I can understand your frustration with some of these things, it is only a small team with people asking a lot. I am trying to work on things to improve gameplay for the current features we have currently got working rather than adding (or re-adding) features. I feel as though a smaller number of great features is better than loads of things that don't quite work properly or aren't up to a great standard. Maybe I'm taking the wrong path, but it's the path I decided to take, if you think this should be re-thought and can express good reasoning then I'm open to change.

My frustration was more an irritation. The mod didn't say anything wrong - it just got to me, and that's my problem. But reality is that I get those questions once in a while, especially from new members who want to learn what they can do besides joining a town and building a house (and get bored and leave the server). And especially when old skoolers come back and ask where everything is .. and then reconsider coming back because besides new blocks in 1.12, there's just not a community (when it's super quiet) to motivate them to stay.

Just build a darkroom .. to paraphrase, is resolved, I read that mob rate limits are easier to adjust now and this should help. So let's build one! Glad that we're not ignored (and I will get to that too in a sec)

Yeah the team is small, with foob and long_cat and water all stepping down and the regular mods in the last few years not really being the nicest with taking players away as they decided to give up on this great community and their friendships .. I can understand it's quite the workload. But to be blunt: While bug fixes and feature fixes are important, sometimes having a feature is just as important. I hope you find the balance between real life and the server, as well as the staff that say they have time (and then don't show up because they actually do not have this free time). It's super awesome to see the regulars that are active to get promoted to mod status like doc & kill, because that means we can continue with our towns and unlock stuff, get help, and sort things out and learn. They learn, we learn, residents learn, new players see more friendly faces.

I can't say I disagree on the part where you mention that you rather have a stable core and build from there, than a bunch of stuff and knowing 50% of it just doesn't really do what we want - that indeed will only lead to worse frustrations that aren't needed. mhm

"Maybe I'm taking the wrong path, but it's the path I decided to take"

Despite what I think, my opinion is. Or in the case of this thread: a consensus between regulars (and to be honest: team old and new included) .. at the end of the day it doesn't matter really what we think. It IS your server, you can do it in the way that you want. We're here daily or weekly for a reason, and that's because loads of stuff IS going right. It's just easier to post a thread like this than post the two thumbs up thread about the stuff we do like. I just am glad to read in threads like these that this constructive feedback and/or complaints that we have is not ignored, that things are done when you can and that it's slowly moving forward. I appreciate it that you say this clearly, there are enough servers who do everything that players want all the time, and they change things up way too fast and reset worlds etc, and while they have a peak in traffic: they die in the end - hard.

"if you think this should be re-thought and can express good reasoning then I'm open to change."

I think players to team, team to staff, and players like me posting here .. at least gives a good impression what we run into daily, both good and sometimes the stuff we mention in this thread. I wish more players than just me would publicly express this stuff; I know it makes me come across like the whiny dog .. they say it, agree, but then don't post usually. Without good communication in the team, or team and players.. nothing will happen. I mean, we can be quiet and just leave if we don't like it, again.. nobody wins then.

The reduction in mobs was part of the attempts to try and combat lag on the server. This is something that should now be solved in other ways hopefully; I've therefore adjusting the spawning rates back to their previous settings. This doesn't necessarily mean there will be similar levels of spawning to previously, because of the way spawning works has changed in the game itself, but if it's still no good I can adjust things further. Let me know how it is.

Thanks for the explanation, that's what I heard too, and while I understand it fights lag it turns a survival server into a run around as a creative person without creative mode. I mean, the only top 10 listing I am not in is death by angry mobs, .. I die from clumbsy falling to my death or hugging lava without paying attention. Not from being challenged by mobs in the mining world, etc.

Is it perhaps an idea to keep the busy worlds semi limited, but open it up a bit more in the mining world for example.. spread the load a bit. So if we specifically wanna go make friends with creepers for gunpowder that we know the mining world might have more than the regular worlds?

I think it's more than fair that concentrated spots are avoided, while it's nice to have a mob-grinder, it's nicer to have the overal survival feeling (gameplay in my personal opinion always wins over a level grind - dunno how others feel about that, but just sharing my opinion).

Thank you for reviewing and reconsidering this situation. And I am happy to hear that the result is that we have more spawny spawns again around us because the new 1.12.2 setup on paper and your plugins etc help resolve some of the lag issues.  And yes, it's been terribly wonderful since the update. There's a bit of normal noobscraft lag we've always had, but it's comparable to other places, and that super horrible nightly lag is gone it seems. So thumbs up on all of this. Everybody wins.

The casino was removed as part of our previous jump up from 1.8 to 1.12, it was decided that it was more sensible to simply remove certain features that would have delayed the update, rather than waiting. This is something that I would like to re-introduce, but the previous system we used hasn't been updated to work properly with 1.12, and as such it's something I'd have to make from scratch. I've created a work item for this at: https://www.noobscraft.com/work/full/reintroduce-casino/

Since I cannot advertise I will refrain from mentioning one that I recommend, but let's generalize.. Perhaps it's worth checking the spigot community for alternative casino types for 1.12.2? Even if it's not the same casino setup as it was, maybe some are open source or customizable enough to do it in a way that you like? A few popular ones I found on the spigot site (that seem to work with paper) are https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/casino.26595/ (free) - https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/ultimatecasino-cs-go-style.25234/ (premium) - https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/vcasino-1-7-1-12-gamble-anything.47334/ (free) .. their resources > search > page has loads of slot machine and casino stuff worth a visit.

It sucks that developers don't keep up with their source code, I really wish they'd do a better job. I hope you find a way to make it work with 1.12.2 code and that it gets re-introduced. It's good to hear it's something you also kinda want, it's better than a 'no sorry, that wont be back at all anymore' reply. Thanks.

I'm not aware of reasons as to why you can't ride horses, you should be able to spawn using the /horses command, and ride those? I'm aware of the issue with them disappearing once you dismount them; this is no longer an intended feature and is something I am going to stop happening. I have created a work item to work on this: https://www.noobscraft.com/work/full/stop-horses-despawning-on-dismount/

You can't ride them in the wild, sorry, you have to use the /h feature. But as mentioned in the other thread about it - it's not intuitive. Players don't know what's what. My dismount mention was more that if you ride them and you go up and down over slabs or stairs or hit a leaf, that sometimes you just suddenly am off the horse. And you have to spawn it again. It's not really stable behavior. Get it.. horse .. table.. ok, just trying to keep this positive. It would be nice if my donkey's chest content wouldn't disappear for example, but I understand it's a feature.. but i rather it then have only a visual chest that i can't use, than knowing players can put stuff in it and then the stuff disappears on accidental despawn, etc.

Thanks for explaining and for putting up a work item - fingers crossed we can ride into the sunset this summer on our steads.

Just a thought, .. is it perhaps an idea to have a horse in /pets instead, and just have /horse and /h link to /pets where they can buy one or more horses and spawn/despawn+ride them? Saving a plugin? Just a friendly thought.

By the way, it seems deebles, ohlookawall and me dont see our villager pet anymore? I checked page 2, but it's not there either. Just an offtopic note btw.

Mobs despawning is a part of the game, it's just what happens to them to prevent the world becoming cluttered with them and to allow further mobs to spawn. You can read more about it here: https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Spawn#Java_Edition_2. The despawning that happens on Noobstown is again following that, but we also limit things per player/area to further ensure that mobs will fairly spread out for all players. As explained about though I have now adjusted the spawning limits so this should be nicer than it was before.

Bummer, it kinda sucks we can't put a few mobs on our area or plant a couple of rabbits in a boat to keep us company during fishing. I have loads of spawn eggs and wouldn't mind using them, but seems they're kinda useless now I guess. You spawn them, tag them, whatever.. you /t spawn and /back, and they're all gone.

Maybe with the new spawn ratio stuff we have some more friendlies around too again.

Thanks for explaining!

Yes, as long as you don't have too many other animals right nearby. There is a limit to the number you can have in an area, once that limit is reached you won't be able to breed anymore. To combat this you can move the animals further away or kill off some of the others nearby.

Ok, I understand this now. We just have to stay in the plot if we want colored sheep breeding etc to get some wool for our builds, instead of tpaing away etc.  (for example)

As explained above I have now adjusted the spawning limits and rules so they should work slightly better than before now. There were however changes made to the game itself which were designed to adjust how mobs spawn, including reductions in mob grinders working. It's more fair for everyone if mobs are able to spawn freely around the world, rather than like crazy in a small spot where no combat is required.

In a way it's a real shame the towers we made and spent time and money building an mcMMO area for our town residents and /party people is basically useless in that regard. I guess we at least have it and it looks pretty, but with the new way of spawning we can move on to a dark room I think. mcMMO grinding is a thing in the mc world, and an offered feature. Town residents ask if we have grinders, if we don't: they move on. I was happy to offer this location. (Just explaining!)  I understand the new situation, and I will explain it as such to those who ask in game now. And work on a dark room in the meantime to replace the area (ish).

Anyway, the new spawn rate thing is an improvement, we can first see how all that goes.

These games which used to be ran by the admins can still exist, they just haven't taken place for a while. I have no direct issues with doing them again, and during previous events last year we did do some. I will admit we've been lacking in staff ran events recently, but this is because I've prioritised features which can improve gameplay for all, over running events which impact only those online at the time. With the lower player numbers it is also difficult to arrange events to happen at a time when we can get enough people for it to be competitive. So while we aren't doing them consistently like we have previously, they're definitely not gone forever, and will happen again during some of the bigger events of the year.

Yeah, .. that's true, they require staff involvement to be run. Hmmm.. Is it perhaps a thing just like a seasonal reset, that there's time set apart for an event each season as well. That way we have 4 per year basically. And at the beginning of the month when you reset a world, you can also announce the end of the month has an event weekend on a fri/sat evening? Then it's ahead of time, and ppl who can be there .. can be there! And it can be one thing once, and another season something else? If there's a quest going: maybe an event isn't needed.  If that lowers the workload of staff involvement a bit, but increases 'variety in gameplay' on the server, .. might help? Just thinking outloud.

Glad to read that you have no issue with doing little events again. Looking forward to it. I hope IRL / MC life etc balances out, like I said before. Is it an idea to perhaps have an admin on board who has enough (more than mods) perms to do an event, but isn't like a community moderator or a server admin.. But can have temporary event-privs once in a while to help with events?

I will come back to this about mayors and towns and fishing contests, etc. in a sec.. btw.

In regards to the low player numbers, I am surprised by the low outcome on friday evenings, though late at night like 4 or 5 am it peaks a bit. And that sometimes the peak is un Sunday evening. Do you perhaps have stats on this? A graph perhaps that shows on average when the peaks are?

Hopefully just like with double xp events and maybe a seasonal newsletter or something to inform players that played this year that there's an event a few weeks in the future that we can push those numbers up?

Yeah, no use having a contest for 3 ppl with 3 winners.. It's only realistic to say: we're doing an event that weekend if at 9pm UK time there are 15+ players online that want to participate. Maybe this motivates people to invite their friends and new players might just show up to check things out. If only 5 people show up it's more than reasonable to say: Sorry.. let's try again next month. Just sayin. (ppl hate me for saying this probably)

I do not know what a stack of iron blocks goes for these days, but i have a couple I can sell.

like?

I've been getting a few questions about all the outposts and visits, so here's a little overview:

/visit townx

Instead of /town spawn, /town outpost, etc.. you can use shorthand: /t s, /t o..
Note please that all outposts are public, by adding an x in front of the name, example:
/t o farms (for residents)
/t o x farms (for everybody)

Okay, here we go:

To visit town x spawn: (exclusive plots)
/t s
/t s x

To visit town x's plots outpost: (resident plots) (plots are for sale only to town residents, you're free to join our town!)
/t o plots
/t o x plots
/visit townx

To visit town x's public farms outpost: (open to everybody)
/t o farms
/t o x farms
/visit mistic_ice

To visit town x's public shops outpost: (open to everybody)
/t o shops
/t o x shops

To visit the Saddle Alliance area: (yeah, this one is hard to explain..)
/t o saddle
/t o x saddle

There are a few more outposts, but they're more for staff members, .. you're still free to explore.
/t o private, and /t o waterfalls

During events where we hunt for heads: (also used for pvp events)
/visit thelynx74

To visit the town x's public guardian grinder (to get exp levels quick / train mcmmo)
/visit nixxy73

To see below town x's spawn: (and get to the auto sorter)
/visit mrfloris

To visit town x's acrobatics training course: (mcmmo /acrobatics)
/visit ilujf

To visit mrfloris' wild area: (have fun exploring)
/visit paprikaatje



Anyway, a few to remember: /t s x, to get to spawn and /visit townx, to get to the plots.

Update:

ALLIANCE:

We've closed entries to the Saddle Alliance for now until we're done setting everything up and building.
Alliance partnerships come with a participation fee.
Slots available: 0 (4/4 taken)
Requirements: Active mayor and active town, fun builders, and part of nation: strangeland

PLOTS:

Soon we will have a couple of unique (and possibly also embassy) plots available for purchase starting at 30,000 nbz.

The first player who got lucky enough to get the first plot is deebles17 at a 50% discount.

Player plots come with a participation fee (baked into plot price)
Slots available: 3 (1/4 taken)
`- town x 1/1
 |- lunarfalls 0/1 (contact killjoy)
 |- icehaven 0/1 (contact doc)
 `- middle earth 0/1 (contact whuck)

Hey

This used to work, but I believe you said that this broke with 1.12.2, I still notice weekly questions from players that ask if there's a way to see the result.

So far when I am online and I see someone win I /mail that person, so they know. But this doesn't let others see who won of course.

Could this feature perhaps get fixed for 1.12.2? Since we're putting in nearly 10k per month on tickets and wouldn't mind knowing the results of this investment.

nice job on the knittin

Well under other circumstances, I would gladly take one, however I don't want to be mean so I'll let diamond get it.

There might be more than one

I have a 20 page book and quill full of todo items and that's just the stuff i remembered.. i feel bored sometimes, but i got enough to keep me busy for months in Minecraft.

Keep an eye on the market forums, there are ppl like me who sometimes hire builders

Shopping area? Well when its done I'd love a shop

I sold a shop plot today to a town resident, that opens up a slot for an out of towner, let's discuss that tomorrow

There was a secret gathering of mayors who sat down and had a chat.

Whuck71 / Middle Earth
KilljoyDivine / LunarFalls
doc_engie / IceHaven
mrfloris / x

We put our money on the table and decided to do something we've never done before in the history of Noobscraft, or at least version 6.

We approved each others towns after shaking hands and created an outpost... each.... right next to each-other.



That's four people approving each-other as a town - that's 12 million right there. On top of that, we all had to buy our outposts of course, so that's another 8 million.  We also claimed plots that's just a bonus 200k.

A good day for the economy where 4 towns get together and spend over 20 million noobs in a few minutes.

Welcome to The Gathering. It's fun making history And I am pretty sure this one goes in the books.

Thanks Killjoy, doc, and whuck for doing this, was fun

Update;

People who cannot use : /t o plots, because they're not part of town x, your options are:

If you are part of a town, talk to me to move your stuff over, then leave the town you're in and join ours?

If you are not part of a town, type: /town join x, after which you can type /t o plots

If you don't wish to join our town, you can type: /visit townx or /t o x plots

If you just want to use the public farms, /visit mistic_ice, and townx residents can type: /t o farms

Update;

We're making some nice progress, good job so far Diamond and MrOtto

Have fun in May with finishing those assigned plots and I hope upcoming weekend we can figure out together which plots are still needed to connect everything together.

https://floris.computer/wheatfieldupdate.png