Herr_Fawkes

Only mentioning things I found to be of note. The Spawn Building I like this style of spawn. Good work! The Overworld Good size. Please return to using custom generation. This revision's terrain was boring. The Nether Excellent nether. Loved the design. The End Again, excellent. Mapworld Please enable the printer. I'd love to make maps, but I have no desire to spend literal days on something complex. Portals No worries here. Custom Drops from Ore, Mobs, Loot chests and Sugarcane All good, expand on these and the item shops. Overall- I hope 1.14 comes soon so we can update, this rev and the last have gone on too long.

Ah, makes sense. If I remember right, a good portion of the rail (particularly surface rail) that got set up last revision was done pretty far into the rev, while this time around it seems that rail is front-loaded. Thus, we may be seeing an effect of delaying elytra in that, when they're delayed, roads/rails are built up quickly and then not touched once wings become a thing. I wonder if we've got copies of the old rules for elytra somewhere so we can compare them with deadmaps and player counts over time, if those are available. This is good to know going forward, and I'm glad you brought up the point.

Regarding custom mobs, I'm looking forward to what you think up. It'll be a fun surprise whatever it is. On road/rail development since last rev- this may well be true, though I'd like to see the metrics you use to determine that this rev's developments aren't any bigger than last rev's. I'd also point out that elytra was harder to get last rev than it was in revision 20, and we saw a huge uptick in rail/road development. I won't say that making elytra harder to get was the only reason this happened, but I think increased difficulty was a factor. If the development rate/amount hasn't changed, then that's a sign that revision 21's rules were about right for stimulating development. I would say that the gold/iron ore was just right for rails this rev, and I hope that this rev's ore spawnrates are kept, or at least not modified in a negative way. Keeping diamonds rare is a good idea as well. Regarding the smaller map, I would point out that revision 16, which had a very small map compared to 14 and 15, was very well developed and enjoyable. Distances didn't feel too overwhelming, and it was possible to ride around and enjoy oneself without losing a sense of scale and grandeur. Also, I would seriously consider allowing horses to pass their stats on to their offspring when bred. It's disappointing and off-putting to level up a horse, only to be unable to pass its traits down to other horses you breed. To conclude, thanks for all you and the other admins do! The game doesn't run without you, and I'm glad that you're so willing to discuss players' thoughts.

On embassies- with the presence of the Federations and the traditional cities this rev, I think having the option to build an embassy is important both to provide a base at spawn for city members and to attract new players. Other ways of advertising towns at spawn could include a spot for map-art billboards, statue gardens in which towns can build something, etc. I'm glad that the nether mobs were balanced to make them beatable with less than end game equipment. This is a good design decision, keep it up! Fair point on the printer. I think I missed having it because my usage of mapworld this rev has been limited to building a full map of the server, and that wasn't easy without the printer. I'm glad we've got maps from old revs, that's one of the best features in the mapworld as a whole. Custom drops- it'd be fun if we expanded the mining drops to work with mobs- maybe bring back Dr. Cuddles and his friends? In all seriousness, though, the progression system inherent in the spawn-based drop trades is really refreshing. Expanding its selection is probably the best thing to do, since the bones of the system are strong. Elytra- Honestly, I'm probably always going to be in the minority on this issue, and that's fine. However, I do feel like the server community has really rebounded since revision 20, when, in my mind, elytra were a much bigger blight on the server than they are now, and I credit that rebound to elytra being harder to get and the buffing of the ores needed to get rails. I understand that many people weren't happy with the delay in getting elytra, and I won't be surprised if we return to wings being available on day 1. If we do, I think we need to think seriously about how wings and the creeper spawner are implemented: make Mending incompatible with wings so that flying takes work in the long term, and remove the creeper spawner (or only implement it near the midpoint/end of a revision) so that powered flight takes more than a bit of AFK to achieve. The main argument in favor of elytra seems to be that it's a vanilla item. Be that as it may, the creeper spawner is not vanilla, and it removes the main challenge inherent in powered flight. I'd also like to say a few words on map size. A smaller map would be interesting. It'd certainly stimulate ground-based infrastructure, and we've done smallish maps before (IIRC revisions 16-18 were 3000x3000, and they never felt too big to play well. This map does feel large, and I think a 3000x3000 map might be better to try.

ran out and i fell

Any updates?

The Spawn Building I'm a fan. The design and concept is excellent, as is the execution. Layout fine. Exits easy to find. I preferred the distributed portals, but only slightly more than the central portal. This change was fine after being a bit jarring the first time i tried to find a portal after it moved to the center. This is an excellent spawn. Wouldn't mind some spawn embassies, though. They're always fun to decorate. If we do embassies, we need them in a hallway that all new players go through so that they see what the server has to offer in terms of towns. This would also provide towns with an advertising opportunity. The Overworld Map Just right. Bleh. I much prefer the custom terrain to vanilla. It's more interesting to look at. If it's possible to do something biome-specific so oceans are treated as vanilla, that'd be fine. Just don't get rid of the custom terrain. All fine. Ore distro is great. Mining for diamonds feels challenging again. The Nether Map I like it. I think the nether is a good place to experiment with terrain gen. Also glad to see quartz/glowstone limited to the nether. Custom! More glowstone trees! All fine. Very good. Make them tougher! The End Haven't fought it. No. Mapworld I'd prefer a Schematica printer, but WE is second best. //print Very much so. Mapworld ought to persist. Portals Keep it. Preserves interest in finding a portal, and promotes secondary development after the rev start. No. Good, 12 is a good amount. Iron Golem Spawners Don't have a grinder. This works. Haven't looked. Custom Spawners No creeper spawner. It makes getting elytra fuel too easy. Go kill creepers for yourself. Others are fine. Nether spawners are fine, so long as you find a way to fix spawnrates. Literally anything but the creeper spawner. Custom Drops from Ore (Fossils and Rares) I'm a huge fan. They promote mining and rail tunnel production. Seems alright in terms of droprate. Yes, and yes. Custom Saddles Yes. Yes, A mixture. Elytra We’ve heard a lot of opinions on the implementation of Elytra this revision, from many different viewpoints. It’s clear the present system hasn’t met everybody’s expectations, so what we’re particularly interested in now, is your view on how you’d like to see Elytra approached next revision, with a positive focus on the future: Make them as rare as possible. Making them hard to get has saved the rail system. Please continue in this direction. I don't want elytra gone, I just want them to require substantial effort. Keep the prebuilt spawn rail station. Keep the current gold and iron oregen. Events All are good. I'd love to see the Knight's Quests return, as I feel they were a good mix of seek/find and puzzle solving. The Slime Golems are fun to look for. Knight's Quests! I'd love to see Elytra be the prize for an event, whatever that is.

Me last year, I don't look much different aside from a better haircut.

PvP has died the past few times we've tried to implement it. Speaking for myself, I don't think the server resources and moderator time necessary to run a server that gets as little use as PvP did the last time it was brought back is worth it when we can use our resources better elsewhere.

To chime in on map size, I think moving portals closer together and keeping a large map so that land is still plentiful is a great idea. A smaller map would, on consideration, be a net negative.

@Sir_Didymus I think elytra have benefits in allowing people to move quickly and spend more time building, mining, and other things that can get delayed because taking rails/roads is a less efficient means of movement. Wings also let people visit settlements that aren't easily accessible via rails or roads. I don't think we need to get rid of wings entirely, because they can and have coexisted with rails and other transportation modes. We didn't really see a huge decline in rail infrastructure until rev19, despite introducing wings halfway through rev17. If my research is correct, rocket-powered flight was introduced in 1.11.1 in late 2016, just in time for rev19 in early 2017. I don't think we had powered flight for a full rev until rev20, and the rail and road infrastructure took a massive dive. However, rev18 had both wings and a vibrant rail system. Lite Rail was the ultimate evolution of CARBON, and it worked well. Rev21 has seen rails make a comeback thanks to the prebuilt spawn station, which I think ought to be continued. Having a ready-made, reliable place to start rails has been a boon for transport. Rails and wings can coexist, but not if powered flight is allowed. Besides, the admins saw powered flight as "too overpowered" when they discussed it in this old blog post: Getting rid of wings isn't possible. We have to keep the server palatable for new players, and that means allowing them to get wings in some form. Besides, they're fun to use, and are useful for transport. I don't want to see them go. There are two routes I see the future taking in terms of liming wings. First, we could preserve the powered flight system, making the server more attractive to new players who are used to 1.12 flight mechanics. The issue with powered flight as it stands is that there's no counterbalance for it. Mending means that wings can be fixed as many times as a player needs/wants to go to an XP grinder. Using fireworks to fly only depletes your supply of the things. Creeper spawners make replenishing fireworks easy. When bowflight was the only powered flight option, one ran the risk of dying if they used too many arrows. Fireworks have turned flight into a risk-free endeavor. In vanilla, one has to kill creepers in the wild for their gunpowder. That's risky, and makes players work for . Thus, the easiest way to nerf flight is to remove creeper spawners and make players gather resources the old-fashioned way. This returns us to a more vanilla-like game in terms of spawners. Powered flight in itself isn't the issue. In a vanilla game, it takes 1 gunpowder to make a low-powered rocket. Killing a creeper nets you at most 2 gunpowder, so, to get a stack of low-powered rockets, you have to kill at least 32 creepers. Getting a stack of 3-gunpowder high-power rockets, the most efficient for flying, takes at least 96 creepers. With a grinder, those numbers are easy to AFK. Going out and killing them takes more effort and involves more risk. One has to hunt the mobs and kill them, which is the point of PvE Minecraft in the first place. Removing creeper spawners would return us to vanilla mechanics for getting gunpowder, and make rockets more risky and time-consuming to create, thus disincentivizing powered elytra travel while preserving their ability to be used. One can always glide around, even without fireworks. The other method of balancing elytra is to remove the powered flight mechanic. This would return us to rev17-19, when flight towers and mountains provided the only way to get across the map fast. This would not be a popular move with new players, who expect 1.12 mechanics on 1.12 servers. Thus, I would recommend keeping powered flight and removing creeper spawners from the map. Whether we keep or remove powered flight, making wings harder to get will also allow us to balance them better than we do now. In vanilla, you can find 5-6 sets of wings in the End cities. That's a small amount of wings that require a good bit of exploring to get to. As it stands, we require an Essence of Flight and a dragon head to get wings. Limiting EoF to flying mobs, instead of all hostile mobs plus flying mobs as it is now, would reduce the amount of wings on the server. So would making the dragon fight harder. I support both of these changes. As for the nether, I think the two-level format we have is an interesting concept that should be continued. It'd be fun to see the glowstone forest make a comeback, as well as the obsidian spires. Those were a lot of fun to explore. It'd be cool to see the End get a similar treatment, with chorus forests and end-stone hills instead of the island we have now. The two-level format makes the nether fun, since you have more options to build and that's never a bad thing. Golem souls could be used like they were this rev, with a trader at spawn, and I think it'd be worth considering making them tradeable for rare items as part of regular villager trading. We could make 10 souls worth a max enchant pick of some kind, or something like that. If souls are a part of the game, they ought to be integrated into its trading infrastructure in more ways. The Knight's Quest has been really successful because it adds a whole new level to the base game. It requires exploring, and abilities ranging from parkour to combat to brainpower. It's a diverse set of quests that aren't overly hard, but still require a lot of tenacity and skill. I think a series of builds in the overworld is a great way to house quests, since they add to the scenery and make the whole map worth exploring. That kind of event will always be fun. As for new ideas, I really like the idea of making the payoff for finishing some hard quest or event have a server-wide effect. We had something like this with Nilrem at spawn this rev, but we can expand on it. Instead of donations, have the event be something like the NITWITS challenges, where the clues/quests/events are integrated into current builds, or create a particularly hard Knights Quest or Trials of Faith/Trials of Sorrow type quest. Anyone who finishes the quest creates a positive outcome for the whole server. We could make this outcome some new special traders at spawn, like this rev, or a slight XP buff for killing certain mobs, or a slightly greater chance of a head dropping from a killed mob, or anything else that anyone can access. The idea is to encourage participation in the quest by making rewards a server-wide thing.

Expectations From the start of the revision, we set up our expectations of how the revision would play out, including for the first time ever, an estimated timeline for the revision duration. How are you finding this revision, knowing the revision duration in advance? Same as the others, since I don't really base what I'm building on any end goal. I have a project to complete that I set for myself at the start of the rev, and build from there once I finish. I do like knowing when the end is so that I don't start building something only to find out that I won't finish it due to the rev ending. We gave a rough outline for having more events in the latter half of the revision. Would you like more information along these lines in future? Yes, it's good to know when things are happening. We made it clear that we wanted to involve you more in the decision making, and did just that with various events and tasks this revision. This involved the pve survey, a poll for the admin hunt location, the death message update and a number of suggestionbox submissions which were implemented a. We want to continue down this path, and do more. How do you feel we did so far and what more can we look to do? I think the process was beneficial. I enjoy things more when I can contribute to how they happen in some way, and choosing locations and messages is a fun way to contribute in ways that just playing on the server doesn't allow. Map Size For revision 21, the map size is 9000 x 9000 blocks. We have been considering a smaller overworld map for revision 22, as confirmed in the discussion here. How have you found the current map size? I like the size, but a smaller map is better for reasons outlined below. We believe that returning to a smaller map size for next revision would encourage more community activity - something we are strongly looking to promote. What are your thoughts? A large map, combined with elytra, is bad for the community. Before elytra, big maps were fun because they required the community to build roads/rails/etc to get around. Now, people get wings after a few days and cities become isolated. This rev has been *much* better for rails than the past few, mostly because the spawn station was pre-built. Last rev had no pre-built station, and no one built one, so rails suffered. If we do large maps in the future, we need to make elytra much harder to get. This map size feels nice since people, myself included, built rails, but there are few major roads for horse travel and I think a slightly smaller map would make roadbuilding more popular an endeavor. Biomes We used the Open Terrain Generator to generate the map and worldpainter to make smaller changes. This terrain generator allows for a variation in the types of biomes and allows us to modify them too before they generate, and worldpainter lets us make more precise changes on a smaller scale by comparison. How have you found the world generated? Perfect. It's a great map in terms of biomes and their sizes. I love the mountains in the NE especially. Which biomes would you like to see more of? Keep the mountain type used in the NE, and add in some more classic plains. Which biomes would you like to see less of? Ocean. The South is too watery. The North has a great river system that gives us lots of fun places to build, but the ocean feels too empty. If we do an ocean that big again, it should have some big islands to attract cities, like Pico this rev. Ore Distribution For the ore distribution this revision, we emulated the values of revision 19 (though there are notable differences). Additionally, compared to last revision, ores would typically generate where you’d expect to find them normally. How did you find the ore generation this revision? Fine, much better than last rev. Diamonds and gold feel right again. Were there any ores you feel were too sparse? I'd like more quartz in the overworld, but that's not too much of an issue. Were there any ores you feel were too abundant? None, all seems fine. Would you like to see biomes specific ores such as the mesa being plumped for gold? Yes. No preference as to which ores are plumped where, but biome-based plumping is a fun gameplay element since it can encourage exploring outside the standard biomes. Nether Portals For this map size, we spread 12 nether portal markers out around the map, with another nether portal at spawn. Each nether portal could be lit within 100 blocks of the marker, and placed in either the upper, or lower nether. We meticulously planned the bedrock markers to try to provide optimum coverage. How did you find the layout for this revision? Good, I like the knights' names theme as well. Given that we are considering a smaller map size, how would you like to see the volume and layout of nether portals? We only really need 8 portals unless the map is huge. I get why we had 12 this rev though, and having more didn't hurt gameplay. Nether This revision, we saw the nether divided into an upper nether, which was all entirely custom built by Sir_Didymus, and the lower nether being vanilla generation, with the bedrock roof mostly removed between the two. Would you like to see an upper nether return again, or shall we explore another format (such as an all-vanilla nether)? All-vanilla nethers suck. They're boring, no fun to mine or build in, and they suck the fun out of hunting wither skeletons since the terrain is so wonky. I like having a custom-gen nether, particularly the ones we had a few revs ago with the glowstone trees and obsidian pillars. Those were fun, unique, and dangerous without being impossible to navigate. We introduced a nether spawn this revision, which was built by Barlimore, Sir_Didymus and with staff contributions. We did this to introduce people to the upper/lower nether concept. I liked the rail stations at the bottom. I'd be fine with another staffmade spawn, perhaps of smaller size. a. Provided there is an upper nether again; Would you like a nether spawn to return in future, or would you like us to return to tradition and allow you to create your own nether spawn? If the upper nether comes back, it'd be fun to see what players did with their own spawn. b. How did you find having a pre-built nether rail station? Very useful. End It’s the end! This world is typically generated completely vanilla. For this revision, the end was a size of 4500 x 4500. How do you feel about the size of the end? Should this be smaller? No real preference, it's fine from what I can tell We have frequently heard feedback about wanting the end dragon fight made more difficult. How would you feel about the end dragon fight being a non-vanilla experience? Make the dragon fight very difficult, and require it for a player to get elytra (if you don't make elytra prizes for a quest event.) The dragon is the final boss, and should require a team of players with max enchant gear to kill. Even then, it should be a really damn hard fight. Make the dragon respawnable, and somehow set the part of the end that players use to travel away from the dragon fight. A custom staff-built arena would be a great boss fight for anyone willing to take on the challenge. As for difficulty, imagine a wither that you can't put in a box, but twenty feet tall with three times the health and faster flight. In short, have a really challenging boss that gives really good prizes like wings. This will create an incentive to fight it, and lower the amount of wings on the server. Mapworld This revision, mapworld carried over from revision 20, allowing you to keep your plots, maps and modreq for them again without losing your work! We plan to bring mapworld over into revision 22 too. How have you found the experience of mapworld carrying over into the new revision? N/A haven't used mapworld. Which changes would you like to see to mapworld, if any? Worldedit has been a frequent request and an example which we would love to hear feedback upon. I'd rather have people building on the server than putting time in on mapworld to create things that only they and anyone living with them will likely see. Best to have worldedit, or at least a schematica printer, so people can make what they want without taking time away from sever builds. I'd use mapworld if I didn't have to waste hours putting a map together. Spawn The overworld spawn this revision was curated by defiex, decorated by staff and built by jar9. We confirmed early this rev that the spawn building for revision 22 would be entirely built by nerd staff. With that in mind, we've made early progress on the spawn structure, to ensure a timely completion, and have made sure it fits well with the theme and events planned for revision 22. We have aimed for a very simple layout, one where you can exit spawn swiftly and clearly, along one of four cardinal roads. We are looking to further mitigate lag at spawn by moving the nether portal away from the spawn point. a. What would you expect to see from the layout of spawn next revision? Similar, I liked the simple layout. 2. Which was your favourite Easter egg around spawn this revision? I haven't been exploring enough to find any yet 3. Are there any spawn ideas you’d like to submit for future? I'd love to see a Greco-Roman spawn, lots of columns and a temple with a big statue of Zeus/Jupiter (or hell, the whole Parthenon 4. How did you find having a pre-built spawn rail station? Very useful. This feature needs to return. Could even integrate the station into spawn itself. Features Iron Golem Spawners This revision, we replaced the wither skull cost from iron golem spawners and replaced it with a 1/500 chance of naturally generated iron ore of dropping a ‘golem soul’. We continued the practice of having these spawner costs lower each month, to make them more accessible to those outside of towns. More than 1000 golem souls have been mined in the revision so far, resulting in iron golem spawners bought swiftly and with spare golem souls going towards a community contribution for special villagers. a. How would you like to see the iron golem spawner costs adjusted for the next revision? Keep them like they are. I like the golem soul mechanic, and the amount of iron in circulation stimulates rail building. b. Would you like us to return to the practice of having people unlock a golem spawner, then upgrade them for an additional cost? Yes, keeps mining going. Also meshes with the vanilla mechanic of having to build another farm to get more iron. c. Do you have any further suggestions on how you’d like to see golem souls used? It'd be fun to have the option to donate them again, I like that. Custom Spawners For this revision, we revealed the custom spawners hidden around the world as bedrock markers, and whether those spawners were in the overworld of nether. This was documented in the public document here. Following a suggestion-box suggestion, we would like to ask whether you would prefer for all custom spawners to be located in the overworld, rather than shared with the nether? I'd rather have them all in the overworld. Having a spawner in the nether invites AFK, which reduces the spawnrate for wither skeletons. Which custom spawners would you like to see in revision 22? Same as we have, minus the nether spawners. Which custom spawners would you no longer wish to see in revision 22? I don't think we need nether spawners. Guardian grinders became an issue this revision with their spawning rates conflicting with each other and other grinders. If possible, would you like to see a number of guardian spawners introduced to replace generated guardian spawning areas? I'm not familiar with the issue, I won't chime in. Community Blog Posts This revision, we continued publishing blog posts throughout the revision. So far we have published two of a total four, where the final blog post will go out at the end of the revision as a wrap-up. Is there anything in the blog post you’d like to see more of? I like the infographics, and the first blog post is fun since it shows off all the cities. I think the last blog of each revision should show the cities again, with an eye on showing off progress since the first post. Is there anything in the blog post that you’d like to see less of? Nothing really, I like what's being done Events We have continued to introduce a number of small and large events this revision, with the aim to have more available in the second half of the revision to give you more reasons to log back in and return. How have you found the events so far? Great! The Knight's Quests were probably the most fun (and frustration, but it's a game, if it's not hard it's not fun) I've had on the server in a long time. That kind of event, or something like it, needs to make a comeback next rev. Which events would you like to see more of? More quests! More seek-and-find, more big, map-spanning puzzles and adventures that make you explore. Which events would you like to see less of? It's all fun, keep it all Balancing prizes is something we always take as much care as possible with, depending on the nature of the event and how far through the revision we are. a. Those two important points aside though, which prizes would you like to see introduced in future events? This is part of some thoughts on elytra I'll expand on below, but I think that elytra need to be made much harder to obtain. Make them prizes for a particularly hard quest or event, so people have an incentive to actually explore the server instead of jetting around to where they need to go and not actually seeing what the community has to offer. Plugins TrainCarts This revision saw the introduction of the plugin TrainCarts. We included this plugin based on your feedback last revision. We implemented this plugin in a heavily restricted version (so none of this), keeping it reasonably close to HyperCarts, which we were using previously. We appreciate that this was a new plugin, with some hiccups throughout, so thank you for reporting issues to us as they came up. How have you found the TrainCarts plugin? Useful, I like the added functionality but I don't use much of it. Would you like us to continue using this plugin? I like anything that makes rails easier to build and use. Are there any other features of TrainCarts that you would like us to explore using? Not really, what we have seems to work. Other Plugins Revision 21 also saw the implementation of changes to existing plugins, such as the /place overhaul that pez252 brought us, which was introduced from the back of a suggestionbox suggestion. Which changes to existing plugins have you found welcome? N/A at this time Which changes to existing plugins would you like to see further changes to, or even removal of? N/A, things seem fine Closing Thoughts We are now passing the halfway point in the revision and look forward to seeing you on P with whichever projects you’re working on. Thank you ever so much for being a fantastic community! I've really enjoyed this rev, more than the last one. Last rev, at least to me, felt like a let down because a lot of what I really enjoyed about PvE was encroached upon by the presence of elytra. These wings kill communities. They kill the incentive structure that made earlier revisions a real community effort. Before wings, we built great, map-spanning rail systems. Remember CARBON? That was the greatest collaborative engineering project I've ever seen. Roads were big too, and every major city had a land route to every other. Even when wings were first introduced, they weren't too much of a cancer on the server. They were glide-only. Yes, bowflight was a thing, but for the most part people glided off of flight towers and mountains. This meant that one still had to plan a route to get somewhere. If I wanted to go from Rev17 Raven Rock to somewhere down south, I had to glide to Rose, take the rails up their spiral tower, and fly from there. Bowflight was an option, but it wasn't reliable compared to the firework propulsion we have now, and it had a detrimental effect on health. When elytra flight became powered, the wings destroyed any need to build roads or rails. In Rev20, the only reason we even had a major road system was the Continental Route that Zarton_ built on his own. Without their hard work, horses would have been basically useless for long-distance travel. Rev20 rails were dead. No big spawn station. One or two towns with more than one connection. WIngs were and are too easy to get. This rev, rails have come back because the admins created a station. It's been a success, and one can traverse the whole map without wings. I don't think wings need to be removed altogether, but they need to be much harder to get. Essence of flight should be a drop that comes from flying mobs alone particularly ones that don't come from a special spawner. Only the ender dragon should give you a realistic chance of getting an EoF on the first try, and, as I mentioned above, the ender dragon fight needs to be a really difficult boss battle that takes way more prep than it does now. The dragon dies within the first 24 hours of the server being up, without fail every revision. It'd be much more interesting if the dragon could only realistically be killed with max-enchant armor and weapons. It should be a fight that players will fail at unless they either get really good at it, or show up with enough friends to kill it. If this isn't implemented, then we need to seriously consider reverting elytra to unpowered flight only. Gliding between cities is a balanced mechanic. It encourages map knowledge, infrastructure building in the form of flight towers, and makes exploration more fun and feasible than simply jetting off to y500 and not seeing the ground until you dive into your destination. Either way, we need to significantly reduce how powerful elytra are. Edit: 2 posts from the subreddit regarding elytra balancing that I think deserve further attention:

As far as I'm aware, notes aren't public information.

The 1.14 update to the Java edition of Minecraft will remove much of the off-hand functionality we gained in 1.9: I can't speak for the community, but I don't want to see this loss of functionality come to the server. I'd suggest that, unless Mojang decides to not alter off-hand mechanics, we not update the servers to 1.14 when the time comes to do so.

I'd support a smaller map. It'd further incentivize rail/road building, and while I know nothing will get rid of elytra short of removing the ridiculous things from the game, I'd rather have rails, roads, and wings than just the latter two.