The Periodic Reset Area - EMC Mineshafts & Making it a ©Happier Place

I was reading a post about the Reset Area, and saw this comment:

As we all know, the Reset Area is like a nuclear testing area and is both difficult and dangerous to cross.

My suggestion is as follows and I've termed it: 'EMC Mineshafts'

EMC Mineshafts

Designed to minimise the requirement for the Periodic Reset to be activated whilst simultaneously ensuring less hazardous over-ground travel from the Spawn Outpost.

Consisting of several factors, the first of which is:

Protected Layer

The surface level of dirt, as in, the first vertical block of dirt to have its upper half facing the sun, is unbreakable. All plants / trees / water / lava can still be collected or cut down as per normal, but the surface layer itself cannot be penetrated.

This is then accompanied by:

EMC Mineshafts

These are protected structures in the same sense as the Spawn Outpost, that are placed along the compass points from the Spawn.

See the red dots as an example of their potential locations:



These mineshafts give sub-surface access where the ground can be broken as normal.
The Mineshafts could potentially have protected roads leading to them as below:



The roads would allow easy and quick transit to the Mineshafts as well as a directional indicator, create a busy thorough-fare as people use them to get back and forth, and add an enjoyable atmosphere.

Benefits

Removes the dangers of traversing an intensively mined area after leaving the spawn
Negates the bad impression new visitors receive when they see the land outside the Protected spawn
Maximises opportunity for socialising and making new friends in the Wild
Minimises the amount of times the Reset Area has to actually be reset

Downsides

Logistical implications of the functionality and coding of this

Summary

This would enable people to get out into the Wild and dig as much as they like without harming the over-ground transit, add an altogether more pleasant experience of EMC when leaving the Spawn Outpost and give people a greater chance of making new friends or working together to gather resources.

The only sacrifice any player has to make if they want to mine in the PRA is a few seconds or minutes of travel to the nearest Mineshaft.

Thoughts / comments as always are appreciated.

Yup. Brilliant.

Great idea in concept, I can't help but feel that the area immediately outside the yellow reset box will become the new post-apocalyptic battleground, and unfortunately that area won't be an easy fix. The main reason I feel this way is because sand and sandstone are a major target for resource collection, and as It is only found in the top few layers of the surface it will immediately cause the nuclear test grounds again.
We have all of the spawn locations backed up now, so hopefully we can look forward to automatic regular and predictable resets every few weeks, which should help to reduce damage and keep the area looking fresh.

The main driving force behind this idea is that it's a long-term effort.

If people are digging up sand that's in the PRA and it keeps getting reset, isn't that making life too easy for some people?

Would there be scope to perhaps ensure there were no sand biomes within the PRA?

The question that rings around in my head is:

"How often would it need to be reset? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?"

You mention every few weeks. In that time a lot of new players will have come across the carnage and first impressions are everything. Even as JustinGuy says, if it were done every day, it'd probably be back to the same standard by the end of the day.

This concept would remove the need for a reset at all, apart from perhaps once a month once the sub-surface PRA had been completely gutted out.

Hahaha. Not until I've finished the Tavern in my Arabian Market!

Better yet, set it so that any sand in your inventory randomly bursts into flames, taking you with it.

I like the idea of turning any sand that is mined in the PRA into a inventory of dirt instead... it would irritate people immensely, but would get them to stop stealing all the sand and making the world look awful.

I do not see this as a resonable solution to the problem. It just extends the damage further out and would require alot more programming and maintenance. I would like to see the periodic reset areas be reset every 2 weeks. I don't mind building a new bridge every 2 weeks over that moon creater area north of the SMP7 main wilderness spawn that used to be a desert.

What we need to look at here, is the long-term investment of the concept.

Currently, a new player joines EMC, goes to the Wild and sees Armageddon. I wonder how many players we've lost because of that? The whole thing hampers the experience.

Even for two weeks, that's still a long time to have the chaos that is the PRA.

Perhaps with tweaking, this idea might be a successful one.

That also makes sense since the places we tend to test nuclear weapons in real life are often desert biomes.

In response to Aikar:

I respectfully disagree. I died a few times falling into near bottomless holes trying to get from the south spawn into the wilderness. I agree that the desert biomes suffer the worst with this. The thing is, a little digging here, a little digging there, and over time, with no reset, it still ends up being a mess.

You have a point there.

In response to kilmannan:

You have made a good point about the problem of strip-mining near the spawns, and have come up with a creative way to deal with it, and that is no small feat.

I wonder though, is someone who can be disheartened by a mined-out biome really worthy of EMC?

Well, now I have spoken enough (perhaps too much). I will now hand over my "devil's advocate" cap.

the coding isnt that hard and this is a great idea

You died going out? Its worse when you're coming back with a load of diamonds. So.....Close.....

This is a good idea, although there are some kinks I'll let you guys work out.

Agreed. I had a friend who loves Minecraft and couldn't get enough of the idea of an SMP server with separate town and wild worlds. However, when he went to go find some trees on smp2 wild (this was before the reset) he couldn't find any, even though he had gone at least 2k blocks in every direction. I haven't seen him on since....

The focus for this concept isn't the Outposts though, it's the main spawn outpost. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

I believe it's about first impressions, and actually, with something like this in place, it gives a rather nice impression of the EMC Wild within the PRA. Think of it like this, if EMC ever decides to implement shops in the Wild, then the PRA would be the ideal place to have your shop, with the main roads connecting the mineshafts bringing you traffic.

So it provides foundations for future concepts.

I love the concept of designing the wild spawns in a way that reduces the need for resets. (I think that is the driver for this idea). I hope something comes out of this discussion, although I'm not sure about the effects of this sort of change on coding requirements and/or lag.

I think the mineshaft idea is a good one in principle, because people who want cobble won't just move out to the edge of the Protected Surface Area, as it will be quicker to go down a shaft.

For sand/sandstone, people will just move to the new edge, and the Nuclear Wasteland (tm) will just be pushed further out. To combat this, the protected surface could be made thicker (10 blocks ish). At the edge of the protected surface, instead of stopping protection abruptly, protection is gradually removed from the topmost layers, maybe one vertical layer of protection removed for every two blocks out you travel, so there won't be a cliff at the edge of spawn. However, you can still mine under this.

I have a clear picture in my head, but it's hard to explain. I will draw some images when I get back from work and put them up later. I'm keen to progress the discussion, as I think it we might get something awesome out of it in the end!

It would be useful to know if there are coding/server limitations, as these would help shape the discussion.

Cheers

No, I see exactly what you mean by that.

Quite clever.

So after the PRA stops, you can now dig one layer down, one block out. Two blocks out, you can dig two blocks down before hitting protected, three blocks out, three blocks down, and so on.

Simplified, but I get what you're saying. So it's a gradual decline instead of a death drop, with people still digging beneath it by using the original mineshafts.

Yes you got it!

I'm pretty sure that trying to preserve the surace of the area around spawn would be far too computationally expensive. Maybe changing the shape of the spawn area would help preserve the area around spawn for longer before a reset is required, without hitting server performance. The current spawn protection area (in blue) looks like this:

The image is not to scale as ground is typically about 64 units high and the protection area is 200 units edge to edge. That made the images too thin, so I've scaled the y axis up.

As you can see, the average lazy miner will get to the edge of prtectected spawn and just hoover up everything there, leaving a cliff for the next lazy miner to fall off.

If another protected spawn zone was added (in yellow), such that it graded into the landscape, the devastation would be more limited nearer spawn (only the top layer or two can be taken), but more severe further out, which is OK, because there is more space further out, so it will take much longer to require a reset.

Somehting like this:


If the scale above was implemented, a lazy miner would have to go 300 units out before they could create their deadly cliff trap for other lazy miners. At the scale in the diagram, a new mining layer vertically is released every 15 blocks travelled horizontally, so the devastation will be a lot more gradual, and significantly less deadly. It's also worth noting that out there at 300 units, there is a lot more area than there is at 100 units, so resets should be required a lot less often.

I'd still like to see the mineshafts implemented to get through the yellow zone. I think they would be awesome. You could even stop the protected spawn and allow people to tunnel completely under it. We don't want an eyesore in the sky, but some strip mining under spawn wouldn't be a problem:



Then the mineshafts (maybe they could have tracks in them?) could drop people off under the protected area.

I don't want to sound strange or something but I have no problem with the nuclear zone outside the periodic reset area, actually I like to hop around in it, feels like a minigame