Land for new players

[uekitree Profile]

So I've been thinking on the difficulties new players often have finding land of their own. We know there is land to be had but it can be hard for them to A) find it, and B) find it again later when they don't really know the map.

Here is my plan, and I would really love to hear your input and suggestions.

I have a railroad that goes to 3 (for now) of the far ends of the map. I want to make towns along the rail where people could easily find land. These wouldn't be towns with plots and such just a rail station, small welcome center, and a little public farm. From there they just find a place and build. I don't want to own or run something like Sky 5, I'd just like to provide spots where we can send newcomers who want to build. Calling each spot a town and giving it a name I think just makes it easier to keep track of and find.


I would like to have station/towns in every type of biome so that when someone asks "where can I build?" we can give them some easy to understand choices.

My station is right outside the DoT Desert Station and easy to find.

What do you all think?

[nfair Profile]

I think it's a good idea, but I'd consider working with Robro/DOT. The existing rail lines to the North/South/East/West Hubs can serve as good starting points that you might consider branching off from. We might also think about doing a better job pointing out that those hubs send players out to more open space.

Check out the map viewtopic.php?f=23&t=506 here. Those hubs could also have lines added to them to your destinations.

[Goobler Profile]

I like it and I think giving the towns names makes it easier to keep track of locations, as well as giving the newbies a sense of community.

[SWfan85 Profile]

I like the idea. I've been working on clearing land to use in sort of that fashion in a area east of Sky 5. An open space with some basic roads and free plots that new players could use a starting place. Nothing on the scale of Sky5, more like a village or simple settlement.

I welcome any input or assistance in getting this space up and running and would gladly work to have a rail line run there.

[Timberwolf1777]

With a little bit of work, an express skytram line could be run to the area u are making swfan, so the directions are clear and easy. I'll talk to my skytram admin about the details.

[cschilly Profile]

The Nether Road would also be a good way to get to these areas for new people looking to build.

[PosterAnonymous Profile]

Not a bad idea, but isn't this the purpose of the apartments Vantes built?

[Timberwolf1777]

Yes... absolutely and I would love for the apartments to work every time but I have had many brief conversations with players who A: dont want to spend their money on an apartment and B: want to start by building something. I was the same way when I started. I had zero interest in buying anything. I had big plans and wanted to get started building immediately. Its understandable. The apartments are great to herd the kids into one spot who just wanna kill creepers and mine "butter" and diamonds. There are new players a bit older however, who may want to start building right away. A place for them to go build away from the claimed land around spawn would be good. This is another reason I would love for stargates to happen. We could have one linked to an unused continent on the map and have it go straight from spawn there. It could be called the New Player Lands or something more creative. It would make directing new players to available land fairly easy.

[DragonofHalo Profile]

I like this idea. Fewer cobble boxes near spawn
I would be more than happy to make a Netherroad out to either Uekitree's settlements, or swfan's, or both!
However, lots of the new kids don't know how to get to the Netherroad, how to find their destination, and frankly, aren't very good at following verbal directions A Skytram line would probably be the best, since that was the first rail line I ever used when I came on the server. (That diamond helix really makes it stand out as an object of interest)

Hopefully a new player settlement like this will encourage kids to build in Survival, rather than Flatland. I'd be happy to help material or tool-wise.

[abigail Profile]

"get in this minecart and dont get out until it stops, watch out for that first step" haha, no.
the last time i successfully got someone new to use the skytram they were following me. i dont mind taking the time out to do that once in a while especially if we're heading to where i live

like timber i looked around and bought nothing but some essentials at twitmart to build a house and a garden for my own food.

but the sound of one stargate sounds really good for the new people to head to alot of free land. i dont know what is the choices for a stargate but we could point people to "that thing" and if the new area becomes a ghost town and uneeded it can be pushed somewhere else. but i kinda dont want to push somewhere else a stargate after we've been waiting so long and would have the plug ins in place and worked on to make this work

[SWfan85 Profile]

With new player settlements, they have a base camp - a safe place - to go to while the learn the ropes of the server and where everything is. Once they move on to better things, their old place can be reverted to an empty plot so another new player can build their own creation.

Just a thought. Take it for what it's worth....which I think is about 3 coins....

[SWChris Profile Website]

How are new players going to find out about this place? Will there be signs at GZ or some kind of transportation there to whatever solution the server settles on?

[abigail Profile]

for something like this i think it would be best to have a thing near-ish spawn or just outside the leoville plots. something that we can point them down one of the three roads and they can click and go crazy go nuts building on the other side.

there is an idea for a rail line to it, but every click a player needs to do to get there (find a station, buy a cart, use a cart, press rail button and wait to next stop, hope theres no lag etc) the less chance they will get there. i know i could do it, im sure we all could, but we're not new-new-new players popping in the server.

i was wondering if we could make an actual stargate looking thing that could be used for a landmark even if only a nether-gate sized openning at the bottom is used to transport. or somthing

[uekitree Profile]

I'd consider working with Robro/DOT.

I would welcome any words of wisdom from our esteemed rail guru. I do know that Rob has a number of projects already though, and don't want to add to the load when I think this plugs into mine so simply.

The existing rail lines to the North/South/East/West Hubs can serve as good starting points that you might consider branching off from. We might also think about doing a better job pointing out that those hubs send players out to more open space.

Check out the map viewtopic.php?f=23&t=506 here. Those hubs could also have lines added to them to your destinations.

Certainly we should encourage players to explore the DoT lines, its a great way to learn the area and see the sights.

The top reason I'm using my 4 Corners Railway is that it goes very very far to nowhere. Right to the edges where there is nothing and lots of nothing on the way. Or as close to nothing as you can find on the server. Rob rather sensibly sent rail lines where people have STUFF.

Using my rail means basically no additional track needs to be laid, and the only real stops along the way will be places new players can get off and build.

[uekitree Profile]

I like the idea. I've been working on clearing land to use in sort of that fashion in a area east of Sky 5. An open space with some basic roads and free plots that new players could use a starting place. Nothing on the scale of Sky5, more like a village or simple settlement.

I welcome any input or assistance in getting this space up and running and would gladly work to have a rail line run there.

That sounds awesome! Does it have a name yet?

I think we can use a number of these sorts of locations. My little settlements are to be very simple no preset plots or roads, very frontier. Yours sounds much nicer and more like a real village or town.

I'm sure you would rather have real DoT rail and/ or skytram connection but I offer anyway, if you would like to be connected to the 4 Corners Rail I will gladly do so.

I cant wait to see it!

[uekitree Profile]

The Nether Road would also be a good way to get to these areas for new people looking to build.

I agree that as settlements become established Nether Roads would be very useful to them, however for the newest to the server I think explaining how to get somewhere by cart without using portals is probably the easiest to understand.

Additional Means of access can be added by the settlers latter.

[uekitree Profile]

How are new players going to find out about this place? Will there be signs at GZ or some kind of transportation there to whatever solution the server settles on?

What I'm going for is that when players ask "Where can I build" we can just say "Take the Leoville station to Desertville and from there follow the signs."

I'll be reworking my station right outside the Desertville station to make it as Clear as possible.

[uekitree Profile]

i was wondering if we could make an actual stargate looking thing that could be used for a landmark even if only a nether-gate sized openning at the bottom is used to transport. or somthing

Personally I have 2 concerns with stargates or portals. 1: They have been talked about for a very long time and we cant count on them happening anytime soon. 2: I don't want to isolate new players. There will be some of that just due to available space but I feel encouraging them to use rails (and later other transport) is a small challenge to some that will help them learn how to be a part of the community.

[HGLCraft Profile]

I think this is an important idea, as a recent newbie, I struggled to work out where to build - and I did not explore the rail, tram or nether networks until established. I did find a spot not far from spawn; however after a fair bit of building I realised that I needed to go further out to get resources, and hence wasted that build.

I ended up setting up a settlement around the Northern DOT hub, I was quite surprised that there was very little around that point, so concentrating newbie settlements around one of the hubs would be a good idea - however there should be some clear instructions / portal to get there easily (at least for the establishment period).

Generally I found there was a lack of guidance when I started - I recently saw the Welcoming centre pop-up - but it is too far from spawn. The new guidance at spawn is better.

I would recommend more guidance at spawn and a portal to a newbie settlement that shifts once the settlement is established.

Cheers
Craig (HGLCraft)

[Timberwolf1777]

If we only have one stargate ..... it should be one for new players. and I love the idea of the "new player builds" side of the gate periodically changing. That will prevent established players from making property "close to spawn" by being on the other side of the portal.