Before I get into this please keep in mind that this is just my own personal opinion and suggestion that I think everybody should deeply consider, even the new owner. Also keep in mind that this is a developing idea that I came up with myself. I have not discussed this with anybody else until now in this post.

So yes, a complete server restart. This sounds crazy I know believe me, but I think this could actually greatly benefit everybody including the fait of the server itself. Most people will be against it but I believe that we have to view this from an owners standpoint and the survival of this server. Just bare with me and please read everything. There are some downsides and I will list those also but I believe that the positives outweigh the negatives. Before I list the positives and negatives, Ill explain my idea of a server restart.

This restart that I am talking about would wipe out everything that has been built by all users. This means all towns, player shops, and anything that isn't part of spawn will be cleared out and deleted. Yes I am completely aware of all the hard work, dedication, and man hours that have been put into some of these structures. Just bare with me. Secondly, a restart would also mean a restart in everybody's balance's. Everybody will go back to $0. Again yes I am aware of how hard many of you worked for that money. Third, this will give a chance for the new server owner to make all the necessary changes he/she feels need to be made. This could include price changes (we could see a completely new price system), structural changes, rule changes, and the list goes on and on. yes this will take a long time and a lot of work I realize this.

*NOTE*
I am looking at this from a server owner standpoint. I know this may not be my place but in no way am i attempting to tell the owner how to run this server. I just tried to simply put myself in their shoes and look at the survival of ECC.

Positives​

There are many positives that I see from a restart. First, this will mark a new beginning. A chance for everybody to start over again on the right foot. The way things are now, it is almost impossible for a new player to start up and I believe that is a reason why we don't see nearly as many new players as ECC used to have. I recently came online the other day and I noticed a discussion in global chat. A player had returned after a long period of time and was shocked to see that the average player count had dropped from 200+ to only around 100 if were lucky. This number is decreasing and many people have said that this server is "dying down" and are looking or have already moved on to different servers. I was actually going to start looking before I decided to write this. Now before I found this server, I would play on faction servers. I would see some of the most popular servers start to die down. However there was always a restart and because of that restart, the player count exploded and it became once again a top server. I believe a restart could have the same affect for ECC. I cant really explain it but something about re-opening gets people excited. The new server owner could even label it "the NEW ECC" or something that will get people excited and come back on. Yes I realize this is different than a faction server but I believe it will still have the same affect and could boost the player count back up again. Also, this could be a chance to finally get prices right. There have been so many price changes that people have invested a ton of money into certain things only to experience major shifts in prices and take a huge hit. With stable prices, I think this would invite players and not have to worry about any sudden changes. I have also noticed some changes already from the new owner such as the return of spawning tables. A restart could mean the chance for the new owner to add or remove anything they wish before opening the server back up again. A lot of people including the big players don't really go on as much because of one reason. Their is nothing else to do. They have done it all whether it be a money goal and they have more than they could spend, or they built everything they could have ever wanted or needed. A restart would wipe this all out but it would also force EVERYBODY to come back online again and rebuild they're empires! (this can be a negative too, I will list it in negative list). And this may be just me but I always enjoy a good restart. Yea I might have been successful so why would I want to do it all over again? To do it the right way or maybe to change something that you couldn't do in the beginning. You now know how this server works so take advantage of this restart. Another thing is land. Land value has just depleted unless you're well known (which I think is unfair personally but it is what it is). This could re-launch the real-estate business that so many people love. A restart will create equality once again. Equality invites a bunch of people so it will attract a lot of players new and old to try and get a head start once again reviving the average player count on this server. I think that a restart in $ will also be beneficial because of all the reasons I have already stated such as equality and a new beginning. This server can no longer rely on old members to keep this server running. In order to keep this server up you need new customers and a restart will attract just that for the reasons that I have listed all above.

Negatives​

Some negatives are the obvious. Everybody's current work that they put so much time in will now be vanished which can be unfair. Everybody's money will be wiped out which will not go well with a lot of people considering what they went through to get it. Not everybody likes a restart. There is a small possibility that a restart wont attract new players. Nobody truly knows what the outcome of this would be. Short, I know, but this just lists some main points. I can get into it more if you would like just let me know or discuss it amongst yourselves.

Still deciding​

Now they're are still many things that I have left out and I realize this. Feel free to comment on anything that you think I left out or any personal onions or even questions that you may have. The only major thing that I can think of that I left out is donation features. Even though some of us only bought features with in-game money like myself, the features still have to come from somebodies pocket somewhere. For this reason I will leave it up to the mods or perhaps the players of ECC to decide or vote on. Some suggestions could be that either all donations transfer over to restart (which have positives and negatives to it. If you want my opinion on this just ask and ill explain), or that all features are either refunded or simply deleted (again both positives and negatives, Ill explain if you ask).

Now Im sorry for all the grammatical errors in this post. I also tend to either stay on same subject or jump around a lot so if anything doesn't make sense or is confusing just let me know and I will elaborate for you. A bunch of things, and I mean a BUNCH of things were left out and I realize this. I tried to make this an even argument by listing both positives and negatives but as you can see, I'm clearly for a restart. That doesn't mean I'm against any discussion on this topic which is why I posted it here, I want to get everybody's opinion on this My goal was to simply present this idea and open it up to further discussion (hopefully either privately with me or in the very post). Also if I left something out that you can think of please post it in here, again this is open discussion. Long... I know but worth the read and discussion in my opinion.

Thank you,
THCOOL

 

and also @skymaster200
First of all I think saying that "this is the dumbest crap ive ever heard. this will f*** over everyone," is a bit aggressive. I realize you clearly don't like this idea but I think your language is unneeded and you could have worded that much better.

Secondly for both skymaster and TheNooBISHPanda, I specifically said I don't know what will happen to donations, so please don't put words in my mouth and say that I'm suggesting the server wipes donations out also. Third. You both clearly did not read everything. Yes I realize all those negatives as I stated... but I am looking at this as more of a server survival standpoint. The number of players has dramatically decreased and will continue to. Old players will not come back online so in order to fix this we need to attract new players and a lot of them. I believe a restart could do just that. Ive seen plenty of other servers restart after being open for years. Yes it sucks, but if it means the server will continue, than I believe it is necessary. Maybe not now but in the future I truly believe so.

As I stated this is an open discussion and just my opinion. This was not to anger anybody in anyway. If you don't like the idea thats completely fine but to state it in the way that you guys did without reading everything is a bit judgmental and aggressive and just mean lol. Anyway, again this is open for discussion, meaning not just my opinion matters. A lot of these ideas need a lot of work developing I know and that is why I made this an open discussion

Thank you

 

+1
This is exactly what I was hoping for in terms of responses to this post so thank you. I respect and completely understand you're opinion. I agree, perhaps not a full out restart is necessary but they're are definitely some major changes that need to be made for the benefit of the server. I personally think more than 5 minutes will be necessary of course but this is a good start to at least some needed change.

 

Another point that I would like to add..... Making money nowadays seems to only be from mining or farming. This is a hardcore server isn't it? Like a mentioned already, If we could somehow increase the value of land and plots again, this could re-open the real-estate business which means another sector and way to make money. The only issue is that I cant think of another way to do this other than a restart like a mentioned.... any ideas please list them

Thanks

 

First part was directed at skymaster... Ill edit it to make that more clear. But the rest was for the both of you

 

Anything is possible!! lol ok jokes aside.... I put that out there so if anybody has a suggestion or solution, that they put it in here. Yes it is unlikely, but I wouldn't say impossible. That is a very strong word that people tend to overuse in the wrong way

 

Thank you very much for this response as it was much needed. I respect you're opinion and agree. I will look to edit this post but I agree a complete restart might not be the best option. However this is a topic that needs to be addressed. I am correct when I stated that this server is slowly dying down. The only way to get those numbers high is with new players... NOT old. That is very nice of you and yes that is very helpful. Im saying that I think everybody is addressing the wrong issue first. I may not explain this right so bear with me. Those builders you are helping out are only a couple new people every day or so. Im saying that we need something that will increase the influx of builders to join the server and not necessarily to stay. Once we address that issue, THEN we can find ways to make them stay like your idea of granting them free tools. Do you get what I'm trying to say?

Basically we are addressing the wrong issue

 

For everybody who actually takes the time to read EVERYTHING. I am realizing that a complete restart is not realistic. This post was made to address some extremely important issues not only for the players but for the survival of this server. I could not really think of a way to fix all of these issues at once and the only thing I could think of was a complete restart. Ive seen it happen on plenty of other servers with it being a success so I thought "why not here?" My restart suggestion was simply a solution but the point of this post was to open it up to other possible solutions that I could not think of. The reason I even made this thread was because as you can ask anybody who knows me online.... Ive been almost like a ghost online and rarely go on anymore. Now this may be due to real life situations but when I do go on I immediately notice these changes and I get the sense that this server is dying down and boring almost (I know many of you will disagree on this). I was just looking for a solution. Maybe just a partial restart? I really don't know. This is supposed to be an open discussion and not everybody calling this idea stupid and idiotic which is extremely childish by the way. So I guess the new name for this post could be "How do we address these issue's?" The biggest issue being the server slowly dying down and how to revive it back up to its 200+ online days where the economy was balances and flourished.

Thank you