Now it IS long, and you do need to give it your full attention. DO NOT tl;dr this because this has been the collection of a lot of hard work from us, and it is entirely for your benefit. Without further adue;
The new state of SMP
Background on the situation, for those unaware;Upon the release of 1.8, many new features will be added that require a new map to be generated (villages, ravines, ruins etc.). Once 1.8 hits our server will be temporary mapped and Vanilla, while bukkit and everything catch up and Hafnium and I get a handle on setting up the server the required way.
We have tried to run a more structured game type in the past, however this was difficult to set up due to the lack of trustee presence, and I feel that now we could run a better system than simply "Go and do what you want" like we are running now (not that there is anything wrong with that).
Over in trustee-land, we have all made decisions about what kind of gameplay we want our new 1.8 system to have. This will all depend greatly on the available plugins, but we will try and make it as awesome as we can.
Upon the new map going live, we will already have a few things in place. These include an idea of transport systems (Not widespread rail, though), a map ready to go, a newer and sexier main city, and a rough project registry for oversized things just so we don't have a map as ugly as the rest of them, plus more! (But the rest is an exciting secret!)
On PvP and Stealing
The rules will be simple;
- Teleportation in order to get a PvP/stealing advantage is forbidden and punishable.
Locked player houses give the player immunity to PvP/stealing.
Applied Cities may construct their own set of PvP/stealing rules within city area.
Repeated killing of a single player is a form of grief.
Griefing to get to a player in order to steal/kill them is forbidden and punishable.
The economy as you know it will NOT be transferred. This is due to a few things. The economy that we have now was slightly inflated when people abused bugs and stuff, and also because the initial burst of players having a whole bunch of money might cause some inflation. We HAVE developed a compensation system. Please keep reading before you get all rage-y.
Also we are waiting to see what Notch's "currency" system has to offer.
On large projects/Cities
Builds greater than 64x64 (About 4000 blocks) will require application on the forums for. This will not be a hard thing to do, but is more for a registry/way to make sure we don't end up with 200 flat patches around the place. We won't be hard judges or anything, just so we don't have a billion flat patches of not-worked on projects like last time.
On promotions
Promotions to member will be more frequent, yet they will have less power. Veteran may be given more powers. Moderation will be standard procedure.
On Transfers
Leading up to the release and the updating of the server to 1.8, players may collect all their valuables in a SINGLE CHEST, in order to be copied over to the new map. This is in compensation for NOT copying builds over. Contents of the chest will be reviewed before copy, so no dodgy stuff!
Just reiterating, unless you have been specifically told by a trustee that your build will be transferred, IT WILL NOT BE, so don't pester us. There will be some that get transferred, but it has nothing to do with you so don't be annoyed at them either.
On Initus
Many of you have expressed concerns about the shittiness of Initus, however your concerns will be no more when we release Initus v2.0 when the new server map goes live courtesy of the trustees. It will be properly designed this time, and serve much more of a function in regular server goings on.
BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL MY STUFF ON THIS MAP?! <---That's you, that's what you sound like.
With this new compensation system we also have another offer for you. If you want, we can copy your area to a .schematic file, and we can give you that in order to play with on a server of your own device. All you need is a bukkit server (plenty of tutorials online) and WorldEdit, which will have a 'schematics' folder that you can place them in, and load them and paste them in game!
