Goonhub
Saying stuff like "pathology is gone, move on" hardly seems accurate. I coded a lot of changes for it to try to bring it more in line with what I think is a good vision for a department for the server, and we even had a week-long test run, as you suggested in your post!
In the end pathology was disabled again and after reading some feedback (on the forums) I decided to not try to develop it further to get it reenabled (for various reasons).
To me it feels like the system worked well, I got lots of feedback, some from admins, some from regular players, and some from people who I hadn't really seen before.
You say stuff like "bullshit deaths with rapid rounds is the entire reason the server is fun", but I absolutely do not agree. I do not like my rounds being cut short much, and I do not like short rounds, which is why I play on the rp server. I even preferred the 2 hour rounds, which were recently changed to be 1.5 hours instead.
That is why I enjoy changes that reduce the chances of a random, unavoidable death. Of course, one could say that we could just have those changes on the rp servers and not on main, but I think that a lot of players on main also prefer having the levels of power between crew-sec-antags be more equalized.
And sometimes the devs feel the need to make unpopular balance decisions that they think will be good for the health of the game, like nerfing things. As was probably the case with tasers, you just gotta consider that those tasers are shot at people too, people who wanna play the game, not be completely at the mercy of any player who has a taser.
Similar situation, earlier today there was a fair amount of discussion about nerfing artifact gun cells in some way. And sure, at first I was a bit bummed that it might be nerfed, but when you think about it - someone coming up to you with basically infinite shots of an egun that can permastun you or do a bazillion damage is pretty bs.
Facing someone like that in battle probably wouldn't end in a fair or enjoyable experience for me. So I am ok with it being nerfed.
But there are different shapes that such a nerf can take, and I am trying to push for one that I think will keep things more interesting while potentially giving people who would be against someone with an artcell a more level playing field, instead of pushing for the change that would remove using artifact cells that way.
To me, that feels like I have a good shot at making my input on this change heard, and even if I wouldn't have gone and nerfed artcells myself, now that I considered it I do feel like it would overall cause more fun for players.
Personally, I have played on, or tried to play on numerous ass days, back when it was still around. I honestly can't say I remember any fun moments from them, I just remember joining on cog1, walking around for a minute or two, then randomly being stabbed to death in maint near the chapel. I logged off thinking, "well, that was a waste of a few minutes, and now I need to wait for the round to be over". Wasn't a great feeling.
You can hardly just say to go to another server. The other populated server is the rp server, lots of main players do not wanna rp.
The other two servers have basically no players most of the time, playing with like 3 people would not be considered a "real round" by most people, certainly most main players.
I do fondly remember shaking the bushes during ass-jam for the random items, but that's just because I always enjoy gambling.^^
Anyway, that's why I definitely did not mind ass-day being removed. Not sure how I feel about the lack of ass-jam, it was a neat way to test some changes you'd normally not be able to get in, but all-in-all, I like playing boring 2 hour rounds on the rp server.
You're not alone in disliking new changes though. I think a lot of people have fond memories of times when the server used to be different, some people even liked the really old versions (with a questionable three letter feature) better.
I do get that it sucks when the direction of a game drifts away from what you liked it for, but these things just happen, you can't please the entire playerbase, so you gotta please the majority sometimes.
Overall, my advice would be, since you clearly seem invested in what kind of changes are made to the game.
Well, the best way is to give your input on the changes before they happen. A lot of them don't make it to the forums though, because that would be really spammy, so only the bigger changes get a forum thread.
And I do get if you don't wanna join the discord, the random chatting isn't for everyone.
So why not make a github account and check the PRs every once and again, and you could give your input if you feel a proposed change is not good?
https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pulls
Also, wow, I am really prone to rambling on today.^^
In the end pathology was disabled again and after reading some feedback (on the forums) I decided to not try to develop it further to get it reenabled (for various reasons).
To me it feels like the system worked well, I got lots of feedback, some from admins, some from regular players, and some from people who I hadn't really seen before.
You say stuff like "bullshit deaths with rapid rounds is the entire reason the server is fun", but I absolutely do not agree. I do not like my rounds being cut short much, and I do not like short rounds, which is why I play on the rp server. I even preferred the 2 hour rounds, which were recently changed to be 1.5 hours instead.
That is why I enjoy changes that reduce the chances of a random, unavoidable death. Of course, one could say that we could just have those changes on the rp servers and not on main, but I think that a lot of players on main also prefer having the levels of power between crew-sec-antags be more equalized.
And sometimes the devs feel the need to make unpopular balance decisions that they think will be good for the health of the game, like nerfing things. As was probably the case with tasers, you just gotta consider that those tasers are shot at people too, people who wanna play the game, not be completely at the mercy of any player who has a taser.
Similar situation, earlier today there was a fair amount of discussion about nerfing artifact gun cells in some way. And sure, at first I was a bit bummed that it might be nerfed, but when you think about it - someone coming up to you with basically infinite shots of an egun that can permastun you or do a bazillion damage is pretty bs.
Facing someone like that in battle probably wouldn't end in a fair or enjoyable experience for me. So I am ok with it being nerfed.
But there are different shapes that such a nerf can take, and I am trying to push for one that I think will keep things more interesting while potentially giving people who would be against someone with an artcell a more level playing field, instead of pushing for the change that would remove using artifact cells that way.
To me, that feels like I have a good shot at making my input on this change heard, and even if I wouldn't have gone and nerfed artcells myself, now that I considered it I do feel like it would overall cause more fun for players.
Personally, I have played on, or tried to play on numerous ass days, back when it was still around. I honestly can't say I remember any fun moments from them, I just remember joining on cog1, walking around for a minute or two, then randomly being stabbed to death in maint near the chapel. I logged off thinking, "well, that was a waste of a few minutes, and now I need to wait for the round to be over". Wasn't a great feeling.
You can hardly just say to go to another server. The other populated server is the rp server, lots of main players do not wanna rp.
The other two servers have basically no players most of the time, playing with like 3 people would not be considered a "real round" by most people, certainly most main players.
I do fondly remember shaking the bushes during ass-jam for the random items, but that's just because I always enjoy gambling.^^
Anyway, that's why I definitely did not mind ass-day being removed. Not sure how I feel about the lack of ass-jam, it was a neat way to test some changes you'd normally not be able to get in, but all-in-all, I like playing boring 2 hour rounds on the rp server.
You're not alone in disliking new changes though. I think a lot of people have fond memories of times when the server used to be different, some people even liked the really old versions (with a questionable three letter feature) better.
I do get that it sucks when the direction of a game drifts away from what you liked it for, but these things just happen, you can't please the entire playerbase, so you gotta please the majority sometimes.
Overall, my advice would be, since you clearly seem invested in what kind of changes are made to the game.
Well, the best way is to give your input on the changes before they happen. A lot of them don't make it to the forums though, because that would be really spammy, so only the bigger changes get a forum thread.
And I do get if you don't wanna join the discord, the random chatting isn't for everyone.
So why not make a github account and check the PRs every once and again, and you could give your input if you feel a proposed change is not good?
https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pulls
Also, wow, I am really prone to rambling on today.^^