Battling map decay

[WoleverEntun]

Or perhaps a periodical expansion of the main map, and each time you raise the township cap by one or two. On zeal it was exciting to go and explore the newest section of the map, mine, and visit the new towns built there.

 

[MatTripp]

If we are going to make more maps to play on, i would suggest making them a lot smaller than the main map. There is always the problem of never seeing anyone and large maps in extra worlds wont help that any.

Also one of the maps could be a pure dungeon map, have dungeons that you have to do in order and lead up to a mega dungeon in Hell. Make it so it will take a while to complete all the dungeons and the rewards get better and better as you go along.

Also something to think about with hero's would be adding a set of skills after a while for over 100? I mean come on if someone hits level 100 they should get something for it.

 

[RedEchoRanger]

Additional maps is a must. Link the vanilla one through the nexus, maybe add a creative map, finish the adventure map, etc.

I think with the advent of quests, we can really bump up the 'things-to-do' factor. The things that could be most fun will also be the most work, like having a handful of NPCs in the wilds collecting resources from player, and once they have enough (by the plugin somehow sending a message to someone) a village is placed there and new quests start. Even have the ability to go backweards. Once a week have a "dome-of-death" style event where if the players fail, the town is damaged/destroyed and the villagers will have to be given materials to rebuild.

It really boils down to having more things to do and more long-term goals for players to work towards.

I agree, perhaps we could also have monthly/weekly episodes of popular adventure maps made by the community (minecraft forums). I not sure if there are any, but a co-op map would be something I'd love to see available. It would be an ammenity that would keep us coming back to play every week to see if something new had been made.

 

[Psychokhaos]

I think more maps would help, but there is always one thing with Minecraft servers that I haven't seen anyone get around. People mine, and the world will run out of resources, eventually. This is the case with Herocraft, not to mention that having the same towns in the same places in the same kingdoms, etc., can get boring. What we need are ways to try and combat this specifically, in my opinion.

So, just adding more maps isn't an answer that would last very long. It's like a hamburger - No matter how much barbecue sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, etc., you put on it, it will still be a hamburger.

I'll put some ideas on how to help with adding excitement to the map, some maybe building on ideas already posted on this thread later.

 

[TheTXLibra]

I should start this off by saying that I have enormous amounts of respect for Chief, and the staff, for creating such a great game, map, and community. The strongest point of Herocraft by far is the community (staff included), and it is what has always drawn me back time and time again.

That said, the desire for a new map stems from two primary factors that I can see:

1. The destruction of the map over time due to landscaping and mining. One of the most beautiful things about Minecraft as a game is going into virgin territory and just drinking it all in. Map wipes level the playing field for everyone, and everyone has their shot at finding their own little slice of the world and making it uniquely theirs. Making towns harder to establish seems the logical choice for preventing the wholesale rape of the land by quick startups and city failures. If there are only a couple of major towns, it will drive business and communities. Too many mayors and not enough citizens has always been a problem. Perhaps even limiting the entire server to 3 towns and have them all be competing factions, and leave the 4 factions in the elected hands of the communities who choose them. This would concentrate the player-base into specific areas, and also drive the pvp element.

2. The eventual desire to play some other class/profession because we want to use other abilities. A Farmer may want to eventually craft potions, or an Engineer may want to be able to play Falsebook signs. A cleric may want the chance to use a bow for once. To be honest, while I am in awe of what has been done so far in Herocraft, I am not a fan of the old-school leveling system where you are trapped into a static skillset and can never take advantage of the full set of abilities Minecraft has to offer. I have a solution to this that has been proven to work with recent RPGs, but it would involve completely gutting the Herocraft RPG system and rebuilding it. But since we're having this discussion, here goes:

Trapping people into classes and professions, (even with the ability to respec) where you have to power-grind through abilities you could care less about to get the one or two cool abilities of what you really want, while never getting to experience all the skills is, IMHO not only short-sighted, but is also a huge contributing factor to the desire for a map wipe. No one wants to have wasted weeks of grinding to get one ability only to find they'd have been happier as another class/prof.

The class/profession mechanic worked in old school RPG days, but the genre has evolved to a much better, more dynamic format: leave it completely open-ended, and have the character purchase what abilities they want instead. Think of Skyrim or Fallout. You aren't a "Mage" or a "Warrior"... you're your own unique blend of exactly the skills you want, because you were given the choice. If swinging a sword and shooting fireballs is what you want, then by G-d, you can buy those abilities, but perhaps in doing so, the concentration means you won't have enough xp to be very good at healing. Or maybe you want to be just slightly good at lots of things. You can do that. The point is that the decision on just how concentrated you want to be, or not, is put entirely in the hands of the player.

And this is how the market, and playerbase, is moving to. Giving customers more choice instead of less. Giving them more control instead of less, allows each player to make the game uniquely their own experience. Suddenly players are MUCH more invested in their characters because it is not a pre-determined static set of skills they are stuck with (short of starting all over). Instead, each character is a deep investment in the things each player wants the most.

Thus, my suggestion is to scrap Herocraft's oldschool class/profession game mechanic, and move instead towards a classless system where every ability costs a certain amount of xp or coin (and perhaps a level requirement as well). I know this is asking a lot, and to scrap all the work done so far (which is amazing), but it is my honest answer to a very difficult question posed by you, Chief.

 

[j2gay]

I should start this off by saying that I have enormous amounts of respect for Chief, and the staff, for creating such a great game, map, and community. The strongest point of Herocraft by far is the community (staff included), and it is what has always drawn me back time and time again.

That said, the desire for a new map stems from two primary factors that I can see:

1. The destruction of the map over time due to landscaping and mining. One of the most beautiful things about Minecraft as a game is going into virgin territory and just drinking it all in. Map wipes level the playing field for everyone, and everyone has their shot at finding their own little slice of the world and making it uniquely theirs. Making towns harder to establish seems the logical choice for preventing the wholesale rape of the land by quick startups and city failures. If there are only a couple of major towns, it will drive business and communities. Too many mayors and not enough citizens has always been a problem. Perhaps even limiting the entire server to 3 towns and have them all be competing factions, and leave the 4 factions in the elected hands of the communities who choose them. This would concentrate the player-base into specific areas, and also drive the pvp element.

2. The eventual desire to play some other class/profession because we want to use other abilities. A Farmer may want to eventually craft potions, or an Engineer may want to be able to play Falsebook signs. A cleric may want the chance to use a bow for once. To be honest, while I am in awe of what has been done so far in Herocraft, I am not a fan of the old-school leveling system where you are trapped into a static skillset and can never take advantage of the full set of abilities Minecraft has to offer. I have a solution to this that has been proven to work with recent RPGs, but it would involve completely gutting the Herocraft RPG system and rebuilding it. But since we're having this discussion, here goes:

Trapping people into classes and professions, (even with the ability to respec) where you have to power-grind through abilities you could care less about to get the one or two cool abilities of what you really want, while never getting to experience all the skills is, IMHO not only short-sighted, but is also a huge contributing factor to the desire for a map wipe. No one wants to have wasted weeks of grinding to get one ability only to find they'd have been happier as another class/prof.

The class/profession mechanic worked in old school RPG days, but the genre has evolved to a much better, more dynamic format: leave it completely open-ended, and have the character purchase what abilities they want instead. Think of Skyrim or Fallout. You aren't a "Mage" or a "Warrior"... you're your own unique blend of exactly the skills you want, because you were given the choice. If swinging a sword and shooting fireballs is what you want, then by G-d, you can buy those abilities, but perhaps in doing so, the concentration means you won't have enough xp to be very good at healing. Or maybe you want to be just slightly good at lots of things. You can do that. The point is that the decision on just how concentrated you want to be, or not, is put entirely in the hands of the player.

And this is how the market, and playerbase, is moving to. Giving customers more choice instead of less. Giving them more control instead of less, allows each player to make the game uniquely their own experience. Suddenly players are MUCH more invested in their characters because it is not a pre-determined static set of skills they are stuck with (short of starting all over). Instead, each character is a deep investment in the things each player wants the most.

Thus, my suggestion is to scrap Herocraft's oldschool class/profession game mechanic, and move instead towards a classless system where every ability costs a certain amount of xp or coin (and perhaps a level requirement as well). I know this is asking a lot, and to scrap all the work done so far (which is amazing), but it is my honest answer to a very difficult question posed by you, Chief.

I cant say i agree with your stance on towns. I do find your other idea interesting. I think the work involed would probably prohibit it from ever being implemented, sadly as it would probably be the ideal system.

 

[TheTXLibra]

I cant say i agree with your stance on towns. I do find your other idea interesting. I think the work involed would probably prohibit it from ever being implemented, sadly as it would probably be the ideal system.

Well, the framework is technically already there, in that you have to pay gold to switch to a spec, and you have to be a minimum level of the base class to do so as well. Perhaps then it could be tweaked to only ever have a base "combat" class and a base "non-combat" class (to keep track of exp separately), and instead of splitting into sub-classes, etc, just have people buy the powers they want, and require their combat or non-combat stat be a certain level, depending on how powerful the power is and its type.

You could set almost any ability that way, even down to the ability to use diamond swords, bows, diamond picks, etc. That way no one ever has any "wasted" skills. You could then just add new abilities as time goes on and people could buy them as desired. People go could as specific or general as they wanted. No one could claim any particular class was OP, because everyone would be responsible for their own choices.

And really, giving more choice and control to the customer is what the internet market values most, typically. This gives massive choice within a framework still 100% controllable by the admins.

The real difficulty would be in asking everyone to start all over again, and also asking all the wonderful staff and coders who put so much time and effort into the current game, to scrap 50% of the work done and build in a different direction.

 

[RedEchoRanger]

I should start this off by saying that I have enormous amounts of respect for Chief, and the staff, for creating such a great game, map, and community. The strongest point of Herocraft by far is the community (staff included), and it is what has always drawn me back time and time again.

That said, the desire for a new map stems from two primary factors that I can see:

1. The destruction of the map over time due to landscaping and mining. One of the most beautiful things about Minecraft as a game is going into virgin territory and just drinking it all in. Map wipes level the playing field for everyone, and everyone has their shot at finding their own little slice of the world and making it uniquely theirs. Making towns harder to establish seems the logical choice for preventing the wholesale rape of the land by quick startups and city failures. If there are only a couple of major towns, it will drive business and communities. Too many mayors and not enough citizens has always been a problem. Perhaps even limiting the entire server to 3 towns and have them all be competing factions, and leave the 4 factions in the elected hands of the communities who choose them. This would concentrate the player-base into specific areas, and also drive the pvp element.

2. The eventual desire to play some other class/profession because we want to use other abilities. A Farmer may want to eventually craft potions, or an Engineer may want to be able to play Falsebook signs. A cleric may want the chance to use a bow for once. To be honest, while I am in awe of what has been done so far in Herocraft, I am not a fan of the old-school leveling system where you are trapped into a static skillset and can never take advantage of the full set of abilities Minecraft has to offer. I have a solution to this that has been proven to work with recent RPGs, but it would involve completely gutting the Herocraft RPG system and rebuilding it. But since we're having this discussion, here goes:

Trapping people into classes and professions, (even with the ability to respec) where you have to power-grind through abilities you could care less about to get the one or two cool abilities of what you really want, while never getting to experience all the skills is, IMHO not only short-sighted, but is also a huge contributing factor to the desire for a map wipe. No one wants to have wasted weeks of grinding to get one ability only to find they'd have been happier as another class/prof.

The class/profession mechanic worked in old school RPG days, but the genre has evolved to a much better, more dynamic format: leave it completely open-ended, and have the character purchase what abilities they want instead. Think of Skyrim or Fallout. You aren't a "Mage" or a "Warrior"... you're your own unique blend of exactly the skills you want, because you were given the choice. If swinging a sword and shooting fireballs is what you want, then by G-d, you can buy those abilities, but perhaps in doing so, the concentration means you won't have enough xp to be very good at healing. Or maybe you want to be just slightly good at lots of things. You can do that. The point is that the decision on just how concentrated you want to be, or not, is put entirely in the hands of the player.

And this is how the market, and playerbase, is moving to. Giving customers more choice instead of less. Giving them more control instead of less, allows each player to make the game uniquely their own experience. Suddenly players are MUCH more invested in their characters because it is not a pre-determined static set of skills they are stuck with (short of starting all over). Instead, each character is a deep investment in the things each player wants the most.

Thus, my suggestion is to scrap Herocraft's oldschool class/profession game mechanic, and move instead towards a classless system where every ability costs a certain amount of xp or coin (and perhaps a level requirement as well). I know this is asking a lot, and to scrap all the work done so far (which is amazing), but it is my honest answer to a very difficult question posed by you, Chief.

I'm not going to lie. I see great ideas.

 

[WoleverEntun]

I feel like there should be something better than a township cap, factions are an interesting idea.

 

[Perineurium]

Anddd burnt out.

 

[Algsa777]

I have an idea with an idea branching off from that.
Start implementing Legendaries BUT make you have to master multiple classes like 4 Combat and 2 Prof.
My idea to sprouting off is when 1.4 minecraft comes out create 16 arena that contain Super Boss Mobs. (Using custom API, Potions, and Armor) And the first person to slay one of them gets to work the Team and create their own Legendary Class. The classes would be based off 4 mastered classes and 2 mastered profs. So you could max all of the same type: Like Warrior, or hybrid 2 start classes like: Healer and Warrior using Cleric, Mystic, Dragoon, and Paladin.
The 2 Profs would be based off the starter classes so: Warrior = Smith and Miner, Rogue = Mason and Engineer, Caster = Scribe and Enchanter, and Healer = Alchemist and Farmer.
Some examples i thought of were: Grand Knight (Paladin, Dreadknight, Dragoon, Samuria, Miner, and Smith,) or Bio-Bomber (TC inspired) (Pyromancer, Beguiler, Ranger, Ninja, Enchanter, and Engineer)

 

[ZeroStormAI]

TheTXLibra i love your idea to redo the class system but heres an idea maybe use that system in a whole new map to see how it works first this way if its not as good or not that great (which it will be im sure) they can just remove it and stick with the system now. i only see one problem i still think there should be warrior healer rouge, caster classes. but those classes can only use skills they are allowed to use me personally im combat not a healer. i dont think letting a warrior class being able to have healing abilities is good. but letting a healer get skills that make him more offensive then defensive is good. now paladin was an exception its meant to be able to soak up damage, and heal itself. just my opinion

 

[Carbash]

Personally I feel that if you allow for less towns, but focus more on guilds within the towns then this would create a few things. One i see guild rivalries in place that would allow for more controlled bouts of violence. Most towns would not accept open violence within the walls but outside is a different matter. Each district of a town is responsible for its fees for expansion. Mostly i would feel that by lessening the amount of allowed towns you would increase the epicness of town vs town raids.

More people in a town at a time means more people to defend it and more people needed to raid it.

Mayors would elect architects from each district to design within their perameters, so the towns would look better and actually become vast.

I feel a good number of towns should be 6.


Another thing i think that would be kind of inovative would be to allow for mining zones within the towns that the town could pay a price for and have it be refilled. This would limit how much is mined outside of town. Maybe not inside the town but next to it and it would be unregioned so the miners could still get raided, but being close to town would mean close reinforcements.

 

[Tom_Dearinger]

HERO WARS (HUNGER GAMES) + HEROCRAFT ONLINE = Topping All Minecraft Server Lists
Personally I get on MC to play two types of games... Hunger Games and Herocraft. Do you know how popular this server could be if you tap into the addictivness of surviving the Hunger games mixing with the epicness of the leveling system you have created?

The Setup
-A portal would be created in the Nexus leading to the Hero Wars map.
-The map would be approx 40x40 Chunks, the map would include different biomes which geographicaly give advantages to various classes.
-Party/team and lone wolf setup... Now this is where it will get difficult.
-Lone Wolf Setup: This will be the most appealing choice for people wanting to get something out playing in the Hero Wars. This is because there will be a reward system setup for killing other survivors. The reward for a lone wolf kill will give 1x Hero Points to the victor.
-Party Setup: The setup for playing Hero Wars with a party will have give an obvious numbers advantage in lone wolf vs. party situation. To make it more appealing and fair to be a lone wolf, there will be a penalty for the amount of Hero Points distributed among the party members. My idea is to do the opposite of how the party exp system is setup by using a formula such as 1/(x+[x^3/4x^2]) only when x>1.
-Reward system: To make it simple each kill is worth 100 Hero Points. After death or victory the person will be teleported to the rewards room setup similar to the DHX chests, the rewards will be rare items/blocks examples would be a fortune pickaxe or endstone being the most expensive. The rewards room will accesible via the nexus and visa versa.
-How often will I be able to play Hero Wars?... Would be one of the first questions I would ask. Every 2 hours the map will be reset beggining the next Hero Wars.
-Game Setup: The hero will be required to enter the portal with no items in their Inventory or equip slots. Failing to do so will result in being denied acsess into the match. The waiting lobby room will open up 10 min before the next match starts. Once the map starts each character will be given a compass that will point to the nearest player with an exception of party members. At the 15 minute marker the great feast will begin spawning a cluster of chests containing items of interest.
-Additional options: This could open the whole idea for a Hero Wars class that would be considered the 3rd class.
-Once a month the server could host a Town Hero Wars event, the victor town would recieve some sort of reward and own the title of current victor. This would make towns more appealing and allow for competitive pvp among friendly and enemy towns.
-create multiple maps to where strategies would have to be made on the spot.

Why you should consider this.
-Get on youtube and search Herocraft Online, 92 results come up. Now type in Minecraft Hunger Games, 93,300 results come up. The social media that would come with HCO's Hero Wars would launch your server to the top, especialy since you are such a dedicated server host.
-What makes any huge MMORPG so addicting is the ability to showcase your skills in massive battles and minigames.
- The amount of donations you would recieve would increase significantly, this means more money for you, and more money you could invest into the server

Thanks for taking the time to read,

~Tom

Kainzo

 

[Kainzo]

HERO WARS (HUNGER GAMES) + HEROCRAFT ONLINE = Topping All Minecraft Server Lists
Personally I get on MC to play two types of games... Hunger Games and Herocraft. Do you know how popular this server could be if you tap into the addictivness of surviving the Hunger games mixing with the epicness of the leveling system you have created?

The Setup
-A portal would be created in the Nexus leading to the Hero Wars map.
-The map would be approx 40x40 Chunks, the map would include different biomes which geographicaly give advantages to various classes.
-Party/team and lone wolf setup... Now this is where it will get difficult.
-Lone Wolf Setup: This will be the most appealing choice for people wanting to get something out playing in the Hero Wars. This is because there will be a reward system setup for killing other survivors. The reward for a lone wolf kill will give 1x Hero Points to the victor.
-Party Setup: The setup for playing Hero Wars with a party will have give an obvious numbers advantage in lone wolf vs. party situation. To make it more appealing and fair to be a lone wolf, there will be a penalty for the amount of Hero Points distributed among the party members. My idea is to do the opposite of how the party exp system is setup by using a formula such as 1/(x+[x^3/4x^2]) only when x>1.
-Reward system: To make it simple each kill is worth 100 Hero Points. After death or victory the person will be teleported to the rewards room setup similar to the DHX chests, the rewards will be rare items/blocks examples would be a fortune pickaxe or endstone being the most expensive. The rewards room will accesible via the nexus and visa versa.
-How often will I be able to play Hero Wars?... Would be one of the first questions I would ask. Every 2 hours the map will be reset beggining the next Hero Wars.
-Game Setup: The hero will be required to enter the portal with no items in their Inventory or equip slots. Failing to do so will result in being denied acsess into the match. The waiting lobby room will open up 10 min before the next match starts. Once the map starts each character will be given a compass that will point to the nearest player with an exception of party members. At the 15 minute marker the great feast will begin spawning a cluster of chests containing items of interest.
-Additional options: This could open the whole idea for a Hero Wars class that would be considered the 3rd class.
-Once a month the server could host a Town Hero Wars event, the victor town would recieve some sort of reward and own the title of current victor. This would make towns more appealing and allow for competitive pvp among friendly and enemy towns.
-create multiple maps to where strategies would have to be made on the spot.

Why you should consider this.
-Get on youtube and search Herocraft Online, 92 results come up. Now type in Minecraft Hunger Games, 93,300 results come up. The social media that would come with HCO's Hero Wars would launch your server to the top, especialy since you are such a dedicated server host.
-What makes any huge MMORPG so addicting is the ability to showcase your skills in massive battles and minigames.
- The amount of donations you would recieve would increase significantly, this means more money for you, and more money you could invest into the server

Thanks for taking the time to read,

~Tom

Kainzo

I'd consider it, but we need a plugin to handle all of that.

 

[heylookitskyle]

Obviously it's too late for this as of now and I'm not even sure if this is possible but I think it would've been nice to have the main world a Build/Raid/PvP world only, where you cannot mine or harvest resources from it. That way the landscapes look great still and it looks fresh along with beautiful empires. This would go along with more frequently refreshed resource maps however as everyone would need to use it for anything. There could be some sort of spell that takes you to the resource world because you would need it so often.

Just spitting off ideas for the future.