Battling map decay

[Kainzo]

First off,
I want this to be an intellectual conversation. I need your input and I'd like to put forth some ideas.

I'll state that Minecraft, as a game, is probably in it's decline. We won't be seeing a surge of another 30 million players in the genre/game, it'll be steady for a bit and start dropping.

For almost every game/server when a fresh start is kicked you have a massive influx of players. I'm looking for methods to increase the longevity of the map/levels rather than wiping them every X months.

What would, for you, increase the life-span of a map?

• More heroLevels?
• Additional maps added to the 'verse?
• Harder cost requirements for Towns?
• etc, etc

(We as staff never "plan" on a wipe, it usually coincides with several factors and just sort of happens)

Herocraft is stronger than ever, I am very happy with the direction our server is taking. The community as a whole is strong and I hope to host future games for you guys as well. (Cubeworld, DayZ standalone, etc)

Thanks for listening!

 

[Sigpit]

I would love to see the addition off more worlds, Creative, Adventure and/or kit pvp. And maybe you could upload an adventure map every once in a while for people to play, obivously with some limitations.

 

[Nalestom]

So long as you and the rest of the programming staff stay active, there will always be a hardcore Herocraft playerbase.

What I've learned about communities is that there is a natural ebb and flow of players. Some players join and stay for years because they genuinely enjoy the experience. Some players join and play for a few days, but rapidly lose interest. Some players will join and play a lot for a few months, then drop off. Some players may be a combination of the previous two, but they will consistently come back and play just for old time's sake.

Everyday drama is one of the things that keep players playing. When you're emotionally tied to the game, whether it be because another town is constantly raiding yours or whether you've made a ton of friends that play, you naturally feel the urge to come back and play. Therefore, I propose that we incite drama by limiting the maximum number of towns possible. This will increase the total number of players per town, thereby increasing each town's activity and promoting wars between towns.

I also think that we should do something more with guilds. Guilds are a fantastic concept that have been largely ignored in the past. Instead of focusing primarily on towns, I think we should embellish the concept of guilds a little bit more so that players are encouraged to participate in them as well.

 

[Neotetro]

Multiple maps would definitely help, as well as one that refreshes its resources. I also think it would be beneficial for admins to regen surface land so that the landscape doesn't look scarred over.

And yes, I think town requirements should be brutal

 

[whitemagehealu]

Regen inactive towns.

 

[j2gay]

Making a full use of the multiverse concept would help. As for additional levels I'm not sure that just adding levels and HP is the answer. It might be difficult to code but I think a system that let you level up your individual skills by using them would be more dynamic and lasting. For example if a Samauri were to use mostly a bow while mob hunting or engaging in pvp, they should have a higher bow damage than a samauri that uses mostly their sword and vice versa.
For regen of surface lands using admins to do this is a fine idea, however I think using quests to do this might be more beneficial to the community. I was actually developing a guild where one of the orders would fill this role as one of their main functions.
On the town requirements, it should be very difficult to establish a town, however if its upkeep is too difficult it becomes hard to grow beyond the smallest size. Perhaps to encourage growth we should have a lower tax rate and an expansion window. A town that fails to produce the funds for upgrade to a larger size within the alloted time must join a kingdom or pay a large increase in tax. As towns become Kindoms instead of paying taxes they should collect taxes from their member hamlets. Using that idea you could allow kindoms to sponsor hamlets at a reduced rate.
Some other options for towns would be
1. Charge an additional tax for each member over the resident cap and at the same time offer a small discount toward upgrade for each additional member above the cap.
2.Charge a very high tax rate and withold a percentage toward upgrade say 1000c for a hamlet and 5% set aside for upgrade.

 

[Perineurium]

Honestly, regarding adjusting the grind, I think the complete opposite. As a newer player, the degree of grind required to even get a hamlet officiated is mildly off-putting, and raising costs seems antithetical to the expressed desire for more open towns. The current system encourages cave grinding for ores and mobs (high town costs and the only good source of crafter xp) all day.

Likewise, the amount of grinding required to reach many of the interesting/class defining hero skills is considerable. Vanilla minecraft combat is rather clunky, and class complexity is limiting until you've sunk enough time in to be a moderately leveled spec class. Descriptions alone make it difficult to anticipate what class you will enjoy (a problem shared by many mmos), but the grind makes respec daunting (as well as the increasingly difficult pvp a respec will face as others begin to level/max their specs). Maybe increase xp gain in a new primary/spec class after mastering a different primary/spec. As long as costs prevent continual class swapping, this would allow for more experimentation without an undue gain in power.

I would move towards weekly quests > daily quests >= grinding in terms of experience. Or admin involvement in more creative quests etc. For example - in an unoccupied/stripped region, offer quests to players to build an NPC town, give xp for quality buildings, then populate with daily quest NPCs (such as, if possible, please reforest the area around our town, give the baker wheat and then distribute bread, etc). While the number of player towns should be limited, I think a more "alive" map would be nice. Reward structured player interactions by giving guild/town pvp quests.

 

[Bingy1218]

There needs to be more to do once you reach max level e.g dungeons and stuff for the new maps, combining team work etc..not entirely sure what to say but definitely something once people reach max level.

 

[CoolBeans279(Alt)]

I think a pvp world would be cool im not talking warshard im talking a small small world with safezones but also places to pvp once you do like ./enter arena 1 you cant back out and you can do like 1v1s 2v2s 5v5s but it wouldnt be am un fair fight ever, just an idea though.

 

[j2gay]

Honestly, regarding adjusting the grind, I think the complete opposite. As a newer player, the degree of grind required to even get a hamlet officiated is mildly off-putting, and raising costs seems antithetical to the expressed desire for more open towns. The current system encourages cave grinding for ores and mobs (high town costs and the only good source of crafter xp) all day.

Likewise, the amount of grinding required to reach many of the interesting/class defining hero skills is considerable. Vanilla minecraft combat is rather clunky, and class complexity is limiting until you've sunk enough time in to be a moderately leveled spec class. Descriptions alone make it difficult to anticipate what class you will enjoy (a problem shared by many mmos), but the grind makes respec daunting (as well as the increasingly difficult pvp a respec will face as others begin to level/max their specs). Maybe increase xp gain in a new primary/spec class after mastering a different primary/spec. As long as costs prevent continual class swapping, this would allow for more experimentation without an undue gain in power.

I would move towards weekly quests > daily quests >= grinding in terms of experience. Or admin involvement in more creative quests etc. For example - in an unoccupied/stripped region, offer quests to players to build an NPC town, give xp for quality buildings, then populate with daily quest NPCs (such as, if possible, please reforest the area around our town, give the baker wheat and then distribute bread, etc). While the number of player towns should be limited, I think a more "alive" map would be nice. Reward structured player interactions by giving guild/town pvp quests.

Well said. Perhaps allowing the class defining skills to be gained sooner and allowing them to level with you would feel less grindlike.

 

[Alator]

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.

 

[Archestro]

On the town requirements, it should be very difficult to establish a town, however if its upkeep is too difficult it becomes hard to grow beyond the smallest size. Perhaps to encourage growth we should have a lower tax rate and an expansion window. A town that fails to produce the funds for upgrade to a larger size within the alloted time must join a kingdom or pay a large increase in tax. As towns become Kindoms instead of paying taxes they should collect taxes from their member hamlets. Using that idea you could allow kindoms to sponsor hamlets at a reduced rate.
Some other options for towns would be
1. Charge an additional tax for each member over the resident cap and at the same time offer a small discount toward upgrade for each additional member above the cap.
2.Charge a very high tax rate and withold a percentage toward upgrade say 1000c for a hamlet and 5% set aside for upgrade.

You suggest lowering the tax rate with an "expansion window". This sounds hard to manage from a server point of view.
Then you say in option 2 to raise it higher and set some aside for town expansion. I like this but 1000c seem way to high. Maybe stay around 500c for a hamlet with 5% going toward town expansion

 

[j2gay]

You suggest lowering the tax rate with an "expansion window". This sounds hard to manage from a server point of view.
Then you say in option 2 to raise it higher and set some aside for town expansion. I like this but 1000c seem way to high. Maybe stay around 500c for a hamlet with 5% going toward town expansion

I could go with that

 

[OrangeAngel]

Reserved

 

[donaldmax1]

I don't think adding a creative map is the best idea considering it's a hardcore rpg server.

 

[monkeymonk78]

ok this may sound weird but to expand on bingys idea have maybe something like the runescape skill dungeoneering. Where the higher the lvl to tougher and more complex dungeons you can do which requires more skills

 

[Haxnn]

Alot of stuff to read, so I'm not sure people have said this but...

I would like to see quests be implemented into gaining skills. For example the level 60 skill for every class could have a quest that relates to thier class. Example, dragoon could have a jumping puzzle requiring the use of jump. Just something that makes player feel they have leared the expert class skills, not just kills mobs and learn them.

Just a wild idea to throw out there (not sure if it's possible), but what if towns could have guards that upgrade with your town (Npcs). The mayor/Sic could place them anywhere and they would attack everything that isn't a town member that comes within 5 blocks. They could get better armor/skills (warrior guards, mage guards could cast things like bolt) as the town upgrades.

 

[Dazureus]

I think more more maps would help, as would some substantial quests (both of which are actually in the works now, so yay for the staff). Other than that... HeroLauncher and all the goodies that come with it. But I understand that it's a long-term thing.

 

[GraRona]

More maps, including adventure maps that give exp and reward upon completion. Regular resetting of Warshard, resetting once every 1 or 2 months. Old quests being removed, and new ones being added.

 

[Haxnn]

Warshard getting reset even every 2-3 weeks would be great. It's way more fun cave mining than branch mining.