Hello all,
First off, I must apologize for not posting the results of the October GSM in a timely manner. In this post, I’ll be combining the results of both GSMs held on October 1st and November 26th, 2016. As always, the recordings for these GSM are available here:
Town Limits Rule Abolished
First off, we forgot to mention this in the public portion announcements of the November GSM, but the staff have decided to remove the town limits for the [Mayor] and [Governor] ranks. Previously, members were limited to 1 town on the new world until they reached the [Mayor] rank where they could establish a second town. They could then establish a third town at the [Governor] rank.
On further discussion, the staff realized that the rule only limits the “establishment” of your own towns, and does not put any explicit limits on towns given to a player either voluntarily or from Deputy Mayor succession. Since it would be too difficult for us to determine if a town was originally created by the player, or given from another player, we have decided to simply abolish the rule for the time being. However, if we find players are abusing this privilege and founding many towns to hoard land, then the staff will step in and curb such behaviour.
In summary: There is no longer a limit on how many towns or cities a player may own.
New Air Facilities on the Old World are now banned
Starting from October 1st, any new air facility construction on the Old World is now banned. By air facility, this includes airports, airfields, helipads, seaplane ports, spaceports, etc. There is simply no more space on the Old World to allow for the construction of these facilities.
However, if you were in the middle of constructing a facility before the ban was put in place, then you may finish construction. Also, players may continue making changes to any existing air facilities on the Old World, and that includes renovations, adding/removing planes, and changing warp destinations.
New Airfield Rules for [Senator] Rank
We have decided to change the rules regarding the construction of air facilities at the [Senator] rank. Before, Senators were only allowed to build a maximum of two helipads on top of buildings. This has now been changed to the following:
- [Senators] may build within an area of no more than 7500 blocks squared (example: 150 x 50 blocks), with no height restriction. They may build any number of air facilities within this area, and that includes airfields, helipads, seaplane ports, spaceports, terminal buildings, hangars, runways, etc.
- [Senators] may not build any such facilities outside of the designated area.
- [Senators] do not need prior approval from staff to build in this designated area.
- The previous 2 helipad rule is no longer in effect and helipads outside of the designated area are no longer allowed. Any existing helipads are grandfathered in and do not have to removed.
- Players must be of actual [Senator] rank to build their airfield. This means that this privilege is exempt from SMP rules, and that [Mayors] who belong in an SMP with a [Senator] present CANNOT build such airfields.
- If you are already in an SMP with a large airport and you have not yet built a small airfield of your own, then you are not allowed to build one. Therefore, it is in your best interest to reach [Senator] rank on your own in order to build your own airfield before joining an SMP.
We hope that this rule change will actually provide more freedom for players to build whatever air facilities they want in a small area, while ensuring that such projects do not get out of hand and become overly large.
Change to Large Airport Proposals for [Governor] Rank
The 50% rule for large airports at the Governor rank remains unchanged. However, going forward if you are sending a proposal for a large airport, please only provide a screenshot marking the area of where your airport will reside. You do not need to provide details such as terminal buildings, number of runways, etc. However, you must still make your airport reasonably realistic and clean up any landscarring.
Clarification regarding WorldGuard Regions
There has been some confusion with the rules regarding WorldGuard regions, specifically when can staff grant them to members. We would like to clarify that now:
- WorldGuard is a perk for staff members, and staff are trusted to use regions within reason.
- WorldGuard regions can be given to members by staff if provided with a valid reason and at the staff’s discretion. Valid reasons include protecting sensitive redstone or Command blocks, or providing a greeting message in an area. Again, note that just like WorldEdits, staff have the right to refuse a request a WorldGuard region at their discretion.
Server Updates
At the November GSM, I revealed that I was working on a new server-hosting machine called Epsilon, and also showed an example dynmap of the new server with the new world expanded to a radius of 18000 blocks.
I still have lots of work to do to get Epsilon ready, but the plan for the next month is as follows:
- Update Epsilon to Minecraft 1.11 and latest plugins, testing them to make sure they work.
- Finish setting up the website and wiki on Epsilon.
- Officially move the server from Gamma to Epsilon.
- After the migration to Epsilon has been deemed stable, expand the size of the new world.
I have no concrete ETA for when the official move will happen, but I’m aiming for before the end of the year. Note that all worlds will be unchanged as part of the move to Epsilon, but because of the 1.11 update, I am not sure at this time if homes, warps, balances, and WG regions will remain. This will wholly depend on the testing of plugins that will happen in the coming weeks.
Mumble vs. Discord
You can hear all about this holy war on the November GSM recordings, but basically the official position of the server is this:
- We will be keeping Mumble and Discord for the time being.
- We will eventually be moving away from Mumble and encouraging more usage of the Discord voice channels.
- At the next GSM in December, we will try using Discord instead of Mumble.
Roads
- B95 – Approved at October GSM
- A6 – Conditionally approved with some discussions with staff required.
Town Auctions
- Shadygrove (ZS9) granted to godzilltrain.
- ES2/C22 granted to 0rocketscience0.
- ZS11 granted to AyyLion.
- Pasadena (A20) granted to SilverBubble.
- Dunestone (I14/C57) granted to Sweetboy13735 with the condition that the original theme of the town stays and no builds are removed.
Ban Appeals
- MC_Dunc’s ban appeal has been approved. He is now unbanned and will be monitored closely for any further infractions.
Official Server Events
Staff at the November GSM have expressed interest in starting up some official server events in the coming months. In addition to the usual holiday-related events, there are some plans of spleef tournaments, other games, and contests that are being organized. More details on these will be posted to the website when they are ready.
City Rank Candidate Batch #10 is now open!
During the November GSM, there was some discussion regarding the promotion process for the Senator, Governor, and Premier ranks. Discussions are still ongoing, but the conclusion we have come to is that the current process is broken and needs to overhauled in the near future. For the time being however, we will be running the usual candidate batch for the month of December, starting now. Once again, you may submit your request using the City Rank Promotion Request Form.
- Submissions close by: December 10th, 2016 by 11:59 PM PST
- Admod voting begins on: December 11th, 2016
- Admod voting ends on: December 24th, 2016 by 11:59 PM PST
- Promotions are granted on December 25th, 2016 (ho ho ho)
December GSM
That’s all the news for now. Once again, there will be a GSM in December, but the date has not been finalized. Stay tuned here or on the official @MRTServer twitter account for the latest.
Thanks,
Frumple