Hi all,
It’s been a long time coming! We spent four hours arguing about how airports are supposed to work and discussing other rules changes, and we are one step closer to implementing them and overhauling the Rules page.
Note that these rule changes are not in effect yet. We are planning to vote on them at the March GSM on March 9.
There are some changes we did decide on at the meeting, however, so let’s go through them in detail.
Plagiarism and usage of others’ buildings in your towns
Multiplayer Minecraft is collaborative by design, and we know a lot of you like to use buildings found elsewhere either as inspiration for your own creations, or putting a copy of them in your own town directly. We’ll be updating the General Rules to require towns to be proactive in declaring which builds are original and which ones are not in addition to the existing requirements of giving credit and only adding buildings that you have permission to use.
When the new rules are enacted, the rule will read as follows:
Give credit where credit is due. Buildings copied from another source, either on or off the MRT, must be given willingly by the original builder, or used with the builder’s permission. Such buildings also need to be attributed back to their owners by a sign on the exterior of the build. Town mayors are responsible for declaring the origin of buildings at the time of import, town review, or upon request by staff. Failure to do so may result in warnings if discovered by staff afterward. Town mayors are recommended to keep a record of where buildings came from in their town. Buildings copied from other sources will not be counted for the purpose of evaluating towns for promotion. Franchises owned by MRT members are exempt from declaration requirements, however permission from the franchise owner is still required.
We would prefer players to err on the side of caution and give credit anytime you import a building from somewhere else or take inspiration from someone else’s work. After all, we know you would want credit if it happened to you!
Some air transport restrictions are being eased
Did someone say gaaaaaaaaates??????
hvt2011, probably
When the new rules take effect we will be allowing additional towns access to air travel through helicopters, and defining specific regulations for the construction of seaplane bases.
Under the new regulations:
- Councillor ranked towns may have one functioning helicopter service point (“helipad”). That is, Councillor ranked towns are permitted to have one helicopter which contains warps to somewhere else.
- Mayor ranked towns may have two functioning helicopters (one more than Councillor ranked towns). Mayors can choose to run a helicopter line between two points in their town, to have service to other towns, or some combination of the two.
- Cities ranked Senator and above don’t have a hard cap on the number of functioning helipads, however any helipads above the free two must be included in an airfield or airport.
- Towns of any rank may have an unlimited number of non-functioning or decorative helipads, which can even include helicopters on them (so long as they don’t have warps). Helicopters can even be built flying in the air without restriction. However, decorative helipads need to be isolated from other helipads, as groups of helipads together can be considered a heliport and therefore are restricted to the Senator rank or above.
- A reminder that helicopter service is still subjected to the gate safety regulation passed at the January GSM. While helicopters don’t have a runway, they need to be touching down on their helipad in order to have warps and provide service.
- Just like airplanes there are no restrictions on the number of warps that a single helicopter can service.
- Cities ranked Senator and above that share a coast with one of the 29 numbered lakes from the November 2017 GSM will be permitted to build seaplane bases as air facilities. Terminal buildings and piers used to carry passengers between the terminals and seaplanes will count towards a city’s air facility limits, however the water between piers will not count. Seaplane bases will need to ensure that planes have a clear runway, and of course passengers can’t be expected to swim to or from planes.
- Cities not on one of the numbered lakes will need GSM approval to build a seaplane base.
- Seaplanes can’t land on terrestrial runways, and regular planes can’t land at seaplane bases. Passengers can transfer between these on the ground.
We also discussed the trend of building underground terminals at airfields. While staff have varying opinions on the matter, we are aware of the concerns of realism and the economics of airfields wanting to maximize gates. We would encourage airfield owners to try to design their facility with realism in mind, however we are permitting underground facilities as they do provide a useful benefit. Underground facilities are still subjected to size restrictions and can’t bulge out from under the buildings on the surface (though note that landside roads don’t count).
Smaller rule changes
- The 500 block rule (which states that if you’re building within 500 blocks of another town, you need to be in contact but they can’t outright deny your ability to build) will only apply to towns with an active mayor. The 300 block permission threshold still applies to all towns.
- We will be rewording Most Important Rule #4 to read “Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.”
- Lots of rules will have definitions and examples provided to help remove ambiguity.
We will be publishing the full proposed manifest following the GSM and will be accepting comments on all rules once that is published. Other GSM topics will need to be submitted by 7pm UTC on Friday, February 8.
Thanks all!
<3, Chief