With summer coming up quickly, and people having more free time for activities of leisure I have a few suggestions for the Test Server. I know I havnt been around too often as of late, but I am bringing some friends in to play. Ive noticed that the average popluation, when I am on, is 5-7 people logged in. Some vets and some new players. This game requires groups to do most of the missions and quests, and certainly is more fun when you have a gang of people to help or to help out. To help bring in new players and keep veterans around and active, the following would help...
The AH should be repopulated every 2 weeks or at least monthly. I'm sure we lose a good number of new players due to the fact that certain must have (IE want to have or nothing at all) items are sold out and have been sold out for a long time. I know that these things are not repopulated often or at all to promote crafting. Since this is a test server, more or less in beta testing, all of the items should be available to make sure the testers can test to their fullest ability. This hold true for weapons, armor, food, meds, and ninja tools.
For new programmers (I hear the project is a little short staffed at moment) I suggest trolling some coding education forums and offer this as a good way to beef up coding skills, or as I would sell it, as an internship/reference opportunity for those recently graduated programmers to build up their resumes for the job hunt. A letter of recommendation goes a long way, in this job market.
I am a huge fan of this project, and in constant awe of how far its come along and the attention to detail that has been put into every facet of the game. I love playing, I love testing, I love chocobos, and every hour I get with an internet connection, and a few hours to kill I am happy to spend hacking and slashing the mobs you have put in place to be hacked and slashed. I was unemployed for quite a while and if I hadnt jumped on this truck driving gig I have, I was going to get the classes for programming, and I could be more of a help on the behind the scenes action. Thank you all so much for all of your efforts, and everything you sacrifice to make this project a success.
Ps- I would be happy to write letters of recommendations for any on the members of this project. With an awesome phone reference when the job opportunity calls to verify the actions of how diligently you have worked, in remote settings, with very little supervision, and what great communication skills you have. Before I was driving truck I was in high pressure business to business sales, and have lots of xp in talking products and people up to decision makers.