Suggestion Map longevity...

[0xNaomi]

And every1 that joined went on pve, and they never change to pvp cause they think its harsh and its not is just that pve is build kill mobs buil mine kill mobs and not having to worry about people Lol why not play vanilla singleayer

...because there's other ways to interact with players that don't involve murdering them, and even if they do perhaps people want it in a controlled environment

 

[TheTMTrainer]

And every1 that joined went on pve, and they never change to pvp cause they think its harsh and its not is just that pve is build kill mobs buil mine kill mobs and not having to worry about people Lol why not play vanilla singleayer

If Kainzo didn't add a PvE side they would have lost the half of the population that fed up with getting killed at early levels.

Essentially the server would have came down to a couple factions/towns of people that had been able to level... and the rest of the people who couldn't even mine due to the map being exhausted. If they did manage to get something for mining there was absolutely nowhere to store the materials safely as it didn't take long for players to find you.

The reason why people went over to PvE originally was because of the chance to level and set up a base to store materials, but that takes a good amount of time and once they got a base going in PvE... there was no incentive to PvP. While this is a flaw in the system, PvE and PvP need to exist on the same server to make it an RPG server, but there also need to be incentives to doing both sides of the server or one side is going to die.

 

[trapzor]

As a relatively new player who joined in Sept. and built a small personal empire in PVE, mainly by looting in PVP, only to have to start over from the reset, I'm hugely in favor of longer map-durability. With that context, and after reading the thread, here's my perspective:

Spawn Plots:
The argument against these was the low upkeep, allowing players to have a safe place to store loot that could not be raided. Since there were lots of un-used plots on the last map, it doesn't seem like there's any danger of these running out, and every player has an equal opportunity to use them. The disadvantage of having to store all your stuff at spawn, is that all your stuff is at spawn. For that reason, you still see many people storing their stuff in towns. As a result, I don't think plots are a large problem, if any, so though I can see how they might be mildly frustrating in some very specific cases, this doesn't strike me as an actual problem with player retention or map longevity.

Resources:
Definitely a separate regenerating FFA resource map where you can't make ANY protections. This would greatly increase the longevity of the lower levels of the map, and prevent resource ultra-scarcity. To discourage people from pvp-camping it, disallow placement of chests. Some amount of pvp would happen there, and that's good.

PVP vs PVE:
This seems to be more about player retention than map longevity, but I agree that it's important. I have seen three main types of player:

1. Bloodthirsty (PVP) - this player type is exemplified by PVP spawn campers. Their typical concern is that there aren't enough people in PVP for them to beat up on. What they need: a supply of victims.
2. Peaceful builder (PVE) - these players are attracted to the building aspect of minecraft. They're on HC because they like the town system and the unique blend of classes and abilities, but they want zero pvp interaction. What they need: freedom to build in peace.
3. Adventurer (MIxed) - This is my own niche, but I think there's other players who probably feel the same. I enjoy mixing it up against other players, and trying to find ways past their defenses, while also trying to design traps and defenses of my own. Given the chance, I will protect my stuff by the most secure means - a spawn plot or more likely, a pve town. Nevertheless, I will also venture into PVP often if given an incentive to do so. Getting the right incentive is the key. What this type wants: a mix of semi-protected building and PVP with unique gear/loot based incentives.

The problem seems to be that type I and II are never going to coexist happily. However, with proper incentives you could lure type II players into PVP areas without turning them off the game entirely. This would make type I happy without alienating type II. These incentives should be unique items / adventures / loot opportunities that require players to adventure in PVP territory. In other words, the way to get type I and II to interact is to play on the type III tendencies of the type II players. Some players will always remain in PVE and there's nothing you can do about this. Removing PVE, or adding PVP elements to PVE will just chase these people from the server. But the players like myself who are type III are more than happy to venture into PVP, given the right incentives. The permanent inhabitants of PVP will be type I players, who don't want to be far from the action. They don't need protections to build a town in PVP, they will do it to be close to the action. Making that town lootable, or better yet, adding additional loot-based incentives to venture into that PVP country will make sure enough type II and III players are going there to keep the type I players happy. Valorium sounds like the best chance of this happening in HC's history so far.

Tl;dr: plots are non-issue, resource map is a good idea for boosting map longevity, and pvp vs pve is an important issue for player retention whose solution is loot/gear incentives to lure pve players into pvp territory.