A Toxic Feedback Loop
Lifesteal Season 2 was a failure. Now, before you get your pitchforks out and march down to Torrent HQ, let me explain. I had put my 100% effort into creating the server, from delegating tasks building spawn, commissioning custom plugins, configuring in-game systems, and much more. As I put my all into developing the season, I watched Survival just… die. I would log into the server that I had spent a year and a half dedicating myself to just to see nobody online. Everyone seemed burnt out. I wanted to give the players a new experience.
Torrent had very little activity and advertising on social media and Minehut seemed like a fruitless endeavor, because we were running one major gamemode with a lack of cohesive features. It seemed impossible to come up with an elevator pitch for the survival server, considering none of the features meshed together very well. Lifesteal Season 1 was coming to a close. As many of you may know, Lifesteal Season 1 was a pure disaster. For the release of this season, Torrent hired a “developer” called Ian. He called himself a developer, but he was really a configurator, meaning he pseudocoded configuration files created by existing plugins on the market.
When Lifesteal Season 1 was released, the team simply could not agree on a single feature of the server. Combining themes from popular single player games like Dark Souls, a half-baked storyline, and extremely overpowered items and enchantments, combat and progression was completely broken. When the most powerful players on the server battled, their fights took over an hour to finish. Most people opted to fight until the first totem pop, or not engage in combat at all. Many people found the server extremely boring and nonsensical. That being said, some people saw the server as a hidden gem with a lot of potential. Ian directly caused many exploits on the server, abused his position, and caused drama everywhere he went. I fired Ian and continued alone.
In learning from the mistakes of Lifesteal Season 1, I decided to create a much more cohesive server. I had ambitious plans; I envisioned a server with deep lore and in-game systems. I had advertised the server with a complex guild and reputation system as well as immersive ways to influence the reputation of other players, which would hopefully make combat much more diverse and fun. I commissioned a developer to create the honor system, and figured it would be fine if players got used to the honor system before we introduced the guild system. That’s when the problems began.
While I watched the network experience the lowest levels of activity we ever had, I began to develop a kind of anxiety that I can only describe as the owner of a failing business. It was the excitement of wanting to release something new and drive the playercount I knew we deserved, combined with the deep burning sinking feeling of stress I developed from running a dying server. This led to an extreme level of burnout. As some of you may know, I quit my job selling commercial insurance in February, 2024. I had decided to dive full-time into freelancing, graphic design, and running the server, supplementing my income with odd jobs and contracting work. During this month long period of full-sending Lifesteal Season 2, I spent over 12 hours a day, 7 days a week developing the server.
Why did you push yourself so hard, and set the release date so early, if the server needed longer to thrive? This question is not so easy to answer, but I essentially felt an overwhelming urge to release the server as soon as possible. I was simply fed up with not having players online. I knew Survival was too hard to sell to the wider community, and I had a very low risk tolerance on investing money into advertising and hiring talent. I was scared to fail. Anyone who has run a business before knows how bad it stings, but also knows that your first try is always a failure. I had already spent half the year of 2024 trying and failing to sell art. I was tired of feeling like the server was not marketable to the general public.
The Release
On day 1 of the release, I quickly realized our server host and infrastructure simply could not handle the load of running the server. After many stressful hours of optimizations, fighting with our server host (Netcup, avoid them at all costs) and constant crashes and restarts, we decided to migrate our entire infrastructure to RAVNIX. On a much better CPU and more resources, we thought the bad was behind us. Then, everything that could have went wrong, did. Our enchantments caused dupes, bugs, and exploits. People abused the staff team leading to intense burnout and toxicity. People lost items from bugs. Many people who could have been long time players opted to quit the server due to one issue after another.
Putting aside the bugs for a moment, the server was clearly half-baked. Despite making a server with a lot of potential for really fun gameplay, the server was unpolished and the core gameplay loop was not complete. The introductory quest was the only really immersive thing to do on the server, took 5 minutes, and of course as fate would have it, had a money dupe built in. I spent the next week or so aggressively fixing bugs and finishing the questline. After releasing the next few quests and feeling like the storyline was complete, I realized that every day we could march forward toward growth I would spend fixing bugs. By acting alone as the sole configurator and manager of the server, I put way too much on myself and any areas where I had weaknesses or lack of experience or perspective would be glaringly obvious to those that join the server.
The server was simply not finished, and it severely limited our growth factor. Yes, I regret releasing Season 2 when I did. I wish that I had spent at least another month polishing the server, finishing the guild plugin, and doing proper QA testing. I also should have hired more developers and configurators, as well as a server manager to give me more perspective on how to run and grow the server I had envisioned. While I can’t change the past, I can change the future.
Torrent is actively looking for an experienced network manager with legitimate credentials. I have been in talks with several talented managers who have worked on large servers like Fresh SMP and Donut SMP. I am also in the process of hiring a developer/configurator who can properly QA test, fix bugs, and give our server a level of polish and shine. I will complete the guild and duels plugin to enhance combat and the reputation system. I also propose that a small hiatus is in order, to limit the build up of bereaved players and exploits. It has not been finalized whether we will go forward with this or not, as people still enjoy the server and want to see it online 24/7, but it is being highly considered.
While the release of Lifesteal Season 2 did not pan out the way any of us intended, I believe with the proper help, testing, and delegation of tasks to experienced professionals, Torrent can not only recover but reach new heights. If you place your faith in us, we will not disappoint you. Torrent is and has always been here to stay, with massively ambitious plans to grow our network to a scale and quality that you, as the player, deserve to experience.
