Everything that I have said is indeed in my own opinion. Maybe you feel because I mentioned your name and I am sharing thoughts about how this round came about that I’m attacking you and everything you’ve done/been doing when that’s not it…
For a bit of clarity, this is my opinion on the matter and my thoughts of how i feel it looks. That doesn’t mean that’s how it is. I’m will also assume Warchild won’t like what I said as well.
I’m not at all bothered by your thoughts on this round setup; it’s the comment that my effort is almost non-existent that I take issue with.
That kind of statement very much minimizes the time and effort that I spend here to keep things afloat.
I’m not feeling attacked, just frustrated at the idea that you would so quickly disregard my involvement.
This wasn’t meant to be an argumentative post at all.
If I could I’d lock the post…
It’s all good @TheBigOne, probably better for us to hash out expectations and perceptions.
To @Water’s point a vote should never have been made if we knew we couldn’t do it. I’ve already asked our mod team to not do that in the future for unofficial polls.
It was productive however. Not for this round per-say, but for future rounds. With more players wanting and willing to try out map creation, it was totally worth it.
If anyone wants the file for how SUV and others have made a map in the past, send me a message on discord, TBO, I’ll get you going.
I apologize if I’ve made you feel that way, it was not intentional. Just sharing my frustrations. If there are people that want to help, let them.
Yeah @TheBigOne there are some good things coming out of this conversation for sure. @xMoDx has some good stuff planned it sounds like, which is exactly the kind of player involvement that improves the experience for all.
Btw @Water as far as the negativity I was referring to your “no wonder players leave” type comment with regard to staff not acting on the vote. It was an uninformed comment which disregards the work that we do. This is frustrating to read knowing how much thought that has gone into empowering the players, especially compared to our prior ownership.
That’s wonderful that you give vet players credit, as they deserve it. However, so does our staff.
@kingray it’s all good. It was a poor choice of words imo but I understand your general point.
And hey, if I’m frustrated and the players are frustrated then at least we can relate to each other. 
@I_like_pie definately a good back and forth going on here for the most part.
A couple things I am noting just from reading up on this
If we could put up next round plans earlier, up to 7 days before EOR we can get better representation of all players including the semi actives and players sitting out a round.
A bit more description in regards to terminology when setting up polls for rounds. For example, an idea of sizes for players to Guage off of. For some people a small map might be 10 systems or it could be 100,000 systems (obviously exagerated).
Player maps are 100% useful and from how it seems, very welcome by you and the mod team. One thing I would say is if players have questions about the tools or maps, who can they ask about their issues?
Would it be better if you’d post it here as its own thread in forumns? Or link the previous one floating around that tells you how to use the map tool?
Can’t share the download as it’s blocked to post, and I was unaware of a current post about this already made.
If you can find it before me, please feel free to post the link 
Pie - I didn’t mean to be negative about you or any staff efforts towards IC.
I was simply trying to say this map is a bit shit lol.
However I’m glad I bothered posting because now I know that:
You can’t simply upload a new map without deleting the entire round.
That players can design and make their own maps if they have the knowledge.
That we are catering for people who do like small short rounds and people who like bigger building rounds.
That xMoDx has made some good suggestions over the past few weeks.
I don’t mind what Kingray said, maybe it would be a good idea to:
A: Start the vote / feedback for next round a week earlier so then more players have chance to post on what they would like.
B: Is it not possible to make 4 or 5 random maps and then post the pictures in the forum and get players to vote for which map they like.
C: Get certain players to make a shitload of custom maps, some smaller rounds, some for longer rounds.
I really liked what Rawrr did on last rounds map because you had enough systems right in your core that you could quickly build there and fight to expand later.
That to me makes sense because an empire would pick the location with the most planets. That ideally a nation would pick a home world that had lots of other planets within 1 to 4 ticks and the rest of the map would be open space and scattered systems.
7694 - Are the classic example on this map.
7691 - Are another example of no systems close.
Like self made maps could easily fix that problem, so hopefully a few players will design some maps for small rounds and bigger ones as well.
However, for the record Pie don’t take criticism to heart as people here obviously do like and respect you. This is more a learning curve because as stated I didn’t know you couldn’t simply upload a new map of hit the randomise button another 50 times.
For all I know you can load up the map program and simply plonk 4 or 5 systems around the peoples cores that need them.
I’m not even sure if you can change the level of resource planets when the round has already started?
I mean in my eyes small maps or short rounds would be best if they has a super high level of resource planets, or that the resource planets on small maps were all +40% +50% bonus planets.
Like with a small map you don’t have many resource planets to pick from and really doesn’t help if they are all 12% bonus planets or whatever.
Either way lets see how the round goes, for all we know 7694 could start in the middle of nowhere with no systems close at all and end up winning.
Like someone said however its not fun having the nearest planet to expo being 6 ticks away.
I’ve randomed into one of the family’s that’s closest system is 7 ticks away… so things are even worse for them now
I think sometimes he confuses the ones that do for the ones that don’t…I may be calling you out but I don’t mean any harm in it… Just want him to see from a different perspective. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels that way.
Granted my choice of words could have been better and less argumentative/bashful.
Think pie posted one a while back…I’ll try to find.
@Water I appreciate the clarification.
I’ll be honest, I get irritable from time to time, clearly. The players who witnessed the ownership transition saw me get jaded pretty quickly. Unfortunately I lost a good deal of patience and good will because of some players who took every chance they had to talk shit about anything and everything we do here.
So don’t take my reactions personally either, it’s just that comments like “with moves like this no wonder players leave”, “your almost non-existent effort”, or “why have you killed IC” get really really old, especially when they’re from players who weren’t here with us when things were much much worse.
Critique is fair, and there’s a lot of good criticism here. My issue though has always been with players being excessively “doom and gloom” and misportraying staff without bothering to understand what we’re actually doing to run things here. Keeping this game alive is not easy.
Anyway it’s all good. I may get grumpy, but I still appreciate the value of players caring enough to express their opinions and concerns. I just think sometimes we all could do a better job communicating. You guys really have no obligation to as customers, but I don’t look at you as customers: I look at us as part of the same community.
Irritable? I have rage quit this game about 5 times over the years on different accounts, so honestly after the years you have been in this community I’m shocked your not wearing a special white jacket and living in a room with rubber walls as you slowly rock back and forth dribbling and mumbling about NW or whatever.
I can spit the dummy the out, where actually you have dealt with 99.9% more of this than me and are still here trying, which is a testament to your character and dedication, so yes credit where its due! If I had to deal with years worth of the same questions, same ideas, same complaints, same groans and moans then sure I’d not be irritable I’d probably be in a room with padded walls and amped up on happy pills.
I guess at times players get frustrated as well, but please don’t take that personally as we all need to vent or share ideas and thoughts at times.
Random = random afaik. Deal with it
Big one he’s another trouble maker in a group with Hala. Nom!