This post is a accumulation of all the best concepts for improving EMC I have seen and made myself, This post would not be possible without the talk, perspective, and ideas of many people, some of which may not have been intentional or known on their half, this includes: Tuqueque, Eviltoade, MoreMoople, MissBonnieParker. Chickeneer, and more, (note that they do not all necessarily support this post, it is however only right to credit inspiration) The most direct inspiration for this post is the previously suggested “Adventure Update” Suggested by myself and tuqueque in 2022 The contents of this post are suggested to be added into the EMC timeline as it contains a fairly decent list of things and wouldn't be doable overnight. Prerequisites, the suggestions contained within this post would be to follow the release of the new tutorial, and release of the new/removal of the current landing page, the release of empires as well as the continuation of current running systems such as the monthly newsletters as well as the build team holiday events + weekly staff events Purpose: Improve various things on the empire to increase the appeal of EMC to more playstyles while also giving current players extra things to do and keeping the community aspect/current appeal, essentially, expand upon play your way, continue to make an EMC that welcomes all who are looking for a friendly place, no matter the playstyle. Additional note: all things suggested here should have no forced impact on players who wish to continue playing the same as always, via several player setting options List is sorted by suggested implementation order, please read all sections for a clear picture as they are intended to be somewhat intertwined and one section on its own may or may not make sense. The order is roughly least complicated to implement first, followed by highest priority Specifics: Tokens will be needed for outposts, making them reliably available to all types of players is an important step towards including as many players as possible in exciting systems to come! Changes include: -Raise group mining token bonus from 20 to 100 -Receive Tokens from looting vanilla loot chests, (Suggested between 50 and 100 for a chest) -Receive Tokens from winning forum contests (build,art,writing) (suggested 50k for first place) -Return of Tokens to event prizes such as Firefloor, (suggested 1,000 tokens for win) Note:this may seem like alot compared to mining or treasure, however there is a finite amount of chances per week with multiple people all competing for each chance. Building, pvp and economy would still lack a direct way to earn tokens, I have not been able to think of a way that couldn’t be abused (The hope is that dragon stone changes listed below would be able to fill in for economy) We all want the empire’s economy to thrive, diamonds are an important item in minecraft, but currently mining for diamonds isn’t worth it for players when killing a wither is far faster, The changes i'm recommending wouldn’t have any instant effect, but over time it should help return finding diamonds while mining to be exciting! Changes: Remove from custom EMC loot tables (especially the wither which is very easy to kill on diff 10 and yields nearly a stack of diamonds) Remove diamonds from voting rewards a wall of signs in /shopworld, these would require a new feature sign, each sign claimable by a player on right click, claims would last between 1 and 2 weeks. By default a sign would be [ shop ], Address, and “Shop by x player”. The last 2 lines would be customizable by players via command /signshop #line message, message would be retained upon each sign claim until changed or reset by the player (by default other players clicking the [ shop ] sign in shopworld would send the player to the shop owners first res. The purpose of this would be to help players find active shops, without depersonalizing shopping. The idea behind the temporary sign claims is that one of the main troubles with /v shop is that you end up at old shops and residences that used to be shops. The need for shop owners to semi-regularly claim a sign should help with that. Player run shops are a crucial part of a player economy as well as major community point of contact. A highly anticipated feature, Outposts exact structure has never been decided on, this is a way It could work, Claiming of land, (which has been established will be by an empire not an individual player) Empire’s would initially claim a main chunk, the main chunk would differ from additional chunks only in that it would be able to be freely teleported to and from town. An outpost would by default be able to claim up to *undecided suggestion, possibly 32-64* chunks The limit would be attached to the parent empire, The chunk limit would be upgradable by 1k tokens or a dragon stone (Note: this would give dragon stones a use as well as add a method for economist playstyles to upgrade their outposts) Each additional chunk claimed by the outpost would have to be directly next to a previously claimed chunk (Not diagonally) branching out from the original main chunk. From my limited understanding of residences in the world, it should be possible to store the claimed chunk info inside the world data, allowing for flags within claimed areas to be outpost wide for member and non members as well as per chunk flags (I could be totally wrong on this) Achievements are a common feature in many games, part of why so many games have them is because they are so popular, reasons for this vary, they can give a challenge to end game players, help guide newer (and sometimes older) players towards activities, they give people a very rewarding sense of accomplishment, these are all things I think EMC could benefit from! An important thing to include in an EMC achievement system is various playstyles as well as keep things interesting overtime, as well as rewards for completing difficult tasks, for infrastructure it would require code for a sign to grant credit for them, staff command to increment total score for one, staff command to grant all players currently on a residence credit, and of course by game event such as player mined naturally generated ore, We designed a decent list of ones that could be used as the start ones, with more added over time. Our goal in designing these was to cover as many types of playstyles with them as possible to appeal to anyone who wishes to take on a challenge. Score balance is important for this, we did our best with the examples to balance it so that players wouldn’t feel pressured to do activities they don’t enjoy for the sake of score to obtain (below mentioned) adventure gear. A new player setting would also go along with this, allowing players to disable any sort of progress notifications if they do not wish to participate in the achievement system. Another one from the adventure update thread + something new, intended as a replacement for voter armor, current voter gear would turn into adventure gear, new gear would be obtained from gathering achievement score. Functionality would be essentially unchanged, The voter banner’s, certificate and waffle would remain as voter rewards, Why?: we really want to reward active play on EMC, voting is good but playing the game and having fun is what it’s all about, this feels like a good complimentary system to achievements, Something tangible to reward active play overtime, (in any playstyle). With the new trims being added, it's unlikely that normally adding trims to voter/adventure gear would work, however it leaves a perfect opportunity for something neat, special rewards that unlock the ability to add trims to your voter/adventure gear, each type unlocked via a different type of play: Vote Reward (100) Boss fighting (after killing x amount of bosses) Earned 100k tokens, Win 100 Event (basically achievement rewards as to not be sellable, a cosmetic for your hard work/efforts) After unlock trims would be changeable by holding the item in your hand and using the command /trimitem <trim> This type of system will be familiar to players who are versed in common game mechanics It has been requested quite a few times that EMC add mcmmo, however this has never really been an option, EMC has always had a focus on server stability, and mcmmo has never been the most stable of plugin systems An EMC version: retaining most of the skills from mcmmo the biggest differences would be levels having no direct impact on what they entail, example being no treefeller for woodcutting or mining speed buff, just a progress tracker. The second change would be that level 1 would be the starting point as normal but level 100 would be the “soft cap”, getting to 100 would be fairly difficult, any additional levels would be the same xp requirement as 99 to 100. This would be to avoid the massive numbers often a result of mcmmo, being level 1684 in a skill gets a bit absurd So you may be wondering, why add this if it has no direct perks to leveling up?: For one, people like the feeling of making progress, secondly it would be an excellent way to bring players attention to often ignored aspects of the game, such as brewing potions. Having more players seeking out the more obscure types of gameplay can only be a good thing for the EMC economy. This system would also have a player setting allowing any alerts for it to be disabled. Recap: Token changes to help everyone be able to participate in outposts, a shopboard to allow players to find shops in a community oriented way, diamond changes for long term economy benefit, an effort based outpost structure, achievements and skills tracking for additional gameplay opportunities, as well as adventure gear and trims for rewarding active play, Implemented in a way to not forcible change current players play experience if they do not wish it too.
What? There's group mining tokens? I don't agree that this is strictly necessary, especially with 1.20 coming this way. So far diamonds we useful just to craft armor/tools, and with all the free villagers out there, we don't even to craft those anymore, so diamonds were losing value because there were sources, but no sinks. With 1.20 we'll have no choice but to use at least some diamonds to upgrade to netherite, and even more to apply out favourite trims. This will make for a nice sink, allowing prices to float. As for skills, not sure that something that has no impact will be very appealing. To track my activities there's already the built-in stats screen, and I very rarely look at that.
Hey fred, thanks for taking the time to read and give feedback! Yes there group mining tokens, when a group of players mine together you get a haste effect + 20 tokens every 5 minutes (based on my token log its 5) diamonds: my logic on the diamonds was that these methods are too powerful compared to vanilla diamond obtaining are outpacing the uses for diamonds, I noticed it at the big dig lately that diamond ore being uncovered wasn't exiting to players because mining for diamonds is just so much slower than withers it negates that "ooo diamonds!" feeling. if you have any specific ideas for a diamond "sink" id be happy to hear them skills: Yeah this type of system isn't for everyone, but it could be a major draw if done right, on the no impact side, the main reasons I say no direct perks or impact are, 1: they seem to be really difficult to do with plugins in a stable way, and 2: I don't want people who wouldn't find this type of system fun to feel like they had to join in on it for the sake of more efficient gameplay, look at it like this: have you ever seen players go for 1000 enchanting levels, a full chest of diamonds, or fill an entire res with one type of block? they could be considered silly tasks, but they give players something to work towards as they play Is there anything about the way I'm suggesting you would want to change in order for it to be of more interest to you?
diamonds: I'll try to think of meaningful sinks. One could be exchange a sc of diamond blocks for this promo (similar to what I understand happened with the dragon eggs, for some reason). another could be to have some crafting recipe that would use them (say, making the charged Pearls last longer, or resetting Blizz Ard's components) skills: ok, now I see what you mean, sorry.
diamonds: Awesome, I will keep thinking as well! Skills: hey don't be sorry, I really appreciate the feedback! I want this suggestion to be exciting to as many people as possible if you think of anything that could be changed about it to be more appealing to your playstyle, feel free to toss it in here To cover somethings I ended up discussing outside of the thread with other players: Tokens: Build contests should probably give tokens as participation prizes to all serious entries to ensure builders have chances at tokens Outposts: with this implementation system, to handle previously established outposts my recommendation would be after outposts are added to the main servers for there to be a grace period for existing outposts to claim their land, In the case that the member's do not currently have enough tokens/dragon stones to cover all existing builds, staff would be able to temporaily override this problem, however it would not increase the outposts max chunk limit, outposts may end up with chunk limit's looking like "1000/743", similar to how chat alert limits look after supportership expires, should the outpost wish to claim additional land they would need to upgrade their limit past until the max is greater than the claimed once more
I think that some players would like to see some sort of "level" system to show how much effort they put into the activities they perform. So long as you are not getting any of the "benefits" that MCMMO usually uses. If those were introduced then you would end up with people mining like the flash and their tools never needing to be repaired. Definitely don't want that. Just not sure how much tracking it would require from the server. I am pretty sure there is already a ton of stuff that the server(s) track already and not sure what adding something like this would do to the load on the server. As for diamonds, creating sinks would reduce the issue, but it will never really fix it. Maybe changing up the loot tables for mobs so they don't drop them that often or limiting the amount they drop would help a bit. I do like the idea of a way to recharge other items like the pearls mentioned by Fred_TWK. Maybe have a crafting item that requires diamonds to make a charging station and then you need diamonds to charge them. Kind of similar to how you need lapis to create enchantment books and such.
This probably wont make sense since my thoughts are jumbled but anyway-- I strongly agree with two of your points - diamonds and shopworld. Diamonds: diamonds are currently one of the only unfarmable ores in vanilla mc currently. But with the difficulty 10 loot table and the possibility of getting up to a stack of diamonds per boss, it has become farmable just with a few extra steps. Diamonds don't hold the same value as they did a couple years ago. When I took a break (for around a year), I left when the current sell price was 100r per diamond, when I came back (around 2-3 years ago dont remember the exact date) it was cut in half. Thats such a big drop for something that has been at a stable price for years. And with the (possible?) upcoming necessity for diamonds in 1.20 this gives the opportunity for the surplus of diamonds to finally get moving again and a stable source of making money again. Shopworld: I think the wall of signs is definitely a good idea (or maybe a portal for stores to stand out more rather than being just words on a wall). This could also keep new players from going to shops that are definitely outdated (i dont know about other smps but smp2 has stores that are at least 2-3k days old ) Now for my other opinions: mcmmo: I think levels would be a neat idea. It would nice to see how much i contributed (across all smps?) in each aspect rather than having to look specifically at statistics. Adventure system: not much to really say I think its a decent idea Achievements: I think its another decent idea--maybe it could be attached to leveling system? Empires and tokens: Not much for me to say since I don't know too much about Empires, but if tokens are going to be needed I think a token buff should definitely be put in place so that its possible for even the newest of players to establish their very own empire
Thank you jewel for doing a 2.0 of sorts to our adventuring update thread Economy - Diamonds & ShopBoard: Yeah I think EMC should change super easy supply of diamonds, but also add “diamond” sink of sorts. Possible to craft it into a special custom item of sorts? Possibly related with unique EMC content coming or thought of here? (heh, when researching sources I stumbled upon this old comment of mine.) For shop board, this was a heavily discussed item in this thread and I also went on to describe a digital version of it in that post. I do like the idea of avoiding a depersonalized shopping experience however, I feel it may just be unnecessary bureaucracy unless there is an extra spark/flair added to it, because if it is just a random wall with player names, there is nothing personal in that. Possibly like a farmers market where players can customize the look of their stall/advertisement. It wouldn’t be as compact, but more personalization. However I still remain leaning toward the UI with player created messaging described in the cited post. Outpost Prep Structure I like the idea of using chunks, and I like the idea of not requiring the shape to be a square, but for the outpost owners to be able to expand to an connected chunk (but in whichever direction they want. most common plugins for ‘claims in factions(also as seen in world edit) and such always end up doing selections in rectangles. This would allow for protecting exactly what you need, where you need it without wasting ClaimCunks in “dead areas”. Such as making an L shaped outpost. Yeah I think tokens economy should be analyzed on a macro level so that tokens still have an use for OG players after the first week of the update, because if it’s made too cheap, then it will be “claim a forget” for most players, while letting their token wallets continue to grow. Probably offer enhanced services for recurring payments in tokens for certain features in the Outpost. Like 5k/week for no mob spawns in outpost. (Pretty sure 5k tokens it’s like 1.5 custom bosses at diff 7 worth which seems worth it) - Also if Wither is still giving away tokens, possibly reconsider token reward on top of diamonds Gameplay As EMC grows older, EMC players have matured and their ways to have fun have changed (and older audiences also are likely to have more fun with more challenging endeavors - while also being play your way for every player) From 2019 but still, Minecraft’s average age was 24 years old. I think some important features to consider surrounding this would be on: how would the player(s) interacts with these achievements. Would there be an “EMC Ranking system” sort of like forum titles (dedicated member) or many ranking game/fantasy or irl ranking systems (ie. Belts in martial arts, or metals in games: silver, gold, platinum rank…) or achievement points as we originally suggested. Possibly unlock cosmetic features at certain levels - player wise or Empire-wise. (ie. an empire with 5 silver ranks players could have a different hue compared to an Empire with 5 platinum players) - Agree with all Custom Gear stuff Skills: I think this is mostly similar to titles in other games so suggesting possibly rebranding idea- since no gameplay enhancements are being suggested, just purely for stats. I think on top of the stat keeping it could provide players with titles. example: after killing 100 withers you can display Wither Slayer in /p or <block name> Lover after placing 10k of X block or Master brewer after brewing 5k potions it could also be a way to influx custom lore’s items. “This blade has slayed 100k monsters in the nether - hell purifier!” . But probably more difficult than just player titles for stats.
