The Future of fCraft's Services
Posted: August 30th, 2012, 7:44 am
Recently the owners got together and had a meeting regarding the development of gameservers with respect to the server upgrade. This will be completed by the 10th of October at the absolute latest (when our current server will be shut off).
This is what was decided:
The current SMP server is too resource heavy for the amount of people that want to play it, so to better capitalize on the resources provided by the new server we are going to split the different Minecraft gaming experiences into the following four gameservers (plus smaller, casual gameservers).
SMP Server
Status: Unknown
This gameserver will be a hardcore version of survival, with large emphasis on PvP and PvE. It will not be particularly oriented around building, and as such it will have very different rules regarding property, stealing and grief. It will likely launch on day one of the new server.
Hafnium and Hit_Girl will be managing the development of this gameserver.
CMP Server
Status: Beta Testing (Select group of players testing all components)
The mechanics of CMP will parallel that of fCraft software as close as practically possible using a range of plugins. The general overarching theme is multiworld (per rank groups) with the same rank structure. The Guest world will be flat and divided into plots (as you may have seen in other CMP servers) with certain restrictions (like water/lava, etc.) and upon being promoted, enter into the main mechanic of a flatland map and a generated map for each rank. These will be archived and one will be active at any time. Small personal worlds MAY be donatable-for, alternatively a plot in a "donator" map might be more likely. Be aware that subject to resource usage this system may change.
Ollieboy and Wundsalz will be managing the development of this gameserver.
Tekkit Server
Status: DONE! Apply for the whitelist in the Appeals and Applications section!
Tekkit was ran as a test as many of you know, and we will be capitalising on it as a full gameserver for as long as it is popular, to offer an alternative take on Minecraft. It will have much more configuration effort into it to stop people breaking the fun like you all did with the test, and still be limited in ranks. It will be whitelisted (apply for the whitelist here) as it will still be dangerous.
The server will be heavily focused on TEAMWORK. The current version of SMP and indeed the new one will be very focuses on killing everything, as a team or not, but in this version of tekkit you will be pitted against incredibly powerful mobs, meaning that striking out on your own is an incredible challenge. It's best to not make player enemies, as the mobs will give you enough trouble as it is. Using the tools at your disposal in the tekkit pack is paramount to success, and building fancy shit is just what Minecraft is all about. It will likely launch on day one of the new server.
Ollieboy and rwojy will be managing the development of this gameserver
RPG Server
Status: Early development (map is being prepared manually, will not be in Alpha testing for some time)
This gameserver will be yet another alternative way to play Minecraft. It will use powers of plugins such as Citizens, McMMO, and require the use of the Spoutcraft client at this stage (to allow for custom skins on NPC's, custom blocks etc.) to provide an experience to mimic that of a standard single player RPG (quests, fighting, skills instead of building). As such, there will be NO building for the average player of this server, and if we trust you, you can help us build the world via application or something. This server will use some very unique mechanics to convey the story that it is focused on. This gameserver will take much more time than the others to be ready for play.
Ollieboy and SanjarKhan will be managing the development of this gameserver.
Classic
Status: Alive and well.
Our Classic freebuild server will continue running as always. The rules, rank structure, and purpose of this gameserver will be exactly the same, and we will continue running the fCraft server software, naturally.
Non-Minecraft Stuff
First of all, community development will be done by Scootabyte and Allie, which will involve slight changes to forums, channelling everything through "fCraft.net" to make a prettier, more user-friendly hub for the player (with links to our services, and other useful tools and stuff like statistics and all that) instead of this old boring forum.
Other small gameservers are also planned to be properly managed, like Terraria, King Arthur's Gold, Ace of Spades, KillingFloor, and things like that. A highly suggested one that will likely not make the cut is Team Fortress 2. This was discussed in our meeting, and it is low priority in terms of resource as the other games are a lot more casual, and TF2 requires constant updating and realistically, only people with a good ping in the European area will be able to get the full benefit. We'll see how we go after everything else is up.
Please be aware that fCraft isn't "dying". This term has been thrown around here and there, and it motivated us to provide a much better gaming experience with you, relying on this new server package coming soon. With that in mind, please bear with us as services go up and down during the migration and the testing phase.
This process will require input from the community, things like helping to test servers, user input and whatnot will be greatly appreciated, along with patience with the owners (as we are all busy as fuck outside of setting up all this new stuff).
So please! If you have any questions or suggestions, throw them at us, but the overall scope of stuff is set in it's way. Go team!
This is what was decided:
The current SMP server is too resource heavy for the amount of people that want to play it, so to better capitalize on the resources provided by the new server we are going to split the different Minecraft gaming experiences into the following four gameservers (plus smaller, casual gameservers).
SMP Server
Status: Unknown
This gameserver will be a hardcore version of survival, with large emphasis on PvP and PvE. It will not be particularly oriented around building, and as such it will have very different rules regarding property, stealing and grief. It will likely launch on day one of the new server.
Hafnium and Hit_Girl will be managing the development of this gameserver.
CMP Server
Status: Beta Testing (Select group of players testing all components)
The mechanics of CMP will parallel that of fCraft software as close as practically possible using a range of plugins. The general overarching theme is multiworld (per rank groups) with the same rank structure. The Guest world will be flat and divided into plots (as you may have seen in other CMP servers) with certain restrictions (like water/lava, etc.) and upon being promoted, enter into the main mechanic of a flatland map and a generated map for each rank. These will be archived and one will be active at any time. Small personal worlds MAY be donatable-for, alternatively a plot in a "donator" map might be more likely. Be aware that subject to resource usage this system may change.
Ollieboy and Wundsalz will be managing the development of this gameserver.
Tekkit Server
Status: DONE! Apply for the whitelist in the Appeals and Applications section!
Tekkit was ran as a test as many of you know, and we will be capitalising on it as a full gameserver for as long as it is popular, to offer an alternative take on Minecraft. It will have much more configuration effort into it to stop people breaking the fun like you all did with the test, and still be limited in ranks. It will be whitelisted (apply for the whitelist here) as it will still be dangerous.
The server will be heavily focused on TEAMWORK. The current version of SMP and indeed the new one will be very focuses on killing everything, as a team or not, but in this version of tekkit you will be pitted against incredibly powerful mobs, meaning that striking out on your own is an incredible challenge. It's best to not make player enemies, as the mobs will give you enough trouble as it is. Using the tools at your disposal in the tekkit pack is paramount to success, and building fancy shit is just what Minecraft is all about. It will likely launch on day one of the new server.
Ollieboy and rwojy will be managing the development of this gameserver
RPG Server
Status: Early development (map is being prepared manually, will not be in Alpha testing for some time)
This gameserver will be yet another alternative way to play Minecraft. It will use powers of plugins such as Citizens, McMMO, and require the use of the Spoutcraft client at this stage (to allow for custom skins on NPC's, custom blocks etc.) to provide an experience to mimic that of a standard single player RPG (quests, fighting, skills instead of building). As such, there will be NO building for the average player of this server, and if we trust you, you can help us build the world via application or something. This server will use some very unique mechanics to convey the story that it is focused on. This gameserver will take much more time than the others to be ready for play.
Ollieboy and SanjarKhan will be managing the development of this gameserver.
Classic
Status: Alive and well.
Our Classic freebuild server will continue running as always. The rules, rank structure, and purpose of this gameserver will be exactly the same, and we will continue running the fCraft server software, naturally.
Non-Minecraft Stuff
First of all, community development will be done by Scootabyte and Allie, which will involve slight changes to forums, channelling everything through "fCraft.net" to make a prettier, more user-friendly hub for the player (with links to our services, and other useful tools and stuff like statistics and all that) instead of this old boring forum.
Other small gameservers are also planned to be properly managed, like Terraria, King Arthur's Gold, Ace of Spades, KillingFloor, and things like that. A highly suggested one that will likely not make the cut is Team Fortress 2. This was discussed in our meeting, and it is low priority in terms of resource as the other games are a lot more casual, and TF2 requires constant updating and realistically, only people with a good ping in the European area will be able to get the full benefit. We'll see how we go after everything else is up.
Please be aware that fCraft isn't "dying". This term has been thrown around here and there, and it motivated us to provide a much better gaming experience with you, relying on this new server package coming soon. With that in mind, please bear with us as services go up and down during the migration and the testing phase.
This process will require input from the community, things like helping to test servers, user input and whatnot will be greatly appreciated, along with patience with the owners (as we are all busy as fuck outside of setting up all this new stuff).
So please! If you have any questions or suggestions, throw them at us, but the overall scope of stuff is set in it's way. Go team!