I have had this idea for a long while now, and I was actually looking for a server that would let me implement it. I have chosen this one for some other reasons, like the ability to build and share knowledge with others, but I want to present you of the server with this:
I think it would be a GREAT idea to implement a new world (There are 2 at the moment so I am not sure, but I am guessing that 3 wouldn't make that much of a difference for my expected result of new players and-- well, I will get to that all later) that is a survival world, but with infinite items. I plan on creating a huge Utopian-like society with the most advanced of machinery making a technological world marvel. All of the houses could be tricked out with sliding doors, automatic beds, and all the like. There would be an organized way of building and it would not be anything like the redstone world where you can basically build where you want, when you want. There would be say, 5 major cities that interconnect in the forms of trade and commerce. Each could have grand stations of train rails that go to each other station, and every city could have an intricate system of suburbs.
I talked before about how the ideal system of play would be a survival world with infinite items. What I mean by that is there could be a public vault with stocks of many stacks of build materials, redstone, redstone torches, redstone repeaters, pistons, ect. This allows for the interconnection mentioned before with trade, with materials not provided. The infinite items that are provided, though, will inspire builders to make grand things, and these people will be gifted with the "prodigious skill of flight". The result will be a sophisticated society of people working to build a futuristic utopia.
What this means for the server would be a whole new way of playing, which would for one, have current members be encouraged to be online more often, and for two, you could advertise this new world and I would almost guarantee that server traffic would be increased. If we plan to keep the current system of application to get build rights, for one, (again) we will probably need more administrators, and for two, it would have to be altered to fit the description provided above about "There would be an organized way of building and it would not be anything like the redstone world where you can basically build where you want, when you want.". If this idea as a whole is accepted, we could work on the specifics later.
Now, I also talked about how each city would contain a vault with stockpiles of materials, but I did not explain thoroughly on how I think it should work. So what I am thinking of is basically and organized kid of bank where chests would contain all of these things. They would probably need restocking by a mod or admin, and speaking of which, so would the world in itself.
This brings me to my role in this project. I am certainly not asking to be an admin on the spot, and I didn't expect people to think that. But I would like some way of being able to control my society and keep order, and also be able to restock those chests! :P But seriously, I think I should have more control over the world (and this reminds me, I don't care at all about my rank in the other world being reflected off my work on this one. Basically, all I am asking for is in this world only) than the average player, just to make sure that while in development, things are running as they are supposed to be. This is merely a request, and if you all don't think that this is fair, than I will respect your opinions.
I know this post is insanely long, so I will just bring it to a wrap here. I would like to have some feedback on this idea, and see how we together can change it to be better and/or more realistic. I hope this is a possibility that we can achieve, but if not, than I am glad to have shared some thoughts with you all. Thanks for reading!
I love the idea, sounds great!
Just use our regular creative world for all this since infinite resources in survival mode can easily be simulated as all players can change their gamemode. All in all, this is a great idea and I urge you to follow through with it.
Hey 0bit, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Let me tell you about the ideas that I am trying to implement on the new SMP server. They have a lot in common with yours.
The core idea of the server is that every building should reflect the amount of effort put into it. This is pretty much how every vanilla gameplay server is organized, HOWEVER an important difference is that the process of getting the required building materials should be simplified via economy. Let me elaborate.
I used to play on several servers before. One of my big projects was a huge wool cactus with an automated cactus farm inside. Getting wool for this building was hell - it took me weeks to accomplish, even with the help of a couple of guys who agreed to trade their wool for diamonds I offered.
On the new SMP server every user is getting money for simply being online, and also for selling items to admin shops (which have infinite stock). There is a whole bunch of other bonuses I am planning to implement in order to encourage active players, but that's a work in progress. With this system implemented that makes getting materials easier (emphasis: easier, not free) this is how I envision a perfect SMP server.
There are plans to implement towns at some point, and town mayors may create protected vaults with materials for huge projects. Those would still not be infinite though, although virtually infinite stocks would still be available in admin shops.
If you're interested in helping develop the new server I'd gladly share the rest of my ideas and grant you beta access. We can't really create a whole new world on the creative server for you to experiment with - I hope you understand this. Well, unless you manage to impress us a lot. :]
Let me know your thoughs. Cheers.
~Stym
Alright, I like how your ideas can fill the spaces left open in mine. I like the way that you are planning to give items, but I don't get the admin shops part. So they will have an infinite amount of items to sell, BUT you have to pay for whatever you get from them? I think this is a great idea, and If this is what you mean, we could have either banks or investors, who can fund and sponsor huge projects. This would kind of boost lifelike game play. This way, though, there would have to be a way for them to pay the investor or loan from the bank. Possibly, building a structure could get money from the "government" (A.K.A you and Duba) ?
Also, about these shops, what kind of items do you plan on selling? I personally think that redstone items should be closest to free, but besides that, selling things like diamond blocks would not be "every building should reflect the amount of effort put into it". So the items sold should probably only consist of the basic materials like smooth stone, the different wood types, sand and sand stone, and pretty much all of the things that, if harvested in big quantities at a time, would rip the landscape apart. But hopefully no dyes because I would love to build a huge epic wool farm, lol. But seriously, what are your ideas and plans for the shops?
It would be a good idea to have the server set up before having it go public. This means that the shops should give away the most-used building materi-- what, what am I thinking? If you have a team of builders to make the server, shouldn't they just spawn items? Well regardless, you probably understand.
Anyways, I would like to work on this with you if you would appreciate help in the first place.
Ok, so first of all, the server is already up, but it's still running 1.0 due to the changes to terrain generation that were introduced in 1.1. I am currently waiting for a world generator plugin to be updated, so we can still use the same world in 1.1.
The address is mc.redstone-server.info:25560
Admin shops have infinite stocks of items, but still you have to pay for whatever you get from them. Luxuries like diamonds are present in stock, but are really expensive. Redstone building materials are not yet present, but will be eventually added, and will be relatively cheap.
I want to create a working economy on the server and encourage people to trade a lot, and here are some ideas.
1. People are able to create their own shops and sell their goods for whatever price they specify. Selling is fully automated via the ChestShop plugin, you don't need to be online to do that.
2. Although you can always buy items from admin shops, they will be somewhat expensive. This is intentional. Private shops that people create should be able to compete with admin shops by providing items at lower costs.
3. All profits from admin shops will be stored in a "vault". For now, it's my account. The money from the vault can be donated for projects.
4. I will avoid just 'spawning' money, whenever possible. If the whole trading idea is played right, the community should make itself richer with every block mined, and the money should flow into the city vault.
Now, every project should be represented by a leader who should convince the investor (again, at first that would be me) that their idea is worth it, and that they will be able to implement it. Or maybe we could have votes or contests, and the winner would receive the grant. Not sure about that part yet as we don't have a framework for that so far. In any case, the money from the vault will be transferred to the winning project leader's account, from where they could transfer it to their helpers, etc.
All of these are ideas for the long run. Right now the server has more prosaic needs, such as receiving the 1.1 update, finishing up the spawn town, and getting more people to beta test this whole system.