A request for admin transparency.

[JoshBright 3014]

 

After recent events and the decisions made by administration, I find myself asking a lot of questions. Questions that I know many in the community share. These concerns have only been further fueled by Halt’s post, which raises critical points about the state of the server, its management, and the direction things are heading.

 

Above is a screenshot of players online at 7:37PM EST 2025-03-24. 

 

It’s no secret that Lord of the Craft receives significant financial support from its player base. Just looking at some of the top donor tiers online today, we see a staggering amount of money being put into the server:

• 13 Aether – $6,500
   
• 10 Ender – $3,000
   
• 15 Bedrock – $3,000
   
• 18 Diamond – $1,800
   
• Total: $14,300

 

And this doesn’t even account for all donations, just a portion.

 

On top of that, recent donations amount to $411.35. Given that LOTC receives hundreds of dollars every week, it raises an important question:

Where is this money going?

We understand that server upkeep requires funding, but is that the only thing it’s being used for? Are donations going towards development, plugin creation, or server improvement? Are there paid developers actively working to enhance the player experience? 

If there are dedicated funds for development, why has administration consistently failed to manage something as integral as a war claim? It’s unacceptable that despite the steady financial backing from players, the server still struggles with organization, communication, and execution when it comes to large-scale events.

We deserve transparency. The community has a right to know how its contributions are being used. If war claims are still being handled in such a poor manner, despite the resources available, then something is deeply wrong with the priorities at play.

Administration, it’s time to show accountability and provide clarity on these questions. The community isn’t just here to pay, we’re here to play. If the funds are there, we should be seeing actual improvements, not the same repeated mistakes.

 

 

It’s become abundantly clear that the administration has chosen to charge forward with war claims, completely disregarding the disastrous handling of the last one. There has been zero effort to address the fundamental issues that plagued the previous war claim issues that resulted in a logistical mess, an inconsistent application of rules, and a generally poor experience for everyone involved.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: the last war claim was a disaster. It was riddled with mismanagement at every level, from planning and execution to the lack of clear communication. Players were left confused, frustrated, and feeling unheard. The core problems, whether it be server performance, rule inconsistencies, or administrative intervention, were never acknowledged, let alone fixed. Instead of taking the time to reflect and improve, the response has been to blindly push forward, as if nothing went wrong.

This is not just disappointing, it’s outright irresponsible. War claims are some of the most pivotal events in LOTC, shaping nations, player narratives, and the overall experience of conflict RP. When they are mishandled, it diminishes the effort players put into their stories and disrupts the balance of the server.

The community deserves transparency and accountability. What steps, if any, have been taken to ensure that the failures of the last war claim won’t repeat? Where is the discussion, the reflection, the willingness to listen to the concerns of those who actually participate in these events?

If war claims are to continue, they need to be run properly. That means clear and fair rules and the application of those rules, competent handling, and a willingness to learn from past mistakes. Otherwise, we’re doomed to another chaotic, unbalanced, and ultimately frustrating experience.

It’s time for the administration to step up and give us some accountability and transparency. I am happy Halt gave his take but I want something directly from the admins other than ‘everything is fine, lol’.
 

Also as a side note: Why was the next war claim scheduled on the last day of Ramadan? Whether intentional or not, this is a disappointing decision that affects a portion of the player base. It raises further concerns about the lack of thought and care put into scheduling major events. Was there any consideration given to player availability, or was this yet another example of rushing ahead without listening to the community?

 

 

[Daisy 9731]

shut the fuck up joshbright

 

 

 

 

 

on a serious note, we have a new box on order right now, there have been some delays with our host, this is an investment of thousands of dollars, but may be a month or so until we have it. specs:

 

9950x 192gb ddr5 ecc unbuffered, 2x2tb nvme with 1pb minimum endurance, asrockrack server motherboard 2x25g

 

i also wen through all the configuration files for the war server and found a number of improvements that should help with the network throttling we were experiencing saturday, for context here is our network usage over the weekend:

 

you will see it goes up to 1GB/s, which is the physical maximum of the node

[trinn 5128]

Just now, Llir said:

shut the **** up joshbright

 

do i hide this? @ managers ☠️

[Tornaedo 1249]

1 minute ago, Llir said:

shut the **** up joshbright

shut the **** up joshbright

double it and pass it along.

[sam33497 7356]

1 minute ago, Llir said:

shut the **** up joshbright

Holy **** owned. slide me some rep too tho

[Chase 3793]

7 minutes ago, JoshBright said:

Also as a side note: Why was the next war claim scheduled on the last day of Ramadan?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad

[Rig 17580]

it takes 1 warclaim for haense to gain class consciousness

[JoshBright 3014]

2 minutes ago, Llir said:

shut the **** up joshbright

 

 

 

 

 

on a serious note, we have a new box on order right now, there have been some delays with our host, this is an investment of thousands of dollars, but may be a month or so until we have it. specs:

 

9950x 192gb ddr5 ecc unbuffered, 2x2tb nvme with 1pb minimum endurance, asrockrack server motherboard 2x25g

never 

However, on a serious note, thank you for the transparency that something is being done with the funding provided in order to improve the server. Has money also been given out or offered for plugin or other server improvements?@Llir

[Tornaedo 1249]

2 minutes ago, Chase said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad

Acc funny ass response. Cant lie haha

[Crevel 7557]

@JoshBrightcan you remove the screenshot, i didnt agree to my likeness in the aether vip portion of the tab being used in your post

[Kaiser 2347]

Just to make few points that I think make your argument invalid:

1) Not every donation tier has that money still around. I became Aether in... 2016? That money isn't sitting in a vault, it's used mostly to just pay server costs. So you can't look at all the colors and say "We have X amounts"

2) Some VIPs are gifts. Not every VIP is given via hard cash. They're gifted for staff actions, contests, etc.

3) Some VIPs are bought on sale. Not a big point but another example why you can't total everything together

4) Costs go to hardware and expenses. No one on tech gets paid cash. Not even me and Kowaman. No staff member really sees the money minus Tythus, who is not involed directly in the server's day-to-day busy work. This is a good thing, honestly, you want someone who controls the coinpurse to be uninvolved with the drama and biases.

5) Paying any staff member sets a very bad precedent and has so many strings attached it is arguably a bad idea in and of itself

6) You cannot just "buy" a plugin that makes warclaims work

This whole post boils down to "We have money so why do warclaims suck?" and honestly that's only one piece of the puzzle, arguably the least important, and the most being fixed anyways. We're doing a hardware upgrade. We've been doing one for a while now. The real truth is minecraft isn't built for 400 man fights. It wasn't designed for it at it's core. Some servers do make big fights work, and we should work towards emulating that, but none of this is a simple "Buy warclaim server only $99.99!" at walmart.

Very little transparency to give. Money goes in an account and pays for expenses.

[Tornaedo 1249]

Just now, Kaiser said:

Just to make few points that I think make your argument invalid:

1) Not every donation tier has that money still around. I became Aether in... 2016? That money isn't sitting in a vault, it's used mostly to just pay server costs. So you can't look at all the colors and say "We have X amounts"

2) Some VIPs are gifts. Not every VIP is given via hard cash. They're gifted for staff actions, contests, etc.

3) Some VIPs are bought on sale. Not a big point but another example why you can't total everything together

4) Costs go to hardware and expenses. No one on tech gets paid cash. Not even me and Kowaman. No staff member really sees the money minus Tythus, who is not involed directly in the server's day-to-day busy work. This is a good thing, honestly, you want someone who controls the coinpurse to be uninvolved with the drama and biases.

5) Paying any staff member sets a very bad precedent and has so many strings attached it is arguably a bad idea in and of itself

6) You cannot just "buy" a plugin that makes warclaims work

This whole post boils down to "We have money so why do warclaims suck?" and honestly that's only one piece of the puzzle, arguably the least important, and the most being fixed anyways. We're doing a hardware upgrade. We've been doing one for a while now. The real truth is minecraft isn't built for 400 man fights. It wasn't designed for it at it's core. Some servers do make big fights work, and we should work towards emulating that, but none of this is a simple "Buy warclaim server only $99.99!" at walmart.

Very little transparency to give. Money goes in an account and pays for expenses.

 

[Jaelon 418]

joshua brightness

 

[wowj 9747]

As this video points out, similarly sized servers to LoTC do not make much in profit, for those who are lazy to click on the video, heres the numbers.

To keep more in mind, these servers all have some sort of huge donation sink for items, cosmetics, etcetera, LoTC, does not really have any of these asides VIP Ranks and potato spam

[REDACTED #1]; 1170 USD per month [14,046.48] Per year, specifically told only profits 100~ USD.
[REDACTED #2; $917 USD per month, 11,015 Per Year,
[REDACTED #3] 2225.47 per month, 26,705 USD per year.
[REDACTED #4] 1693.48 per month, 20,321 Per Year.
[REDACTED #5] 1000~ per Month, 12,000 Per year.

[Samson Option 9652]

52 minutes ago, Llir said:

shut the **** up joshbright

 

 

 

 

 

on a serious note, we have a new box on order right now, there have been some delays with our host, this is an investment of thousands of dollars, but may be a month or so until we have it. specs:

 

9950x 192gb ddr5 ecc unbuffered, 2x2tb nvme with 1pb minimum endurance, asrockrack server motherboard 2x25g

 

i also wen through all the configuration files for the war server and found a number of improvements that should help with the network throttling we were experiencing saturday, for context here is our network usage over the weekend:

 

you will see it goes up to 1GB/s, which is the physical maximum of the node

 

Llir, if I've ever offended you, please forgive me. You are goated for this. Stand ten toes down & let them thangs swang.