I really hate afking at my farms at hours on end just to get my crops to grow. So, is there a way to make everyone's crops grow as long as a minimum of one person being on the server is met? I would really love this!
This isn't a matter of can we - it's simply that we can't. The servers would be lagging 24/7 if we had this, and some farms out there are massively large, and that would be extremely taxing on the servers.
Most has already been said, nothing more I can add to that. Still: There is another solution for this, and that would be getting an alt character. So basically a 2nd Minecraft account which you could then use to log on and afk near your farm. Empire's freedom for the players goes so far that we're even allowed to do this (no joking: this is one of the reasons why I got quickly convinced that "play as you like" isn't just a (hollow?) marketing phrase but something which is fully & seriously backed up). This would result in your "farm chunk" remaining loaded and your crops to grow. Can't comment on the actual procedure, but there are plenty of players around who have alt characters (or so I think).
I understand that a alternate character would work, and I would do that. Only issue is that that account is my sister's. =\
No problem! Every Minecraft world is divided into small bits which consists of a 16 x 16 block area which is 256 blocks deep. Those are called chunks. These chunks are generated around you, and the amount varies per server and situation. In single player for example it depends on things like view distance, but on a multiplayer server this can be determined by the administrators. So put easily: a chunk is one "minecraft world area" which can be loaded and 'unloaded' (removed from memory).
