xDrews

Time for another Post, has been a while since the last one!
 
First of all, I want to thank the whole Network team for working on Assassins Craft! A lot of things have been fixed and a lot of new cool things like Glaskerville and Items got added, which i really appreciate.
 
Same as last time, this post should be meant as a positive critique and I'm writing it because I care about the server and don’t want it to die or decrease even more.
 
I will Cut this post into several parts, in which I talk about the server in general and then about some specific game modes.

Things affecting the server in General
 
Playercount
 
As we all know, since some years now the player count on network has decreased a lot, this perhaps affected by the popularity of Minecraft itself or also the server. There are number of possible ways with which we could try to bring back more players to the server, which i will list below:
 
Advertising the server
 
You could advertise the server by maybe partnering up with for example a discord of some sort so you advertise their discord and they advertise Network.
Also you could try to bring content creators to the server, like it happened some years ago with Youtubers like Inachete and Hiipo, which got a lot of views and brought a part of their community onto the server.

Another way of advertising it is also social media platforms, for example on reddit or twitter where you can advertise the server and get new players interested in it.
 
Downgrading to 1.8
 
1.8 is much more stable on both servers and computers and also has a better combat system than the current 1.15. A lot of players also still play on 1.8 for that reason and a lot of servers support that version too. The downgrade doesn’t need to be on the whole server, so modes like pure survival can keep getting updates like the new nether update. The server hub should be 1.8 to 1.16 and there you need to get either 1.8 for pvp modes or 1.16 for survival/creative gamemodes, as it was some time ago with 1.12/1.10/1.8.
 
Frequent events/updates
 
Instead of focusing on just one gamemode, make updates for the most played ones more often, they don't need to be big, it can be just small additions that will make players want to play and check out the update.

Also why not make community events, where players compete or have to do something for a small prize (like ingame money)?

 
Fixing bugs/plugins
 
There are still some bugs that make the game a bit annoying and that are quite easy to fix for someone with a bit of knowledge about the plugins. 
Also I made the suggestion for a Skin plugin for cracked accounts some time ago (its called SkinsRestorer i think), why not add this? It's updated to the newest version and would give players more personality unlike now where all cracked players have to use the default steve skin.
 
Things regarding Assassins Craft
 
Gameplay
 
Since the last post I’ve made a lot of bugs got fixed and some new stuff got added, but still there are some annoying things like bugs or unbalanced items, which can make the game a bit annoying or unfair.
 
Another thing is the skill gap between players that play actively and have good gear and newcomers that are not very familiar with the server and usually get killfarmed by better players. In my opinion it is too easy to farm gold and get to a high level in a short time.
To make that skill gap smaller following things could be done:
 
Reset
 
Resetting the entire Assassins Craft mode for every player would bring all players down to the same level, so new players also have a chance to fight against these or to go loot chests without the fear of getting followed or directly killed off spawn
 
Decrease Loot
 
To make better gear harder to get, chests should either have less gold / weapons in them or gear like armor or weapons should be more expensive in the shops.
Another idea is to make loot more random, so there isn’t a 100% chance for at least 3 gold to spawn in a specific dungeon but that there is also the chance to get none or just some iron. For players that know every dungeon it's easy to get around 64 gold in under an hour (assuming you have fly from sponsor rank, more later).
 
Unfair Items / Abilities
 
Some items and other things are really unbalanced, like playing against these in a fight is really annoying or unfair. To make them more balanced they should get made weaker, so you have more chance to fight against them but that they aren’t useless.
 
Sniper Rifle / Musket
 
Both the Musket and Sniper can be found in some dungeons quite easily and they are really strong in ranged fights. The problem with them is that they are:
too common to find in dungeons
hitscan, so the bullet instantly hits there where you are aiming with the crosshair
ignoring enchantments on armor and do the same damage like they do on unenchanted armor
making too much damage in general, even the default sniper without any extra perks like + damage or poison can instantly kill a armored player with a headshot
 
To make them more balanced, you could
make them more rare in dungeons or take them out completely so they are only available in the market
give them bullet travel and dropoff, so the shot takes some time until it hits a ranged target
make them detect enchantments like protection or projectile protection and reduce damage depending on this
reduce base and headshot damage, so a full enchanted diamond player doesn’t die from 2 headshots
disable double rifle which can be used by having a rifle in each hand and swap to the other after shooting with the first one.
 
Anti Knockback Shield
 
The shield does what a hacking client with andi Knockback and Blockhitting does for you, it blocks damage from incoming attacks and also makes you resistant to any knockback an enemy would give you normally. Just think about it for a second and imagine fighting against something like this as a normal player. Overpowered right?
The shields abilities could also be reduced and balanced by changing following things:
Reduce the anti knockback 10 enchantment to like 5, so it blocks 50% of the knockback but not all.
Give it a cooldown of some seconds until it can be used again after a certain amount of hits on it.


 
/Fly for sponsors
 
Just think about making a game mode focused on parkour (at least a big part) and then give players the ability to fly through the parkour to the end and get the loot that is there. Sounds pretty boring because it requires absolutely no parkour skill and is unfair to players without the permissions at the same time. Makes it pretty much pay to win, as I said somewhere above with fly you can get a stack of gold in less than an hour, while free players need to do every parkour without fly and have a higher risk of dying by falling into a trap or lava and take much longer to get the same amount of gold.
Removing fly completely would be fair to every player that hasn’t paid 50€ just to upgrade their stuff faster. Also it would remove the ability to pvp while flying completely.
 
Things regarding other gamemodes
 
Pure Survival
 
Creative Mode

It’s a SURVIVAL server, so why is there a creative mode? There is also a Creative server meant for creative building, and I think having creative mode gives an unfair advantage, you don’t have any challenge achieving something compared to players that don’t have a sponsor rank and have to do all their things in normal survival. Also creative brings exploits like doing PVP with creative generated Items. Yes, its written in the rules that its not allowed, but not everyone doing it can get caught and not every player knows that their enemy is using generated items that took no effort to make.
 
World Edit

I think Worldedit is a great tool, but it should rather be something for the Creative since it also gives unfair advantages, bypasses claims, like you can delete someones house which is claimed and also blocks generated with World Edit don’t have a Creative tag, so you can mine them as a survival player and make whatever you want with them. This ruins the economy when someone can create stacks of diamond blocks and give them to others or sell them in the market. 
 
Nether Update

The server got 1.16 compatible some time ago and we still can’t use the new Netherite items or go into the new nether biomes. Updating the server completely to at least 1.16 or higher and removing 1.15 support could allow you to enable these things which would be really cool and also would make players come back to the server to try out these new things.
 
CTW
 
1.8 downgrade

Yes, this was talked about multiple times, but we still got no real answer to why id doesn’t get done. The server has no players currently, so why don’t you give it a try and    put it back to 1.8? In that version it had the most players since there was the old PVP system and also the chat still worked. There is nothing to lose, since the lobby server can just be 1.8 up to 1.16 compatible, and in there you can choose between the different servers that just require different minecraft versions.
 
Advertise this gamemode

There are not many minecraft servers having a gamemode like this. The only one that I can think about is Hypixel, which usually has a lot of lag and doesn’t have a good anticheat. So why not use this as an advantage to get players that like the concept of Capture the wool and don’t want a lot of lag? Use sites like reddit that have categories where you can promote a minecraft server.
 
That was a lot of writing, hope it was worth it.
Thanks to everyone taking his time to read this, if you want feel free to comment your own ideas or give feedback.
And yes, the formatting is weird since I made it in google docs and the website doesn't seem to like that xD.
 

@brunyman just ignored this, at least I hope we can get some advertising, the server is just turning bored asf because AC is the only game that still have players.

Hey, idk if you knew but players cant chat in CTW servers because of an NPE every time players send messages and also the 1.8 pvp system is really bugged, sometimes works and sometimes doesnt. There are videos showing that @brunyman
It makes me sad because CTW was one of my favuorite servers and a really played one, but now its impossible to play because of those two important aspects

Please I ask you to read the whole post, it is important.
It is not a secret that the server has been falling in number of players lately, this post is intended to give ideas for the server to stabilize at least a bit like before.
1. Reactivate CTW. This minigame is the one that had the most players all the time, having several hours of continuous play, with games with many players, this minigame was the one that most caught the attention of users, and the reason why several players bought a rank .
2. Bring back 1.8. Last year, there was a smaller number of players in CTW, but this number dropped to 0 when the server became exclusive for version 1.15, and that happened even in AC, the server was very good when you could enter with version 1.8, Maybe it was moved to version 1.15 by Survival, skyblock and Hiipo minigames, but I think it was a bad idea to change the version.
3. Advertising. I suggest that they give more publicity to the server, either with a youtuber or somewhere else, but that this is when the server is in version 1.8, lately the players have been playing more than 1.8 servers (A clear example may be HY ).
I would like you to comment if you agree with my post, especially on the subject of changing the server to 1.8, or if you have any suggestions, I ask you to comment on them :p
The post in spanish:
 

The difference between 1.16 and 1.8 even without mentioning the pvp system is very notable. It doesn't affect only the pvp system, it also affects the fps, the chunks, the shifting, etc.
And I'm pretty sure they meant ''reactivating'' by 'reviving' it or ''make it have at least players' again.

It is not 100% accurate but I hope it works

or just reset the nether world, since 1.16 is  mostly focused on it
 

or just reset the nether world, since 1.16 is  mostly focused on it
 

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it
 

Why havent I seen this before? Looks amazing, you should make it listed
Thanks for taking your time!

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it
 

Nice video 
Excellent @xDrews_YT

Nice work!

Oh nice! you can see my plot in Creative Plots

Such a cool video!

Excellent! These types of publications are very good! Very good work @xDrews_YT   

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it
 

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it
 

I agree with the removal of Creative mode, since it's still a survival server and network even has its own creative server.

To worldedit I have a idea but in not sure if that would be possible performancewise or because of missing plugins: 

When i played a bif of modded i discovered a "Building wand" which allows players to create large areas of blocks, and it takes them out of their inventory.
My Idea would be something similar for worldedit, if a player has the right amount of the needed block in his inventory, the structure will get created, and if he has less than needed it wont. with that worldedit would just be a useful tool for faster building and it wont get abused, since the generated blocks get taken out of the players inventory.

Good afternoon ... Today I want to go to the whole "The Network" community to make a proposal, a suggestion and perhaps a solution to some of the server problem 

"I want to focus specifically on the Pure Survival mode"

This is what I think. Since it became fashionable on the server "Among the sponsors" to ask for access to "WE" has become problematic, both by creating structures with base stone, destroying contructions of other users and abusing it. Lately I have noticed that the "Sponsors" use the //we to give to the other players, as is that? simple. They only mark a base with such a command and permission and copy blocks of value as "Diamond Blocks and Emerald Blocks" or simply from some block that serves a player. Clearly the manager of the server can control this with the console, seeing the logs of the players and so put some prohibition, but being honest sometimes they do not have time for that by having obligations and it is a little..

Solution: (From my point of view)

From my point of view, the solution would be that the sponsors cannot use said command in protected areas and that the blocks generated by them from said command // WE exit with Spawner by .. This would avoid duplicating blocks, emeralds, diamonds, etc. .. Or just remove the command ..

¿Why should the command be removed if it is a "Tool" requested in the forum?

Simply ... the // WHAT is an administrative command, a command used to create large constructions that in my opinion should not have a user "Sponsor" The sponsor has access to the /gmc command I do not think it necessary that said rank with the commands that it has amerite the /WE as I said.. It’s kind of annoying for the staff to be always fixing these kinds of problems when they can just be avoided..

Note: I am also an operator of the // WE command

"Regarding the /GMC command"

With respect to this command it is clearly very difficult to remove it because for this you would have to agree with the server managers.. From my point of view I consider that since this command there have always been abuses of the, simple patrocidadores duplicando item and always this asks the give to users in some way or other that the server tries to block it always this. I have considered that it would be better to remove the command of such modality since there are always duplicates and things that generally problem for the server...

As a solution I think

It would be better to create a /Warp which allows the sponsors or drivers of /gmc to get all the assets of the gm, to each item of alli create a Spawner by global, example "Spawner by VIP" so that only the ranks with access to the gm can get it, Duplication would be avoided, problems for the server would be avoided and staff members would be spared work because they would not have to worry about such things and would be a community and a cleaner mode of play..

In the same way, the / item command would remain, without having / gmc it could be used and it would be a great advantage


Note:The truth would be much better to be in the mode without this command, because personally it always brings chaos or problems for the server, duplicates and more. Older users will remember that there was a disaster in version 1.7.2. which was because users with /gmc found a way to create unbreakable items, immortality positions, 127 level incantations, damage positions with 10000 damage, arcs etc. from that point the server is forbidding players.. Wouldn’t it be better to avoid that problem and just create more order with the commands? The solution at that time was only to give an update to the server, placing it in version 1.8 that version also took over these items, not so much with in 1.7.2 but if they were seen.

Lately, the server is prone to the same problems happening again ... because there are already tools to do this type of item again ... If it happened once, why can't it happen again?

If there is any other problem regarding these fixings or do you have any other fixings let them know in this post, I want the greatest possible attention and the most opinions from different members of the server

Thank you @Zayphing!
It took more work than some people might realize , I have received some critique of it being too short, but that is because it took so long to create, especially for me when I had to learn how to do this all from scratch. I don't think it's It is an understatement to say that we four combined have spent hundreds of hours on Glaskerville alone.
But...! For those that might feel it is a bit short, this is merely the beginning. We won't immediately add any new dungeons of parkours to Glaskerville per say, but there will still be content added on to it. That is the whole idea of Glaskerville, that it will be something you return to again and again. And the next quest to be worked on will be saving Ronald's Family: Dora and Ellie. If it will be to save their souls or save their lives, only time will tell  - But before then I need to work on some stuff behind the scenes, as well as fixing bugs that have arose with the release.
 
But on top of that, the neighboring area is looking really hot too, also created by the fine gentlemen who built Glaskerville. Expect to see the doors open for that in the near future

It's finally here!
The dark woods of Glaskerville is now open to the public, for those that dare venture inside. 
Glaskerville has been a long ongoing project where we aimed to bring some new concepts to the table, give more of a reason to do parkours and dungeons than just gold. In Glaskerville you will be collecting Tokens alongside your gold, these tokens will let you unlock special traits that are usable inside Glaskerville. You will also be able to trade them for Enchanting books- for our loyal donators this might not be especially exciting as they already have that available to in their donator-only areas. But Glaskerville aims to unify the ranks and give an alternate method of obtaining these enchanting books.
You go through progression steps in Glaskerville, finding clues and unlocking new areas, all while following the storyline of the area. 
 
If you have no idea where to go after reading this, then go speak to Ronald at spawn. He'll give you some good hints to follow
 
 
It should also be noted that the creation of Glaskerville required a lot of custom configuring, the config for the menus alone is 4500 lines. So there ought to be some bugs, and because of that I have opened up this topic for you to report any issues you might have:
 
Credits: 
SlendyOff - Main builder
Flamefurno - Assisting in building
Zengz - Parkour creator
Henkekalmar - Anything else
 
 

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it
 

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it
 

To Deal with the spawncamping problem, i thought about something like this:
I Tested it on singleplayer with a downladed spawn.
 
It gives you weakness and regeneration on level 30 so you cant really do damage or get any. when you get out of spawn the effect lasts 20 more seconds, which is enough to get out of the city.
 

Made a little server trailer of the craftersland Network server
actually planned to do it 2 years ago but forgot about it.
Hope you like it