We agree on a number of things so, I'm gonna take the chance of this thread to pick apart our differences if you don't mind. Though this is a post so it's happening regardless.
- Bedlam. This map has turned into a Guests-only griefing zone and is driving everyone away.
Yup, let's get rid of it.
Transport. People want more of it
No, I'm not really convinced of this. we've got 4 portals right now, a few more might not go amiss but that's not the fundamental issue, it's that the current transport system is wildly inefficient to use. Ilserlohn and Leos are never worth going to, Thunder island is in the middle of the sea that no-one is in and the Down Airship is necessarily in the middle of a desert no-one previously wanted to traverse as that was the only large blank space that was immediately obvious.
Once you get to the airship you have to walk around the vast spawn to get to one of the three other portals that are placed places no-one wants to go [until the addition of the market portal I'm not sure most people know is there].
More on this later pretty much.
- Spawn City. Its too “complex†for new guys (apparently) and is largely unused after your first arrival.
Right, to resume. Spawn city is a beautiful failure. I don't think it's a co-incidence that it's by far our largest and also our least successful spawn. Even the apparently loathed original Iron City wasn't actively hampering not just guests but the server population as a whole. Sure, guests find it confusing, but they're going to find anything that isn't pressing the 'w' key and holding the left mouse button until they disappear into the core of the earth confusing. Even Iron City II had its share of guests who complained of being unable to get out because there was a single wall blocking their view of the straight run to freedom. My feeling is that when it comes at least to the area guests spawn [further quibbles later] in, we have to bow to the inevitability of their desire to run like cockroaches until they hit something. And that that doesn't have to be an impulse we cater for in our established player base.
- Registration. This hasn’t caused any where near as many issues as you guys think but is still seen as a problem.
I have lost hours of my life to the registration process, I don't mind if it stays but by god it has to be no longer mandatory. I want to be able to tell children who are clearly unable to tie their own shoe laces to fuck off and not have their long term viability on the server hampered.
- A new map. The single most uninformed and pointless idea but everyone is fixated on it.
Natural urge, people want to set their builds into the soft pristine virgin fabric of a new world, unsullied by the worthless crap everyone else has built. We're not compelled to follow their wishes but if we want to keep the map we've currently got we have to bear in mind how full and sullied people believe the map to be, regardless of how much truth you feel there is to the accusation. Public opinion is never about truth.
- Remove most of the Theme Zones, keeping only those that are active and a few spares for events (Hunger Games) and maybe for future Themes.
And the walls please.
- Regenerate the entire of Homestead. Fresh start with a fresh 1.3 map NO ONE keeps ANYTHING.
How is this not a new map ? If the reason is "because we don't have to paste shit over", that's not a difference to 99% of the people currently voting for a new map, excepting that they lose their items. You might be opposed to twinkling or fervently believe in maoist equality, but it would be staggeringly little effort on our part to let people move over a portion of their possessions and would generate a lot of good will. People want their cake and to eat it to ? Will this is the internet, it's a digital cake, it doesn't cost us.
- Guests will still spawn for the first time in the Spawn City Bowl, but they will, once they have accepted the Rules, be teleported to…
- A new Spawn Town, built in the centre of what was Homestead. This will have basic amenities (to be decided when whoever builds it, builds it (DON’T ASK TO BUILD IT IN THIS THREAD!!!)). Spawn Town will also include a dedicated Player Market in the same style as Leo’s Castle had on the last map (but a bit bigger, arguably).
OK, Re: Above about guests being mindless killing machines. I would like to actively dangle the irresistable sight of untilled soil and undestroyed buildings in front of the guests that first get the chance to race off into our beautiful world. The ground outside where ever guests first get the chance to interact with the world is going to be destroyed, no matter how large a zone we put around it, no matter what we do, we don't need to fight this. Let the guests who find a red mist descend across their vision when they see an undestroyed block charge off into a place we don't care about [we could even call it bedlam] but crucially connect that place to the network the rest of us will use.
How is that different to now ? Well no matter whether the guest goes straight into the earth or the side of someones house, or even they go the other way [either some fractionally less obvious direction or a res-d mansion within sight range containing the portal and important server info, anything really] their choice will always be the 'right' one. They won't be able to go somewhere where they're not joining people they can play with, and not coming to a place where they cannot build. Yes, this would be achieved by moving spawn to bedlam but I don't think, and I don't think you think, that that is enough.
- Spawn City itself can be redesigned (lightly) and include more unique features to aid navigation, colour coding of floors, more signs and…
Nope, sorry. I really like Spawn City. I spent a long time flying around it back in the day trying to polish it up for everyone. I think it's the nicest spawn we've ever had. It's super impressive, but it's the least fit for purpose. I really think we have to get rid of it entirely. Sure, we can keep it around on the server, why not. But I don't think it fulfills its purpose as civic infrastructure and should be removed from the loop.
- A central, NPC market (make the shops work better essentially) to give basic supplies and a place to sell your stuff (also a place to sell Nether blocks if we go with not having a Nether). We would leave the Aurora in place to sell ultra-rare items.
Actually hadn't thought about where to put an NPC market. I can see the need for one. But it could be anywhere, we don't /have/ to put it in a building dedicated to something else. I've no feelings about this the more I think about it.
- /spawn gets reactivated for everyone.
Another 'whatever' people probably will whine less about the essentially pretty pointless spawn command if the transport network is more usable. [maaaaybe]
- Everyone will build in the same map, whatever their rank.
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yup