HI, a few questions from someone redirected here.

[gcalex5]

Hi, so I was looking around for a new survival server and one of your members redirected me here. So I wanted to ask a few questions to get a feel for what your server is like since you are going through a change now and there isn't anyone online to answer these, which is understandable since the world is being reset soon.

It should also be noted that if this is coming off as snobby or entitled I have no intentions of that I'm just trying to get a feel for what your guys community is like.


When is the world planning on being reset and what was the average pre-reset online player count during prime-times?

Could someone describe the type of environment that the server typically has?

I noticed you had a 'guest world' with plots, does that also exist in the member world or is it all open to make towns?

Are there any requirements to make a town, or could I run off a few hundred blocks make a town with my gf and then commission a road to it?

Will the towns still be handled by a plugin like Towny, or are they all going to be handled via Grief Prevention?

Final question I have, is there anyway if I fit into this community and start playing here that I could possibly be involved in some type of Bukkit plugin development for the server?

Also I was redirected by a minecraft forum user: Josh349http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/234 ... ry28441169

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Hi there, sadly I've not been keeping as up to date as I should with server affairs in order to properly answer your questions.

I'm posting to let you know I've read your post and am letting someone better suited to answering you know about this thread. Hopefully we'll be seeing you around!

[gcalex5]

Hi there, sadly I've not been keeping as up to date as I should with server affairs in order to properly answer your questions.

I'm posting to let you know I've read your post and am letting someone better suited to answering you know about this thread. Hopefully we'll be seeing you around!

Thank you very much!

[RobipodSupreme]

I noticed you had a 'guest world' with plots, does that also exist in the member world or is it all open to make towns?
Towns are free to build, as long as you respect landclaim rules (no building within 20 blocks of another structure without permission. As far as I know this is being carried over.

Are there any requirements to make a town, or could I run off a few hundred blocks make a town with my gf and then commission a road to it?
You'd have to build the road/rail/pig track yourself, unless you can convince someone to do it with diamonds, but feel free to build a town, as long as it respects landclaim rules.

Welcome to the server, anyway, sorry for not being on for longer when you joined yesterday.

[Josh349]

Hi Gcalex5 great to see you here
I'll try and answer some of your other questions.

When is the world planning on being reset and what was the average pre-reset online player count during prime-times?

I can't really answer about when the server will be reset as I don't know, but I know the staff team are working on it, we were told at the end of december about a month, so I'm guessing first week in february?
I know player count has been a lot higher before and i've seen higher, but the highest i've seen lately (not in prime-time) is only about 15. I mentioned in my post on the minecraft forums how a lot of old players are planning to come back, as we do have a huge user base and i've seen quite a few oldies coming back asking about the new world. So hopefully the player count will be nice and high and back to what it used to be

Could someone describe the type of environment that the server typically has?

Not totally sure what you mean by this, but:
- The server's worlds have always been very well-designed in all aspects. The seeds well chosen, with a good mix of different biomes.
- The community is really nice, mature and friendly (I've found a lot of like-minded people), i've never really seen any griefing (apart from some idiot who let my cows and pigs out the other day...).
The community has a strong culture and identity. I would describe the atmosphere as humorous and fun but not immature (apart from a few eccentric individuals...).

I noticed you had a 'guest world' with plots, does that also exist in the member world or is it all open to make towns?

Are there any requirements to make a town, or could I run off a few hundred blocks make a town with my gf and then commission a road to it?

These should answer your questions: Settlements and their Rules City Cuboids READ THIS FIRST: Escapecraft Rules and Help Player command list

Will the towns still be handled by a plugin like Towny, or are they all going to be handled via Grief Prevention?

GriefPrevention I think.

Final question I have, is there anyway if I fit into this community and start playing here that I could possibly be involved in some type of Bukkit plugin development for the server?

I'm not a staff member, but I know there are a lot of people who like developing plugins already on the server, but I should think they would be happy sharing some of the burden

[gcalex5]

Thank you very much for the well thought out responses Josh. I look forward to trying it out whenever it is updated!

[MrWhales]

Once we get it all fancied up and pretty, it will be a lot easier to mesh into the community, everyone has kinda dropped back until the reset switches over, which should be soon. And once we find out you're for-sure not some weirdo, who won't out-weird us, I don't suppose it'd be a hard task to get in with the admins, one may even see this and keep an eye out, and such.

Like Lord_Mountbatten above, I've been here for forever, but unlike Lord, I have been in/around the community more and can say that Josh's answer is really spot on, just take a look around the forums to see how we all are :3

[derigin]

Apologies for taking my time getting a response to you. Welcome to our server, by the way!

My handle here is derigin. I am the head of our Minecraft server, and the lead designer for TNA.

When is the world planning on being reset and what was the average pre-reset online player count during prime-times?

We're planning to release our new world (TNA) very soon, possibly within a week or so. We've nearly finished everything we need to do. We designed and built a spawn and that is all good to go. Right now we're just making sure permissions work correctly and that all our plugins function as they should.

Over time our server has fluctuated in popularity. Back when Minecraft was still a novel game, we used to get a lot of players. It was not unusual for our server to be packed. That would've been about late 2011 and through most of 2012. Generally, we have a good retention rate; our regulars constitute most of our playerbase, and many of them have ended up staying here throughout the years. Admittedly, our server's popularity has dropped over the last year. We figure this is due to a number of factors: our reach (or lack thereof) to interested players, some issues we've had upgrading back when Mojang was pumping out a new update each week, our need for a new fresh start when it comes to worlds, and the general popularity of the game itself (which has been declining). We're hoping to rebuild our community, but we have noticed that lately our numbers tend to be less than twenty or so players on the server at a time. We have the capacity for many, many more players.

Could someone describe the type of environment that the server typically has?

That's a tough question. I suppose I'll start out with the basics - the stuff that first attracted me to this server. The community tends to be respectful and friendly; our players don't hesitate to work with others or to integrate players into the community. That's traditionally been our greatest strength. I'll use my own experiences as a player here. When I first started, I set myself up on the fringes of the world. I didn't really know how multiplayer worked. I built myself a nice tower and a good mine, and didn't really try to interact with anyone else. One day two players came by asking to stay in my tower for a night. They were on an adventure to find clay (back when clay was very very rare) and I figured I'd give them food and join them. We fought off mobs together, built a camp together, mined clay together. And, at the end of it, I had two friends that I would continue to join in their exploits and in building projects together. That's the hallmark of our community. The freedom that you have on this server is substantial; our staff are respectful and reasonable, our players are generally friendly and helpful, and our admins try their hardest to keep the server lag-free and functional. We desire to build communities here - not break them - and will do whatever we can to make your experience here enjoyable. It's all about you as the player here.

I noticed you had a 'guest world' with plots, does that also exist in the member world or is it all open to make towns?

I'll try to tackle both questions:

First, we've always been open to players building towns. You can go wherever you want, start building a town, and see if you can attract players to join you. We don't want to limit your imagination in what you want to build on the server. In fact, my plan once the new world is out is to work with another player to build a town, as well. I once had my own town back when I was just a regular player and enjoyed bringing in new folks into it. So, in short, yes you are open to make towns. You can even make communities of towns, or factions, if you really want to. We've had those before too.

Regarding the "guest city" that was a whole other beast. Back when we were very busy we wanted to figure out a way of helping new players start off and get to know other players. We were worried that their requests for help would be drowned out by others, or that they would give up easily if they couldn't find a place to build right away. Our "guest city" was a solution for that. "Guest city" was a series of plots located in a protected area on our survival world. As a new player once you finished the tutorial for the server you had the option of taking a plot in "guest city" or just venturing out into the wilderness on your own. In "guest city" you'd take a plot, build a house, and once you reached vet status (a certain number of hours of gameplay) you were asked to move on from the "guest city." Mods would freely move your house and the goods you collected for you to any free space on the world that you wanted. The "guest city" wasn't so much a city as it was just a place for new players to get their bearings on playing the game.

With TNA, we are no longer going to have a "guest city." Or, at least, we wont have a "guest city" at release; we could always bring it back if its needed. If we get to the point where our popularity demands it, then we could reintegrate it... but for now we just don't need it.

Are there any requirements to make a town, or could I run off a few hundred blocks make a town with my gf and then commission a road to it?

Nah, there's no requirements. You can go wherever you want, make a claim, and start building a town if you want. Keep in mind that you could have neighbors next to your town claim that may not want to be part of the town, but that's part of the game. It's all about negotiating and working with others. As far as commissioning a road to your town. We have a very simple rail system that goes out in each compass direction, but beyond that we leave the rest of the transportation up to our players to build.

EDIT: Oh, one last thing with this. It's not a requirement, but it certainly helps the rest of us figure out what is a town or not. We do ask that towns at minimum make a sign somewhere indicating the name of the town. It's not required, but it makes thing so much easier to figure out what is and isn't a town.

Will the towns still be handled by a plugin like Towny, or are they all going to be handled via Grief Prevention?

For now, we're looking at towns being handled as claims through GP. There's no immediate plans to integrate Towny, unless there is demand by our players to do so.

Final question I have, is there anyway if I fit into this community and start playing here that I could possibly be involved in some type of Bukkit plugin development for the server?

Certainly. Our staff - admins, mods, etc. - are all made up of our players. We could definitely use the additional help, though we would need to know we could trust you. That sometimes takes time, proven experience, and simply getting to know one another.

I hope that answered all your questions, gcalex5. Please feel free to ask more if you have any.

[gcalex5]

Thanks for the response I look forward to trying it out once it's live

[Josh349]

TNA's going to be live on thursday (for donators and VIPs) and on sunday for everyone
http://www.escapecraft.net/phpBB3/viewt ... =4&t=10257