How should we play the greater Sanctuary?

[Sorontar]

Sanctuary has been with us for a couple of months but has been restricted to a small landspace due to the changes we knew were coming to terrain generation etc. With that restricted space came a need to work as a community, so various restrictions and building procedures were recommended. (Hopefully) soon we will be able to expand the border and people will be able to journey out to find a place to build bigger and grander designs than the fine townhouses in the spawn village.

However, there are still a few possible issues that I would like the Division to consider and discuss. Some of these are similar to those brought up in the How should we set up Frontier? thread, but it is expected that Sanctuary will have different kind of gameplay.

The proposed setting for Sanctuary is:

• Bukkit with various plugins (as for Frontier)
• No PvP allowed.
• No constraints on building size or nature outside the spawn village area.
• Players can claim an area for their exclusive use, from bedrock to skytop.
• Mods will allow teleportation between players, spawn and a home location.
• Mods will allow multiple warp points to be set (but the number per player will be limited). Frontier will not have this ability.
• Access to the Nether is allowed.
• A map will be made regularly (probably per week, as is currently the fashion)

Much of this is the same as was for the old Creative server. However, with Minecraft 1.0, new challenges and opportunities arise, bringing with them unanswered questions. I am guided by the survey I ran before 1.8 arrived, but I would like you to discuss the following questions so the admins can consider how we eventually set up a greater Sanctuary server.

• Do you want monsters to spawn at all? They are known to be a good source of various items, like bones for bonemeal and blaze rods for potions etc. However, they can also interfere with your constructions, i.e. endermen and creepers.
• Do you want any ability to spawn some of your own items? This is one way to get around having no monsters.
• Do you want hunger to be an issue? What level of difficulty do you want? You can have hard (level 3) but no monsters.
• Do you want to be able to fly?
• The big one - do you want this world to actually be Creative mode and not have to mine at all?
• As for Frontier, what shall we do about NPC villages, NPCs and strongholds? Protect them, make them community projects or let people claim them for their own projects?
• What about abandoned mines?

Please note that this world is not intended to be for players to come in and fiddle on small constructions that they wish to recreate on Frontier. That sort of testing can be done on single player. This world is for permanent constructions. It can be used for grand plans in a safer and more protected environment than Frontier. It is where the players, young and old, can work together through the game day and night without having to fortify themselves.

This is not a poll[1]. However, some of you weren't playing with the division when I ran the survey and we were never sure exactly what sort of game we would end up with at that time. I also realise that not all of you have an interest in Sanctuary, but I just want to find out how people think they would like to use Sanctuary. For that reason, I want to make it different to Frontier. With your help, we can finalise how.

Sorontar

[1] but polls might eventuate from the discussion. We will see.

[DarkDuck]

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• Do you want monsters to spawn at all? They are known to be a good source of various items, like bones for bonemeal and blaze rods for potions etc. However, they can also interfere with your constructions, i.e. endermen and creepers.

I would not mind this provided we have the non hostile mob option, if not, then no.

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• Do you want any ability to spawn some of your own items? This is one way to get around having no monsters.

Once again, if non hostile mobs, nope, however if that is not possible then yes, this would make life easier

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• Do you want hunger to be an issue? What level of difficulty do you want? You can have hard (level 3) but no monsters.

I think hunger where ya can't die is good.

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• Do you want to be able to fly?

nope, I hate the flying idea,

[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• The big one - do you want this world to actually be Creative mode and not have to mine at all?

nope, no mining to me is cheat mode, and I would just steer clear of the server. I feel unless you mine the stuff yourself then there is no real work involved.

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• As for Frontier, what shall we do about NPC villages, NPCs and strongholds? Protect them, make them community projects or let people claim them for their own projects?

Villages and Strongholds I think should be protected and turned into community projects

Originally Posted by Sorontar

• What about abandoned mines?

Free for all, if they are on your turf you can claim the part that is...

[MadMax]

For mine, if we must have 2 servers they should be:

1. Frontier : mostly as currently intended now, mobs, no giving of items, not set on hardest level, limited tp etc (get rid of the warm ups, serves no purpose other than frustrating as far as I am concerned, takes away the way some people like to play)

2. Creative : an actual creative server, not just a dumbed down frontier. Spawn anything, fly around, mobs/no mobs (not fussed), try new server mods every couple of months, do different things with it, rather than restricting it to a boredom server. I.e. take away all the danger, and leave in the chore. Chore is not rewarding without danger, its simply chore.

As far as NPC villages and strongholds I see them as community resources. Take the goodies but leave the buildings intact.

Abandoned mines: free for all to plunder.

Hunger is fine (on frontier) but not so difficult it kills you.

My 2 cents.

Cheers,
Max

[Stuman]

+1 for Dark's suggestions.

[HenriDeacon]

Hunger would be good, encourages farming and also trade and interaction between players.

[Bazz]

I'm with Max - full creative as opposed to a half baked survival deal.
I'm not a believer of " you must mine it to make a valid construction" - seems like video game snobbery a bit.
Are painters required to make their own paints?
Musicians their own instruments?

Why not create for the sake of creation - I for one would like to see what is created when our members are let off the hook.

Also you don't have to use any of the advantages of creative if you choose not to - I would think it uncool if your inability to police yourself and your game style intrudes on another players ability to enjoy the game in the manner they wish.

Lastly, experience has shown us that many players will gravitate to the frontier world and style of play - if you think it likely that will include you, I'd ask that you try to avoid becoming to vocal about rules ona server you are unlikely to frequent.

Cheers,
Bazz

[DarkDuck]

Originally Posted by Bazz

Lastly, experience has shown us that many players will gravitate to the frontier world and style of play - if you think it likely that will include you, I'd ask that you try to avoid becoming to vocal about rules ona server you are unlikely to frequent.

hmmm, I think there needs to clarification, ideally the servers should be opposites

I also Agree with Bazz, however and this is the problem, there are 3 thoughts, but only 2 servers

I feel I will play mainly on the Fronteer as such I have had my say, but in truth, like I said there are many view points, and sadly really 3 options but only 2 servers.

[Obsi]

I'm not going to have a say in actual gameplay ideas, since I won't be playing there... but I have something to add to the discussion...

Past experience with our 2 servers before has shown that the vast majority of players prefer the "survival" mode of play over the "safer" one... (our old "creative" server was seldom used, and if past history is anything to go by, Sanctuary won't be used as much either)........ and we find it difficult to cater to all player's needs, given such a variety in how people like to play the game. So we really need to find a way to get as much of people's preferred gameplay happening on Sanctuary as we can, to increase people's desire to play there.

On Sanctuary, we seem to have 2 main ideas of gameplay:

#1 - Mix of Survival&Creative - mods, no/easy mobs, warps, maybe flying, maybe limited item spawnng, but still have to mine for stuff
#2 - Full creative.

Now we can actually cater to both of those styles at the same time. We can run Sanctuary as both easy-survival and creative.... literally the best of both worlds.

The server needs to be set to either survival or creative.... but regardless of the server settings, each player can be individually set to be either creative or survival mode (it's as simple as typing a command) So it is possible for a player to be in creative mode (all blocks, no health/hunger) on a survival server and vice versa.

By default only admins/mods have the ability to change a player's game mode, but if we are able to make that command available to all players on the server, then a player can switch modes as they see fit. If we can't give players that command, then players would have to choose what one they want, can be set to that and would need to ask a modmin to change them (which would be inconvenient, so not really the best option, but it is an option)

The advantage there is that the server could be set to an easy-survival.... so you have mobs available (if that's what the majority want), or no mobs..... Any player wanting to play in that mode leaves their game mode alone, and plays like that. Which would be like Sanctuary is now (or with added mobs). Any player wanting the full creative experience can simply set themselves to creative mode.

A creative mode player on a survival server will have mobs spawn around them like any other player, however the mobs will ignore the player, unless the player attacks them. Since they have no health bar, even if a player did anger a mob, they won't be killed by it anyway. The only problem is creepers as they will still explode if provoked and will still destroy blocks. So "creative" mode players would have to be mindful of not causing destruction to property by creeper damage, just like anyone else.

Now the argument will surely be that a player could change to creative, grab stacks of diamonds and then change back to survival, but really... that's not affecting anyone else's gameplay. So who cares. If a player chooses to play in survival mode because they want the challenge of mobs and needing to mine the resources, then what does it matter if they "cheat" by going into creative mode. Similarly, if someone wants to be on the same server as you and wants to fly about and build with infinite resources, why should that affect your gameplay if you prefer to play in survival mode.

So this way, both forms of creative and easy-survival mode can be catered for on the one server. And each player can have the benefit of playing both ways if and when they like.

[Misnik]

Given how the anniversary server went; and knowing the amount of players who play survival over sanctuary. I would actually be in support of a fully creative server, It could be rather interesting.

[Bazz]

Hey Ducky - just in case! - my comments were not aimed at you in anyway
(doesent seem to matter how you play, there will be explosions )

Oh - and for those who will play , Obsi Wan makes great sense.