[TornadicManiac]

First off let's start with this: Intelli will NEVER wipe the entire map. It just won't happen. Next up, a public land wipe - As pointed out this has happened before and wasn't very successful so I highly doubt this will happen again. In terms of telling people to just go out, buy public land and make it pretty, this is unrealistic. For a start, there is a LOT of public land out there. People are now wanting to get into bigger builds that require a larger area, for example 4 realms in a square. With the current state of public land it's getting harder and harder to find.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a little extension. Not only would this increase land, it would revive the markets for items such as ores and other such "rare" blocks. Not to mention, with the new updates and previous ones we are currently missing out. For example, witches huts. Now - with the new redstone update, an extension in my eyes is the best option. If the map was extended it would bring the option of an extended nether.

TLDR;

- Full map wipe will never happen
- Public land wipe highly unlikely
- Buying and remodelling public land is unrealistic
- I vote for a map extension which would incorporate all the new updates into MineRealm

[OrigamiElephant]

The thought of a land grab makes me anxious. I'd be so worried about picking the right spots.

Also, what about a 3-6 month server age limit before you can build in the expanded areas? New players don't have any use for those areas honestly.

[BSGSamuel]

Somthing that is important to MineRealm (imo) is the fact the everyone has access to the same areas, commands and materials whether they are new, veterans or even donors. This is one of the things that makes MineRealm better than a lot of other servers in my opinion. I don't think it would be wise to limit the abilities of new players or give older players some kind of advantage or extra content over others.

If the map is expanded everyone should have access to it.

[OrigamiElephant]

I can see where you're coming from. It was just a kneejerk thought. A way to keep the newer areas nicer for longer.

[BSGSamuel]

The only way to prevent an area from being destroyed quickly is making it big. When the nether was wiped it took less then a week for all the glowstone to be mined out. If you do a small map expansion you won't even have to worry about the new players destroying it because the older parts of the community will take care of that no problem.

What you could do is leave the wilderness as it is but just expand the ring around the rest of the map by the same distance (2k blocks). So you'd end up with a 12k*12k map instead of 10k*10k (with a 2k*10k wilderness).

This would add 3 * (2000*10000) and 2 * (2000 * 2000) of regular map and another 2 * (2000 * 2000) of wilderness. For reference that's 3 * (40 * 200 realms) and 2 * (40 * 40 realms), which is another 27200 new public realms. (There are 40000 possible realms available on the current map)

[Soul K]

A fresh start with a fresh map is the best solution.

Much to the nay sayers it is the best solution to much of the current issues Minerealm has.
I dont like having to rebuild what Ive done so far but to better the server I dont mind.

Of course the land grab would be crazy too but maybe then players would work together more rather then just on their own at first anyways.

A map extension only puts a bandaid on the current problem with the new area's getting the more current content where as the old current land remains behind.

[Prodigy9]

As for the current map's problem of having old abandoned builds (including a good number of cobble "noob huts"), I would direct you to this suggestion that I had posted a while ago. The basic idea is that players could tear down older structures on public land after taking appropriate steps to determine that it wasn't still inhabited. The suggestion ended up being marked as "implemented," with Intelli commenting that "Generally, we don't care if you take down something to expand your own build" and "Basically, it's this: If you're making the area look better, then it's allowed. If you're making the area look worse, then it's considered griefing."

That said, I do like the idea of an expansion. However, in order to keep the same problem from happening in the new area:

Also, what about a 3-6 month server age limit before you can build in the expanded areas? New players don't have any use for those areas honestly.

And if anything, I'd actually increase that limit (e.g. just those with the Veteran achievement, since that group tends to have the most objections to the current map crowding).

As for implementation, I kind of like the idea of expanding outwards from the current map, such that the MR map is continuous and can be connected by one big subway system. I'd be ok with a gimmick that would teleport players to a new spawn unconnected to the current map.

A fresh start with a fresh map is the best solution.
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A map extension only puts a bandaid on the current problem with the new area's getting the more current content where as the old current land remains behind.

This idea is terribad and you should feel terribad. Not only has this "fresh start" crap been shot down far too many times to make it seem like a reasonable thing to suggest, but it would also be a "bandaid" like you describe the expansion as being. If the map is wiped and replaced with a brand new 10K x 10K map, how would that remain "fresh" any longer than a 10K x 10K section slapped on to the edge of the current map?


Edited to fix URL tag.

[TNaismith]

Warning: Just some musings and mostly agreement/commentary on stuff people have said already in this topic. Ain't much new content to read if your not in the mood to read a long post -- definitely skip and scroll past this post if you don't want to read something long right now.

Well if anything HAS to happen it should certainly be a map extension. That serves the purposes of those that require more land, and also offers a solution to the netherquartz/wither skeleton issue above and beyond just implementing a nether for the wild.

That still doesn't address the issue of already existing land. I think a big problem we have is that there are so many one timers that show up build a dirt/cobble hut, grief and get banned, that it accounts for a huge portion of the problem.

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Idea #1
Maybe something needs to be done about the quality of players we have on the server? Such as disabling use of the teleporter for the first week so those that are intent on griefing don't have such easy access to outlying realms that might have disbanded but are similarly safe by way of distance.

________________________________________________
Idea #2
Possibly have a seperate command for "newb territory" (similar to the wild but with all the protections the regular land map offers) and let them cut their teeth. That would help us more easily single out the players that choose to only destroy or impede the joy of others, and gives a chance to quazi "whitelist" players that show a certain ability to not muck up the map with their garbage.

________________________________________________
Idea #3
I had also suggested in game giving players the ability to check the status of a structure (date it was created, last block placed etc.) and institute a solid new rule that would coincide with this ability, so that players that do with to terraform land back to it's original state, can do so without having to wait for staff.

There are "options" that are outside of a map expansion, but I do agree that map expansion could be fun. The other problems still would have to be rectified first in order to prevent (as much as it can be) the same issues that plague players now from happening in the future.

Done a fair bit of traveling across MineRealm over last weeks, all by foot either from /spawn or the teleporter under the Info Center near spawn. I've not been around for even a year as an active feller of MineRealm but from lots of the exploring/walking around the amount of 1-night stand builds from new players that clutter the landscape is very evident.

Origami's put out some good ideas that I think is a good mindset to come from if a solution is gonna be found for this by the community/staff, I've added a little re-formatting to his quoted post to make some of his ideas stand out for better reading a second time around.

Also while lots of Orig's ideas are the type I'd like to see more brainstorming around gotta say what BSG wrote is something I thinks been a pretty great feature of MineRealm from when I started playing seriously since October 2012.

Somthing that is important to MineRealm (imo) is the fact the everyone has access to the same areas, commands and materials whether they are new, veterans or even donors. This is one of the things that makes MineRealm better than a lot of other servers in my opinion. I don't think it would be wise to limit the abilities of new players or give older players some kind of advantage or extra content over others.

If the map is expanded everyone should have access to it.

Gotta add in what Wormoxide wrote too:

"if your solution is expand every time the current map is full with junk guess where you will end up?" - Wormoxide

Going to admit straight up: What happens when the next guy/gal comes along saying the map is a mess and needs a fix? Origami's approach to the solution is something I can get behind more instead of just expanding the map (in a small or huge way) every time things get messy on public land.

Sure it's true that technology is improving at a good rate every few years that expanding the server map every now and that isn't really going to be a valid argument for 'Going to cost too much server lag/resources to keep expandin' everytime'... but the money's still gotta come outta somewhere to pay for those hardware upgrades to keep the server map running good every time (and only if) the community/staff decide on expanding the map just because things get cluttered up, again.

Something about expanding the map every few years just because things are messy on public land just don't seem like the best solution considering the upgrades to the server performance that will need to be done eventually over time as the map gets bigger. Don't get me wrong it's obvious that servers are always going to upgrade at some point if you plan to keep running a community and active game server -- but expanding the map everytime things get cluttered... well that just might cost more outta the bank too early too soon than necessary eh?

Expanding the map every now and then after a good while is fine idea and I'm all for it when it's reasonable enough. But I think end of the day a combination of OrigamiElephant's ideas #1, #2, and #3, or at least taking steps to a solution from those type of angles instead of just expanding the map every time will give a longer, rejuvenating life to the land MineRealm already has, as well as making any map expansions that do happen (and WILL happen in my opinion just to be clear) even more long-lasting between the periods another map expansion is brought up by the community/staff.

EDIT: Posted while I was writing but Prodigy's already on the same mindset:

The basic idea is that players could tear down older structures on public land after taking appropriate steps to determine that it wasn't still inhabited. The suggestion ended up being marked as "implemented," with Intelli commenting that "Generally, we don't care if you take down something to expand your own build" and "Basically, it's this: If you're making the area look better, then it's allowed. If you're making the area look worse, then it's considered griefing."

We just don’t have room to build our empires any more. We can have our small buildings, our villages, but the world now heavily restricts the creation of grand empires such as the likes of Exodus, Abyssus, Roanoke and more. I really, truly believe it would take weeks of searching to find a mere 150x150 piece of land which is untouched. There is NO way you could acquire a 10x10 realm area of land without bumping into some random noobs town. It’s practically all junk.

Mitch has still got a valid point about there not being enough land for those wanting to build grand empires.

Lots of public land might have 1-time player builds that can be taken down with enough care to find out if the player is really gone, but there are lots of player buildings/realms a step above that; areas that are built up enough they've either just reached the stage of purchasing their first realm or two (but not the wealth to buy more than that) or the area's got so much previous work into the buildings and landscape (even if not claimed yet) that going in to build your 10x10 realm area is still gonna look like griefing/not acceptable.

Either way, vets wanting to build on massive 32 realm plots running into areas inhabited/owned by 1-2 realm players are pretty common from my observations.

And this is coming from a feller who falls into the '1-2 realm player' category and who already has met a vet player (named ambassador_pol) rebuilding on new land after a 32-realm expired for him. Combined with looking at the MineRealm server map on the website and also having done a lot of traveling around the current landscape while exploring/visiting other people's property, it's a very real problem -- even if we're already allowed to tear down older builds, within reason, to expand our own builds.

[TechnoProdigy]

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[Rokkrwolf]

Or you know since a lot of it is ocean you can stop being lazy and learn to build land on the ocean? Just a thought.