After two hours of deliberation, deep discussion, and arguments about pizza, we have decided on some final details about the new world! As usual, Frumple has recorded the public portion of the meeting and it’s available here.
Update September 29: Members have created a wiki page for planning MRT station claims. While this is NOT an official claim system, you are welcome to check it out and see what areas players are interested in. Remember, you can only claim one MRT station when the world opens on Saturday. Here’s the wiki page if you’re interested!
Here are the highlights:
- The server is set to be taken offline the evening of Thursday, October 2. During that time, all services except Mumble will be taken down.
- The new server opens at noon Pacific / 7pm UTC on Saturday, October 4. We may open it an hour or two on either end depending on the migration status, but we will keep you posted on Friday and Saturday as things get moved.
- If you want things to be migrated over, place them in the world now. We will not copy builds from one world to the other. Your inventory and ender chest, along with any custom maps, will likely be lost in migration, so please place them in regular chests in the world now.
- The airports have been nationalized. The staff will be designating “caretakers” for them soon to oversee them to completion.
- All air travel construction on the new world is a perk of the Governor rank. This includes airports, heliports and spaceports.
- Amusement parks are a perk of the Premier rank. Most other details of the Premier rank will be determined as players approach it.
- Players will start with $10.00 when they join the server. This will allow you to try out uCars and use warps right away. Remember that you earn 5¢ every minute you’re online and not AFK, and it only costs 25¢ to use a warp or to buy a liter of fuel for uCars. We may adjust these prices in the future.
- Mayors will be transferred over to the new Citizen rank. Trusted members will be transferred over to the new Trustee rank. All other players (Members, Guests and staff) will retain their current ranks and warnings.
- Supporters will retain their benefits.
- By the way: Thank you to all who have supported the server in the last 11 months. The supporter system launched with Minecraft 1.6.4 almost a year ago and has been a tremendous success, with over $600 in contributions from you guys. That’s enough to cover the Alpha server (old VPS) and all extra fees for the domain and Mumble and such. If you would like to help, check out our supporter policy here, which has instructions on how to contribute. If you’re not in a position to help out, you are officially absolved of all guilt.
A few reminders about the new world:
- You are allowed to claim ONE MRT station when the map opens on Saturday. No exceptions – including staff. You may not claim two or more stations, even though they may be right next to each other. Staff will be enforcing this and releasing extra claims – yes, even on the 119 stations of the Circle Line (which ZOMG THAT’S A LOT OF STATIONS).
- You are allowed to claim a small amount of land, provided you develop it quickly. This includes land around MRT stations. Staff will be enforcing this rule and we will release claims if they are too big (usually bigger than 200×200), if they’ve sat undeveloped for a long time (usually 2 weeks), or if players are claiming an excessive number of smaller land parcels. You may not reserve an entire biome for yourself, nor may you reserve large islands just for your builds.
- Laboratories, arenas and mini games are banned from the new world. If you would like to build a redstone lab, you may do so in the Lab world (yellow portal from the new world). If you would like to build a minigame or arena, those go in the Games world (blue portal from the new world).
- Airports and stadiums will no longer be banned on either the old or new worlds as of Saturday. They are now a perk of the Governor and Senator ranks, respectively. High-speed rail systems are still banned on all worlds.
- Only original builds on the new world are counted towards promotions. We will not count any builds in the Lab, Games, Space or Old worlds towards your build count for a promotion.
- Moderators can promote now too – up to the [Mayor] rank! If you want to have your town reviewed for promotion, you can ask a mod to have a look in addition to admins. You need two staff members to approve your town before you can be promoted to Citizen, Councillor, or Mayor.
- Towns and builds need to be far apart from each other – a good rule of thumb is about 500 blocks apart. We may ask you to move your town or build if it’s too close to someone else’s. (Remember, the new world is HUGE compared to the old world – 400 MRT stations across 11 lines, and almost 10 times the space!)
- Members are discouraged from requesting WorldEdits during Opening Week (through and including Saturday, October 11). Staff will be busy adjusting things, finishing random tasks on the MRT system, and working on their own projects like the Mail Center during that time.
- After Opening Week we will be performing WorldEdits as normal. However, we will prefer doing WorldEdits that are not land-scarring. For instance, removing trees, tall grass, vines, and other ground vegetation/foliage is OK, but taking out a whole mountain is not. We encourage you to work with the landscape as much as you can.
- There should be at least one mod and/or at least one admin online at all times during the first few days. We’re more than happy to help you get oriented in the new world and get started on your new cities, as well as continue to answer questions about the new rules, ranks and construction guidelines.
Phew, that was a lot. I hope you all are as excited as I am. DFTBA!
– Chief