River

I'm making this post on a whim, this resignation and farewell to the server has absolutely nothing to do with the recent controversy. I'd been inactive and reluctant to check on anything server related for quite some time now. This farewell is long in the making, check check my last /seen. I've been around since Aegis, have viewed the server from a lens for the entirety of its history. Have seen things that worked, and things that didn't work. Times where the server was very fun, and times where the server was dull. In my eyes, the server isn't fun anymore, it's too far gone from a point where I would ever log on and attempt to play. The game is too far removed from any actual game, it's more focused on being a typing simulator. With tile-cost requirements, activity based requirements, the importance of voting and its impact on gameplay along with the current material economy is designed in such a way to simply maintain activity. The Minecraft element of this roleplaying server is too far removed for there to be any engaging mechanics. The intended result of these systems seem to just aim to keep players engaged out of responsibility rather than having created an environment where the player continues to engage because the systems are fun. My passion for the world and attempt to inject more fun, to be more engaging, and immersive, fell flat. My only sizable contribution towards that which was entirely in my hands for the most part, was the actual map-making portion. Any fraction of a system implemented towards that goal will fail to meet the mark unless the rest of the puzzle pieces are also implemented. My continued plea to utilize MythicMobs and ModelEngine to replace random world spawns with more immersive regional based fauna has sat at the approval of every admin except one for years now. Given the wide expertise from the players in BlockBench and texturing, it would have been a slam dunk to work with the community in building server, lore specific mobs. Adding this alone along with my plans on how to implement them would have added a field of depth that could've reached just about every aspect of the server. I'd probably still be around implementing this into systems if that were the case. Not to mention, the fact that I was promised compensation for my attempt at painting 9.0, and was never compensated for 10.0 for the paint and map-making process I brought to the table that resulted in the current map. Just about everyone I'd ever built a genuine connection with for the most part no longer plays on the server, in the direction the server has gone I don't see the need to continue to develop or attempt to resolve issues with it if the bureaucracy involved makes any decision-making near impossible, or gets altered and implemented differently from originally intended, resulting in an undesired outcome. The server isn't what it used to be, from a time when I enjoyed it, and probably won't ever be anymore, and so I don't see a point in attempting to implement the systems I'm passionate about. I don't see a point in continuing to work on it from a staff perspective, let alone play on it as a player. - Farewell Very Respectfully, RiverBird / Sebasgann

the growth effect of bonemeal would be disabled, which is independant of the custom interaction the server has of receiving a copy of a plant via using bone meal. Likely a new item and method of acquiring it would be introduced that would supplement bonemeal's vanilla growth effect being disabled. I made a Compost item and that has an AoE bonemeal effect on crops that I'd likely use, will provide expired food a use and incentive to utilize compost bins again since that mechanic is completely non-existent.

I think my last post was the criticism and things I'd have liked or wished to see on the server, but let me take a brief moment to at least state the things I liked about the proposed additions so far. Crafting Stations - Love the idea of separate crafting stations that add the ability to create different kinds of foods, I think this element is a great idea. Wholeheartedly agree with the idea of having multiple crafting stations dependent on the desired outcome. - I think if possible, it'd be nice to instead using a custom GUI for the different cooking stations, if it were possible, to utilize current Mojang UI's when clicking these stations, whenever possible, or as I mentioned, attempt to just create a more engaging system reliant on sounds and particles to convey events happening. Food Quality - While I stated I didn't think the idea of quality on crops would be the best of ideas, maybe implementing quality on the end-product might be a better implementation decision. The same way nexus bows/swords quality was judged by their damage scaling, or current surge armor quality, the finished dish might be the best approach to implement quality into the plugin. Farming - I love the idea of different crops being more productive in different biomes. I would suggest that instead of modifying tick-rate, we adjust yield instead because it feels more impactful than tick rate adjustments. - While not mentioned in this post, I don't think it's spoiling too much but worth noting since it was something I thoroughly enjoyed seeing, was the planned implementation of player-head crops as potential gatherable items. Being able to farm cabbages, grapes, eggplants, you name it, any playerhead crop item that some builds already use as decorations. I think this is a perfect and great, immersive touch to farming. This element of the farming portion, I'd really love to see come to fruition and make it to the end product, because it can cut back on having to rely on wheat/carrot/potato/beetroot models, and can make farms look nicer while we're at it.

My opinion, I think quality over complicates the plugin, the fact that you can have multiple species of crops, and in addition to multiple species, have multiple qualities of the material. I would think having a separate species or crop altogether would be fine enough. A rice crop grows rice, and is uniquely used for specific rice-oriented dishes. Inventory management and the ability to stack items is a pain, even if addressed in the same way a food bag was implemented to help store some food, or the Hooked trash bag, managing it is still a pain. This is why I've been a big proponent of MythicMobs and ModelEngine, because it would have been pretty easy with MythicMobs alone, to make custom crops, get a server resource pack together, make custom growth stages for each of the different crops, and basically expand vanilla. Being represented via visual aids would have gone a long way in actually making one wheat field look differently from another wheat field of a different species. That's a pipe dream however. Also, my personal opinion, but I'd have liked to stray away from GUI based crafting, and move towards in game actions and mechanics only. Interact based events, more interactive and engaging. Everything conveyed to the player via sounds or particles and interacting with the different workstations you have. Crafting the individual components of the dish, or dish prior to cooking it. Allow for horizontal progression with the ability to discover recipes, makes adding new items to the plugin exciting rather than discovering another clickable option in a GUI. I don't even care about status effects in PvP. I'd personally like to see a variety of foods be incorporated that would have different uses in PvP. There's a reason why in OSRS you carry different kinds of foods, because they have their own purpose in combat. However the player base is sensitive when it comes to PvP, and so I wouldn't venture into making foods that could be utilized in PvP because it will trigger them. I think they'd be fine if there were a method to disable them on the war server. If people use them in skirmishes and battles on main map I could care less, more power to the people who've interacted with that system, people CRP anyways. At least if we ever get some system of mobs that's where I might see the main use-case of buffs coming into play. I honestly don't even think this needs to be asked. Players will obviously vote against this because it will damage their basement farms and goes against their interest and convenience. Everyone and their mother needs to have a set of cows in their basement so they can gather leather and meat to be as self-sufficient as possible. At the cost of preventing someone who actually wants to RP this, or make this a real livelihood in game mechanically and in RP. Represent their mobs in open air fields with grass, add a level of atmospheric immersion. Almost nowhere do you see, in any village/capital, chicken coups with chickens running around, pig pens, horse farms or cow farms, which is a huge missed opportunity for adding another level of detail and immersion to our lands. Animal Husbandry altogether requires a bit of work and is a separate subject altogether. I'd say fishing is almost at a finished product. It requires a fix to cooked variants, and the ability to specify the tropical fish patterns the individual fish spawn with. Maybe minor tweaks or adjustments but yeah, perhaps reworking food economy altogether or figuring out how to incentivize people to fish instead of relying on steak from cow/leather farming, bread from typical farming run, and monk bread/tater sustainment. I'd make the argument to work specifically on the farming portion vice the cooking portion and release that first, in a more polished state, then add the cooking aspect later, that's honestly where I think most of the questioning attitude is being directed at, not the actual cooking part, since that's the main grind so to speak.

I only voted no for #8 because I don’t think it should be a singular area, or accessible via CT. It’d feel OOC and like a minigame. I’d feel different about the “idea” if it were multiple areas on-map. That way no one nation of PvP goons could hold the entirety of the area down and people have options. Being on map means it’s a little more grounded in RP because it requires physical travel to and from and is in a physical location people could meet you to and from there. Just add a 10 minute soul-stone blocker after entering the region of the mine so people can’t soulstone out and have it only tick-down while they’re logged in. *Assuming this idea were to be more fleshed out or discussed. I think the rest of the changes regarding architect kind of speak for themselves and don’t require too much discussion post polling. I just wish we had mythicmob/model engine to create actual, mechanical siege weapons:

This guy did not need to cook this hard. I think newer player perspective or criticism is often more important than our more established players perspective. Because it’s indicative of what players expect, and see short comings in our systems at first glance without bias and without viewing things from the lens other people see from. I wanted to try to summarize and bullet point the number of issues he mentioned but there’s just so many issues I agree with that it’s making it hard to just summarize them. I think the way he puts it is smartly, the economy and way that nations operate especially in a new land is a suspension of belief and the lack of narrative is prevalent. These are long standing issues that have been around for years due to the systems we have in place. I would encourage @LuckyDto attempt to summarize, bullet point the issues, make that large post more digestible so that issues can be either addressed specifically or one at a time. I know this is a post about the specifics on nation approval process but I think we’ve gathered a lot of critical feedback already and additional feedback into our systems regarding nations or closely tired to them is also appreciated.

I mean, based off their activity, and the fact that they're still performing at the level some nations are if not better, based off the suggestions so far of utilizing the current vassals as demonstrable proof that they're ready to become a nation if they chose (as stated by fishy, Islamadon, Unwillingly, and many others here), I'd say they're more likely candidates to be able to apply for nation status, while a number of the other lesser active; but not dead vassals are still functional vassals. I think you missed the part where I said this was my opinion. I know for a fact that the other members of staff don't agree with my take and say exactly what you just said. So don't blanket the entirety of staff with the typical buzz words and catch-phrases of "staff aren't fully aware". You literally saw countless other staff in here just make varying claims and opinions, some or most whose views match your own. It's counterproductive and baseless, and a waste of conversational space, and a waste for me to even address it. I hear you bash vassals, while supporting settlements, and my original confusion still stands as to why I'm confused; I'd still like for you to elaborate how you'd see realms, vassals, and settlements working in the same environment, as well as expanding on what you meant by vassal subregions. "and that realm and produce however many subregions as they want and the rules permit", "and the rules permit" I was just saying there are no rules, I was merely suggesting there be rules in the first place, not dictate who can have vassals or who can be a vassal. Because this; It sounds as though you heavily favor settlements, you spent like half of your post attempting to make the argument to reimplement them. Which I was against removing them in the first place way back when. On this it sounds like we're on the same side, I always thought there was a place for them. My only issue is with vassals, and that alone is my only issue, I'm not alone in that opinion, there've been ramblings about vassals since even before map launched from plenty of the community and staff-alike, and they're not wrong that something feels off about them. Final note, attack me, not the overall staff. People have an issue categorizing groups because it makes arguments sound more compelling, but ignore the fact that it's wrong to begin with and is surface level. You don't see staff chats, don't presume to know what the staff think. I'm the oddball, not the majority or rest of the staff.

Alright, finally back home after a busy day of giving and thanking. This, I hate ugly and oversized builds. I like a lot of the ideas here. Regardless of the system and its shape, a sort of preliminary or introductory period would be nice. Perhaps the payments could be broken into different stages. Instead of a nation being declared and then everyone going inactive until someone finishes building a massive capital over several months. Except this is all just kind of like, "fun/interesting, would be nice stuff" and not essential. Bro, that’s what I’ve been saying since before map launch, during mapdev when I saw how many vassals there were and how large they were. This. I’m not sure if people are suggesting we implement settlements on top of lairs/realms plus vassals. If anything, I’d rather see vassals replaced with settlements, because I don’t agree with the notion of handing out land—and large amounts of it—to the sheer number of player groups that have been given land so far. I’m curious what the metrics are on the player activity of every vassal and whether those spaces are dead-RP, dead vassals, or if those players would’ve been more active had they been integrated into the capital—just living together in a manor or something. My thoughts mirror those I quoted above on the questions posed in this thread. I’d take it a step further, get ready for Rivers daily hot take: if those suggestions were implemented, the next issue affecting player activity—and ensuring active nations stay active, active vassals stay active, and new nations can actually emerge—is addressing inactive vassals, and perhaps removing the idea that it’s purely up to nations to decide how many vassals they can have. Allowing players to decentralize their own RP can be detrimental to an already functional nation, and by extension, damages the server and all involved nations/vassals. That’s where I think staff intervention becomes necessary—regardless of how many people dislike that outcome. In my view, it’s simply part of maintaining a healthy and functional world. But, this last part is just my opinion.

Are the physical requirements of nation apps (player signatures & money) too high or too low? Player signatures on a forum post are not a good representation of active players or players who will dedicate to building up said nation, or their main persona being associated with said nation. While I’ve seen a lot of good ideas pertaining Mina itself and its value, I don’t see an issue with the amount required for form a new nation. If anything the other ideas regarding Mina are worth looking into and addressing. Should the subjective requirement that a nation be unique (or fill a unique niche) be removed or modified? I don’t think the subjective requirement a nation be unique be utilized. I think it was initially a good idea, to allow nations with unique aesthetics or cultures to be made in the hopes that players would join them and partake in said culture. However It is not an indicator that a nation will provide enough substantiated roleplay expected of a nation. Do you feel there should be a new, separate qualifier for new nations? I think the reason a nation should be created is because a player base in particular have already demonstrated through either enough active players, mustering force, income, and activity that they’re capable of already holding their own and are already capable of nation status. Vassals and their performance, the above mentioned metrics already seem like the perfect nation trial-run in my mind, showing demonstrable evidence that they’re ready.

We need to make this person CT Admin

You know. Maybe this isn’t quite what I had signed up for or intended with my personal vision for what this would become. I had hoped that Squak and Josh could’ve come to a more friendly resolution, one that works in the best interest of all the teams, one that tied in story team along with the other teams because I don’t see this uniquely affecting builders but actors and lore writers as well. Because I do see the story team and its components being necessary to create the open-air environment that this team was originally supposed to address. I don’t think that the post does enough justice by including a lot of build related mission goals when the direction and mentality should be more so the implementation of said builds and quality control of the map over its course at the macro level not micro. As well as the implementation of any new systems that involve the world itself. Or the means of how players interact with the world. Lessons learned from prior map developments and the continuation of knowledge gained from creating this map, and the ongoing changes or implementations of the different categories of types of builds that go on the map as a whole along with their mechanical purpose or intended rp purpose. The inclusion of Noobman as an addition is divisive at best given the recent drama. I would prefer if Noobman were guilty that logs or proof were provided so we can snip this in the butt, and if he’s going to get accused of it and ridiculed constantly for it then at least let it have substance behind it. If not just clear the air and move on but regardless of the outcome he’ll get accused of it in the future. Im just tired of drama, this needs to be addressed behind closed doors, people need to kiss and make up; and move forward. We’re all volunteers with a somewhat shared vision of making the server better and things need to be communicated better with one another.

I mean, it’s my approach to map making and ability to worldpaint, plus knowledge of everything that would go into map making that I shared and collaborated with the others involved that brought us the map. Even with the lack of criticism I have seen some criticisms that I’ll take on to improve, and have idea of my own and additional builder plugins or mods I’d want to utilize to deliver an even superior version of 10.0, Coupled with our experimentation of palettes and possibilities of custom biome colors which was a first for all of us building with, I’d say I’m more than capable as well as others who I train up. in short, “I” and now Fimlin have the greatest grasp of everything that went into this current map dev along with how to improve upon it. And we are build team by the way. whilst technical knowledge is appreciated and welcomed, we retain the baseline knowledge and technical skill we elaborated only a portion of in Fimlins other post detailing how we went about making the map.

I was here. I painted dis bad boi. Me and Fimlin put in work. We'll be around to make a better 11.0 when that time comes around.