Calling all players - If we wipe...

[Tulonsae]

Ok, my next question is:

If we do a wipe of survival (creating a new world), do you want the ability to bring over any items from survival to the new world? Or do you want to start completely over as far as items are concerned?

For example, would you want to bring over the contents of a single chest or a double chest?

If so, how do you think that would effect the new world's economy?

[Josh349]

IF we're having a wipe, then I'd rather a full and complete wipe. Bringing a few things over seems silly, and would undoubtedly create a weird and unbalanced economy.

I personally would rather that you didn't wipe anything but rather created a massive new world - bigger than any other worlds - this world would have its own inventory system, so you would have to start from scratch.
Steps could be made to encourage players to move over to the new world, and slowly the other worlds could be drawn out of service (e.g. like Terra currently is etc.).

The main reason I rejoined the server recently (after a 2 year absence) was because I was impressed by your longevity. Every other server I have played on, wiped the map after a few months. But now however I think differently, most of the players on the server have massive mob-farms, and tons of every resource. This imo ruins our economy, and items seem worth much less.

[random980]

A wipe is a wipe. Bringing over items ruins the point of starting over.
The wipe map SHOULD NOT have a prebuilt spawn and rail system. Let us, the players make all of it, it takes a lot out of surviving in survival if safe travel is just given to us, I feel that is why the previous maps haven't been that great, half the map was already made for us. No map since Terra has had the community come together to create something, like the great rail system. Go back to things like the broken ship of Terra as a spawn! Terra spawn also had a story to it! Then it was reworked and forgotten.

With this map, as far as a 'theme' goes if we have one, is it possible to evenly split the map into different biomes? Have a frozen area spanning the north and a desert to the south, a jungle to the east and plains and an ocean with islands to the west? (with mountains and forests and stuff in between them all). If the mods want to build something in the world before it's realised, build things to be explored and discovered out in the wilderness of the map somewhere, just not spawn. Let it be a surprise for a player to find it (and tear it down or claim it as theirs before someone else does!) Maybe a world map with named locations once they have been found or created would be awesome to!

Also a hardcore map revamp would be good, add PvP to it, and maybe give it a role-play aspect to it to? Make people fight each other or together, to work towards some sort of overall survival goal. Day-Z style!

[Tulonsae]

Well, Terra (ver3) had a big issue. It was great for those at the beginning but later when new players started they couldn't find land to build on. The no-build spawn area was way too large. And the areas done by the players were nearly impossible to navigate if you were new. (I was one of those new players. I went to Fyra as a result.)

When I was a mod, I tried to assist some new players to find places in Terra, and it never worked. The players just got frustrated and left.

So, this is why we tend to have a spawn and rails. That way new folks have a way to get to unclaimed land more easily.

And I (and other staff) do like having Dragon Travel stations for that purpose as well.

I do understand the desire for the players to create their own roads and rails and such. It's a great deal of the fun, isn't it?

I'd love to hear from more of the players.... (Hint... hint.)

[Tulonsae]

As for the biomes, the way Minecraft land generation is done, it's extremely difficult to set it up the way Random describes.

When we put together a new map, we spend a lot of time going through seeds until we find a map that has a good variety of biomes. And that's generally the best we can offer without an extraordinary amount of work by the admins and staff.

[Tulonsae]

One other question, many of the older players fondly remember ver2 - which had the Central City.

What do you current players think of the old Central City? Do you like city life?

I know that some of you want just survival and to make your own things. But I'm wondering if others like the city aspect?

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Terra spawn also had a story to it! Then it was reworked and forgotten.

It never really had one. It was meant to, but it never reached anything you could call complete.

[Byroe]

I think a wipe where we could bring items over would not help the situation at all, everyone would still have everything, and going off of what random said, i think player built roads and rails are the best idea, as i had a lot of fun making them when i joined the server, and had no trouble navigating them.

[random980]

One other question, many of the older players fondly remember ver2 - which had the Central City.

What do you current players think of the old Central City? Do you like city life?

I know that some of you want just survival and to make your own things. But I'm wondering if others like the city aspect?

I wasn't around for V2 but i do think another city idea would be cool. Has a sense of community to it.
I understand having rails to get to new land easily, but it removes a fundamental of enjoying survival which is traversing the map. It removes the danger and the fun of forging your own path, a huge sense of exploration and it doesn't let the players build it themselves. Instead of giving us a playground to play in, let us build the playground ourselves. We were all new to V3 once and we all managed to find and build on our own land or in a city. The only people i saw frustrated enough to quit were the ones to stupid to realise you can't build in the spawn zone, also if any of them bothered to explore they would have found there was actually a lot of free land easy to get to from V3 spawn.

[Tulonsae]

Lol, Random, I guess you didn't notice my statement that I couldn't find any free land in ver3. Does that mean I'm stupid (cuz I certainly explored quite a bit)?

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

Even with a rail system, you still have to do a lot of trekking on foot. And anyways, does anyone really find walking for 20 minutes straight fun, especially if they have near-invincibility in their diamond armor?

[vallorn]

Since I dug a huge chunk of the Ver3 subway's myself. How do you think such things would work nowaday's with all the cuboids everywhere?

[SMWasder]

Hopefully players would be kind enough to accommodate players building rails under their cuboids? I understand they may not want to give people access to all their stuff, but in that case I definitely think it would be worth us helping out sort cuboid things for free.

[random980]

Lol, Random, I guess you didn't notice my statement that I couldn't find any free land in ver3. Does that mean I'm stupid (cuz I certainly explored quite a bit)?

No, you stayed on the server which was quite a smart idea
Maybe have a rail system that only reaches the edge of the spawn zone, that way its easy to get out and build but people still have the advantage of making their own system and put travel back into surviving?

Even with a rail system, you still have to do a lot of trekking on foot. And anyways, does anyone really find walking for 20 minutes straight fun, especially if they have near-invincibility in their diamond armor?

It's not exactly 'fun' but it's survival, part of the game mode, if you dont like walking 20 minutes build your own rail! By the time you have near-invincibility-diamond-armour i would have expected you would have made travel easier for yourself by then anyway.

Since I dug a huge chunk of the Ver3 subway's myself. How do you think such things would work nowaday's with all the cuboids everywhere?

And i built almost all of the USSR elevated rail line myself, i worked with the other USSR guys to organise stations and materials easily enough, we were also going to extend the line to the Aurora/Argentia with their consent, until they had that soap opera episode... As SMW said, you work with everyone else to build these things, if someone doesnt want a rail near there cubeoid, find a creative solution. It's expected and part of the fun

[Josh349]

One other question, many of the older players fondly remember ver2 - which had the Central City.

What do you current players think of the old Central City? Do you like city life?

I know that some of you want just survival and to make your own things. But I'm wondering if others like the city aspect?

I normally like to have two homes, one in a city/town and another miles away, in the middle of nowhere =D

With this map, as far as a 'theme' goes if we have one, is it possible to evenly split the map into different biomes? Have a frozen area spanning the north and a desert to the south, a jungle to the east and plains and an ocean with islands to the west? (with mountains and forests and stuff in between them all). If the mods want to build something in the world before it's realised, build things to be explored and discovered out in the wilderness of the map somewhere, just not spawn. Let it be a surprise for a player to find it (and tear it down or claim it as theirs before someone else does!) Maybe a world map with named locations once they have been found or created would be awesome to!

+1

[sag185]

The wipe would bring all the players together, new and old, the more experienced players setting up (hopefully) successful towns which would help bring people together, making people live more as a team if they would wish it, at the moment you have people spread over multiple worlds, and with the size of the playerbase it doesnt really work.

TL DR; If you wipe, the community will prosper.

[rygy9]

Firstly, and obviously, a wipe is a wipe; there should be no taking items into the new world/server/map.

Secondly, as I was around for much of Ver2 (and fondly remember it), some input on the central city area.
The spawn city was interesting. It was originally what drew me to the server instead of others. But there was one major problem, that matches the no-build area in Terra/Ver3: there was nothing to do there. After the first 20 people built houses there which were abandoned later, it became a ghost city that acted as a hub or a meeting place. If the mods/staff could find a way (plugins etc.) to add RPG elements such as MINOR shops (limited trading without iron --> diamond and such) and other useful services such as this, I would absolutely support a spawn city.

To address the issue with travel and finding land, I believe that the dragon travel stations were truly the most immersive. While I don't currently play it, I was once a huge fan and player of World of Warcraft. The travel system in WoW was, in my honest opinion, flawless. Having quick flight paths to almost every sub-area of the map made it easy to get places, yet there was still foot/mount travel in between. If we were to have the dragon travel stations, however, the number one most important condition would be to have PAYMENT.

Addressing the payment mentioned above, not everybody will be in favour of this. Who carries iron/gold or whatever payment we'll use around with them? An option we COULD consider would be bringing back in-game currency plugins, like we use to use. Currency could be automatically gained by killing mobs, mining rare gems, traded among players, and could be used to pay for dragon travel stations to get to places quickly. As well as this, the merchants in the central city could use the same currency, and services such as armour repair, weapon repair, enchanting services, etc. This would require both currency and NPC plugins, but this is just a suggestion.

I'd like to thank Tulonsae for putting the effort into asking us, the players, what we think of the situation. I think you're doing a great job, and I think I speak for most of us when I say that we really appreciate being able to put forward our thoughts.

P.S. With mentions to World of Warcraft, I remembered how useful mounts were, and being able to summon and dismiss them at will. With the addition of horses to Minecraft, we could consider something like that. I've tried out horses on the temporary server, but the problem is that you need to be too careful with them. With crashes losing them and them being so fragile, I find myself protecting it instead of riding it. This is purely a suggestion, and I don't even know if plugins like this exist, but I would truly love a feature to be able to summon and dismiss your horse by using an item/command. Don't focus on this suggestion too much, as the bulk of my message is more important, but this could help with solving the travel issue without having minecart tracks everywhere.

P.P.S
OH, and another quick thought regarding the dragon travel stations. To make it even more immersive, we could allow (with mod supervision of course) groups of players/factions to create towns around the travel stations, thus making it even more RPG-like. The mods could edit signs and such to have the main travel hub state the name of the town to travel to, helping towns actually grow and prosper. Instead of towns being created and used for a month, new players could simply travel there, check it out, and decide whether or not to live there.

P.P.P.S. (oh my god I can't stop)
Thinking back on the whole using currency to use dragon travel stations, there is the issue of new players without money being unable to find new land. Therefore we could have a set starting amount to help players get to somewhere they can build, with a helpful message board in the spawn that mods could edit with player suggestion to let new players know what towns are thriving and active. This could help both new players become interactive with the server AND prevent towns from dying in a matter of days or weeks.

P.P.P.P.S. (oh hell)

Since I dug a huge chunk of the Ver3 subway's myself. How do you think such things would work nowaday's with all the cuboids everywhere?

Hopefully players would be kind enough to accommodate players building rails under their cuboids? I understand they may not want to give people access to all their stuff, but in that case I definitely think it would be worth us helping out sort cuboid things for free.

(Quotes by Vallorn and SMWasder, I don't know how quotes work really)
Once again, I believe that the dragon travel system would 100% solve this, as there would be no need for rails, other than rails that people use for their own purposes, which they can cuboid themselves.

Thanks for reading my output, and I hope it can go to good use.
(I really wish I could type this easily for english essays, this stuff just flows from my mind. Jeeze.)

[Tulonsae]

Thanks, rygy, you have some really good thoughts there.

Let me digest it a bit, and then I'll respond with my thoughts about your thoughts.

[random980]

Going off what Rygy said in his P.P.P.S, new players could maybe have a period of free travel? until they settle down somewhere?
I dont think one of those quotes was mine Rygy... But i agree with everything you said, immersive dragon travel and slight RPG elements could work really well with the server! (as long as we remember we are a survival server at the core)

and +1000 internets for Tulon's work in all this, even though i get the feeling a few people may be starting to annoy her

[motormaniac]

@Rygy: About horses, 1.6.2 fixed most of the glitches with them, and the reason temp crashes so much is just because we don't have any plugins on it. So in the case we did wipe, horses would be much more practical.

[Tulonsae]

Nah. I'm not annoyed or irritated at anyone.

In fact, I love hearing your opinions. Even the ones I disagree with.

Most likely we'll go with DT for making it easier for new players to get to unclaimed areas. And we've considered the idea in staff before of allowing DT stations in towns as a town perk.

Horses are great! So, I do see less need for rails, but roads will probably be important. I prefer most roads to be player built. The only roads I like the server to build are ones in the server cuboids.

[vallorn]

I like the idea of giving everyone a starting sum of money for things like Dragon Transport. This idea has lots and lots of potential.

I had a thought about maybe locking some Testificates up in specially made "Shops" around the ends of whatever rails or dragon hubs we end up with so that players can easily buy or sell items using them and emeralds or something. or would that break the survival aspect too much? What do you guys think about a system like that?

And another thing. Did those of you who remember it enjoy the Borjan Transport Activation thing we did when we released that world? Where players had to unlock the dragon travel system and rail hubs for everyone? I'm not promising anything just gauging sentiment on whether it was fun or not.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

I had a bit of fun with it even though I didn't find any of them in time.

[Tulonsae]

I like the idea of giving everyone a starting sum of money for things like Dragon Transport. This idea has lots and lots of potential.

I had a thought about maybe locking some Testificates up in specially made "Shops" around the ends of whatever rails or dragon hubs we end up with so that players can easily buy or sell items using them and emeralds or something. or would that break the survival aspect too much? What do you guys think about a system like that?

And another thing. Did those of you who remember it enjoy the Borjan Transport Activation thing we did when we released that world? Where players had to unlock the dragon travel system and rail hubs for everyone? I'm not promising anything just gauging sentiment on whether it was fun or not.

Well, wokka has been wanting to introduce economy and NPCs (for shops and such) for some time. No promises, but we are looking into it. I hope to have economy installed sometime this summer.

So, I don't think we'll need to lock up Testificates - which means plugins to keep idjuts from killing them...

[vallorn]

Awwwww. So I cant sentence Testificates to a life sentence of hard labor then?