamemodes, this is possible for us, but in Skywars or Eggwars, we cannot vote for gamemodes. I think it would be fun to introduce this to Stone rankers as well, but not all Stone rankers play that long, and thus, some people will vote wrong, and something is needed for Cubecraft to make money, because the server has to run. In an ideal world, that would be no point, but it is not catrastrophic that Stone rankers cannot vote. It does not ruin fun or something. There could be players who do not like a certain level like Overpowered or Basic, but if all Stone rankers could vote, the result would be the same. In addition to that, for most rankers, this is one deciding factor to buy a rank. Because they can vote. On most other servers, normal players cannot vote for gamemodes (normal, overpowered, etc.) too.

Cosmetics
This is where marketing should be targeted to: cosmetics. It should be the deciding factor for buying ranks, although it is not. Normal players get a lot of Cubelets too. Today, it is too easy for normal players to get many cosmetics in my opinion. If we will get less cosmetic rewards, does it matter? It does not ruin gameplay in any way and it is not annoying. Fortnite for example makes exclusively money with cosmetic items, and that works perfectly. It is possible to get a free skin though, but that is more difficult, and receiving cosmetic rewards on Cubecraft should be made more difficult as well. Or make it easier for players with a rank to get cosmetics.


Conclusion
So, the party limit should increase, like on other servers and the friend list limit should increase. We should also get the ability to choose maps again, as previously. I do not really care for cosmetics, so feel free to discuss about that and the ability to vote was always a privilege of players with a rank. On other big, commercial servers, it is also a privilege of players with a rank, so I do not find it such a big deal. It does not ruin gameplay as party limit, friends limit and missing the ability to choose maps. At least, the last point should be changed, as we are not sure if the first things will improve the server. But giving stone rankers the ability to choose maps again, will improve it for sure. A lot of players did not like that and stopped playing Cubecraft instead of buying a rank, thanks to that update.

The problem with the party limit and choosing maps could be solved by just solving one of them. If we could join maps again, I really do not care if I am in a party with friends, as we can just say: 'Join this map, join that map,' etc. Even that is not possible now. It is a kind of luck game where you hope that you join together with your friends if nobody has a rank. And a rank should be after all an extra, not something which is normal and necessary as we already paid for this game.

Rankers could say it is 'scamming' when someone change, but they should actually realise that they are donating and not buying something. Cubecraft sill has the right to remove any feature as is said in the terms. It is after all to keep the server running.

If that update was not implented, more players could have stayed and Cubecraft would have more players than now. Thus there could be more players with a rank.

Feel free to discuss about those topics in this thread and I will, maybe, update this thread with more explanation. After all, have fun playing, whether you do have a rank or not!

In the poll by the way, you can vote for more options together.

Sidenote
The intention of this thread is not to change every privilege of a ranker. It is to change some. I just included all ranker privileges as it would make it more clear and some people could agree/disagree with it. I said what my thoughts are through this thread, so if you disagree with something, please let me know clearly underneath this thread and tell me why.

 

[Deleted member 469419]

I'm agree with you in:

- Increase a bit friends slot
- Increase a bit party slot

But I don't want to see unranked people with same privileges as me, it is because the stone rank still as a no donator person, through this be implemented, the economy of cubecraft would down up drastically

 

[Onik]

I completely disagree entirely, I believe party + friend limits are fine as is, if you run into an issue for the friend space or party space, you could always just use Discord. Agreeably, it would be nice to know if they're online and what they're doing, but increasing it now would kinda be scamming all the players who invested into a rank just for these benefits as well as the other benefits followed. Such as the ability to vote and choose maps, this has always been a rank benefit, and I don't think they're going to make much of any changes because prior to the "Big Change", they had allowed every player the privilege to choose whatever map they wanted. Of course, this being case every player was only joining certain specific maps, which slowed the game process, making it take an eternity before a game began. So, do I think the server would benefit in the long run from offering players the privilege to choose a map, not really, on the contrary, it might leave a bad impression on new joining players. As far as cosmetics go, there's only so much the server can do in terms of Java edition, due to the EULA rule.

 

[Ma7mouD]

Missing the ability to choose maps
This is a weird point because this was possible a few years ago. Do you remember the signs system, where you had different lobby's for every gamemode? There was a wall with signs where you could choose from. You could choose almost every map. I think the change has something to do with the decreasing popularity of Minecraft at that time, but now, more players are playing Minecraft again, and thus, there is no lack of servers. So we must be able to choose our own maps again. This could be a deciding factor for players to buy a rank, though, but the effect will be small. It is more difficult to join the same map together when the party is full, and it is very annoying to come in a map in Team Skywars where there are teams of five players when you are in a party of only three.

I agree with this, it is much annoying that you can't choose maps, I always see stone rankers in the lobbies are asking for parties and spamming it because they can't choose a map, and the rankers because they are spamming to look for a party, they report them as "spamming". And to be honest not all people have the ability to buy a rank, actually in every server of minecraft you can choose the map which you want, only in Cube you can't, before you could see the available in signs as you mentioned up, that was great, but now I feel like Cube is forcing the stone rankers to buy a rank to get the smallest right to choose a map, well let's hope they change it so stone rankers could choose a map as well! :D

 

[Herrero]

Rankeds paid to get these privileges. This increase of the privileges of some rankeds would just create controversy and reduce the amount of players who contribute with the server. Getting the lowest ranks isn't even that expensive and it helps a lot to the server so I have to disagree.

 

[Ma7mouD]

Rankeds paid to get these privileges. This increase of the privileges of some rankeds would just create controversy and reduce the amount of players who contribute with the server. Getting the lowest ranks isn't even that expensive and it helps a lot to the server so I have to disagree.

But as I mentioned up, not all the people have the ability to buy a rank or even if they have money to buy, you can find much people have money to buy a rank but they don't have a payment method to pay to cube especially if you want to pay to cube with (PayPal) it should have be linked into a CreditCard, so it is stupid, because If I have a CreditCard I won't even pay with PayPal.

 

[Vqzi]

Missing the ability to choose maps
This is a weird point because this was possible a few years ago. Do you remember the signs system, where you had different lobby's for every gamemode? There was a wall with signs where you could choose from. You could choose almost every map. I think the change has something to do with the decreasing popularity of Minecraft at that time, but now, more players are playing Minecraft again, and thus, there is no lack of servers. So we must be able to choose our own maps again. This could be a deciding factor for players to buy a rank, though, but the effect will be small. It is more difficult to join the same map together when the party is full, and it is very annoying to come in a map in Team Skywars where there are teams of five players when you are in a party of only three.

I totally agree with this one. Back in the time when there were signs, Stone rankers were able to "choose" a map they liked. But now, the only map they can join is the most full map. I would say, allow Stone rankers to choose maps, or bring the sign system back.

 

[Herrero]

I totally agree with this one. Back in the time when there were signs, Stone rankers were able to "choose" a map they liked. But now, the only map they can join is the most full map. I would say, allow Stone rankers to choose maps, or bring the sign system back.

The new system allows games to start faster so I think it's fine like it is now. There's no point on everyone being able to choose a map if they are gonna have to wait 30mins-1h.

Edit: I forgot to reply sorry

But as I mentioned up, not all the people have the ability to buy a rank or even if they have money to buy, you can find much people have money to buy a rank but they don't have a payment method to pay to cube especially if you want to pay to cube with (PayPal) it should have be linked into a CreditCard, so it is stupid, because If I have a CreditCard I won't even pay with PayPal.

If they can't pay for it, it's a shame. I don't feel like cubecraft should make the ranks more equal because they made this system to gain profit which is totally understandable, plus the player who paid money to get this privileges deserves them more than someone who hasn't.
I feel like the ranks are too expensive so I think the gap between each rank's privileges should be even higher. With this I don't mean they should reduce stone ranks friend limits, party invites limits, etc. but add other new fun features.

 

[Vqzi]

The new system allows games to start faster so I think it's fine like it is now. There's no point on everyone being able to choose a map if they are gonna have to wait 30mins-1h.

The games do start faster indeed, but it's still unfair for Stone rankers. With the sign system they were able to just choose an available map on one of the signs. I understand that bringing back this system (and the old lobbies) isn't really an option anymore, but giving them another way to choose maps would be fair in my opinion.

 

[LordSidi0us]

I may be obsidian ranked player but I still have around 10 friends and I haven’t needed more since ever.
3 players for party limit for me personally is enough but one more slot won’t be too bad maybe.I can say yes on that for one more slot.
Basic cosmetics and map choosing is especially Iron ranked feature.The rank is perfect for that and that’s why it basically exsists.Its dirty cheap with sale or not.Sorry
Voting is important but I disagree with the argument saying it’s fair.Even the base iron and lapiz rank have fair features for their prices.
But the best rank for its price is Gold, just get it on huge sale for no real money.Its just worth it’s price.Or just wait for some official competition, participate and do your best to win.

 

[Deleted member 373055]

I completely disagree entirely, I believe party + friend limits are fine as is, if you run into an issue for the friend space or party space, you could always just use Discord. Agreeably, it would be nice to know if they're online and what they're doing, but increasing it now would kinda be scamming all the players who invested into a rank just for these benefits as well as the other benefits followed. Such as the ability to vote and choose maps, this has always been a rank benefit, and I don't think they're going to make much of any changes because prior to the "Big Change", they had allowed every player the privilege to choose whatever map they wanted. Of course, this being case every player was only joining certain specific maps, which slowed the game process, making it take an eternity before a game began. So, do I think the server would benefit in the long run from offering players the privilege to choose a map, not really, on the contrary, it might leave a bad impression on new joining players. As far as cosmetics go, there's only so much the server can do in terms of Java edition, due to the EULA rule.

How do you play a map when you are in a party entirely of stone rankers? It is just annoying to keep joining maps with 5 people when you are in a party of two, and it is very annoying to count down choosing a gamemode with friends when you are playing with more than three. Of course, you could just buy a rank, but not everyone has the money to do so.

Also, it is not scamming as rankers do not really care for the privilege to choose maps or the privilege to have more friends. It is no lose for rankers, it is just a win for stone rankers. You could of course disagree on some sections, but disagreeing completely on everything is not realistic. Things can always improve. It is not true that make things easier for stone rankers is scamming rankers. Which rankers do think is scammer are the sales. That is when they feel scammed, when they bought a rank a day before a sale came out, but that is another problem and I hope rankers can discuss that together as I do not have a rank, and people should realise that they are donating, instead of buying something, as you cannot touch anything you 'buy' here. It is donating to keep the server running.

I do think rankers need some privileges of course, because the server will just go down because of economic reason, but now, Cubecraft is a company and actually makes money, which is no bad thing after all.

The ability to vote has always been a privilege for rankers as I said in the thread, but choosing maps was always something users could do as well. And many players were angry because of that update that made it a privilege.

 

[_The13thDoctor_]

Honestly, when I was a stone rank I had no issues, I feel like it's fine the way it is and again, it's all the more reason to pick up a rank. :P

 

[Deleted member 373055]

Honestly, when I was a stone rank I had no issues, I feel like it's fine the way it is and again, it's all the more reason to pick up a rank. :p

I had the same, but after the update that we could not choose maps again, I felt really bad when joining wrong maps with too many players in one team. It is just very annoying and it is truly gamebreaking for me. Luckily, I have some friends who have a rank, and most of the time they are online, but when I am playing with just one other person, it is possible that he or she does not have a rank. When you want to play Team Skywars for example, we often join a match with teams of three, which is really annoying! Especially in Egg Wars, when you can come up with a player getting all the gold and making armor of it instead of obsidian for the egg.

I actually understand that all the cosmetic items, the ability to vote for gamemodes, have always been the same, and I think that works, but choosing maps was possible for stone rankers with the wall with the signs, and that is what I miss now. I was really angry at Cubecraft when I saw that we could not come in maps with the amount of people in a team we wanted. I just stopped playing after that, and I think that is the same for most players.

 

[Noorjx]

I agree:)​

 

[Shomita]

I would like it to be implemented at least:
- 15 friends on the list.
- Add approximately 2 or 3 more to the party than you can.
- Choose maps
Above all I prefer that they can choose the map to their liking, the bad thing is that they cannot choose maps if they cannot even vote.

 

[Deleted member 373055]

I would like it to be implemented at least:
- 15 friends on the list.
- Add approximately 2 or 3 more to the party than you can.
- Choose maps
Above all I prefer that they can choose the map to their liking, the bad thing is that they cannot choose maps if they cannot even vote.

The friends list updates would be nice, as I have to delete friends regularly and have to keep my friends list up to date while I want to play with everyone.

 

[comfyyy]

we cannot vote for gamemodes. I think it would be fun to introduce this to Stone rankers as well

Definitely not. I bought my rank so I could have certain perks, and if those perks were given to everyone I would feel as if Cube just took our money.


As for the cosmetics aspect, I don't think we should take away opportunity from Stone ranks, but I'd really like to see Cube release new cosmetics with every update. Right now they are all very boring and nothing to grind for.

 

[Dokter]

It’s not called discrimination against stone ranks. I would refer to it as a business model. They need to sell ranks to receive money. Also I have been stone rank for a long time and had no issue with it. You get enough perms, friend slots and the party size is big enough, if you want more people in your party you should just get a ranked user in your party.

 

[Hoshi]

I disagree with this completely. This is honestly one of the most useless suggestions I have ever seen. In short: you're suggesting to add every privilege, every reason why people donate to the server for the ranks, to the stone rank. What? The server's economy is all about these perks and privileges that are granted when one buys a rank. If these were granted to stone rankers, nobody would donate to the server anymore to get these ranks, because they would already have all the perks. Do you really want the server to shut down? Because it sounds like you do. CubeCraft needs the money.

In my opinion, the friends and party member limit is perfectly fine. Though I bet it wouldn't do harm to up the friend limit with +5 (15 friends in total). You don't necessarily need that many friends. I know a lot of people that have stone rank, have max friends, and still are okay with it. I just keep in contact with them through discord. I have both Obsidian and Plus, which equals 155 friends. But I constantly only have 30-32 slots filled. The others, like I said, I keep in contact with trough discord. I'd prefer not having many random people in my friend list. I used to have the stone rank for a very long time, and I had no problem with it. I even have myself in my friend list, from long ago. Now I can't remove myself and I always occupy at least one spot. And back in the day, that was 1/10 spots. So, it never really was a problem, and I don't see how it is a problem now either. I could live with having only 10 max friends, if I had to. People are only exaggerating to make it seem like it's a problem, when it isn't at all. I see your point, but just no.

The friends list updates would be nice, as I have to delete friends regularly and have to keep my friends list up to date while I want to play with everyone.

Again, like stated above, there are ways to kind of 'bypass' it. Just ask for their discord. Party inviting can always be done, wether a friend or not. And if there's a problem with the max amount of party members, just make seperate parties. Or ask for a ranker to join you. No big deal, right?

 

[Deleted member 373055]

I disagree with this completely. This is honestly one of the most useless suggestions I have ever seen. In short: you're suggesting to add every privilege, every reason why people donate to the server for the ranks, to the stone rank. What? The server's economy is all about these perks and privileges that are granted when one buys a rank. If these were granted to stone rankers, nobody would donate to the server anymore to get these ranks, because they would already have all the perks. Do you really want the server to shut down? Because it sounds like you do. CubeCraft needs the money.

In my opinion, the friends and party member limit is perfectly fine. Though I bet it wouldn't do harm to up the friend limit with +5 (15 friends in total). You don't necessarily need that many friends. I know a lot of people that have stone rank, have max friends, and still are okay with it. I just keep in contact with them through discord. I have both Obsidian and Plus, which equals 155 friends. But I constantly only have 30-32 slots filled. The others, like I said, I keep in contact with trough discord. I'd prefer not having many random people in my friend list. I used to have the stone rank for a very long time, and I had no problem with it. I even have myself in my friend list, from long ago. Now I can't remove myself and I always occupy at least one spot. And back in the day, that was 1/10 spots. So, it never really was a problem, and I don't see how it is a problem now either. I could live with having only 10 max friends, if I had to. People are only exaggerating to make it seem like it's a problem, when it isn't at all. I see your point, but just no.

Again, like stated above, there are ways to kind of 'bypass' it. Just ask for their discord. Party inviting can always be done, wether a friend or not. And if there's a problem with the max amount of party members, just make seperate parties. Or ask for a ranker to join you. No big deal, right?

I am not suggesting everything. I just made a total stone rankers thread about all ranker's privilege. Of course, all privileges for rankers should NOT disappear. I just included them in this thread. It does not mean I want to remove any ranker's privilege as the server will not earn any money thanks to that.

You only replied to the section of friend list and party list, after all, while you are saying that you think this hole thread is useless. That is not realistic. It would be nice to have friend list and party list updated, but I do not think it is necessary or gamebreaking. What is gamebreaking is that you can join a game of Egg Wars with a random player in your team who is breaking the game for you. That is gamebreaking and you cannot do anything as a stone rankers to stop this. You cannot choose to change your friend's rank for free to choose maps as a solution. The friend list and party limit 'problems' can be easily solved indeed. You cannot bypass the amount of players in a team, except from alt accounts, but that is of course illegal.

If only one of the problems are solved, the server economy will not shutdown. The effect of one thing is just zero, while the negative effect on gameplay (maps) is bigger now. Someone else made a new topic about it: https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/change-the-main-lobby.226561/

Again, it is not realistic to change everything. I did not say that I wanted to, so you cannot attack me on that. I just made this thread to sum up all the point rankers have, and I want you to make a suggestion, to decide. Personally, I think the choosing maps problem is gamebreaking, and that is just my opinion.

Honestly, it was not that useful to make a topic with everything, because I could not add more polls in this thread. When I began with this thread I hoped I could. Now it looks like as everything should change, but that is not my intention.