New players come and go. But the best improvement we need is an upgrade towards helping new players get into the different sections of MassiveCraft. The idea was thought about when thinking of a way to send large scale information from guides which other players have made/wrote about the server but sometimes, players have no intentions on looking at guides on the forums but instead ask in game, or simple leave the server. When you take a step back, and look at the server as a whole, it seems to be missing a key element and that is when you leave the servers spawn, the only source of information is from other players on how to do things on the server. Players meaning staff (staff are players too), players on the server, players on the forums etc. When the tavern was built, me and violettee both questioned each other about how we would present the information to players who will see it. The first idea was holo text, which obviously isn't key considering players can walk past it easily, and not a lot of information can be present on holo text. The second idea was signs, but anyone can run past those and not give a damn. Third idea was through NPC's, but what if the NPC was deleted or removed by accident. Even then, all these ideas, you would need to go back to spawn to re-read through it all again or in the case of factions, the tavern and then it hit me. Why not a global one so you can actually get the information while your on the travels on the server. So the main idea is, when you /tp on the server, a window pops up listing all the teleports which you can teleport to. For example, I'll say /help as the command for this. If a player used /help, a window such as the /tp window came up which had essentially a menu, but the menu was different categories of the server. The player would hover their curser over the Category they want to look at, a description of the category will be shown on mouse over (Could be like a lore description on lore items) and if you click on it, it will show you the guide on that category. The menu would also have a Next > Button on it, and a < Back Button. You could essentially.. Probably a mind map would be best to describe this. You'd have Economy as one of the many parent permissions, others could be Roleplay, PvP, PvE, Rules, Commands etc. Then there will be Child permissions under those categories. For Economy, it could be Currency. Describing what the currency on the server is and what you can do with the money. How to earn it etc. It would be like.. - Economy (Parent) > Lore: Want to splash some wealth?!? - Currency (Child) - How to earn (Child) - How to make a item shop (Child) - How to use the Auction Shop (Child) - How to send money to players & factions (Child) The Advantages of this: > It's global command, meaning you can do it anytime anywhere. > Would be easier to add in new categories over time if new features were to be added > Easy to use The Disadvantages of this: > There will be less tickets, unless someone doesn't know the command for this help menu. > Will need updating if anything changes in the future.
I like the idea. You addressed how players usually ignore walls of text, even I do to be honest. It isn't engaging in the slightest unless it's wiki formatted to look clean. I remember the old server spawn where players just walked by all the signs, signs which also got outdated after a few months. Which brings me to your disadvantage that I can't spin around as a good thing: updating. There's already a main website that needs updating, let alone a plugin which only a handful of staff would be able to fix due to the tech nature of it. The man hours creating it would be large enough, and tech staff is always stuck at being understaffed. I think the problem we all end up with is that MassiveCraft has a learning curve for some aspects. Survival is fairly cut and dry, and anyone who goes to play factions probably already knows what the jist of the gamemode is. All that needs to be highlighted is the build theme. If you can claim a chunk in factions, you've solved 90% of all your problem regarding storage security and grief protection. Questing is alright, and so long as the signs on the Silverwind dock are read, you can figure out the rest. There's only one confusing quest out of the hundred or so, so not too hard to overcome. Roleplay is the largest hurdle. The lore is massive and even steered me away in the beginning. I only continued on because of a few player interactions and a bit of curiosity over why Minecraft Roleplay even exists. (it's weird af) Do I support any idea aimed to help new players, regardless of their play style? Absolutely. Do I love this idea's general purpose? Of course. Is it feasible? Not right now. The only way it would be able to work is if the tech department became larger and the staff is said department had a lot of free time on their hands, which is doubtful. Maybe there's some Minecraft book magic that can be used? I remember another server having a point and click book that explained various sections, so you didn't have to start from the beginning each time. Maybe that could be a way to do this whole tree system?
@FireFan96 In all honestly your reply was truly amazing. I do agree with it all. It’s sad that all these generally amazing ideas which players come up with go on hold because there isn’t enough man/woman power within tech to suffice. Not blaming anyone but we really do need more tech people.
There are plugins that allow you to make GUI menus tied to chest inventories that would be fantastic for this. Visual navigation is intuitive and more interesting that Click Here text shit. Something simple and clean, not too deep, that gives the basic information needed then links players to the relevant Website/Wiki page (via maybe a white and blue globe head as a "Link" button to web pages) etc would be fantastic.
