[Suggestion] Stop the Nub Cities

Community Suggestions
1

Since the minimum size of new cities has been reduced, several cities (1 just approved and a new one unapproved) have been built between much larger cities.

The great thing about the 200 block rule and the larger minimum size rule for cities was it finally started encouraging cities to build more reasonable scale cities that could incorporate larger roads, pavements and nicely scaled buildings, rather than just wool towers.

The reason small wool towers were a thing was mostly down to the fact it was a lot more difficult to get opportunities for money to buy land back in the glorious year of only 2016, which somehow was peak.

I have also heard that staff have recently discussed the 200 block rule potentially being reduced back to 120 blocks.

HM is routinely ridiculed for the worst looking dynmap disaster by players in private as well as on chats on other servers. Granted this wasn’t just down to litter builds, but also the world edit of different seeds originally and then expansions with other seeds and the rendering changes minecraft incorporated.

With such a large map, we should now encourage regions to form cities at least a distance of around 500 blocks from an existing city. If there is a point where we miraculously run out of land further out, we should then look at reducing this again.

It’s not just about about render distance, but also room to grow and we’ve moved on from the era of nub cities.

Having nub cities built on the doorstep of existing cities that might want to one day expand or develop, just creates more conflict and should not be encouraged as it has been by staff, despite certain staff liking the anarchy of blocking cities in with bases or cities etc (you know who you are).

As a staff team, please can you focus on city living, player experience, advertising and benefiting those who do put the time and effort in, whether for their ‘empire’ as the server advertises, or their small humble city.

Suggestion in a nutshell:

  • Bring back the previous larger minimum size rule for new cities.
  • New cities can only be formed if at least 500 blocks from existing cities (so if you say no to bringing back larger minimum size rule then at least nub cities won’t be built to troll or block other cities in).
  • Existing regions (i.e. bases) within 500 blocks cannot be turned into (nub) cities.
  • Keep 200 block rule for all other plots (like bases, existing expansions of cities).
  • Staff help develop the server focusing on city living rather than purely city building, whether through plugins, scripts, ingenuity etc.
2 Likes
2

The 200-block rule should remain in place. If the argument is that we are running out of space, then it sounds like the Dynmap needs to be expanded.

Regardless, I think a cleanup of cities would be far more beneficial. If we did a proper scrubbing, many regions could be sold back to the government and refurbished into wilderness again. This would help create jobs, recycle land, and improve the overall map.

If having newer players nearby is a concern, cities need to plan and budget for this. Natural barriers—such as coordinating with nearby cities, trees, mountains, or protected wilderness—should be used. It comes with the territory; we all share the same map.

Cities also aren’t what they used to be. Unfortunately, they’ve become money pits and no longer generate the revenue they once did due to low player counts. Anyone with money typically just creates their own city. Even government plots are selling for pennies on the dollar.

I do like your last suggestion and think we should actively encourage it. We need ways for players to make more money than they currently can. While there have been good improvements to earning cash, it still feels like players sit on their farms all day instead of actually enjoying the game and interacting with others.

I also think cities should receive a tax benefit. The 50% land discount is nice, but running and maintaining a city costs far more money, most of which gets sunk with little to no return.

If we had a system where higher city tiers received tax credits—meaning higher tiers earn more tax revenue—that would be amazing. That money could be placed into a city bank account where a mod or admin approves withdrawals. For example:
“Hello admin, I’d like to withdraw 100k to expand Boston,” or “100k to pay players to remove outdated buildings.”

This would prevent the money from being wasted on things like emeralds while still ensuring it gets spent. More importantly, it would keep money circulating, which is desperately needed since the economy feels mostly stagnant right now.

I like the suggestions leaves the floor open for conversation!

~UG

2 Likes