Old Preparation Topic 1

[Venetia]

 

HBGames OFFICIAL Minecraft Server



Current Status: Setup Phase


When the 1.8 Update is released, I will be hosting a Minecraft server, open to any HBGames members who want to get involved!

INFORMATION ON MINECRAFT:

Spoiler: INFORMATION ON MINECRAFT

"Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. At night monsters come out, make sure to build a shelter before that happens. It also has music by C418! So far 11,204,209 people have registered and 2,949,139 people bought the game." - Website

Minecraft's Website: http://www.minecraft.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_yqOoUMHPg

INFORMATION ON THE SERVER SOFTWARE:

Spoiler: INFORMATION ON THE SERVER SOFTWARE

This server will be run with BUKKIT.

"Bukkit is an up-and-coming Minecraft Server mod that will completely change how running and modifying a Minecraft server is done - making managing and creating servers easier and providing more flexibility. Learning from the mistakes made by other mods, Bukkit aims to be different and fill the void left by them: built from the ground up we've focused on performance, ease-of-use, extreme customisability and better communication between the Team and, you, our users. The overall design of Bukkit has been inspired by other mods and our experience as Minecraft players just like yourselves, giving us a unique perspective and advantage going into the creation of the Bukkit Project." - Website

Bukkit's Website: http://bukkit.org/

What does this mean? I can easily add [most] any mod or enhancement that you like.

Research them & recommend the ones you like most!: http://plugins.bukkit.org/
(Note that I will add things only when I believe them to be good for the server, and only when I feel that they will not conflict with any other mods or unbalance gameplay.)

INFORMATION ON THE MINECRAFT 1.8 UPDATE:

Spoiler: INFORMATION ON THE MINECRAFT 1.8 UPDATE

Notch's Development Blog: http://notch.tumblr.com/

"Most of the basics of the game engine is in place, so it’s time to flesh this game out into something more gamey. More content, more exploration, more things to do, and interesting combat! Once this update is out, there will only some tweaks, optimizations and code cleanups left to the core game before we can call it a full release.

We’ve got a list of some 40+ things we want to add to the game, some small, some big. Some huge. We’ve finished a fair number of the items, but there’s still a significant amount of work left. While I can’t reveal the date yet for various reasons, we do have a release date for the Adventure Update in mind, and we’re hoping we’ll be able to hit it.

Jens and I are keeping the exact contents of the update secret, but we do leak some information every now and then to keep people interested and to stop us from going insane. For the most immediate spoilers, you can follow us on Twitter (@notch and @jeb_), or on Google+ (+Markus Persson and +Jens Bergensten).

Here are a few of the things we’ve revealed so far:

NPC villages
Randomly generated dungeons
New biome code
Fully working Creative Mode (and individual admins can enter Creative Mode on a Survival Mode server if they choose)
Critical hits
Sprinting
More farming options
As soon as I can reveal the release date we’re aiming for, I will!

Oh, and the modding support is happening, honest."

It has been THEORIZED that the new update could be happening as soon as August 17th. Why that day? If you bought the latest Humble Bundle, you are given a free subscription to Minecraft that will last until August 17th. Why pick such an arbitrary date, other than to hint that the game will be changed in some large way on that day? (Again: just a theory--but it is certainly coming soon.) Whenever it is released, our server will be up about a week later, so I can have time to set it up, and for Bukkit/mods to be fully updated.

Also, note that I will be using my admin abilities to their full extent. We will have a starting area I have pre-built, that you will be allowed to modify as you see fit. If you have a big project in mind and need materials, I will supply you with them. I will also be appointing 1 or 2 other admins that can and should do the same. I'll hire admins & mods later.




How can I get involved right now?

Right now, we are in the PLANNING stage.

I want our server to be exactly as we all want it before it is started!

So here's a form! Fill it out, and also add in whatever else you'd like to add. Have any Bukkit mods you're interested in? Do you have any original MCSchematics to share that you'd like inserted? Whatever, doesn't matter!



FORM:


1.) What kind of GAMEPLAY would you like to see in the world? A purely creative type, with HUGELY abundant resources and stunted monsters? A survival type, where resources are more scarce, and we are forced to work together to survive? A normal, vanilla-esque type, with equal challenge vs. resources? Or another type?

2.) What type of GEOLOGY would you like most? Vast deserts? Floating islands? A waterworld, full of oceans and small islands? A healthy mix? Or other?

3.) Would you like PvP to be permanently enabled? If yes, would you prefer us to be at war, rather than cooperative? (Note: Server will probably only allow approx. 10-15 people on at once before lag gets bad).

4.) What type of abilities would you like us to give you? Do you want things to be more lenient, where players can teleport or fly or use TNT etc., or are you worried about griefing/imbalance, and would rather the restrictions to be somewhat tighter (to avoid possible problems)?

5.) Will you want a hosted version of the known map to reference? (Note: may strain the server a little).

6.) Will you want the world to be pristine & untouched, or will you want me to hide a bunch of treasures, dungeons, secrets, and mazes etc. inside it?




That seems like a good place to start!

Let's have those answers!

I'll do periodical votes & we can discuss more on how we want it to be set up.

Note that I have MCEdit & many other Minecraft modding tools. I can set things up pretty much however you like. It's just up to you guys to say it & agree on it :D

 

[bacon]

1.) What kind of GAMEPLAY would you like to see in the world? A purely creative type, with HUGELY abundant resources and stunted monsters? A survival type, where resources are more scarce, and we are forced to work together to survive? A normal, vanilla-esque type, with equal challenge vs. resources? Or another type?

Something challenging. Our terraria server was all about making a giant ass world full of cool stuff. But the problem is that there was no challenge. I would love to see something that is somewhat difficult (not too difficult).
I would love to see our resources sparse and actually have it so that it is more about finding your resources than having them provided for you. It would be a lot more challenging and a lot more heated and actual buildings will have more of a significance. I get somewhat bored when everything is provided for you and all you do is build. I would love to make every block count and have building actually take work.

2.) What type of GEOLOGY would you like most? Vast deserts? Floating islands? A waterworld, full of oceans and small islands? A healthy mix? Or other?

I used that mod that allowed you to change world types. The best world I ever created was a rocky mountain like land with arches. And in the sky were floating isles.

I would also suggest having every biome.

3.) Would you like PvP to be permanently enabled? If yes, would you prefer us to be at war, rather than cooperative? (Note: Server will probably only allow approx. 10-15 people on at once before lag gets bad).

Yes
And here is why.

It would be a lot more fun. Instead of just building there is an actual goal. It makes the world so much more dynamic and fun worrying about other players stealing your loot and trying to kill you.
It opens so much more scenarios. By just having a creative mode, the objective is build. Build. Thats it. I mean you could make arenas and stuff but when everyone has diamond armor its rather pointless.

But imagine making the world hostile. People would form alliances and rivalries. The objective is not only to build, but to survive. And protect your treasure.
New things open up such as hiding your treasure and making creative traps.
And building your house becomes x10 more significant because now you actually have to plan what your house is going to look like, where are you going to hide things, etc. Some people will have hidden houses in the desert sand. Other people could make giant towers full of booby-traps.
Imagine trying to find a player and steal their loot and stalking them.
You finally find where they live and you open the door and its an underwater metropolis under a mountain.

This scenario sounds a lot more fun than "Hey look what I built using all of these unlimited resources!"

4.) What type of abilities would you like us to give you? Do you want things to be more lenient, where players can teleport or fly or use TNT etc., or are you worried about griefing/imbalance, and would rather the restrictions to be somewhat tighter (to avoid possible problems)?

None.

5.) Will you want a hosted version of the known map to reference? (Note: may strain the server a little).

probably not

6.) Will you want the world to be pristine & untouched, or will you want me to hide a bunch of treasures, dungeons, secrets, and mazes etc. inside it?

yes
that would be neat
esp with the scenario above it

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

I like servers that have a lot of players, an economy of some time, themed-towns with build rules for organized builing (freebuild in wilderness). No mods, but do allow TNT and stuff. There should be no PvP in towns, with protected buildings in towns. Believe me, if you open the server to griefing, it will happen and it will not be fun. You should also include a mod to allow locking chests and also the fence [gate] mod, they are both bukkit mods I believe. Other than that, it should be pretty standard survival, with no gimps or buffs to the monsters. I think that any chunks that are pure wilderness should be regenerated from time to time to allow things like trees and ores to be regen'd

You should also try to get a way for more players, if possible. 10 to 15 players puts you in an akward position where a small world will make it so the dozens of unique players will fill everything up in a couple weeks and a large world will make it so there would be less random player interactions.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

So me and bacon were talking about how to compromise our two ideas. He wanted a permanent PvP dynamic to make it more interesting than building and mining, and I want to not have my house gone every time I log off, so we came up with a cool compromise. PvP is always on, but everyone is split into two teams, and that way someone can always be online for a particular team to be guarding that team's town. That way, if you want to steal someone's stuff, you have to earn it, often with the help of someone else from your team.

 

[bacon]

I think that 3 teams of 4 or 5 would be better esp if its a huge world but that is just me and I wouldnt mind doing 2 teams as well

I think with PVP set up like this, we could also add some seriously interesting elements.

We could do something like natural disasters where ven posts in this thread what is going to happen to the world and we have 24 hours to prepare.

Examples: "Hey, the water level is going to rise by 10 you have 24 hours to prepare!"

"Hey, its going to rain comets you have 24 hours to prepare"

We could also add competitive elements as well such as bases and and stuff

We should also make it so that there can only be one bed per house.
That way, the player will take over a house when he reaches the bed
and it becomes a bigger pain in the ass for everyone else

I mean, even with teams, I plan to make my own "team base"
but I know that I have the support of my team to back me up~

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

Well small teams decreases the chance of having players online for a given team, which is bad news so I think 2 teams would be best unless we can get like 30 players online.

Also as far as going off and doing your own thing, that's cool, but for this to work you have to spend at least some time helping the team, maybe doing some guard duty or getting resources.

As far as taking over houses, that wouldn't really work so well because there's not enough players to really have like multiple towns per team, and so if one town gets taken over than where does the other team go? The game would be over.

I think the best way to handle the teams would be to have one big base/town per team, and then as far as competition goes, teams can form parties to go and raid the opposing team's base to get resources, but they have to fight their way in.

 

[Venetia]

I like the 2 teams idea. If we divide it much more, there always runs a large chance that a team will have NO ONE on it for a period of time, while another team just stomps the shit out of everything.

STUFF I WILL DO

If PvP is enabled, you bet your sweet ass that there will be protected and locked zones. I'll also look into locked chests & doors, but will limit the number of them one player can have.

I'm going to implement a minecart mod that forces all minecarts to always run at top speed, regardless of physics. No one really has a say in this. I like making subways and I don't like to have to plan speed for the carts. They will NOT be farming-enabled.

I will implement a mod that increases efficacy of light--meaning torches will be somewhat more effective against monster pops. No one has a say in this, either. I hate having to put 70 million torches everywhere in a city to keep mobs from wrecking your shit.

I am disabling TNT use for everyone but admins (to wreak unexpected, controlled havoc).

I will create a "jail", made from bedrock, to teleport certain players to when they're griefing just to grief.

I will create a portal to the nether, and in the nether, it will be anything goes.

I will limit all tamed wolves to 1. I don't need people running around with shitloads of wolves everywhere. I'll also make it so that your pet cannot turn on you once you've tamed it, and that they will not be killable while you are away. (I know people can be protective of their pets)

If there are 2 teams, before opening the server, I will make a neutral, protected spawn area, and two smallish, protected team areas, to start you guys off with. I'll try to set it up so that people can't wreck any buildings they find in the protected area, unless they themselves placed the block/thing. (or an admin or mod can do w/e they need to).
Everyone can build whatever they like outside the protected zones. But they won't be protected.

This will 100% be whitelist-only. You will give me your username and I will give you a password and that is how it will go. I'm sorry; I don't need random jerks popping in to loot/grief, and I don't want to put up with making a spawn corral or anything ugly like that.

I want to set up an iConomy here, based on coins or something. Maybe set up some simple shops manned by NPCs.

And, as this is leaning towards PvP, I'd LIKE to outfit all new players with a kit on initial spawn, consisting of a wooden pick, a basic, crappy sword, and a leather chestpiece & pants.

I would ALSO like to set up perhaps bi-weekly build challenges, for those who are relatively uninterested with PvP. Something like "Make a themed skyscraper in your team's base to make the other team jealous", or "create a secret, underwater hideaway full of dangerous traps!". And whoever's is most impressive would win.

As I'll be admin, I think I will be neutral--A grey witch. I will help or hurt other teams randomly. But I would probably mostly just be building cool shit for ya'll to randomly find.

You should also try to get a way for more players, if possible. 10 to 15 players puts you in an akward position where a small world will make it so the dozens of unique players will fill everything up in a couple weeks and a large world will make it so there would be less random player interactions.

We are probably going to be setting up a machine that will ONLY be spec'd to be a dedicated server here in the next few months - but in the meantime, this will be running from another comp that will PROBABLY only test well for 10-15 players on at the same time. these are speculative numbers - haven't tested it on anything more than 5 yet, and that ran totally fine ... So IDK, we'll see.

In any case, our terraria server only has approx. 10 players total, and thus far, no more than 4 or 5 on at the same time.

I expect slightly higher numbers for a minecraft server, but not anything substantial just yet. So yes, I know big servers are fun etc., but ya work w/ what ya got.

 

[Mr_Smith]

I was going to fill in that form for you, but I agree on like all your points Ven. You should add a varied landscape and hidden treasure, as that makes exploring also more rewarding then just killing the other team to get your supplies.

 

[glorious caesar]

USE THAT LOGO AS THE FORUM LOGO

 

[Venetia]

USE THAT LOGO AS THE FORUM LOGO

it'd need some tweaks, but yeah I rather like it :x. Unfortunately it's pretty damn tall, vertically ...

 

[Venetia]

Just had an idea for the spawn.

Like, ok.:

You start. You've already been told that you are on the BLUE team. Just in front of where you spawn, you see a sign:

<-- BLUE TEAM
RED TEAM -->

You walk out, and look around. You're in a mid-size enclosure. Looks like an outpost fort, with high, wooden walls, and no gate. There are a few basic amenities, like beds, and some simple armaments, etc. You can't destroy anything within the encampment, and you can't fight anyone within this encampment. There's a little watchtower in the center you can climb up.

At the top of the watchtower, you see that there's a large lake, and the fort is on an island smack-dab in the center. To the east, across the lake in the distance, you see the red team's base. To the west, in the distance, lies the blue team's base.

You go down and poke around, and find that, inside of a small building, there are two tunnels: one leading east, one leading west.

Now: Would it be fun for these tunnels to be mazes? So that the very first thing you have to do on the server is have a challenge?
The tunnels will be editable, and will empty at a non-editable point in either base. So the players of each team are faced with a dilemma: they can make the tunnels easy to navigate for people of their OWN team, but then the other team will have an easy access point to infiltrate their base. OR, they can make that tunnel hard to navigate, and perhaps share a solution map for any new members of their team?

OR, I could make this a straight-shot, led by minecart, and the doors to either shaft subway would be locked to the opposing team.

What do you think?

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

I would say to not even have tunnels, make the journey be over land. The issue with having tunnels is either you need to make them hard to get through (bad for your team) or you need an extra person guarding them (also bad for your team). Having it overland makes it so you only need whatever guards you would have for the main gates.

I do think it's a good idea to have a central neutral area that no one can build/destroy or fight.

 

[seven]

Hi guys.

4.) What type of abilities would you like us to give you? Do you want things to be more lenient, where players can teleport or fly or use TNT etc., or are you worried about griefing/imbalance, and would rather the restrictions to be somewhat tighter (to avoid possible problems)?

I'd love it if pickaxes and shovels broke down blocks much faster than they do in vanilla. I don't think it adds anything to the game to hold the left mouse button and watch your character dig cobblestone for an hour; and speeding up mining doesn't really hurt game balance. this is why I don't play the game much.

re: teams, war, etc.

What if the teams ended up one-sided? (e.g. 7 people on red team, 3 or 4 on blue)

I like building novelty things sometimes, and it'd be nice if that doesn't get trashed for the sake of pvp. Maybe have a dedicated "no griefing" section of the world?

 

[Venetia]

I'd love it if pickaxes and shovels broke down blocks much faster than they do in vanilla. I don't think it adds anything to the game to hold the left mouse button and watch your character dig cobblestone for an hour; and speeding up mining doesn't really hurt game balance. this is why I don't play the game much.

I know of a LOT of bukkit plugins, but I don't know of one that does this, other than one that makes your pickaxe pick ANYTHING in one strike (not going to give that out).
If you can find a bukkit plugin that does this, I can implement it.

What if the teams ended up one-sided? (e.g. 7 people on red team, 3 or 4 on blue)

I will be placing people on teams so this won't happen. If some people bow out mid-game, then I will re-distribute people.

I like building novelty things sometimes, and it'd be nice if that doesn't get trashed for the sake of pvp. Maybe have a dedicated "no griefing" section of the world?

Yeah, definitely. I don't like people trashing my buildings, either.
It's important to note that each team base will have a "no destroy" policy. People will be able to go in & loot, but will not be able to destroy. Or I will AIM for that. If only in the rules.
(This is mainly b/c I will hold creativity contests focused on building cool team bases.)

But the bases will be somewhat small, urging people to branch out and build elsewhere.

But yes there will be a few cordoned-off areas that will be designated for creativity only. I guess I'll set up signs for that.

I think in the initial kit, I will also include a map. They are extremely useful but can be annoying to make.

(If you lose your starter kit, however, I won't give you anything else for free, unless you win it in a contest).

 

[Venetia]

I would say to not even have tunnels, make the journey be over land. The issue with having tunnels is either you need to make them hard to get through (bad for your team) or you need an extra person guarding them (also bad for your team). Having it overland makes it so you only need whatever guards you would have for the main gates.

Okay. I could make the journey to either base just be rather long, to discourage tons and tons of attempted infiltrations.

 

[bacon]

Okay. I could make the journey to either base just be rather long, to discourage tons and tons of attempted infiltrations.

this
I would rather have this with no tunnels
it makes it more significant when infiltrating certain bases
that way it encourages us to actually make bases in between each castle

plus anyways, I would rather just build my own secret tunnel all the way to their base~

But yes there will be a few cordoned-off areas that will be designated for creativity only. I guess I'll set up signs for that.

If we do this can we please make them in the corners of the maps where they wont get in the way of attacks and castle wars and stuff

Yeah, definitely. I don't like people trashing my buildings, either.
It's important to note that each team base will have a "no destroy" policy. People will be able to go in & loot, but will not be able to destroy. Or I will AIM for that. If only in the rules.

I think that its great to have a policy.
But I dont think that you should restrict it or block building/hiding things
esp in the actual castles
You should be able to break what is needed
the reason being is that you should be protecting and stuff and the stuff you make is a lot more significant when it can be torn down
it also limits massive land sprawling castles without any logical layout

I think that things that are build should be built smartly and I think the ability of having it destroyed will force people to do this



How big is the map going to be?

Also, if we do this I would prefer you not give resources/material to people

I do think it's a good idea to have a central neutral area that no one can build/destroy or fight.

Tbh I think it would be a lot more fun if the middle place was actually not neutral.
That way there is that constant battle for that fortress in the middle

I think neutral areas should only be the creative areas
everything else should be a free for all

You should make a starting area in a creative area

As far as taking over houses, that wouldn't really work so well because there's not enough players to really have like multiple towns per team, and so if one town gets taken over than where does the other team go? The game would be over.

Well if we have a neutral area then that is where they will go

 

[Venetia]

If we do this can we please make them in the corners of the maps where they wont get in the way of attacks and castle wars and stuff

MC worlds are, like, ridiculously vast. there will be plenty of room.

But I dont think that you should restrict it or block building/hiding things
esp in the actual castles
You should be able to break what is needed
the reason being is that you should be protecting and stuff and the stuff you make is a lot more significant when it can be torn down
it also limits massive land sprawling castles without any logical layout

I meant INSIDE the bases, which are pre-fenced, pre-cordoned. If people build OUTSIDE the base, and OUTSIDE of creative-only areas, they are subject to whatever demolition the other team feels like wreaking.

again: this is to ensure that creativity contests' buildings are not fucked.

How big is the map going to be?

fuck-massive

Also, if we do this I would prefer you not give resources/material to people

i only wanted to give a small, 1-time kit, with shitty materials, on their FIRST log in, designed to start them off so they can be productive. it would also protect them from unexpected onslaughts. i don't need the server to be newb-unfriendly, and i don't need people camping the spawn to kill newbs. they should have a small ability to protect themselves as soon as they spawn.

Tbh I think it would be a lot more fun if the middle place was actually not neutral.
That way there is that constant battle for that fortress in the middle

no. if this is to be a PvP server, i will only allow for the spawn to be neutral. I will not tolerate camping to kill newbs on first spawn.

remember that, once you get to your team's base, you will be able to set your spawn THERE. so if you die, you'll spawn in your base, instead of the neutral zone.

there will be no point in owning the neutral base. it won't have any resources or benefit other than being a place between main bases.

You should make a starting area in a creative area

no, too easy for newbs to fuck with things that people build, or for people to build things that block the initial spawn point.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

Oh yeah another little detail I don't know if you've considered, but a PvP death should result in a short spawn delay so that someone doesn't just keep respawning in their house again and again to keep people from stealing stuff. I would say something like 30 to 60 seconds should be fine, long enough for someone to steal some stuff, but short enough that they have to think about being careful to not lose both their reward and whatever they brought with them when the player respawns and kills 'em.

(Also because PvP is going to be such a big part, I think a wooden sword in the 1 slot on every spawn is only fair so people can't spawn camp so easily)EDIT: By the 1 slot I mean, of course, that it will be already wielded

 

[Venetia]

do you know of any plugins that allow for a spawn delay?

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

Nah I have no idea, there must be one though, right?