Currently, the wasteland poses a high risk to any sort of development, which includes features useful to mining and gathering such as mines, storage areas, rail lines, farms, pathway, etc... Anything built can be lost with little or no notice. Using the wasteland is more courteous, and less distance must be traveled to reach resources. However, to avoid risk one must bring their tools back and forth with them as they mine, taking up precious inventory and allowing less resources to come back. They cannot leave some resources in storage to allow for more optimal transportation. They cannot erect a rail line. They can't build a farm. All of these open them up to complete loss that could happen at any time. My proposal is that rather than reset the wasteland immediately, a second wasteland be created for a temporary period. Players interested in mining on a fresh new world can go to the new wasteland, while players with structures in the old wasteland have a reasonable timeframe to recover their items and resources.
On topic, I think this could be useful. But there might be some sort of limit to the number of worlds the servers can handle without starting to lag.
That was my point... If there was a temporary second wasteland during resets then more could be done with the wasteland. A real analysis of the server performance may be useful but I suspect it wouldn't pose much threat to stability. I believe the tutorial is on it's own world, for example.
I don't think adding another wastelands would anyway improve the economy, if anything it'll have a negative affect on it. The wastelands was created so that you don't have to travel 10k or so blocks just to find minerals or new blocks. With my personal experience I can find every block I could need within 1k blocks away from a waste outpost. A second wastelands in my opinion would be extremely unnecessary. Resetting a world so that it allows new blocks to spawn is good enough for me, and SHOULD be good enough for you as well.
this to me seems really worthless, what exactly is the point when there already is one? the simple fix to this is only mine as much as your inventory can hold... go back to town, go back out (if you want.. it really isn't that difficult) and then go get another loaded inventory. but it isn't like the wastelands get reset every 10 minutes, putting your things in a chest and walking back to town wont do any harm.. if you don't want someone to steal your things while you go back to town, spend the 1,000 rupees to lock the chest for the hour or less that you'll be gone it really doesn't seem like its worth bothering making ANOTHER world, for each smp, just because you can't stop mining when your inventory gets full.. that's a lot of extra, worthless space being used for not so important reasons.
the last waste reset had close to a 2 weeks notice that allowed user to gather their stuff and move it back to town. So I don't think we would need a temporary second waste in my opinion.
I'm getting the feeling that my point isn't being understood. Losing items and progress in a game causes frustration to players. It is highly demotivating and causes players to perhaps leave or not pursue big ventures. Big ventures mean a big deal to an economy, since players who feel like they are apart of something larger have a tendency to stick around. Big ventures create connection and community and purpose. Someone who is a part of a big venture has a responsibility and commitment to those around them. Who is more likely to stick around and play on the server more? Someone who merely mines for their own good as they need, or someone who's part of a large scale mining operation and mines with their friends or mines to fill the orders of a multitude of customers? What kind of players build the better community and economy? Saying that mining is merely a process of heading out to some distant point, mining until your inventory is full, and heading back, tools in hand, is simply not true. A large part of the point of Minecraft is building! You build buildings for your own safety while mining, storage areas to allow you a place to store resources until you have a full load, storage for tools and food and supplies you may need, racks of ovens to you can smelt things while you mine, tree farms to supply wood for tools, enchantment tables so you can enchant pickaxes as you get XP, farms to feed you while you mine, pathways to help you get around safely, and etc... All of this improves your efficiency and allows you to bring back more resources faster. The fact is, people ARE building in the wasteland. Here's just one example: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/griefing-in-the-wastelands.42099/ Most people who mine a great deal in the wasteland have a base, because it only makes sense. You can't go back to town anytime you need more tools or supplies. You can't carry everything you may possibly need with you, and still have enough space for a full load. Why would you want to spend your time going back and forth to town when you can spend it mining more resources? Why not let your cobblestone and iron and gold smelt while you mine? I know from the last time the wasteland was reset, just how easy it is to not realize what's happening. I was even on the server mining while it was occurring! It said resetting in one minute due to update and I had all of 60 seconds to clue in that update meant wasteland reset and run to my base in the wasteland and grab my pickaxes. There was a warning on the site from 24 hours prior, however I suspect I'm not in the minority in not checking the website regularly. EDIT: Seems it's been reset since that time, and more notice was given. However, why make all the players wait 2 weeks to get new blocks and worlds? Thieves are a different matter because they rarely find hidden chests, can't get into locked chests, can only carry so much, can be caught either by being online or via the live map, and are easily dealt with once you find out who it is. They cannot destroy an entire mining operation in a matter of seconds. The argument that people should use the wild is perfectly fine. It's not all that much further to go, and minecarts can form trains as long as you want to carry huge loads. Travelling in minecarts doesn't require any attention so it's really just a chance to relax and do something else. However, when I go to the wild it posts a warning that it's not meant for mining. So I guess it all depends if you really want people mining in the wild. I'm also not sure my idea was exactly clear. The second wasteland exists only for a short period of time after a reset. Rather than resetting the wasteland world, another one is created. For a period of time (say 30 days) both worlds exist, allowing players to gather their valuables (tools, supplies, partial loads, enchantment tables, locked chests, etc...) from the old wasteland and bring them to the new wasteland. After that period is up the old wasteland can simply be deleted.
Note that warnings are definitely given out prior to the reset, and if a major update such as 1.7/1.8 were to come out, you should probably take that as a sign that you can be expecting a reset in a couple weeks and should take that time to get your stuff out of there. To be honest, I'm not sure I see the point of a second Wastelands, because the first one still has to be reset, which kind of defeats the whole purpose unless I'm totally misunderstanding you.
I don't see the point for making two wasteland worlds when there is a two week notice, which is basically the same thing as the second wasteland world. The warning (like the second world) gives you a chance to gather your items (tools, supplies, partial loads, enchantment tables, locked chests, etc. . . ) and move them to town, your residence, or your /vault. Also, how would you expect players to know that the current wastelands world is being reset so they KNOW to bring their items over to the second wastelands? They must see that the first one is resetting, which makes the second world pointless anyways. You can still mine in the resetting wastelands following that, you just know not to bring out any items that you don't want to lose. Following a reset, you can just re-move everything out that you want. Something like a second world is only made pointless by the large amount of time they give people as a warning to when the wastelands will be reset. TL;DR - The often 2-week timer between the warning of a reset and the reset basically have the same affect as a second world, by your description.
