Minecraft Server

This is a work in progress, full documentation will be coming soon

Rules

Last updated: 27th March 2022

If you are in a rush read the bold text.

You will be held to these rules whether you read them or not. "I wasn't warned" is not an excuse, these rules are your warning.

General Rules

  1. Follow the Discord server rules
    • We are a Discord focused community, and all our Discord server rules apply here too.

  2. Respect your fellow players.
    • You should treat others how you expect to be treated yourself. We will not accept continuous toxicity, harassment, hate speech, etc.
    • Remember that this is a multiplayer environment, and not your personal server. The effects of your actions on other players must always be considered.
    • Avoid behaviour that harms other players for your personal gain, such as trying to monopolise a resource or creating artificial shortages to profit from. Taking over entire biomes or causing extensive damage to terrain is also discouraged.
    • If you are having issues with another player that you cannot work out amongst yourselves, let a staff member know. Do not take matters into your own hands.

  3. Any form of cheating, external automation or exploiting of server bugs will not be tolerated.
    • Any evidence of the above will result in an immediate permanent ban. 
    • This includes but is not limited to: Hacked/cheat clients, macros, auto-clickers, gameplay altering external programs, mods which give unfair advantages, x-ray resource packs, seed cracking, duping and knowingly exploiting bugs for personal gain.
    • If you are unsure whether a client or mod is considered cheating, please ask. We also maintain a list of allowed clients and mods.
    • All bugs and potential exploits should be reported to us privately. Posting discovered exploits publicly, or keeping a discovered exploit to yourself, will be treated as if you are actively using them.

  4. No inappropriate usernames, skins, capes, signs, item names, or builds.
    • This is not a family friendly server, but we draw the line at explicit NSFW or hateful content. If it is not allowed on the Discord server, it is not allowed here.
    • If your username or skin runs afoul of this rule, you will be required to change it in order to play.

  5. Griefing and stealing from other players is not allowed.
    • All block changes are logged. We will know it was you and will be able to rollback your damage instantly.
    • We consider "griefing" to be any modification to player property without their permission, or with the intention of annoying or upsetting. This applies to both claimed and unclaimed areas.

  6. AFKing to gain resources is forbidden.
    • AFKing near automated farms to get resources without actively playing is an unnecessary strain on the server and is unfair to other players. This includes AFK fishing.
    • The AFK kick timer exists to prevent this behaviour. Any attempts to bypass this timer will result in a ban.
    • Minor things like waiting for wheat to grow or animals to grow up are of course acceptable but are still subject to the AFK timer.

  7. Redstone machines, Farms and Trading Halls must follow the Redstone, Farm & Trading Hall Rules
    • We reserve the right to remove farms which do not follow these in the best interests of server performance.

  8. Do not attempt to evade punishments.
    • If you have been banned, wait it out and learn from it. Attempting to bypass a ban will make it permanent with no chance of appeal.

  9. Respect server staff and their decisions
    • We are here to maintain an enjoyable experience for all players and uphold the rules at our discretion. We are not here to ruin your fun.
    • If a staff member tells you (not) to do something, listen to them. Arguing will get you nowhere.
    • Staff decisions on matters are final, and moderation happens on a best effort basis. We are human and cannot catch everything, so someone else getting away with something does not mean you can do it consequence free.

Raid farms

Raid farms are not allowed in any form on the RTGame Minecraft server. They will be immediately removed without warning if found.

A "raid farm" is defined by either of the following being true:

  1. A raid is able to be completed without any players actively fighting.
  2. No players are at risk of dying to any mobs that are part of the raid.

This covers all variants of automated raid farms, as well as any farm that funnels raid mobs into an area where they cannot damage other players.

Redstone, Farm & Trading Hall Rules

Any redstone contraption, mob farm or villager trading hall should follow these additional rules where possible. Following these rules will help ensure the server continues to run smoothly for everyone.

  1. Keep things a reasonable size.
    • Farms should be built at the minimum size required for the resources you need.
    • Building excessively sized farms - just because you can - causes an unnecessary extra strain on the server, for resources that will likely go unused.
    • Trading Halls should only include necessary villagers. There is no hard cap but be reasonable. You do not need 8 different villagers selling the same items.
    • Try spacing out large Trading Halls horizontally, as this makes it less likely all chunks containing it are loaded simultaneously. Spacing it out vertically will have no benefit.
    • Villagers should not be allowed to build up infinitely from a breeder. Kill any unneeded villagers in order to keep your villager counts as low as possible.

  2. Have an off switch if possible.
    • Farms that are always running will put more stress on the server whenever a player is nearby, even if they are not being used.
    • Adding an off switch fixes this problem and avoids the farm backing up with excess resources that are not needed.
    • Mob spawners can be disabled by being powered with redstone.

  3. Avoid fully automated mob farms.
    • We expect farms to require some player interaction in order to generate resources.
    • Fully automatic farms encourage AFK timer abuse, and convey an unfair advantage. They also impact server performance as the server constantly attempts to spawn extra mobs to hit the mob cap.
    • Steps will be taken to limit the effectiveness of discovered farms if this rule is ignored.

  4. Destroy excess items rather than letting them back up.
    • Excess items on the ground have a small but noticeable cost, which will add up the more items exist at once.
    • If your farm is generating too many resources and cannot be turned off, consider adding a way for excess items to be destroyed, or reducing the size of your farm. 

  5. Do not attempt to bypass entity or block limits.
    • Mobs are the biggest demand for a server to handle. To prevent mob counts from getting out of hand, limits have been added to prevent too many mobs from spawning close to each other.
    • Some blocks such as Hoppers are also demanding on the server, so we have added limits to their placement to encourage more efficient use.
    • Do not attempt to bypass either of these limits. Instead, consider whether your farm design could be made more efficient, or if a smaller farm would be sufficient for your needs.

  6. Prefer more efficient designs where possible.
    • Some farms can be built in a way which is lighter on the server. Examples include:
    • When transporting items, use water streams rather than chains of hoppers.
    • When collecting items, use a single hopper surrounded by flowing water rather than multiple hoppers.
    • When using observers to detect growth, use one observer per row rather than one for every block.
    • When using pistons, use slime blocks to allow a single piston to push multiple blocks at once, rather than using multiple pistons.
    • Avoid using hopper minecarts if possible, they are much heavier than a regular hopper.

  7. Making farms public is strongly encouraged.
    • We would much rather see players work together to build a large public farm that benefits everyone, rather than everyone making identical private farms.
    • Multiple farms of the same type will split the mob cap amongst multiple players, making all farms less efficient. Server load will likely also be increased from all the duplicate redstone.

  8. Avoid keeping mobs in vehicles.
    • Storing mobs in minecarts and boats is far heavier than keeping them in a 1x1 space.
    • Villagers will turn off their movement AI if they are stuck in a 1x1 space, reducing their load on the server significantly.
    • Villagers will follow players carrying emerald blocks, which can be used instead of boats for transporting them.

  9. Make some attempt to beautify farms.
      • Farms should make some attempt to fit in to the surrounding landscape and be nice to look at.
      • Floating farms or farms with no attempt made to beautify may be removed. Some leeway will be given for farms that are still under construction.

    Enforcement

    Staff reserve the right to remove farms, redstone or trading halls they deem to not follow these rules or are suspected to be affecting server performance. Unless performance issues are ongoing and severe, we will always attempt to contact the owner to request improvements be made first.

    Staff also reserve the right to make alterations to mob spawning, drop rates, and other mechanics in order to enforce these rules and maintain server performance. These changes may occur with or without notice.

    Allowed Clients & Mods

    The following mods, clients and tools are considered acceptable for use on the server. This list may change at any time as updates for them are released. Anything not on this list should be assumed to be not allowed. If you are unsure whether something you would like to use is allowed, please ask a staff member.

    Allowed clients

    Allowed mods

    Resource Pack

    The RTGame Server makes use of resource packs to offer some server features. Installing the pack is completely optional, but recommended for the best experience.

    In particular, the resource pack is required for the following:

    Using the Resource Pack

    The exact method of using the resource pack varies depending on how you are connecting to the server

    Connecting via "Direct Connection"

    If you are connecting to the RTGame Server via the "Direct Connection" button, Minecraft will always ask you if you want to accept the resource pack when you connect to the server. You will see a screen similar to the below, clicking yes here will accept the resource pack, and enable it until you disconnect from the server. 

    image-1602422871403.png

    Note that the game will not remember your decision after you disconnect, and will ask again if you reconnect again later. Due to this, combined with the loading screens for enabling and disabling the pack, you may wish to consider either adding the RTGame Server to the server list, or installing the pack locally.

    Connecting via the Server List

    image-1602423667572.png

    If you have added the RTGame Server to the server list, Minecraft will default to asking you if you want to accept the resource pack when you connect to the server, as with direct connections above. However, your choice will be remembered this time and will update the "Server Resource Packs" setting on the Edit screen of the Server List entry. This screen can be accessed by selecting the server list entry and clicking "Edit".

    image-1602423502825.png

    If Server Resource Packs is set to Enabled, Minecraft will automatically enable the resource pack when you connect to the server, whilst Disabled will cause Minecraft to never enable the pack. The default setting of Prompt will cause Minecraft to ask you whether you want to accept the pack, and will update the setting to Enabled or Disabled depending on your answer.

    Whilst this will skip the game asking you to accept the resource pack, you will still see loading screens when connecting and disconnecting from the server, due to the resource pack being enabled or disabled. To prevent this, you can install the resource pack locally.

    Installing the Resource Pack locally

    If you choose to install the resource pack locally, you will need to manually keep it up to date.
    We will notify you whenever we update the resource pack, allowing you to do this.

    Installing and enabling the resource pack locally will allow Minecraft to enable it as soon as the game starts. This avoids additional loading screens when joining the RTGame Server, whilst retaining all the benefits of enabling the resource pack.

    To install the resource pack locally:

    1. Download a copy of the latest resource pack version
      The RTGame Server Resource Pack can be downloaded from here. Make sure to get the newest pack in the list, as well as the version of the pack appropriate for your version of the game. You do not need to extract the downloaded file.
    2. Go to the Resource Packs screen in your Minecraft client
      This is typically found in Options > Resource Packs...

      image-1602424362954.png

    3. Add the downloaded resource pack to the list
      There are 2 ways of doing this:
      • Dragging and dropping the resource pack onto the game window
      • Clicking "Open Pack Folder" and pasting the resource pack into the folder that appears
    4. Enable the installed resource pack
      The RTGame Server Resource Pack should now appear in the list. Select it and click the arrow that appears on top of it's icon to enable it.

      image-1602424350108.png

      The pack should now appear in the "Selected" column, meaning it is now enabled.

    5. Disable the server list resource pack
      Installing the pack locally does not automatically prevent Minecraft from loading the pack again when you connect to the server. To disable this, if you have the RTGame Server in your server list, edit the entry and set Server Resource Packs to Disabled.

      image-1602424616095.png

    6. All done
      Minecraft will no longer attempt to load the server resource pack every time you join, saving you from an unnecessary loading screen.

    Chat

    The RTGame server chat differs somewhat from the vanilla chat. These pages detail the chat extra features we have included,

    Chat

    Layout

    The below image shows the layout of a typical chat message:

     

    Platform Icon

    In order to see platform icons, the RTGame Server Resource Pack must be installed, 

    This icon shows the platform or client a player is using. Hovering over this icon will show more details.

    image-1602420227684.png

    Prefix

    Players may choose to have a prefix in front of their name as a form of customisation or expression. Staff will also have prefixes to distinguish them from regular players.

    Username

    The players Mojang username. Clicking a username will start a whisper to them.

    Message

    The words a player decided you must see. We cannot guarantee they are worth reading.

    Emote

    In order to see emotes, the RTGame Server Resource Pack must be installed, 

    The RTGame server has a selection of emotes which can be used in the chat. These function much like discord emotes, using :emote: syntax. Emotes can be interacted with in a few ways:

    We do not verify or endorse the contents of any link sent in the RTGame server chat. Be careful with clicking random links. 

    Players can send links in the chat. Links will always appear blue and underlined. Clicking links will open them in your web browser.

    Chat

    Emotes

    In order to see emotes, the RTGame Server Resource Pack must be installed, 

    Like many other chat services, the RTGame Server offers emotes for use in the chat, you will find RTGame Twitch Emotes, including Bit, Tier and retired emotes as well as other useful Minecraft emotes.

    Commands

    /emotes This will show the following in chat

    image-1612735190897.png

    Hovering over these will show information for the desired emote.

    image-1612735939692.png

    The grey italics shows the variations of the emote name available, which you can use in chat while surrounded by colons. For example :rtgameheart:

    Clicking to copy to clipboard will copy the character. This allows you to paste this into signs and nametags.

    For the emote to show clearly on signs, we recommend using the text colour white &f or white dye.

    image-1612735787090.png

    Signs with the &f colour code (left), and white dye (right)

    1.20 Survival Server

    1.20 Survival Server

    Land Claims

    Land claims allow you to protect an area of land. No one will be able to, kill friendly animals, destroy blocks, open storage blocks, or use redstone components. You can add friends with varying degrees of trust to your claim. 

    Getting started

    When you spawn into the world for the first time. You will get a book called "How to claim land"

    image-1613227419576.png

    This book will give you some commands and a link to a video explaining the plugin. 

    Players will start out with 200 claim blocks and will gradually gain more while they play, up to a maximum of 40,000. An additional 40,000 blocks can also be purchased at a rate of 50 blocks for 1 diamond.

    Making a Claim

    You will need a wooden shovel to create a claim. You first right click on one corner of where you want the claim to be. The block you click on will appear to be a diamond block. This can be helpful to see where you are claiming. If you click the wrong spot, just switch to a different item in your inventory. 

    Sometimes the diamond block will not appear or will disappear very quickly. This is a visual glitch. 

    image-1613228030381.png

    You then right click the opposite corner of the area you want to claim. You can only claim rectangular pieces of land. When a claim is made, it will be highlighted by a mix of gold and glowstone blocks. 

    You can view the border of your claim anytime by clicking inside the claim with a stick. 

    image-1613228068037.png

    You can expand a claim by clicking on a corner with the wooden shovel and clicking again where you want the new end of the claim to be. 

    To delete a claim, use /abandonclaim

    Trusting players

    There are multiple levels of trust you can give to a player.

    You can use /trust public if you wish to allow everyone to use an area - for example a public farm. This is recommended to prevent other players from claiming the area and preventing use.

    You can also give a player trust to all of your claims by standing outside of a claim. 

    Types of trust

    /permissiontrust <player> Users with this can also manage permissions. They also can edit all parts of the claim. They will be able to add anyone to any level of trust. Including permission trust. 

    /trust <player> Allows people to open containers, and edit blocks

    /containertrust <player> Allows players to open and take items from chests, furnaces, hoppers, etc. They will not be able to break blocks in a claim. People with container trust will also be able to breed/kill animals, use redstone components, and harvest and plant crops. 

    /accesstrust <player> Allows players to use buttons, levers, and beds in the claim. 

    /untrust <player> You can remove all levels of trust from a player that has been trusted. 

    Subdivisions

    You are able to divide a claim up into smaller claims that you can assign different levels of trust too. This is useful for letting people open chests in one area of a claim, and not others. 

    To get started on making a subdivided claim, type /subdivideclaims while holding a wooden shovel. Then repeat the claiming process inside the claim. When the sub divided claim is made, the border will be shown with white wool and iron blocks. subdivided-claim.png

    You are also able to resize a subdivided claim by clicking a corner and choosing a new corner.  You can add people to the subdivisions with any of the permission trusts, and make certain parts of a claim accessible to the public. 

    If someone has trust outside of the subdivision, they will be able to edit stuff in the subdivision related to the type of trust they have. 

    Pets

    Pets, when tamed, are protected and can not be edited, damaged, rode, or changed from sitting or standing by any other player besides the owner. You can own Horses, Cats, and Wolves. 

    Cats.png

    Other players will be able to damage a pet in the end dimension. 

    The /givepet command allows a player to give ownership of the pet to another player. 

    Other Commands

    /claimlist Gives you the amount of claim blocks you have left and the size and location of every claim you currently have. 

    /trustlist Gives you a list of the levels and trust of every player you have trusted. 

    /abandonallclaims Will delete every claim you have in the world.

    /extendclaim <number> Extends the claim in the direction you are facing by the specified number of blocks.

    Video guide

    Our claim tool is a Wooden Shovel, unlike that shown in the video




    1.20 Survival Server

    Server settings

    This page will never be an exhaustive list of differences from vanilla.
    Purpur and the projects it is based on make many fundamental changes to the game which can impact how things behave.

    This page lists miscellaneous settings used on the server which differ from their default values. It is not exhaustive but should cover the big things.

    View Distance

    The simulation distance for the server is 5 chunks. The view distance is set to 10 chunks, within which chunks will be visible without ticking.

    Difficulty

    The base difficulty of the server is hard. Some of the changes below reduce or remove some of the vanilla changes this would normally cause.

    Mobs

    Spawn Range

    The mob spawn range is 4 chunks.

    Spawn Limits

    Spawn limits apply per player. The below numbers are the mob counts the server aims to reach for each player. These settings also vary by mob type and world. All worlds use Default unless noted otherwise.

    Type Default Arena
    Monsters 21
    		 120
    Animals 12 0
    Water Animals 5 0
    Underground Water Animals
    		 3
    		 0
    Water Ambient 5 0
    Axolotls 3 0
    Ambient 1 0

    Activation Range

    Mobs will tick less often when beyond a certain distance from any player. These settings also vary by mob type and world. All worlds use Default unless noted otherwise.

    Type Default The Nether
    Animals 24 blocks 32 blocks
    Monsters 32 blocks 32 blocks
    Raiders 48 blocks 32 blocks
    Misc. 16 blocks
    		 Unlimited
    Water 16 blocks 32 blocks
    Villagers 24 blocks 32 blocks
    Flying Monsters 48 blocks 64 blocks

    Tracking Range

    Mobs beyond a certain distance will not be sent to players, and will therefore be invisible. These settings also vary by mob type and world. All worlds use Default unless noted otherwise.

    Type Default The Nether Arena
    Players 96 blocks 48 blocks 64 blocks
    Animals 64 blocks 48 blocks 24 blocks
    Monsters 64 blocks 64 blocks 48 blocks
    Other 48 blocks 32 blocks 32 blocks

    Despawn Range

    All mob types in all worlds have a soft despawn range of 32 blocks and a hard despawn range of 64 blocks.

    The Wither

    Shulkers

    Endermen

    Villagers

    Spawn Variations

    Other Settings

    Spawners

    Blocks

    Signs

    Colour codes can be used on signs, just replace "§" with "&".

    Bee Nest / Beehive

    Other Settings

    Items

    Effects

    The duration of some effects inflicted by mobs have been reduced to their normal difficulty values:

    Loot

    XP

    The amount of XP dropped upon death has been increased from default values. The exact XP drop amount is xp level * xp level + (6 * xp level), limited to a max of 5500.

    Mending

    Armor Stands

    Armor Stands do not tick. This eliminates their server performance impact but also prevents them being affected by gravity.

    Item frames

    Item frames do not tick. This eliminates their server performance impact. This means that item frames can float indefinitely if the block behind them is broken.

    Note that the impact on client performance remains unchanged, so use responsibly.

    Invisible item frames

    8 item frames + 1 lingering potion of invisibility (either type)

    Invis item frame.png

    The resulting item frames will be invisible once an item is placed within them. Please use responsibly.

    Glow invisible item frames

    Existing Invisible item frame + Glow ink sac.

    image-1636895958900.png

    The resulting item will both be invisible and glow.

    Item despawning

    Most items exist in the world for 24 hours in a loaded chunk, before despawning.

    We have a junk list of items which despawn after 15 minutes:

    In addition Rotten Flesh will despawn after 5 minutes, so you should use this if you have a redstone contraption that depends on vanilla despawn times.

    PvP

    PvP can be toggled by players with a plugin. See the PvP documentation for more details.

    VanillaTweaks

    The following VanillaTweaks datapacks are enabled on the server:


    1.20 Survival Server

    Villagers

    Villagers on the Survival Server do not work quite the same as they do in the vanilla game. We have made some changes to some villager related behaviours and mechanics in the interest of improving server performance, as well as reigning in the often unbalanced advantages villagers provide to players.

    Changes

    As a reminder, please ensure any farms or trading halls follow the Redstone, Farm & Trading Hall Rules.


    1.20 Survival Server

    The Nether

    The Nether Hub

    The Nether Hub is a prebuilt structure located at the Nether equivalent of the overworld spawn point. It features a portal to the overworld, 4 interconnected ice highways for fast transport to other areas of the Nether, and space in the corners for player-created communal areas.

    image-1650636290621.png

    Ice Highways

    There are four Ice Highways which interconnect at the centre of the Nether Hub. Each highway has a colour - Yellow, Blue, Green and Purple, for directions North, East, South and West respectively. Players can expand the highways to provide quick and efficient transportation through The Nether.

    Directories

    Only Staff and Trusted players can add locations to the directories

     

    Nether DirectoriesThe Directories are located at the Nether Hub on both sides of each Ice Highway, just before they merge together. Each directory contains a list of noteworthy locations which can be found along an Ice Highway, on the side the directory is located on.

    Each listed location will include a sign with a navigational block behind it. This block will be unique to the location, and matching blocks will be located at regular intervals alongside the Ice Highway. Following these blocks will lead you to the location listed on the directory.

    It is the responsibility of players to maintain the Ice Highways and navigational blocks outside of the Nether Hub. Whilst the directories themselves cannot be edited by all players, certain trusted players will have the ability to edit them. If you would like a location to be added, you may ask a trusted player or request an addition in a modreq. Please note that the location will need to meet the below requirements, and that a navigational block will need to be decided upon and sourced in large enough quantities to cover the required Ice Highway distance.

    Only Towns, Settlements, Farms, and Points of Interest (POI) are allowed on the directory. This is to avoid clogging up the directories with small player bases or other locations that are likely only of interest to a single player. Locations which are deemed inaccessible, or don't have a functioning portal / navigational blocks, may be removed from the directory to avoid misleading players.

    World Size

    The Nether currently has no world border and can be explored infinitely. A world border may be applied in the future if this is deemed impractical to continue. Any portals that would lead outside of the Overworld world border will be redirected to the vicinity of the border.

    Claims

    Claims are not available in The Nether. If you have built a structure of importance that you would like protected, please ask in a ModReq.

    The Nether Roof

    Access to the Nether Roof is allowed for easier travel by any of the usual means. If you would like some bedrock to be removed for easier access, please ask in a ModReq and we will remove it for you. 

    Please note that mob spawns are disabled on the Nether Roof.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Amplified

    Amplified is an additional world accessible in the Survival Server with amplified generation. This world features the same settings as the Overworld, with an infinite border. This world does not have a dynmap.

    This is a commonly used world for resource gathering of non-renewable materials or large scale projects. Or for those seeking an adventurous view from their home.

    Amplified portals

    These portals work the same as vanilla Nether portals, but are built out of basalt instead of obsidian.

    Amplified portals can be used in both the Overworld and The Nether to take players to Amplified, and in Amplified itself to return players to the Overworld. Nether portals can be used in Amplified to reach The Nether. Coordinate scaling between Amplified and The Nether is the same as the Overworld (1:8). This also means that coordinates for the Overworld and Amplified are 1:1.

    Amplified diagram.png
    Demonstration of Obsidian portals (left) and Basalt portals (right)

    Additionally, a portal to Amplified can be found at spawn.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Mall

    The Mall is an area near spawn dedicated to player shops. It can be accessed by travelling to the Overworld spawn and then following the stairs down.

    image-1650637555182.pngMall area

    Layout and Facilities

    The shops are arranged in a grid with paths between them for access. A communal area is located at the entrance to the mall in front of the stairs. This area can be populated with blocks players commonly need and can also be used to access shulker boxes.

    The land immediately outside the mall is also publicly editable, except for the side facing spawn. It is not recommended you build a base here however, as if the mall requires expansion in the future anything built beside it will need to be relocated.

    image-1650637275555.pngPublic building area

    Shops

    If you are using Bedrock Edition, please follow Method 2 in any instructions below. This works around a known chat limitation which prevents chat links being clickable.

    In total, there are 50 shops, arranged in groups of 2 with a dividing wall between them. Each shop has a size of 17 x 19 x 7 blocks. with 8 blocks below and 10 blocks above the surface being editable. If you or a friend own 2 neighbouring shops, the dividing wall can be removed to create a larger 17 x 19 x 14 shop space.

    Shop signs

    Each shop has a sign showing the status of the shop.

    Rented shops will show the current owner and rent expiry date. Available shops will show the price and instructions for renting the shop.

    image-1601046525570.png

    Available shop

    image-1601046485860.png

    Rented shop

    Renting a Shop

    There are no refunds for renting a shop, please be certain before you confirm your rental.
    If your shop rent expires, any items contained within will be permanently lost.

    Renting a shop space costs 1 diamond per week. This cost is necessary to promote a healthy shop selection and ensure new players have space to create their own shops, by removing shops created by inactive players.

    At this time, there is a limit of 2 shops per player.

    There are 2 ways to rent a shop:

    Method 1
    1. Ensure you are carrying a diamond.
    2. Find an available shop you would like to rent
    3. Right click the shop's sign.
    4. A message will appear in the chat asking you to confirm your rental. Click on [Confirm rental].
    5. Your diamond will be taken and the shop's sign will update to show you as the owner.
    6. You may now choose to extend your rent, as described below.
    Method 2

    Renting a shop using this method will not ask you for confirmation. Please be careful.

    1. Ensure you are carrying a diamond.
    2. Find an available shop you would like to rent
    3. Stand inside the shop area.
    4. Type /as rent in chat.
    5. Your diamond will be taken and the shop's sign will update to show you as the owner.
    6. You may now choose to extend your rent, as described below.

    Once you have rented a shop, you will be notified in the chat when you have 7 days, 3 days and 24 hours rent remaining. We strongly suggest you keep up with your rent to avoid losing anything of value.

    Extending a Shop's rent

    A shop's rent may be extended up to 4 weeks (28 days) in advance.

    Extending incomplete weeks will still charge the full price.

    Once you have rented a shop, you can extend your rent by additional weeks in advance, in 2 ways:

    Method 1
    1. Ensure you are carrying sufficient diamonds for your extension.
    2. Right click your shop's sign.
    3. A message will appear in the chat asking you to confirm your extension. Click on [Confirm extension].
    4. Another diamond will be taken and the shop's sign will update to show the new expiry date.
    5. Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary.
    Method 2

    Extending rent using this method will not ask you for confirmation. Please be careful.

    1. Ensure you are carrying sufficient diamonds for your extension.
    2. Stand inside your shop.
    3. Type /as rent in chat.
    4. Another diamond will be taken and the shop's sign will update to show the new expiry date.
    5. Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary.

    You can extend a shop rent by going to the sign, and right clicking the sign while you have diamonds in your inventory.
    This will ask you to confirm in chat. You must open chat and click on [Confirm extension] with your mouse.

    Un-renting a Shop

    Un-renting a shop will remove everything contained within the shop. All items will be permanently lost.

    You can choose to un-rent a shop you no longer need. There are 2 ways to do this::

    Method 1
    1. Crouch and right click your shop's sign.
    2. A message will appear in the chat asking you to confirm. Observe the warning, then click on [Stop renting].
    3. The shop will be un-rented, and restored to it's initial state.
    Method 2

    Un-renting using this method will not ask you for confirmation. Please be careful.

    1. Stand inside your shop.
    2. Type /as unrent in chat.
    3. The shop will be un-rented, and restored to it's initial state.

    Adding Friends to a Shop

    Please be responsible when adding players as friends.
    Any player added as a friend will be capable of extensively griefing your shop.

    Friends cannot access your Shopkeeper chests.

    You may add other trusted players as "friends" in your shop. This allows them to edit the shop just like you can. Friends will also be able to create their own Shopkeepers.

    To add a player to your shop:

    1. Stand inside your shop.
    2. Type /as addfriend <username> in chat, replacing <username> with the name of the player.
    3. The player has now been added.

    Adding Shopkeepers to a Shop

    Please see this page for a guide on using shopkeepers.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Arena

    The Arena contains dedicated areas for fighting mobs and The Wither. It is located in its own world to allow for more tailored server settings, and to minimise its performance impact when not being actively used.

    The Arena can be reached via a portal located at the Overworld spawn.

    Overview

    Several server settings are adjusted in the Arena world to provide more of a challenge and to offer additional gameplay options. The mob cap is set 10x higher than in other worlds, so sizeable mob hordes are possible. Charged Creepers and Illusioners also have a (higher) chance of naturally spawning. Mobs capable of picking up dropped items have a 100% chance of doing so if they encounter any. The weather is always stormy in the Arena world, allowing free use of riptide and channeling tridents.

    Dying in the Arena world drops 90% of your XP so there is less of a penalty. Dropped Elytra, Tridents, Bows, Crossbows, Netherite/Gold/Diamond/Iron tools/armour are immune to fire or explosions in the arena world, making them less likely to be lost after death.

    When arriving at the Arena world, you can travel to the left to find the Wither Arena, and to the right to find the Mob Arena, Farm and the Respawn Room.

    Mob Arena

    Arena 1.png

    The Mob Arena is a dedicated area for fighting hostile mobs. The arena building itself cannot be edited or destroyed by mobs or players. 

    The main entrance to the Mob Arena is the large door at the front-centre, but other entrances and exists also exist. There is also a viewing gallery to the right of the main entrance, where other players can watch the action safely. It is best not to hesitate when entering the Mob Arena, as mobs will happily use the door you have opened to leave.

    Respawn Room

    To the left of the Mob Arena entrance is the respawn room. It serves as a (relatively) safe area for players to respawn and resupply before fighting in the Mob Arena. The room contains chest for storing and sorting gained look, a cow to provide milk for removing status effects and a lost and found area to place encountered items dropped by other players for later recovery.

    Wither Arena

    The Wither Arena is a dedicated area for fighting The Wither, and is the only place where The Wither can drop a nether star. It features a large open area offering plenty of space for fighting. The Wither Arena is partially destructible and will be damaged by Wither Projectiles and other explosions. The outer walls of the arena building are not destructible, so Withers should not be able to escape entirely.

    At the rear of the Wither Arena is the rest room which can be used as a relatively safe spot to heal and reorganise during the fight. This room is not destructible. Indestructible Ladders are present below the entrance of the Wither Arena and the rest room, so escape should always be possible regardless of the level of terrain destruction.

    Blocks in the Wither Arena can be mined by players, but they will not drop anything. Blocks blown up by the Wither will also drop nothing. The only blocks that can be placed in the Wither Arena are Soul Sand and Wither Skeleton Skulls, all other block placements are denied. Whilst some spawning platforms exist in the arena, the Wither may be spawned anywhere.

    Dying in the Wither Arena will immediately respawn you just outside the building, allowing you to rejoin the fight quickly. Withers within the arena will not target and cannot be damaged by players who are outside of the arena building; but can still damage them.

    Reset Button

    The rest room also contains the Wither Arena Reset Button (TM), which will reset the arena shortly after being pressed. Pressing the button will start a 5 second countdown before the arena gets reset; pressing the button again during this time will cancel the reset. Once the 5 seconds have passed all players, dropped items and tamed mobs will be teleported out of the arena. All remaining mobs will be killed and the arena will then be reset to its initial state, repairing any damage.

    The reset button has a 30 second cooldown after each successful use.

    Farm

    A small farm is located in front of the Mob Arena, which can be used as a food source for replenishing health. As with all public farms, please ensure to replant after use.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Towns, Settlements and POIs

    Towns

    A player created settlement which has reached a certain size can apply for Town status. Towns get extra perks including a marker on the Dynmap which is visible by default, a listing on the RTGame Wiki Minecraft Server page and an in-game Sightseeing Advancement for players who visit.

    To be classed as a town you must reach these requirements:

    To apply for town status, please ensure you meet the above requirements, then use the "Contact Staff" button within #minecraft-info with the link to the Wiki page and that you want to apply for town status. Please allow some time for your town to be checked.

    Settlements

    Settlements are smaller locations which have not reached a sufficient size to be considered a Town. The requirements for a settlement are considered on a case-by-case basis, but typically two or more active players and a Nether connection are sufficient.

    Like towns, settlements can have a directory block on the Nether Hub directory. Settlements will also appear on the Dynmap in a separate layer which is hidden by default.

    Points of Interest (POI)

    Points of interest are locations that might be of interest to multiple players.

    Some examples of this may include:

    POIs are considered on a case-by-case basis, but generally require:

    POI may also eligible for a Sightseeing Advancement for players who visit, on a case-by-case basis. To ask about this, please use "Contact Staff" button within #minecraft-info with the link to the Wiki page.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Dynmap

    Dynmap is an interactive map of the server accessible via a web browser with abilities to view different worlds, a flat and 3D view, following players on the server and more.

    For Survival server maps, these are not fully rendered in advance, rather they are only rendered as players explore and/or build in game.

    The Survival Server Dynmap can be found here.

    Showing on Dynmap

    You are shown on Dynmap when you are above ground and/or near enough light source.

    This means if you are in a unlit place, or underground, you may be hidden automatically.

    You may also choose to make yourself hidden permanently on the map - or shown when possible with the following commands in-game:

    /dynmap hide
    /dynmap show

    Adding markers

    Only Staff and Trusted players can place Dynmap markers

    Go to the destination you wish to have the marker - and place a sign with the following syntax

    [dynmap]
<Name>
set:<set>
icon:<icon>

    Set and icon must be on their own lines. They are case sensitive and should not have extra spaces. Icons should be kept the same for each layer type.

    Settlements

    set:settlements

    icon:house
    Farms

    set:farms

    icon:factory
    Points of Interest (POI)

    set:poi

    icon:star
    Towns

    set:towns

    icon:bighouse

    The Towns set should not be used unless the previous town sign was removed / wishes to be relocated. Towns must still apply for Town status

    image-1612983135038.pngExample of a correct sign


    1.20 Survival Server

    Shopkeepers

    The Shopkeepers plugin allows you to create chest-based shops with an NPC shopkeeper. The shopkeeper can then be configured to offer trades to other players, even while you are offline.

    Creating a Shopkeeper

    To create a shopkeeper, look at a chest you recently placed and use the command /shopkeeper. This will spawn your shopkeeper - a villager - on the side of the chest you were looking at. This can also be on top of the chest.

    Mobs other than villagers can also be used as shopkeepers. Providing a mob type in the shopkeeper command (/shopkeeper <type>) will create a shopkeeper of that type. Not all mob types are available, but many of them are.

    Regardless of the mob type, shopkeepers exist only to offer your trades. They have no AI and will not move from the spot they were created at.

    Creating Trades

    shopkeepers_1.png

    To create trades you firstly need to place the items you want to sell in the shopkeeper's chest. For example, if you're selling wood you need to put at least 1 wood in the chest to be able to create the trade.

    Next you need to sneak + right click on your shopkeeper. This will open the Shopkeeper Editor which is used to setup your trades.

    The first row, shown in red, shows all the unique items contained in the chest, which you can offer trades for.

    The third row, shown in green, is the primary cost for the trade, which is the first item a buyer will need to complete the trade. The second row, shown in blue, is an optional secondary cost. This is the second item a buyer will need to complete the trade.

    Once an item has been placed in any of the above rows, its quantity can be increased by 1 with left clicking, and decreased by 1 with right-clicking. Shift + clicking will increase / decrease the amount by 10 at a time.

    The books to the left and right, shown in pink, can be clicked as needed to switch between pages, to sell more than nine items.

    Only items with costs will be offered as trades. Decreasing an item's cost to 0 will hide it from trading players.

    Customising Shopkeepers

    The appearance of the shopkeeper can be customised with the buttons at the bottom of the Shopkeeper Editor, shown in red below. These buttons will vary based on the mob type of the shopkeeper, Villagers will have buttons to set their profession and level and age, while other mobs may have buttons for age and appearance, or nothing at all.

    Shopkeepers can be named by using a nametag. Their name will be displayed above them at all times, in green.

    Shopkeepers can also be moved by clicking the ender pearl icon and right-clicking the desired new location. Note that this only moves the shopkeeper mob, not the chest they are linked to. In addition, shopkeepers may only be moved up to 2 blocks away from their chest.

    shopkeepers_2.png

    Deleting Shopkeepers

    To delete a shopkeeper, click on the bone in the bottom right corner of the Shopkeeper Editor.

    This will remove the shopkeeper and leave the chest unprotected, with its contents intact. Any created trades will be lost.

    Trading with Shopkeepers

    To trade with a shopkeeper, right click them to open their trade UI, which will show the owner's trades. Trading with the shopkeeper works the same as trading with a villager; select a trade from the list on the left, provide the required items, and retrieve the resulting item from the right.

    You cannot trade with your own shopkeepers.

    image-1592664509181.png

    Miscellaneous notes

    You will be notified when players trade with one of your shops, if you are online at the time. This can be disabled by clicking the bell icon in the shopkeeper editor. You will not be notified if a shop runs out of stock, or if the shop's chest is full, so be sure to check your shops regularly.

    It is advised to leave an empty slot within the chest, so trades can still successfully happen. If a chest if 100% full, all trade attempts will fail.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Stat Parts

    Stat Parts are special items that can be applied to tools, weapons, and Armor, allowing them to track statistics while equipped.

    StatPart_MobHits.png

    Obtaining

    Stat parts may be found as loot in End Chests, located within structures in The End. Some parts are more common than others. Players may also choose to sell parts in the mall or elsewhere.

    Applying

    Up to 5 stat parts may be applied to a single item

    Stat parts are applied to items in a similar way to enchantments, by combining the part and the desired item in an anvil. The resulting item will have the stat part applied to it, and is ready to track stats. 

    StatPart_ApplyingStat.png

    Stat Tracking

    Items with stat parts applied will track their stats while they are actively equipped in your main hand, offhand or Armor slots. Merely keeping them in your inventory will not be sufficient.

    The one current exception to this is the "Deaths While Carrying" part, which will be tracked on items in your inventory, even if they are not equipped.

    Resetting & Removing

    Stat parts applied to an item can have their counts reset - or can be removed entirely - using the Grindstone. To do this, place the item you would like to modify in one of the Grindstone slots, then place either white dye (for resetting the count) or black dye (for removing the part) in the second slot.

    The amount of dye in the slot will target the stat part to act on, for example 3 white dye will reset the 3rd stat part on the item, while 2 black dye will remove the 2nd stat part. Attempting to remove a part that doesn't exist will do nothing.


    image-1614038721770.pngExample item

    image-1614038881067.pngRemoving the 2nd part (Damage Dealt) with 2 black dye

    image-1614038936005.pngResetting the 3rd stat part's count with 3 white dye

    List of available Stat Parts

    Name Applies to What is tracked
    Blocks Broken PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesShearsHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Blocks broken by the player.
    Blocks Placed HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Blocks placed by the player.
    Damage Dealt PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Damage dealt by the player over all successful attacks.
    Damage Blocked ShieldHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Damage blocked by a shield.
    Damage Taken HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Damage taken by the player over all successful incoming attacks.
    Items Caught Fishing RodHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Items caught with a fishing rod while fishing.
    Mob Hits PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Successful attacks on mobs by the player.
    Mobs Killed PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Mobs that the player has killed.
    Night-Time-Kills PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Mobs and players that the player has killed at night.
    Ores Mined PickaxesHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Ores mined by the player.
    Player Hits PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Successful PvP attacks by the player.
    Players Killed PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet PvP kills by the player.
    Sheep Sheared ShearsHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Sheep the player has sheared.
    Underwater Kills PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Mobs and players that the player has killed while in/under water.
    Time Equipped HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Time the item has been equipped by the player.
    Deaths While Carrying HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Deaths while the player was carrying the item.
    Food Items Eaten HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Food items eaten by the player. This only includes items which increase the food bar.
    Time Spent in The Nether HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Time the player has spent in The Nether.
    Time Spent in The End HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Time the player has spent in The End.
    Time Spent in The Overworld HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Time the player has spent in The Overworld.
    Time Spent in Amplified HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Time the player has spent in the Amplified world.
    Time Spent in The Mall HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Time the player has spent in The Mall.
    Time Spent in The Arena HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet

    Time the player has spent in The Arena.
    Experience Collected HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet

    Experience points the player has collected
    Arrows Fired BowCrossbow

    Arrows the player has fired.
    Arena Kills PickaxesAxesShovelsHoesSwordsBowCrossbowTridentFishing RodShearsCarrot on a StickHelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet

    Mobs the player has killed in The Arena.
    Villager Trades
    		 HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet

    Successful trades with a villager
    Portals Used
    		 HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet Uses of portals leading to another dimension
    Deaths Cheated HelmetsChestplatesLeggingsBootsElytraTurtle helmet

    Deaths avoided due to the use of a Totem of Undying

    1.20 Survival Server

    Lore Tokens

    Lore tokens allow you to add custom text ("lore") to an item, which will appear in purple in the item's tooltip.

    headrock.png

    Obtaining

    Lore tokens may be found as loot in End Chests, located within structures in The End, and rarely from fishing. Players may also choose to sell tokens in the mall or elsewhere.

    Applying

    A lore token must have some lore added to it, before it can be applied to an item. Adding lore is a similar process to writing a book, use the token to open the book and replace the placeholder text with the desired lore. Note that lore is limited to 100 characters, and all line breaks, extra pages, and characters beyond the limit are ignored.

    Once you are done, close the book. Signing the book is not required.

    Sky-lounge.png 

    Once a lore token has lore it can be applied to an item using an anvil, in a similar manner to an enchanted book.

    Anvil-lore.png

    1.20 Survival Server

    Micro Blocks

    Micro blocks are small versions (1/8th the size) of normal Minecraft blocks. Most obtainable blocks in the game have an equivalent micro block. Some blocks with multiple states, such as redstone lamps, will have different micro blocks available for each state.

    Micro blocks exist purely for decoration and are non-functional.

    example-of-microblock.png

    Obtaining

    Micro-blocks.png

    Micro blocks are available via trades offered by the wandering trader. They will have a random selection of 5-20 micro blocks at any one time. The trades will always offer 8 micro blocks for 1 emerald + a normal block. The wandering trader only keeps enough stock for a single trade of each block type.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Block Wrench

    In order to see the wrench texture, the RTGame Server Resource Pack must be installed, The wrench will still function without the Resource Pack.

    The block wrench allows rotation of certain blocks without having to mine and replace them. This can be convenient for modifying redstone circuitry or incorrectly rotated terracotta.

    Rotatable blocks

    The block wrench can be used to rotate the following blocks:

    Obtaining

    The Block Wrench can be crafted using 3 gold ingots and 1 iron ingot at a Crafting Table.

    image-1612295681214.pngRecipe for the block wrench

    Using

    Once a Block Wrench has been obtained, it can be used to rotate blocks by right clicking them. The target block will cycle through all possible rotations one at a time. Block states such as repeater delay and any items contained within the block will be preserved. 

    The Block Wrench can also be used from the offhand if the main hand is empty, but will require sneak right-clicking for some blocks.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Big Doors

    This feature will not function correctly when using Bedrock Edition.
    Opening and closing animations may not display correctly, or at all.

    The Big Doors plugin allows players to create large, animated doors without the use of pistons. 

    Getting started

    There are some limitations on door-size and -amount: You can make up to 10 doors. Those doors can contain up to 100 blocks each. If those doors are sliding (portcullises and sliding doors) they can move up to 32 blocks. 

    To get started, type out the command /bdm or /BigDoors menu. You will be greeted by a menu. This menu will allow you to create your own doors, and will show your existing doors. 

    image-1601151019458.png

    There are 4 types of doors: Drawbridges, Doors, Portcullises and Sliding Doors. Click on the Book and Quill with the door you want to make to start the process of creating it. You will be guided along the way in chat, but to sum it up:

    1. Give the door a name with /namedoor <name>
    2. You will get a stick in your inventory. Use this stick to select the far end corners of the door you want to create.
    3. If you are creating a drawbridge or door, you will have to specify the column of blocks around which the door should swing.  Do this by clicking on any block in the column of blocks you want the door to rotate around. 

    You will need at least one free space in your inventory to create a door, otherwise you will not receive the stick you need to specify your door-dimensions.

    The Power Block

    The power block allows a door to be opened/closed via redstone input. This block has to be a gold block. Powering this block with redstone will then toggle the door it is associated with.

    To create a power block for your door, open the menu /bdm and click on your door. Then click on the leather boots named relocate power block. You will get a relocater stick in your inventory. Hit the block you want to use with this stick to create the power block. 

    A door can have a power block that is up to 64 blocks away from the door.

    The Door Sub-Menu

    If you click on an existing door in the menu, you will open up the sub-menu for said door. This menu will present some options to costumize your door.

    image-1601152269780.png

    Misc Commands

    Command

    Description
    /BigDoors menu Open the BigDoors menu
    /Bigdoors addowner <door> <playername> Add an owner to the specified door, allowing them to edit and use it
    /BigDoors removeowner <door> <playername> Remove an owner from the specified door, disallowing them to edit or use it
    /BDCancel Cancel the operation you were doing
    /listdoors List your doors
    /ToggleDoor <door> Opens/closes the specified door


    1.20 Survival Server

    Cameras

    Cameras allow you to take photos of the world, which can be displayed and manipulated just like regular maps.

    Obtaining

    Cameras can be crafted using 6 Iron Blocks, 1 Redstone Block, 1 Glass Pane and 1 Glowstone Dust on a Crafting Table.

    image-1617116782627.pngRecipe for the Camera

    Using

    Entities (including players) will not appear in photos

    Once a Camera has been obtained, it can be used to take photos by right clicking while holding it. Taking a photo requires paper in your inventory, as well as a free slot to place the photo in. Once you have taken a photo it will appear in your inventory and will behave like a regular map.

    The colour depth and field of view of photos are naturally limited by the size of Minecraft maps, so experimentation is recommended for optimal results. 

    image-1617117119131.pngAn example photo

    1.20 Survival Server

    Art Map

    Art map allows you to paint directly onto maps to create map art without placing blocks.

    Preparation

    In order to paint you will need to create an easel, canvas and paintbrush, which can all be crafted with the below recipes.

    Easel Canvas Paintbrush

    image-1617221542611.png

    image-1617221553143.png

    image-1617221573705.png

    Once these have been crafted you can follow these steps to start painting:

    1. Place the easel in the world by right-clicking while holding it.
    2. Place the canvas on the easel by right-clicking on the easel while holding it.
    3. Right-click on the easel again to "sit" at it and begin painting.
    4. Paint (see Painting below).
    5. When you are done, right-click on the easel with the paintbrush to save your work.
    6. Press your unmount key (default shift) to stand up again.

    Painting

    Painting on the canvas requires the use of additional items that serve as "dyes". Each dye produces a different colour, Clicking on the canvas with a dye in your hand will paint in that dye's respective colour. Right-clicking and dragging allows lines to be drawn.

    A complete list of dyes and the colours they create can be found below.

    ArtMap.png

    Other tools

    Saving

    To save your painting, right-click it using the paintbrush while sitting at the easel. You will be prompted to enter a name and will then be given the completed painting as a map in your inventory. This map can later be placed back onto the easel for further editing.

    Saved paintings can be duplicated like regular maps for sharing or selling.

    1.20 Survival Server

    Proximity Voice Chat

    The RTGame Survival Server supports PlasmoVoice proximity voice chat, allowing you to speak to other nearby players. Player chat will fade based on distance and will be positioned The PlasmoVoice mod is required to speak or hear other players.

    Installation

    Make sure to download the correct mod version. Only version 2.0.6 for 1.20 - 1.20.1 is currently supported.

    PlasmoVoice can be downloaded from Modrinth and is available for forge and fabric. Once downloaded, install in the usual way for your chosen mod loader.

    Usage

    Once the mod is installed correctly, upon joining the server you should see a new microphone icon above your hotbar. Pressing v should also display a settings menu for the mod, allowing selection of input and output devices, adjustment of volume and more. Double check the mod is using the correct devices while you are here.

    By default you will be muted in push-to-talk mode, so press m to unmute and hold left-alt to speak. These bindings can be changed in the control settings.

    Other players will have icons above their head indicating their mod installation and speaking status. Players with the mod installed, and thus capable of hearing you speak, will have a microphone icon in their nametag and on the player list.

    image.png

    The volume of other players can be controlled in several ways:

    Troubleshooting

    Pressing V does nothing

    The mod is likely not installed correctly. Things worth trying:

    Pressing V tells me "PlasmoVoice is not installed on this server"

    Ensure you have downloaded the correct version of the mod (2.0.6 for 1.20- 1.20.1). Other alpha releases and non-1.20 releases will not work correctly.

    Pressing V tells me "Connecting to UDP server..." forever or "Unable to connect to UDP server"

    If other players are also experiencing this issue, there may be a problem on the server side. Create a modreq or let a @Minecraft server mod know.

    I can't hear other players

    Other players are too quiet

    If all players are too quiet, try increasing your Voice Chat Volume. If only a single player is too quiet, you can increase their volume individually, or ask them to investigate their microphone settings and fix the problem.

    Other players can't hear me

    The mod settings menu allows you to test your microphone by clicking the speaker icon next to "Activation threshold". After clicking the button you will be able to hear your own microphone input and assess its volume.

    Build Stream Server

    Build Stream Server

    Item Blacklist

    We maintain a list of items that cannot be used during a build stream. There are various reasons an item can end up here, such as preserving server performance, preventing griefing, or preventing obnoxious spam.

    Permanent Blacklist

    These items are unavailable throughout all build streams:

    Situational Blacklist

    These items are enabled by default, but may be disabled if it becomes necessary to do so. This typically happens towards the end of a stream if the item is getting spammed or is affecting server performance. For items that can be placed, placing will still be allowed, while interaction will be disabled, if possible.

    Muted Blacklist

    If you are muted, you will additionally be unable to use the following items:

    Build Stream Server

    New Earth rules

    These are the rules for the New World Stream and public build server, this applies across all streams and off-stream builds

    In certain circumstances we will be taking into an account both intent and planning of an area to determine how to act. For example where large areas of empty space are concerned.

    We will be retroactively applying these rules to existing builds, as well as future ones.

    Find something that is against these rules?

    Please stand at the location and use the command:

    /modreq Description of problem here

    This will alert our staff and we will investigate the issue, we appreciate the help!

    Creative Server

    As part of our 1.19.4 update, we have had to introduce a different plugin for limiting WorldEdit operation speeds, as the previous plugin is no longer maintained. See Increasing WorldEdit Speed if your operations are too slow.

    The creative server uses the PlotSquared plugin, for which you can find the wiki for here.

    The world is split up into plots, which you can claim and build within. You are allowed to use WorldEdit within your plots.

    Claiming a plot

    /plot auto Automatically claims a plot for you
    /plot claim

    Claims the plot you are currently standing within
    /plot delete Unclaims the current plot you are in. This will delete everything

    Merging

    You are able to claim multiple plots, and merge them into one larger plot.

    /plot merge <all/n/e/s/w> Merge the plot you are standing on, with another plot
    /plot unlink Unlink a merged plot

    Teleporting

    There are multiple ways to travel, teleport and visit other plots in the creative server

    /plot home Teleport to your plot
    /plot visit [player/alias/world/id] Teleport to the specified plot
    /plot middle Teleports you to the centre of the current plot

    Other players

    You can allow other players to also build within your plots - or deny them even entering.

    /plot trust <player> Allow a user to build in a plot and use WorldEdit while the plot owner is offline.
    /plot add <player> Allow a user to build in a plot while the plot owner is online.
    /plot remove Remove an added, trusted or denied player from a plot
    /plot kick Kick a player from your plot - Moves the player outside
    /plot deny Deny a user from a plot - They cannot enter your plot

    Flags and options

    Flags are options you can set within your plot to fit your desired theme. From time of day and music through to weather, PvP, and more.

    /plot flag <set/remove/add/list/info> <flag> <value> Set the described plot flag.

    A list of all available flags can be found here.

    /plot alias set <alias> Set the plot name
    /plot desc <description> Set the plot description
    /plot music Player music in a plot
    /plot biome [biome] Sets the biome of a plot. May need a reconnect to see changes.
    /plot set home Sets the home and spawn location for anyone visiting your plot

    Completion

    /plot done Mark a plot as done. You will not be able to edit the plot any more after this
    /plot continue Continue a plot that was previously marked as done

    Increasing WorldEdit speed

    To avoid issues with server performance, we make use of a plugin which limits the speed at which WorldEdit operations are applied. The default speed is rather low and can be increased using /wets <blocks per tick>. Increasing blocks per tick will make operations complete faster but may also impact server performance. Please attempt to strike a reasonable balance whilst considering other players on the server.

    Other commands

    /plot save Save your plot / schematic
    /plot restore Load your plot / schematic
    /plot clear Clear a plot

    Armour Stand Editor

    The Armour Stand Editor allows for easy editing of armour stands and item frames, with a selection of tools accessible via a GUI.

    Selecting a Tool

    To edit an armour stand or item frame, first open the Armor Stand Editor menu by right clicking the air while holding flint. This menu will offer a range of tools, detailed below, which modify different aspects of an armour stand or item frame.

    image-1639345852382.png

    Armor Stand Tools

    Axis controls: These controls will change the axis that other tools operate on, if applicable.

    Adjustment modes: Allows you to switch between coarse (larger) and fine (smaller) movements when other tools are used.

    Rotation and Movement: Allows for movement or rotation the entire armour stand.

    Body parts and Equipment: Allows movement of individual body parts of an armour stand, changing the equipment stored on the stand, and resetting all body parts to their default position.

    Copy and Paste: There are 4 slots that allow you to save armour stand configurations to select and paste: Click "copy" and select one of the slots. Then click on the armour stand you want to copy. This will save the position of the armour stand in the slot you have selected. You can later paste this in on another existing armour stand by selecting the slot, selecting "paste" and clicking on the armour stand. 

    State toggles: Allows toggling the visibility of arms, base plate and the entire stand, as well as the size of the Armor stand.

    The gravity toggle has no effect due to the disabling of armour stand ticking for performance reasons.

    Item Frame Tools

    Item frame visibility: Allows toggling the visibility of an Item Frame.

    Item frame invisibility toggling is not available on the Survival Server. Please follow these survival specific guides instead.

    Using a Tool

    Once you have selected a tool, close the menu and aim at the armour stand or item frame you would like to edit. You can then left or right click whilst still holding the flint to use your selected tool.

    Some tools, such as movement or rotation, will have different actions on a left or right click, usually changing the direction the movement is applied in.

    Tips

    Crouch + Scroll wheel is a shortcut to change the axis without opening the menu

    Pressing the Swap Hands button (default F) will let you target a specific armour stand - it will flash to denote it is selected - This is useful when there are multiple armour stands in one location.

    Furniture

    In order to see furniture, the RTGame Server Resource Pack must be installed, 

    This feature will not function correctly when using Bedrock Edition.
    Furniture will display as oak planks in a floating item frame.

    The Survival Server features custom furniture models which can be crafted placed in the world for extra decoration.

    image-1640872175023.png image-1640872175031.png

    Crafting

    image-1640872273673.gif

    Armchair

    • Wool x4
    • Carpet x2
    • Oak fence x2

     image-1640872273681.gif

    Chair

    • Wood planks x2
    • Slab x1
    • Fence x2

    image-1640872273689.png

    Coffee table

    • Black concrete x2
    • Glass pane x1
    • Iron bars x2

    image-1640872273698.gif

    Desk

    • Wood / hyphae x3
    • Planks x4
    • Slab x1

    image-1640872273715.gif

    Office chair

    • Wool x3
    • Polished Blackstone button x2
    • Black concrete x1

    image-1640872273723.gif

    Stool

    • Wool x3
    • Oak fence x2

    image-1640872273733.gif

    Table

    • Slab x3
    • Fence x2

    image-1640872273707.png

    Grave

    • Stone slab x1
    • Podzol x1
    • Black concrete x2

    Placing

    Furniture is placed in the same way as a regular block, requiring a full empty block in order to be placed. Placing furniture against existing furniture will require you to sneak if the furniture can be interacted with, much like placing against other interactable blocks.

    Placed furniture will rotate according to the angle at which you placed it. Most furniture supports 8 angles of rotation, but some may only support the 4 cardinal directions.

    Placing blocks (and other furniture) on top of furniture is possible with some precise aim. All placed furniture blocks have an invisible item frame located at the top of their block. This item frame will prevent you from placing blocks if you are targeting it, so ensure you are targeting the block instead.

    Removing

    Furniture can be removed by left clicking its block. Only the lowest block will be clickable, regardless of the apparent size of the furniture.

    As with placing blocks, targeting the furniture's item frame will prevent you from removing the furniture. Ensure you are targeting the furniture's block instead for successful removal.

    Creative Mode Usage

    Due to the limitations imposed by server side plugins, the Pick Block feature will not work with placed furniture

    Whilst furniture can be crafted in creative mode, the Build and Creative servers offer a /furniture get <furniture> command for quicker access to all available furniture types.

    Sitting

    On the Survival Server, certain blocks and furniture items allow you to sit on them to aid relaxation.

    image-1640877529603.png

    How to Sit

    To sit, right click with an empty hand when you are less than two blocks away from a seating block.

    How to Stand Up

    You can stand up again by sneaking, just like getting off a horse. This will place you back where you were originally standing.

    Seating

    Blocks

    Furniture

     

    Bedrock Edition Support

    Bedrock Edition Support

    Bedrock Edition Support Introduction

    We are currently trialling the addition of bedrock client support to the server. This allows Minecraft Bedrock Edition clients, such as phones, tablets and consoles to connect to the RTGame Minecraft Server.

    The software required for this is still relatively new and under active development. As a result there are plenty of bugs, but it should be more than sufficient for exploration or participating in a build stream - especially if you don't have Java Edition.

    Bedrock Edition support will never be perfect. There are fundamental differences to Java Edition which cannot be worked around. Known issues can be found here.

    You will still need an active Twitch subscription to join the server, for both Java and Bedrock editions

    To get started, learn how to Connect using Bedrock Edition

    Bedrock Edition Support

    Connecting using Bedrock Edition

    Console versions of the game do not have an "Add Server" button. Follow these instructions instead.

    To connect to the server using bedrock edition:

    1. Launch Minecraft, select "Play"

    2. Select the "Servers" tab, then click the "Add Server" button at the bottom of the list. You may need to scroll to see it.

    image-1598302683702.png

    3. Enter the details shown in the below image:

    image-1598302751867.png

    4. Choose "Play" to join immediately, or "Save" to add it to your server list for quicker joining later.

    5. If you chose "Save" in step 4, select the RTGame server in your server list, and then choose "Join Server"

    image-1598302842588.png

    6. Game on! Make sure to familiarise yourself with the Known Issues.

    Also own Java Edition? Learn how to link accounts.

    image-1598302964740.png

    Bedrock Edition Support

    Linking your Java Edition account

    If you own both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, we recommend you link your Java and Bedrock accounts together. This will allow you to share your inventory and progress between both versions of the game. To link your accounts, follow the below steps:

    Linking accounts is required if you intend to play using both versions of the game. Otherwise you would need to create 2 Discord accounts, in order to get past the Discord linking process.

    When accounts are linked, other players will always see your Java Edition name and skin.

    1. Connect to the server with Java Edition.
    2. Type /linkbedrock <gamertag> , where <gamertag> is your Xbox gamertag.
    3. You will be given a command to send from Bedrock Edition, similar to the below. Make a note of this.

    image-1598304417975.png

    4. Disconnect from the server
    5. Reconnect to the server using Bedrock Edition

    The next step will cause all items in your Bedrock inventory to be permanently lost. Please store anything important elsewhere beforehand.

    6. Send the command you were given in step 3.
    7. Your accounts will now be linked, you may now reconnect using either version of the game.

    Accounts can later be unlinked at any time, using /unlinkbedrock

    Bedrock Edition Support

    Known Issues

    The software allowing for Bedrock Edition support is still under active development, and bugs are inevitable. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the issues you may run into. We will attempt to keep this up to date.

    Please avoid reporting issues already listed here. We cannot do much about them until they are fixed in the underlying software.

    Bugs

    Movement issues around certain blocks

    Movement issues can occur when navigating near non-full blocks, such as stairs, slabs, and especially snow layers.  This will manifest as random teleporting, or occasionally becoming entirely stuck. This can be fixed by finding an alternative route, flying around the obstacle in creative mode (if available), or in extreme cases switching back to Java Edition or asking a mod for assistance.

    Some villagers may not show correct prices

    For example those showing discounts or mark-ups. This will manifest as the trade simply not going through, or the UI picking a replacement trade that you may be able to afford instead.

    Doors do not animate smoothly

    Doors using the Big Doors plugin that are opening or closing may appear to move incorrectly, or fail to animate at all. This is purely visual and the door itself is unaffected.

    Limitations

    Invisible Item frames will be visible

    Invisible item frames are not invisible when viewed on Bedrock Edition. Transparent sections will simply show the texture of the item frame behind any objects.

    Furniture will not display correctly

    Furniture items will display as an item frame containing the furniture.

    Bedrock Edition does not currently support many chat features found in Java Edition. This includes clickable links, so any links or commands shown will have to be typed manually.

    Unsupported block combinations won't appear

    Bedrock Edition has different limitations on block positioning, which can occasionally conflict with things possible in Java Edition.

    For example, Plant Pots can be placed on Lecterns in Java Edition, but not in Bedrock Edition. When viewed in Bedrock Edition, the plant pots will be missing.

    This also affects item frames, which are considered a block rather than an entity in Bedrock Edition. As a result, any blocks sharing space with an item frame will not be visible in Bedrock Edition.


    Bedrock Edition Support

    Connecting using console versions

    Console versions of Bedrock lack the "Add server" button, which is necessary to join custom servers.

    An alternative method exists to allow you to connect via the "Featured Servers" list. Video demonstrations for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions are shown below:

    Getting moderator help

    If you require a staff member's help, you can file a ModReq (Moderator request).

    A ModReq will inform all staff of your issue. If no staff are online, they will be alerted to it once they join.

    Making a ModReq

    1. Stand at the location of the problem (if applicable).
    2. Type the command /modreq <message>
    3. Replace <message> with your problem, providing enough information for staff to understand and resolve the issue.
    4. Send the message.

    This will create a ModReq and notify any online staff, who will then look into your issue when possible.

    Viewing your ModReq

    You can view the current status of your ModReqs using /mr me. This will list all the ModReqs you have created. Clicking the [View] button next to a ModReq in the list will display more detailed information. If you know your ModReq's ID, you can use /mr info <id> to view the detailed information directly.

    The ModReq Lifecycle

    A ModReq initially starts as open, containing the message you initially provided. During the course of handling your ModReq, both you and staff members may add comments to request or provide further information, close the ModReq to indicate the issue is resolved, and reopen it if the issue persists.

    You will be immediately notified on any activity on your ModReqs if you are online at the time, and otherwise shortly after your join the server.

    Please remember all of our staff are human and we work on a best effort basis when we have the free time to do so, please be patient.


    Reporting bugs

    If you think you have found a bug or exploit, we encourage you to report it to us for investigation. The best way to report an issue is to submit a ticket via the "Report a Bug" button in #minecraft-info. We would rather receive multiple reports than none at all, so please do not be afraid of sending a message. Leaving an issue unreported will only ensure it won't be fixed.

    Making Good Bug Reports

    Avoid vague descriptions like "x doesn't work", "x is broken" or "I can't x". Instead, explain exactly what you are seeing, no matter how obvious you think it is.

    Good bug reports involve providing as much information about the problem as possible. The more information we have to work with, the easier it will be for us to find and fix the problem.

    An ideal bug report would include the following:

    Bad:

    I can't claim land.

    Good:

    When I try to claim land using a wooden shovel on the survival server, I get the following error: "You do not have permission to perform this action"


    Survey Results

    Survey Results

    Results and changes for 1.16 Stress Test

    This is a summary of the changes we are making to the 1.16 server, following the feedback from the earlier survey. 168 of you responded and your feedback is valued. While we have not followed all your preferences to the letter, we are nonetheless making some changes to the 1.16 server based on your feedback. This is not an exhaustive list of 1.14-1.16 changes, but it does cover the big things the survey asked about.

    World size

    The initial world size will be 8750 blocks (diameter)

    This only applies to the overworld. Other worlds will have their own sizes.

    We previously announced our intention to make the 1.16 world smaller, for a variety of reasons. The 1.14 world size was too heavy on disk space, with the Dynmap taking up almost 100GB. In addition, only 0.92% of the 1.14 world's surface area was ever claimed, and the Dynmap still shows large unexplored areas. With the additional world changes discussed below, some larger builds will no longer be present in the overworld too, further reducing the need for space.

    As a result, despite 49% of survey respondents saying the world size was "Just right", we will be using a smaller initial size for 1.16. We have opted for a size of 8750 blocks, which is in-between the 2 most popular alternative sizes - 10k (19%) and 7.5k (10%). This is roughly 80% smaller than the 1.14 world but should still offer plenty of space. Further expansions can always be considered if the world ends up too full, as well as for 1.17 and its expected mountain changes.

    If this size proves inadequate for a good biome selection, we will consider slightly larger sizes.

    The world will be square

    Exactly 2/3 voted for keeping the world square like 1.14, and we will be doing so. A square world also allows the world border to remain visible, which will help with world wrapping. This results in a world with a similar surface area to the 10k circular 1.13 world.

    The world will wrap around

    There is a surprising majority - 58% - who would like to see a wraparound world, where reaching the border will teleport you to the other side. We are up for trying this, so it will be enabled in 1.16. It can always be disabled again if it proves too confusing or buggy. Since the world is square, the visible world border will give a visual indication of where wrapping will occur, which should make it less jarring.

    Server Settings

    The difficulty level will be set to Hard

    This is one of our bigger departures from the survey results. In the survey, 67% of responses preferred normal difficulty, with 29% wanting hard. However, after a discussion with staff, and some survey participants, we are keen to try and experiment with hard difficulty. Staff are generally for this idea, and several comments within the survey, and conversations outside the survey have shown that some normal voters are willing to try hard difficulty.

    We feel that the additional challenge added by hard may make the game more interesting, as food is more important, and mobs hit harder. In the end it is unlikely to be a significant difference, as Minecraft is significantly easier in a multiplayer setting, but we would at least like to give it a try.

    Existing gamerules will remain the same

    Many responses wanted all the listed gamerules to stay at their 1.14 settings, or had no preference:

    mobGriefing - Remains Enabled

    65% wanted mob griefing to remain enabled. This is unsurprising due to issues like villagers being unable to pick up items when it is disabled. Note that is does not affect the ability for mobs to damage claimed areas, or explosions above sea level. These are managed by other settings we will cover below.

    doFireTick - Remains Disabled

    64% preferred fire spread to remain disabled and remain disabled it will be. Fire will therefore not spread, as in 1.14.

    doInsomnia - Remains Enabled

    In one of the closest results of the whole survey, 41% of responses wanted phantoms to remain enabled, with 38% wanting them disabled. With such a close result, we decided to go with our personal preference of keeping them enabled, which also avoids issues with membrane becoming extremely hard to find.

    doImmediateRespawn‌ - Remains Disabled

    49% did not want immediate respawn to be enabled, and 38% had no preference, so the 1.14 behaviour will remain. Dying will still present you with the respawn screen and will allow you to try and work out where you are, while also risking your items despawning while doing so.

    doPatrolSpawning - Remains Enabled

    Pillager patrols will continue to spawn as they did in 1.14, as 74% of responses preferred this setting.

    doTraderSpawning - Remains Enabled

    The wandering trader will also continue to spawn, with 82% of responses preferred this setting.

    doLimitedCrafting - Remains Disabled

    Enabling this gamerule was unlikely to ever be considered, nonetheless 86% voted against it. Crafting with be unrestricted as a result.

    disableRaids - Remains Disabled

    Raids will remain enabled, with the support of 2/3 of the responses.

    keepInventory - Remains Disabled

    Another unlikely consideration which received little support, with 52% preferring it disabled and 23% having no preference. Dying will therefore drop items as normal.

    doWeatherCycle - Remains Enabled

    90% of responses wanted weather to remain enabled, as it likely would have anyway.

    doDaylightCycle - Remains Enabled

    The day/night cycle gets the highest level of support of all the gamerules, with 95% in favour. Time will continue to progress normally in 1.16.

    Newly added gamerules will use their default values

    The 2 new 1.16 gamerules received large majorities for their default settings, which we will keep:

    forgiveDeadPlayers - Remains Enabled

    82% preferred players to be forgiven by angry mobs, if said mobs see them die.

    universalAnger - Remains Disabled

    Nearby innocent players will not get attacked by angered mobs, after 49% of responses wanted this gamerule to remain at its default disabled value.

    Some server settings will change

    We will be changing some spigot/paper/Tuinity settings based on the survey results and wanting to experiment with new things:

    nerf-spawner-mobs - Will be Disabled

    This setting was enabled in 1.14 and helped reduce lag from mob spawner farms. However, it also makes random spawner-created mobs encountered in caves completely unresponsive to the player, which makes them pose no challenge at all.

    More players would prefer it to remain enabled over being disabled, with 44% vs 17%, however 39% of responses expressed no preference on either side. As a result, we would like to start 1.16 with this disabled, to make mobs in caves less of an embarrassing waste of space. Naturally, we will turn it back on if this causes performance issues.

    fix-zero-tick-instant-grow-farms - Remains Enabled

    Zero tick farms are apparently fixed in 1.16, however if they somehow reappear this setting will be enabled to prevent their use. 57% of responses were in favour of this remaining enabled.

    use-faster-eigencraft-redstone - Remains Enabled

    This setting improves the performance of Redstone, at the cost of potentially breaking some particularly complex machines. Some comments in the survey did express concerns over this setting as a result of this risk. In the end though 47% remained in favour of it, with 36% having no preference, so we shall leave it enabled.

    auto-replenish - Remains Enabled

    Lootable containers that have been looted and left empty will continue to refill themselves after a delay for newly visiting players, with the support of 82% of responses.

    flat-bedrock - Will be Enabled

    Bedrock will be generated as a flat layer in 1.16 after receiving strong support at 45% in favour and 25% with no preference.

    disable-player-crits - Remains Disabled

    Crits will continue to exist, with 52% in support and 38% having no preference.

    disable-sprint-interruption-on-attack - Remains Disabled

    58% of responses wanted sprint interruption behaviour to remain as it was in 1.14, with another 27% unsure.

    disable-relative-projectile-velocity - Remains Disabled

    Projectiles velocity will continue to use 1.14 behaviour, with the support of 42% of responses and 47% with no preference.

    pistons-can-push-tile-entities - Will be Enabled

    Testing has shown pushable tile entities allows bypassing of chunk limits. This option will therefore remain disabled unless a fix for this is found.

    One of the most significant 1.16 changes will be the enabling of this setting. This allows pistons to push some tile entities, such as single chests, furnaces, campfires and more. This naturally depends on the feature being implemented in 1.16 Tuinity, which is not guaranteed. However, if it is, we shall be enabling it with the support of 45% of responses, plus 33% without a preference.

    Grief Prevention settings will remain the same

    The following Grief Prevention settings received support for their current 1.14 settings, and will remain the same:

    BlockSurfaceCreeperExplosions - Remains Enabled

    With 71% in favour, explosions above sea-level will continue to do no block damage.

    EndermenMoveBlocks - Remains Enabled

    58% supported endermen continuing to move blocks, with 22% having no preference. This behaviour will therefore remain enabled.

    CreaturesTrampleCrops - Remains Disabled

    Mobs will remain unable to trample crops, with the support of 77% of responses.

    RabbitsEatCrops - Remains Enabled

    Rabbits will still be able to eat crops in 1.16, after 43% voted for this to remain enabled, with 33% expressing no preference.

    Claims

    Claims will not automatically expire

    32% of responses preferred claims to not expire due to inactivity, with 60 days just behind at 29%. After some discussion, we have decided to go with no automatic expiry, so large high-effort builds will not get griefed because the builder took a long break.

    Staff can remove claims and builds at their own discretion

    While claims will not automatically expire, staff will be free to remove claims at their discretion. For example, claimed unfinished builds by long inactive users, low effort builds and inactive builds in the way of active ones will all be removable. We feel this is the best compromise to ensures that high quality builds do not automatically lose protection, whilst unfinished or low-quality ones can be removed to clean up the world and leave space for others to use.

    Players who are affected by an inactive claim near them can continue to create modreqs as before, and we will deal with them on a case by case basis.

    Lectern reading will be allowed, but other protections remain the same

    71% of responses preferred that lecterns not require access trust to read. We will be following this, assuming it does not allow the reading player to steal the book.

    All other protections will remain the same, which includes:

    Additional Worlds

    Mall, Pixel Art and Amplified worlds will be added

    These suggestions had 68%, 85% and 64% in favour, respectively.

    Adding a Mall world allows for easier expansion of the mall if required. It also reduces the minimum possible size of the nether hub and removes a possible source of FPS drops for players who visit the hub, even if they are not interested in the mall.

    A Pixel Art world allows us to create an area more suited to pixel art creation, with the ability to fly and claimable plots laid out in a way that works with maps. It also frees up space in the overworld for normal builds, as we can now require pixel art to only be built in its dedicated world.

    The amplified world existed in 1.14 and was a good source of sand as well as being cool to explore. There is no real downside to bringing it back in 1.16, so we shall do so.

    Farm world will not be added, at least to start

    Whilst the farm world idea did attract strong support at 66% in favour, we will not be adding it at the start of 1.16. The main reason for this is the possible performance improvements may not come to pass. A world dedicated to farms will likely result in more of those farms being ticked if a single person visits, even if they are not using many of them, simply due to their proximity. Preventing this issue by spacing them out would be additional work and causes issues with players having to travel further to reach them.

    We are however open to the idea of having another hive-style world in 1.16. However, this would be on a smaller scale, and will require more planning to ensure server performance is not affected. We are considering either putting together a trusted group for this or taking pitches for farms designs. Either way, this is for the future.

    Plugins

    Most plugins will remain

    Liquid Tanks is not being added to the 1.16 server, due to allowing a dupe exploit.

    The following plugins will remain on the 1.16 server:

    The Compass plugin will be removed

    Whilst the compass plugin still received support, with 60% in favour, with the addition of lodestones in 1.16 we consider it obsolete and will be removing it. Lodestones can perform the main function of the compass plugin (pointing to your bed), and work in all worlds, whilst the compass plugin works only in the overworld. In addition, lodestones are a craftable block, which make it feel much more "Minecraft" than a random command can be.

    The TrainCarts plugin will be added from the start

    Due to it receiving strong support (71% in favour), we will be adding the TrainCarts plugin from the start of the 1.16 server. This plugin made a brief appearance during the 1.14 server, and while it received some positive reception, it also caused plenty of issues for minecart based farms. The main issue was that TrainCarts altered the behaviour of minecarts in a way that broke existing farms. Many of these issues were fixed but adding it from the start will prevent any remaining changes from causing issues, as players can design around them in the initial build.

    We will not be enabling all features of TrainCarts immediately, as we will need to assess the impact of the more non-vanilla automation it offers, but the basic cart behaviour and vertical/inverted rails will be there. The ability to suspend minecarts from iron bars will also be present.

    Custom generation for The End will be considered

    59% of responses were supportive of the idea of adding a custom world generator, with 21% having no preference. We are therefore looking into the possibility of using a custom world generator for The End (which will not be open from the start), with the goal of making the end more interesting by adding more things to discover within.

    The existing end house plugin has the support of 64% of responses, so we may still include this, or replace it with generator provided features if they exist.

    An armour stand plugin will be added

    A plugin for editing armour stands will be added in 1.16, following the idea getting significant support in the survey, with 85% in favour. We have not yet decided whether we will use the one currently in use on the creative server, or an alternative such as the vanilla tweaks datapack.

    Some VanillaTweaks datapacks will be added

    We investigated VanillaTweaks after a good number of comments recommended we do so. We believe some of the packs they offer are good quality of life changes or offer interesting new features. As a result, we will be adding the following packs:

    The Nether

    Claims will be enabled in The Nether, a certain distance from spawn

    In line with 52% in support of Nether claims, and 17% with no preference, we will be enabling claims in The Nether. A few comments did draw attention to a large problem this would create however - interference with portal creation. Players would be able to claim areas containing other player's portals to prevent them being edited, and claims could also be unintentionally griefed by newly created portals from the overworld.

    To fix this we are restricting claims to the area of The Nether beyond the overworld size, as portals in the overworld will never reach this area which avoids the problem. We are currently working with 1500 blocks from spawn, which allows the overworld to be expanded a bit without bringing the portal issues back. All the space outside of this range will be free to claim, whilst areas inside will work just like the 1.14 nether.

    Nether roof travel will be allowed, with spawns disabled

    36% of responses supported nether roof access without mob spawns, with another 23% wanting access with spawns. A further 20% had no preference. We believe the best compromise here is to enable access with spawns disabled.

    The Nether Hub will be much smaller

    As the Mall will be in its own world (62% voted in favour of this), the 1.16 Nether Hub does not need to be anywhere near as large as the 1.14 hub. The staff-created 1.16 hub will have a total size of 62x62 blocks, centred on spawn. This has several beneficial effects. Firstly, we will not have cases of portals getting created inside the hub, as the 1.16 hub is now smaller than the equivalent size of the overworld spawn area. Secondly, the smaller hub results in community created areas being much closer to spawn, so the community is now in more control of the hub's appearance. This overall brings us closer to the 1.13 hub style, while retaining some structure in the form of the spawn area and equipment rooms remaining admin claimed.

    The portal search radius will be smaller

    The portal search radius will be reduced from its default of 128. This will limit the distance that portals link to each other from, making it easier to create a portal that does not unintentionally link to an unrelated one.

    Trusted players will be able to edit the directory

    With 42% of responses supporting it, we will be limiting directory editing to a group of trusted players. We are doing this to ensure the directory remains free of unsuitable locations, whilst avoiding the extra moderation overhead that would result from making it mod only. Who will be trusted/what criteria there are for trusted will be discussed at a later date.

    Directories will be restricted to Towns, Farms, POIs

    98% and 78% voted for adding towns and farms to the directory. We have decided to avoid adding settlements to the directory, despite the 70% in support for them, to reduce clutter. The 1.14 directories are rather cluttered, containing more locations than they were designed to, and not all of these are locations many people will visit. Limiting it to just towns and other notable locations reduces the possible amount of locations to more manageable levels.

    Dynmap markers will be used more extensively

    Of course, some players will want to be able to find settlements and smaller locations too, so we will be making greater use of Dynmap markers this time around. The trusted directory players will be able to add/edit Dynmap markers, removing the need to create modreqs for them. Locations that do not meet the directory requirements can still have a Dynmap marker, so they may still be found. Dynmap layers will be added for Towns, Settlements, Farms and POIs.

    Farms

    Additional rules will be in place for farms

    The survey results show strong agreement for wanting farms to look nice (59% agree) and not wanting to be near ugly farms (61% agree). As a result, we will be enforcing this. Naturally, some leeway will be given for in-progress or recently completed builds, as farms are typically built in the open at first. However, if some time passes without an attempt to make a farm look presentable, mods will take appropriate action.

    71% of responses agree that farms should be removed or limited if server performance is affected. We will therefore act on farms that we suspect are affecting server performance, either requesting they be removed/resized, or immediately removing them ourselves if the situation is severe enough to warrant it.

    64% of responses supported the view that farms should be appropriately sized based on demand, with 57% saying that excessively sized farms should not be allowed. With this in mind we will be acting on excessively sized farms, such as melon farms which have always filled chests. Actions will include requests to fix or mods resizing/removing themselves depending on severity.

    87% agreed that farms should have a way to disable them if problems occur, so we will also be making this a requirement. where possible.

    These new rules will be documented in more detail before the server launch.

    Coordinates

    Coordinates will be enabled outside of The End

    The coordinates results provide some interesting reading, so they are presented here in full:

    Coordinates are an important part of the gameplay experience


    Strongly Disagree: 8.33%
    Disagree: 17.86%
    Neutral: 32.14%
    Agree: 23.81%
    Strongly Agree: 17.86%

    I cannot enjoy the game with coordinates disabled


    Strongly Disagree: 35.12%
    Disagree: 27.38%
    Neutral: 22.62%
    Agree: 7.74%
    Strongly Agree: 7.14%

    Servers should be free to choose whether coordinates are enabled


    Strongly Disagree 2.98%
    Disagree: 5.36%
    Neutral: 23.81%
    Agree: 34.52%
    Strongly Agree: 33.33%

    I consider coordinates a "crutch" which people are too dependent on


    Strongly Disagree: 26.79%
    Disagree: 29.76%
    Neutral: 26.79%
    Agree: 10.71%
    Strongly Agree: 5.95%

    I prefer a server map to having coordinates enabled


    Strongly Disagree: 6.55%
    Disagree: 12.50%
    Neutral: 33.93%
    Agree: 24.40%
    Strongly Agree: 22.62%

    1.16 lodestones make coordinates less important for navigation


    Strongly Disagree: 8.93%
    Disagree: 17.26%
    Neutral: 45.24%
    Agree: 16.67%
    Strongly Agree: 11.90%


    I want coordinates to return for 1.16


    Strongly Disagree: 6.55%
    Disagree: 10.71%
    Neutral: 25.60%
    Agree: 29.76%
    Strongly Agree: 27.38%


    In the end they show strong support for server choice, strong disagreement with enjoyment being impossible without them, very mixed views on their importance, especially in 1.16, and preference for a map over coordinates being enabled - with a surprising number of people in the middle throughout. There were also plenty of comments on all sides of the debate. In the end though, the result is clear, a lot of people want coordinates back, and this will be done.

    The community response to their initial disabling remains unacceptable and was a large factor in the decision to never reenable them, lest the more toxic players be encouraged to act similarly to any future change they disliked. However, this is now a chance for a fresh start, and many of those players have since left, so now is a good time to enable them again.

    It was a nice experiment, but there are indeed areas of the game that are rather dependant on them, and valid non-navigational uses for them. Hopefully, it has at least reduced dependency on coordinates and shown there are alternative ways to find your way in the world.

    The one exception to this change is that coordinates will remain disabled in The End (when it opens), in a similar way to Dynmap's end limitations. After some discussion we all agree this is a fair compromise, as The End's challenge and appeal comes from exploration to find rare items. The addition of lodestones in 1.16 now also makes it possible to have a compass that points back home too.

    Survey Results

    Results and changes for 1.16 Survival

    This is a summary of the results from the Stress Test Survey, and our responses to them. 54 of you responded and your feedback is valued. Sadly 7 players started but did not complete the survey before the deadline, these results have not been included to ensure consistency.

    While we have not followed all your preferences to the letter, we are nonetheless making some changes to the stress test server based on your feedback.

    The results will be presented question by question, in the order those questions appeared in the survey. We will also include some of the more noteworthy comments received in the survey, and our responses to them. Following this we will detail what changes we intend to make, if any.

    Please note that any changes listed here will not take effect immediately, we will need time to implement them. Keep an eye on #stress_test_updates for news on the planned changes.

    About You

    The About You section of the survey was to get a picture of why players choose to play on the RTGame Minecraft Server, and how long they have been here.

    Servers Played

    image-1604090369567.png

    The results here show that almost all the players who responded to the survey have previously played on the 1.15 survival server. There are also still a good number of players from the 1.12/1.13 days too.

    Reasons for Playing

    image-1604090521955.pngThe server community was the most common reason given for playing on the RTGame server, at 87% of players. Both building and survival were not too far behind, at around 60% each.


    Difficulty

    The choice of hard difficulty has been a subject of sometimes heated debate since the stress test server opened and was one of the reasons why the survey was created. We have previously heard strong views from parts of the community regarding this, and felt it was necessary to get a broader selection of opinions before deciding what to do.

    Overall Enjoyment

    image-1604001438749.png

    These results are rather encouraging, with a much higher number of players happy with hard mode, than unhappy with it. Many players are also in the middle, with no strong feelings either way. This is perhaps the opposite of what we expected after the negative feedback we received before the survey, which now appears to be from a vocal minority. 

    In the end we are happy to see a surprisingly positive reception here.

    Difficulty Elements

    Increased Mob Damage

    Hard difficulty increases mob damage, with the exact differences varying per mob. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604006012094.png

    The results are close here but do show slightly more players dislike the increase in mob damage that hard mode brings. Not a huge difference, but it is an area we would like to make changes in regardless.

    Spider Potion Effects

    Regular spiders have a chance of spawning with a potion effect on hard difficulty. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005997761.png

    A more positive result for spider potion effects, with more positive than negative responses. In addition, a large neutral response suggests this is not a setting we need to tweak.

    Zombie Reinforcements

    Zombies have a chance of spawning reinforcements, when attacked on hard difficulty. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005987886.png

    For zombie reinforcements, the results are almost exactly split, with a single vote pushing it into negative territory. This tiny margin. the large neutral response, and the fact another mechanic unique to hard mode zombies (door breaking) was already removed, mean we will be leaving this setting intact for now.

    Increased Chance of Mobs Spawning With Armour/Weapons

    Mobs are more likely to spawn with armour on hard difficulty. Zombies are also more likely to spawn with weapons. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005977364.png

    Pretty clear result here, with many players happy with the change, and most of the rest being neutral. We will leave this setting as it is.

    Increased Chance of Mobs Picking up Dropped Items

    Skeletons and Zombies are more likely to be able to pick up dropped items on hard difficulty. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005965733.png

    Another positive outcome here, with slightly more players supporting the change to mobs picking up dropped items. The positive responses also appear to hold stronger feelings than the negative ones, with more opting for love over like vs hate over dislike. We will be leaving this setting as it is.

    Increased Effect Durations

    Cave Spiders, The Wither and bees inflict status effects which last longer on hard difficulty. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005954657.png

    Effect durations are another area we intend to make changes in, after the responses here show many players are unhappy with the current state of things.

    Starvation

    Damage caused by an empty food meter can kill players on hard difficulty. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005923743.png

    Many players remained neutral regarding starvation, with slightly more of those remaining responding positively. We will therefore be leaving this unchanged.

    Increased Raid Waves

    Raids are longer on hard difficulty, with an increased number of waves. Full details can be found on the wiki.

    image-1604005939095.png

    Raid changes also attracted a large neutral response, with a significant majority of non-neutral players being happy with them. No raid changes are planned as a result.

    Desired Changes

    image-1604007176937.png

    Perhaps the most important question is what players would like to see done with the difficulty overall, and the results here show that over 2/3 of players would like something at least based on hard difficulty. Some of those players would like some tweaks, which we are happy to provide in consideration of the results for the individual elements above. Many however are also happy with the way things are right now, more-so than any other answer for this question.

    The results shown here certainly demonstrate that there is clear support for hard mode, either unchanged or with tweaks. It also demonstrates that the loudest feedback we previously received was not at all representative of the overall community's view on difficulty. I hope the above results are sufficient to show members of this group that you do not speak for the entire community, and you should not act like you do.

    Comments

    Unsurprisingly, there are people on both sides of the topic, here are some highlights:

    As of now I'm fine with a majority of changes that hard mode has to offer and got pretty used to it, The only con of it is the early game or starting out which is primarily influenced by mob damage [...] which has led to me despising specific mobs most definitely the skeleton [...] with their extreme range and chance of having enchanted bows make them a killing machine and pain to deal with.

    How[sic] it's no longer relaxing, frustrations around numerous deaths, distractions from building goals, unfair to those who just join the server.

    The only feature from Hard difficulty that I would personally tweak is the potion duration effects as I've had multiple occurrences in and outside of the test server where I've been brought down from 10 hearts to 1/2 a heart from a single mob like a witch, just because they threw a poison potion. [...] Having [witches] apply a poison debuff of higher potency for a much shorter time would keep their deadly nature while removing the agonizing time to wait or get milk.

    It feels more alive, a challenge, more enjoyable, can provide more growth, more fun, still relatively easy when you have good armour, made me enjoy the game once more.

    I'm perfectly fine with hard difficulty, but it would be nice if some more annoying aspects of it were tweaked like starvation taking longer or zombies picking up armor more often. [...] I don't want them 100% gone just tweaked.

    Overall I'm loving hard mode as most of my deaths are due to my pure stupidity [...] it makes the world feel more alive in a weird sense as it now forces you to adapt to the fact you cant have it straight of the bat the fact zombies call reinforcements and spiders spawn with effects I adore as like before it makes the world feel more alive.

    I prefer the shift in tone and have found it more enjoyable 

    Negative effect durations should be shorter and/or rarer to get. There is no fun in having half of your inventory filled with Milk just in case you get poisoned.

    In general there were significantly more positive comments than negative ones, with many of the negative ones bringing up issues with specific mechanics or mobs, some of which we will address.

    There are a few comments we would like to address individual however:

    I don't like the ability of zombies to break wooden doors, otherwise everything can stay the way hard mode is configured.

    This mechanic was always intended to be disabled, particularly in claimed areas, and any ability for Zombies to break doors is considered a bug. Please report this if it continues.

    Made my point many times before so yea

    Whilst this may very well turn out to be true, it is nonetheless a thoroughly unhelpful and unconstructive comment. By creating this survey, we offered a place where you should share your thoughts for us to consider, but you decided not to due to already doing it elsewhere. It is quite likely we have not seen these previous occasions you have "made your point", and thus your opinion may not be visible to us. 

    We want to take this moment to remind people that we can only act on things that you tell us about. We cannot read minds, so assuming we already know something will only ensure nothing will change.

    Changes We Will Be Making

    With the overall opinion of difficulty appearing positive, the difficulty will remain at hard. However, the above results show there are 2 areas that could see some improvement: mob damage and effect duration.

    We consider mob damage to be an important part of the overall challenge brought by hard difficulty, so we will not be making sweeping changes to reduce it. However, it has become clear that some aspects of the damage changes may need to be toned down a bit. Skeletons have been named as an annoyance by many players in-game and in the survey comments, as hard difficulty increases their damage, but also increases their accuracy and firing speed. We aim to address this by removing one of these changes, while keeping the others intact.

    Our current plan is to reduce the accuracy of Skeletons back to its normal difficulty setting, whilst retaining the firing speed and damage increases hard mode brings. This will allow arrows to be dodged more effectively, whilst retaining greater punishment for failing to dodge, hopefully making Skeletons easier to deal with. Further changes can be considered if this proves insufficient, but this is where we would like to start.

    We will not be making damage changes to other mobs at this time, as we feel the game already offers ways to deal with them. Shields can be used to absorb all damage in the direction you are facing, even a charged creeper explosion, and can be equipped in the offhand for quick use. In addition, many mobs are limited to melee damage, which is easily avoided by keeping your distance. Placing torches and building a wall around your in-progress build are also simple ways of avoiding mobs spawning near you entirely. The night can also be sped up and skipped by players sleeping, allowing the most dangerous part of the Minecraft day to be ignored if desired by those online at the time.

    For effect durations, we agree that some of them are rather excessive. There will inevitably be other mobs close by if you have encountered one that has poisoned you for example, and their increased damage will already provide additional challenge, without needing to increase the effect duration too. We will therefore be reducing effects durations to their normal difficulty levels. This will affect Cave Spiders, The Wither and Bees.

    Witches are not affected by the above change, as the duration of the effects they inflict are the same as the durations of player-crafted potions. We will be making changes here however, as Witches are another mob that has drawn the ire of players in the survey comments. Our plan is to replace the Poison I potion that witches throw, with Poison II. Poison II inflicts roughly the same damage as Poison I (19 hearts vs 18), but it does so over a much shorter period (21 seconds vs 45 seconds). As a result, it deals its damage faster, prompting players to run away to heal, without forcing them to wait almost a minute for the effect to subside.

    As mentioned above, we will not be making any changes to Zombie reinforcements at this time. Zombies have already lost one of their unique hard mode mechanics, door breaking, and their other mechanic of picking up items is shared with the Skeleton. As a result, we are reluctant to remove their one remaining unique mechanic, especially with such a tiny margin in the results. This can always be revisited later.

    The final change we will be making is an attempt to reduce the perceived "grind" required for players to reach where they were before dying. We have already significantly increased the lifetime of dropped items, which allows easier recovery, and we would like to make another quality-of-life change to XP drops. Currently when a player dies, the game drops 7 XP per player XP level up to a maximum of 100 points. This results in dying at level 30 only dropping 100 XP, or just over 7 levels, which is quite an extreme punishment.

    We will be changing this behaviour to drop 50% of the total XP a player had, which for a level 30 player would equate to just over 22 levels. Some work will still be necessary to reach level 30 again, but hopefully with less of a feeling that the game has taken all your XP away. The exact percentage can be tweaked in future, if necessary. The arena XP drop rate will remain unchanged.

    These are the changes we will be starting with. We are happy to revisit this in future if further changes become necessary.

    In summary

    Mob Settings

    We have experimented with a few mob related changes during the stress test, with 2 receiving some criticism. We therefore wanted to see the opinion of the overall community before making any changes.

    Increased Mob Cap

    The hostile mob cap has been doubled compared to 1.15 survival (from 12 to 24). The passive mob cap was increased from 9 to 12.

    image-1604059919041.pngThe results show a clear majority are happy with the increased mob cap, with few unhappy players. We will therefore keep the mob cap as it is if performance allows.

    Additional Natural Spawns

    image-1604063839927.png

    Adding additional mob types has also received a positive reception, with another clear majority. We will be tweaking some of the spawn chances however, due to some issues we have experienced, which were also mentioned in the comments.

    Chicken Hostility

    Chickens will retaliate if attacked.

    image-1604063855615.png

    Chicken hostility was a silly change, which was introduced purely because the new server software we use offered it as an option. We may not necessarily keep this, but the results do at least show a majority would be fine if we did so.

    Phantoms Ignoring Players With Torches

    Phantoms will no longer attack insomniac players if they are holding a torch.

    image-1604063859557.png

    The most positive response in this section of the survey goes to the Phantom changes, so we will be keeping this setting in place.

    Lowered Guardian Farm Rewards

    Farmed guardians drop half the normal XP and a single item, to balance the relative ease in gaining the XP, and to help prevent massive overabundance of the items they drop.

    image-1604063864924.png

    Things are less positive when looking at the responses to guardian farm changes, with far more unhappy than happy players. We will be making some changes in this area.

    No Mid-Air Spawner Spawns

    Spawners no longer spawn mobs in mid-air, making them consistent with all other forms of spawning, and discouraging low-effort farms that simply remove the ground below a spawner.

    image-1604063871169.png

    The reaction to disabling mid-air spawners is mixed. Whilst more players are unhappy, those who are happy hold stronger views. Almost half of players are also neutral on the matter. The comments list some issues with the current implementation of this change, which prevents some mobs spawning entirely and will be fixed. If this fix is not sufficient to change the above results, then we are open to making additional changes in the future.

    No Overworld Withers

    Withers can no longer spawn in the overworld, to reduce the damage of escaped withers, and to discourage trapping withers for name-tagging areas or for low-effort farming, which has implications for server performance.

    image-1604063877404.png

    With a slight lead in positive responses, and many players without an opinion, we will be leaving Wither spawns disabled in the overworld.

    Comments

    Unsurprisingly many of the comments mention the guardian farm changes, generally being happier with the item changes than the XP changes. Some comments call for the XP change to be undone, others say they are happy with it. Aside from guardians, many comments were happy with the Phantom, additional mobs and chicken hostility changes.

    Here are some highlights:

    Guardians dropping a single item is a change I would love to see kept as it allows for storage systems to be kept small, not overload, and as a result cuts down on the amount of hoppers required. However, the halving of XP per Guardian can cause issues such as congestion as statistically it takes a person twice as long to achieve the desired XP level.

    Renewable elder guardians are epic. though I would personally like to see their chances lowered a bit more

    I love love LOVE the fact phantoms ignore torches as I'm usually stupid enough not to sleep before the 3 days are up. [...] I haven't really noticed a change with the guardian rewards XP wise as I usually just repair my items and be done with it [...]

    The change to guardians dropping one item is in my opinion great. Last server the chests were constantly overflowing or people threw away stacks and stacks of fish and shards. Having this slightly nerfed will help slow that down a bit.

    Yes, the guardian farm changes hurt but I love how it encourages farm diversity. I've only used 'gfarms on the previous server.

    I'm still sceptical about the mob spawner block changes, specially for Blazes BUT other designs can always be made instead of sticking it to the old floating ones.

    I really like the elder guardian spawns due to renewable sponge but the spawn locations still seem a bit bugged.

    No overworld withers is also good because loud noises just to nametag your base on 1.15 was very obnoxious.

    Lowered guardian farm rewards wasn't noticeable considering how abysmal the guardian farm on 1.15 was,

    Personally I'd like if Guardians dropped full xp but just dropped the half items but if those two are connected together as one thing it doesn't bother me

    Changes We Will Be Making

    Most of the mob focused changes have been well received and will be left as they are. The guardian farm and spawner changes however require some attention.

    The change in Guardian Farm rewards has attracted criticism ever since it was added, with many complaints cantering around the increased time required to gain XP when using the farm, and the performance implications that has.

    We currently have no concerns about the Guardian Farm affecting server performance, so this will not factor into our decisions. We also encourage players to consider other means of gathering XP if they are dissatisfied with the Guardian Farm. Minecraft provides plenty of ways of gathering XP, and we now also have a mob arena which can be used for that purpose.

    That aside we have since learned that using the Guardian Farm is not as straightforward as it appears, with players sometimes dying due to the higher damage the Guardians can inflict. This also causes mending to "eat" more of the XP gained from farming, particular with the mending changes discussed later. We will therefore be increasing farmed Guardian XP drops to 75% of their normal value, to try and offset this. 100% can always be considered if this proves insufficient, but since this farm has a significantly better design than the 1.15 server, we would rather not jump straight to a potentially unbalanced level of XP gains.

    The limits to Guardian item drops will remain unchanged, as the sorting system overflowing was a common problem on the 1.15 server, and the number of items generated is simply too high for the player base to conceivably have a use for. This opinion is shared by some of the players who helped build the farm.

    Elder guardians will remain a rare spawn, however their chance of spawning will be reduced as they are simply too common currently. Some players have also noticed that they often spawn outside of water. This was not intended, and we will try to fix this if it is possible to do so.

    As for spawners, we will be removing the mid-air change from blaze spawners, as this essentially leaves them unable to spawn. The change will remain for all other spawners, to prevent low effort floating spawner farms being created en-masse, with their associated performance cost.

    In summary:

    Server Settings

    Some server settings have also been tweaked during the stress test, particularly after we switched our server software in the first week, which offered many more settings for us to experiment with. We added these to the survey to see how well received they were.

    Mending Changes

    Mending now always repairs the most damaged equipped item, rather than randomly selecting one.

    image-1604064094411.pngIt is no contest for the Mending changes, which see broad support in the survey results. We will be leaving this setting enabled.

    Editable Signs

    Signs can now be edited by right clicking them with another sign.

    image-1604064099991.png

    Editable signs have also been well received, with no players having a negative opinion of the feature, which we will leave enabled.

    Sign Colours

    Signs can now use colour codes, just like in chat.

    image-1604064104338.png

    The ability to use colour codes on signs has similarly strong support, so we will keep this enabled too.

    Dropped Items Lasting Longer

    Most dropped items now last 24 hours instead of 5 minutes, with a selection of "junk" items lasting 15 minutes before despawning.

    image-1604064111141.png

    Another significant majority in support of longer dropped item despawn times. We will therefore be keeping this setting unchanged as it has caused no performance issues at all so far.

    Nether Border Removal

    The nether no longer has a world border and can be explored infinitely.

    image-1604064116399.png

    Finally, we see no players against the removal of the Nether border, so the Nether will remain infinite if performance and storage space allow.

    Junk Items

    After the 24-hour item despawn change was made, it quickly became apparent that some items would quickly pile up and start to litter the world, particularly drops from mobs or trees. To mitigate this, we introduced the "junk" list, which consists of items of little value, which despawn in 15 minutes rather than 24 hours.

    The list currently consists of: Cobblestone, Netherrack, Eggs, Rotten Flesh, Spider Eyes, Sweet Berries, Kelp, Bones, Cod, Feathers, Wheat Seeds, Arrows, Saplings, Flint, Sticks, Pumpkins, Melon Slices, Sugarcane, Bamboo, Cacti.

    We asked for additional suggestions of junk items in the survey, and got plenty of responses:

    image-1604074792657.png

    As shown above, common responses included blocks frequently encountered while mining, fighting mobs, or general exploration. We agree with many of these suggestions and they will be added to the junk list.

    Comments

    The comments for this section are almost unanimously positive towards all the changes made, with a few expressing concerns of the performance implications of longer despawn times. Here are some highlights:

    Mending Prioritizing is a good idea

    I can't stress this enough how much I love these changes. Mending changes can save a nearly broken piece or armour from breaking if I kill a guardian. Not having to rewrite a sign is extremely useful, especially if writing long messages. Dropped items lasting longer makes death not as scary. No nether border is very exciting for players that enjoy exploring, and provides a nearly unlimited amount of netherrite and other rare things in the nether.

    I'm actually glad to see a greater chance for players to retrieve their items without the risk of becoming an Olympic athlete to get their items back.

    I mostly like these server settings, however I do suggest for "junk" items be on a 10 min timer rather than 15, since most people would leave these behind, and most of these can be gathered in big amounts with no real purpose unless you are intentionally gathering them for a project/starting out

    Don't the dropped items lasting 24 hours cause lag? I don't understand the reasoning behind adding this, unless it's for the death of players, in which case I feel like a chest with all of your items in the spot where you died would be a better alternative

    I'm in favour of all of these, they seem like positive quality-of-life changes that don't necessarily affect the "gameplay loop" of survival other than allowing you more time to retrieve your items and not stress over if you can get back in time, and I think that's great.

    Changes We Will Be Making

    Few changes are needed here as most players are happy with how things are.

    The 24-hour despawn time will remain if performance allows. Currently we have no concerns about performance at all, as items have turned out to be rather undemanding so far. If this changes we will adjust appropriately, but for now everything is fine.

    In response to the junk comments, we will be adding the following items to the junk list:

    Villager Settings

    Another controversial area is the villager changes that have been made on the Stress Test server. Stress Test Villagers have some of their trades modified to use Diamonds rather than Emeralds, in particular Enchanted Books. This was done with the goal of preventing these trades being farmed with a renewable resource, by using methods such as "melkin farms", which were a source of performance issues in 1.15 survival.

    This section of the survey aims to show what the community thinks of these changes, and if any tweaks are necessary.

    Overall Enjoyment

    image-1604064840548.png

    Like with the difficulty results above, this is not the result we expected considering the negative feedback received before the survey. The results here show many players are happy or neutral about the villager changes overall, with more players being happy than any other response. Happy players on their own also outnumber both negative answers combined. We are happy to see this proportion of players satisfied with the changes, which again indicates that the loudest detractors are a vocal minority in the community.

    Elements

    Non-Renewable Items in Trades

    image-1604064288917.png

    Things get more mixed when looking at the specifics, with slightly more positive responses than negative regarding the use of non-renewable items. A good number of neutral players suggests leaving things as they are is the best approach.

    Diamonds in Trades

    image-1604064293732.png

    A similar split of results for using Diamonds specifically in trades, with less neutral votes but a similar lead for people in favour of this change. It again seems logical to leave things as they are with this result.

    Higher Trade Prices

    image-1604064298725.png

    Increasing trade prices in general gets broader support, with half of players liking it, and most of the rest being neutral. We will be leaving this change in place, but are open to experimenting with the specifics, as explained below.

    Desired Changes

    image-1604064342439.png

    When asked about the trade changes they would like to see, it is clear the main opinion is that prices need to change, with 40% of players suggesting this. This is something we are open to experiment with, as the current trade prices were chosen somewhat arbitrarily.

    The other available options get little support in comparison, with 15% of players suggesting a change in items used in trades and changing the chance of successful villager curing.

    Comments

    Many of the comments in this section focused on trade pricing, with a few requesting changes to villager infect rates, which we are not considering at this time. Here are some highlights:

    Personally I'd like to see a 100% rate of curing considering that curing is client-side but I can see how this could seem broken
    I think some of the diamond trades are a little much and honestly would prefer emeralds, but it has to be a non-renewable resource so people don't break the server with a 20000 hopper farm. for me reducing the price of diamond trades by 1-2 would be pretty good,
    Overall it's a pretty minor change and I don't have very strong opinions either way, 8 diamonds is cheaper than 24 hours to get into the hive tbh.

    [...] I'd like to see enchant prices go up personally.

    As a person who trades somewhat often I feel like the diamond trades should be somewhat reduced, mostly they suck them up and hurt the economy since there's no getting them back. Villager curing is something else that could be tweaked since it can be obviously exploited but having to lose villagers every time or more often can be a bit sad when trying to get good discounts of specific items.

    Making the price higher is a pretty good way to make some things more valuable. At the moment, quite a few books are still pretty cheap, despite being valuable. Discounts also play into this, since they're quite easy to farm and practically negate the diamond prices. Personally, I believe that some books like Mending shouldn't be sold at all, to make Mending armour actually unique and not something that can be easily replaced

    I feel that some of the prices for the villagers (namely the enchanted books and whatnot) are too expensive, like mending costing more than a whole new diamond pickaxe.

    If the server remains in hard mode, enchanted gear becomes more of a necessity to avoid dying frequently. I am concerned that with enchantments consuming diamonds it will further encourage hoarding diamonds and massive strip mines. [...]

    I would like to say that I enjoy diamonds being a part of the resources required for certain enchantments as it puts a reason for players to spend a currency that is often hoarded for no good reason.

    Changes We Will Be Making

    Due to the unexpected positive reception to the current changes, we intend to keep Diamond trades as they are. The exact trades that require Diamonds were decided arbitrarily, so we may still adjust the items affected.

    However, in response to the plentiful feedback regarding prices, we plan to change the prices of some of the Diamond Villager trades. We cannot give exact details at this time as this will need to be worked out, but some trades will likely be reduced in price. This will likely be an ongoing exercise as we try to find a sweet spot.

    We are also looking into suggestions of reducing the effectiveness of the more exploitable Emerald trades, to protect the value of Emeralds, discourage Emerald farms, and allow their possible future use in other trades.

    We will not be changing curing success rates at this time, as we are aware this can be exploited to gain huge discounts on some trades. We may revisit this if we find a way to add a minimum price to restore some balance.

    In summary

    Plugins

    We added several significant plugins to the Stress Test server, so we added this section of the survey to see what players thought of them after having a chance to use them.

    Train Carts

    Train Carts adds new minecart-centric features such as vertical/upside-down rails, as well as signs which can control minecart behaviour.

    image-1604064538675.pngMany players are happy with Train Carts at present, so we will be leaving it in place if performance allows, and we do not run into any major bugs. Many players have no opinion currently, possibly due to not yet trying the plugin out, so we will keep an eye on this one.

    Big Doors

    Big Doors allows the creation of animated rotating and sliding doors, which can be controlled with redstone.

    image-1604064542301.pngSimilar results for Big Doors, with many players happy, some players in the middle, and few unhappy. We will also be keeping this plugin enabled in the absence of major issues.

    Armor Stand Editor

    A simple editor for armor stand posing and equipment, using flint.image-1604064546148.pngA large majority of players are happy with the Armor Stand Editor plugin, so nothing needs changing here.

    Vanilla Tweaks

    A range of quality-of-life crafting tweaks, including more trapdoors from planks, more bricks from clay, crafting full blocks from stairs/slabs, and more. See here for the full list.

    image-1604064550049.pngVanillaTweaks also receives broad support, with almost all players happy with it being added to the server.

    Mob Heads

    Mob heads as a drop for a greater range of mobs.image-1604064554121.pngContinuing the pattern, mob heads also get a positive result, with no negative responses at all.

    Wandering Trades

    Wandering Trades adds trades for smaller versions of blocks to the wandering trader.

    image-1604064559108.pngAnother positive majority for the Wandering Trades plugin, which will be left installed.

    Better End

    A custom world generator for The End, which replaces the biomes and structures of the vanilla end. This plugin was added briefly, and later removed due to balancing issues.image-1604064563426.png

    image-1604065108322.png

    Finally, Better End gets a lower, but still convincing majority, in support of it. Our additional question of whether players would like to see Better End be re-added, if balance issues were fixed, also gets a strong positive response. We will therefore aim to re-add Better End in the future, if the balance issues can be worked out, and no other issues present themselves.

    Comments

    Many of the comments in this section were in support of all the plugins that were added to the Stress Test server. There were however some comments that had questions or concerns about specific plugins, which we would like to respond to here.

    With the better end, I feel like the main issue is the lack of difficulty, the vanilla end cities kick the shit out of you and are fun to explore, but the aether biome temples for example are simply, fly in, take high level loot, fly out. they are less in depth and less difficult. [...]

    The other thing is if it's possible to add the completely stock vanilla end biome in such that vanilla end cities still generate.

    Better End does support End City generation, and we can investigate enabling this if/when we re-add the plugin. If we were to do this, aether temples would likely be disabled, and elytra would be found in their vanilla location.

    Not sure if this is a plugin thing or a settings thing, but I'd like to see the ability to sleep through thunderstorms removed, it is frustrating to have a channelling trident only to have every thunderstorm last for under 20 seconds

    The behaviour described here appears to be a bug, as the sleep plugin was configured to not change the weather. We will investigate this to see if we can prevent it happening.

    The only con is the l a g. I tend to make scenes that range in the hundreds to a almost near Den dural level of stands and judging by how many stands we have at stresswhere it may become a bit of an issue. Also it would be nice if we could still use name tags and formatting for them, sadly people tend to misuse and abuse that feature as seen on the New earth server but hopefully there is still a chance.

    Client lag is an issue with armour stands, but we would prefer players to self-police this for now, and not go overboard with armour stand placement. We would rather not have to impose a limit to combat this issue.

    One note on the mob heads: I do think the drops of guardians and elder guardians should be decreased a bit. There are quite a lot of guardian heads already at the gfarm, and with elder guardians dropping their heads 100% of the time now there are also quite a lot of those.

    Vanilla Tweaks appears to have adjusted the loot tables to account for the "farmability" of mobs, but we will investigate this and make further adjustments if necessary.

    Some of these plugins feel like they stray too far from vanilla, like the big doors, train, and better end ones. Also I feel like they probably increase lag.

    We currently have no concerns over the performance impacts of any of the added plugins. If any issues do arise, we will assess our options.

    In addition, we have never claimed the current iterations of the server are vanilla. Since 1.14 we have always used non-vanilla server software, favoured performance over vanilla parity when choosing settings, included non-vanilla plugins such as claims, liquid tanks, rentable areas for the mall, compass modifications and more. The plugins we have added here have also been well received, despite their apparent lack of "vanillaness". In the end it is a common misconception to claim this server is supposed to be vanilla, and we are always open to considering non-vanilla plugin offerings if the community is up for it.

    Changes We Will Be Making

    No significant changes are planned in this area, due to the positive responses to all the added plugins. There are however some reported bugs to investigate, some potential better end changes if/when it is reintroduced, and the possibility of plugin changes or removals due to performance concerns or other major issues.

    Bugs and Reporting

    We added a section on bugs to gauge how many players had run into a bug during their time on the Stress Test server, and to see if players knew how to report or track bugs. Our aim was to determine bugs were not being left unreported.

    Bugs Encountered

    image-1604065095325.pngWe are happy to see that most players have not encountered any bugs during their time on the Stress Test server. Hopefully, this remains the case, as we want any major issues to be fixed before we consider launching the 1.16 server.

    Bugs Reported

    image-1604065076316.png

    Just over half of players which had encountered a bug reported them to us, which is a good start but could be better. A variety of issues were cited as the reason for not reporting bugs, including being intimidated by the idea of talking to staff about a minor issue. Please be assured that we would rather hear about the same bug multiple times than miss a bug entirely due to it not being reported.

    If you do encounter a bug, no matter how small, please report it following the instructions on this page. If you are unsure whether a bug has been reported or not, try checking our Kanboard bug tracker first, and report it if it isn't there.

    Awareness of How to Report

    image-1604065059015.pngFor the players that have not encountered any bugs, we are pleased to see many of them are aware of how to report a bug if they encounter one. For those who are unsure, please see this page.

    Awareness of Kanboard

    image-1604065085150.png

    Many players are also aware of our Kanboard bug tracker, which is nice to see. For those who are unaware, we maintain a Kanboard which tracks all the bugs that have been reported to us, and our progress on fixing them. The Kanboard can be found here. If you run into a bug which is not on the Kanboard, please report it as described on this page.

    Summary

    In response to the Stress Test Survey results:

    Hopefully all these changes are a good compromise considering the survey results.

    Game on.


    Survey Results

    Results and changes for 1.18 Stress Test

    This is a summary of the changes we will be implementing for the RTGame Minecraft 1.18.2 Stress Test Video Game Gaming Server (8MB) (for PlayStation®️2), following the feedback from the recent survey. 80 of you responded and your feedback is valued.

    Some of the changes we are making here may be surprising, but we are willing to experiment with them due to unexpectedly strong support in the survey results. The Stress Test is after all the ideal time for experimentation and a subsequent survey will help us to determine if the changes should stay for the full 1.18 Survival Server. We would appreciate you keeping an open mind.

    What is staying the same

    Whilst some things are changing, many are staying the same. The below list of settings, mechanics and plugins all received strong support in the survey and will be returning unchanged in the 1.18 Stress Test Server.

    What will be changing

    Fire Spread will be enabled outside claims

    We received surprisingly mixed feedback regarding fire spread, with only 33% of players wishing for fire spread and damage to remain disabled everywhere.

    Option Votes Percentage
    Fire never spreads or damages blocks (NO) 25 33.78%
    Fire spreads everywhere, but does not damage claimed blocks (NOCDM) 10 13.51%
    Fire spreads everywhere, but does not damage blocks (NODM) 4 5.41%
    Fire spreads outside of claims, but does not damage blocks (WNODM) 12 16.22%
    Fire spreads and damages blocks outside of claims (WYES) 14 18.92%
    Fire spreads and damages blocks everywhere (YES) 5

    6.76%
    Other 4

    5.41%

    As you can see there is no clear winner, with over 60% of players wanting fire spread but not agreeing on how far to go. 3 of the 4 "other" responses also indicated support for fire spread. In the end we decided to experiment with enabling full fire spread and destruction outside of claims, which retains the utility of claims for protecting against fire as well as allowing for the more dynamic world desired by some of the above responses.

    There is of course the risk that this does not go to plan, either resulting in excessive griefing or server performance issues due to ticking a bunch of fire. Naturally if this becomes a problem we will consider alternatives such as removing the block damage whilst retaining the spread, or disabling spread again. In any case we will of course not take kindly to people abusing this change to upset others.

    Explosions will be enabled outside claims

    Another surprise can be found in the responses for explosion damage. The most popular choice is to allow explosion damage above ground outside claims, rather than only underground as it is now. 

    Option Votes Percentage
    Explosions only damage blocks outside claims, unless /claimexplosions is toggled for a claim (CLAIM) 33 44.59%
    Explosions only damage blocks underground outside claims, unless /claimexplosions is toggled for a claim (CLOW) 20 27.03%
    Explosions only damage blocks underground (LOW) 11 14.86%
    Explosions never damage blocks (NO) 3 4.05%
    Explosions damage blocks everywhere (YES) 4 5.41%
    Other 3 4.05%

    Whilst not quite a majority on its own, it is significantly higher than all other options, and becomes a slim majority when considering the 4 players voting for explosions everywhere. As a result we will be giving this a go in the Stress Test. As with fire if it proves problematic we can revert this change for the final 1.18 server.

    PvP will be enabled on an opt-in basis

    The PvP question presents more interesting results, with opt-in PvP not far behind the existing PvP approach and neither having a majority.

    Option Votes Percentage
    PvP possible only in designated areas/arenas or worlds (AREAS) 32 43.24%
    No PvP at all (NO) 1 1.35%
    PvP possible everywhere on an opt-in basis (OPTI) 27 36.49%
    PvP possible everywhere on an opt-out basis (OPTO) 3 4.05%
    PvP possible only outside of claims (WILD) 4 5.41%
    PvP possible everywhere (YES) 4 5.41%
    Other  3 4.05%

    Based on the above we will be experimenting with an opt-in PvP system. This isn't guaranteed to make it in for the start of the Stress Test, but we would like to introduce it at some point to see how it goes.

    Some actions will no longer require trust in claims

    Based on the survey results we will be removing trust requirements for the below actions which previously required trust on the 1.17 Survival Server. As with all other changes we can revisit this at a later time if necessary.

    Additional datapacks will be added

    We received a few comments requesting bundles be obtainable on the 1.18 Survival Server. We will therefore be trying out the VanillaTweaks Craftable Bundles (Rabbit Hide) datapack on the 1.18 Stress Test Server, which as you may expect allows you to craft bundles with rabbit hide.

    Separately to this we have also decided to add the Rotten Flesh to Leather Rabbit Hide datapack to allow smelting of rotten flesh to create rabbit hide and from there leather. You can then craft this leather into horse armour, and some other items of much lesser importance.

    The /afk command will be removed

    This is not strictly speaking related to the survey, but is nonetheless a change we feel needs to be made. The original purpose of the /afk command was to allow players to indicate their afkness to other players without having to wait for the afk timer to detect them. However we have noticed that players have started using this feature to avoid needing to sleep and in some cases to avoid taking damage. This is pretty clear abuse of the afk mechanism and isn't fair to the players who are playing the game as originally intended.

    Because of this we will be removing the /afk command. The afk system will remain and players detected as afk will remain excluded from sleep calculations as before, but manual toggling will no longer be possible.

    Nether claims will be removed

    Whilst Nether claims did receive strong support in the survey, with 61% preferring them to stay and 31% having no preference, we are proceeding with their removal as they continue to pose additional challenges we do not have satisfactory solutions for.

    The main issue with Nether claims is how they interact with Nether portals. If a player creates a portal in the Overworld which happens to correspond with the location of a claim in The Nether, a portal will be created within that claim and the incoming player will be unable to remove it. This could easily be seen as griefing by the claim owner and would induce extra moderation overhead for server staff.

    Previously this issue has been avoided by disallowing claims within the area of The Nether corresponding with the overworld border, but this has its own problems when the size of the world border changes. The 1.17 Survial Server also suffered occasional issues with explosions not damaging blocks in the unclaimable area of The Nether, due to the large admin claim required in this area to prevent regular claims being created, which will often forget that /claimexplosions is enabled.

    The other reason for removing Nether claims is that they simply weren't used much. In the entire lifetime of the 1.17 Survival Server there have been a total of 10 Nether claims, and some of these appear to be accidental or abandoned as they were not protecting anything notable.

    Overall the maintenance burden of allowing Nether claims does not seem to be worthwhile when the feature has had so little use. We are however aware that certain farms may desire claims as a means of protection, so we will consider creating claims for these areas on a case by case basis.

    Settlements will be allowed on the Nether directories

    After receiving the support of 78% of survey responses, Settlements will be joining Towns, Farms and Points of Interest as an allowable directory listing.

    The Nether Hub design is changing

    We will be trying a smaller and simpler Nether Hub design this time round after reviewing the survey comments. Some players disliked the travel time from ice highway to portal in the 1.17 iteration of the Nether Hub, so the 1.18 Stress Test Nether Hub will use a roundabout design as shown below (materials not final).

    image-1650233672004.png

    This design retains the ability to switch between highways without leaving your boat, but reduces the travel time between highway and portal by keeping them both on the same level.

    In addition to this we have reduced the overall size of the Nether Hub to the bare minimum required for the portals, highways and directories. We have also implemented redirection of portals to the central nether hub portal, if they would have been created inside the nether hub area. This means the large overworld spawn area is no longer required, other than to protect the building itself and to provide space for future necessary structures. As a result we will be reducing the spawn size to 100x100 centered on the spawn point, 96% smaller than the 1.17 Survival Server spawn.

    Finally this iteration of the Nether Hub will not be square. The cut off corners you see above will not be protected and can be edited by all players. We hope this will inject a bit of the 1.13 Nether Hub sprit where players had a larger say in how the Nether Hub looked.

    Anti-xray settings will be changed in The Nether

    In response to the lag issues in the 1.17 Nether many players reported in the survey, we are adjusting our anti-xray approach for the 1.18 Stress Test. The main cause of lag in The Nether is the saturation of a player's connection due to large chunk packets being sent to them. The Nether's chunks are particularly large due to the anti-xray technique we are using, which inserts random ore blocks into the chunk to confuse xray clients and mods.

    This randomisation is effective but also makes the chunks harder to compress and therefore larger. In The Nether this randomisation also covers a larger height range due to the spawning patterns of Ancient Debris, which can spawn as high as Y=119. The fact that players are often moving very quickly in The Nether due to using ice highways also adds to the bandwidth use as many chunks are sent in quick succession when the player travels through them.

    For players on slower connections this can become a problem if their connection cannot keep up with the large chunks being sent to them. When this occurs other packets will be delayed, which means the player's actions may take longer to be acknowledged by the server. In extreme cases the "keep alive" packets which are frequently exchanged will also be delayed, causing the server or client to disconnect after assuming the other side is no longer there.

    To alleviate this we are switching to a different anti-xray approach specifically in The Nether, which avoids randomising blocks and therefore vastly reduces chunk size. After testing this in the 1.17 Nether along the green ice highway we saw a 70% drop in bandwidth usage. Hopefully this will prove sufficient to improve The Nether experience for everyone.

    Withers will be spawnable outside of the Arena but will not drop Nether Stars

    We are relaxing some of the restrictions we implemented in the 1.17 server regarding Wither spawning. Whilst Nether Stars will remain obtainable only via Withers in the arena to avoid cheesing, Withers will once again be spawnable in other dimensions to allow the creation of Wither Rose farms and for nametagging areas.

    The Mall is being moved to the Overworld spawn

    We received a range of comments mentioning how the 1.17 Mall world felt less used or more disconnected from the rest of the server than previous Mall iterations. Some suggested that the Mall return to the Nether, an option we discussed but couldn't find an acceptable solution for. As with Nether claims the main issue with a Nether mall is that Nether portals may be created within it causing unintentional griefing. Expanding the Overworld spawn to avoid this would be impractical due to Nether scaling making over 1000 blocks in all directions necessary for full protection.

    As a middle ground we will be attempting an Overworld Spawn Mall in the 1.18 Stress Test, which will hopefully restore the community feel. The spawn area has also been simplified to reduce bandwidth usage to hopefully avoid losing the advantages a dedicated mall world had for those on slower connections.

    Amplified portals will be added

    We heard from players choosing to live in the Amplified world that they feel disconnected from the rest of the server, with no easy way to travel. To resolve this we have implemented Amplified portals. These portals work the same as vanilla Nether portals, but are built out of basalt instead of obsidian. Amplified portals can be used in both the Overworld and The Nether to take players to Amplified, and in Amplified itself to return players to the Overworld. Nether portals can be used in Amplified to reach The Nether. Coordinate scaling between Amplified and The Nether is the same as the Overworld (1:8). This also means that coordinates for the Overworld and Amplified are 1:1.

    image-1650237841720.png

    The claim block limit will be increased

    We are aware that some of the above changes may prompt players to claim more of the things they choose to build. To aid with this we will be doubling the claim block limit from 20,000 blocks to 40,000. The earn rate will remain the same at 200 blocks per active hour, meaning 200 hours will be required for the full allotment to be usable.

    Additional claim blocks will be purchasable

    In addition to the above higher block limit, we are also introducing the ability to purchase more claim blocks. An additional 40,000 blocks will be available to each player for purchase, meaning a theoretical total of 80,000 blocks are available. The exact price is subject to change, but we are currently working with a cost of 1 diamond for 50 blocks.

    Some farm and block limitations will be removed

    Finally, we are going to relax some of the farm and block restrictions we have previously had in place on the 1.17 Survival Server. The survey showed rather mixed results on the importance of performance vs creative freedom and the comments featured some passionate arguments for allowing additional freedom or finding a better balance.

    For the Stress Test we will be doubling both the Hopper and Piston limits from 16 to 32 per chunk to see if performance remains acceptable. We will not rule out reducing it again if performance suffers too much, but we will also not rule out increasing it further if results are promising. A limit of some form will always remain in place however to avoid needing to clean up 880 hopper monstrosities that half the TPS when enabled.

    Creeper and Enderman drops and XP will also be restored to their vanilla amounts, to reduce grinding. Spawner based farms will also have all their block based restrictions removed. We now accept that reducing drops and limiting these farms does not actually solve the problem of needing farms and just increases player frustration.

    Despite the above we will however still maintain our position on Iron and Raid farms. We will continue to not allow raid farms due to the extreme amount and variety of items they provide via abuse of a mechanic that is supposed to be a challenge to the player. The fact that they make use of a demanding mob also does not help. Iron Golems will also still drop a reduced amount of iron due the Iron Golem's role as a protective mob which shouldn't be targeted, a stance Mojang themselves have taken in the past when breaking previous iron farms. In any case iron is everywhere in 1.18, you'll be fine.