Server War is a full-server PvP event intended to allow players to engage in consentual PvP in an environment that does not threaten their bases or materials, but allows them to leverage their technical, architectural, and combative prowess against other competitors.


& 1 Joining
You may join the event on a team or play solo (the former is recommended). Simply head into the Server War world, accessible via a cannon-shaped portal to the North side of spawn. Set up a base that follows the specifications listed in Rule &2. You will also need to provide me with the name of your team, a list of members, and a copy of the team flag, for placing at server war spawn, and updating this page.

& 2 Team Sizes
Team Sizes are capped at a maximum of 8 (this will drop next round), but the maximum number of active participants is capped at 5. This limitation increases by 4 every time your team merges with another team during a round.

& 3 The Base
Each team's base can be designed however they like, but must follow a few simple rules designed to ensure fair play: (1) Must have a bed with which team players set their respawn points (this bed *may* be placed in a secure room that does not need to obey #2), and a team flag placed somewhere near the bed; both must be accessible to enemy players without breaking blocks, (2) No materials stronger than end stone, (3) Must have at least one path to the bed for enemy players without breaking blocks

& 4 Competition Objectives
Construct a base that defends a bed that your team will use to respawn. Seek out and capture other team's bases by infiltrating them and breaking their beds, thus preventing that team from respawning. Then, secure that base by wiping out the defending players. Win the event by having the highest captures to losses ratio for your team.

& 5 Capture Conditions/Qualifiers
A base is considered captured when: (1) The defender's bed is broken, (2) The defending team is killed after the bed is broken, (3) The defending team flag (located near the bed) is broken and replaced with your own, and (4) You announce the capture in chat and it goes undisputed. It is not required to place a bed down at a base you have just captured... this is optional if some of your team chooses to move their respawn points.

& 6 Anti-Griefing
There is to be no taking of a pickaxe (or any tool) to any structure that is not your own, nor is there to be placing or breaking of blocks within a reasonable distance from someone else's structure. Nor are you allowed to remove any materials from a base you do not own or capture.

& 7 Scoring
Scores are adjusted at the close of every match, and involve the following allotments:
Team Scores
Capturing a Base (Breaking Bed & Flag, Placing Own Flag) : 10 points
Damaging a Base : 3, 6, or 9 points, as determined by judges
Bonus: Team Undefeated this Round : 2 points
Bonus: Team Dominance : 2 points per base team owns
Player Scores
Kills : 1 point per kill
Bed Break : 3 points
Bonus: Team Undefeated this Round : 1 point
Bonus: Team Dominance : 1 point per base team owns

& 8 Gear Regulations
You are allowed any gear you want to use, with the following exceptions: (1) enchanted golden apples, (2) elytra.

& 9 Penalties
Penalties are imposed for rule violations in this event. Violations can be procedural (breaks of rules that affect the flow of the game) or extreme (rule breaks intended to sabotage other players or teams).
Procedural rule violations recieve two warnings, (1) 15-minute time penalty, (2) 30-minute time penalty. On the third offense, a single-match suspension is given. After this violation, disqualification may occur depending on the severity of the breach.
Extreme rule violations recieve one warning, a single match suspension. After this violation, disqualification may occur depending on the severity of the breach, as well as additional corrective action if general server rules have been broken.
I'm quite excited about this. I don't see it anywhere in the above post, but apparently we have a match today?
KermMartian wrote:
I'm quite excited about this. I don't see it anywhere in the above post, but apparently we have a match today?


Yeah, the timing was decided in the discord server, probably because not very many people on the minecraft server actually pay attention to the forums (which should change Evil or Very Mad)
_iPhoenix_ wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
I'm quite excited about this. I don't see it anywhere in the above post, but apparently we have a match today?


Yeah, the timing was decided in the discord server, probably because not very many people on the minecraft server actually pay attention to the forums (which should change Evil or Very Mad)
Strongly agreed. Having the Cemetech and Cemetech Minecraft IRCs disconnected from each other is definitely the right choice, but when we had them integrated, we did make the Minecraft users more aware of the forum and its activity.

One possibility I'd strongly favor would be to use saxjax to echo our Minecraft subforum (only) to the #cemetech-mc IRC channel.
I strongly believe that play.cemetech.net should get a modernization and perhaps integrate with the Youtube channels of those of us that record. I also think that there should be some sort of something that broadcasts cemetech minecraft events to the main site.
Thoughts on the event, from someone who could barely participate:

Disclaimer: This was the first event, and it was a little rougher than anticipated- we could not have known it would have been like this from the start, and cags did a very, very good job with planning and handling everything.


  • A greater reward should be given to those who conquer the base. Make it more valuable to participate in a raid than a brawl.
  • Elytras and riptide should be banned or limited. Just... yeah.
  • I also think that setting bases on fire counts as placing blocks, because you use the flint and steel to place fire.
  • I'm officially even more scared of icybeckacrafter and GregsAStar Evil or Very Mad
  • Teams of 8 are way too large for the number of people that are active on the server. I'd say teams of 4-5, max.


A few ideas maybe worth trying:

  • Single-elimination tournament with teams
  • Setting up a scoreboard on the sidebar for player kills
  • Just a giant brawl, no bases, just fight to the death in a blank world. Heck, just repurpose abba one day! (This is not to say I didn't like building a base, that was my favorite part)
  • Random teams of an equal number of people, just for kicks.
  • if the server wouldn't crash that'd be nice
So, the first round just ended, so I decided to discuss how we could improve the event.
First, I'd like to thank ACag for putting on the event, which was a lot of fun. Planning and building the base was very enjoyable, and the combat was also fun.

I almost missed the event because my alarm failed to go off - I only woke up about 15 minutes before the event was scheduled to start. Luckily for me the event was delayed a bit so I had time to do last minute preparations.

So, the main rule amendment that I feel would improve the event would be a ban on elytra (and possibly riptide tridents). Whenever anyone just got low on health they just flew away. This made combat somewhat pointless, as even though people were taking damage, nobody could get any points. Riptide tridents are much less OP as they incur the risk of taking a ton of fall damage, and also rely on the weather being correct. Allowing just tridents would probably balance combat, but it would mean that you still have to consider flying players when designing a base. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, because it would also limit the methods that you can use to contain players while designing your base and probably make everything look like an enclosed cube. Removing elytra would also make it take longer to get back into combat after dying, which would de-incentivize dying, and incentivize building infrastructure like rail lines between bases to get places faster.

Nobody bothered to build a TNT cannon to breach a base - perhaps the amount of points given for breaking a bed could be increased relative to the points given for killing players? Everyone seemed to be focused on killing other players, rather than sneaking into a base or attempting to destroy its non-player defenses. I think that people might be more willing to spend time creating cannons if the match ran for longer. Taking into account the scale of the bases involved, it's not reasonable to expect that the bases be breached within an hour's time. If the bases will be rebuilt in between matches anyway, there's no reason to try to partially breach a base when you could be racking up kills instead.

I also noticed that in general, several people did not really follow or understand the rules - perhaps we could split the rules into a "core" set of rules which is easy to read and defines the basic premises of the game (e.g. respawning at your base's bed and not placing blocks within 25 blocks of someone's base), and then a set of "nitpicky" rules which are either exceptions to the core rules or rules that most people don't need to even consider (like whether shops are allowed in a base, what happens when someone teleports out of the event world, whether people can pick up dropped items without returning them, what counts as a kill, whether non-base structures are protected, etc.). We could also quiz users over the core rules before allowing them to participate. On a related note, I think we should advertise the event more in-game - currently, the rules are split between here on the forums and on Discord. We should change the MoTD that players get when they first log in to include a link to this forum thread (as well as a link to the discord, IMO, but that's unrelated) so that players who don't frequent the forums or Discord can know that the event is taking place.

I also think it would be a good idea to add a second portal into the world, so that it would be possible to import mobs from the main world. Currently, no mobs spawn in this world, so you can't defend your base using hostile mobs. Allowing you to do so would add depth to the game and open up more possibilities for defense.

We also should have a list of all competing teams, as well as where their bases are located. The only team where I knew the location of their base was ACag's. I had absolutely no idea where Kerm and Pizza's base was, and I was not entirely sure that skeppy's base was even being used at all.

The team size was also somewhat unbalanced - the teams were, if I remember correctly:

team name (participating|absent): participating | absent
--------------------------------------------------------------------
command's team (4|1): command, phoenix, beck, xpgamer (joined last minute) | Little
Kerm's team (2|?): Kerm, Pizza
ACag's team (5|3?): ACag, Greg, Turq, sticky, Nyte
DeJean's team (1|1): skeppy | DeJean
Ryne's team (0|8): Ryne, Dan, ?
Hedge's team (0|1?): Hedge

I think that the team size should probably be reduced a bit - teams of 8 seems too large. Maybe it should be limited to 4-5 as that seems to have worked well for this match.

Other than that, the event worked very well and was very enjoyable. I'd like to thank ACag again for putting this event on, as I know that it's quite a bit of work.
commandblockguy wrote:
So, the main rule amendment that I feel would improve the event would be a ban on elytra (and possibly riptide tridents). Whenever anyone just got low on health they just flew away. This made combat somewhat pointless, as even though people were taking damage, nobody could get any points. Riptide tridents are much less OP as they incur the risk of taking a ton of fall damage, and also rely on the weather being correct. Allowing just tridents would probably balance combat, but it would mean that you still have to consider flying players when designing a base. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, because it would also limit the methods that you can use to contain players while designing your base and probably make everything look like an enclosed cube. Removing elytra would also make it take longer to get back into combat after dying, which would de-incentivize dying, and incentivize building infrastructure like rail lines between bases to get places faster.

I'm definitely leaning quite heavily towards banning elytra, but not riptide tridents. Tridents are hard enough to acquire, the weather being proper is rare enough, and using it without also having slow falling dangerous enough that it makes players have to think twice before using it. But I'll wait for further feedback on this.

commandblockguy wrote:
perhaps the amount of points given for breaking a bed could be increased relative to the points given for killing players?
This is almost impossible or unfeasible to track and calculate, however, points could be awarded to a team for inflicting damage to a base? I could logblock which players constructed a canon that matches up with an area of damage and allocate points based on the scope of the damage done.

commandblockguy wrote:
Taking into account the scale of the bases involved, it's not reasonable to expect that the bases be breached within an hour's time. If the bases will be rebuilt in between matches anyway, there's no reason to try to partially breach a base when you could be racking up kills instead.
Would you suggest limiting base sizes next iteration?

commandblockguy wrote:
I also noticed that in general, several people did not really follow or understand the rules - perhaps we could split the rules into a "core" set of rules which is easy to read and defines the basic premises of the game... and then a set of "nitpicky" rules which are either exceptions to the core rules or rules that most people don't need to even consider.
I want to place a ruleboard underneath the spawn platform, with rules /whispered by command blocks based on topic, but I of course need admin approval to do this.

commandblockguy wrote:
On a related note, I think we should advertise the event more in-game - currently, the rules are split between here on the forums and on Discord. We should change the MoTD that players get when they first log in to include a link to this forum thread (as well as a link to the discord, IMO, but that's unrelated) so that players who don't frequent the forums or Discord can know that the event is taking place.
That's not suggestion that's best aimed at me. Shoot that Kerm or comic's way (I think)

commandblockguy wrote:
I also think it would be a good idea to add a second portal into the world, so that it would be possible to import mobs from the main world. Currently, no mobs spawn in this world, so you can't defend your base using hostile mobs. Allowing you to do so would add depth to the game and open up more possibilities for defense.
Second portal probably not, but I'll see what I can do about it.

commandblockguy wrote:
We also should have a list of all competing teams, as well as where their bases are located. The only team where I knew the location of their base was ACag's. I had absolutely no idea where Kerm and Pizza's base was, and I was not entirely sure that skeppy's base was even being used at all.
iPhoenix and I have some plans for this.

commandblockguy wrote:
I think that the team size should probably be reduced a bit - teams of 8 seems too large. Maybe it should be limited to 4-5 as that seems to have worked well for this match.
This might be hard to implement this iteration as players have already put effort into the bases that they have build and asking them to split teams is a bit unfair. We could very well implement the team size limit next round, but you've also got to remember that teams will not have 100% attendance all the time, so some imbalance is something that cannot always be avoided.

To close, I appreciate the esteem you guys are pouring on, however, all I did was type a few commands, announce a few things, and make some rules, ya'll were the ones who build the bases and made the match fun!
ACagliano wrote:
commandblockguy wrote:
perhaps the amount of points given for breaking a bed could be increased relative to the points given for killing players?
This is almost impossible or unfeasible to track and calculate, however, points could be awarded to a team for inflicting damage to a base? I could logblock which players constructed a canon that matches up with an area of damage and allocate points based on the scope of the damage done.

Sorry, I probably wasn't very clear there. I wasn't suggesting that the amount of points should change dynamically, I was just suggesting that capturing a base should give you a lot of points compared to killing other players, so that people would only kill other players in order to attack or defend a base, rather than fighting for the sake of getting kills. Perhaps a better way to do that would be to give no points for a kill but subtract points for each death. That's much easier to count than a kill, and prevents issues with traps and killstealing. It would also incentivize players to attack bases as that's the only way to get points.

ACagliano wrote:
commandblockguy wrote:
Taking into account the scale of the bases involved, it's not reasonable to expect that the bases be breached within an hour's time. If the bases will be rebuilt in between matches anyway, there's no reason to try to partially breach a base when you could be racking up kills instead.
Would you suggest limiting base sizes next iteration?

I think it would be better to increase the run time for the matches rather than decreasing the size of bases. Any base size limitation would be completely arbitrary, and some large bases could have a simpler path through them than a base that has a tiny footprint but is designed like a maze. Increasing the match time also gives more time to damage a base before it is rebuilt, and increases the amount of strategy that can be used in both offense and defense.

ACagliano wrote:
commandblockguy wrote:
I also noticed that in general, several people did not really follow or understand the rules - perhaps we could split the rules into a "core" set of rules which is easy to read and defines the basic premises of the game... and then a set of "nitpicky" rules which are either exceptions to the core rules or rules that most people don't need to even consider.
I want to place a ruleboard underneath the spawn platform, with rules /whispered by command blocks based on topic, but I of course need admin approval to do this.

That sounds like a good idea. If you are going to be using command blocks, I would suggest that you use /tellraw instead of /whisper, though, as in my opinion it can be cleaner and easier to read. You could also just link to this topic, that way people don't stay connected to the server and bring TPS down while reading the rules. It would also reduce the number of things you would have to change each time the rules are modified.
Updates to Event

1) Elytra are now banned from the event.

2) 25-block rule will be loosely enforced on a case-by-case basis. Try to avoid placing things to sabotage an enemy build right up against it, as that is against the spirit of the rules, but if people are sensible and fair, I will not really enforce the 25-block rule.
2a) It is now explicitly stated that griefing of, or theft of stuff within, a build is not permissible between matches.

3) The basic rules are now posted underneath the Server War spawn area. There is a brand new beautiful quartz room you spawn into with a map, a scoreboard, and a team information wall. Heading out the room and down the stairs, then turning around, you should see the ruleboard. The board is a series of command-signs. To opt-in to the event, you must click the opt-in sign located on the West side of the ruleboard. To opt-out, use the opt-out sign.

4) Team sizes will eventually be reduced, but for now there is an active team size of 5 max players. This means that your team may be 8 but only 5 may be participating at the same time.

5) Teams and players will now receive extra points for damage dealt to a base via some means (TNT or other explosive sources).

6) Also event judges are Eaghan, comic, and Amper5and. In the event of disputes, they'll be the ones reviewing footage and stuff.


For more questions/suggestions, feel free to contact me.
The next Server War match will begin promptly Saturday, August 10th, at 1PM, as selected by popular demand. Please be ready to go at this time. Barring technical difficulties, we will begin AT that time... there are no delays for latecommers.

Please be sure to read the newly-revised rules which can be found at: http://cagstech.com/minecraft/pvp/serverwar/#rules. Please direct any questions to the judges, listed above.
A few quick notes. Generally, what I miss about our old PvP server was the skill, strategy, and intrigue of figuring out how to infiltrate bases, getting in, and then wrecking carefully planned havoc. I expected that that's what this would be like; instead, it seemed to be mostly running at each other and having the guys who had died most recently die again, which I found singularly un-fun. I'd like to find ways that we can much more strongly emphasize the defensive aspect, and much less strongly emphasize the PvP out in the open (or, I suppose, allow PvP in the open but make things more interesting for those looking to use a little more finesse). In the first match, it wasn't even clear to me which buildings were people's bases in which I should be looking for beds, and which were simply pre-built structures. I suspect that smaller teams will also help to balance things; I'd go so far as to say that a team size of 5 is probably too large.
KermMartian wrote:
In the first match, it wasn't even clear to me which buildings were people's bases in which I should be looking for beds, and which were simply pre-built structures. I suspect that smaller teams will also help to balance things; I'd go so far as to say that a team size of 5 is probably too large.

This is particularly hard without either: (1) Forcing players to outline their base in some sort of block, (2) using regions to define enter-exit messages. Ideally I'd also like Dynmap to show what is what, and towny facilitated that when the server was PvP, not sure how to do it now.
A possible idea is to have teams place a beacon upon their base, no effects, and with colored glass, set the beam color to a distinct color for their team. If we were to use the /teams interface to assist with stuff, we can coordinate the team display color with that beam color. At least this way there is SOME form of marking, but it doesn't put anything on dynmap?

Edit: If we did the beacon method, we could give it a custom range that extends over the structure (or use the radius of the beacon to encourage smaller builds) and configure the beacon to assign the mining fatigue effect, then remove the 25 block rule.


As for the first part of your post, I agree. I too had a picture in my mind that things would be focusing on defense (fighting against base defenses and players) and it turned out more to be dogfights with flying players, followed by death upon landing, which I agree isn't too fun. Aside from banning elytra to make players have to spend more time getting places (and thus more deeply value not being killed, which could lead to more careful exploration of and infiltration of a base), and devoid of systems like towny to assist with anti-griefing, what other changes would you guys suggest to help encourage more defense testing than run-in PvP?
  
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