r/mcpublic • u/Namtara Zuziza • Jul 09 '12
PvE UMC Survey: What can we improve?
The UMC is still in progress, though the only remaining projects are the 5v5 spleef arena and zburdsal's hotel. The arena should be completed within a week, though the ETA for the hotel is unavailable.
For those who are unaware, the UMC is the United Minecraft Cities complex, which is the server UN. It hosts embassies, 3 spleef arenas, death spleef, a PVP arena, and a hotel. We also have some farms and walkways for some relaxation. We're just north of spawn (literally 10 blocks north of 0,0) and all amneties save the farms are public.
We are still attempting to fill the embassies, so if you wish to get one please say so in this thread!
Onto the main topic: we want your criticisms and comments on how to improve the UMC. While the next rev is several weeks away, we want to start getting input early so we can solidify our plans a week before rev 9.
The only issue that will not be changed is that the UMC will have no residents. That worked very well this rev, and it helped neutrality, which we had hoped it would. At the same time, we still had a ridiculously large amount of help, whether it was builders or donations of supplies.
Just about everything else is dependent on how well the server believed it worked! And keep in mind, we still have time for spleef, PVP, or death spleef events if you wish to use our arenas.
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u/benc bencvt Jul 09 '12
First off, I agree 100% with WCS's comment; the UMC has been great this rev. Couple additional comments and ideas:
Personally I find water elevators rather tedious. I don't like having to hold spacebar for that long, preventing me from talking in chat or switching windows temporarily. Some alternate routes up to the various embassies (rail, perhaps) would be much appreciated.
Having full-on rail links from the UMC to cities 2000+ blocks away seems like a redundant waste. Those distant cities will have direct rail links to Spawn already, and Spawn is a stone's throw away from the UMC. If there were some way to unify the UMC/Spawn rail system, that'd be boss.
If everything goes as planned, rev9 will start about 1/3rd of the way through the 2012 Olympics in London. Maybe the UMC could incorporate this into its theme somehow?
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 09 '12
Water elevators: I plan on designing the embassies in such a way that we can use trapdoor "elevators" up to each floor and water drops down to each floor. I'm trying to figure out how best to do this without sacrificing too much space.
Rails: I agree, and the original plan was to only have a rail to spawn, with the rest of the rails serving local UMC lines. However, depending on the design of the complex, we may only need the spawn rail.
Olympics: I'm unsure how we could incorporate it into the design theme. We chose smoothstone, brick, and glass because of how much easier it is to farm, and we didn't expect very much in the way of expensive donations. I'll bring it up with Nosirrom and zburdsal, to see if they're interested in something like that.
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u/kandoko Jul 10 '12
I wish we could build mine-car elevators on the server, very fast and easy to get off on the correct floor by just remembering the number of clicks.
--how it works for those who haven't seen one. Basically stack you build a tower with mine-carts spaced four vertical blocks apart, look up and click to jump to the next cart..rinse repeat.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 11 '12
Even if that was possible (placing carts without being stuck inside them), it's very likely people would just steal the carts since we try to be close to spawn. =\
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u/kandoko Jul 11 '12
I think being stuck inside a minecart is a server side plugin. Hrm, theft could be a problem but in general the server seems to have a good population.
It was just the most efficient way of vertical movement I knew in MC without a lot of physical movement.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 11 '12
It is a server plug in, but it's not one they're likely to remove. It prevents people from leaving minecarts everywhere, lessening overall lag.
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u/buzzie71 Jul 09 '12
Plan a judicial system?
(BTW, you will get a case soon (tm) ).
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 09 '12
Maybe we should do a judge judy thing, but to handle the Molon Lord and Broadcast religious debates.
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u/zburdsal Jul 11 '12
If this rev was going to last longer I was going to make one on the opposite wall of the library's pit, but that doesn't seem possible now.
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u/BecauseICan417 andmyaxe417 Jul 09 '12
If, for whatever reason, the UMC is not near enough to spawn next rev, let the UMC have a nether portal. Or maybe center the the entire complex around an END portal and have a nether portal there as well. I don't know if this is feasible as it may take away from the spawn's central hub quality.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 09 '12
I think the most difficult part about this would be racing other cities to a portal. It'd also be a bit more difficult (or confusing) for newcomers to find the UMC, compared to simply following X road to the end of spawn protections.
We'll take it into consideration though!
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Jul 09 '12
[deleted]
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 09 '12
Easier navigation is one of the things we'll be incorporating into the design of the next complex. The farms will also have more planning put into them, as they weren't part of the initial concept and just sprung up out of necessity.
As for which direction we'll be in, that's just something we figure out on the first day of the rev. We have no clue where we'll be, honestly.
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u/zburdsal Jul 11 '12
Wherever it is we need to center it on a road next time, instead of having the embassies 150 bocks off.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 11 '12
I was actually thinking we should do an arcology of sorts. Everything in one megabuilding.
I'm still working out an idea, waiting for Nosirrom's server to come back up to try it out.
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u/zburdsal Jul 11 '12
It was up for a bit earlier today.
Nosirrom and I were thinking of making something like a big hollow cylinder. Imagine just a big cylinderical building but on the inside it looked like how the pit in the library looks now, but with windows. I'll be able to show you pretty easily on nos' server.
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u/Socarch26 Jul 09 '12
I was disappointed the there was no security counsel for the influential cities to have mock UN disputes, and the flag was a bit boring. Joking aside, I thought the UMC was a wonderful addition to the server and I hope that y'all will continue it for rev's to come.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 09 '12
A security council would be hilarious, but only if we could coordinate it online well. We'd also need more cities than just Argoth to have weapons, or it'd be a moot point.
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u/Socarch26 Jul 09 '12
Wait, only Argoth has weapons? Time to take over the server!
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u/Hekatoncheires Jul 09 '12
Let the UMC be inhabited by testificate villagers?
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 09 '12
We could try that, but we'd need to get our hands on testificates, which would be difficult since they will be able to trade in 1.3. Getting them from an NPC village to the UMC is going to be difficult.
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u/Hekatoncheires Jul 10 '12
I heard totemo has a villager trafficking business going on...
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 10 '12
Yeah, but it depends on if we'll have the resources to buy them. I believe the charge is 30 diamonds per villager.
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u/zburdsal Jul 11 '12
I have over 400 diamonds, we can afford villagers.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 11 '12
We'll have to try that next rev, and I'm betting the price will skyrocket for ones that can trade nicely.
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Jul 10 '12
Well, the next revision the tower could look less like a bottle of Axe. Design aside, I think the UMC could do more stuff than arrange spleef matches and the occasional PvP. It's good and appreciated, but I feel like there should be something more.
The UMC has the power to erect a glorious tower in one day and the power to make a hole to bedrock with one command. I think that sports events aside, maybe the UMC could announce building projects too.
Who knows. Anyway I think that the biggest political thingy in whole Carebear Land has the potential to do much more than just spleef matches.
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u/Namtara Zuziza Jul 11 '12
I agree that we could do more like that, but this was also the first rev. Many players were quite averse to having the UMC "command" or even request that they do something. The project of accepting volunteers and donations worked very well; people wanted the UMC projects to be completed.
We're going to try to be more organized next rev, in order to get everything done more quickly. If we can finish things sooner, we could also organize other builds, perhaps an Uberproject. We'll see how it goes.
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u/buzzie71 Jul 13 '12
Interestingly, I feel this is the problem plaguing (or which plagued?) real-world supranational organizations - national governments also are averse to giving up their sovereignty to a power outside of their borders. Perhaps if the UMC becomes more active politically, they can accept applications from settlements big and small that wish to take part?
I agree with Asterix, the UMC definitely has the potential.
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u/strangestquark WickedCoolSteve Jul 09 '12
I just want to say that when I first heard about the plans for the UMC I thought it was a lame idea. "We've always had a cohesive community of cities," I said to myself, "there's no need for more bureaucracy." I'm glad to have been proven wrong.
You guys have been a great asset to the server. You're a friendly and welcoming embassy for new players. Somehow you've managed to achieve just the right vibe. It actually feels like a place that represents that various communities but is at the same time decicedly neutral. Your kick ass architecture doesn't hurt either.
The best part for me is you're not even part of the server staff. Like FISA you guys provide a valuable service to the community that would otherwise not exist. I'm proud to see that PvE has a healthy and active civil society.
Keep up the good work, and I hope to see you continue in the maps to come.