SMP Playstyle

[Lord Ned]

CLARIFICATION OF POLL OPTIONS:

• 'Creative' - Unlimited Resources - You're given the tools and abilities to create what you want when you want without worrying about mining or tools running out.
• 'Survival' - Stock SMP - Rough 'n tough. Fight creepers for your materials, get into fistfights with zombies, etc.
• Structured Settlements - Buildings are built into proper cities that are planned out. Some examples are posted below.
• Whitelist - No one gets on the server without permission! Applicants have to post in the thread/in chat to join the server. (Basically limit it to TF2Maps people).
• Guest - "Look but no touch" - Guests are allowed to join and wander around. However, they will not be able to place or destroy blocks. This lets us share our world with others, but not having to worry about them destroying it.

I'm sure everyone here has a little bit of a different style. I've got some ideas for how I want to set the server up when 1.8 comes out, but I figure I'd check with everyone else to see how THEY want to play their SMP. (Not that you'll necessarily get it )

Structured Settlement Examples:

(Basically any fairly detailed, commonly themed buildings.)

 

[DaBeatzProject]

Whitelists: Good idea, no multiple accounts.

Structured Settlements: Bad idea, what's the point if you don't even have to do anything? Freedom of building!

Why not just keep it like it was? :c

 

[Lord Ned]

Whitelists: Good idea, no multiple accounts.

Structured Settlements: Bad idea, what's the point if you don't even have to do anything? Freedom of building!

Why not just keep it like it was? :c

Because we have dissent between players.

How does Structured Settlements mean "if you don't have to do anything"... You gotta build 'em and they've gotta look good.

 

[DaBeatzProject]

Oh I thought they were just prefab buildings. Well okay I guess I can live with that but i'd rather do and build what I like

 

[littleedge]

I didn't vote for structured settlements. However, I has an idea. Why not dedicate an area around the spawn for structured settlements.

 

[Lord Ned]

One of the ideas I came up with was to separate the map into sections. Around spawn would be the structured city where everyone could look but not touch (until you were approved as a builder, and even then you'd only build there to fix/improve/etc the buildings). There would be no mobs here, so no damage to buildings.

Then to one side you'd have the "build" zone. (Almost) anyone could build here, and it'd get 'reset' when it filled up. Buildings that were great looking would get moved to the Structured zone and you'd be able to settle it in there. There would be no mobs here, so no damage to buildings.

Then off to the next side, it'd be survival. You could do whatever you wanted out there, there'd be mobs, etc.

I'd have to devise a way to keep inventories and health separate between the areas, but this way we could get a little bit of everything.

 

[littleedge]

And that way I can make a square island and a wooden house on it and then dig a tunnel through the entire map.

 

[grazr]

I don't like the idea of zones. It splits up the fun and challenge, not to mention the seperation of inventories makes it difficult to farm items and then store them in your home.

I like the idea of a city/village but i think it should have some community planning. Each player gets a set amount of X by X to settle (around an initial road perhaps) and no one can tunnel under the village unless by chance they stumble into a natural tunnel (basements should be allowed though).

MC isn't fun without mobs, the amount of expiditions we've had where we stumble into dungeons and creeper filled caves is probably the most fun i have in MC, and there's nothing stopping people being creative even though we can't just spawn items at will or have to fight off the occasional creeper.

When the admin (presumably you, Matt) spawns a new world, you can throw up one of your map renders and we can then select a plot of land to settle around the spawn area. The spawn point could perhaps be a local park (to stop people spawning in each others houses).

It might also be sensible to impose a creativity-free limit zone around the village, to allow room for expansion and not mess up the local landscape. There's plenty of space in a MC world, it doesn't all have to take place at the spawn area. Plus new players will probably want to collect wood for their house so having a nearby renewable forest would be useful.

 

[Turbo Lover]

I say a mixture of Stock SMP and Structured Settlements, think of it like the wasteland in Fallout, but without the Radroaches. You'd spawn either close to, or in a settlement, and you're free to go wherever you please afterwards, and there would be other settlements strewn about beyond that.

Look but no Touch rules are a generally good idea, and it would prevent someone building a massive eyesore right outside the city limits.

Not sure how the Nether would fall into that, a place where i spend 90% of my time in Minecraft. Probably just Stock SMP rules once you enter a Nether Portal.

 

[Lord Ned]

I like the idea of a city/village but i think it should have some community planning. Each player gets a set amount of X by X to settle (around an initial road perhaps) and no one can tunnel under the village unless by chance they stumble into a natural tunnel (basements should be allowed though).

I'd be okay with this, but I think there'd have to be a 'community design' requirement. Eg; no stone box houses. If you want to build a house, you need to invest time and resources into building a house, instead of temporary little shacks.

MC isn't fun without mobs, the amount of expiditions we've had where we stumble into dungeons and creeper filled caves is probably the most fun i have in MC, and there's nothing stopping people being creative even though we can't just spawn items at will or have to fight off the occasional creeper.

I didn't intend for no-mobs at all. I just meant within 'city limits' for example, so we wouldn't have problems with creepers blowing up houses and people getting chased through it at night. It's either that or we come up with a pre-made method that's fairly mob proof.

When the admin (presumably you, Matt) spawns a new world, you can throw up one of your map renders and we can then select a plot of land to settle around the spawn area. The spawn point could perhaps be a local park (to stop people spawning in each others houses).

I like the idea of the spawn point being a local park. We could do a render like that, but I think it'd lead to drama over "I want that spot, no I want that spot". It'd also be different in-game, etc.

It might also be sensible to impose a creativity-free limit zone around the village, to allow room for expansion and not mess up the local landscape. There's plenty of space in a MC world, it doesn't all have to take place at the spawn area. Plus new players will probably want to collect wood for their house so having a nearby renewable forest would be useful.

I'm not quite sure what I follow about 'creativity-free limit zone around the village". However I do agree that there's plenty of space, and we could have multiple settlements. I do want one central one however.

And spawning them in the community gardens that someone restocks with trees would be a decent start.

And that way I can make a square island and a wooden house on it and then dig a tunnel through the entire map.

Both of these things are not something I want to see. Not only are the straight tunnels blugh, but a totally flat island sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[grazr]

I'm not quite sure what I follow about 'creativity-free limit zone around the village". However I do agree that there's plenty of space, and we could have multiple settlements. I do want one central one however.

BehindYou pretty much reiterated what i meant in his second paragraph. People have a tendency to build major eyesores around the spawn location, like 10x10 cobblestone towers that reach into the clouds, covered in torches. Although the village would obviously be a no-build zone for creative projects, there should be a buffer outside the village as well, so that the immediate horizon isn't poluted by silly little experiments.

If you can make the village a mob free zone that'd be excellent, i wasn't aware you could specificly assign no-mob zones within a single world.

I also agree that people should invest time in their houses and a temporary box (which ends up being permanent) simply wont suffice. But hopefully even the lesser well designed houses wont impose too much of an eye sore if the houses are aligned in a methodical manner. Though designing the basic village structure wont be possible until we get a render of the new world; if the spawn point ends up ontop of a mountain, in a valley or on flat grass land it will significantly influence the way players approach designing their living quarters. I'm wondering whether you will have any control over this factor...

 

[Lord Ned]

BehindYou pretty much reiterated what i meant in his second paragraph. People have a tendency to build major eyesores around the spawn location, like 10x10 cobblestone towers that reach into the clouds, covered in torches. Although the village would obviously be a no-build zone for creative projects, there should be a buffer outside the village as well, so that the immediate horizon isn't poluted by silly little experiments.

I follow now. I agree.

If you can make the village a mob free zone that'd be excellent, i wasn't aware you could specificly assign no-mob zones within a single world.

Plugins.

I also agree that people should invest time in their houses and a temporary box (which ends up being permanent) simply wont suffice. But hopefully even the lesser well designed houses wont impose too much of an eye sore if the houses are aligned in a methodical manner. Though designing the basic village structure wont be possible until we get a render of the new world; if the spawn point ends up ontop of a mountain, in a valley or on flat grass land it will significantly influence the way players approach designing their living quarters. I'm wondering whether you will have any control over this factor...

That's basically what our current server has turned into. I understand the (original) community house, and it's sort of historic because it was pretty intense and eventful that first night when we all got in it together and huddled the night away without even a bit of coal.

As far as spawn point, we can move it whereever. Currently in Minecraft, the spawn is generally problematic because MC automatically spawn-protects which causes issues with trying to build around it. You also spawn within ~16 blocks of the spawn, which is problematic to put people in a garden or w/e with it. However this too can be fixed with plugins.

And that's another thing that's always troublesome is picking an awesome world. Before I ran the TF2M server I ran a server for my friends and we used Biome Terrain Mod which gave us crazy unique terrain and it was all fun and innovative to explore, but it was crazy hard to find something that satisfied everyone. It's really hard to pick out world seeds even with the stock generator.

 

[Ida]

I can't imagine playing anything but regular SMP and I will be severely disappointed if ours server is going to have restrictions and excessive mods forced upon it. It's the only Minecraft (sub)community I know well. :<

Edit: I'm not against any sort of structure in our servers, though. If people want to have a regular village with no weird stuff in it, that's fine by me, just don't riddle it with rules, and let me live in a fortress in something à la River Town not too far away. I'll be happy with that. </edit>

I do agree that we should have a whitelist system though, simply because it ensures that we have decent people on the servers, and it's hardly a problem to apply. Well, I also voted for guest mode, since that's a good alternative that serves the same purpose.

 

[grazr]

The thing is, you can live in a castle, but having it dominate everyone elses cottages is really selfish and unnecassery.

Plus i'm not exactly sure how you can riddle the village area with rules. It's basically don't be a vandal; which applies to both destroying and adding blocks to other peoples homes. I'm not sure how that classifies as complicated or overwhelming.

EDIT: Player whitelist should be fine... it's nice to have us regulars to ensure a safe environment. I think it's also important to bring occasional guests aswell though, just to add some diversity to the game.

 

[Lord Ned]

Edit: I'm not against any sort of structure in our servers, though. If people want to have a regular village with no weird stuff in it, that's fine by me, just don't riddle it with rules, and let me live in a fortress in something à la River Town not too far away. I'll be happy with that.

I do agree that we should have a whitelist system though, simply because it ensures that we have decent people on the servers, and it's hardly a problem to apply. Well, I also voted for guest mode, since that's a good alternative that serves the same purpose.[/QUOTE]

If we have guest mode and whitelist at the same time it's a bit silly - Whitelist requires strict allowance, and what's the point of allowing them and then saying "Oh AND you can build." - It'd be writing names twice for everything!

The thing is, you can live in a castle, but having it dominate everyone elses cottages is really selfish and unnecassery.

Pretty much this.

 

[Da_Man]

I'm more of a fan of stock SMP with a few choice mods to spice things up. While creative is fun for building stuff, but I personally feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that I mined my entire underground base with my bare hands, minus the few times I (somehow) ran out of cobblestone and just gave myself more.

TL;DR I wanna feel like I worked a day in my life, SMP.

EDIT: Whoopsie double post, deleted second post.