Blocktopia Build: The Next Chapter

[Nillbugwtw]

Hello all!

Following the exciting announcement of the migration of Buildbox to EscapeRestart's Minecraft 1.8 lineup, it's with great pleasure that I can now announce more information about how the new server will function.

The Name
This coming week, we will rebrand ourselves as EscapeRestart: Create!, or colloquially, Create. We feel that this name more accurately represents what players come to the server to do - create things, not build... boxes.

The Ranks
First and foremost: Builder ranks will not transfer over to Create. While I know that many people will likely be upset with this, we feel that a completely fresh start for builders will be most beneficial to the server as well as the players. As much as we hate to admit it, due to WorldEdit not working for players on Buildbox, the Builder rank was often given as a "sympathy" rank to mapmakers and people who did not have the time to build everything by hand to get the Builder rank. Because WorldEdit is now working for all users, creating the builds required for promotion will be much easier. AdvBuilders will keep their rank.

Create also introduces two new ranks. The first of these, Architect, is an additional rank above Advanced Builder. Architects will be the best of the best builders, excelling in all areas of Minecraft building, from cityscapes to terrain to minutely detailed builds. You must be an Advanced Builder to apply for this rank; applications will be accepted on the forums. Architects will be given block limits bordering those of staff, unlimited plots, and a few other honorary permissions.

The second new rank being introduced is Guest. This is the default rank for all newcomers, and has very few permissions. Once the user reads and accepts the rules, they are automatically promoted to Novice, the new Player rank on Create. Novices have all permissions that Players had in Buildbox, with the added benefit of being able to WorldEdit in their plots.

The rank structure for Create is as follows:
Guest - Novice - Builder - AdvBuilder - Architect - Moderator - Controller - Admin

The Worlds
Create's worlds will be very similar to Buildbox, however, excess worlds have been removed, as we want to focus on mainly providing plots to users. Terrain will not be returning, as grief management on it was difficult relative to the few players who used it. Flatland, a staple of minecraft servers since Classic, will return, because we couldn't call ourselves a creative server without it. Three plot worlds will be available on Create, depending on your rank. The main plots world will be available to Novice+, and will feature 64x64 plots, of which players can claim up to two. Players will also be given the ability to clear their plot instead of having to rely on a staff member to do so. The bplots world will be available to Builder+, and will feature 192x192 plots, the same size as those currently available on Buildbox. Builders will be able to claim up to two of these plots. The final plots world, advplots, will function exactly as it does now: AdvBuilder+, with Architects being able to claim as many plots here as they can use.
Note: The current plots world will NOT transfer over to the new server. Read this thread for more information, and to request your plot be transferred to Create. The AdvPlots world WILL transfer over.

The Current Server
As you know, Buildbox has been down for several days now due to UUID issues. While I had prepared the server for the UUID change several months ago, several plugins acted entirely unexpectedly once the change actually hit the server, which forced me to whitelist the server in order to mitigate the damage Buildbox would have faced(including, but not limited to: all ranks resetting and the ability to build on anyone's plot). At this point, Buildbox will stay down, as I see little need to split time between building a new server and trying to fix an old one that will shut down almost immediately.

World Downloads:
Terrain.rar: 305MB
Flatland.rar: 44MB
Plots.rar: 630MB
FinalBuildbox.rar: All of the above worlds, 979MB

Release
Create will be released early this coming week. There are several key aspects of the server left to configure, and now more than ever it is important that the server run without issues before it is released. Dependent on several factors, I can confidently say that Create will be public by Tuesday at the latest.

The Lobby
For the past three days, Buildbox staff have worked tirelessly to quickly put together a new lobby to be featured on Create. What they've put together absolutely blows me away, and I encourage everyone to take a little bit of time to explore it once the server goes up, as it's an incredible build, especially given that I forced them to work under such little notice. Psycho, chrisrocks300, RoboticAlligator, SirComputer, and Miyako all deserve ENORMOUS credit for this lobby.




I'd like to thank members of the community for being patient with us during this transition, and I hope to see you all on EscapeRestart: Create! once it releases. I'll leave you all with a teaser, the lobby as built by the incredible Create staff.

All the best,
Nillbugwtw

 

[SirComputer]

Create will be awesome! We've finally got those new ranks in, players have access to WorldEdit easily, this is gonna be good!

 

[MiyakoWolf]

I'm so excited!! :D

 

[Pafrick]

honestly i am so, so, so, excited for the release of create.
a few of my questions/concerns are ~~

1. When submitting a build for application purposes, does it have to be built with the default resource pack? or can we use other resource packs to create them in, thus putting in a link to where the texture pack can be found (and possibly downloaded from) and more detailed screenshots of the builds?
2. can we still create builds in our own single player worlds? given that we provide evidence of our building progress (i.e sketches, screenshots (including yourself (the builder) in the process of building)
3. And will there be a set criteria new to Create which explains to new and old players the standards that need to be met before submitting a creation?

 

[BiggestKirbyFan]

I'm so excited!! :D

 

[Jubjubers]

no



my years of shit

 

[BanSwift]

NOTCH TREES </3

 

[Prizyms]

When submitting a build for application purposes, does it have to be built with the default resource pack? or can we use other resource packs to create them in, thus putting in a link to where the texture pack can be found (and possibly downloaded from) and more detailed screenshots of the builds?

Building with the default texture pack is most convenient for us - shaders and high-res texture packs often makes things look better than they really are, focusing the viewer's eye on the graphics rather than the build itself.

can we still create builds in our own single player worlds? given that we provide evidence of our building progress (i.e sketches, screenshots (including yourself (the builder) in the process of building)

We'd rather you made all your application builds on the server, purely because it saves us the job of reverse-searching the images to see if they were taken from Planet Minecraft or similar (which has happened in the past).

And will there be a set criteria new to Create which explains to new and old players the standards that need to be met before submitting a creation?

I will be writing rough quality criteria for the three building-based ranks for the staff at first, and then for the public if there is demand.

 

[Notme]

- Builds house to get builder rank
- Abandons it in midway
- Overhaul is coming.

gg me for not finishing house

 

[Fiestaguy]

Players will also be given the ability to clear their plot instead of having to rely on a staff member to do so.

I sense people purposely deleting their plots with 6K lava blocks to crash the server.

I was also building a giant castle by hand but blargh the internet forbid me access to minecraft.

 

[YouWould]

Will the Architect rank have access to larger plots than Adv Builder?

 

[parquette]

Will all the builds in flatland be deleted? If so is there a way I could request my build be transferred to the new server along with my White Castle plot?

 

[Naoh]

Will everyone have access to WorldEdit?

 

[Fiestaguy]

Will everyone have access to WorldEdit?

Because WorldEdit is now working for all users, creating the builds required for promotion will be much easier

 

[Jubjubers]

Will the Architect rank have access to larger plots than Adv Builder?

Architects will be given block limits bordering those of staff, unlimited plots, and a few other honorary permissions.

 

[Shanebat1]

the "!" is killing me nill

 

[Doxxieh]

Great, barely a few weeks after I worked to get my Builder rank back, I'll be demoted again. Fuck.

 

[superhalo6]

Builder ranks will not transfer over to Create.

Builder rank was often given as a "sympathy" rank to mapmakers and people who did not have the time to build everything by hand to get the Builder rank.

It isn't really fair that everyone has to lose their rank because of a few people who got Builder as a sympathy rank, it wasn't as easy to earn the rank, there was no World Edit, that didn't mean massive builds
It meant smaller, more detailed builds, the requirements for earning Builder haven't changed, so why should there be a reset of the Builder ranks for everyone, instead of those few people?

 

[S_swimmer]

Speaking as a past operator, the people we gave Builder to for sympathy was MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more than a few people. At one point, it seemed like that's all we were doing. And, after all, the main reason players were complaining that Builder was hard to get was because they didn't have WorldEdit. Now they do. I know everyone thinks that it's unfair to lose Builder again, but there are firm reasons behind this. And now that Novices have WE, there isn't as much of an enormous need to get Builder as there was in BuildBox, so people who don't want to try super hard for Builder can just create! for fun again.

 

[MiyakoWolf]

Eh, its a fresh start for everyone. Yeah it may seem unfair, but if you worked hard for the builder rank then this time around it shouldn't be so tough, as you already know roughly what you have to do to gain the rank again. I think its good to restart, gives you something else to do and it just makes things alot easier for the staff too.

 

[Psycho]

It isn't really fair that everyone has to lose their rank because of a few people who got Builder as a sympathy rank, it wasn't as easy to earn the rank, there was no World Edit, that didn't mean massive builds
It meant smaller, more detailed builds, the requirements for earning Builder haven't changed, so why should there be a reset of the Builder ranks for everyone, instead of those few people?

Obtaining the Builder rank on Buildbox may have been hard for some, but the one thing that I did notice was that the build quality was pretty great when players didn't use WorldEdit but focused on certain aspects that made their build look interesting.
To be quite honest, I really appreciated the players that had to deal with the staff regarding their promotion to Builder. You guys took the time and effort to build something nice by hand and it showed in your work.
Hopefully, if you guys do continue building in Create, that the build quality that you showed in Buildbox will be the same in the new server or even better now that you will initially have WorldEdit to help amplify you creation.
Overall, just continue building for the fun of it.

 

[superhalo6]

Obtaining the Builder rank on Buildbox may have been hard for some, but the one thing that I did notice was that the build quality was pretty great when players didn't use WorldEdit but focused on certain aspects that made their build look interesting.
To be quite honest, I really appreciated the players that had to deal with the staff regarding their promotion to Builder. You guys took the time and effort to build something nice by hand and it showed in your work.
Hopefully, if you guys do continue building in Create, that the build quality that you showed in Buildbox will be the same in the new server or even better now that you will initially have WorldEdit to help amplify you creation.
Overall, just continue building for the fun of it.

Maybe a review of the builders (who are active players at least) based on what they submitted, only active players because there are quite a lot of Builders in comparison of the staff.

 

[Aeroshifter]

I'm genuinely excited for this! I mean, sure, it sucks that I'll lose the stuff I built with my friends, but it's still an opportunity to build newer, better stuff. And now, we wait.

 

[Robo]

Hopefully needless to say, Architects will have to be very mature and responsible as said their many special abilities .

 

[Nillbugwtw]

I sense people purposely deleting their plots with 6K lava blocks to crash the server.

I was also building a giant castle by hand but blargh the internet forbid me access to minecraft.

If 6,000 lava block crash the server, we have bigger issues!
Because these are smaller plots than the current plots on Buildbox, I don't foresee any issues with clearing them. Should there be crashing issues or abuse, the permission will be taken away, but early tests with the plot clearing are optimistic.

Will all the builds in flatland be deleted? If so is there a way I could request my build be transferred to the new server along with my White Castle plot?

To answer your second question first, plot transfers can be requested here. The flatland world as a whole will be available for download later today. At this point, Buildbox has been taken down so I can't pull your flatland build individually to transfer it, but you could use a program like MCEdit to open the world and save your build as a schematic, at which point I'd be more than happy to put it on the server for you.

Great, barely a few weeks after I worked to get my Builder rank back, I'll be demoted again. Fuck.

It isn't really fair that everyone has to lose their rank because of a few people who got Builder as a sympathy rank, it wasn't as easy to earn the rank, there was no World Edit, that didn't mean massive builds
It meant smaller, more detailed builds, the requirements for earning Builder haven't changed, so why should there be a reset of the Builder ranks for everyone, instead of those few people?

I know that the Builder reset is difficult, especially since we already had one in the recent past. However, we strongly believe that it's the right thing for the server - a clean slate with builders corrects the standard that we failed to uphold due to WorldEdit issues on Buildbox, and I can confidently say that with this current reset, we won't need another in the foreseeable future.

Because plots are being transferred over, Prizyms and I have decided to allow past work as material to be judged for a Builder promotion, since we know that many of you worked hard (and by hand!) to achieve the rank legitimately. Because Builder standards will be raised - and more importantly, upheld - we will be judging your builds on a stricter basis than they may have been previously. That being said, we welcome you to submit them, instead of having to start truly from scratch on all of your builds.