Started a project...

Blocks, Creepers, Zombies, and Diamonds.
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Jimer Lins
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Started a project...

Post by Jimer Lins » Sun Oct 09, 2016 5:42 pm

Now that Spongepowered is in a stable beta on track for a first release later this year, I've set up a development environment and tools, along with a Github repo, to work on a project that's been in the back of my head for a very long time.

If you're not familiar with Sponge (spongepowered.org) it is a spiritual successor to Bukkit, but is a complete ground-up new project; it's not a rewrite or feature duplication project, they decided to create something to fill the hole left behind by Bukkit and did it from bare metal up. So it's taken a while, but it's in a good place now, and I'm impressed with the API and the server mod.

Here's my original post on the Spongepowered forums, back when it was still very much brand-new. I suggest giving it a read because it lays out some of my thoughts on how I would like to see it work- but if it's tl;dr, I'll summarize.

I gave it a bunch more thought over the last year or two, and I've made some adjustments to the idea.

Summary

Here's the thing- Minecraft is a multiplayer game, right? But no matter how far you go, you'll never run into someone coming from the other direction. Everyone spawns in the same place and, mods that allow faster or easier movement aside, tend to radiate outward from that point. You might find someone's structures way out in the middle of nowhere, but you will always know- they simply got there from the same place you did.

I always found that to be a disappointing element of Minecraft multiplayer. I wanted to find whole new lands- like, people who've been playing for months and built a city and roads and all that. Totally independent, but providing a really awesome reason to go exploring and pushing the boundaries.

Original Idea

My original idea was something I called "GridCraft" in my head- a network of Minecraft servers, sharing the same seed, each responsible for a square portion of the world, and running independently. It would have been built as a Forge mod and required a lot of work to make the synchronization work. I think it could have worked but it would be extremely complicated and take a very long time to build.

My Current/Modified Plan

I realized there's no reason that you can't build something like this with a single Minecraft server- albeit a beefier one than normal, because it will need more power for additional players. The basic idea is a Sponge plugin- they're conceptually similar to Bukkit plugins- that partitions players into separate areas as they join the server. The first X (10? 20?) go to one spawnpoint, then more go to another spawnpoint, and so on. Chat and the player list are limted to people in your own area so you can't globally chat or figure out where anyone else outside your space is. Spawnpoints are managed by the plugin and the distance between them is configurable- so you can set them up to allow players to find each other in days, weeks- even months or years.

I call it Homeland. Also, I've given some thought to longer-term features like allowing some administration-like abilities in your own Homeland, granted to the "Mayor", "Prince" or whatever, a person selected by voting. Using Sponge's Economy API, maybe create separate currencies and provide a way to create international currency trading?

And of course, wars.

The possibilities are pretty broad. I'm weeks or months out from a workable alpha with the most basic features, but would anyone here be interested in helping out with testing, design, or- god help you- development? The last one would need deep knowledge of Java and a willingness to work through documentation that is currently somewhat thin on the ground.
A man may fight for many things. His country, his friends, his principles, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a sack of French porn. - Edmund Blackadder

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Jimer Lins
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Re: Started a project...

Post by Jimer Lins » Sun Oct 09, 2016 8:39 pm

Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm not planning to put this in play on Rivendell. It'll be its own server and separate world, because I don't want to risk screwing up our playground. :rave:
A man may fight for many things. His country, his friends, his principles, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a sack of French porn. - Edmund Blackadder

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