Up to Speed

A couple of months ago, the consensus was that no one was deciding anything, no one was doing anything and the server we all love was going nowhere. That is true to a degree. Monkey Universe and perhaps Freelancer in general has been a victim of the works of fashion. There is no doubt about it that Freelancer is prehistoric by modern computer standards, but the atmosphere on Monkey Universe, in my mind certainly, is much more enjoyable than what you experience on a MMORPG. Currently, we are one of 102 recognised Freelancer servers who are competing globally for 600 players. Freelancer itself may inevitably be in decline compared to the player peak of 2004, but even today, we compete against servers with a population of 50+ players per night. But the real problem we have as a community is that we have been bleeding players for a long time now, for a whole number of reasons, and hopefully this post will address some of these. Freelancer to me is Monkey Universe and essentially the only game I play on line. If we do not play, then we won't have a place to play. The server is dependent on the community.

As no doubt you all know, the recent push to get players back for the sake of MU has not exactly worked. As much as we may all say that we love Monkey Universe it clearly cannot survive in its current format. We need people to have a server. One of the general complaints pre-reformation was that information was not readily available to us as players and that the instability of the MOD was the hole in a sinking ship. Perhaps some minor changes were being made, but these had no real impact on the aesthetics of the server, so why play when no improvements are being made? Certainly a consensus I don't blame people for; but that is not the case now.

In response to the recent consensus, we have made, as a server, some fundamental changes to Monkey Universe and developed numerous suggestions for improvement. For you to get an idea of what admin are thinking, and perhaps you may offer some reaction or additional insight, here is the summary:

Monkey Universe Server Team:
We have developed a stable, reliable and dedicated server team operating on a multi-level basis consisting of admin, MP and support groups (such as =REC=, MUMT etc). The admin team have decreased in number in response to the consensus and we have reapplied names to areas. These simply help to provide some structure. MP have also been reintroduced in response to the consensus.


We are more than delighted to help any member of our community who asks for assistance and will attempt to help in all areas of the MOD, including general server duties such as: rep-edits, troubleshooting and player management. Although most of the server team put a huge amount of time into modding for example, and all staff-members will keep an eye on the forum, our admins each have a field of responsibility to best direct assistance to the community:

Monkey Universe Server Admins:

• Tiger - Logic and Investigation (Server Co-ordination & Modding)
  
• Nexus - Logic and Investigation (Server Co-ordination & Modding)
  
• Bear - Event Performance & Communication (Server Events and Server Advertising)
  
• Patriot - Diplomatic Relations (Server Relations - Clans)
  
  Logic and Investigation:
  Modding, hosting and beta-testing are all co-ordinated by Tiger and Nexus.
  Contact: MPA Nexus and/or MPA Tiger
  
  Event Performance and Communication:
  Server events and community awareness are all co-ordinated by Bear.
  Contact: MPA Bear
  
  Diplomatic Relations:
  Clan relations, policy and documentation are all co-ordinated by Patriot.
  Contact: MPA Patriot

Monkey Universe Server Police:
The Monkey Universe Server Police are responsible for our frontline community assistance and work impartially to keep the peace on the server. It can often be very tiring and enduring work, however we thrive on community spirit and hope to make everyone's unique gaming experience of Monkey Universe the best it can possibly be.

• Liberty - Monkey Police
  
• Linea - Monkey Police
  
• Plofre - Monkey Police

Monkey Universe Modding Team:
The Monkey Universe Modding Team are responsible for the spectacular content that is found in our MOD. Working to balance everyone's separate views is no easy job and it can often be very tiring and enduring work, however we thrive on community spirit and hope to make everyone's unique gaming experience of Monkey Universe the best it can possibly be. Members of the MUMT and their individual responsibilities are:
(Please note that sometimes our members will be found to be modding in other areas other than their main responsibility. This can happen for a variety of reasons)

• Nexus - Modding Co-ordinator
  Contact: MPA Nexus
  
  
• Tiger - Modding Co-ordinator
  Contact: MPA Tiger
  
  
• Plofre - Modding Member
  Contact: MP Plofre
  
  
• Bear - Modding Member
  Contact: MPA Bear
  
  
• Patriot - Modding Member
  Contact: MPA Patriot

Modding:
The content of the MOD (HD Textures and Music) has been revised as potential solutions to the recent server crashes and CTDs that we have been experiencing. Nexus and Tiger are currently working on the MOD to fix both the minor faults and more major ones that have been discovered. Recent crashes were narrowed down to additions in the SSP and work has begun to solve these. This will be time consuming as it is a matter of taking things in and out one at a time in order to discover the source of the crashes, however the update has hopefully solved these or at the most relieved the pressure. The only way we will know is if people play and encounter any. In the meantime Plofre has started a complete mod rebuild so that we will have a rebuilt version of Monkey Universe in support. FLAC has been relicenced and we are working to move shortly to another data centre.

Forum:
Please find that the layout of the forum has changed in order to make information more easily accessible. It should be identifiable that information is now spread across the board under six clear and specific headings and numerous categories. These are:

• Guest Area
  
• Server Information Area
  
• General Posting Area
  
• Role Play Area
  
• Foreign Language Communications
  
• Clan Area

Each have a clear description of the channel and the admin area to offer a general pointer for information and easier pruning of the forum when that time comes.

Aesthetics:
Over the next few days we will hopefully be discussing where the biggest improvements could be made to the MOD. Subjects include: The Rules and regulations, role-play, administration etc.

Hopefully, that has answered some questions. But more importantly what we need is for a unity. All of this work is so that we as players have a server to play on in our time that we enjoy. But without us playing, all of this is ineffective. We've said it numerous times before, it is the players who make Monkey Universe the best it is and we want to continue that.

does anyone play here now.i have been online and never seen anyone

Server is pretty much dead, most of us are busy with real life or other games.

Hello my old friends. It's been 6 years.... 6 years when i met this wonderful community as a child. Some may not know me, I'm Halokiller, (Omega)Bruce_Wayne. Maybe that old fart dragnite might remember.

I may join in this weekend, having finished my exams tomorrow. As for my opinion. the size of the download should be reduced. I remember entering this roleplay server with 100+ players and all i have to do is download around 100mb file to play in a massive mod. MU, however was more than that. It annoyed me a bit and what made it un-apealling to download it back.

Good to see you guys again.

I miss this place