Am I missing something?

Hi everyone,

I joined this server about a week ago and I have to say, I got pretty addicted to logging in and doing my thing in town. But after a while, just going out mining in the wastelands and then selling all the stuff I didn't really need, seems to get boring. So I figured I might try out and go to the frontier and do my thing there.

So I started reading the Wilderness Frontier section on the forums and I see all those posts about nations and outposts, etc and how you have to be at least 5000 blocks away from it if you want to start something there, a lot of temper tantrums, land disputes, etc etc. So I am thinking "Hey, this might be fun."

But then I read more and come to realize that it's mostly just one to four people per outpost doing this. It just seems that there's only a handful of people building huge cities with skyscrapers, malls, bridges, houses and things and nobody actually uses them, that they're mostly empty. And that those land disputes are only concerning two people fighting over a bit of land and that actually nobody lives there for a long period of time.

So if I do head out to the Frontier, find a little place and start to make it my own, I will very likely see nobody around, right? No matter where I decide to settle down. I have checked the map for a couple of days and only saw one girl working on a house she has somewhere. I would mostly be doing single-player minecraft, but without being able to use a bed.

Is this maybe because I am on the wrong server (smp 5) or maybe I am in the wrong timezone? I am in Europe, so maybe after I go to bed, suddenly hundreds of people log in and start actually living in the Frontier and then it will be important where I decide to live?

Well first of all you have to realize what kind of server emc is. Emc is a town server. People who generally come here want to live in a town. There are SOME good faction servers, which are not just about killing each other. But other server are beside the point now. Now to the reason why there are outposts at all. At some point some players decide to live in the wild. They basically treat EMC like their private server, where they can play with their friends. Due to the size of MC, human nature and the fact that MCs player base is so widespread on thousands of servers, it needs town servers to get the feeling of having neighbors without beeing constantly griefed.

So this is the point where you need to decide what you want. Either you are looking for a quiet place where you and really good friends, who also want to live secluded from most of EMC, will live. Or you find out what makes the town of EMC so interesting to so many players.

In an outpost. You will have to do lots of organizing, you have to create your own entertainment and you will probably have at most 4 people. Maybe 1 day your group joins another and you are 8 people!!! Anyway there are not many players who find beeing with the same 4 dudes all day everyday very amusing.

Finding out about EMC means to figure out what happens when you socialize. Recently a player asked what EMC is about? PvE, PvP, building .... Best answer I could think of was living. That means people come together at places. Mostly event places like the mob arena. But also hanging out at a friends place can be really fun. When you decide to build a res dont just build a house. I mean really your avatar has no physical need for a roof and a bed. What we do have a need for is fun and engaging dynamic events. Im currently designing a huge quest line a bit Zelda like with riddles and traps and maze like structures, but without slaying grass and pots sadly. Also my builds are always quite extraordinary what brings people to my res. That is what EMC is about for me. There are lots of engaging things in EMC if you start living here

I think you're right. In the frontier you won't see too much people, except when you plan with somebody else to live together on an outpost. There are lots of outposts created where you can apply and live together in the wild with other people.

Thanks for your answers.

You are right, Hasorko, I was doing the same thing I was doing in single player minecraft. I built my house, went out to mine and just crafted the stuff I wanted and that was it then, I sold the rest for rupees.

I will take your advice and focus on my plot instead of doing the Frontier thing. I think I just imagined it to be completely different.

You have made some good observations and asked in a good way, so I will do my best to provide some insight.

Welcome! Glad to hear you are liking some of the features of our server. Another thing you can do is get together a group to go mining. There are group features that provide chat, extra exp, mining speed, and attack bonuses when players work together. If you get the chance, I am sure you will want to use it.

Yes, but mostly outposts are not about such 'drama'. Lots of fun stuff happens that doesn't end up on the forums.

Most of the outposts ARE only a couple of friends that enjoy building together in a survival setting. In addition to buildings, many outposts are centered on rare goods production, such as iron farms, gold farms, etc. Players use these farms to make lots of income and once the farm is set to run automatic, players often have time to build while they keep chunks loaded near their farms so that they will produce. In these cases, a small group is usually better. I try to avoid land disputes, there is an unlimited amount of world in this game, so disputes are usually just people who 'like' to argue.(or who have built too close to that type of person)

If you want to have people around, you will need to do some planning and research to choose an existing group to join up with. Often, players enjoy building outposts more than 'living' there. Once the outpost gets to a certain point, many just move on to another project. I do this frequently because there are only certain parts of building outposts that I enjoy. I build roads through the nether to make transport of goods back to town easier/faster. It's that part I like to do, I meet people, build the road (hopefully with help), and then move on to another project.

It is possible to use a bed, but everyone must be sleeping, which may or may not be possible depending on who is logged on. You can send a private message to others asking if they will sleep, and often they will.

This is part of research and planning. If you are flexible about which smp you will play, then you will find that they each have unique groups. You SHOULD be able to figure out which is most active in your time zone and then you will start seeing a pattern of who is around to build with. If you like to use Mumble or skype or teamspeak, you will find that unique groups also gather in those places, and it's a great way to tap in to active community projects. This forum is also a great resource and you appear to already understand how it works!

If you are looking for things to do, you have only scratched the surface, the community here at EMC is large and growing. Thanks for joining and good luck with your projects.

As a start to get to know some of the EMC community, let me invite you over to my place. I will be online in a bit (probably 2 hours max XD). You can check wether I'm online via /p Hasorko. Than feel free to come over, it will be fun somehow ^^. I will be on SMP1. I'm german btw so european time

Being in the wild is certainly fun.
If you are not in any rush, take your time and as others have said, plan wisely.
Find others that are fun and have similar interests as you.

The 5,000 blocks from the spawn points, and 3,000 block from any other players build (distance requirements), is if you wish to 'establish' 'your' area. I would recommend following this, in case you wish to have an established area in the future. I will say that I believe the ability to establish your build area will be important.

Keep in mind, the further out you go, the less likely you are to have others around your area (the drawback is the increased travel time between your 'base' and town...which sometimes hurts other players abilities to want to build with you) Run around a load of places and mark down potential areas you wish to build at. For my area I claimed awhile back, I chose an area for the landscape and how great it looked as I planned on integrating living areas into the natural landscape.

In regards to most of what you 'see' in the forums, I will say that 'no news is good news'. In that I mean most of the fun, builds, etc. that players have in the wild, you will not be aware of, as is not shared in the forums. Some of the "negative" things that you read in the forums, stems from peoples frustration with certain situations.
Do not let this bias you how living in the wild really is, as most of the time, this is not what happens with wild builds.

I am glad to see that you are enjoying EMC. Good luck with it, and if you need anything, or have questions you do not wish to post in the forums, feel free to start a convo with me! See you around!

Hey jantheman,
to change your picture about outposts I would like to invite you to visit Carthaga, a city in the east frontiers of smp4 (click my signature for more info). We have a group of 10-12 pretty active members and a bunch more that show up occassionally. Our group chat frequently has 6 or more members.
The buildings in Carthaga all have a purpose and are used a lot. For example, we have a job centre where members can post tasks that they need done and so far we made great progress through this system. Other examples are the post office, the storage house, the crafting area, a newspaper that came out in it's 3rd edition lately,....
One of the main points that distinguishes Carthaga from the other outposts is, that we have a mission: We support other projects.
So, after creating a huge auto sorter in our storage house, we are currently stocking it up so we have resources ready to boost other projects. But we have been supporting quite some projects already. It is lots of fun as we get to see awesome builds and can contribute to them.
To finance all this we auction resources that we produce with a battery of farms. From the common farms we have almost every type, some even double. We are very productive.
If you are interested let me know and I will give you a tour,
Kaizimir

Edit: I also live in a similar timezone and quite a few other members, too

This is when u learn the true potential of this server making bases using redstone to hide them fighting momentus the possibility so r endless