[PMC]2017 Fundraiser!

[Silversunset01]

Thanks to everyone who came to the initial testing for the fundraiser event!

For those who couldn't make it, we're looking at doing the following:

• Carnival
  • running all weekend with small carnival type games
  • To be built by a "build team" selected by head admins consisting of both staff and non staff
• Events
  • To be run periodically throughout the weekend at scheduled intervals
  • Potentially run by server admins (i.e. speedbuild on saturday) if they have the time
• Zombie Apocalypse
  • [sekrit]

We are hoping to do some additional staff-testing events, so be on the lookout for announcements in PMC. Additionally please *do not share* information with the general public about this event, we would like for this to be as much of a surprise as possible.

 

For those who were able to come to the initial testing event - what were your impressions? Keeping in mind it was a first-pass with a default generation, what did you like or dislike?

One of the things we need to come up with are some "goals" for the weekend, reasons for people to keep logging in other than "to survive." Some things we've tossed around are rescuing villagers, surviving the longest, most mob kills. What sorts of things would keep you logging in for the entire weekend event?

 

 

[totemo]

In the interests of efficient communication, here is a list of the planned or tentative changes so far for the zombie apocalypse:

• Gameplay:
  • Add a gun plugin.
  • Add loot chests in buildings that can contain guns and ammo.
  • Consider whether the event should be PvE or PvP, or (say) one round of each.
• Mobs:
  • Remove baby zombies. Possibly add husks.
  • Allow zombies to build with sponge when in water.
  • Limit excessive zombie spawns.
  • Add a custom zombie resource pack with sounds, modernised armour and weapons (e.g. wooden sword = baseball bat, iron armour = scrap metal pieces vs diamond armour = black kevlar body armour, health potion = medikit, splash health = hypodermic, splash speed = "stim pack").
  • Configure break times (by zombies) of the materials. Designate a few "high value" materials with longer break times for base building.
• Map:
  • Remove ugly (mostly nether) building materials from the map generation configuration.
  • Fix lighting glitches in the generated map.
  • Use custom made building schematics.
  • Spawn players randomly around the map rather than a single location.
  • Consider hosting one day of the event in an old PvE or Creative city, or a map made from a conglomeration of these.

[defiex]

Posting from work, but wanted to remember to respond.  Testing was fabulous! I genuinely had fun and look forward to it!

[Silversunset01]

Didy has done some work doing the event lobby signage.... 

looks pretty good so far (inb4 silver is murdered to death)

[buzzie71]

I was given a chance to check out the map and its mechanics the morning prior to the meeting.  The one thing I'd like to offer for motivation is to set up a more tangible way of "winning" the event - eg. an abandoned antivirus dispersal station somewhere, which requires placing certain hard-to-obtain blocks into certain slots in the station (can be completed from the outset of the event), and then perhaps a hard-to-obtain-but-guaranteed-never-to-despawn-or-logout-with-a-player item that would be dropped into the world somewhere else on the map that players would need to bring back to the station (introduced into the world in the last bit of time left for the event if the blocks requirement was satisfied).  Succeeding in both would result in dramatic lightning that will instakill zombies everywhere, and new ones that are spawned in or loaded in.

Few ways this can go sideways though:

• If the blocks requirement is too light, then it will be satisfied early in the event which again nullifies this particular motivation to log in during the midgame.  Players invested in this mechanic will still probably log in during the early-game and then the end-game.
• The most dramatic way of bringing the last item to the station would be for a party to escort a player carrying it across the overworld and defend the carrier from mobs on the way.  The safest and probably more likely way it will pan out is for the carrier to reach the station via underground tunnels, where it is safer but less challenging.  Player resourcefulness shouldn't be penalized, but at the same time the drop in challenge (projected) is there.

Somewhat tangential: In light of the very high vE element of this map I'm not sure I would be in favor of introducing the vP element that was more dominant in previous fundraisers.  Admittedly I haven't played much PvPvE on Minecraft, but on an MMO where I do visit such a spot, the most frustrating thing for me is to be focused on fending off an NPC only to be demolished by an opportunistic player enemy that swoops in for the kill.  (It also doesn't help admittedly that the other side gets cloaking devices and my side doesn't.)

If the map is intended to be periodically reset, it might be an interesting social experiment to allow PvP and see how much PvP actually occurs (do players take advantage of the zombies as distractions and kill each other, or do players set aside the PvP and focus on the zombies?).  It might also result in a lot of ragequits if the former occurs (likely) and there are more players who share my mindset on PvPvE though (unknown).

 

[MasterCommaThe]

To prevent tunneling: How about we set up a plug-in to turn all villagers to Zombies when they're not in daylight. And then we make the final objective to bring a Villager from point A to B, necessitating they be above ground to prevent them from turning?

[buzzie71]

Escorting a mob that has AI and a semisolid collision box can get frustrating though ._. unless players can stick him in a cart and push that :O

[MasterCommaThe]

Fair. What if players have to escort another player, and we set it so they turn into a zombie/die or the cure/package drops from their inventory if they aren't in daylight?

Alternatively (if it would be easier) we could just make the cure/package a wolf, which can be set to follow a player and must be defended and kept in daylight.

 

[Zaliek]

The pig of the Apocalypse is born and carries the antivirus in it's blood. If you take it from sunlight it turns into an overpowered zombie pigman that attacks the player and you have to get a new one. Then it's just leading a pig on a leash or with carrots. Have zombies attack the pig.