7.0 Annoucement!

[SeventhCircle 460]

The Design we Developed for 7.0 (Credit SeventhCircle)

 

The World Painted Design (Credit Kilgrim our Superhero WD)

 

Information Regarding Next Map

 

Map Size

Map Size is one of the most important features when it comes to creating a map. A small map allows for roleplay to be centralized and gives the feeling of an alive world whilst a larger map is great for exploration and creating a sense of a vast world. To tackle this issue we’ve made the new map slightly smaller than Atlas at 7.5k by 7.5k blocks, which also includes water and not just that, we are also looking to majorly rework nation placement in the new map to allow for the best of both worlds in terms of large maps and small maps! This will allow us for centralised roleplay whilst still giving people a vast world which they can continue to explore.

 

Nation Placement

Nations who will be receiving land in the next map will be invited to take part in our land auction, where we will ‘auction’ off pre-selected plots of land on the next map. We’ve created a long list of plots that meet the requirements to host a nation on it. Plots were chosen specifically for their terrain features as well as their distance from Cloud Temple.

 

The reasoning behind only letting nations chose preselected plots is to make sure we avoid issues that occurred in past maps such as Athera, where all of the main nations were tightly packed together, or even Atlas, where some nations took a 15-minute journey to get to and suffered because of this.

 

Nation Plot Size

As a team, we felt that the size of nation capital plots were far too large on Atlas and as such we made the call to lower their size from 350x350 blocks to 200x200 blocks. We noticed that nations try to fill the entire plot that they are given and often this leads to rather large and rather empty cities which in the end can be a turn-away for new and older players alike. Decreasing the size of capital city plots also allows us to increase the space between cities without actually moving their center points.

 

Nation/Group Requirements for Placement

To be considered for nation status on the next map, you must meet the following requirements.

-Pass and meet an active status on the current map. (Post Soon on how this is being done)

-Be a fully independent settlement.

-Declared as a nation or a city-state in RP.

 

These rules have been decided to provide an equal opportunity for current nations and freebuild settlements to receive a nation placement within the next map. However, we have made a few changed such as preventing vassals, who this map have nation status, from qualifying.

 

This has been done because we believe that while it makes sense for a group to hold onto their nation status during the same map they got it on, we do not believe it should be passed between maps. To offer some form of compensation to groups who have become vassals and whom will not be carrying over their nation status. Each vassalized group with nation status that also reaches activity checks will grant their Overlord’s a title next to their purchased plot’s tile. With a smaller regional capital region being granted to them (130 x 130).

 

Nation Construction

Limited Creative is gone and is not coming back as a viable solution. So for 7.0 we’ve decided to implement a more unique solution. Each Nation Captain will be granted a 75 x 75 area of their city which will be pasted in DAY 1. The rest of your city you’re responsible for collecting and building regularly. Why are we doing this, well there’s been complaints for a longtime about how nation construction goes. People talk about the process taking too long and that there’s nowhere to rp for the first several days etc. Others say they want city to evolve more naturally and that the instant megacities ruin immersion etc. So we believe that by giving each nation a Old Town sort of section Rp can happen DAY 1 of 7.0 no waiting. 75 by 75 is something we decided on by heading out into atlas and looking at moderately sized villages. We found that a healthy sized village for 20 or so builds can be fit into this area making it a solid fit for the very start of the map. We expect some disdain towards this point since Nation Construction is often a very mixed bag of thoughts but we believe the combination of 100% free and effortless section and the hand build hand gathered sections will appeal to the majority. Now it is important to know that the deadline (Not announced yet) if missed will mean a nation forfeits it’s right to the free area of their plot. We can only operate so quickly and since every plot will require screening before we implement it to avoid attempted spawning of illegal blocks etc. When Nation Plots get handed out we’ll discuss illegal blocks that can’t be in your Free Section.

 

Freebuild

Freebuild is realistically the most contentious part of Atlas today and we do agree that changes need to be made. We’ve seen both good and absolute horror come from it. Which is why we’ve decided to implement a ringed system. The first ring is the immediate area around CT for about 700 blocks in all directions this area will lack any freebuild or nations. The next 700 blocks are what we call the Civilized Ring or the Nation Ring. All Nation plots either are completely contained inside of this area or are mostly inside of it. Freebuild or I should say a form of freebuild will be available inside this area. This is something we’ll be asking for feedback on but the two systems we have in mind are that A, a charter system will be enforced for any land inside this area or B, a limited section of tiles will be made open for free build but they’ll be limited in number and spaced away from nation tiles as best as we can. Finally, we have the third ring which resides about 1.5 to 1.6k away from Cloud Temple in all directions. This is the wild area where we believe a system more akin to Atlas is fine. More tiles will be restricted however there are just a few biomes that we believe should be protected but past that it will operate much the same as Atlas just far away from most things.

 

Why all these calls were made comes down to the idea that overall we believe free build or access to land improves the server. Groups like Belvitz and Holm and even other settlements at the start of our map played an important part in our Servers RP and that’s something we still want to allow people to achieve. But we do believe that the administrative nightmare of operating freebuild so close to nations and roads was a huge detriment to the system and that’s why a more control system is being opted for in areas around nations and ct.

 

Dates and Deadlines

I operate WD in a very structured manner, you have to when dealing with projects like we do so here’s the schedule for the upcoming map. Not all dates are included since while we know when we want to release 7.0 down to the day we still want to maintain a level of flexibility for that. The ones listed here though are more or less final.

 

4. December 1st - Hand out Plots (Assuming a lack of technical difficulties)

3. November 30th - Ending Nation Plot Auction

2. November 16th - Starting Nation Plot Auction

1. October 12th - 7.0 Announcement (Today)

 

After plots go out we ideal at a minimum will give nations two months to work on their plots. With late nation entry being cut off one month before launch. The dates for launch and late date cut off will most likely be finalized a month before they’re set to occur.

 

Feedback and New Systems

We’ll be releasing your view threads on all of the following they’ll be coming fast and hot over the next three weeks as we move into the Nation Plot Selection. As well as we may bring up new systems that have been mulled over for implementation. This list is, of course, subject to grow or shrink but this is a taste of what will most likely be coming out.

 

-Nation Activity Requirements

-Freebuild

-Nation regioning inside tiles

 

Gallery

A few photos of some of my favorite areas so far on the map. Nothing is in shaders or a texture pack. We learned how much yall hate that ?

https://imgur.com/a/MwPh1XF

 

 

Closing Notes

First off I wanna thank everyone who’s read the whole thing carefully. We expect a lot of opinions and thoughts on everything we’ve outlined today. We have been quiet for so long because we wanted to ensure the map was ready and on schedule before we even started talking about it. Finally, a change I’ve decided to make is that we no longer pass specific information to nation leaders early. This was something that happened a lot in the past but we’ve found it just to be unproductive. NLs change far too much so everything we’d tell them will just be public knowledge. All the plot information for auctions will be on the forums etc. We’ve gotten to the point where our period of intense security is unneeded and thus we’re happy to share! Finally, if we missed an explanation on a particular point speak up and ask, We’ve tried very hard to ensure we have a sound rationale for each call and to provide that to you all.

 

 

EDIT -

my team and I are discussing changes inregards to the revoking of current vassal nations. I already made a comment below but I'm posting this here so folks see if after reading the post.

 

[Fireheart 2777]

YESS!

[Chase 3793]

Hells yes

[Sporadic 2844]

Just now, Tofuus said:

First

embarassing

[_Elrith_ 4525]

Nice

[Gustando 1990]

brilliant!

[sophiaa 778]

i’m really impressed by this. big +1

[Narthok 10416]

Really ******* over groups that previously held nation status but vassalized through rp. Really dislike this system.

[Jondead 260]

The maps looks fantastic! I am H A P P Y

[Gone 869]

Oh wow, that gallery is absolutely beautiful. 

 

 

[Hobbs_Burrows 497]

Are you not concerned about the prevalence of grass biomes? There is barely any snow, barely any sand, forests are scarce. This current map was quite boring on release and I remember you writing about how it suffered from grassy plains syndrome. 

[Xarkly 17299]

I mentioned this to you before obviously Seventh but I'm going to reiterate my stance regarding requirements to receive nation status, notably the fully independent clause.

 

This places a massive OOC factor on RP politics. It's an especially terrible thing to do AFTER a lot of vassalisation occurred this map without even opening it to discussion with the relevant parties.

 

I understand wanting to cull nations but I really think you're going about it the wrong way. Activity checks should be the solution here, not culling perfectly healthy playerbases. This will do a tonne of damage and no good.

 

I agree with Narthok in that certain playerbases are being fucked over big time

[Hiebe 2493]

Cool

[Noer 577]

I would agree with Narthok and Xarkly here.

As vassal in the Empire function mostly as mechanically independent states with in depth political allegiances, I feel like you're just going to be killing vassals here. Especially groups such as Adria (Belvitz) who profited off their proximity to the road. 

[Delmodan 855]

I can see this really effecting freebuild nations/settlements as being recognized or not by others being a requirement to even be see. This can be highly subjective, oocly easily abused to block and/or promote personal biase of such, and just in the end, a fighting war of who is and isn't a nation. I would really reconsider a better way of handling that so its fair on all grounds.