S
Stevey
Guest
UPDATE 11/20/2001
We currently have a Test Map up for you to play on while we work on the final 1.0 Map.
When the map is ready, it will be put on the server. Please don't spam the chat asking when this will be. Lars is working hard on fixing the map right now.
Items on the Temp Map will NOT be carried over to the FINAL 1.0 Map. Don't ask, we're not doing it. The temp Map is only for fun. All the usual rules apply.
- Queen SqueeGurl
Citizens of Altera,
The full release of Minecraft, "Minecraft 1.0", is almost upon us. Sometime during Minecon on November the 19th and 20th, Notch will announce the release and it will become available for us to download. As most of you are well aware, we will at this point also be moving to a new map. I'd like to take some time and explain how moving over the new world will work, and to give everyone a general perspective of what to expect from us in the future. Hollow World is a wonderful community with great people.
Transition to 1.8
When 1.8 came out we had decided to do a complete wipe and start over from scratch. We weren't using Towny from the start of the world and it was cluttered with random (some ugly) buildings and it lacked a proper set up in some ways. 1.8 also featured a new type of terrain generation that we were very much looking forward to. The transition to 1.8 went smooth and right from the start we set out with some bustling new towns. We spent the first few weeks building up the new towns, after that we saw some really good small scale RP on the server. Good times for Hollow World.
Unfortunately, as such are the joys of trying to run a server properly on beta, several weeks after we had already moved to the new map it was announced that 1.8 did not feature all the new terrain and that 1.9 (now called Minecraft 1.0) would require the generation of yet another world. We have considered keeping this 1.8 world, but the cons outweigh the pros. 1.8 doesn't feature any snow and the biomes are completely different in 1.9. If we were to stick to our current world, biomes would be mixed up and snow would randomly fall in places it shouldn't. It would not make for a very eye-pleasing world.
We had three options, either delete all the chunks outside towns and re-generate the land around it, thus generating a new 1.9 world, or start over completely from scratch. Starting over from scratch is a very bad idea, because we have so many good looking builds on the server and there is no reason to abandon them. A third option was chosen, where we generate a completely new world, and then move over every single town by hand. This would allow us the freedom to go through different seeds and pick the one we like the most, and we can (and will) even reshape them and create our own continents.
Transition to 1.0
When 1.0 is released, Altera will be taken down and I will start moving the towns over from the old world to the new. During this process all the chests and their contents are kept safe, and as soon as you log back into the world you will spawn in the new world with your inventory intact. Players will lose nothing. Most towns will find themselves located in a different location, and hopefully some of them in even better ones.
While I work on moving over the towns, we might run a temporary fresh 1.0 server. Don't panic if you log in and can't find your stuff, it's kept safe and stored in a different world and will be made available again soon after. It will be a temporary server to play on while you wait and test the new 1.0 features with your friends. However it's not yet certain we will be able to set up a new server in time, more details to follow.
I expect it will take me upto 12h to move over all the towns, counting from the moment 1.0 is released. However we must also wait for bukkit to update and some of our core plugins. This is out of our hands and we cannot do anything about it. If all goes well we could very well be back up and running on saturday.
After opening up the server again, there will still be unfinished areas on the map that need work. They will be marked by borders made out of red wool. Crossing past these borders is done at your own risk, you may be subject to random trips to the void or being stuck inside a newly generated mountain.
The new world size is 10,000*10,000 blocks. For reference our old 1.7 world was 4,000*4,000 blocks, and our current world is 3,600*3,600 blocks. Bear in mind the dynamic map currently extends further than the actual world border, since it used to be larger at one time for testing. The new world features a lot of ocean, this is because it makes for a more realistic and 'fantasy' world. A drawn map will be released at some point, where continents and key geographic features are named and shown. Players are free to suggest names.
You can find a preview of the map and locations of all the towns currently existing on Hollow World here: http://hollowworld.co.uk/index.php?threads/the-updated-hollow-world-map-for-1-0.4645/
The future of Hollow World
The community we have here on Hollow World is truly wonderful. I have witnessed some of the best RP I have seen in any game here and there are some great friendships and sub-communities developing. Minecraft is a truly wonderful game and we can accomplish great things with it. Hollow World has its ups and downs, and we are more crowded sometimes than others. I have noticed lately, with 1.0 coming out and Skyrim being released, activity has gone down a bit. This is why I would like to explain to the entire community what our plans are for the future of Hollow World. Some of you might be unhappy about the way some things are right now, or would like to see certain things happen on the server. If by reading our plans you still have a sensible suggestions for us, you can let us know by replying to this thread or by sending me a private message. We run the server not for ourselves but for the community and everyones opinion is valued.
Economy
Something I have been struggling with myself lately is our economy. It's not working properly as it should. Gaining money through wurkit is repetitive and can get quite boring when you're trying to save up for something.
We have made prices on the server for claiming land very steep for good reason. We have seen on our own and on other servers that when players are free to build where they want, they start large projects and often don't finish it. Builds become too large and bulky and don't fit the server theme. Ofcourse there are really good buildings in there too, but on the whole we found it to be a large task trying to get everyone on the server to build in a style that corresponds to our server theme and it felt like we were policing players more than allowing them be creative. Griefing was also a big issue, and having to sort out griefers every day only takes away precious time that could be better spent improving the server.
Towny provides us with a good way to fix these problems. Players spend time doing things on the server, and are rewarded with money. Over time they save up this money (or farm for it if they choose) and use this to claim land in existing towns, or start their own town. This way they can govern themselves where they build, and what they want to be protected. Money thus becomes a way for us to track a players activity on the server and the players dedication. When a player has worked hard to gather his money, perhaps with the help of others, he will be more inclined to make sure the things he builds matter and look good. Prices are steep for this very reason, people should work together to accomplish something. Not because we want to force them to grind, but because this environment encourages people to play together and accomplish things. Mayors are proud of the town they are setting up and want to show it off to other players.
Gaining money only through wurkit isn't enough though, that's why we're looking to either replace or supplement it. Money should be gained through any number of activities, and depending on the available plugins we will be looking forward to new ways of making money. Some of the currently planned ways include: Quests, Dungeons, Events, Hunting monsters, Donating to the server (earning monthy money for donating) etc. Earning money should feel like fun, and it should be earned through doing things you would otherwise do too. It shouldn't be a grind.
Because of the ability to find gold and sell it for money, and because our prices are so steep, using xraying mods or texture packs is very tempting. We have witnessed respected players fall for it and having to ban them is something we don't enjoy doing at all. It sucks losing good people and it hurts the community. Stalking the logs and hunting down xrayers ingame isn't exactly one of our favourite pastimes either. That's why we're removing the ability to sell gold ingots to admin shops. This will remove the largest incentive for xraying and I think it is the reason why we are seeing so many xrayers on our server. Gold will also have a use in Minecraft 1.0 so it would make more sense for us not to interfere with that.
It's a shame that we have to do this. I had planned to work out a way to force players to store their money into physical blocks and making it so that they have to build vaults where they can store their money in physical form. It would have made for awesome roleplay opportunities.
It is our philosophy that trying to create a simulation of a real-world economy, with inflation, investment, fluctuating prices etc. is not going to work for us. Minecraft is a game based on acquiring physical blocks and items. Your wealth is counted in the amount of blocks that you have, and you lose this upon death. This is becoming even more apparent with 1.0's introduction of potions and enchantments. More on this later.
There won't be any permanent admin shops, from time to time temporary shops may pop up, but player shops will stay. With 1.0 there will be a market for potion and enchantment ingredients and hopefully people will start buying and selling things. If anything the shops will still be a good roleplay opportunity.
Spells, skills and RPG plugins
This has been discussed a lot amongst the admins. There are a number of different plugins out there that offer us different ways to grant players spells skills and functions level up. Ranging from standard WoW-like classes and leveling, to leveling individual skills like mining and archery.
I won't go into much detail, it would make a very long post but one thing for certain is that fireballs and frostnovas are never going to happen. Minecraft isn't the game for that. Because potions and enchantments are coming with 1.0, there is serious overlap in many of these plugins with what these two are already offering.
The philosphy of Minecraft is that you are a player in a vast world, and you must set out to gather materials and craft your own stuff. You gather materials to brew a potion and give you a temporary perk, but when you hug a creeper you lose it all and are back to 0. It's becoming a sandbox RPG. There are no classes, you are simply what you make yourself out to be. It would be unwise for us to try and intrude on this philosphy and find ourselves faced with problems when Notch decides to add more features to the game.
While certain spells in the right hands offer good roleplay opportunity for some people, it could also cause mayhem on the server. RPG plugins are not out of the window at all, it's just not a main focus for us right now. Somewhere down the road we will re-evaluate what to do and take a good look at what's available to us then. But minecraft has to stay minecraft as much as possible.
Roleplay
Roleplay is the main feature of our server. It has gone through ups and downs, periods and communities where there is a lot of roleplay and periods where there isn't. Roleplay is pretty well integrated into the server at the moment. Most people have a feel for it and almost everyone participates in local roleplaying. I think roleplaying should be promoted more and speaking in OOC should be a lot less during busy hours.
When I first joined the server I didn't have much roleplaying experience myself. But along the way I picked up on how other people were doing it and I really got a taste for it. I think roleplaying is different for everyone else. For some people it means something very hardcore, while for others it just means being your own character and just play the game while not speaking or acting out of character. Still others just like tending to themselves and do their own thing, not really roleplaying, but not intruding upon other peoples roleplay either. Hollow World is for these types of players. Players who take an interest in the way our server works and take the time to learn it. Who are actively emerged into the environment.
Setting up large server-scale roleplay events has proven difficult for us in the past. Organising it is a large task and too many players in one area can cause lag. We will most definitely be trying out server roleplay events in the future, and learning how to make it work, but our server will not depend on it. The server thrives on small scale RP.
Roleplay shouldn't always be about server-wide implicating things, Queen Grief, cherberts left pinky toe or betty's beard. It can be at times, but what's much more interesting and long-term are roleplaying in your town and between different towns. Why did Captain Sallypirate lock up the hermit Geo with his pipe in her basement as a slave, and how can you gain access to Shipwreck Cove to release him? Calling upon the Uthrandir mages to investigate a sealed magical door found in ruins while mining. Going to war against Warstrom because Arkkaine stole your mayors pink unicorn. Finding halfmad's waraxe because someone took it while skinny-dipping. I think you get the idea?
Admins and mods can also initiate small RP events. For example they hide a chest somewhere with loot for players to find and more. This is something I want to encourage the other admins to do more.
Quests
There are a number of admins actively involved with creating quests. Quests will start to replace wurkit pretty soon as a way to earn money. Repeatable quests where you turn in items for money makes it feel more like an achievement rather than just mining away. We will also be working with story-driven quests. It's a bit hard to do at the moment because of the way the current quest plugin works, but this will become easier in the future. It's easy for quest text to get lost if your chat is being spammed. Story driven quest chains are on the top of my list though. When new players join the world they will have to finish a questline to become a villager. After that they will receive quests to travel to each of the different towns/landmarks on the server, and eventually each town will have their own quests. Becoming a knight will also involve quests.
Newbie World
The Newbie World is done building, and the quest is also well on its way towards completion. When it's done every player will be given a chance to complete as well as all newcomers. Through a series of quests newcomers are taught about the way our server works. They are introduced to the server lore, the dynamic map, the transport system, queen grief, port silver, uncle fitz, fastidious quinn, galo gulch and the entire admin team. I expect it to be done next week, but this depends on how much work the transition to 1.0 will prove to be.
Path to Knighthood
We are working behind the scenes on replacing the 50,000 radiants to become a Knight with a series of dungeons. Each dungeon is dedicated to a 'virtue' and after completing all the dungeons, you have to complete a final end dungeon and are then promoted to Knight. This is still very much a work in progress, but something to look forward to.
Sorrow Lands (Resource World)
Ores on Altera run out eventually and digging up entire beaches empty of sand and epic mineshafts are not a pretty sight. Upon moving to the new world we are also launching a seperate world called the Sorrow Lands. This will a world that resets randomly every 2-4 weeks. It will be a completely new seed each time, providing opportunity for players to explore uncharted lands and find fresh lands to dig. However it is also a more dangerous world. You can find out how it fits into the lore by watching Fitz's video: http://hollowworld.co.uk/index.php?threads/the-sorrowlands.3924/
Diamond and gold ore will be removed from Altera, this means for any serious mining trips you will have to travel to the Sorrow Lands. A ship will leave from Port Silver to the Sorrow Lands regularly. The Fotress of Tears is being built to act as a defense and a safehaven in the Sorrow Lands, but it's not done yet.
Towny
In the future it will be possible to add 'town friends' where players who are not a member of your town, are able to build in it. This will help out a lot when helping friends build.
Nether
The nether will be turned back on in 1.0. It will only be accesible through Fortress Naught and on the other side will be Cubeydoom's realm. The rest will be for yourselves to explore
Factions
We are working on implementing factions. NOT the plugin factions, but quest hubs. It will be a location that will usually feature a building, castle, village etc. with a certain 'theme' with NPCs there. The NPCs will be worked into a story and will offer quests for players to complete. Depending on the things plugins will offer us in the future, we can expand more on this idea.
New player village
Brustenburg, a wonderfully built medieval village, will be the starter village for new players. They will spawn there, receive their firsts quests there. They can live there, store items in chests and farm. From there they can take a ship to Port Silver and go on to the rest of the world.
Anyway, I am looking forward to the sorrow lands and the nether, so I am very exited. I am quite interested on how factions are going to turn out, but it sounds good to me. Thank you again.
