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Interview - Hypixel Wool Hunt

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Q: Have you played Wool Run yet? If so, what are your impressions of it?

A (ALM):

I actually played it on the day it came out. I saw it mentioned in one of the staff chats so I hopped on with some people on Discord in a party and played a few rounds. At this point, no one really knew what they were doing. It’s a bit hard to give impressions at the moment since it is in early beta and there are likely to be some drastic changes over time before the full release.
At first glance, it seems like a really watered-down version of what this community is used to, but you have to keep in mind that it is mainly based off of Badlion’s version, which was also watered down in comparison. The fact that you can’t modify the initial map makes defending quite difficult, especially for us since we are used to building large pits and such. I do think it could lead to some interesting new defense ideas because of the limitations, though. The kits are an interesting concept as a broad concept, but need to be tweaked a lot. There is no concept of safeties (as of now) which is quite annoying when you can’t tunnel and there are usually one block wide bridges. The messages are spammy, and you can see who has the wool for the other team, but these will likely be changed as the game develops (hopefully).

A (Crazy):

I have. There's work that Hypixel will need to put in to improve it, but that's understandable considering it was only just released for Beta testing. I'm excited to see what the game will look like by the time it's out of Beta.

A (NexoWolf):

Yes I did. When I first saw Hypixel was going to add a CTW game I honestly was surprised about it. We tested it and it's actually garbage compared to what Stratus offers to players. The problem is Hypixel’s player base doesn't know about CTW, but I will talk about this problem more later on.

Q: Are you surprised Hypixel decided to develop an PGM gamemode?

A (ALM):

Not really, you have to consider Hypixel already has a lot of competitive games (UHC, SkyWars, BedWars), and something of an “attack retrieve” game was probably the most logical next step in their genre of “war” games. The game is filled with a lot of the same concepts as The Bridges and BedWars, except there’s just the extra step of returning what objective you reached to your team’s side. The game was also more-so based off of Badlion’s CTW recreation, so to them it isn’t quite a PGM game mode. This also isn’t their “first” PGM game mode, they have KOTH and CTF (kinda).

A (Crazy):

I think if you look at the explanation they've given (which is that they took a successful gamemode that OCN had, which later Badlion had) and think about it, it's not really all that surprising. What surprised me more than anything actually was the general lack of interest the Hypixel admins who've talked with community members so far have had towards competitive play. CTW is a gamemode that both OCN and Badlion used as a platform for tournaments, but Hypixel doesn't seem interested in hosting any. My initial thought was that Hypixel was trying to pursue some sort of gamemode that would interest their competitive community that plays BedWars and SkyWars (and any others I'm not aware of).

A (NexoWolf):

As I said on the previous question, yes I am surprised, but not as I would be before badlion closed. I remember a tweet from one of Hypixel's developers saying they'd love to keep CTW/CTF legacy alive, so I think this mode has been on Staff Team minds for a long time.

Q: Do you think that Wool Run gives Stratus an opportunity to reach a new group of players?

A (ALM):

In time, the game will definitely lead to more interest in the genre. As with other Hypixel game modes, a competitive scene will likely develop around the game as people being to play more regularly and gain skill. Because of this competitive scene, people will soon learn the limitations that the game imposes and will inevitably become a bit bored. We offer the game with much more flexibility, an extensive catalogue of maps, and a player base with years of experience. If we market ourselves as offering a more advanced version of the game they already like, the more competitive players will migrate here to play.

A (Crazy):

Definitely. I guess we'll see how well the gamemode runs on Hypixel, but right now they've put a massive spotlight on a gamemode that hasn't got any "big" attention outside of the competitive community for years. There's a lot of people on their forums who are reminiscing about the playing the gamemode on OCN. And you never know, some of these people might even try and search for any other sort of OCN-like servers right now.

A (NexoWolf):

Being honest with you, no. Sadly, around 95% of the players that will try Wool Hunt don't know Stratus existence. Most of Hypixel's playerbase are kids that have started playing minecraft recently, so it's impossible they know anything about Stratus. The other percent of the playerbase are hypixel veterans that won't move to another server. However, Stratus community can change this.

Q: What could Stratus do (either staff or community members) to help expose Wool Run players to our CTW gamemode?

A (ALM):

We need to tap into the competitive groups formed around the game and offer ourselves as a platform to play games quite similar (and more advanced) than the ones they enjoy there, while also offering a more competitive slant, where their gamemode is more casual. We just need to network with people we see really getting into the game there and show them how far we have taken the game over the past 6 years. There’s no real other way to get the word out besides spamming our IP in Wool Hunt games, which would only hurt us in the end.

A (Crazy):

That's a good question. I think at the current moment, the better question might be "what not to do", and to that I really wouldn't want to see anyone shitting on their gamemode on their forums, calling them out for "stealing", etc; overall just putting a bad representation of Stratus out there. Looking to the future, I think we can benefit from introducing some of their competitive and regular players into our community who are looking for more of a challenge.

A (NexoWolf):

It's impossible at the moment. There is not Wool Hunt community yet since it just got released, but when the game gets older, it will be possible to contact Wool Hunt guilds or leaderboarders to try out the maps and competitiveness stratus offers. And for the average hypixel player, it's even harder.
Really, it's still too soon to predict any impact Wool Hunt may have on Stratus. The key would be that Hypixel and Stratus staff teams will reach an engagement which benefits both servers: for Hypixel--->improving Wool Hunt; and for Stratus--> promotion from Hypixel.

Q: Do you see Wool Run succeeding as a gamemode on Hypixel?

A (ALM):

I feel like they should have released with more than one map. Currently the game mode gets quite stale after a few rounds because players start to do the same things and what each type of person will do becomes quite predictable. If (more like when) they add more maps, the game will likely succeed to some level. I don’t think it will be as successful as some of the smaller games (BedWars, SkyWars) simply because those are more fun to play with groups of friends in parties. If a smaller version of the game was developed (with 4 teams perhaps), I think it would do quite well. At that point, however, it would really just be BedWars where you have to bring the bed back.

A (Crazy):

As I mentioned earlier, some work needs to be put in to improve it. Most matches are something like a 20v20 right? A match against 20 casual players who simply bow spam against everything isn't much fun & gets stale fast. CTW can succeed anywhere, it just needs the right amount of love and effort put into it.

A (NexoWolf):

What do we consider as success? Wool Hunt will have more players than Stratus for sure, but succeeding on Hypixel means having around 500-1000 players on the game. Will this happen to Wool Hunt? It's too soon to predict this, it actually depends on how staff develops the game. They must keep the game innovating and fresh for the player base, and this is where stratus staff can intervene. Answering to the previous question, they could help the developers with some ideas (which is what some stratus players have done already) in exchange of some promotion, like saying on the update thread ''Thanks for the Stratus staff team for helping with some of the ideas.'' This is only my opinion, but it may work out.

Q: Hypixel has had a history of casual gamemodes turning fairly competitive through Guilds. Quakecraft, UHC, Warlords, SkyWars, BedWars, and a number of others have all seen competitive scenes develop to varying degrees. Do you see a similar competitive following forming around Hypixel's Wool Run?

A (ALM):

In its current state, not really. The reason competitive guilds work in those other games is because the maps are small enough to accommodate actual organized competition. Currently, the map is too open and large to allow for much competition without random players joining. The game concept in general would generally lead to a competitive nature eventually, there just needs to be more maps and smaller matches. There is stat tracking, however, so players competing individually against each other is already starting to happen and as the games go on for longer there will likely be a more competitive nature to get on the top 10 leaderboards.

A (Crazy):

For sure, however I would assume it might be a little harder to realistically compete in such a big setting like a 20v20 (since there's so many unknown variables and your chances of winning or not winning come down to how competent the teammates are), unlike smaller matches like Skywards and Quakecraft. We'll see if Hypixel introduces some smaller team sizes to matches.

A (NexoWolf):

Wool Hunt is still in the prototype lobby, and it might take a year to be released, While the game is on this phase it's really hard for players to create a competitive scene around the game, but if the game gets released, there will be unofficial tournaments and competitiveness between guilds for sure.

Q: Finally, we'll end it off with more of a fun question. Which of Hypixel's gamemodes would you most like to be able to play on Stratus?

A (ALM):

Well we already technically have SkyWars and SG (thanks Lifeboat) but those didn’t work really well on OCN. It would be nice to expand the types of UHC matches we have to include those similar to Speed UHC. Anything else they offer really strays from the game modes we currently offer, so it would make advertising more difficult if we have two completely different game sets. The obvious choice would be BedWars, but Hypixel spends millions of dollars on development and marketing each year so I don’t think it is worth the effort on our end. We should stick to what we’re good at and what our players like, and when we grown in the future we can start adding more games similar to the ones they have.

A (Crazy):

I don't know, I've never given it any thought. In my eyes, Hypixel has their own thing, we have ours. Mixing gamemodes doesn't always work, but if I had to choose one, maybe something like BedWars due to how competitive it could become.

A (NexoWolf):

Most of the Hypixel games have a shop system with upgrades and kits, while stratus offers more casual public games. However, I've always thought a One in the Quiver mode (Bounty Hunters on Hypixel) would fit on Stratus. Fast paced games with 6-8 players would be interesting.

new idea for stratus

build battle but for DEFENCES