All Networks What CubeCraft's NEXT update should be [PLUS Rank]

[Sophie]

Hai ppl,
I have a free evening so I thought I'd write a thread on what CCG's next update should be. It's a little rushed so soz, but I kinda wanna get to the library soon. Haven't done one of these in a while, let's see if I still remember how:

Spoiler: The PLUS Rank - A recap

For those of you who don't frequently browse the server store, the PLUS rank is a subscription-based service amounting to £7 a month. In exchange, you receive bragging rights, in-game confetti and a few other perks that do not currently justify the price (and I say this objectively). Allow me to draw your attention to an extract from a thread I made in the summer:

They're also promising additional future content for PLUS members. That's gotta count for something, right? Right...? No. CCG has a terrible track record with promised content (See: Skyblock, Hide and Seek, Factions, Creative, Parkour, Party system, Quests, The Dropper, etc. etc. etc.)

A better approach than to buy the subscription in hopes of future content, is to wait for said content to arrive before paying for it. Remember, the subscription bills you monthly; if no new content comes out in a certain month, then you're paying £12.99 for a vaguely promised feature that did not arrive

To the surprise of approximately four people in the entire world, there hasn't been any new content added to this rank since release. (Edit: PLUS ranks were given /afk and kill dialogues in August. Very lacklustre considering the amount of time that's passed, but some of the best perks under the rank's belt to date). This is confounding, because a subscription-based system is probably what CCG needs more than ever right now (and because it was literally marketed as one of the reasons you should buy it!) This is of course running with the theory that CCG removed most of its games due to a decline in revenue. Allow me, somebody who is absolutely not an economics student (take from that what you will), to explain why a subscription service is beneficial:

CCG has an "artificial ceiling" on its income, one caused in part by the current rank system. Essentially, once somebody owns a rank, they have no reason to buy anything from the store ever again. They could upgrade their rank, but the perks have always been sub-par at best for the price, especially now that CCG has butchered, bludgeoned and executed 90% of the perks with "The Big Change". Also, once somebody is Obsidian rank there are no more upgrades, and a lot of people buy ranks either for the prefix or for a specific perk (say, Skywars vote options, which ends with the diamond rank).

Take me, for instance: I bought diamond rank on my main, at the cost of £70, in 2015. Since then, I've spent a grand total of £0 on the server, because there's not really anything else to buy. I could buy emerald rank, but I don't care about /fly enough to do so; I could buy cubelets, except there isn't any "catch" to them, that is, something attractive enough to entice me to role a dice with my money to win said catch.

Spoiler: What would make PLUS more attractive?

Because a lot of the player-base have ranks already (hell, they've had five years to buy one), there are plenty of potential customers who have no reason to spend any more money. I will personally never buy PLUS because I don't play the server, but if I did still play, I would expect to see some really intriguing perks. Keep in mind the rank costs £7 a month, equalling the amount of a Runescape Subscription which gives access to two entire MMORPG games. I would expect to get a similar amount of enjoyment from this rank as I would playing Runescape3 and Oldschool Runescape combined, or watching a healthy amount of Netflix across the span of a month. If that sounds implausible, then you need to lower your prices.

Secondly, there's a possibility that players will buy PLUS for a month to try it out, realise it's not for them, and cancel their subscription. This is obviously a problem for CCG, because a customer has just left their store with the minimum amount of product and probably won't be coming back. A lot of subscriptions offer a cheaper option if you buy long durations at a time. Here's an example from Runescape, since I was already on its website in getting examples for this thread:

You can save money by buying a year-long subscription. However, the money is paid up-front and cannot be refunded, meaning you are stuck with a year of membership if you are dissatisfied. For dedicated CCG players, a cheaper, more committed purchase might be appreciated. I think it's worth considering for PLUS.

Third, the perks have got to be better.
Here is another extract from the aforementioned thread. I haven't included the reviews of every perk because that'd be excessive, but this should be enough to express my point:

+1 Vote
This to me, seems like the most compelling perk, and it's certainly a good one. But, how many times does your preferred vote option fail by a single vote (assuming you actually play a game with vote variants; many games have none), and does that number of times pose such an issue to you that you'd pay £12.99 for it? It's certainly a good perk, but it really shouldn't be the best one, since it affects only a selection of players. Keep in mind, if you're outvoted by two or more votes, this perk has no effect. If you're not outvoted at all, this perk has no effect. If you do not play a game which includes vote options, this perk has no effect.

+30 Friends
This is another neat perk. I personally have over eighty friends (Mods have unlimited friend spaces) yet only fifty spots, so this perk may sound good for somebody like me. Again, there's just one problem: None of my old friends play anymore, most haven't even logged in since 2015. When this happens, most people will just replace those friends with more active members. Again, this isn't a bad perk, but it's another one that has very specific people in mind, and odds are, you're not one of those people.

+5 Slots in parties
Yet another perk that's intended for very specific people. I struggle to see even five of my friends online at once. If you're a fan of playing big games with your friends, then you're going to struggle to find a game to put all those parties members in. If you want this perk for the private chat, you can just use Discord, which is both free and gives the host the freedom to create their own rules for the group.

Exclusive cages
This perk has no value in my opinion. First of all, to even get an exclusive cage you must have been a subscriber for over three months; you're paying almost £40 for a single cage that you're not even allowed to equip until a quarter of a year has passed. What the hell... Also, the Vanity Update has really shot this perk in the head, because now, no matter how unique the exclusive cages look, they're still going to blend in with all the unique cages that other people have gotten from cubelets; nobody is going to notice, nor care, that your cage is different.

Bold name in game
I hope you love attention, because this is a fantastic way to get it. Honestly, I don't see any shame in wanting attention as long as you're not doing anything immoral to get it, so if this is a selling point to you then who am I to judge? But attention is a hindrance when you're getting targeted in every game because you've just broadcast to every edgy player in the lobby that you pay £12.99 a month to actively hinder their enjoyment of the game, by voting on an option that they dislike. I'm not sure whether it's toggleable, but if not then that seems like a very smart option to add.

Join announcements
Yep, you get an in-chat parade whenever you join a lobby, and everybody has to see it. Yet another way to get yourself targeted in games such as Assassins or KitPvP, since you've just brought attention to your name. Also, this is a very visually intrusive perk that I can see getting very annoying, very quickly, depending on the popularity of CCG PLUS.

Elytra in lobbies
This is really coooool. We've wanted elytras in lobbies for a long time now, and though it's locked behind a paywall, I'm glad we've finally got it in some form. My only issue with this is that you'll use it a few times to explore or to show off, but afterwards it'll become really stale and you'll never bother with it again. This feels like it belongs in the Obsidian rank if anything, because you'll otherwise essentially be paying monthly for an item that you'll only ever use once. It's sorta like those hats that you'd get for buying a rank before... how many of you actually used your gold or emerald block hats, and how many of you were enticed to buy your rank specifically for them?

Double jump in lobbies
This sounds really pointless; it adds literally nothing to one's enjoyment of the server and feels like filler, to make the rewards seem more plentiful than they actually are.

Personally, I think the '+30 friends' perk should be changed to allow an infinite amount of friends. It's the least that can be done. Also, the 'Join announcements' and 'Bold name in game' perks clearly cater to attention-seekers. Not that this is a bad thing, it's just the perks attract the wrong kind of attention. I think giving PLUS members their own kill and death dialogues would be a better, less invasive option. For example:

Divine_Athena killed Efcluke94.
Divine_Athena smoked Efcluke94.
Divine_Athena made Efcluke94 sleep with the fishes.
Divine_Athena used Rest. Efcluke94 fainted!

If you were to add dozens of these dialogues and make them exclusive to PLUS members, you could probably also sell a few cubelets from this feature.

As for other ideas, I'm afraid I'm short of them. I haven't been on the server in over half a year, so I cannot think of anything that hasn't already been mentioned in my previous thread. I will link all ideas from the previous thread here, but keep in mind some of its content might no longer be applicable since it was written a few months ago:

Bad perks
A lot of the perks are just... underwhelming. Let's talk about the cubelets you get. On paper, it sounds like you'll be getting five rare items. But odds are, a lot of those items are going to be duplicates, meaning you're actually getting nothing at all once you've gotten most of the items. This can be resolved by replacing the Uber Cubelet with a new type of "Dupe-protected" cubelet, which guarantees you an item that you do not already have. It is also a good idea to add cosmetics that can only be obtained from this cubelet, as to ensure players that they'll always get something.

Two other bad perks are the bold name and lobby-entry fanfare. These should have toggle options, so that those who don't appreciate the extra attention can opt out of it.

Filler perks
By "filler perks", I'm referring to the perks that have absolutely no impact at all, and feel like they were added just to pad out the list of perks to make it seem like a better deal than it is. These suggestions aim to make the filler perks more desirable.

Let's start with the double jump: You can jump twice as high in lobbies. This doesn't look cool or interesting, nor can it help you navigate the lobby faster. A better option would be to give players the double jump from Super Craft Bros, where operating your second jump would give you a huge boost of momentum in the direction you're facing. There's even an advanced technique where by timing your second jump to right as you land, your momentum pushes you across the floor at turbo speed. It looks cool, it can be used for quick exploration, and it'll get you to the lobby's points of interest very quickly.

Now let's talk about the exclusive cages. You should not have to spend over £30 before you even see one of the cages. For that price, I'd want this cage to be a working tardis that literally sends me back in time, so that I can stop myself from ever subscribing. Give PLUS members the cages off the bat, with a new cage on offer every single month, for that one month only. Miniatures should also be offered on certain months (December sounds like an obvious choice; Christmas gifts) to boost sales, and these too should be exclusive to that one month only. People who would otherwise not buy the subscription may choose to do so, under the notion that they might regret not buying the exclusive content once it's gone forever.

Niche perks
By "niche perks", I'm referring to the perks that target a specific minority of players. These suggestions aim to broaden their appeal.

The extra vote is great for those who will use it, but the circumstances in which the additional vote will even matter is rare. I think we need a few new vote options, ones which are exclusive to the PLUS rank. One obvious example that comes to my mind is island degradation in Skywars, since it forces fast-paced gameplay without totally removing all projectiles. You could even combine this option with others, such as OP chests or Basic chests. As for those who play say, the PvP games, which have no vote options, I reckon they should be able to vote on the map of the new lobby whenever an Assassins or FFA game goes down. This could be done via the map selector interface, and limited only to PLUS users. As a former FFA fan, this is something I'd have genuinely paid for. Maybe not £12.99 a month for it, but I'd have paid "an amount" of money for it.

All of the forum and livestream perks are also very niche. If somebody is going to benefit from the forum perks, they need both a forums account and a reason to use the forums. How does bi-monthly giveaways in the PLUS forums sound? These giveaways, in my opinion, would be best if they offered points multipliers. The giveaways could range from a simple "leave a comment" thread, to a competition to see who can take the best selfie in-game, or who can upload the coolest multi-kill to YouTube before the allotted time. I've always wanted this type of community interaction on the forums, perhaps this financial motive could bring it to life.

New perks

Default lobby
You know what really trivial thing I hate? Having to select a lobby. The HUB is always the laggiest place on the server, wouldn't it be great if we could select a default lobby? The idea is that PLUS users will have access to a /default command, which when used in a lobby, will put them in said lobby by default every time they join the server.

Change your display name
The ability to change your display name is one held only by YouTube ranks at the moment. But imagine how many people would subscribe to PLUS if it gave them the option to change their names too! "But but but Soapy, people will impersonate staff!!!" I hear you type. Well, you know that stupid exclusive + emoticon that PLUS members have access to? When changing your name, that little emoticon will be displayed beside it, and when a player hovers over it, it'll display the user's real name. For example, say I wanted to change my name to JohnSlater, it'll display like this:

'JohnSlater+: Hi kids, give me your credit card details?'

Then, by hovering over the little '+' sign, my true identity will be revealed and my scam will be bust.

The Livestreams
Multipliers should also be handed out in the exclusive livestreams. The CCG streamers, with an exception to Rubik, aren't very entertaining (sorry!). There's not much charisma or sense of identity, and I really don't think many people will watch them without some sort of incentive or unique twist. How about a bowling stream? I'm yet to see that come to fruition. These streams, being restricted to PLUS members, should also show off future content and perhaps some interesting tips and tricks for new games, to give PLUS members an edge. Also, don't hesitate to give away a few point multipliers, as they're always satisfying to detonate.

Vanity in waiting lobbies
Vanity has always been, and will always be, totally useless because everybody has something to equip; simply having items doesn't make you stand out. Let PLUS members equip their vanity items in the game waiting lobbies. Being the only ones with vanity gear equipped, they'll both stand out and get more satisfaction from equipping their favourite outfits.

Custom games
You get all that extra space on your friends lists and in parties by becoming a PLUS subscriber... Why not give us something to do with it? Custom games will work sort of like how private matches do in many shooters: You select a team, spawn in, and are able to freely explore the map on your own. You can invite friends to join in too and play real matches with just them, however winning will offer no rewards nor will private matches modify your stats.

There is infinite usefulness with Custom games. You can practice against a friend, explore the maps to improve and find secrets, or just play a game of Skywars with a group of friends, without those pesky randomers showing up. Players have wanted private lobbies since the beginning of time, so it seems like the perfect incentive to boost PLUS subscriptions.

Elytra and exclusive spawn in waiting lobbies
Waiting lobbies are extremely boring, so here's an opportunity to add a vanity option that's actually useful! Spawn PLUS members at the top of waiting lobbies upon joining, with an elytra already equipped. Let them fly around and explore the lobbies, giving them something more to do than running around punching people until they go insane. It's still a vanity perk that adds little to the gameplay, but it's one that'll see constant use throughout the month as it will make the waiting lobbies less mind-numbingly boring. Just think about how much time we all spend waiting for games to fill up, and compare it to how much time we spend in the hub playing with our gadgets or changing our vanity. This perk is instantly more useful than half the perks currently on offer.

Spoiler: Conclusion

Thnx for reading. Tl;dr - Buff the PLUS rank as promised, because it's still bad but has potential to be better.

Spoiler: A question for PLUS members:

How often do you use your exclusive forum, or tune into your exclusive livestreams? Have you received your exclusive hat(s) yet? Am a curious bee. Thnx.

 

[Deleted member 352903]

Actually, Plus was updated some months ago (https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/cubecraft-plus-update-general-improvements.210662/)
Kill dialogues are now a thing c:

Perhaps a nice feature would be /nick?????? If there's a way so you can't bypass bans and break rules, I think it'd nice to have this command

 

[Eli]

Hai ppl,
I have a free evening so I thought I'd write a thread on what CCG's next update should be. It's a little rushed so soz, but I kinda wanna get to the library soon. Haven't done one of these in a while, let's see if I still remember how:

Spoiler: The PLUS Rank - A recap

For those of you who don't frequently browse the server store, the PLUS rank is a subscription-based service amounting to £7 a month. In exchange, you receive bragging rights, in-game confetti and a few other perks that do not currently justify the price (and I say this objectively). Allow me to draw your attention to an extract from a thread I made in the summer:

To the surprise of approximately four people in the entire world, there hasn't been any new content added to this rank since release. This is confounding, because a subscription-based system is probably what CCG needs more than ever right now (and because it was literally marketed as one of the reasons you should buy it!) This is of course running with the theory that CCG removed most of its games due to a decline in revenue. Allow me, somebody who is absolutely not an economics student (take from that what you will), to explain why a subscription service is beneficial:

CCG has an "artificial ceiling" on its income, one caused in part by the current rank system. Essentially, once somebody owns a rank, they have no reason to buy anything from the store ever again. They could upgrade their rank, but the perks have always been sub-par at best for the price, especially now that CCG has butchered, bludgeoned and executed 90% of the perks with "The Big Change". Also, once somebody is Obsidian rank there are no more upgrades, and a lot of people buy ranks either for the prefix or for a specific perk (say, Skywars vote options, which ends with the diamond rank).

Take me, for instance: I bought diamond rank on my main, at the cost of £70, in 2015. Since then, I've spent a grand total of £0 on the server, because there's not really anything else to buy. I could buy emerald rank, but I don't care about /fly enough to do so; I could buy cubelets, except there isn't any "catch" to them, that is, something attractive enough to entice me to role a dice with my money to win said catch.

Spoiler: What would make PLUS more attractive?

Because a lot of the player-base have ranks already (hell, they've had five years to buy one), there are plenty of potential customers who have no reason to spend any more money. I will personally never buy PLUS because I don't play the server, but if I did still play, I would expect to see some really intriguing perks. Keep in mind the rank costs £7 a month, equalling the amount of a Runescape Subscription which gives access to two entire MMORPG games. I would expect to get a similar amount of enjoyment from this rank as I would playing Runescape3 and Oldschool Runescape combined, or watching a healthy amount of Netflix across the span of a month. If that sounds implausible, then you need to lower your prices.

Secondly, there's a possibility that players will buy PLUS for a month to try it out, realise it's not for them, and cancel their subscription. This is obviously a problem for CCG, because a customer has just left their store with the minimum amount of product and probably won't be coming back. A lot of subscriptions offer a cheaper option if you buy long durations at a time. Here's an example from Runescape, since I was already on its website in getting examples for this thread:
View attachment 149001
You can save money by buying a year-long subscription. However, the money is paid up-front and cannot be refunded, meaning you are stuck with a year of membership if you are dissatisfied. For dedicated CCG players, a cheaper, more committed purchase might be appreciated. I think it's worth considering for PLUS.

Third, the perks have got to be better.
Here is another extract from the aforementioned thread. I haven't included the reviews of every perk because that'd be excessive, but this should be enough to express my point:



Personally, I think the '+30 friends' perk should be changed to allow an infinite amount of friends. It's the least that can be done. Also, the 'Join announcements' and 'Bold name in game' perks clearly cater to attention-seekers. Not that this is a bad thing, it's just the perks attract the wrong kind of attention. I think giving PLUS members their own kill and death dialogues would be a better, less invasive option. For example:

Divine_Athena killed Efcluke94.
Divine_Athena smoked Efcluke94.
Divine_Athena made Efcluke94 sleep with the fishes.
Divine_Athena used Rest. Efcluke94 fainted!

If you were to add dozens of these dialogues and make them exclusive to PLUS members, you could probably also sell a few cubelets from this feature.

As for other ideas, I'm afraid I'm short of them. I haven't been on the server in over half a year, so I cannot think of anything that hasn't already been mentioned in my previous thread. I will link all ideas from the previous thread here, but keep in mind some of its content might no longer be applicable since it was written a few months ago:

Spoiler: Conclusion

Thnx for reading. Tl;dr - Buff the PLUS rank as promised, because it's still bad but has potential to be better.

Spoiler: A question for PLUS members:

How often do you use your exclusive forum, or tune into your exclusive livestreams? Have you received your exclusive hat(s) yet? Am a curious bee. Thnx.

The exclusive forum is useless as staff never replies. And there hasn’t been a single exclusive live-stream...
The plus miniature, trail, and shield are ugly. The lobbies are so crowded and laggy now that the double jump and elytra are impossible to use.
I have only kept paying the subscription because of the cubelets and extra vote.
I like the idea about infinite friends that would definitely convince more than one player.

 

[Sophie]

Actually, Plus was updated some months ago (https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/cubecraft-plus-update-general-improvements.210662/)
Kill dialogues are now a thing c:

Perhaps a nice feature would be /nick?????? If there's a way so you can't bypass bans and break rules, I think it'd nice to have this command

Ooo very nice, thank you! /Nick should be a priority imo, I reckon a lot of people would pay to have it. The novelty of being able to have any display name is usually the selling point of $100+ ranks on other servers.

 

[Eli]

Ooo very nice, thank you! /Nick should be a priority imo, I reckon a lot of people would pay to have it. The novelty of being able to have any display name is usually the selling point of $100+ ranks on other servers.

The only problem is, as many staff members have expressed already the /nick command would cause issues when dealing with evidence of someone breaking the rules while using this command.
So maybe this could be added but in a much more limited way. For example, players with the plus rank could choose 1-5 alternative names they would like to use. Then, every month the players could edit this name list. Staff members would have access to this list so they could identify wether someone is using /nick or not. To make it easier there could be a place in the reports website in which you input the name of the reported player first, so the system tells you wether that name is in a list of someone’s /nick (And if so, whose) or not.
Additionally, the names selected in the /nick alternative name list shouldn’t match any player’s username that has logged in in the past year. Now, there is a possibility one of these players that hasn’t logged in logs back in while someone has used their username for their /nick username. In that case, the player’s name will be removed from the plus rank user’s /nick list and when the plus rank user comes back they would receive a notification saying they have an empty alternative name spot.
This would take a lot of work and effort but it would definetly be worth it and I’m sure many players would like to employ this feature. The plus rank would be much more worth the money.

 

[SanCookie]

The only problem is, as many staff members have expressed already the /nick command would cause issues when dealing with evidence of someone breaking the rules while using this command.

The biggest server on the JAVA edition is using /nick as a feature on their server and it works great with reports so I don’t see how that’s a reason to not add it.

 

[Feách]

The exclusive forum is useless as staff never replies. And there hasn’t been a single exclusive live-stream...
The plus miniature, trail, and shield are ugly. The lobbies are so crowded and laggy now that the double jump and elytra are impossible to use.
I have only kept paying the subscription because of the cubelets and extra vote.
I like the idea about infinite friends that would definitely convince more than one player.

Already suggested /nick, a moderator (not going to say their name unless they’re okay with it) but they said it’ll be too messy in their opinion, but I would love to see it for plus and obsidian seeing as I’ve spent nearly €200 on the server lmao
@Elimeel

 

[Feách]

Already suggested /nick, a moderator (not going to say their name unless they’re okay with it) but they said it’ll be too messy in their opinion, but I would love to see it for plus and obsidian seeing as I’ve spent nearly €200 on the server lmao

Ooo very nice, thank you! /Nick should be a priority imo, I reckon a lot of people would pay to have it. The novelty of being able to have any display name is usually the selling point of $100+ ranks on other servers.

Suggested it on discord, “too messy with reports etc”

 

[Feách]

Suggested it on discord, “too messy with reports etc”

DM me on discord if you want the picture (SpookySongs#0001)

 

[Deleted member 352903]

Suggested it on discord, “too messy with reports etc”

The biggest server on the JAVA edition is using /nick as a feature on their server and it works great with reports so I don’t see how that’s a reason to not add it.

 

[Snivy Films]

Another Negative is the +1 vote, here is a catch, Its only useful if you already have a rank, if not it is useless.

 

[ChaosConjurer]

I will always strongly be against the addition of /nick to any rank excluding staff or YouTuber ranks. How the /nick command works on CubeCraft was described in detail by JohnColes on this news thread. If we were to give /nick to the Plus rank we would need to completely redo the system as well as make it possible to see the actual username of the person using nick. That would cause many problems for moderation and content creators alike. I believe this command should always remain exclusive to staff and our partners.

This was already mentioned, but Plus rank does already have extra dialogues for kills and deaths. I do believe there are ways we can improve on the subscription currently with the implementation of new vanity items or features in the future. I'd love to see some new trails or gadgets exclusive to the Plus rank. If any of you have suggestions on what those could be, we would love to hear your ideas. Having infinite friend slots is an interesting idea, but it would make the increased friends limit perk of other ranks kinda irrelevant, basically lowering the value of increasing your actual rank.