Redefining Creative Building?

Heyas all.

First I want to say that I mean no offense towards anyone involved with the creation of Athion. You all worked very hard to give us the best possible experience and that is very much appreciated.

However, after spending a few hours on the server I started to notice that this wasn't quite the experience I, or lots of others I met (Mostly people from PI, it turned out), were looking for.

As of right now, this server is basically Mithrintia. This isn't exactly a bad thing, but it also isn't "redefining creative building" as it was so boldly advertised. Also it was quite a shock to the old PI veterans, who suddenly found themselves confined to solitary building within plots.

Which cuts straight to the heart of all problems:

That there is no open world anymore.

Yes, I do realize that there is one. But it's almost impossible to reach for anyone but the most dedicated and talented players, who slaved away for dozens of hours through riduculously high requirements. But it shouldn't be that way.

Remember when we formed close friendships over working on cities together, when we flew over vast lands full of buildings and life, when we took a break from building and just watched the sun go down over the ocean? Remember the enthusiam of new players who were restlessly searching for that perfect spot to build, and how we all felt when we finally found it?

An open world is necessary for proper minecraft building, and it's absolutely essential for "redefining creative building".

Another thing I've noticed is that item frames, redstone torches, and a bunch of very useful glitched blocks are banned. The official explanation given for this is to minimize lag and deter griefers from creating lag machines. I see that it was only done with the best intentions, but I fail to see how it is actually necessary. On PI, both of these things were allowed (Both in plotworld and the open worlds), yet I have never once encountered any problems with them, and I've probably used hundreds of item frames in close proximity to each other. Item frames are an amazing tool for detailing, and anyone seeking to "redefine creative building" should value their potential as an aesthetic tool more than their much smaller potential to cause lag. The same goes for redstone torches, especially since anyone with a little bit of skill can create a lag machine anyway with the blocks allowed.

So yeah. I'm really happy that there's a server to play with my favourite people again, but I'm not exactly happy that it's this server, and I know I'm not alone with this.

You wanted to give us the best possible experience, so this is your chance to do it.

-uioz

 

Hello Uioz!

We do greatly appreciate the feed back and I'd like to potentially throw a few spoilers out there to all of you as well as clear up any concerned you may have. We are looking into possibilities regarding an open world as the strict plot system is the most frequently complained about aspect of the network. The problems we're looking to resolve mostly involve how to keep the map resource friendly. All of the anti-grief systems are very very resource intensive, which is something we can't currently support. So as soon as we figure out a system to keep the open world secure as well as economical we'll be bringing it to you guys on the live server. We do have a few ideas they just require further investigation before we feel comfortable pushing them onto the network.

As for the blacklisted blocks we've tried to provide feasible alternatives but we do assure you the blacklisted blocks were required to keep the server stable. We did extensive stress testing before sending the server public and blocks/entities currently disabled are for a reason. Once again this is by no means a permanent solution we are constantly exploring alternate options to bring you guys the server you expected, and we will get there.

This server is our baby, and we wish for it to be as successful as humanly possibly. We will work towards this goal everyday.

-LRC

 

I 100% Agree with this, It was deff. a change to PI players to find out that we're building on plots, I personaly thought that plots on the first rank was fine back in PI, the amount of griefers after that were almost none! It was great, so you actualy had to build to get in the main world, and most higher ranks and some others had there builds protected so there was no worries, Along with plugins to see who places/destroyed a block

 

I completely agree with uioz. I wanted to make a thread about my concerns on the server too. I just didn't want to put out my opinion right away because I don't want to look like the grumpy one but now is the right time since the hype is over I guess. :D

So yeah, I really think we should have an open world for building because of various reasons. Plots should only be for basic learning/ranking up a few times or something. When I first stepped into the open world on PI, one of my first builds that I was dedicated to finish was my onyxia, and that project was huge. That project helped me learn organics and it helped me step over the boundaries that I had created in my head. With plots, it just gives you two boundaries..the psychological one, plus the actual plot boundaries. If I didn't have that open world on PI, maybe I'd never get to start my onyxia project, get over my boundaries and maybe never learn organics. I just feel trapped in the plotworld..I can't make myself to build something on a 150x150 plot. Plus the boring flat grassy land doesn't help inspire me either lol. Even wrecking the land sometime in the open world was fun..it'd make u build for some reason.

Another concern I have with plots is that in the future, when we will be able to transfer our old builds, I won't be able to transfer any of my old builds on a 150x150 plot and finish them, they're just too big. And I really don't feel like building just for ranks where I will be able to go to grand creator playground, where I will be able to finish a total of 3 big active projects I had back on PI.

A little side thing too..when I compare the things I and other people had built on PI all together compared to the size of these plots, I feel like me and more people deserve a lot more..Not as in deserve more power, higher rank or more w.e. commands or voxel sniper or whatever, it's just that a 150x150, or a 300x300 plot is ungreatful, not to mention the smaller plots. But I get it that this is a new server with a new system, requirements and everything..

It's not that I am completely against plots, we can have them, it's just that you need to go through 4 ranks until u can reach the good old fun open world. It also gives people the wrong idea where they will just build for ranks. Building should be out of fun, having fun with people on the server and learning together, no matter if it's a mega build or just some small build where you were messing around.

Having an available open world early on is a must imo..if we're ever going to move the boundaries of creative, we gotta move the boundaries of plots. :)

 

Can i just say that... the truth must be spoken... even if it hurts we can survive... but i still agree with uioz completely the worst part is the UMDR was not saved the way i wanted it to...

 

Also another thing about what I miss in PI...

Joining the server just to chat, and while chatting, roaming into an open world, seeing history everywhere, a build that was probably made 2 years ago that looked terrible but it was just great to be able to talk to people, wonder around and just have fun.

Just my opinion :)

 

I completely agree the open world of pwego had a charm to it I remember having to get white listed at the time but it was still amazing. Very very little grief in the recent times the plots deterred the grief er away. If it was up to me I would have no plots and give people a way of protecting their own land using world guard or something that way they can build outside a certain areaand have their plot allowance protected and possibly have w.e in the protected area but hey that's just an idea.Something about the old PI was special builduing wit friends open world the great community everything made it special. This new experience of plots is still just plots no matter how many times you recode plots it's practically still just plots just a limit on creativity on passion and athion is just joining the generic mc creative server and I'm not sure if you can even rank it the best of the plotworld servers around all I know is that this server has lost that something special for me I hope it gets it back but hopes are but hopes will continue to come on as regularly as I can
Ala

(Btw what happened to Pwego sometimes I feel the poor guy has been cheated out of his server and athion was just a money scheme cus pwego can't pay his half of the server and hence the movie takeover towards the end. Besides athion is still the merging of Insomnia and Mith leaving pwego out of this as I don't know his stance on the merge and whether he agreed to gI've sometimes I have my doubts movie even acquired pwego from Chris and that he's being cheated that way. Also insom and Mith where both servers that fed off pwego and both their owners where past membets on pwego. What's even more shocking is the turn of the staff and most importantly sycoinc very little was said why he us owner him or xenzu they just happened and syco was so loyal to Pwego and the server and then he suddenly turned? What happend with all the other staff is still unclear where they forced by movie to staff for athion. Did they decide to move over ? How much do / did they know?

The servers always saying it's going to be the best and they're going to solve our problems and answer our questions but that as I have and will continue to say has been all talk and no action. I understand the servers need for secrecy but I doubt anyone will steal your ideas and if they do so what ? It's a game it's meant to be fun it's not a business it's not a co-operation it's fun it's minecraft no matter what you make yourself believe. Slowly slowly the server is losing its community and the people are even voicing their frustration their anger their clause but still and furthermore the staff have done naught to provide with what we seek. We seek enjoyment we seek to make memories that last builds that inspire meet people that crest and are social minded like us and to be one. But as it currently stands the community is divided all in uproar against this tyranny that is athion. Where once I was skilled and had access to the world it's blocks and commands I am now stuck limited by boundaries both psychological and physical and am bound to slave forever more for the aristocratic server that is athion

 

guys...... as sycoinc recentyly stated, they're planning things out just gotta give it time...they do hear u loud and clear though. as yoda once said "patince young one".

 

Amen... My thoughts exactly... Maybe not 100% exactly... >;3

 

I find this reply to be a bit extreme, as are a lot of the opinions towards Athion presented in this thread and others like it.

We at Athion had a vision back in April of May of a server that we could open together, that would be far superior to any others currently in the community or that we could achieve ourselves. We set out to start developing it in late summer, and as development took a lot longer than we thought, it ended up not happening for a long while after we wanted to. We weren't able to pack all of the features we wanted for the launch in beforehand, so we decided to go ahead and launch with less features rather than make you guys wait longer. We have solutions and other features that solve a lot of the problems that have been presented, we just need a bit more time to work on them.

Posts like this, suggesting that Athion is just a money scheme, or that it's just a big conspiracy or something, are pretty scary and border along paranoia; we are just trying to create the best community we can as fast as we can. All of us owners had different things to contribute and different dreams for the server, and all of us work incredible amounts of hours per week to make that happen. You thinking that we did this only to make money or to cheat someone out of something is hurtful to hear, and is not exactly motivating for anyone involved; the owners, the staff, or the community.

And as for Pwego; Chris was only slightly involved in the decision for Athion simply because he was not a relevant part of our staff team during any of the process for Athion, nor in the administration for over a year prior to Athion being formed. He is a busy guy, and Minecraft wasn't what he needed to put his time into. We don't blame him for this, nor did we try to smuggle anything out of him with the launch of Athion; we just simply dreamed bigger and he didn't have the time to help out.

I hope this answers some questions, or was just generally helpful. I'm sorry some of you feel this way, and know that we are working as hard as we can to get everything you guys want in a server online and functioning. With this apology, though, I'd also like to ask you guys to please refrain from making posts like this. As I stated earlier, they aren't very productive for anyone involved and only succeed in making us lose motivation for the server. It hurts us that you would think we have bad intentions with this server, as I can personally testify all of our staff are so far unpaid, and are doing this purely out of the kindness of their own hearts. You may think that this is just for fun, or that it's just Minecraft, but our staff treat this server like a job, and put as much effort into it as they would a job, and that needs to be respected.

Have a lovely night, and I look forward to not necessarily more positive feedback in the future, but feedback that is more productive.

- iRapp