Vargess
Community Administrator
As I had mentioned before, I had some thoughts lined out before I left for Thanksgiving holiday. Upon my return, I see a few threads on the discussion, and decided to go in-game to see how people are actually playing it. For the most part, it has been calm and a cooperative effort among the community. There has been a couple of exceptions, one of which I find unacceptable. That will be addressed elsewhere however.
So... On to my thoughts...
Having 2 servers will fragment the community. I don't see a point to having 2 separate servers which will divide the community up because of a different type of environment. Having to follow 2 different sets of rules, 2 maps.. It's a challenge as it is to maintain one server. Spike, you don't have as much time to be able to restart the server or do the other maintenance that is needed, and now with a newborn you have even less time to manage. Now, you want to try to manage a 2nd server as well. I do not think that is the appropriate approach to this.
My own view is quite similar to single player version, just a bit more complicated. Instead of being alone, you work with friends to build a safe place to live, while working together to mine, explore, gather materials, grow your farms, etc. You might come across other players nearby who invade your home, or the mine you are working on and steal some resources from you. You then decide to exact revenge on them by finding and attack their home base, or by stealing from their own mine. They discover your attack and retaliate. Now, you have a skirmish between you and that group. They have more people on their team, so you branch out looking for more allies. Soon, you have a war. But eventually, both parties decide that you are getting nowhere and call for a truce. You call for borderlines between your properties and agree not to cross it and leave each other alone. OR, you decide to become allies and double your strength to fight another common enemy.
-Ideal Situation-
The ideal situation for all of this is simple. I've spoken with a few of the players and for the most part, it is agreed upon that the environment should be simple.
We should carry an "Old West" style approach.
Here is how it would work:
Inside the city/town borders - civil and just. NO combat, except for the accepted duels between parties. Special rules apply for these duels, as it is a challenge.
Outside the city/town borders - All combat is allowed. Its wild territory, as it was in the old west. If you need help with this idea, watch a couple western movies from the 40's & 50's. John Wayne movies are great examples.
Special Zones – These are areas that have been designated as safe zones where players can operate to do special projects, such as the giant projects we have been working on which take time to build. We all have these (lordikon’s tower for example), that takes a lot of resources and time to put together. Protection for such areas will be enforced and guarded. Special Zones gives players the ability to build the special things they want to build, without having to be inside of a city, which can deteriorate the beauty of the project.
This approach gives us several things to focus on:
1. Cities are protected no-combat zones. This gives mods set of areas to focus on, rather than the entire map, having to try to cover everything we can.
Most of the griefing efforts come from near the spawn area anyway, so it only makes sense.
2. Having protected zones allows for players to keep their belongings within protected borders from theft and destruction. Theft would be difficult with a chest protection mod anyway.
Structure griefing... This is going to be a tricky one, as there is always going to be a few players who do not understand that they are building out in the wild zones and are not protected. They will complain that their structure was griefed and want us to do something. We can plaster the rules to their forehead and it still will not sink in, because that is how some people are.
3. Provides the better of both worlds, without compromising the integrity of one or the other. This environment allows for the pvp oriented player to still have a place for combat related activities they enjoy, but also allows the peaceful player to enjoy a quiet area to build their projects, and enjoy their lives on the same server with all other players. Those peaceful players might also enjoy the occasional combat, just as the combat players might want to take a break to build a nice house with the loot they have collected.
4. The above mentioned zones give the Cuboid Protection plugin we have a very defined and useful meaning. Currently only Spike or myself are able to define such protected borders, so it will have to be discussed, the rules for placing a protection zone within this type of environment.
My Closing Statement-
I don't want to split the community because we want 2 different environments. It is important to maintain a balance of both worlds, within ONE server, so ALL can participate on the level of activity they want to. Maintaining balance allows for all players to be able to interact with one another, all the time and at any time, without compromising the community or integrity of our player base. Having a balance of both combat and peaceful zones in a single server allows for everyone to “change modes†whenever they like. This also allows for other activities, like being able to host combat games, focused on betting against/for one player over another. Or giving out awards to the winner of a contest. For example: The top winner of all combat in “The games†wins a free VIP status, or a whole bunch of diamonds or whatever the prize might end up being.
One’s counter-argument might be “Well anyone can join both servers, so just join the other when we have a contest going on.†Not everyone will play regularly on both servers, therefore will not have all the armor and weapons that a regular player may have.
As far as a new map, or keep the same map... I have no specific opinion on the matter.
With this said, I am going to post a Poll. Options will include whether to keep the old map or not as well as other possible approaches.
I hope this shares my idea clearly enough for all to understand what I would like to see. There isn’t ever a “perfect†solution, but I hope this can help to bring a balance, so that everyone can enjoy themselves. Without having to go our separate ways to play the way we want to.
So... On to my thoughts...
Having 2 servers will fragment the community. I don't see a point to having 2 separate servers which will divide the community up because of a different type of environment. Having to follow 2 different sets of rules, 2 maps.. It's a challenge as it is to maintain one server. Spike, you don't have as much time to be able to restart the server or do the other maintenance that is needed, and now with a newborn you have even less time to manage. Now, you want to try to manage a 2nd server as well. I do not think that is the appropriate approach to this.
My own view is quite similar to single player version, just a bit more complicated. Instead of being alone, you work with friends to build a safe place to live, while working together to mine, explore, gather materials, grow your farms, etc. You might come across other players nearby who invade your home, or the mine you are working on and steal some resources from you. You then decide to exact revenge on them by finding and attack their home base, or by stealing from their own mine. They discover your attack and retaliate. Now, you have a skirmish between you and that group. They have more people on their team, so you branch out looking for more allies. Soon, you have a war. But eventually, both parties decide that you are getting nowhere and call for a truce. You call for borderlines between your properties and agree not to cross it and leave each other alone. OR, you decide to become allies and double your strength to fight another common enemy.
-Ideal Situation-
The ideal situation for all of this is simple. I've spoken with a few of the players and for the most part, it is agreed upon that the environment should be simple.
We should carry an "Old West" style approach.
Here is how it would work:
Inside the city/town borders - civil and just. NO combat, except for the accepted duels between parties. Special rules apply for these duels, as it is a challenge.
Outside the city/town borders - All combat is allowed. Its wild territory, as it was in the old west. If you need help with this idea, watch a couple western movies from the 40's & 50's. John Wayne movies are great examples.
Special Zones – These are areas that have been designated as safe zones where players can operate to do special projects, such as the giant projects we have been working on which take time to build. We all have these (lordikon’s tower for example), that takes a lot of resources and time to put together. Protection for such areas will be enforced and guarded. Special Zones gives players the ability to build the special things they want to build, without having to be inside of a city, which can deteriorate the beauty of the project.
This approach gives us several things to focus on:
1. Cities are protected no-combat zones. This gives mods set of areas to focus on, rather than the entire map, having to try to cover everything we can.
Most of the griefing efforts come from near the spawn area anyway, so it only makes sense.
2. Having protected zones allows for players to keep their belongings within protected borders from theft and destruction. Theft would be difficult with a chest protection mod anyway.
Structure griefing... This is going to be a tricky one, as there is always going to be a few players who do not understand that they are building out in the wild zones and are not protected. They will complain that their structure was griefed and want us to do something. We can plaster the rules to their forehead and it still will not sink in, because that is how some people are.
3. Provides the better of both worlds, without compromising the integrity of one or the other. This environment allows for the pvp oriented player to still have a place for combat related activities they enjoy, but also allows the peaceful player to enjoy a quiet area to build their projects, and enjoy their lives on the same server with all other players. Those peaceful players might also enjoy the occasional combat, just as the combat players might want to take a break to build a nice house with the loot they have collected.
4. The above mentioned zones give the Cuboid Protection plugin we have a very defined and useful meaning. Currently only Spike or myself are able to define such protected borders, so it will have to be discussed, the rules for placing a protection zone within this type of environment.
My Closing Statement-
I don't want to split the community because we want 2 different environments. It is important to maintain a balance of both worlds, within ONE server, so ALL can participate on the level of activity they want to. Maintaining balance allows for all players to be able to interact with one another, all the time and at any time, without compromising the community or integrity of our player base. Having a balance of both combat and peaceful zones in a single server allows for everyone to “change modes†whenever they like. This also allows for other activities, like being able to host combat games, focused on betting against/for one player over another. Or giving out awards to the winner of a contest. For example: The top winner of all combat in “The games†wins a free VIP status, or a whole bunch of diamonds or whatever the prize might end up being.
One’s counter-argument might be “Well anyone can join both servers, so just join the other when we have a contest going on.†Not everyone will play regularly on both servers, therefore will not have all the armor and weapons that a regular player may have.
As far as a new map, or keep the same map... I have no specific opinion on the matter.
With this said, I am going to post a Poll. Options will include whether to keep the old map or not as well as other possible approaches.
I hope this shares my idea clearly enough for all to understand what I would like to see. There isn’t ever a “perfect†solution, but I hope this can help to bring a balance, so that everyone can enjoy themselves. Without having to go our separate ways to play the way we want to.
Spike, CJ and I have been playing with a Hey0 plugin called 'movecraft' on my test server: