I have been working on a set of limitations and rules for a modpack that is specifically geared towards long-term server gameplay. Atm I just want more people to consider my ideas and possibly brainstorm them with me and\or suggest better alternatives.
I want to cover some specific starting concepts first before heading on towards the main ideas. The modpack would use Ultimate as the base and will try removing unnecessary parts of multiple mods in order to achieve the ideas outlined below. Addition of other mods is possible but unlikely. I would prefer this modpack to be as easy as possible to set up after each update.
I hope this pack or something similar to it make it to the FTB to provide another approach currently lacking in my opinion. As we have Magic world, Tech world, Ultimate, this pack could easily settle a niche somewhere close to Victorian\Steampunk world, at least in the way i see it develop.
Now to the idea (Copied from my original post on Reddit):
I have seen many servers for FTB as well as other technology based servers, and I've noticed, that most of them are not really fit to play over extended periods of time. The server start/wipe/reset triggers extensive player participation, that dwindles as soon as players manage to create self-sufficient bases.
I have tried looking at this from MMO Game perspective. What things make people come back to the game yet not hate said process. Essentially I've narrowed down to specific points:
For the naysayers I would like to mention, that I've tried playing according with said rules. While more challenging in some areas, this gamemode did not limit me in creation of large factories and complexes, but the results have been much more lenient on the server. Usage of rails for inner distribution, for example, have concentrated server strain in smaller periods of activity, compared to constant strain from pipes (e.g. Less amount of packets, but larger amount per packet). This would become much more prominent on servers as players would have bigger incentive to make single efficient factory and use it between themselves due to the challenges mentioned above, but in the end server ends up with only one such factory (which even uses less calculations) per group of people, instead of much laggier factory per person.
Thank you for reading this rather large wall of text. If you have any suggestions I would be glad to hear them, and possibly include to the list. In the meantime I will start writing the Part 2, which would outline problems and benefits of each mod, and then possible adjustments to it.[DOUBLEPOST=1371695211][/DOUBLEPOST]There is possibly another solution for #6 which is gradual resource withdrawal from the server, but I feel like this is something that can only be done on admin level and can't be easily introduced\enforced via modpack.
I want to cover some specific starting concepts first before heading on towards the main ideas. The modpack would use Ultimate as the base and will try removing unnecessary parts of multiple mods in order to achieve the ideas outlined below. Addition of other mods is possible but unlikely. I would prefer this modpack to be as easy as possible to set up after each update.
I hope this pack or something similar to it make it to the FTB to provide another approach currently lacking in my opinion. As we have Magic world, Tech world, Ultimate, this pack could easily settle a niche somewhere close to Victorian\Steampunk world, at least in the way i see it develop.
Now to the idea (Copied from my original post on Reddit):
I have seen many servers for FTB as well as other technology based servers, and I've noticed, that most of them are not really fit to play over extended periods of time. The server start/wipe/reset triggers extensive player participation, that dwindles as soon as players manage to create self-sufficient bases.
I have tried looking at this from MMO Game perspective. What things make people come back to the game yet not hate said process. Essentially I've narrowed down to specific points:
- Server lag.
If the server grows more and more laggy as the time passes, it becomes really hard to keep playing. As such first and foremost objective of any server willing to last for a long time would be to make sure there are no lag-generating mods, or parts of one. - Lessen discrepancy between newcomers and old players.
While many MMO's do not follow this rule, they also make sure the progression of the new player is only long enough for him to master the game. In Minecraft progression is everything, extension of it works very well in SSP (e.g. Gregtech), yet in the SMP it causes multiple problems, that many people don’t realize exist. Initial problem of the player separation – new-coming players can only manually mine and craft very basic stuff mostly due to limited resources they posses.
Due to very heavy resource dependence of current mods one end up on a server, where new players and old players essentially have no middle ground: each group has its own problems. This is exacerbated by the fact, that new people can't offer anything to veteran players, while any gift from a veteran player essentially strips new player from the best parts of the progression. Best way to battle that would be to strip player access to very high-tech machines. - The game should retain same level of challenge.
Another unfortunate effect I've witnessed is the eventual slip of the gamemode from hard to peaceful, and from survival to creative. I've seen players wearing invulnerable and semi-invulnerable armours loose interest in the game simply because they have lost the danger, fear of the dark caves and lava lakes.
Same could be said when people create high-tech complexes, that make every possible block for them. It is really cool to create said complex (progression) but the game gets really boring, unless if the creative gameplay is what you are interested in. As such it is very essential for admins to narrow down the general feel of the server and adjust mods accordingly to make sure they wont affect gamemode too much. - Promote trade.
I am surprised how little trade is happening on the tech servers. While trade should not be limiting (sucks if you are the only one online), but it should have an incentive over playing alone. This would promote rule #2 as well as helping players create good social connections with other players. This would help retaining older player too (harder to quit the server with a ton of your friends playing on).
Unfortunately to facilitate any trade two major mod nerfs needs to be made: less automated item generation (soul shards, massfabs, even cobble generation) as well as player ability to store such items. One of the main reasons why people don’t trade as much is due to the fact that they have enough space to hoard anything for later use, this means even if player needs significant amounts of something for a new project – most of the time one can create them from nothing or just access old storage. - Promote infrastructure.
Another aspect many servers forget about. In vanilla minecraft people have roads, rails, and canals. In modded server we have portals and super-flying suits. While they are very “technological” indeed they strip a lot from the server especially in the eyes of the newcomer. With portal hubs they will never see anything between spawn and their destination, there is no sense of immersion - world is segmented into player bases. And without immersion there is no attachment.
Portals, Enderchests, Endertanks, Tesseracts are very useful and “lessen” the fps drop, but there is a reason why I put it in the quotation marks. They make item movement much easier and less laggy, yet with that they remove one of major bottlenecks in complexes. Without said bottleneck players end up creating monstrosities, that process unfathomable quantities of resources. Slow complex with normal pipes and rails for long distance transport would generate much less lag than extremely streamlined complex using teleportation blocks. - Prevent resource accumulation.
Final and most crucial aspect, which I wanted to talk about. Mod overdependence on resources for progression and construction. It helps the mod to dictate, how the player should progress through the mod, but in doing so it causes ALL problems mentioned above.
Players create and exploit most efficient complexes to achieve certain tiers as fast as possible, which usually adds strain to the server. As new tiers are usually specialized for even greater resource generation this increases the separation between players. As the construction progresses players develop monstrous complexes all by themselves which fulfill all of their needs thus making trade and infrastructure redundant.
Shifting purchasing power from resources to player time will help alleviate this problem. Unfortunately out of two solutions one ( modifying progression of all the mods) is outright impossible, as such there is but one solution to this problem in my mind: limit player ability to store resources. Yes it is harsh, but that’s the only option I see, that could work.
For the naysayers I would like to mention, that I've tried playing according with said rules. While more challenging in some areas, this gamemode did not limit me in creation of large factories and complexes, but the results have been much more lenient on the server. Usage of rails for inner distribution, for example, have concentrated server strain in smaller periods of activity, compared to constant strain from pipes (e.g. Less amount of packets, but larger amount per packet). This would become much more prominent on servers as players would have bigger incentive to make single efficient factory and use it between themselves due to the challenges mentioned above, but in the end server ends up with only one such factory (which even uses less calculations) per group of people, instead of much laggier factory per person.
Thank you for reading this rather large wall of text. If you have any suggestions I would be glad to hear them, and possibly include to the list. In the meantime I will start writing the Part 2, which would outline problems and benefits of each mod, and then possible adjustments to it.[DOUBLEPOST=1371695211][/DOUBLEPOST]There is possibly another solution for #6 which is gradual resource withdrawal from the server, but I feel like this is something that can only be done on admin level and can't be easily introduced\enforced via modpack.
