Seasonal Revisions?

[kittypuppet]

On the topic of too long/too short revisions, I feel like it'd be kind of cool to have the revisions change with the seasons - 3 months per (nov - jan/feb - april/may-july/aug - oct or whatever is decided upon), but then we could have "themes" this way. I feel like this would actually be pretty awesome to have :D

[Aypop]

I agree primarily because from what I've heard, 6 month long revisions on C are a recipe for staleness in latter parts of the revision. 

 

On one side I completely agree with the potential of seasonal revisions because it helps cities with creating thematic builds and lore. It would also be interesting to have anti-season builds (Christmas in July, for example). 

 

On the other hand, if this becomes enacted, we need to stress to new players that building to theme is entirely optional so that they don't feel forced or alienated. 

 

Possibly schedule:

 

Winter

December

January

February

 

Spring

March

April

May

 

Summer

June

July

August

 

Fall

September

October

November

Edited August 29, 2014 by Aypop

[kittypuppet]

Ohhh I like that schedule. And yes - of course you don't have to build to the theme, but having a theme, I feel it would be interesting

[Magnyus]

Yeah, Aypop's schedule would be the most ideal.

[dizney07]

The problem is minecraft updating at times that are unknown, and possibly not being able to update certain plug ins in that time. But I do think it would be cool to have those seasons, and maybe could add to the landscape a bit (maybe winter has more snow biomes while summer has less etc.). 

[Denevien]

The problem is minecraft updating at times that are unknown, and possibly not being able to update certain plug ins in that time. But I do think it would be cool to have those seasons, and maybe could add to the landscape a bit (maybe winter has more snow biomes while summer has less etc.). 

This would be the hardest part. From experience, the hardest part of a new rev is making the map. I spent a fair bit of time on the PvE Rev 10 terrain, but still didn't put as much effort as thrawn21 and Wickedcoolsteve put into some of their maps. It could end up being too much for admins to custom make maps to fit the "season" feel.

[jchance]

Just to play devil's advocate here, in the past when players knew a set date the revision would end the servers would be a ghost town for a month before the end of the rev.

 

So, assuming we were to go to 4 revs a year on a set schedule, are you guys prepared for the last month of each rev to be basically empty and stagnant?

 

I'm basing this off past experience over the last 3 years or so.

[kittypuppet]

So, assuming we were to go to 4 revs a year on a set schedule, are you guys prepared for the last month of each rev to be basically empty and stagnant?

It already feels empty and stagnant with the rev on C dragging out as long as it is

[Magnyus]

Four Fresh Revs + One Month of "Boring Time" = 4 months of "Boring Time"

 

As opposed to Two Fresh Revs + 3 Months of "Boring Time" = TWO REALLY BORING REVS.

 

Longer is not better on C. Personally, I think a rev is finished when at least 3 big builds are completed (or attempted), or if more than 8 Warps are made.

[Difficult1]

Just to be clear, when you say "seasonal" do you mean a rev every season or have the revs start in better seasons like summer when more people have time off?

[kittypuppet]

Just to be clear, when you say "seasonal" do you mean a rev every season or have the revs start in better seasons like summer when more people have time off?

 

 

A new rev every season

 

edit: I'd at least like to see this on C - I think it'd be awesome to see seasonal stuff on C

Edited August 29, 2014 by kittypuppet

[PvtSnowball]

I like this to because you can do more summer time biomes for summer and winter ones for winter and inbetween for spring and fall

[XkinOEC]

The problem is minecraft updating at times that are unknown, and possibly not being able to update certain plug ins in that time. But I do think it would be cool to have those seasons, and maybe could add to the landscape a bit (maybe winter has more snow biomes while summer has less etc.). 

Minecraft updates shouldn't be that big of a problem... the server has updated mid revision before, and even then we've had revisions pass where there were no updates after. We've also ignored a few updates in the past as well. I don't think it would be too much of a problem for C, maybe on S and P where blocks would end up unobtainable but on C we would just add more blocks to our builds  and the map would update with minecraft as is. 

 

This would be the hardest part. From experience, the hardest part of a new rev is making the map. I spent a fair bit of time on the PvE Rev 10 terrain, but still didn't put as much effort as thrawn21 and Wickedcoolsteve put into some of their maps. It could end up being too much for admins to custom make maps to fit the "season" feel.

only spawn needs the season feel, to be perfectly honest we could use some pre-painted world maps and put a spawn and other areas on it... as well as have contests for players to build the areas warps before release(AND NOT PUT THEM IN THE WRONG AREAS) this would pretty much diminish the problems of workload on the cadmins who can already use world edit to create the map in advanced to begin with.

 

 

Just to play devil's advocate here, in the past when players knew a set date the revision would end the servers would be a ghost town for a month before the end of the rev.

 

So, assuming we were to go to 4 revs a year on a set schedule, are you guys prepared for the last month of each rev to be basically empty and stagnant?

 

I'm basing this off past experience over the last 3 years or so.

true, very true... However as it stands right now, creative is dragging on so much that were loosing the old players and the only reason we sustain is our new players that join and build in whatever space is left. I mean, you don't have to ever announce the rev a month in advanced, but as frequent players, it is our suggestion... No one else really has to know. 

[barneygale]

Just to play devil's advocate here, in the past when players knew a set date the revision would end the servers would be a ghost town for a month before the end of the rev.

 

So, assuming we were to go to 4 revs a year on a set schedule, are you guys prepared for the last month of each rev to be basically empty and stagnant?

 

I'm basing this off past experience over the last 3 years or so.

 

I've actually seen the inverse too. When revs get to 4, 5 months old everyone *feels* like a reset must be imminent, and don't build. The rev might last another month or two.

[Cyotie911]

I do like this idea with the exception of what jchance said. When you have a Rev reset date set so far out in advance, everyone will quit building the entire last month before. If there is a set date, then when new players join, they may leave if the reset date is a month away rather than then building, since we normally only announce the end of revs a week to 2 weeks in advanced, this normally doesn't happen.

Edit: might rewrite this later after I wake up and am no longer on my phone. I'm sure my grammar is horrible.

[SkrapssparkS]

I don't build much when it gets to the 4-5 month mark just the odd small house. I end up not building for around 2 months before the end of the revision I don't think it's going to make any difference to game play having set restart dates. This does tie in very nicely with my revision lengths post and does have a nice twist on it, thanks for posting this Kittypuppet. I'd like to see this happen at least as a test for a revision or two.

[Difficult1]

A new rev every season

 

edit: I'd at least like to see this on C - I think it'd be awesome to see seasonal stuff on C

That wouldnt work, it takes a long time to make maps and thats not a lot of time for large projects.

[Magnyus]

I say we should start "planning" for the winter season starting with December, we could easily have everything ready by then.