MineCraft: The solution to the servers problems

[Dr.Minky]

Awesomeo and I have made a combined effort to come up with a system to both improve the server in quality, longevity, and moderation. Feel free to post your support or criticism, and if you agree then please make that clear in this thread because often community ideas like this can just be straight up ignored - TC need to know if it is a good idea.

We propose a peaceful faction containing 'Janitors'. These would not be 'admins' as such, but more maintenance guys for the server. They would have a set area to build in, where they can create nice things and remain undisturbed by other players. It could still contain players which AREN'T moderators at the judgement of the faction leader to build things, just to keep the game fun for them to play - no one would do it if they were just sitting there on their own.

They would be responsible for a number of things:

- Tidying up areas

A lot of bases are part claimed from factions that never play anymore, and for someone to remove it would take too long. Instead, have a team of people with access to world edit that can simply cut a base out, or those stupid one high towers people build to get up to sky bases, and generally freshen up the area (replace grass with the brush tool, replant forests, repair tnt griefing etc). This is one of the main advantages as within the first week the recent map was griefed to poop.

- Creating server competitions.

The Spleef tournament was great fun, and everyone asked for more events like this. However it's rather time consuming to organise. Instead of leaving up to a global admin with lots of things to worry about, you could transfer organisation of events to the janitor team. They would come up with an idea, propose it to an admin and then go about creating the arena and organising it.

- Quick and instant reporting

Though janitors won't have an administration role, they would be able to check out accused hackers almost instantly and be able to report things straight to the actual admins so they can be dealt with. Drastically increasing the amount of bans given to hackers that are otherwise 'flying under the radar'. This has been the focus of many minecrafters dispair, as whilst x-rayers are dealt with, people that use more discrete hacks are running riot.

- Adding in teleporters

There is a huge map, but few people make use of it because it's just so mundane sitting in a boat for 20 hours only to get killed by a skeleton when you reach your dream island. If were these janitors, people could 'buy' a teleporter in their base that's linked to one at spawn (not sure if its possible with the current plug in, but this may be easily implemented with the upcoming developer support) and the janitor can go and install it.

- Additional Green Coin Shop Items

With a team of janitors, it could be possible to charge a set amount to clear an X*Y area, or as aforementioned install custom teleporters. These items would cost a considerable amount, and would ideally be aimed at the larger factions to stimulate donations.

This would all combine to increase the longevity and enjoyment of the maps, drastically reduce the amount of hackers without requiring to hire more admins, bring in more donations, add some more depth to the server and allow for more epic base construction and set a consistency to the server. For example it could be the case we have a new map every three months on the first day of the month. That way people know what to expect, and how long to spend on their base, instead of the uncertainty there is at the minute.

I see NO reason as to why this idea shouldn't be implemented, given with a few changes to the idea - The server needs something like this.

Edited May 26, 2012 by Dr.Minky

[awesomeo_5000]

Hi, my name is Bob, and I approve this message.

I think the important thing to take from this thread is not necessarily the faction side of things, but the idea of 'Janitors' - in whatever form - that go around maintaining the world and introducing more community focussed events to drive donations.

Future self quote, haters what?

Edited May 26, 2012 by awesomeo_5000

[AutomatedMoose]

I think this is a really great idea. Too many people with mod rights can cause problems, and I think that having people go around and keep the map be clean is something that would really benefit the server. Being a Janitor actually sounds like it would be fun too.

[Jew1shGod]

sounds kinda sketchy but it could work

Edited May 26, 2012 by Jew1shGod

[mogadonskoda]

I agree with everything you suggested except for the teleporter idea. It seems sort of redunant with the glitch to spawn trick. I would appreciate more of clavus' teleporters on the next map as on this one you can only go north-south using them.

Edited May 26, 2012 by mogadonskoda

[AutomatedMoose]

I don't think so Andrew. I honestly think it would be nice to not fall down xray holes every five minutes and not have flying bushes in the sky.

Edited May 26, 2012 by AutomatedMoose

[JuanTwoThree]

I'm a pro with the Voxel Sniper

[AutomatedMoose]

That brings up a good point Juan. How would these Janitors be chosen?

[awesomeo_5000]

What appears sketchy about it? All criticism is welcomed good or bad. But it'd help if you put forward reasons behind your judgement.

Also, the glitch to spawn glitch (wait, what?) is exactly that. A glitch. Which means it could be patched at any time. And as far as I know, you cant do it on Mac (Apple's weird Java logic). I personally would rather walk in some boss looking room with a teleporting block than faff about with two clients.

More teleporters would be good - advanced idea inside, but don't want to detract from the threads aims:

The issue with making teleporters is that all the action tends to happen within a small radius of each partnered portal. What could happen if this idea got the go-ahead is that the teleporters are actively updated to lead to areas with little to no faction claim. For example split the map into biomes, at the beginning of the map teleporter A goes to biome A, B to B. When biome A is griefed and mostly claimed, a janitor would swap it to Biome C and whilst that's filling up they could be repairing biome A and removing dead factions and their half destroyed bases.

Of course this is getting far ahead of ourselves. For now I'd be happy with four teleporters in each cardinal direction, leading 50% of the distance to world border in that corresponding direction.

[Jew1shGod]

what if a terrorist becomes a janitor. thats sketchy

[AutomatedMoose]

That's stupid.

[Dr.Minky]

They wouldn't. Janitors would be carefully considered, its not like any old person could just nominate themselves and become it, the point is that this would be much easier to handle than carefully selecting admins which is an extremely lengthy and picky process.

[AutomatedMoose]

I hope Clavus picks up on this. So would the janitors be a faction?

[JuanTwoThree]

I'm mexican I would be a great janitor!

Edited May 26, 2012 by JuanTwoThree

[awesomeo_5000]

Ah, it appears you don't know. As of the 29th of May 2012, EU legislation will require all Minecraft servers to install a proprietary modular API that monitors various chat protocols and communication measures. All information is relayed to the Fight Against Geoterrorism Supercomputer (can't remember the acronym), which analyses all information and filters potential terrorist groups into watch lists.

This is all following a survey conducted by Gregs, Baker and Pies that found 90% of terrorist groups use Minecraft as a dynamic and interactive schematic for planning terrorist attacks.

PS. I don't see Minky's penoor. I am disappoint.

Edited May 26, 2012 by awesomeo_5000

[Dr.Minky]

The Janitors would all be in one big peaceful faction in a corner of the map, where they can build epic stuff and do what the normal peaceful factions do. And this wouldn't be a faction JUST for the janitors, like in the gods, as at the end of the day it would just be a place for those guys to enjoy themselves with friends as anyone else on the server does. People would be recruited to the faction exactly as they would in any other faction: The status of Janitor and being in the faction wouldn't be linked at all recruitment wise

Edited May 26, 2012 by Dr.Minky

[LeadMuffinz]

This sounds like a great idea, ive found the server to be relatively unattractive when I come to spawn and walk out. Although, im concerned with who the janitors will be.

[AutomatedMoose]

Looks like we'll need a Department of Homeland Security too.

[FishWithAHat]

Why not have the janitors be at the spawn? more atractive when you first come in

[LeadMuffinz]

Add in taxes to help fund the janitors too

[Dr.Minky]

This sounds like a great idea, ive found the server to be relatively unattractive when I come to spawn and walk out. Although, im concerned with who the janitors will be.

Why not have the janitors be at the spawn? more atractive when you first come in

They wouldnt be based at spawn: It doesnt really fit with the feel of the faction wars server.. They would keep it maintained and looking nice, but wouldnt really build too much crap around there I don't think (unless asked to by Clav or something)

And don't worry about who would get it. We've never had a problem with authority roles on this server before, I doubt it would now, they dont just recruit random nawbs that dont use the forums - and the janitors would have to talk to the admins because they would be reporting hackers and such.

Edited May 26, 2012 by Dr.Minky

[AutomatedMoose]

So who would lead the Janitors? I'd actually like to be a part of this if Juan isn't too upset with me leaving him alone.

[LeadMuffinz]

How about have several Janitor Areas around the world, with teleporters similar to the ones at spawn?

[Dr.Minky]

Well I'd like to lead it, purely as unrelated to this thread I was setting up a new peaceful faction to build cool stuff anyway: regardless if I were to be chosen as a janitor or not - as I said, being in the faction and being a janitor wouldn't be a necessity

How about have several Janitor Areas around the world, with teleporters similar to the ones at spawn?

I dont see the point in that, the people in the faction would just want to build and enjoy themselves, not create tons of different places as this would mean splitting up the faction and would generally not be very fun.. There could be a portal put to the janitors place if they want from spawn I guess, could be used as a trade place for people or something, but that doesnt really fit with the faction wars ethos

Edited May 26, 2012 by Dr.Minky

[AutomatedMoose]

It does sound like it would really help the server. Hopefully Clavus feels the same way!