As we are always saying, we want to be as transparent with you as possible. As part of this, the following thread is designed to detail how we plan to expand our network from launch.
Opening Day
Staff
First things first: Staff applications will not be open straight away.
To begin, whilst we have a small player base, we will be keeping our staff team small. As a result, we will be keeping our staff applications closed until:
Applications will then be opened once we are happy that our applicants understand the network & we have a need for specific moderation staff.
Junior Moderator
When we do finally open and accept staff applications, these users will become our first ever Junior Moderators. They will be directly overseen by _Brandon. As they will be our first moderation staff, it is vital that they understand their role, responsibilities, our processes and generally what is required of them to be a good Moderator. These first staff members will be the Moderators that future generations of Junior Moderators will be looking up to, so it's vital that we help them to be the best staff they can be. For this reason, we expect our first Junior Moderators to stay Junior Moderators for a lot longer than staff likely will in the future. There will be no set time for this, but no-one will be promoted until we are 100% satisfied that both the staff members and we as a team are ready.
Holistic Approach to staff
To begin with, we will be running our staff team in a holistic manner. What I mean by this is that although our senior staff team will have specific job titles such as _Brandon being "Head of Staff & Communications" and Block2Block being "Technical Director", this doesn't mean that they will be working exclusively on those aspects of the network. Everyone will be working on everything in order to ensure that we get everything done successfully. Once we feel that the network is in a stable condition and we can begin to focus on our more specific jobs, we will gradually do so.
Development
Updates and Bugfixes
Before we launch publicly in any capacity, there will have been extensive and comprehensive testing of all of the features offered to users. With that said, there are still likely to be bugs we miss. The first few months will be solely focused on bug fixes, balance changes, performance enhancements and stability improvements. For this reason, we are unlikely to be delivering content updates really soon after launch, although there will likely be updates already in the pipeline. This is necessary for the network to be as stable as possible.
Once we are satisfied that the network is generally stable and there aren't any high priority bugs, we will be starting to focus on game updates, new features and new games. We do not have an estimate as to when the development of these updates and new content will start, and we also cannot guarantee a timeframe in which these updates will take.
Hiring Developers
Initially, we will not be hiring any developers to work on the network. Once we feel it is necessary to do so, we will be looking to hire developers and getting other people to help maintain and update the network. The first developers are likely to specialise in backend work and network engineering to help us expand the network and allow for a more stable experience.
Our goal as we bring out updates is for each game to eventually have its own dedicated developer to continually bring updates and balance changes to the game they work on. Additionally, we will hire developers specific for backend work, such as improving cross-version play, creating and maintaining a public API, new non-game features etc.
Opening Day
Staff
First things first: Staff applications will not be open straight away.
To begin, whilst we have a small player base, we will be keeping our staff team small. As a result, we will be keeping our staff applications closed until:
- We feel like players are able to have enough experience and knowledge about our network in order to successfully help other players. It wouldn't make sense to have people applying for Junior Moderator on opening day simply due to the fact that it's impossible for them to know the basics about AuroraMC and be able to answer player's questions and help them with issues.
- We feel like we need more staff. We are expecting to start small. As a result, there will only be a small workload when it comes to moderation. As a result, our existing staff will be assuming this responsibility until we accept moderation staff.
Applications will then be opened once we are happy that our applicants understand the network & we have a need for specific moderation staff.
Junior Moderator
When we do finally open and accept staff applications, these users will become our first ever Junior Moderators. They will be directly overseen by _Brandon. As they will be our first moderation staff, it is vital that they understand their role, responsibilities, our processes and generally what is required of them to be a good Moderator. These first staff members will be the Moderators that future generations of Junior Moderators will be looking up to, so it's vital that we help them to be the best staff they can be. For this reason, we expect our first Junior Moderators to stay Junior Moderators for a lot longer than staff likely will in the future. There will be no set time for this, but no-one will be promoted until we are 100% satisfied that both the staff members and we as a team are ready.
Holistic Approach to staff
To begin with, we will be running our staff team in a holistic manner. What I mean by this is that although our senior staff team will have specific job titles such as _Brandon being "Head of Staff & Communications" and Block2Block being "Technical Director", this doesn't mean that they will be working exclusively on those aspects of the network. Everyone will be working on everything in order to ensure that we get everything done successfully. Once we feel that the network is in a stable condition and we can begin to focus on our more specific jobs, we will gradually do so.
Development
Updates and Bugfixes
Before we launch publicly in any capacity, there will have been extensive and comprehensive testing of all of the features offered to users. With that said, there are still likely to be bugs we miss. The first few months will be solely focused on bug fixes, balance changes, performance enhancements and stability improvements. For this reason, we are unlikely to be delivering content updates really soon after launch, although there will likely be updates already in the pipeline. This is necessary for the network to be as stable as possible.
Once we are satisfied that the network is generally stable and there aren't any high priority bugs, we will be starting to focus on game updates, new features and new games. We do not have an estimate as to when the development of these updates and new content will start, and we also cannot guarantee a timeframe in which these updates will take.
Hiring Developers
Initially, we will not be hiring any developers to work on the network. Once we feel it is necessary to do so, we will be looking to hire developers and getting other people to help maintain and update the network. The first developers are likely to specialise in backend work and network engineering to help us expand the network and allow for a more stable experience.
Our goal as we bring out updates is for each game to eventually have its own dedicated developer to continually bring updates and balance changes to the game they work on. Additionally, we will hire developers specific for backend work, such as improving cross-version play, creating and maintaining a public API, new non-game features etc.
