Hi there, Michael and Auriea!

My name is Kate, though I'm known on the TEF community site as thelittleraven. I've been a member for four years now, and this game is one of my safe havens and my internet home. I've made many friends there and had lots of great experiences!

One of our big community run events is coming up next week, and after that it'll be Halloween! Very exciting. Lots of people are very eager to play this upcoming month because of everything that's going on, but lately there's been something of an issue for many users trying to connect. Our frame rates have been suffering, connections drop randomly and some people can't connect at all, and a lot of the time the map displays a completely different pictogram rather than the one you're actually trying to access! It's very strange behaviour that I've never encountered before now.

We as a community believe that this is an issue with the server not being reset as often as it used to be, and we're wondering if it would be possible to get back into daily server resets like there used to be. We think it would really help boost the performance of the forest, especially since there are so many active players these days, and would allow members with poorer connection to the server to be able to play better and enjoy the game! We'd also like to know why these resets stopped in the first place, and if there's anything we can do to help facilitate them to keep the game running smoothly for all to enjoy.

In fact, we were sort of wondering if you two would become a little more active on the community site. I'm sure you're both very busy, but we miss you guys! We love hearing news and things straight from you two, and we'd really appreciate some more direction on what you guys need to help keep the game going strong. It's lost a lot of steam in recent years even before it lost funding, and we really want to bring it back up again. Don't get me wrong, we're so happy about the addition of a few new sets this year, and we're happy that the game is even still alive despite the fact that it no longer has funding. But we'd love a more constant and direct line of communication with you guys!

We just need to know what the forest needs to stay running! You guys did say you love this game and would love to put more time into it, and we'd love it if you would! Even just by taking a little bit of time to pop into the site and say 'hello' or update the donations thread would be so nice.

By opening up this line of communication, not only do we get to see and hear more from you, which will greatly improve morale, but as is the point of this email, we can easily come to you with concerns for the game, and you can easily reply telling us what needs to happen in order to keep the game improving. More donations? It's a stretch, but we have done it before, and we can certainly keep trying. More hands on deck? There are many artists and aspiring game developers to choose from, myself included, who would be very happy and totally honored to intern under you and do work like what was done earlier this year. Just come onto the community every now and then and tell us, please! It's excellent to hear from you.

I really apologise if this email got rambly or repeated itself too much. I'm not very good at this, haha, but I hope it says what we've all been meaning to say. Thanks so much for taking the time to read through!

Yours truly,
Kate and all the rest of the TEF Community!