Hello everyone! Since 2014, Infection brought thousands of players together and helped make the gamemode one of our most well-known games to date. Most of you have seen our dramatic decline over the past few years that has now left the server unplayable. We've noticed, and we're excited to say that we're back to work on an Infection reset! We would love to hear from you. Feel free to comment below on what you hope to see for the game. Your input will help us better understand what we're missing and better meet your needs. Our staff is already aware of multiple suggestions listed below: Spoiler: What we've seen Daily/Weekly/Monthly leaderboards More prestige levels New maps!! More maps, more often. https://forums.mineverse.com/threads/infection-revamp.158358/ https://forums.mineverse.com/threads/infection-revamp.161004/ https://forums.mineverse.com/threads/infection-resurgence-thread.161265/ Reduce the speed of zombies from 4 to 3 Custom death messages Let us know which specific ones from the list above you are/or not in support of and/or any new ones you have. All suggestions must be EULA compliant. Please keep all replies respectful! No flame/derailing/off-topic comments; they will be deleted and may lead to warning points on your account. We appreciate your endless support and look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions. 9/8/2021 update: Let us know your favorite and least favorite maps on Infection! Create you own tierlist here. Thank you to @Robo and @Porky for creating the thread and capturing photos! A handful of participants will be chosen on October 1 to win a $10 gift card for our webstore!
As an old infection player, I can't say what the current state of the game is like and what the best way forward is, however I can say what I remember about infection that made me grind it back in the day. I loved having knowledge about each individual map, knowing where the best camping spots where, how to reach them and how to defend them. I loved grinding each prestige rank up, and enjoyed the rewards that came with them. I loved chaining kills together, getting the support packages and becoming unstoppable. The game was simple at heart, and a true joy to play with friends, and if that can be retained that going forwards, then I think Mineverse will have done a good job.
Firstly I'm happy to see that there is an effort being made from the admins to ask for feedback on this gamemode and how to revive it. Infection is a gamemode which its core mechanics have been unchanged since 2013. I'm not talking about MCInfected but this version of the gamemode which if you played on Mineverse in 2013, will have almost the exact same experience as now. (Prestiges, kits, game mechanics etc) I'll keep this brief because I've stated my stance on this before (and if you want to read it in full detail here it is: https://forums.mineverse.com/threads/infection-resurgence-thread.161265/) but I have played MV Infection since the beginning, and here is a short summary from my post of what changes I strongly believe can revive this gamemode: "We need to start treating Infection as more of a minigame rather than a gamemode. People's attention spans are obviously short in general and to attract new players we need to advertise it as that. Shrinking down all maps to smaller rust-size versions with less detail, cutting the timer from 5 min to 3 min for shorter games, replacing prestiges entirely with a new currency for upgrades are all on the table. Simplifying the gamemode is a way to make it easier for new players to join while keeping the old players who want a fresh experience after so many years. Times have changed and we need to adapt to them to keep the server relevant." These changes are pretty drastic (and I justify them better in my thread) but as W0RD said, Infection is simple at heart, and we need to take advantage of that to improve it. Here are some other ideas to consider: - Instead of donator kits (which are NOT eula compliant), there needs to be a more balanced system. This can be as simple as donors receiving in-game currency or /sneak (which is a perk on an alternative version of Infection) - Again, we should consider shortening down the timer and make maps smaller in order to treat this gamemode more like a minigame and appeal to a wider audience. We would need to be selective with maps and not allow any large maps whatsoever (More maps like temple & rust to reduce camping and timer taking ages). (If not reduce timer, having exclusively smaller maps is the best option). Also having maps that each have something unique about them. - Give those who are maxed out something to do. For example, daily challenges. This is a trend that is used in many popular games, and will reward players for playing daily and will give those maxed out something to do. - Adding a currency could be a good idea, where instead of prestiges being level based, you can either choose to prestige by buying prestige perks or instead slowly buying human upgrades. (For example you can buy protection 1 upgrade on your armour etc). Maybe some human prestige perks from this? There could be an entire prestige perk or upgrade shop and more get added periodically to keep the game fresh. - Advertising, we need major YouTubers to bring attention to MV again - Fresh lobby (maybe a remake of the original) to be more iconic. These are just some ideas, and I know that it would take a lot of re development of the core of the gamemode for it to happen, but if it's successful then we could see a big improvement on the gamemode while keeping it simple and true to its purpose. I know there will be other suggestions like 'bring back older maps' but every time we do that its a short-term solution and people only join for a few moments to check them out then leave again. Changing the core mechanics may be the only long-term solution because playing a minigame which has been mostly unchanged since 2013 really gets repetitive after a while. You can really feel it's age when you're playing. Anyway these are my suggestions, and I hope to see other great ones from the rest of the community since discussion is the only way to improve this gamemode.
I feel like the way xp works right now is fine. Infection needs to remain a gamemode that you have to grind for. People literally got Prestige 10 within a few weeks with the way xp works now but they grinded all day every day. Voting and the xp kit, kills etc is more than enough. If we make more ways to gain even the littlest bit of xp it won't be much of a grind anymore. I do think maybe we could have a more variety of utility throughout the levels. Yes every rank or so you get a better weapon or better armour but maybe every 5-10 levels we could increase our armour by a little or something. Basically make levelling up worth it rather than sticking with the same kit for half of the levels it takes to prestige. Maybe unranked players or any players really could use their xp/levels to buy better armour? This armour will reset obviously when they prestige but I feel like when people vote or use their kits, they could use their levels/xp as a currency to purchase better armour/weapons in which they can keep until level 130/prestige. Also could reduce the speed of infected from 4 to 3. Having speed 4 is just too overpowered, especially for infected. It's meant to be a challenge to kill the survivors, whereas players are missing all of their shots because the infected are too fast. Speed 3 wouldn't really change anything other than a higher shot rate from the survivors who have no speed, the infected will still be fast either way. I'm not the biggest infection player but I do feel like at least some of these suggestions would make it better, especially from the PvP point of view. These are just ideas off of the top of my head, if you need more information on any of them or a better understanding feel free to message me on discord.
First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to improve infection with input from the players. As a longtime infection player, I have witnessed the rise and fall of infection over and over again. We have seen repeatedly that when infection is reset, many players join and take part in the fun of leveling up and prestiging. However, it dies off as more and more people reach the max rank, giving them nothing else to do also while scaring away the new players who do not stand a chance against prestige 10 Titans. Therefore, infection needs a fresh new look where: a. there is always something to do (given that there are players on), as in motivation to keep playing b. a fair leveling-up system for both ranked players and non-ranked players. Part a can be achieved in several ways, Robosmith and Torch mentioned a couple of methods in their threads linked. But to reiterate, I really believe that we need some daily and weekly challenges that award XP or currency when fulfilled. Also, the prestige system needs a revamp, and I agree with Torch's recommendation where we need 100 prestige levels. Torch: "Add 100 Prestige levels, now every one of these does not have to give you some op zombie perk, in fact I think most of them should give you nothing. 1-10 should stay the same, prestige 25 should give Gold boots, 50 Gold helmet, 75 Gold chest plate, 100 Gold pants. These should be enchanted to make them slightly better than a normal chainmail zombie. The gold armour is purely for flex purposes." I completely agree with this! This would maintain motivation for us players to keep playing despite meeting prestige 10. Also, This is also a good thing to add for all players. It gives an incentive to join every day to complete these challenges (that may award XP or a currency). I personally used to vote almost every day to get the XP levels from voting. I could imagine that players would join each day to do these daily challenges as well. Part b is a bit more complicating considering when the rank kits were removed a while ago, this created a big fuss. Then when they came back, everyone was happy except for the non-ranked players. A good solution to this is to remove the kits, but still give the ranked players an advantage, such as daily XP bottles, maybe a once-a-day /heal command for emergencies, /sneak, etc etc. That way, the new players are not bombarded by the maxed titans with diamond armor. I find the above changes to be essential to revive the gamemode; however, the other forums posts are also very important to consider. Again, thank you for reading, and thank you for trying to improve the server!
Thanks to all the advocates who have been showing their support for a new Infection update, and thank you to Janice for reading through the rant / suggestion threads and forwarding our opinions to crew / devs <3 Most points have already been acknowledged but I wanted to give my thoughts on this; New Maps!!! Would love to see all-new maps to have an even playing ground for new + old players alike; most infection OG's know the sweet spots to camp on infection, it'll be nice for us all to explore how to utilise each map together, as well as including some community-submitted maps! It's important for the higher staff to show that the community are being listened to, and for their map creations to show up in the new infection! I'm sure there are plenty of supporters of maps and map creators that are eager for this reset Map Rotation Perhaps one of the main flaws of infection was that after a while, it just got repetitive. Having a map rotation of 5 or so maps per month and switching them out every month can keep up excitement, especially if you introduce new maps regularly as well. It'll keep people on their toes and also helps devs stay linked to the gamemode rather than just having a reset and leaving it for ages It's extremely important to me that we continue to update infection regularly, even after this reset. Having a regular map update will give schedule for this and will allow for people to continue to get excited about this gamemode, even months after its reset. Leaderboards I think the lifetime leaderboard should be reset- in a sense. The old leaderboard can go in a sort of 'hall of fame area' of the new spawn (leading onto my next point) but we should also have a brand new daily, weekly and all-time leaderboard so people have attainable goals to reach, that reset daily/weekly to maintain interest in the gamemode. New Gamemode Lobby Having an all-new lobby (or perhaps a tribute to the OG one as robo has mentioned) complete with parkour and other features will be beneficial for the gamemode. Aside from making the gamemode more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, it could involve more user-friendly holograms such as physical NPCs to claim your /daily rewards or XP, or even a /shop NPC /Shop Similar to Skywars, and perhaps helping with making the gamemode more EULA compliant, having a /shop rather than kits so you can by armour etc for specific games would be beneficial. It could even be possible to buy eggs and some ROFLSTOMP perks such as airstrikes / dogs (for a much larger sum of course) This would have to involve currency however, leading onto my next point idea creds to @mattenphew Ingame Currency This has been mentioned by some people above; perhaps a new reward for voting, /daily, VPs and word scramble/reactions could be ingame money to use in /shop. There could be other ways of obtaining it too, such as winning a game could give you a certain amount, as well as getting kills. An idea I've also suggested to the Skywars community but is not yet implemented is a money multiplier, for example if you're on a 5+ winstreak you could get 10% more money per win. Cosmetic Additions Something else that could comply with EULA would be cosmetic additions to the gamemode. Trails, banners etc that have already been implemented elsewhere would be a great addition My suggestion on Custom Death Messages could also fit here too I know I've written a lot here, sorry about that! Honestly, thank you for taking the time to listen to the community and I hope to see many of the aforementioned ideas made by others implemented into the new Infection! Have a good day everyone
To add to this, in-game currency can 100% coexist with the current leveling system. That's what makes Infection iconic in the first place. You will be able to level up as human like normal however an in game shop for human buffs (basically human prestige perks) would be awesome (for example adding protection to individual armour pieces, or starting with an extra gapple, more arrows, airstrikes etc) The shop could have a lot more though (like perks for one match only that are cheaper and permanent perks), and it's definitely the most promising idea so far in my opinion.
Infection is one of my favorite games on the entire network and I agree with much of what is said above. A lot of what I am going to say has already been stated by other people in this thread however I feel like I have a few new ideas to introduce to the table. Revisiting old features and introducing new ones Donor ranks Revisiting donator perks to become both EULA compliant more balanced would be a good start. I like the idea of introducing a currency as a rank kit perk, the uses of this currency are explained below. Removing armor from donator perks would also be necessary to be EULA compliant. To add benefits to donor ranks that are EULA compliant, adding particle trails, custom kill messages or other purely cosmetic additions is an option. Currency Currency could be a rank kit but to make it EULA compliant, currency would also need to be accessible without a rank. You could get currency by killing other players, winning a game, or even through a voting perk, that is all on the table. Currency could be used in an in-game shop to purchase items that are normally limited to killstreaks, for example, $10 for an airstrike. If players only received $1 per kill $10 would be the same as getting a x5 roflstomp. New items unique to the shop that you can't get through kill streaks could also be an option. I think the true potential of currency shines in the idea of having the option to save up a large bulk of currency to permanently unlock a new kit or item to spawn with, for example, spending $500 to permanently unlock respawning as a zombie with an additional arrow or egg on top of what your prestige gives you (with a cap on how many you can spawn in with so you can't just spawn with 10 eggs). Or spend currency to spawn as a human with better weapons, armor, or potions. It would even be an option to introduce special kits that you can unlock via currency as well. There is a lot of flexibility in this concept. Prestige First off, I believe a full prestige reset is necessary, if the changes below are to go into effect, everyone should start from the beginning again. Prestiges are cool and fun to flex with however when you reach prestige 10 you suddenly find yourself with a lack a goal to promote continued playing. Torch's idea of keeping prestiges 1-10 the same but introducing a gold armor piece to your zombie kit for cosmetic purposes at milestone prestige numbers such as 25, 50, 75, and 100 is a good idea. However, that doesn't solve the problem as when you reach prestige 100 you are done. What I suggest is to keep the idea of the gold armor however make prestige numbers uncapped, the prestige ranks would be just a number in the chat to flex by this point, however it gives people a goal they can grind endlessly. Certain prestige cosmetics at high prestige numbers such as making your player a husk rather than a zombie at prestige 200 could also be cool. XP Keeping this one short but just wanted to show my stance on the topic, XP is fine as it is. Voting is good, winning it ingame is good, and kits are good. XP kits are not overpowered as even TitanXP becomes useless around level 60 or so due to not even being able to get 1 level out of it. Don't fix it if it isn't broken. Balance Change zombies to have speed 3 rather than 4. Make it so zombies no long respawn on fire if they died on fire. Make zombies invulnerable for the first 3-5 seconds after spawning in so humans can no longer spawn camp (5 seconds of resistance 7 or higher would accomplish this). Leaderboards Currently, we just have lifetime leaderboards, these are an insurmountable hill for most players, and as such most give no thought to trying to get on the leaderboard. Add weekly and monthly leaderboards to give an easier leaderboard position that players can grind for. Reworking maps and the gamemode Compensating for the smaller player base Let's face it, Mineverse doesn't pull in the number of players that it used to, it's a sad fact but a fact nonetheless. The current maps work for games with 30+ people however the server should be more flexible than this. I suggest creating or reworking maps so that they are not as easy for humans to camp. I also suggest reducing the size of the maps to be smaller, similar to the size of the rust map, this would also help to promote faster-paced games and reduce the impact of having fewer people in the game. To promote a faster-paced game and increase the chances of a human winning in maps that are less bias towards them (and without a rank kit to boot) reducing the length of games to have a shorter timer is also a good idea. Maps (reworking and removal) I said a little above about what changes I think should be done for maps however I want to expand on the topic. Like I said earlier, less human bias and smaller maps, promote faster gameplay and reduces camping. However, I think that we should as a community take a close look at all the maps and say goodbye to some of them. Removing maps is always a controversial topic but I truly think there are too many big human-biased maps in infection currently. It shouldn't just be up to the admins, or builders, or any small group to determine what maps stay and go, it should be up to the entire community. I suggest making a forum poll and an in-game server announcement when you connect to the MV lobby for a limited time with a link to the poll. This poll would have images of all the maps and be a vote on which ones should stay, be removed, be reworked, or readded (there are some maps on the infection server that are not in rotation FYI). New maps Removing maps and content, while I believe it is necessary for the health of the game, isn't a good draw for bringing in players. We've seen what adding new maps has done in the past for sparking activity in infection and it would be a good way to kick start the gamemode again. I believe hosting a contest for new infection maps would be a good idea to do again but there would need to be guidelines. Limiting the size of the new maps to 30x30 or 40x40 blocks to promote smaller maps would be important, anything larger than these dimensions would not be accepted in the contest. Highlight the importance of balance in the maps, maps that are too bias towards humans (ie lots of camping spots) would be a bad addition to Infection. Fix creative2. Currently, there is a bug and has been a bug for over 2 years now on creative2 where if you open chat for more than 5 seconds it kicks you back to the lobby. This makes it impossible to use commands such as world edit for building on the server. If there was a map contest to be held, people would need somewhere to build these maps so fixing this bug would be very important. Feel free to critique or agree with whatever I said here, I am interested to know what other people's thoughts are! <3
In case some people are wondering, here's what a shop system could look like (Just a simple concept of it): Vote: 3 EXP levels & $1 (lucky votes can increase this) /Kit Premium: $2 daily /Kit VIP: $4 daily /Kit Sponsor: $6 daily /Kit MVP: $8 daily /Kit Elite: $10 daily & custom death messages /Kit Supreme: $12 daily & /sneak perms /Kit God: $15 daily /Kit Titan: $20 daily (Kitxps would remain the same) Shop: Temporary perks (one match only): Additional Airstrike: $2 Additional 32 Arrows: $3 Additional Golden Apple: $3 Sharpness Increase (adds extra sharp 1 to weapon): $4 Permanent perks: Start with an extra airstrike: $200 Start with extra arrows: $300 Start with extra golden apple: $300 Start with attack dogs (wolfs from killstreaks): $350 Sharpness increase: $400 Fire Aspect sword: $500 Helmet protection increase: $500 Add Feather falling 1 to boots: $500 Chestplate protection increase: $1000 etc etc, This is just a simple concept of it but what I'm showing is that it doesn't clash at all with the leveling system and this will give maxed out players a LOT more to grind for and if more things are added periodically to the shop then it will keep people busy. This is also more EULA friendly than overpowered titan kits who are almost unkillable without a maxed out zombie and this will give all non-donors a chance to become overpowered through hard work and grinding rather than pay to win kits. (Also note that you are still able to get the killstreak perks from human killstreaks, but you are able to start off with a few of them if you use currency) PS: I noticed some people mentioning for unscramble the word or getting currency from killstreaks, but when we did the unscramble the word for levels it was way too overpowered and people stayed online by themselves to grind it. Currency should be scarce/very hard to get if it ever gets added imo and voting, kits & daily challenges should be the only ways to get it. Because in the end it has to be a side thing while the classic leveling up system is still the main goal.
I would say yes because getting currency isn't the main goal of the gamemode anyway. It will still be getting exp levels and if you're RCT for example and someone paid you $3000, and you maxed out every permanent perk, you would still not be op enough to handle a few zombies since you barely have armour and your weapon sucks. This would only work if youre very high level and human perks are not as op as zombie perks anyway (plus prestige zombies can still destroy you). Also the currency is rare enough that people would be hesitant to give a lot of it out. P.S: If we do make all maps smaller then this will make it easier for zombies to kill humans in general, with or without these perks. (Especially if humans no longer get op rank kits) To add to this, and this is a very important suggestion I forgot to mention before: If maps are not added, there is no way to know if they are balanced. Sure you can do everything to make a map balanced, but when it's added people might find a spot or an exploit on the map which you didn't consider. This is very important but whenever new maps are added, there needs to be a team of people (or the builders) who go around and fix any broken spots on new maps and make small adjustments wherever necessary. Otherwise a new map may be added with a broken spot that takes a long time to fix unless it's suggested on forums. It's important to have a group of people who can make minor adjustments to maps as soon as new ones are added to keep everything balanced.
I don't think there should be permanent kits. It's kinda what killed infection in the first place. Once people maxed out they became bored because of the same old maps and not being able to advance further. With that being said, once you have all the permanent kits you can buy, people will feel maxed out and bored, then it's right back to square one. I suggest making the kits expensive and temporary making people grind more for cash and bam you have an endless cycle. As for kit ideas, I was thinking of something similar to the skyblock mob arena feature they have. Things like a wizard, archer, warrior, alchemist kit that can help humans win by support. Since they could have said kits, for the xp system, I think instead of getting a level for last alive, it should be the humans left alive get a point. I was thinking if zombies and humans both get new things added, we can see which side is more overpowered and a method to stop teaming. When I say a method to stop teaming I mean that let's say after both sides get buffed, the zombies are more op. We can make it so that humans get to receive 2 xp levels to those who survive and 1 xp levels to zombies who kill all the humans. This encourages teamers to not suicide at the start of the game since humans, who are weaker, receive more xp which is what they want when they team. Reading all I stated above, please tell me if you support what I said or not support what I said and tell me if zombies should be able to receive 1 xp if they manage to kill all humans. The reason why I say, "tell me if zombies should be able to receive 1 xp if they manage to kill all humans," is because players could be able to afk as zombies and get free levels which clearly a bad thing so please let me know your thoughts. Maybe an afk kick system that will kick players who have not maybe said something in chat in a while or moved in a while.
I don't know how many people will agree with me on this, but, I hate when the maps get too over complicated and new looking. I absolutely love most of the basic, old infection maps. When the maps are too detailed it actually causes lag and there's also too many biased spots for the humans. So my suggestion is keep the maps simple and use a lot of the old maps. New maps are a great idea to keep it exciting, but don't bring in over complicated maps.
I see your point with this; however, if we give players access to /pay others, this may bring some unwanted attention where people bring their countless alts on to vote, get money, and pay their main account. I suppose we should look at other game modes that have /pay (Kit, OP) to see if this is an issue. Again, I'm not active in-game so I'm not sure. Something to keep in mind! Also, Robo, when a player /prestige rankups, would all the buffs that a player bought on their armor and gear in the /shop reset? I would say yes. PS. I love the attention on this thread! It's great to hear everyone's feedback
The buffs would not reset, but you will only get them on the new armour pieces you have. (For example, you will only get extra protection on helmet and chestplate if you are RCT as you have not unlocked leggings and boots yet) Also the permanent buffs would be hard enough to buy that you couldn't possibly get them all before you max out prestiges. (I made a separate thread balancing the human ranks and prestiges with a shop in mind https://forums.mineverse.com/threads/balancing-infection-ranks.161670/#post-1417696) True but I thought you were only able to vote once per ip? If they somehow bypass this then voting only gives $1 anyway so it wouldn't be much of a difference. I see your concerns though and it's probably debatable whether we should allow /pay or not. I agree that permanent kits are a bad idea but why did you suggest something similar to skyblock mob arena kits then? I think upgrading separate armour/weapons is a much better idea than having kits like kit wizard, archer, warrior like you suggested.
The reason why Infection never lasts long on this server is because it is a game-mode that requires weekly balancing. What I mean by this is that throughout different stages of the game's "life", the power of humans and zombies changes drastically. For example, at the start when no zombies have any prestige ranks and therefore no benefits, it is extremely difficult and frustrating to kill humans, and zombies are often spawn-killed. On the other side of the coin, after a lot of the regular players prestige, the zombies tend to be far more powerful than the humans, and the humans literally get mowed down. The solution to this problem is weekly adjustments of the game-mode based on player feedback. In week one, you would want to give the humans less armour and weapons than usual to compensate for the fact that the zombies have absolutely nothing, and then as the weeks go by you would gradually give the humans more and more to keep a good power balance.
I'd personally like to see a larger map rotation. I remember when players would submit their infection maps a lot of comments were variations of: "this is a cool map, too bad it would never get added". I'd love to see more stuff like that added in.
