Ho Ho Ho! We had our final GSM of the year, and we have some things to share.
Results of the very small private portion
One player received at least two moderator nominations, but we decided not to offer the position. We had a further two players with one nomination each.
We also discussed a few things about the GSM Town community build. To prevent the project from getting out of hand, a few changes have been implemented:
- The train line from the main island to Train Island will be removed.
- Construction on Train Island and Freeburg (the island just to the north of Train Island) will remain allowed.
- Expansion beyond the main island, Train Island, and Freeburg will be handled by staff, and only once the town has developed the entirety of its existing islands. This policy will continue as further islands are added to the project.
- The town will not rank up through the traditional rank ladder, and is instead designated a special administrative zone. Any large-scale transport projects such as an airport or seaplane base will need to be cleared at a GSM.
Please contact me (Chief) if you have any questions about the project.
Planning for next year
We have been in the planning process for 2020 and are excited to announce a few changes you can expect, coming soon. The biggest changes have to do with an upgrade in our server hardware.
- The Zeta Server has been purchased, and Frumple is in the process of setting everything up. Some admins may also be helping out with the project, and we may experiment with a few things as we build the new server.
- We will skip directly to Minecraft 1.15 on Zeta once everything has stabilized. This means we will remain on our current hardware until 1.15 is ready for us to use. Please note that we currently do not have a timeline in place for the migration, but will provide updates as we determine and receive more information.
- The New World will be expanded to a 30,000 block radius (up from 18,000). This will bring an incredible amount of new land online for you to build in. We may consider expansions to the Lab and Map worlds, depending on available disk space, once we finish our migration to 1.15. Stay tuned for details on the migration, including land claiming rules and Purge™ schedules.
- We will attempt to bring uCars back on the main server with the 1.15 update, but this is not guaranteed.
- We will also host an OpenTTD server on our new machine. This has been on a back burner for quite some time, and with new hardware we’re able to actually go ahead with the installation.
We will also be undertaking some community initiatives in 2020:
- We want to host more recurring events, community builds (akin to GSM Town), and chances for community interaction. Staff will organize these as their schedules allow, but we want to remind everyone that any member can run a server event! GSM proposals are only required if you want to give away in-game money and have it funded by The Server™. Otherwise, you can email the admins if you have an event you’d like us to add to the events calendar.
- We’ll be writing up some guides for how to submit an effective GSM proposal, among other things.
- The MRT Video Contest will be held in the near future, once we update to Minecraft 1.15 and the Replay Mod becomes available.
Rules and Discord channel changes
We have made some small tweaks to the rules and the purposes of some of our Discord channels. Effective immediately:
- General Rule #3 (No advertising) has been expanded to include all gaming servers not affiliated with the MRT. As a reminder, casual discussion about other servers is allowed, as is providing links upon request or within context. Blatant advertising is something that we hope you all can recognize when you see it.
- The #general Discord channel is now the catch-all for conversations that don’t belong anywhere else. Please check the channel list and post in the appropriate channel if you want to discuss something that’s covered by a named channel (for example, sports or politics). Frumple has requested that memes be kept in #random. If you don’t want to see memes, you can mute the #random channel.
- The #creative channel is no longer restricted to your own work. You are welcome to post and discuss other works, including sources of inspiration, examples of works you’ve found around the internet, and helping others with their work – in addition to showcasing your own material. We would kindly ask that you focus the channel on your own creative endeavors as much as possible.
Projects, Events, and IATs
- The A551, proposed by minecrafts000 to connect the A5 to the A51 via Urbisan, has been approved.
- IntraRail has been granted permission to pass underneath inactive towns at V22 and V26.
- The 12 Days of Christmas event, proposed by wipeout111, has been funded in full, with some logistical adjustments to ensure fairness.
- The town of 42 at XW7 has been transferred to AlikSong.
- The town of Royalston has been transferred to ondist.
- The town of Barken has NOT been transferred to Aldranster50, as it’s quite far from the town he wants to integrate it into.
2020 GSM Schedule
Here is the full schedule of GSMs for all of 2020 (don’t worry, we’ll remind you of each as they approach). There may be some adjustments that we make to the meetings scheduled later in the year, but we will make those adjustments well in advance of the affected meeting(s) if they’re needed.
- Sunday, January 12 — note date change from the usual pattern
- Sunday, February 9
- Saturday, March 14
- Sunday, April 12
- Saturday, May 9 — will be run by someone other than Chief
- Sunday, June 14
- Saturday, July 11 — Anniversary Weekend; meeting is scheduled for this date but may be cancelled depending on community needs
- Sunday, August 9
- Saturday, September 12
- Sunday, October 11
- Saturday, November 14
- Sunday, December 13
That’s all for now! Have a safe and happy holiday season.
<3, Chief