To clear some things up that might be a bit blurry for now:
There are no personal attacks towards Ramon in this report, anybody considering this an insult on a personal level should probably read the whole thing first and then start thinking again.
This was never meant to be published. Every GA except Ramon(obviously, since he is the matter of the subject) has been given the report 3 days prior to the publishing. We then found a similar reaction along the lines of "well we probably can get away with ignoring it since it comes from just a few people" and therefore decided to make it public after there was no response by them (this should be easily realized as a matter of higher priority so the response should resultate without forcing it e.g by saying "answer or we publish this"). After the release they soon realized that it was not an isolated case and it seems like something woke up their minds and they are starting to act - which basically was our only intention, shame it took a massive backlash from more than just a few people for them to realize this.
We still highly enjoy the server concept and spent an awful lot of time on it and will continue doing and promoting it if things were to take a positive turn but as long as these mischiefs occur we will take our distance from 4Nova.
We also did not provide proof for even more issues that we simply forgot to screenshot as they happened, so if any accusations of fake or out of context arguments come up, the 4Nova administration is kindly invited to expose those with the release of the full logs - namely especially July 24th around 18:00 (discord general chat should be easily followed since everybody can see it - at least what's left of it).
If you still think this is an open attack on the server just quit the discussion and keep no-braining. It is clearly stated that it refers to just one single GA and is not meant to represent a personal attack either. We even explicitly mentioned that the remaining GA's are doing an astonishingly good job.
DISCLAIMER: IN ORDER TO VIEW THE SCREENSHOTS YOU NEED TO BE LOGGED IN.
Also for fact checking public discord messages shown in the screenshots you will mostly have to take our word for it since Ramon is notoriously known for deleting 90% of messages (or even reactions e.g after recklessness potions got re-released, fallendy kept commenting the letters DUMB underneath the patchnotes which Ramon found important to be deleted ~5x until he figured out a way to block reactions in the patchnotes channel entirely) he finds to be controversial (so most actual controversial ones are still online because he rarely realizes the problem)
4Nova and Ramon – a detailed analysis
Introduction
We decided to create this report to give a more detailed insight into the reasons for the extreme drop in player numbers and found out that most problems trace back to one single person.
The current trend leads towards a direction where server closure is imminent in a few months.
This report only referrs to the server owner Ramon, not the private person behind that synonym.
The name [GA]Ramon
Opening the server under the name Ramon was the first mistake and might be some sort of „ego problem“. Being known for real world trading on other servers (namely 4Ancient) already implies the possibility of a corrupt server even before considering an installation of 4Nova in the first place. This prevented many players from trying the server at all.
20cm
Apart from the players that already avoided playing it in the first place for said previous reason a lot of players quit thinking 20cm did enjoy special privileges. It is widely known that Ramon himself allowed their members to perform real world trading while forbidding it for others. Apparently he also was present during voice chats while gold selling etc. took place.
Reason for censorship: Maintaining anonymity
This screenshot does not provide any official evidence but gives an good insight into the deeds that 20cm proudly reveals.
First it is claimed that Dali traded for all of his gear
„I know you did it too“? This alone indirectly confirms that Dali did in fact not – as previously stated – gather his gear through trading but made use of RWT to get it
(„What do I need screens for? Do you really think I dont look around on my server and check the database regularly?“)
Ramon seems to know about every mischief but is not bothered to act upon them. Maybe because of fear of losing players.
(„@x3n So first you post a screenshot from a random discord conversation that states something about gold and request a ban for RWT and now saying similar stuff? I dont get it. You even confirmed me in private messages that it was you that did it. In the end i don’t care.“)
Saying something along the lines of „i don’t care“ as an owner in the general chat does not really help the situation
(„@x3n Okay, i could ban everybody, then you can do 1v1 vs Devil on the server? If so I’ll move you to Derion“)
Apparently he knows about a lot of people that did RWT but does not ban them (majority consisting of 20cm) because he is afraid of losing players afterwards. But in return he does not realize that more players do not even want to start or quit because such actions are allowed.
If Ramon wants to support RWT even though it is in some way harmful for the server, he has to publicly say so and allow it for everybody or explicitly include it in the ruleset. This has been implemented in §14. He has the full right to shape the rules to his beliefs as a server owner. But he has to consequently execute this and take responsibility for his opinion in order to maintain the rules‘ impact and trustworthiness. The role model aspect of a Server Owner has never been respected or fullfilled.
There have also been accusations of 20cm being given insider information about upcoming patches/changes
On the same evening where the recklessness potions got removed for the first time, monty claimed he would sell 200. No player that does not have 100% certainty that the item will get removed would buy over 200 and risk wasting all of their bonuspoints.
The same issue reoccured after armor potions got drastically raised in price
The information about a reworked bp shop got through to 20cm. That way they get the opportunity to prepare and hoard bp beforehand. The remaining players – unknowing of this – are currently selling their bp or buy tinctures with them without knowing that keeping bp and waiting for a rework would be more profitable.
(„A CR-Shop is currently in the works“)
The same issue appears fort he creation of a credit shop. Most people are currently selling their credits for way below their value simply because of the fact that there is nothing to do with credits/wow. With the information of an incoming credit shop, 20cm would save up their credits and consequently gain another advantage over regular players.
In this one Dali has been informed about the re-release of recklessness potions beforehand again. This was the case for 20cm but not for the remaining players.
Balancing
After player balancing was heavily derion-sided for a week, the leaders from derion guilds gathered to discuss this problem – after the server administration showed no interest in this problem at all - and identify players willing to switch nations to solve the issue. Ramon was then asked to deal with the player balancing but immediately refused with the statement „We dont transfer complete guilds“. He then decided to move individual random players. This did – as expected – not solve the issue and an improvement was not noticed after the transfer but the problem was moved aside and marked „solved“ without further communication. The situation stayed the same and players were further unsatisfied – another reason for a lot of the playerbase quitting. Then Ramon broke his newly – arbitrarily – created rule of not moving complete guilds – again for players from 20cm.
Woodland Changes
The follow range is still the same. It would have only taken one test pull to confirm and realize this. Damage has been reduced but this change was reverted after a rollback was applied due to the server being under attack. Nothing has changed till today.
TW times
TW times are bugged for about two weeks now. TW does not end so every territory can be conquered even after 9pm. It is widely known that any programming subjects could not be worked on for good reasons. But still due to the persistence of this problem and the frequent participation of Ramon in TW it is obvious that the problem is known and not followed enough. Priorisation has often been an issue and falsely performed.
Rule catalog
before:
after:
Ramon decided to delete the rule about macro usage. Now you see the rule „Real World trading/selling“ appearing under §14. This raises multiple questions considering RWT was previously listed under another paragraph. This causes confusion because older messages from the team referring to these paragraphs are no longer correct und lead to misinformation. Paragraphs should not be replaced with different logic and their number should always be preserved. Deleted/removed paragraphs should be marked so instead of opening their paragraph up for new replacements.
Ban Arbitrariness & Ruleset
Punishments on this server are absolutely not understandable and the same violation is punished differently for multiple players. Some people receive a chat restriction for flaming, others none at all and others receive a 1-3 day long ban.
According to the punishment catalog a player gets 3 warnings and then further sanctions for insults. But some players got banned after the first violation, others not at all and others got a chatban.
(„i get a ban because i wrote faggot?“)
Some players also already complained about the different punishments and even quit the server for this.
It seems that Ramon applies bans completely arbitrarily and according to his current mood.
Devil crashed during CTA and was banned even bevore he could restart the game and login. After some discussion in the general chat he then was unbanned.
Xuki wrote „lost“ in the previous conversation and was then permanently banned from 4Nova discord just for one word. (no screenshot)
After the discussion about macros reoccured Ramon quickly decided to simply remove a rule entirely.
Yoink then replied with a quote from Ramon himself where he said he would ban every macro player and got permanently banned from discord for this too.
7vsAll
The majority of 7vsAll got banned for „porterblocking“ even though there is no explicit rule for this. After other guilds did the same a few days prios and did not receive a ban, 7vsAll was rightfully upset. The remaining members quit the server as well because they also found that sanctions and punishments were unfair.
Recklessness potions, Votings & Release Management
We will not even talk about the fact that recklessness potions have been in the game and then removed before after the vast majority oft he community spoke out against this.
After the deletion, Ramon created another voting that – unsurprisingly – yeilded the same results as the previous one.
After Ramon was caught using recklessness potions during CW and other battlemodes, he first denied this and claimed not to have used any recklessness potions.
After the voting did not turn out the way Ramon would have liked he rapidly decided to ignore the preference oft he community and act on his own will. This was justified with a „dictatur“ (dictatorship).
Obviously this did not please the community because he created a new voting and ignoring this one as well to implement his personal will. The justification for this was the following:
As a result of this, multiple players gave their gear away because the do not want to play on a server that is being led in such way.
Apparently the re-implementation of recklessness potions was so important that the change had to be made during the daily dropevent in woodland as well as during the daily solo tournament. Nothing got changed apart from that but it was seen so urgent that two ingame events will have to be cancelled for this.
Godlike also decided to move away from playing on 4Nova. Ramon thought it was due to recklessness potions being implemented again. Instead of seeking a conversation with us he then began mocking.
Godlike did not stop because of said potions but Ramon though it was the sole reason. We also found provoking with a hide&seek event with recklessness potions as a reward and then naming the shop accordingly extremely childish and not representing the reaction of a proper server owner.
Ramon as private char
After naming his GA character Ramon it was a bad idea to name his private character the same. These things never ended well. Players will always claim that items have been created because – in theory – every item can be created. It is also bad to invest a lot of time into the private character instead of in the server. Of course it is ok to want to play on your own server under another name. But having identical names for private and GA character will always result in negative outcomes. Some players even made fun of Ramon spending a lot of time in woodland/on his private character.
(„Woodland is love haha, but Tiffany has to fix these kind of problems“)
After the server got attacked and items disappeared due to rollbacks, Ramon claimed he would start working on tickets as soon as MrInvictus returns. Later that day, 90% of the tickets were solved by MrInvictus or BigMag but not by Ramon.
During that time he had 150g in farm ranking. So he preferred to farm instead of refunding players their items. This would not have been a problem if he had played under a different name but everybody know he was farming instead of solving tickets.
BigMac
At first we found BigMac to be a capable team member. Our opinion changed drasticaly after multiple people told us he had bought a 23 pvp rod. The news about a SGM performing RWT on his own server going around has more than a negative impact on the server. We do own a voice recording of the guild leader that was the person who upped said rod where they confirmed the sale of said item to BigMac. This can be published on request. BigMac also posted his gear. On top of the 23 pvp rod he owns 2 22 pvp armor pieces. This should be a hint to check where those items originated from.
Unprofessionalism
Some of the statements that Ramon posts in Discord, where everybody can see them, often do not represent the role of a server owner. Extracts of a discussion with Swiper from 4Ancient are shown below
Ramon bought a rod on Ancient that was stolen from Swipers GM Account.
(„@Swiperus so you wanna talk about bugs but on ancient there were clone bugs etc.? Wtf?^^;
„comes from the person who pays a dev because they cant get shit done on their own“
„@Swiperus Thanks a lot again to 4Ancient“
„@GARamon as a server owner i would have banned people like @
lence | Nicolai already“„@Swiperus Nah, its alright as long as they just insult you i can live with that“
„This shows just how unprofessinal you are“
„@Swiperus i can fully live with that �� Its just a hobby“)
A statement that a server owner should never post in a public chat because this results in loss of any integrity.
(„what even is your problem? Are you on your period or something“)
Subsequently, Ramon posted private chat histories about messaged he received from swiper in the general chat. This proofs any amateurism again.
Even the community spoke out against Ramon about this and suggested that he should retain from similar discussions to avoid damaging his reputation.
Godlike
Apart from Godlike, other guilds such as empire followed them after they heard the reason for the departure. They also found the server admnistration to be wrong.
During the re-release day of recklessness potions (but before the patch) a discussion emerged about people on Valorian playing with recklessness potions that have played without them for weeks. Even more weird was the fact that ramon started playing again on that day after taking a one or two week long break
Finally, Ramon wrote the following in normal chat:
(„God, this is not your server. You already tried this on Avergos but aiut did not want to be your puppet“.
„If you really have so many great ideas, make your own server“)
A quick flashback about Avergos:
Avergos was a 4Story server owned by aiut. The server reached a low with 8-10 active players. Aiut then asked Godlike for help with rebuilding the server. Godlike reworked some aspects about Avergos – ingame as well as team structure and promotion. Consequently the server was back to a peak player number of 160 in two weeks.
Just like on 4Nova, they summarized critically needed changes in a PDF. This was rejected and resulted in them stopping the work on that server. A new community manager, that acted similar as Ramon managed to drive the server into a new low. The following attacks on it finally resulted in the shutdown. This is why action is urgent here.
Ramon accusing them of trying to conquer Avergos but aiut not wanting to play puppet was the final trigger for them to follow his suggestion of leaving the server. After already providing 20 pages (published on request but in german) with suggestions for changes and being specifically asked for feedback and server improvements we did not enjoy being painted a manipulative egocentrical group that would search conflict if something does not turn out in their favor.
Quiz Events
On Thursday and Friday, July 30th/31st Ramon hosted a quiz event where he gave away 100g for each correct answer. For the last questions the rewards were 500g on Thursday and 300g on Friday respectively. Overall, 2000g were created during these events. If calculated generously, a player would have to farm 111hrs to gather 2000g pure gold (not including sold items since they do not create new gold). Some players got up to 300g per event.
Even the players were irritated by the rewards.
The Event Manager follows the bad example that Ramon made and is currently giving away 1200g in the current event. We do not think that he already has created the g and suspect that he had to ask for permission from Ramon before. This boosts the inflation even more.
Removing gold from the server by increasing the price of armor potions is also nullified by reimplementing recklessness potions since a lot of players no longer need them.
Conclusion
We do not mean to portray 4Nova in a negative way. This just describes the aspects leading to the dramatic drop in player numbers.
We honor Tiffany and MrInvictus for their competent work in developing and support. It would be a shame if the server died due to one single person.
We do not think that 4Nova will be successfull under the ownership of Ramon. His reputation suffered immensely during the last weeks. Rebuilding this trust and cleaning the name Ramon would take an unbelievable amount of time and effort. The problem lays within the person itself and not in the name.
Many players quit because of Ramon’s behaviour. This is not our own opinion but the one from multiple parties and players that contributed tot he creation of this report. This represents a conclusive reaction to Ramon’s actions.
Conversations made clear that many players would return if Ramon were to leave the team.
We would like to hear a greater statement talking about the current situation and problems that happened during the past weeks.
All the screenshots and actions mentioned above are all recorded within the last 2 or 3 weeks. There would be much more things to point out, but that should be enough to get an good insight about Ramon – the Serverowner of 4Nova.
