Hey there. It's time for Easter again, and I figured I should outline some of the major changes to this seasonal.

Eggite Shards
This seasonal is a bit different than what you're used to. Easter Gifts, and The Seasonal "Device", and the "Crate within a Crate" have all been replaced with one unified system (though crate within a crate still exists in a sense). I looked at how many UI's you had to hop around during the typical loop and thought it was pretty redundant now, and would be better to keep the same amount of content, but just merge them all into one system.

For this seasonal, the 'base' reward for the pass, pickups, eggs, etc. is what's called "Eggite Shards". These are a new crafting material you can use to craft a brand new type of crate called an "Eggite Box". You can also use these shards to craft the seasonal jewel.


These aren't the normal type of "Gift Package" items you are used to. They have enough content to stand on their own as a type of crate entirely. They have their own open animation, AND have a pity system built in - That means after x amount opened without receiving a drop on its rare table, you are guaranteed to get one on your next roll as shown below:

Please note this video was taken before the drop rates/contents were finalized

• Removed the Seasonal Device.
• Removed Easter Gifts.
• Added "Eggite boxes".
• Added the new Easter Egg VIII'sx.
• Added "Eggite Shards" - a crafting material used to craft Eggite Boxes, jewels, etc.
• Made all Seasonal pass items prim or below (besides playermodels).
• Removed the soft cap on seasonal passes (xp ramping up absurdly after an amount of completion).
• Added the new seasonal pass.
• Brought back the seasonal task system, but 3 pvp and 2 pve tasks instead of 3 and 3. Also adjusted their rates/rewards/xp amounts.
• Changed the Serial Killer chance to 1 in 8 (was 1/12)
  

Me and Brassx have been in talks and we both agree it's time I've been given another chance, I have been unbanned and will be back soon!

Steam Name (Current): TheLogImusPrime

Steam Name (During incident):

Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:104945788

Steam Profile Link: i dont actually know how to link this. unfortunate!

Name of staff you were banned by: 26

Length of the ban: Perma

Would you like your ban shortened or repealed?: Shortened

Reason for ban: "repeated harassment, targeting (rdm), multiple warnings to stop and doesnt listen. brass said perma"

Did you commit the actions stated in the ban reason?: Yes

What really happened?: I harrassed and RDMd multiple people multiple times and continued despite a few warnings(including a week ban, iirc). The ban reason is pretty much correct.

Additional details: I took issue with the way a few people went about playing the game and displayed that in a rather unacceptable manner. The one I did this the worst to was probably Divine, who I continued to harass despite him blocking me.

Honestly, I kinda miss this server. Not sure what else to say here, so I'll just post this now.

Steam Name (Current): Lorlock

Steam Name (During incident): asuna ( i think, i had 2 names at the time of the ban)

Steam ID:STEAM_0:1:87036960

Steam Profile Link: https://steamcommunity.com/id/122223452113/

Name of staff you were banned by: Brassx

Length of the ban: Perm

Would you like your ban shortened or repealed?: Repealed (Or shortened)

Reason for ban: Lying to Brassx

Did you commit the actions stated in the ban reason?: Yes

What really happened?: For the past transgression that led to my ban, I must admit that I acted immaturely and dishonestly. I purchased gems from the store and then proceeded to lie to Brassx about not receiving the corresponding amount. This behavior was not only unethical, but it was also harmful to the community. As a result, I was rightfully banned, and looking back, I understand that my actions were similar to stealing from a convenience store. I also realize that my disrespectful behavior towards other players, such as randomly deathmatching certain individuals, only added to the negative impact I had on the community. I take full responsibility for my actions and the resulting consequences. Since my ban, I have made significant strides in improving myself as a person. I have taken a step back from gaming to focus on my mental health and seek help for any underlying issues. It has been three years, and I am now a freshman in college. I have grown considerably in maturity and perspective since my days as an immature 14-year-old, and I am genuinely remorseful for my past actions. I would like to request an opportunity to return to the community and prove that I have indeed changed for the better.

Additional details: In addition to what I've already said, I'd want to say that I sincerely regret my earlier behavior and am aware of the damaging effects it had on the community. After giving it some thought, I see that my actions were not just immature but also unethical. I'm ready to atone for my previous transgressions by abiding by the rules and contributing positively to the community. I also promise to never engage in any form of cheating or unfair gameplay(I.e. Lying for my own benefit, Lying to gain something, scamming, any action that breaks the rules or harms the community). I hope that you can consider giving me another chance to be a part of the community and show that I have truly changed for the better. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Steam Name (Current): JOEY

Steam Name (During incident): JOEY

Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:600150043

Steam Profile Link: https://steamcommunity.com/id/IMJOEYTHATSMEHAHAXD/

Name of staff you were banned by: Philip

Length of the ban: permanent

Would you like your ban shortened or repealed?: repealed or shortened

Reason for ban: suspision of no intent to play the game

Did you commit the actions stated in the ban reason?: no

What really happened?: i was being toxic in reports due to being upset for being killed while having a chest/presents to grab, under inspection of my actions admins thought i should be banned for my activity

Additional details: i will no longer be toxic in reports or say anything with ill intent towards anyone in this server, i enjoy the friends i make here and dont wish to make any enemies, and also to continue to have fun on this server, I enjoy it too much to let this kind of situation happen again

Update: I've apologized to Bathory and they accepted my apology, this is viewable in the discord general

reposting because of the update and because I originally posted in january

I'd really like to be able to play again on the server, thanks for your time!

April Fools is coming up and you know what that means?! More mix-tapes!! This will be a community effort so submit your songs! Think of it as your mini playlist so add your favorite songs, or something you've had on repeat.
We want no more than 5 songs and obviously within community guidelines.

If Chosen, please make sure to submit the songs as follows:

• Submit as an mp3 in google drive OR submit to me in discord if you're selected.
• Keep the mp3 file all lowercase & avoid spaces.
• Example -songname_author.mp3 for filename, if the author name has spaces or weird characters, leave them out or replace with underscores.
  

I sometimes, every few years or so, decide to check up on the NTG crowd.

What a blast from the past, It's already been 9 years. Next year will be 10 for me. Counting 2014 as the year i started playing on NTG.

Seeing all the familiar names sorta makes me feel like my hair is turning gray and falling out as we speak.

Ive been meaning to stop by sometime, I might. Anyway. Everyone I remember, the idiot crowd. The Classic "2014 benelli enjoyers" from back in the day. The shinigami connoseurs, the days when you had to buy regen bubble and whatnot.
U guys are still the best! Even if I was a huge idiot back then. rock on guys.

I really do miss being a 15 year old and booting up NTG at 7 in the morning, seeing if my friends were on. I thought the funniest thing in the entire world was going onto the NTG forums and shitposting horrible weapon suggestions. Making stupid, awful off topic posts and checking them during school. Now I'm old and work. I dont think we appreciate those times where these places exist, because ive had so many gaming communities fall apart as years go by. Cool to see this place is still around, even just to dig in the old forum messages.

Anyways, hi.

Buckle up, this is a long post.

Shaking things up
The next seasonal shakes up the typical FRG Seasonal formula. Normally, a seasonal update contains a new device, new 'shard' type item to use in the device, a new gift package type 'reward', the new main seasonal crate, and the 'crate within a crate' (christmas crackers, plastic eggs, etc).

This is a great formula, and was forged over the years by new innovations and community feedback, it worked well. But... without varying from it too much for the last ~4 years, the normal loop has grown quite stale.  Before I continue, I think it's important to discuss what happened with Christmas.

The Christmas blunder
With Christmas, I tried to combat this a bit by introducing the Christmas Spirit bar, seasonal tasks, and more server-wide rewards. This was cool, most were received well, but we saw an overabundance of the main present, which in turn caused a lot of people to not need to buy any presents with coins. Seasonals are usually a great economic time for our community, as there's a need for coins to open the main series, so it gets coins circulating and flowing while removing them from the system as well.
This results in much higher trading activity than normal, and generally just makes coins feel better to have.

When you don't have to spend coins to mass open the new series, this structure collapses.  So, what went wrong?
Presents were being rewarded at a much, much higher rate than prior seasonals. I caught it too late unfortunately, so the damage was done. When I fixed one portion of it, lots of people felt under rewarded, which is not what I want to happen at all.

I also focused a lot more on making this present cooler than prior ones, which in turn made the pass suffer a bit as well and feel generally less re-playable. The pass was also the easiest to level by far due to the new tasks, and primeval coins. This all just led to there being 80 concurrent players, but only ~10 on TTT while the rest were afk opening presents because they had already flown through their pass and accumulated 10s of thousands of presents during that short time.

You might be thinking that straying from the formula is risky, well typically it isn't. Every feature we have during a seasonal resulted from some variant of a previous system that in of itself at one point was a brand new introduction to a seasonal. The pass for instance stems directly from the original "Abyssal Energy" system. Prior to that we had no seasonal passes, just a new crate, minigame, and sometimes a quest or boss fight.

I LOVE trying new things, new systems, and new mechanics. I have started to dread working on seasonals entirely because I have fallen into a pattern. I know what I have to do, despite having to make all new items. It has just become very dull for someone like me who likes to branch out creatively and try new things. I rarely let risk stop me from trying new things. Christmas was the first seasonal in all of FRG's life that I feel I've blundered. I wasted a good opportunity to gauge all these new systems because of some minor reward balancing mistakes.

The Road Ahead
Where does that leave us for the future?

Well, I started evaluating the issues from the prior seasonal, how to remedy them, then the issues that arise from potential fixes.  You see, the main solution to the main issue last seasonal was to lower the amount of presents players obtained without spending coins. Pretty obvious, right? But that can feel bad when the bulk of the rewards you get without spending coins aren't that interesting.  Making players feel under rewarded for their time. That is no good.

Then I looked at the typical loop from a player, all of the different UI's they have to go through, the devices they have to manage, the 'gift package' type items they have to deal with, how the "shards" feel meh, and how getting a base tier 20 item feels for the 3rd time. The baseline reward for playing should feel better, more like you're working towards something. It shouldn't just be a vessel to obtain the primary seasonal crate.

All of these things were considered when I decided on what changes I would be making to the seasonal.  I wont be going into specific details about a lot of the core changes(though I may hint at some as the update approaches launch), to keep things more exciting when it launches, but I am excited to work on a seasonal for the first time in years. It's been great, progress has been very good, and there's really good suggestions this year from the community too!

I will end this by saying I just thought I should give you guys a heads up on things potentially changing, so you're just a little more aware and potentially more accepting of the upcoming changes. Oh also: There will not be any godlike or exotic pass rewards for this seasonal pass. They will instead be primordial (tier 20 will have some visual stuff to make it feel more special still), as a result the soft xp cap will be removed.

Hey FRG its LMAN coming back with my 2nd installment into the FRG community frg_tdm_castle. THIS MAP WILL COME OUT WITH THE RELEASE OF THE TDM GAMEMODE

This map features cool visuals, close, mid, long range combat, and BOOST PAD INFILTRATION!!! (THANKS PARADE FOR BOOST PADS AND CASTLE ASSETS )

The map in terms of optimization lighting and visuals this is without a doubt my best work yet and its easily gonna get better this raises a new bar to my standards on map making.



To The Black Parade, BrassX, and the Community. I've learned so much about source mapping and how it works and for the past 2.5 years I've easily improved from what you taught me even with helping on fixing optimizing this map too!!! Brass your coding has stunned me and gotten me so intrested into coding with lua trying to get just as good as you because it looks like you can make anything crazy right off of your fingertips. With the guns, events, and items its flipping awesome keep it up brotha. Community you have ups and downs at times but mainly ups. You guys, YOU are cool and what help keep this cool server thriving and active. I wanna keep making maps for you guys to enjoy and if anything that is either a map error/mistake let me know at any time I will try to fix it ASAP also send me any suggestions I'm down for some because I cant always be thinking of what potentially be the next biggest project. To all of you... Thanks.

• The map has been made in a linear fashion. Players are provided with 7 unlockable courses containing 3 Chambers each. At the end of the course you will receive a chest. These Chambers are made with Lives like Agony. You have a limited number of lives before you are sent back to Chamber 1.
• Water Treatment Beacons are not physical items but rather they are displayed on your screen. They can be collected first time from any chest. Checkpoints are purely to unlock new courses.
• There are 42 Gems to collect throughout the map.
• Trials are unlocked by completing the course for that Trial first.
• Water Treatment: Chambers can be entirely solo'd. Players are allowed to help others however or wherever they can (with the exception of Trials).