The reason for considering combining servers is not cost related, it is all about bringing community closer together. Chat channel enhancements will clearly be the most acceptable start to any process, so no major restructure is in the immediate future. A wipe isn't in the plans, I don't think most people want that, and it doesn't serve the stated goal. All the residences are already in a numeric order, so joining servers as entire blocks of town is the only organized method dev has considered. The server spawn would become a neighborhood spawn instead, and that would maintain the layout/structure of the existing towns. Configuration might be 2 towns side by side, 3 in a row, 4 in a 2x2 grid, 9 in a 3x3 grid, those are the practical designs, but no specific plan has been worked on yet. These are good questions that no one has discussed yet, that is why community feedback is important.
I have to say, the main reason that I am (almost) never on is that there is (almost) never somebody online.
As long as the worlds are all synced up with the original if the merge happens, I don't think that would change. If it doesn't work though, nether travel is still viable it jus may be a longer distance. As for the latter method, no impact I'd imagine inventory would stay individual
im calling bs, theres no 12 hour long nether tunnels on any of the livemaps and you arent old enough to have been out there for the map wipe. maybe 12 hours while hungry and on a slowness potion but theres no way you are that far out
I think this idea would work, but I dont fully support it. Here are a couply reasons why. One: Aikar is advertising this server more now, if we make less servers they will hold less players. Two: During events the chat gets filled quickly, especially when people dont use res or local chat. With this the chat would be insane for everyone. Oh and with the whole server chat thing, I think it should be limited to group and private chat, due to reason two above.
I am currently doing code study on our /v command and how it can be updated to work across all servers. This will require a bit of rewrite due to it being an older command format. I'm thinking that when you try to visit a res outside the current server, it will give you a message and ask you to click if you want to continue. Shouldn't take too long, but first I am finishing up a little mob arena difficulty enhancement.
This is an absolutely great idea, but it would be a long work in process. Really though, I think people would actually try to associate themselves with everyone on each server, this would sort of eliminate the theory I've had for a while, each server wouldn't be in its own little corner with its own citizens anymore.
First, let me begin by alerting you all to the fact that I did not read every comment. Mostly because this idea has been floating around in my head for quite a long time. So, I'd like to make a few points. - Nothing would ever be lost. We aren't that stupid. - Confusion is not an issue. Names for the individual servers should stay the same. - Global chat is not an answer. We have received multiple complaints on the broadcast messages for mob arenas. Global chat would essentially allow everyone to have access to the broadcast feature. And, a "divided" global chat would be confusing. So, that being said, my idea is quite simple. A town merge only. Town merges are the only likely area where an impact would be felt. Those in a wild community will care less, as they are already in their community. The technicalities don't matter much. With aikar's performance updates, we could easily put a few towns together. So: town1.empire.us: smp1 - smp4 town2.empire.us: smp5 - smp9 utopia.empire.us (remains the same) /server smpX would transport player to their current location on smpX. If they were in town, it transports them to the town hub where the teleports for frontier/wild are located. After much consideration, I see absolutely zero issue with this. Only benefits.
Well, as for merging towns, I do see an issue that I had not fully understood, but was brought up earlier in the discussion. Currently, every player has a unique identity on each server, with an independent inventory, enderchest contents and also a unique spawn point. Meaning I can be in the wild on smp2, in town on smp3, in the nether on smp4, etc... This would force players with outposts on several servers to travel more or restrict them from using some all but one wilderness location (like if they have a wild home that is too far to travel to town from.) Maybe no 12 hours of travel time, but impractical and not in the plan at the time of design. The empires update is planned to allow creation of portals to distant lands (if they are claimed) and would resolve some of those issues, but that will be after 1.8 and dragon tombs. I can see that for this merge to get wide acceptance, those updates will need to be in place.
Town1 and Town2 would be new. So if playerA is in the wild on smp1, then /server smp1 takes him to the wild. If playerA is in town at a residence, /server smp1 would take him to the town spawn. Perhaps I should have mentioned that.
