Archived We All Know The Problem, What's The Solution?

[Legoclub22]

For ease of viewing, Bold will repressnt a section of the post, while Italics will represent key points.

Fore word

As we have all seen, Factions and survival is a mess. There are plenty of threads discussing the matter, though what I have observed is this:
Nobody likes it, and everyone says they don't like it, but nobody is giving any ideas on how to fix it.

That's the point of this. I'm not going to have just another thread with rants about how bad it is now, we're going to have a thread about how we'll fix it. We will discuss pro's and con's of ideas, and hopefully come up with something.

Current Problems(as of posting)

Here I'll list some major problems with Factions.
This is not the point of debating on this thread. This is the problem, our job is the solution.

Number listed for convenience of reference.

1. Purpose. Factions are simply not as fun as before because there is nothing to strive for. The economy is over-saturated, and it's too easy to get stuff. There also is not enough ambition to rule and conquer.
2. Economy. The economy is beyond broken. It is grossly inflated. There is no need to grind resoursec as they're already for purchase for cheap, and you don't need to work for money because it's too easy to get.
3. Relation. Relations are not important enough. Culture in factions is "im bored lets pvp", and "ur gonna pay us tribute in regals". There are not enough empires, not enough relations roleplay, and not enough reasonable conflict.

Solutions.

Here we'll come up with plausible ways to solve these problems.
It is important that opinions and alternatives are provided on these. This is to be the debating point of this thread.

1. Admin Shops. Admin shops could be used to alter the economy. It would work very easily, and could be removed later to restore a player-run economy. Say that we want less god armor. We have admin shops buying god armor and diamonds for a nice price. That way the items demand goes up, and supply goes down. And while gift4all is great for the server, it's terrible for the game. A cooldown should be put so you can only purcase one gift4all a day.
2. Money sinks. We need things to spend money on to drain some money from the economy. Maybe add back in minigames like Siege(because Siege was awesome and deserves to come back on it's own), and make it cost 10r for an "entry ticket". 10r to play one round. If you spend a while playing Siege, that's a lot of regals.
3. Faction ranking. This is a new idea, and could require a plug in or staff work, but I think it would be worth it. Factions could have weekly changing ranks, which players would strive to achieve. Several things would be calculated to determine your rank. Do you have lots of allies? Do you own lots of land? Do you have lots of members? Do you have good looking builds? Do you participate in wars? These could be some criteria. In addition, a system similar to guilds and organizations over in Regalia could be adapted for Empires. A sub-forum where you may post Empire information so that it may be tracked by staff, and your empire can be ranked. Being in a high-ranking empire would raise one's faction rank as well. The system would resemble nobility, as it is merrit based. If you participate and drive the story, you are awarded. If you are simply going to be content with being rank 5, you will be demoted. Ranks would obviously be lower= better.

I believe these suggestions would kick out the base problems, and help to drive forward the factions. While these are likely to take serious interaction from Staff, that is to be expected.

 

[Gabauchi]

what if we admit to ourselves that factions is at its end, and let it rest. move on.

 

[Zacatero]

what if we admit to ourselves that factions is at its end, and let it rest. move on.

Click to shrink...

No

Admin Shops. Admin shops could be used to alter the economy. It would work very easily, and could be removed later to restore a player-run economy. Say that we want less god armor. We have admin shops buying god armor and diamonds for a nice price. That way the items demand goes up, and supply goes down. And while gift4all is great for the server, it's terrible for the game. A cooldown should be put so you can only purcase one gift4all a day.

Click to shrink...

A couple things on this point. The server wouldnt place a cap on the gift4alls beacuse the server is still a business. Also I cant even say how many times i've said what i'm about to say and nobody cares but imma say it again anyway. Gift4All would be fine if IT WASNT ARMOR AND WEAPONS! Make it something else people want their name on. But all in all Admin Shops shouldnt happen.

Money sinks. We need things to spend money on to drain some money from the economy. Maybe add back in minigames like Siege(because Siege was awesome and deserves to come back on it's own), and make it cost 10r for an "entry ticket". 10r to play one round. If you spend a while playing Siege, that's a lot of regals.

Click to shrink...

We have enough money sinks what we need is more money to flow around.

Faction ranking. This is a new idea, and could require a plug in or staff work, but I think it would be worth it. Factions could have weekly changing ranks, which players would strive to achieve. Several things would be calculated to determine your rank. Do you have lots of allies? Do you own lots of land? Do you have lots of members? Do you have good looking builds? Do you participate in wars? These could be some criteria. In addition, a system similar to guilds and organizations over in Regalia could be adapted for Empires. A sub-forum where you may post Empire information so that it may be tracked by staff, and your empire can be ranked. Being in a high-ranking empire would raise one's faction rank as well. The system would resemble nobility, as it is merrit based. If you participate and drive the story, you are awarded. If you are simply going to be content with being rank 5, you will be demoted. Ranks would obviously be lower= better.

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This is a good idea.

 

[_Torivor]

what if we admit to ourselves that factions is at its end, and let it rest. move on.

Click to shrink...

The problem with this is the people who don't like that idea won't let it happen.

 

[Legoclub22]

what if we admit to ourselves that factions is at its end, and let it rest. move on.

Click to shrink...

Factions isn't going to just get deleted and removed. People still like factions, and still want to play it, but it's just not the same as the good old days. It isn't hopeless. It just needs work.

The server wouldnt place a cap on the gift4alls beacuse the server is still a business. Also I cant even say how many times i've said what i'm about to say and nobody cares but imma say it again anyway. Gift4All would be fine if IT WASNT ARMOR AND WEAPONS! Make it something else people want their name on.

Click to shrink...

True, and I agree. Sword4all and etc should be removed, and replaced with something like Head4all(since they're collectible anyway), maybe a Wand4all since we have MassiveMagic now? This sounds like it'd help.

But all in all Admin Shops shouldnt happen.

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Why exactly? I can't see a simpler way to fix the economy.

 

[Zacatero]

Why exactly? I can't see a simpler way to fix the economy

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so the only thing that made the economy actually happened was the fact that you could sell God armor and weapons?

 

[Legoclub22]

so the only thing that made the economy actually happened was the fact that you could sell God armor and weapons?

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No, not at all. I used Master items as an example, and also stated that they could be drained by a shop. Everything is under valued as it is. If the supply could go down while the demand remained the same, that would be a win, would it not? An admin shop would increase the demand while the supply stays the same, thus draining the supply. Once the supply is drained, the admin shops would close, and demand would be back to normal. Though the shop would also drain the means to supply. For example, dirt and shovels. Say that there's just too much dirt in the market and it's as cheap as... Dirt. You set up shops buying dirt, and buying shovels. Once you have bought all the shovels and all the dirt, and taken away Shovel4All, players must now make their shovels to dig the dirt. But by then, you've removed the dirt shop as well.

 

[Omnomivore]

True, and I agree. Sword4all and etc should be removed, and replaced with something like Head4all(since they're collectible anyway), maybe a Wand4all since we have MassiveMagic now? This sounds like it'd help.

Click to shrink...

I don't believe PvPrs would appreciate player heads as a Gift4All item as heads are considered a trophy to them. Part of the enjoyment of murdering people is you get the chance to rip their face off and plaster it on a wall for display (or to tote around your friends). If it suddenly becomes so easy to get, it will lose its reward.

 

[65jes89]

I don't believe PvPrs would appreciate player heads as a Gift4All item as heads are considered a trophy to them. Part of the enjoyment of murdering people is you get the chance to rip their face off and plaster it on a wall for display (or to tote around your friends). If it suddenly becomes so easy to get, it will lose its reward.

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I would very much rather a bunch of random people have my head than have a ruined economy that makes what I enjoy most on massive completely and utterly pointless.

 

[Legoclub22]

I don't believe PvPrs would appreciate player heads as a Gift4All item as heads are considered a trophy to them. Part of the enjoyment of murdering people is you get the chance to rip their face off and plaster it on a wall for display (or to tote around your friends). If it suddenly becomes so easy to get, it will lose its reward.

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While I understand the sentiment, it isn't like anyone would be able to get your head unless you purchased it.

Another idea I just had would be kissing tickets and/or trading cards.

 

[Zacatero]

But i can put anybodys name in as the gift4all buyer so that means having a rare head is a thing of the past

 

[Legoclub22]

But i can put anybodys name in as the gift4all buyer so that means having a rare head is a thing of the past

Click to shrink...

That is true.

 

[Legoclub22]

I just remembered an idea that was suggested a while back. It was more paid events, like the eclipse. There was a monsoon, which was constant rain and plant growth increased, and a drought, which the affects I do not recall. These could be some very fun additions instead of tools. I'll see if I can find the old thread.

 

[FireFan96]

I just remembered an idea that was suggested a while back. It was more paid events, like the eclipse. There was a monsoon, which was constant rain and plant growth increased, and a drought, which the affects I do not recall. These could be some very fun additions instead of tools. I'll see if I can find the old thread.

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This was my idea, and it didn't get much support then, and I doubt it will get it now. It was conceptualized as a way to combat against eclipses and to counter against the weather based traits, which have since been removed from PvP.

 

[Legoclub22]

This was my idea, and it didn't get much support then, and I doubt it will get it now. It was conceptualized as a way to combat against eclipses and to counter against the weather based traits, which have since been removed from PvP.

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Yes, but it could server as just more things to replace master gear.
Found the thread finally, btw.

 

[LanternArchon]

Frankly, the main issue with the faction server, in my opinion, is the fact that there are very few to no medium or small, active factions that are not entirely devoted to rp or pvp. RP factions, have and always will exist, but their proportion is increasing due to a worrying trend in pvp factions. Before the Minecraft EULA, if you even partially interested in PVP, you HAD to be a premium, no questions asked, because of the ridiculous buffs they gained in combat. Many premiums, myself included, bought premium with regals, which at the time was rather expensive, simply in terms of regals per moth. This put more stress on pvp-interested premiums to earn income, through raiding, darkrooming, etc. While this did create a much larger gap between nonpremiums and premiums than exists today, it provided the drive for 'wow, I wish I could be that guy with a ton of stats a lot of regals and armor', something for nonpremiums to look forward too after a long time of saving and hard work. The issues in the system were introduced as a trickle, beginning with the introduction of voting from regals, to nonpremiums having the same combat stats, and the introduction of gift4All for god weapons and armor. In short, after the changes, it became exponentially easier for nonprem to reach the tier of a premium pvper. As a result, many premiums, justifiably, were rather frustrated, as their long hours of work in the darkroom can now be equaled by someone clicking on a few signs, and then a few links. So. What does this have to do with the number of active mid-size factions? I hate to break it to you folks, but the faction server can not only survive on pvp factions, that is simply unsustainable. Midsize factions provide places for new faction players to work towards being a pvper if they so choose, or just build a city somewhere in Jorrhildir. And, to preempt some criticism, while midsize factions are commonly the target of raids, they also encourage the formation of alliances to protect your faction being raided. These, commonly shifting alliances provide a unique landscape for pvpers to both defend and attack factions, and promote a healthy factions server.

 

[Motherland]

down with the factions

 

[Suzzie]

I want decorative heads4all.
Things like:

• Bread.
• Red Apples.
• Green Apples.
• Chests.
• Mugs.
• Statue heads.
• Books. [x] [x]
• Pots.
• Honey.
• Cake
• Pie
• Globe.
• Fishbowl!
• Present.

These are just a few examples, but I'd splurge my money on these.

 

[65jes89]

I want decorative heads4all.
Things like:

• Bread.
• Red Apples.
• Green Apples.
• Chests.
• Mugs.
• Statue heads.
• Books. [x] [x]
• Pots.
• Honey.
• Cake
• Pie
• Globe.
• Fishbowl!
• Present.

These are just a few examples, but I'd splurge my money on these.

Click to shrink...

I think game/tech/someone said a while ago they gave up on custom heads that weren't official Mojang ones because they kept changing and getting screwed up. I'm personally not against it, though.

I think really anything almost would be preferential to the current gift4alls, though. Potions, lore items, whatever. At the very least they would be nerfed down to sharp4/prot3, and should definitely have the extra enchants that make them preferable to god armor taken off.

 

[Lyee]

With the issue of decorative heads getting changed, if people really care and have the money, they could use their Alt. Accounts for them. Other than that I don't personally know any other solution...
Also, this thread really does touch on some real problems, that do need solving.

 

[Kaezir]

F
Nobody likes it, and everyone says they don't like it, but nobody is giving any ideas on how to fix it.

Click to shrink...

This is quite an overstatement. I am curious as to who your control group is as I spend 95% of my time in factions on the server and I never see you around. Sure factions needs improvement, but a lot of people are working and submitting ideas to improve it.

Economy. The economy is beyond broken. It is grossly inflated. There is no need to grind resoursec as they're already for purchase for cheap, and you don't need to work for money because it's too easy to get.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure if you are exactly familiar with this point. The main issue with the economy is god tier equipment. Resources are where they are at because of player work and not because they are spawned in from donations. Resources are at where they need to be price wise. As far as getting money, you only get about 50 regals a day now from voting. That means the amount you get from voting has been reduced by OVER two thirds. Which means you have to supplement your income by going to job island or perhaps the eventual increase of money received from MassiveMobs again.

Relation. Relations are not important enough. Culture in factions is "im bored lets pvp", and "ur gonna pay us tribute in regals". There are not enough empires, not enough relations roleplay, and not enough reasonable conflict.

Click to shrink...

This however is unfortunately true. Empires has a few features however that may make you choose your allies wisely.

Admin Shops. Admin shops could be used to alter the economy. It would work very easily, and could be removed later to restore a player-run economy. Say that we want less god armor. We have admin shops buying god armor and diamonds for a nice price. That way the items demand goes up, and supply goes down. And while gift4all is great for the server, it's terrible for the game. A cooldown should be put so you can only purcase one gift4all a day.

Click to shrink...

This point has been discussed in several threads and Q&A's also within staff. We are working on a solution.

Money sinks. We need things to spend money on to drain some money from the economy. Maybe add back in minigames like Siege(because Siege was awesome and deserves to come back on it's own), and make it cost 10r for an "entry ticket". 10r to play one round. If you spend a while playing Siege, that's a lot of regals.

Click to shrink...

We already have several money sinks. Faction tax was actually reduced because the sink was far too large after the reduction in voting.

Faction ranking.

Click to shrink...

I feel like there are too many factors to take into account for this. We already have /f list which is similar to this in a way. I'd rather see different /f lists implemented. Another solution would be to allow the faction recruitment threads appear on the recent articles feed.

 

[Zacatero]

We already have /f list

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All /f list is.. is a list of who has the most members online... its not ranking in any shape or form

 

[Kaezir]

All /f list is.. is a list of who has the most members online... its not ranking in any shape or form

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I'd rather see different /f lists implemented.

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Meaning ranked the same way as most online members but with land and other things.

 

[Tokuu]

My main gripe with posts such as these is that no one really grasps that we do not need any money sinks. What's saturating the economy, as @Kaezir said, are god items, and to a lesser extent rare ores. What is needed are item sinks, things which take items out of the economy, increasing the demand but decreasing the supply, thus people are able to charge more for them, and with more money in the economy people are happy to pay over the odds for such items, stimulating what is currently an almost dead system.

 

[Legoclub22]

This is quite an overstatement. I am curious as to who your control group is as I spend 95% of my time in factions on the server and I never see you around. Sure factions needs improvement, but a lot of people are working and submitting ideas to improve it.

Click to shrink...

This is less fact and more basis for the thread. It seems that there are a lot of threads saying "Factions ain't what they used to be", though not a lot suggesting helpful ideas.

I'm not sure if you are exactly familiar with this point. The main issue with the economy is god tier equipment. Resources are where they are at because of player work and not because they are spawned in from donations. Resources are at where they need to be price wise. As far as getting money, you only get about 50 regals a day now from voting. That means the amount you get from voting has been reduced by OVER two thirds. Which means you have to supplement your income by going to job island or perhaps the eventual increase of money received from MassiveMobs again.

Click to shrink...

My main gripe with posts such as these is that no one really grasps that we do not need any money sinks. What's saturating the economy, as @Kaezir said, are god items, and to a lesser extent rare ores. What is needed are item sinks, things which take items out of the economy, increasing the demand but decreasing the supply, thus people are able to charge more for them, and with more money in the economy people are happy to pay over the odds for such items, stimulating what is currently an almost dead system.

Click to shrink...

We already have several money sinks. Faction tax was actually reduced because the sink was far too large after the reduction in voting.

Click to shrink...

Point taken. There is still not enough demand for precious materials, though, in my opinion. Though it is caused by the influx of god-tier equipment. Diamonds are worth very little, as they are not needed for crafting. Their only use is for repair, though that is made nearly obsolete due to /fix and enchants.

This however is unfortunately true. Empires has a few features however that may make you choose your allies wisely.

Click to shrink...

What a sub-plugin for Factions could be created, MassiveEmpires, that allowed factions to join a group of factions, and affecting relations with them. It would cause all members of an Empire to ally each other in order to join the Empire, and also show toggle-able relation changes from other factions in the Empire. Say that Faction A, B, and C are in an empire, and D is not. Faction A B and C are all allies. When Faction A enemies Faction D, Faction B and C are alerted. Similarly, when Faction A truces Faction D, they are also alerted. Another feature could be providing a warning before allowing a faction to enemy the ally of another faction in their Empire. Say Faction A is allies with Faction, Z, and Faction B attempts to enemy Faction Z. Faction B would be warned that Faction Z and A are allies, and forced to confirm or cancel the relation change. It shouldn't be too complicated to create, as it doesn't really add any special mechanics, only keeps track of relations.

This point has been discussed in several threads and Q&A's also within staff. We are working on a solution.

Click to shrink...

As suggested, adding fun items to replace the Master gear would help in the long run. Though there would still be the problem of a large number on the market, where I believe an admin shop would help. I am excited to see staff's solution, though.

I feel like there are too many factors to take into account for this. We already have /f list which is similar to this in a way. I'd rather see different /f lists implemented. Another solution would be to allow the faction recruitment threads appear on the recent articles feed.

Click to shrink...

The main point of this would be to give factions something to strive for. Without some kind of reward, it can't be expected that they will form huge empires and conquer entire worlds. Though this is a relatively large project to implement, I feel it would help. At the very least, some competition should be created to get factions to start rivalries.

 

[Tokuu]

Point taken. There is still not enough demand for precious materials, though, in my opinion. Though it is caused by the influx of god-tier equipment. Diamonds are worth very little, as they are not needed for crafting. Their only use is for repair, though that is made nearly obsolete due to /fix and enchants.

Click to shrink...

The whole point of item sinks is to create that demand. Items which are considered mostly cosmetic or function purely for fixing others will suddenly become a necessity, and as such there will become a demand for them. If you have any ideas you wish to put forward regarding item sinks, I'd love to hear a well formulated idea on the feature and idea discussion, as the more points are put forward, the faster we can get things implemented, and therefore progress can be made to stimulate the economy much faster.

 

[Celeras]

These are my personal opinions on factions and the server as a whole. These opinions are coming from someone who is neither a pvper nor a roleplayer. I'm not saying they are shared by anyone else or looking for a debate. Just giving my opinion.

1. Worlds feel overcrowded and there is no sense of adventure/exploration. Maps are about 10,000 x 10,000 blocks if I recall correctly which may sound pretty big but really isn't. Also dynmap is just a huge cheat in my opinion. It doesn't make sense that people can see where all factions are located.

2. Worlds are not very fun to build on. In regards to the terrain, mountains are too small and their sides are too steep, while coasts and riversides are small and not steep enough. There aren't many cliffs or canyons either.

3. Having to treat the game like a job in order to own a large faction. I don't care at all about the survival aspects or pvp. I don't play Minecraft to be the richest or most powerful person or as a challenge or whatever. I have other, better games for that. I just want to build stuff. In my opinion, the economy interferes way too much with the creative aspects of Minecraft. It should just be a separate, optional component of the server and not something that is necessary to play.

4. I'm not an active roleplayer but I do like to give my character and factions lore. As far as role-playing goes, I feel it is a little bit too restrictive. There seems to be a big divide between regalia and the faction worlds which makes anything that goes on in either world feel pointless to one or the other. I think as a community, players should have more input into lore that gets made canon, and that there should be some criteria for factions to become canonized as well.

5. Gameplay (specifically on this server) is overly complicated. MCMMO is just a grindfest for barely any reward, traits are an unbalanced mess, and no offense to the developers, but I lost interest in massivemagic almost immediately after the first official info on it was released. I find skill/ability systems like massivemagic/skyrim/etc where one person can learn everything on one character regardless of their background or personality really unimaginative. I think a traditional D&D-like class system where the player is limited to certain sets of abilities based on their class makes more sense both from a gameplay perspective, and a lore/IC perspective.

 

[RedSentinel]

• Fishbowl!

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Oh my lord YES. I need this in my life.

 

[AtticCat]

I"m sorry I had to do it.

*Helpful suggestion*
*Helpful suggestion*
*Helpful suggestion*
@RedSentinel: "Omg a fiSHBOWL"

 

[Enkiduu]

1. Worlds feel overcrowded and there is no sense of adventure/exploration. Maps are about 10,000 x 10,000 blocks if I recall correctly which may sound pretty big but really isn't. Also dynmap is just a huge cheat in my opinion. It doesn't make sense that people can see where all factions are located.

2. Worlds are not very fun to build on. In regards to the terrain, mountains are too small and their sides are too steep, while coasts and riversides are small and not steep enough. There aren't many cliffs or canyons either.

Click to shrink...

I feel they're not crowded enough. With the current active population in Faction worlds, the chances of actually coming across another player is extremely rare. Personally I feel if the worlds were smaller and everyone more congregated, there would be more interaction, much like how Regalia functions with roleplay: congregating people together to promote interaction.

The lack of a sense of exploration may be due to how flat and smooth the worlds are. I believe the reason for that is partly because the worlds were designed to be more flat for building large factions. It's not like vanilla where there are more microterrain, smaller variations in the terrain with more biomes, hills, valleys, etc, which personally I would like to see as it makes the terrain more varied and interesting to explore on a smaller scale, the actual gameplay scale. I'd also like to add that all the trees could be smaller, they're a pain to chop down when terraforming.

3. Having to treat the game like a job in order to own a large faction. I don't care at all about the survival aspects or pvp. I don't play Minecraft to be the richest or most powerful person or as a challenge or whatever. I have other, better games for that. I just want to build stuff. In my opinion, the economy interferes way too much with the creative aspects of Minecraft. It should just be a separate, optional component of the server and not something that is necessary to play.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, I feel the opposite, that building and resource gathering here is ridiculously easy to obtain with all the custom recipes and public resources available, to the point that it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment.

4. I'm not an active roleplayer but I do like to give my character and factions lore. As far as role-playing goes, I feel it is a little bit too restrictive. There seems to be a big divide between regalia and the faction worlds which makes anything that goes on in either world feel pointless to one or the other. I think as a community, players should have more input into lore that gets made canon, and that there should be some criteria for factions to become canonized as well.

Click to shrink...

Players can currently submit minor lore for things like animals or plants. Otherwise, it's not that simple, I think most Faction players underestimate just how vast and complex the server's official lore is and how different it is from Faction lore. A lot of it, especially the core lore, is finely tuned and structured to be as balanced and as high quality as possible.

Just to give a brief glimpse, here are several articles related to Ithania alone: Ithania, Ithanian culture, Ithanian Nations and States, and there are still more. You can't really combine Factions into this without either taking away creative freedom from Factions so they become lore-compliant, or taking down the lore that many roleplayers have heavily invested and which has been written and built over years of research and manpower.

5. Gameplay (specifically on this server) is overly complicated. MCMMO is just a grindfest for barely any reward, traits are an unbalanced mess, and no offense to the developers, but I lost interest in massivemagic almost immediately after the first official info on it was released. I find skill/ability systems like massivemagic/skyrim/etc where one person can learn everything on one character regardless of their background or personality really unimaginative. I think a traditional D&D-like class system where the player is limited to certain sets of abilities based on their class makes more sense both from a gameplay perspective, and a lore/IC perspective.

Click to shrink...

I agree with this, too much freedom and a jack-of-all-trades skillset makes things pointless and less interesting. I'm gonna shameless promote the addition of a race/class plugin once again. A race plugin, not the race plugin, I'm not necessarily referring to the old one. It would be any plugin that does the following:

- Have a list of preset races/classes to choose from
- This choice must have a significant impact on gameplay

- Different buffs or debuffs are given based on choice.
- The choice should be hard to change with a long cooldown, otherwise making this choice would be pointless.​

- Others players must be able to see each other's race/class

This could be something as simple as having preset traits.

A race plugin would be an easy way to passively add lore and a layer of immersion to the Faction world. It creates specialization and niches for people to fill in; a Mer race for underwater tasks, an Orc race for fighting, a Florae race for farming. It gives factions more of a reason to interact with each other and establish relations with companion races, or raid rival races. It gives people and groups more of an identity as opposed to now where anyone can just do anything so everything feels like one uniform blob.

I think this sums it up pretty well:

 

[Zacatero]

Snip

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[Legoclub22]

Though I appreciate everyone's opinion, if you state an issue, please also provide your idea on how to fix it.

The whole point of item sinks is to create that demand. Items which are considered mostly cosmetic or function purely for fixing others will suddenly become a necessity, and as such there will become a demand for them. If you have any ideas you wish to put forward regarding item sinks, I'd love to hear a well formulated idea on the feature and idea discussion, as the more points are put forward, the faster we can get things implemented, and therefore progress can be made to stimulate the economy much faster.

Click to shrink...

I still believe that the supply for Master items should be removed, and an item sink for it inserted. If we could get rid of Master gear, it would be a step in the right direction.

Now of course Master gear is important for the server's income, but there are plenty of things to replace them.

 

[Celeras]

I feel they're not crowded enough. With the current active population in Faction worlds, the chances of actually coming across another player is extremely rare. Personally I feel if the worlds were smaller and everyone more congregated, there would be more interaction, much like how Regalia functions with roleplay: congregating people together to promote interaction.

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Yeah I'm the opposite. I think its more fun when the world seems more uninhabited, and when you have to travel long distances to find anybody. Its more wild and more realistic/natural.

The lack of a sense of exploration may be due to how flat and smooth the worlds are. I believe the reason for that is partly because the worlds were designed to be more flat for building large factions. It's not like vanilla where there are more microterrain, smaller variations in the terrain with more biomes, hills, valleys, etc, which personally I would like to see as it makes the terrain more varied and interesting to explore on a smaller scale, the actual gameplay scale. I'd also like to add that all the trees could be smaller, they're a pain to chop down when terraforming.

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I actually think that some worlds aren't flat and smooth enough and this goes back to worlds being too small in my opinion. There should be enough room to where we have large valleys as well as mountain ranges that can't be walked across in a few minutes. I don't think we need smaller variations in the terrain, we just need more features. (cliffs, hills, canyons, valleys, etc.)

Some opinions I have on different mountain designs in Massivecraft:

These mountains in Fendarfell are way too small and conical in my opinion. Lots of peaks are cone shaped but mountains in the real world are not as steep as this. It actually looks more like the top of a mountain range as opposed to an entire mountain range itself. Regardless of how realistic it is, it also isn't very good for building on, as it leads to either having to shave a huge portion of the mountain off to have a flat surface for building or just having buildings oddly sticking out of the side of a slope (as you can see in this picture.)

These mountains in Jorrhild are a good example of a steep slope that doesn't look unrealistic, however the top of the mountain range is a little bit too flat in my opinion. Some caves, holes, cliffs, and canyons in the middle would have added some much needed variation in the terrain. I also feel that this mountain range is again too small.

This mountain range in New Ceardia is really good. It isn't too steep and there is a lot of variation. However, it is again too small. The areas with snow should be as large as the areas with rocks, and maybe even a little bigger.

I LOVE these mountains in Teled Methen. They have tons of variation, even on the slope of the mountain. They could be a little bigger but other than that they are perfect.

Side note: Not a fan of the abundance of towers here.

Moving on, I also have some other gripes:

Most beaches that are next to mountains look like this. The slope isn't necessarily a bad thing because there are plenty of areas in the real world were a mountain ends right on the ocean. However, the little sandy areas on this slope make no sense. If you want to have a sandy beach, it needs to be way larger and way less steep, and the side of the mountain should be rocky instead of grassy.

Also, there aren't any beaches with dunes besides the desert areas. I think it would be cool if there were more areas that look like Pismo beach, where the climate is not arid, and there are mountains with trees and grass, and near the beach there are dunes.

Other things that would be cool:

Trenches in the ocean.
Coral Reef
More caves, ruins, and things of that nature.
Two types of trails:

1. Made by animals migrating around the worlds. These would be natural dirt paths located in the wilderness.
2. Made by humanoids. These would link the peaceful towns together.
​

Honestly, I feel the opposite, that building and resource gathering here is ridiculously easy to obtain with all the custom recipes and public resources available, to the point that it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment.

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I don't have a problem with resource gathering. Its the necessity to keep up regals that I don't care for. Before taxes were introduced, regals were just something optional to me that I could use to buy stuff if I didn't feel like going out and getting them myself. Now, you NEED them if you want to keep your faction from disappearing and to someone who only gathers resources for building and doesn't care about selling stuff and making regals, its a real drag to have to deal with.

Players can currently submit minor lore for things like animals or plants. Otherwise, it's not that simple, I think most Faction players underestimate just how vast and complex the server's official lore is and how different it is from Faction lore. A lot of it, especially the core lore, is finely tuned and structured to be as balanced and as high quality as possible.

Just to give a brief glimpse, here are several articles related to Ithania alone: Ithania, Ithanian culture, Ithanian Nations and States, and there are still more. You can't really combine Factions into this without either taking away creative freedom from Factions so they become lore-compliant, or taking down the lore that many roleplayers have heavily invested and which has been written and built over years of research and manpower.

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I understand that. I just personally feel that certain things in lore, like religion, magic, and other things are either not interesting enough or are too restrictive. (I prefer more high fantasy than there is currently)

I agree with this, too much freedom and a jack-of-all-trades skillset makes things pointless and less interesting. I'm gonna shameless promote the addition of a race/class plugin once again. A race plugin, not the race plugin, I'm necessarily referring to the old one. It would be any plugin that does the following:

- Have a list of preset races/classes to choose from
- This choice must have a significant impact on gameplay

- Different buffs or debuffs are given based on choice.
- The choice should be hard to change with a long cooldown, otherwise making this choice would be pointless.​

- Others players must be able to see each other's race/class

This could be something as simple as having preset traits.

A race plugin would be an easy way to passively add lore and a layer of immersion to the Faction world. It creates specialization and niches for people to fill in; a Mer race for underwater tasks, an Orc race for fighting, a Florae race for farming. It gives factions more of a reason to interact with each other and establish relations with companion races, or raid rival races. It gives people and groups more of an identity as opposed to now where anyone can just do anything so everything feels like one uniform blob.

I think this sums it up pretty well:

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There is always... Heroes.


Also again I'd just like to say that these are just my personal opinions and I'm not trying to say that they are how everything should be. This is just why I'm not currently interested in playing.

 

[_Grimmy_]

Honestly, I feel the opposite, that building and resource gathering here is ridiculously easy to obtain with all the custom recipes and public resources available, to the point that it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment.

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You could and still sit in the market for like two hours and make upwards of 800r basically a month to two weeks depending on restock by just running around, you coulf literally make over a thousand regals with coal blocks if you produced your own, so basically being rich if anything is just time consuming and trivially easy.

 

[Enkiduu]

I don't have a problem with resource gathering. Its the necessity to keep up regals that I don't care for. Before taxes were introduced, regals were just something optional to me that I could use to buy stuff if I didn't feel like going out and getting them myself. Now, you NEED them if you want to keep your faction from disappearing and to someone who only gathers resources for building and doesn't care about selling stuff and making regals, its a real drag to have to deal with.

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If you're not already aware, MassiveRestore has been slowed down to six months instead of one. You'll still need to claim your stuff to protect it and stuff, but that should at least give some more breathing space.

 

[Legoclub22]

It has been suggested before that they mage a mega-sized world without the ability for Dynmap. Though I don't really think that mountain shape is the main problem.

Anyway, unless you'd like to suggest a way to improve this, then we'll be moving on.

Perhaps what is most important now is that we remove the supply for Master gear, and try to suck a large portion out of the economy. This would make players have to work for their equipment, which would already be a major improvement.
The next part would be adding some kind of system to recognize Factions for being important. Add them a way to be rewarded for hard work. Depending on how Staff want to reward them, we could go multiple ways. There could be a ranking for factions/empires. Especially significant factions/empires could be rewarded with some sort of Regalian Title to encourage them to roleplay. They could be given extra power some how. So on.