Addressing posts in the order that they were posted :D
TornadicManiac wrote:It would be nice if we were asked if we would kindly donate our spawn realms for this project, but alas, not a word.
This entire project is a suggestion. This thread, and the previous were made for this purpose, to ask the owners of the realms if they were okay with giving spawn a new design, and also asking the people in charge of spawn if we were allowed to change it. I understand how you may feel we're being a bit forceful with this decision, seeing as we've already designed it, but if we hadn't designed it and put it in the post, this would most likely be rejected immediately, as people would doubt our skills. It also may seem, from the fights in the other thread, that we're forcing this upon spawn, and it must happen no matter what. I'll put this is bold, so everybody sees,
This isn't an order, it's a request. We just thought that the current spawn doesn't look very appealing to the newer players, and first impressions are very important. Also, we believed that the current spawn wasn't very appealing to the current players either, what with being in the same incomplete state for ages, and wanted to help everyone :P.
Intelli wrote:Not a fan of how the red-wool path looks from ground level (also seems kinda indirect)
How about something more like this for the info center path?
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Map: http://userfolio.com/uploads/Flat.zip
With this map, it's only a plan, so everything is available to change. We didn't really know what to do with the wool path, so we did what we had. We also had a design a bit like this, but we thought maybe it wasnt clear enough for the new players. This would be a good idea to make, but with a bit more clarity (maybe with rs lamps or something like that?). We also thought, that since the info building stood out the most and looked the best in the direct spawn area, some of the new players would try to go there first, which is also a benefit of the map. If there is anything else that others want to change, just suggest it with a couple of pictures maybe, in the format that intelli did :D.
DragonSlayer155 wrote:Sorry.
Its a no from me.
Isn't spawn laggy enough? Wont having all that grass and extra blocks make it worst?
Nice build, but I don't think it should be that. Based around it yes, but... Hmm... Yh.
Convince me otherwise
As said by Bu1l, the lag at spawn doesn't come from the direct spawn area anymore (the underneath's cleared as well :D), but from the builds around it. It wouldn't be any laggier than it is right now, with the snow and torches, and the lag would also be more bearable, since you have nicer things to look at while lagging.
alexrybicki wrote:It looks nice with shaders. What's it look without? One suggestion I'd make for the build is to drop the level of everything (minus the existing spawn road/sign/etc) 1-2 blocks, to improve visibility from the road. If this has the full support of the realm owners, I'll be for any sort of change to spawn. They happen to be 'Staff', but this isn't a 'Staff decision'. Lets not forget they're players who enjoy building too. ;) Why not just suggest to the realm owners that spawn be changed, and go from there?
In response to you and several other players saying that it was just the shaders, I've taken some screens without the shaders (I'll put them at the bottom of the post because they would divide the questions too much). Keep in mind though, that only one of the players who designed this had shaders when we were designing, it, and it was made to look best with the default texture pack, in unmodded minecraft. For the road suggestion, that may be a good idea that we could do quite easily on the actual server, since the road is higher than the dirt platform currently. My only concern with this is that the road may stand out too much, and take away from the looks of the builds. The roads would't be harder to move around on, if that's what you're concerned about, since in the current spawn, there are fences that dont let you go off the direct spawn roads. Your final comment/question/thing was pretty much answered in torn's comment as well ;).
meleechampion wrote:Shaders make everything look nice, but I'm not convinced. Looks just kinda like a mess to me. :/
Not saying something shouldn't be done with spawn, it is kinda plain. I kinda like not lagging at /spawn and /trade though. Another point is that the realms around it certainly aren't plain, if people really wanna see something fancy they can walk 50 blocks in any direction.
I've taken some screens without shaders, which'll be at the bottom of the post. I've answered the lag in dragon's answer. The current direct spawn realms, are, to be frank quite ugly. They're a grid of snow and torches and have been that way for a while. This is the first thing that new players see, and some players which are looking for a good server, which would be the types of players we want, would just move on to the next server. I'm not saying that the realms 50 blocks out are bad, in fact, they are very impressive (mostly. *stares at roo*), but the main realms are very important for a first impression.
VVolfie wrote:I think with the shaders it looks nice, but I'm not convince for it without shaders.
Kind of looks sort of.. cluttered? I can't find the right word.
On a side note: Shaders make most things look nice.
http://imgur.com/a/9U3hv
Look at this lovely land I spent no minutes on. o:
Took some screens without shaders, at the bottom :P. The thing about that is, that if the land looks like real minecraft land, then it looks good. Shaders or not, the parts that you had taken screenshots of would have looked quite good even without shaders. Think of shaders as photoshop. You can make something look great, but it already has to look good without or you'd have to go to alot of effort and it wouldn't be worth it.
Skylord_Fox wrote:And I'm just sitting here waiting to see what the original intention for the four realms was going to be. You are all going to rob me and the owners of the opportunity to see that?
No thank you.
And my guess is that you'll be sitting there for a long time. We did this because we believed that the realms weren't up to scratch right now.
http://minerealm.com/community/viewtopi ... 5&p=163211 < That's the link to the previous thread, which I believe had one of the designs chosen from it (which we chose not to necro), so you can compare our design to that. Our main goal though, it to change spawn to look better. If this means that the current design will be finished quickly, then that's better than nothing :D.
x998monsterx wrote:Can we maybe see some first-person picture's without the shaders? This would create something more realistic as a minimal amount of people use shaders. (Don't hate on me, this might be the other case, if so...ok)
At the bottom of this post ;).
Also, I think that perhaps we should lock the previous thread, as that's invalid now and full of arguments, and if people could try to not make the same thing happen in this one. Debates are fine, just dont get too flamey :P.
Here are the pictures that I mentioned a few times before ;P
A new player's journey through spawn, with what a good player, and a bad player would think:
Don't wanna get banned, gotta read them rules. / Dont wanna get baned, gotta reed rulez
Red path? Time to follow! / Sweet, some noob leftt a path 2 hiz howse
Woah, what's that building? Looks great! / Dis guy looks rich hooray for looottt!
Full legit? Nice! And wow, a teleporter to take to random land! / Wat? dey got anti greef stuff? Dangit, greef nxt servar!
And these are some screens of the land without shaders, as requested.
I hope I answered all the questions you guys asked, and remember, this is always open for suggestions.
-Piexadecahedron
