So let me clear things up right from the start... The server has been using the core plugin GateCRAFT for several months now, which is essential for ensuring certain basic gameplay and security elements. It handles, for example, automatic promotions, but also bypasses the lake that generates clay or some trial spells. Spells themselves will eventually be separated into a standalone, much more complex plugin GateMAGIC, but everything has its time and place, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves ;)
...because right now it’s mainly time for...
GateSPAWNER
It’s a breakthrough plugin that finally gives us the ability to create tailor-made PvE Dungeons and Events. Every spawner allows setting the following:
- player-detection range
- number of players needed to activate the spawner
- spawn interval for mobs and even blocks!!
- limit of spawned monsters or blocks
- cooldown after killing a mob (allows time to breathe)
- monster level!!
- spawn range
- experience and item drop on death
New location: Graveyard
The plugin was first tested in the graveyard in Prime City, where it still runs. Mobs here spawn at higher levels... This brings quite a high risk of death, because monsters deal more damage and also have greater endurance, but on the other hand they drop more XP orbs. So there’s finally a place where you can grind exp in a proper hardcore style...
More players, more monsters
And that’s not all! The graveyard isn’t easy to farm even in a group. This location is set up so that as the number of players on the battlefield increases, so does the number of spawned monsters! Sometimes even with higher levels. I have a feeling that even WoW doesn’t have such a feature, at least I’m not aware of it :)
Monster levels
And how are these levels calculated? ...for every level the mob’s damage and health increases by half. So a Skeleton on level 1 has 20 HP, but on level 2 it already has 30 HP, level 3 40 HP, etc... XP drop increases by the same amount for every level. A Skeleton on level 1 drops 5 exp orbs, but on level 2 already 10 exp orbs, etc... Naturally spawned mobs, however, always have level 1. Higher levels are only on selected spots, whether as part of an event or a dungeon.
The console also reports what level the currently attacked mob is. But only if the level differs from the previous mob’s level, to avoid unnecessary spam. Players should therefore know or at least suspect what they’re dealing with at any given moment. Levels in-game aren’t numbered; each has its own name. The list of levels is as follows:
- level 1 = Common (standard level of a naturally spawned mob)
- level 2 = Stronger
- level 3 = Heavy
- level 4 = Powerful
- level 5 = Violent
- level 6+ = Berserker
Modified locations
Event: Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia followed right after the graveyard. Now many more spiders spawn here, even during the day. Cave Spider is level 2. They also no longer crawl into the hotel :)
Location: Animal Farm
Animal Farm has gotten rid of the old block-spawners and here too GateSPAWNER now handles animal spawning, which also puts a stop to exping on these utility creatures.
Dungeon: Bone Swamp
The Bone Swamp dungeon underwent probably the most fundamental change. It is now about 30 to 40 % larger (thx to Phoenix_52). The dungeon difficulty is tiered... Skeletons at the entrance are level 1, but towards the center level 2 starts and in the newly added part the skeletons are level 3. Nevertheless, the Dungeon can still be cleared solo thanks to the controlled mob spawning. The number of skeletons only increases with the number of raiders. But beware... With a higher number of players in the dungeon, the spawn rate of Nether Wart also increases, which forms a valuable reward here. Nether Wart now respawns 10 minutes after being harvested and over time even more can grow.
Location: Chaosphere Towers
Right at the entrance gate to the Chaosphere world stand 4 towers, one of which is ruined. In the other three, however, grows a fairly rare Nether Wart, otherwise obtainable only in the Bone Swamp dungeon or occasionally in Blaze Bridges. These towers thus become another way to get Wart. After harvesting, the next one regrows no sooner than 60 minutes (real time). The towers don’t hide only Wart, but also its guardians – level 3 Blazes.
No more XP farms!
As is customary here, GateCraft solves systematically everything that can be solved this way... This means that no one will still be prevented from building XP farms. However, their production no longer makes sense, because mobs generated by spawners no longer drop loot or exp. It’s quite a harsh blow for, excuse me, AFK-XP slackers who harvest exp for free. I know it’s not completely free, that it takes some work to build a usable mob trap, but...
...I do appreciate the effort some players put into it, but, hand on heart, the reward is absolutely disproportionate and, above all, it’s contrary to the direction I’ve been trying to steer GateCraft all along. That doesn’t mean I’m killing one of the creative aspects of the game, quite the opposite...
New market commodity: Spawner
By turning the spawner into a block that can’t be abused, the block has been released to players as a useful commodity offering new possibilities. Already in Whiterun players are building the first custom PvE arena. Spawned mobs thus become a source of fun instead of a source of “free” exp :) ...as evidenced by the first Zombie Bar in the city of Darkov :) ...spawners can also be used in Outposts of the Chaosphere world, where they can serve as traps for potential conquerors.
No Prime Shop sells spawners, so they become a highly valued commodity mainly for miners.
Gold pickaxe with magical power
A spawner can be obtained only and exclusively with a gold pickaxe. Some players already know the gold pickaxe thanks to its ability to obtain Glowstone Dust when mining Redstone Ore. But this pickaxe can mine even more...
XP Mining
You can now obtain XP orbs while mining Redstone, Gold and Diamond Ore, but again only with a gold pickaxe in hand. In addition, some enchantments here lose their meaning (e.g. Silk Touch). Mining with a gold pickaxe is quite laborious and the tool itself wears out very quickly, on the other hand it provides a pretty decent XP drop :)
- Redstone Ore -> 5 to 10 XP / 2 to 4 Glowstone Dust
- Gold Ore -> 10 to 15 XP / 8 - 18 Gold Nuggets
- Diamond Ore -> 10 to 25 XP / 1 Diamond
New world: Phobos Prison
No tool, however good, can stop griefers from destroying, and when someone wants to clash with local law, they always find a way. Until now the only punishment was ban... in only one case was exile back to the Rogue Lands world. However, not all offenses deserve a direct ban and not everything is wise to solve by repeating Rogue Lands. And so the new world Phobos Prison was created.
Phobos is one of the moons of the planet Mars, in our case rather the remains of a moon. For prisoners, however, it is a much worse place than Rogue Lands. This depressing space wasteland of eternal night has only one kind of inhabitant. They are Endermen, next to whom it’s better to walk only carefully while looking at the ground. Punishments here consist of monetary amounts sometimes in the millions and the only resource that can be mined here is very tough obsidian.
I can say two things about this place with certainty:
- Everyone who gets to Phobos will curse this place, but no admin will have mercy on the prisoners.
- Everyone who doesn’t go insane there and returns to the Residents will avoid other people’s chests like the plague :)
New player groups
There are 3 new groups...
Prisoner
In the case of a prisoner there’s nothing to discuss. It’s every inhabitant of Phobos. All that’s left is to shut up and mine obsidian to get out as soon as possible :)
Traveler
Players who manage to travel from Rogue Lands to Kingdom no longer automatically become Residents, but first face the Traveler group. Unlike Residents, this group is cut off from any building or terrain modification in the open wilderness of Kingdom. It’s only a temporary group until newcomers acclimatize in Kingdom and adjacent worlds. Some had a tendency to start fields or towns before they even had a town created. Players now become Residents only when they’ve inhabited some town for at least a few days – whether they create their own or join someone else’s.
Builder
A special group for special purposes. Players in the Builder group can mine and build freely with all materials in the open wilderness.
Cases are slowly emerging where players want to connect towns, but sometimes it’s not so simple. For example, the towns Hobitton and Whiterun decided to build a metro, but in Kingdom it’s not possible to mine ores outside town borders. Naturally they first went for permission to the admin, namely to me (g3ckon). I know they’re trouble-free players and I had no problem with their project, so nothing prevented me from promoting the 2 selected players (builders of the project) to Builders. The promotion is of course only temporary, for the time necessary to complete the project.
Warning: All inter-town projects must be reported to admins!
What awaits us and won’t pass us by
First of all, several more extensions of the GateSPAWNER plugin will take place, with which new very specific locations, events and dungeons will emerge. Once we teach the Giant on the graveyard to shoot fireballs, a new quest to kill the giant will be created (he spawns there once a night already). An event with hordes of creepers and lightning storms is also planned. And last but not least, a Slime farm, but only once we teach slimes to dissolve armor ;)
Uff... Well, congratulations to everyone who read this far. I also hope you’ll properly enjoy the news (except prison) and I’m looking forward to new original builds using spawners :)
..your server leader Jonathan Gecko ;)
