Public Statement in Regards to X-Road Builds

[Rygan]

Also, for the record, Anti stepped down from Event Coord but he's still doing a shit ton and is one of the most active members currently on the team.

 

[Sizzix]

The issue's not really with.. just having a town, really, as an extension of the Crossroads. Most of the great roleplays I had in Port Silver came from working or being treated in Tzemik's ( Michcat )'s hospital, FrostGuardian, blargtheawesome and I buying a mansion and using it to start a city guard, etc. Being able to take charge and cultivate something that feels alive.

I feel like this is a big part of what players want in a city. To be able to have agency. To be able to shape the world around them and create meaningful things. Filling a town with various buildings, (ie hospital, docks, shops) but not allowing players to interact with those things in a variety of meaningful ways (such as running those establishments) negates a player's agency. I fear that when this extension of the Crossroads comes to fruition the same complaints surrounding Crossroads now will still apply.

 

[_Jaylor_]

Yes! Honestly, I do want to feel like a part of the community of a town. I want to feel like if I start a business or start a job somewhere or something like that that I will be able to interact with others and make some kind of impact on the environment around me.

 

[LiraKitty]

I really don't see it that way. I think new players will settle in and utilize the buildings as character development pieces until the more settled long term players bring them home with them. And of course there will always be the people who lacking their usual companions will have a more comfortable place to go in order to find new rp partners.

 

[Rygan]

The problem we're at is we don't have enough active factions, towns, or even the numbers for active player towns. Not unless you're satisfied with numbers of like, 5 people.

 

[_Jaylor_]

from my experience, Tambry felt too big for the amount of people there I saw at any given time. I didn't get to see too many other towns and such, but the majority did feel kinda empty. The only times places were heavily populated was when I went to Spawn or when there was an event at Tambry.

 

[LiraKitty]

Yes and new players are more likely to stick around and explore an aesthetically pleasing small town than they are an inn with a confusing location and floor plan. This means better new player retention which leads to a larger playerbase in the long run. I think too much focus is being put on the fact that you cannot live at the spawn hub. We have quite a few players who do not really seem to live anywhere but they do not appear to be having any problems with rping in different towns and cities.

 

[Elt]

The problem we're at is we don't have enough active factions, towns, or even the numbers for active player towns. Not unless you're satisfied with numbers of like, 5 people.

Five, if it's an active hub, which there are only several of - characters simply don't have enough reason to venture out all of the time.

 

[Rygan]

Yes and new players are more likely to stick around and explore an aesthetically pleasing small town than they are an inn with a confusing location and floor plan. This means better new player retention which leads to a larger playerbase in the long run. I think too much focus is being put on the fact that you cannot live at the spawn hub. We have quite a few players who do not really seem to live anywhere but they do not appear to be having any problems with rping in different towns and cities.

It's not as if I'd rather the new town not be built at all if staff hardly decide that people won't be able to live in it - It's just that I'd like to argue for my points now before the entire process of implementation is done.

 

[Sizzix]

Yes and new players are more likely to stick around and explore an aesthetically pleasing small town than they are an inn with a confusing location and floor plan. This means better new player retention which leads to a larger playerbase in the long run. I think too much focus is being put on the fact that you cannot live at the spawn hub. We have quite a few players who do not really seem to live anywhere but they do not appear to be having any problems with rping in different towns and cities.

It's not necessarily the fact that you can not live there, but the fact that you can't shape the environment. I think an active server hub would help promote player cities and factions abroad. Being able to have things like active, living, embassies to recruit players to your town and trading companies to make contacts and sell goods to the various settlements across the Northern Kingdoms would promote the visiting of new towns just as a start. I do not think that having an interactive setting for all players to meet each other will harm player made towns with inactivity anymore than not having one already does.

 

[Catena]

I really don't see it that way. I think new players will settle in and utilize the buildings as character development pieces until the more settled long term players bring them home with them. And of course there will always be the people who lacking their usual companions will have a more comfortable place to go in order to find new rp partners.

I agree with Lira. I don't really need to add much, as I think you said most of what I was thinking, but yes, more new players will likely RP more often in the crossroads, along with older members who will eventually bring them to new places. It's a place for new characters to start off, and if that means giving them more buildings that they are able to use to kick off their adventure in the world, then that's great. It's not somewhere where people stay forever, but adding new buildings seems like a good idea to give older members along with newer members a reason to RP there.

Also I'm ill at the moment so I'm not sure if what I said made much sense, but I hope I got my opinion across.

 

[Solus]

holy, you guys are rapid typers.

I get that it's a lot of work, but there are nearly 20 staff members and not all of them are even on any dedicated project. I'm not trying to be rude, but Mairin handled rent when Port Silver was active and we had less folks. I'm very appreciative that staff are listening, but it kinda feels more like a set being built than a city.

The issue's not really with.. just having a town, really, as an extension of the Crossroads. Most of the great roleplays I had in Port Silver came from working or being treated in Tzemik's ( Michcat )'s hospital, FrostGuardian, blargtheawesome and I buying a mansion and using it to start a city guard, etc. Being able to take charge and cultivate something that feels alive.

The number's a bit high on the actual note. Each staff member brings a lot to the table, a few pulling up the rear end due to experience and yes, fluctuating activity. As it was requested a while ago, the details are being worked on to showcase it to playerbase. Currently here, I'm giving you all a platform right now to make this place near the x-roads immersive. A place where players can have their characters come together, new players can get their holding on roleplay and organizations. There's more to roleplay than purchasing houses and markets- and that was one thing we did not want to take away from large towns, at the least.

I feel like this is a big part of what players want in a city. To be able to have agency. To be able to shape the world around them and create meaningful things. Filling a town with various buildings, (ie hospital, docks, shops) but not allowing players to necessarily interact with those things in a variety of meaningful ways negates a player's agency. I fear that when this extension of the Crossroads comes to fruition the same complaints surrounding Crossroads now will still apply.

And we'll adjust to those complaints. Not just one side, but those who did not want spawn town to expand either for fear it would take away their own agency from their own towns that they let players enjoy to build and run shops from.

Instead of giving you guys a "No", I'm giving you a chance to show the playerbase this will work because of months of requesting for it. Giving you folks agency on what you'd like is the best I can do.

Can I ask, then, who is going to operate these buildings, hospitals, docks? If there are no homes in the city, there are no denizens. Nobody is going to wake up at 3 AM, walk 10 miles to work, walk home at 8 PM, sleep for one hour, then do it all over again.

If you're so concerned about mayorship, enact a player instead of staff. Or like Rygan said, a staff member who isn't currently occupied, like Anti.

This is not an interesting or fun way to set up a town. It isn't a town. It's a few empty buildings with no workers. Cities run by NPCs don't get rp activity, look at Sorrowstown.

Having a central rp hub isn't going to take away from player cities. It didn't before, and it won't now. It serves as a place that people have a reason to be, so that they can rp with new folks when nobody in their own faction is around.

Not to mention the fact that right now there are only two actual governments, and I don't think either will think it's a stab in the back for there to be an ACTUAL rp hub.

It wasn't naming names; he just stepped down from event coordinator and he runs very successful towns in the past. He knows what he's doing, and from player perspective, it looks like he could use a new focus at the time. I don't know what he's doing now but I mentioned him because he's proven to be incredibly successful in the past at running towns. What about Archbishop, as well? In tandem they could run a central town pretty effectively.

Would rather you not names either- issues to conversation please. Antilogy is working on the Plugins department and is doing his best in back-end and front-end work. "This is not an interesting or fun way to set up a town"- Well, again, I'm keeping this as neutral as possible without interfering with the playerbase's wishes to create their own regions that are immersive and have lovely individual history behind them. If you do not find it interesting or fun, you don't have to take part - that's the truth of the matter. If there is eventually zero interest in this, then of course the project will be halted. The purpose of the build up is already stated above, as well. Gathering new players in condensed area so that they have some place to roleplay before finding a town to settle in. Giving current players a place to get together for roleplay for more than having drinks. If the purpose changes, then it'll change.

Although I've only been in PS for a few months, I personally never purchased any housing or land in Port Silver and I still managed to find roleplay there. We all see things differently and this is a step we're taking to accommodate what players asked about to result in its destruction and what players are asking about now.

This idea certainly seems neat, though I just wanted to ask, for clarification's sake: is this a precursor until Staff are able to get around to working out the idea of a new SpawnTown/recovery of P.S., or is it just a thing on its own?

The two points you make are actually in conjuncture. It's to see how well players can work together for a spawn area they built themselves while seeing if the player base really wants this in real-time. The benefits are also included in my statement above.

I really don't see it that way. I think new players will settle in and utilize the buildings as character development pieces until the more settled long term players bring them home with them. And of course there will always be the people who lacking their usual companions will have a more comfortable place to go in order to find new rp partners.

This is a good projection of what I'd like to see come out from this!

With this proposition, it might just be easier to name Tambry as the spawn town, then. It's politically neutral, has pretty much what you'd find in any other town (Except maybe a church, but I've never found it myself, so I dunno. The place lags me) But again, the RP hub focus, as stated by solus is to be in Player run towns, not at spawn as a whole, yes, spawn holds a lot of RP, but it should be the point of RP. All in all, I'm happy about small increments, rather than some huge empty town, because a huge town can likewise be overwhelming to new players that don't know what to do.

Tambry does have a citadel- I believe it's left of cochran, or north west.

What Tambry offers is giving a lot of player that agency in purchasing buildings, marketplaces, etc- and if you're looking for this sort of roleplay, I'd recommend heading there. They've a guard system and a poverty area as well as an upper, rich palace. Having another huge town would not be a grand move with a town that's already made its way into a spawn town potential just south of it. This is what I mean by not taking away from player made regions, and their own creativity.

 

[LiraKitty]

It's not necessarily the fact that you can not live there, but the fact that you can't shape the environment. I think an active server hub would help promote player cities and factions abroad. Being able to have things like active, living, embassies to recruit players to your town and trading companies to make contacts and sell goods to the various settlements across the Northern Kingdoms would promote the visiting of new towns just as a start. I do not think that having an interactive setting for all players to meet each other will harm player made towns with inactivity anymore than not having one already does.

I hear ya and I do get what you are saying. I'm just saying you don't really have to own the property to make this happen. A single building can easily suffice as a major traders coalition where traders from everywhere can meet to make agreements and sign contracts. A single barracks with a practice ground easily becomes a place to pick up aspiring soldiers. A run down shack easily draws in the poor and thieves alike. A single library draws in those who are more book inclined. A hospital for the medics and a crafters guild for the crafty people like carpenters and blacksmiths. A few buildings makes a big difference.

 

[Naelwyn]

I'm going to make one, gigantic suggestion and I really hope folks listen to my advice beforehand this time.

Plan as though the area could grow into being a full city, even if that's not what you want to do, because if you only plan for the small additions you first want to make you will be screwed if you want to modify assumptions later. That's why I planned a full city out, so that it could grow and shrink organically as interest waxed and waned.

 

[blargtheawesome]

The issue's not really with.. just having a town, really, as an extension of the Crossroads. Most of the great roleplays I had in Port Silver came from working or being treated in Tzemik's ( Michcat )'s hospital, FrostGuardian, blargtheawesome and I buying a mansion and using it to start a city guard, etc. Being able to take charge and cultivate something that feels alive.

i have not read the rest of the thread but can confirm the chevaliers were in no way chevaliers but had just as much shit and fun

 

[SpartanDory]

For the actual building part of this, how would moving the builds from creative to wherever the spawn town would be, would the builders have pay the WE cost? or would that be on the house?

 

[_Jaylor_]

I would assume on the house, unless they want only the super-rich to participate.

 

[Archbishop]

I see a lot of interesting vague concepts in the this thread, and I'd like to ask for something more concrete, if you will. Perhaps we could have some suggestions as to what people would actually like to physically see?

I've seen, over my time with Minecraft a vast array of scenarios regarding different forms of spawn. On one end of the spectrum I've seen no spawn, and people either spawn in a random place (ala Survival servers), to a system where new players choose a city to spawn in (my previous server). On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen one-spawn systems similar to our server here where it was either something minor and small (think crossroads), all the way up to a large server spawn city (think Port Silver).

We've swung already from the Large City model to a small minor location model in the past, and people seem to desire and swing back in the other direction. So I'd like to ask, what would people like to see? Keep in mind that we've done this song and dance before and public opinion could easily shift back to the 'spread around lesser spawn'.

 

[LiraKitty]

I see a lot of interesting vague concepts in the this thread, and I'd like to ask for something more concrete, if you will. Perhaps we could have some suggestions as to what people would actually like to physically see?

I've seen, over my time with Minecraft a vast array of scenarios regarding different forms of spawn. On one end of the spectrum I've seen no spawn, and people either spawn in a random place (ala Survival servers), to a system where new players choose a city to spawn in (my previous server). On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen one-spawn systems similar to our server here where it was either something minor and small (think crossroads), all the way up to a large server spawn city (think Port Silver).

We've swung already from the Large City model to a small minor location model in the past, and people seem to desire and swing back in the other direction. So I'd like to ask, what would people like to see? Keep in mind that we've done this song and dance before and public opinion could easily shift back to the 'spread around lesser spawn'.

I was thinking something like this. TG being training grounds and Bar being barracks.

To clarify: I did not mean this as an exact layout. I simply used it to point out key buildings I think would work. Sorry I tend to either go overboard or leave out specifics. I purposely chose overboard on this one.

 

[Naelwyn]

I was thinking something like this. TG being training grounds and Bar being barracks.

View attachment 73486

CC: This spec feels a bit too organized and symmetrical for a medieval city, and needs some housing to populate the buildings.