New Features coming & the consequences

I am currently waiting for the WorldGuard plugin to be updated. The new version was promised for last Friday, and I hope it will happen this week. The new version will introduce a very important new feature:

The Nether.

Actually, the nether is accessible technically already now. The problem however is that the nether is currently split up the same way as the normal world, in 100×100 lots. This is not bad as such but at the nether scales to the current world 1 – 8, this causes issues. If you walk 100 blocks in the nether, you will be 800 blocks away in the normal world. This means that if someone on the edge of the map builds a portal, he will come out on a protected lot of someone else and will have to walk again far to get to his protected lot. Building a lot there, would be miles out from the current map borders.

So the new version of said plugin will make it possible to have different (or none) lot allocations than the normal world and therefore make more sense. So once the plugin is out, we will have the following options:

  • make an equivalent reserved lot system in the nether or
  • make it one huge public area

The next topic is a consequence out of this. Once the nether is active, I can see how much load this will bring on the server, and then most probably give out the outer lots of the map. Then, we will have 30×30 lots up for grabs. Which
Brings us to the next topic:

The Outposts

Currently, the outposts merely serve as travel-points for the people going to others lots or peasants trying to get to their place for the first time. Recently, also the malls were built there. When the outer areas are given out, these will gain in importance. Once the hospitals work, I can also install smaller ones out there etc. The question right now however is about the spawn points. I can theoretically make everybody spawn where their mall is. This has a couple of consequences I want you to think about:

  • This would create 9 types of settlers. They can but do not have to be visually different (in chat for example)
  • This would give the malls in the outposts more live and therefore more money all
  • This would make the game experience different for people since the places look different
  • This would give the central spawn a much different role since there are much less lots around spawn and much more new players in the public area etc.
  • I would probably switch off the /home command since you then have to walk maximum 500 blocks to your home
  • This has a probability of bugs during the transition, since I have to update all the chat channels, user rights etc.
  • It’s a piece of work for me too!

I generally intend to do as described above. I think it would be really great and give the server more unique features. If you have opinions on that, specially LOGICAL reasons why this might not work, please tell me. Otherwise I would work on that.

24 thoughts on “New Features coming & the consequences

  1. Wow. I like the idea of the Nether being available. I know it will introduce a lot more changes in the game and with that, lots of bugs and mishaps, but you seem very able and willing to deal with all of those.

    That being said, I don’t know that we need to segregate people based on their (sometimes randomly) chosen map location. Drawing lines in the sand doesn’t seem to have much benefit or introduce much to the feel of the game, IMHO.

    I know that travel time has its hindrances, and therefore moving the spawns seems like a good idea. Would it be possible to allow people to chose in which area they spawn? (e.g. I’d rather run down a well-lit hillside and swim a lake to get back home rather than traverse the single constantly jumping path up and around a mountain to someone’s hilltop maze (possibly not completed).

    I personally, enjoy being able to use the /home command because I try things and do stupid stuff and get stuck. I also like that we can use spawns as central hubs since we have no other way of sending things to people (i.e. Mail, directed minecarts, etc.) and trading directly would otherwise be painful and not worth the hike. Having one item for sale at the malls is ok, but who knows what people want to buy that week, day or hour.

    Whatever you decide to do with your server, I hope you still get a chance to sit down and play. You put a lot of work into it and many of us are very grateful. Thank you. I look forward to seeing what new comes out of MC and Uncovery.

  2. there’s a problem with making the nether public, if someone creates a portal, the regular world portal will end up on someone’s lot and/or delete some of their structures. I would like to have it a giant public due to the ghasts being there. The ghasts would cause too much destruction and it would be much more feasible to make it all public but disable portal creation. You could possibly make set portals at the spawn and at the outposts.

    • also another possible thing, make the nether public but with pvp

      • I honestly think you’ll be too busy fighting off monsters to be thinking of PVP in there. :P

  3. I agree with Hiosa on the Nether part, and I don’t mind so much the /home function being removed, but this would create another problem.
    Say you die by a monster, and you lose a bunch of iron, gold and/or diamonds and your diamond tools) 500 blocks may be too far to walk to regain them in time, especially if you have to cross 500 blocks of mountains, or 500 blocks of water.

    • Agreed. I hadn’t thought of the item retrieval part, either.

      Perhaps putting a cooldown on the use of /home to 10 or 15 mins between uses would balance things. That way if you’re silly enough to die twice in that amount of time and can’t walk back fast enough, well… it’s a tough lesson.

  4. i think if the /home command go disable, it will give less little traides at the spawn. ’cause nobody walks 500Block only to traid/donate someone some stacks of cacti or dirt.

    and walk 500 Blocks throw protected lot can be very anoying if the owner make big walls or something.

    //sorry for my english, hope you got it :/

  5. Ok I understand your points. I guess setting the spawn to the outposts might still be a good idea though. I guess the nether should be protected. I currently cannot prevent the people from building portals. I can only deactivate them and give some or all users a command to do warp into the nether. However I do not like the solution since it allows to “escape” from there instead of having to walk back to the portal.

    • Agreed.
      You could still add the delay timer, though.

      Or instead, you use the portals from Spawn -> Outposts, since those cannot be remade by regular users. If you use those, there can only be a few outposts avaible at wich you can warp back to the Normal world. You will still have to walk to a portal to get back, then.

      What do you people think?

      BUT if thats not possible, then I’ll go for the Warps with a Delay. Sure wish to see the Nether! :D

      • Yes – need those glowing blocks!

        As a project manager the first questions I usually ask is “What is the desired outcome from the change” or “What are we trying to accomplish from this change”?

        So let me ask because I honestly don’t know: What is the desired outcome from removing the /home command?

    • Unc, would it not be possible to disable only the placing and removing of the Obsidian block?

  6. First, I feel like the Nether would be a lot of fun, and I would love the different resources from there. However, I think that turning the Nether into a grid system like the normal world would be too difficult.
    1. Some people might get a bad area. There area might be a small “bridge” and the rest of the area is nothingness. I do think that keeping it public for everyone is a good idea but I do have a problem with this.
    2.There are very limited amounts of lightstone and soul sand. Someone might go down into the Nether, take a lot, and now other players can’t have any. I guess the one other thing to do, if it is possible, is to limit the amount of light stone a player can get a day, or a month, or week. I am very excited for the Nether.

    Second, In my opinion, the Outpost sectioning idea is terrible. I am almost afraid that I will have less fun if it is all sectioned off. I like spawning at the original spawn point, ad then being able to go off from there, and I feel like slight changes could make it better but this is too much. Also, i am fearful for the /home removal. I love that command and it is so helpful. If I am stuck somewhere I don’t want to be, I can go home. Or if I am at someone else’s home, I can just go to mine. Taking that away would make everything much harder and more monotonous. Plus, if I die right near my home, I want to get back as quickly as possible to retrieve my tools.

    Please take what I said into consideration, and thank you again.

    Sincerely,
    Brian0043

  7. Oh! Also, a player could choose what spawn they want to go to, besides the original spawn. They could pick one of the several, and stick to it. Or, if they want to change it, they pay 40 or so uncs and they respawn in another ares. However, I think keeping the Main spawn is crucial. It is very lively and a great central location.

  8. Um i find the home command very usefull especialy when lost in a cave system. in other words PLZ dont get rid of the home teleport command!

  9. /home and /spawn….

    Both very useful. However, I have a idea.

    If you get rid of both of these, or just the /home command, make a /mall command. This command would teleport you to the mall that is closest to your lot, so that you can’t ever directly get home, but you can get close and walk your own way home.

    But if you are trying to get rid of the lag because of this, then I guess that is how it is going to be.

  10. Looks like I left out my main argument.

    I do believe that when you die, you are spawned back at the Center Spawn. However, whenever you type /spawn, you will be taken to your closest outpost. The spawn on Uncovery is beautiful, and it’d be a shame if only 1/9 of us could actually use it. I would support removing the /home command, but keeping the /spawn. Rather, like I said above, make it /mall. So that you are taken to the outpost closest to your home. Not only would it add a sense of realism to the game, but it would also encourage you to stimulate your own economy. Basically if you buy from the people around you, you are all stimulating your own little economy.

    As my buddy Sockso would say,
    Just my two cents.

  11. Would this mean that lots would be changing their names all together? *cough cough* no more Z lots? *cough cough*

    • No. I dont have any idea where you got this from. If we have 30 lots, we need the Z lots. I am quite confused where you get this idea from!

      • It was suggested to me at one point on the server. (It went more towards: as the lot capacity goes up, lots likely won’t keep their same names) (which could make sense in the idea of: what would happen to the new lots to the left of As? But that’s a different issue.)

        • Oh now I see. Well anyhow that is completely unrelated to the above topic. We still have more than 50% of our lots to give away, and I am hoping for a soon coming solution to reset unused lots that were given away before but only have half-finished buildings now.

          So IF we would run out of space, given that we have almost 900 lots, and I needed to make new ones, I would rename them and make the ones in the upper left corner to stay A1.

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