Thoughts on Icrontic Minecraft Server

pragtastic

So we have something like 15ish consistent players in Minecraft now and we've developed ourselves quite the little world with some pretty impressive buildings. But, we all know that on Oct. 31st a patch is coming out that will change a lot of the multi-player dynamics and overall experience. What are your thoughts on how we should move forward? Keep the current world, our ability summon materials, and keep blasting away endlessly at dirt and stone? Start again from scratch with each patch and experience the game as it was intended? Maybe some sort of hybrid approach that keeps the current world but also sets up a 'hardcore' party of some nature that is off in the distance somewhere?


I would love to hear what everyone has to say about this so that we can try to settle on a solution that keeps everyone happy and entertained. Maybe if we hear a few consistent ideas we can setup a follow-up thread with a poll or something.

Thrax

I've stopped summoning people materials. It was good to get the game going, but it's no longer necessary. At the very least, the server has--and shall continue to have--its basic settings left at default and enabled. That means as of October 31, it will be possible to fall to your death and/or die to zombies/lava/whatever else arrives on that date.

If minecarts are fixed, I would also like to remove warp points. They were a temporary solution anyhow.

If I absolutely had it my way, I would nuke the server and start over on October 31, because the challenge of the game will be virtually non-existent with impenetrable fortresses and weeks of resources to defeat undead creatures tuned for limited resources. I do, however, understand that people like their creations, and so I will not be nuking the server.

TiberiusLazarus

There's a part of me that would really hate to see all of our creations lost. WE've all put a good amount of work into them. That said I could live with starting over.

As for the warps, I definitely agree that they need to remain a temporary solution.

pragtastic

Personally, I really like all the creations we've put together and would hate to see them 'lost'. That being said, I would really enjoy the challenges the new patch will present and think it would be cool to start over as a unified group working towards a common goal (survival). If we were to go the latter route, I would definitely like to have the old game file be made available so we could open it up and tinker with it if we felt compelled to do so.

Thrax

If we do decide to to re-start the server with a blank slate, I would certainly make the file available for single player. I would not make it available as a server file, because two servers just begs for a split community. No thanks on that one.

pragtastic

Thrax wrote:

because two servers just begs for a split community. No thanks on that one.

Agreed.

the_technocrat

Thrax wrote:

If we do decide to to re-start the server with a blank slate, I would certainly make the file available for single player. I would not make it available as a server file, because two servers just begs for a split community. No thanks on that one.

agreed.

Interested at the idea of having a group of people "crash" on an undeveloped island after Oct 31 at the same time and do a few hours of co-dependence for the first few nights of survival.

Annes

Start over.

Thrax

I would also like to note that the sprawling nature of the server is due entirely to invincibility and unlimited resources. As everyone could fend for themselves, the incentive (fun) to build group projects was not sufficient over the long term to support cooperation.

Limited resources and mortality would absolutely change the shape of our new world. Strength in numbers--both in terms of productivity and survival--would make a much smaller nucleus. Exploring would be a group project.

ZenMode

I agree with Thrax - I'd like to see the server set back to 0 and experience the game in its true form. As much fun as it is just to sandbox and build things, I think the community playing the game will end up much closer both interpersonally and physically in the game due to the need for survival.

UPSHitman

I do not want to see the creations lost. I say keep the world as is and go from there. I do like the idea of spawning on a island far away and trying to survive though. As for dieing from zombies I think that would really start to piss some people of including me. I am a builder and explore not a fighter in this game. I hate being annoyed by those damn things as it is. I know there probably nothing we can really do about it and I will probably just have to get over it. I think the game is more fun without that zombies but that just me. I will definitely be putting my difficulty on peaceful!! HAHAHA

UPSLynx

I'm torn. I love our current world and the solutions we've come up with, but a new challenge is more than welcome.

I was talking to Myrmidon about this very thing last night. We have a growing problem on the current server - project scale. Everyone, by simple nature, always makes their next project bigger than the last. There is an increasing desire to outdo oneself with every new day. This doesn't seem like a problem until you look at the building trend on the Icrontinent.

My experience, for example, is perfect. On day one last Tuesday, I helped build some tiny additions to Fort Fazran, and then built a simple bridge type deal near where castle Icrontic stands. I was so impressed by these creations. But as I started to build more, I always had to do better. Soon I built my home, which is pretty large. Then it was Home Tree. Then it was extensive additions to Skynet. Two days ago I began planning my next project, and the concept was unbelievably large and absurd. Even though all of my structures were built legitimately, I wasn't really having fun building anymore, and when I thought back to how much fun I had building a simple structure, that wonder was lost on me now.

So I've tried to focus on smaller, more creative endeavors. I see it in everyone else, though. Look at some of the new things being done. Kingpin's massive fort, _K's castle, Hitman's new project, TT's area. Almost everyone is currently working on a larger than life project, which has created spacing issues for placement. We're pretty much at the limit of what can be built that's still considered larger than the last project.

This isn't a bad thing, and everyone is still having fun. But the nature of the current server is to one-up the previous person, and it's kind of spiraling out of control.

So I think I would enjoy a new challenge. One that requires creativity AND danger. It would be cool to see what we come up with then.

But I love what we've made. I don't want to get rid of the fun of exploring our massive continent and its creations. I think our best bet, if we decided to start over, would be to settle a new area on the current server and start from scratch.

Thrax

I think I like that solution the most, Bobby.

I could warp myself to some forsaken location, teleport everyone to me, set a new home/spawn point, then delete the warps and the individual /homes. We would have the feeling of a fresh server without destroying everything we've built in the past. I'll land us so far away from the old stuff that it'll feel like a real accomplishment to get back to it legitimately.

Oh, there will also be the matter of finding it. I won't have any idea where we land!

Basil

Don't care, just need my fix.

Losing my resources would suck but I'm up for a blank slate with a few other guys (and the zombeh hordes).

UPSHitman

Though I agree with Bobby, I still think that people are still going to go back to that same scenario. Sure we will all start fresh with nothing and having to depend on one and other, but eventually we will all go back to besting the previous person. This game just make people want to do that and its human nature. Also how many wars have been started in the real world for land in the past??? So regardless if we start over I truly think that we will all get big again (though a lot slower this time) and start building massive buildings and trying to out do that last person. I think that is what makes this game fun. Plus its not like we have a limited space, THE WORLD GOES FOREVER!!! Look what I did, I went far far away and built on and entire new continent so I wouldn't impede on someone else land.

Myrmidon

I'm going with blank slate on this one.

But I don't need to state any reasons, because everyone is so ARTICULATE!

_k

I vote for Thrax's idea, except before we do that we make a copy of the map public so you can continue on in the same manner in private. If we warp to a new section, lets say 12+ minecraft days walk away, there needs to be ground rules for bringing supplies or not. I am assuming we are not allowed to bring anything with us.

Everyone keeps acting like starting over is going to be so hard or a different experience then what it currently is, but it will not be. After a few day and night cycles everyone will have a house or a community house that you can retreat to in the night and make larger. During the day you go out and do what you want to. On my indev. map I have spent a lot of nights out because I was close to home and death had no real effect or because I was on ground that prevents most spawns. Once you have several safe places to work during the nights, the sun being out doesn't matter. I have worked for weeks underground.

Winfrey

+1 for new starting location post patch.

Canti

+2

My only concern, as someone else pointed out, is what to do about all the supplies left behind in the old world. It's likely someone will set out to find it and bring back whatever supplies they can. If there is a way to generate another entire world map at that point anyone will be able to see which way to go and then it's just a matter of time before they get there. The new world would have to be so far away that it's not worth the time to go back and hoard supplies.

Thrax

Oh, believe me, we would be very far away.

UPSHitman

So I have been stewing over this idea all day and the more I think about the more I am starting not to like it. I like what we have already and if we make the map public so people can contiune to build on what they already have I think that there will be a lot of people playing that instead of the mulitiplayer and there will be a spilt community. I dunno, It appears that I am one of the few that just wants to stay where we already are and I don't want to make anyone angry so I will just be a good soldier and do what the group wants. I just hope it doesn't ruin the game for me.

Canti

Considering how much some of us freak out in the caves when we hear zombies, even though we're invincible, I can't wait to see the reaction when they can hurt us.

SpencerForHire

There is a problem with your warp far away issue. We have had several issues IIRC correctly with the default spawn point being set. We set it to the castle but still had people appearing at the old starting area. We need to verify that on death we go to the right area or on death we're going to appear VERY far away.... Also teleporting very far away will be rough due to an increased load on the server (if I understand how its been so far correctly). If these things are not true that's fine... I'd still vote blank server but this is a decent substitute. We at least have to stow all our junk, no belongings should come.

ErrorNullTurnip

I'm not so sure just warping to some new area is a good idea. The map 'file' itself would get quite large making backup somewhat clumsy and time-consuming, although an automatic backup would help. I vote we start a new map and make the old one available to anyone who wants to import it into single player.

Thrax

SpencerForHire wrote:

There is a problem with your warp far away issue. We have had several issues IIRC correctly with the default spawn point being set. We set it to the castle but still had people appearing at the old starting area. We need to verify that on death we go to the right area or on death we're going to appear VERY far away.... Also teleporting very far away will be rough due to an increased load on the server (if I understand how its been so far correctly). If these things are not true that's fine... I'd still vote blank server but this is a decent substitute. We at least have to stow all our junk, no belongings should come.

Spawn issue fixed with a patch to the server mod; no longer an issue.

Teleporting very far away will not substantially increase the size of the world file, and memory consumption no longer overtly matters with a dedicated server. Neither are burdens.

I'm not so sure just warping to some new area is a good idea. The map 'file' itself would get quite large making backup somewhat clumsy and time-consuming, although an automatic backup would help. I vote we start a new map and make the old one available to anyone who wants to import it into single player.

Not an issue with automated backups. They only take time when they're done off of the regular schedule.

BuddyJ

So pumped for the update. I don't care what's decided. I'm ready to take on whatever may come.

CB

If we're voting, consider me a vote for a completely blank slate. I've done what I want with building the floating garden. I got through my building experiments, and I'm ready to do it again with some danger involved.

As for the challenge not really increasing, I think it will jump more than we think, but we don't know what's going to be in this patch at all. Right now, none of the monsters are really dangerous. I mean, in SP, you can, if nothing else, always defend yourself by building a temporary single-wide tower to stand on during the night, but that's only because none of the monsters can fly or climb or even break windows. The final version of the game will have much more difficult monsters, and hopefully, this update will include some of that.

Also: If we do decide to keep the server, but warp away to a new continent, we need to make sure that everyone drops all of their belongings. Starting out with a diamond sword would be no fun. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way for the server-side admin to enforce this, and people will be tempted to keep some stuff, secretly. One more argument for a totally new server imo.

_k

Someone add a poll with the three options and lets just call it a day. Stay on the server and not change, warp to a different location, start a new map.

Thrax

I'm fairly certain I can clear out everyone's inventory before we make the move, and again after we arrive (just in case).

MAGIC

New server, start fresh. Anything that was built can be built again if you want.

BobbyDigi

MAGIC wrote:

New server, start fresh. Anything that was built can be built again if you want.

I have the same sentiment, though I only have 1 night's worth of work into DigiLand.

Question on if we teleport away from current land: Would we be attempting a pilgrimage back to find The Icrontinant?