Player Towns 5.0

So, you have an idea for a Player Town—great! Now what? Use our #player-town-brainstorming Discord channel to discuss your ideas and find like-minded players. You’ll work together toward submitting the Map 5 Player Town Application. This allows staff to review your idea, theme, and team of players interested in construction.

1) Prepare to Apply

We want to see the time and consideration you’ve put into the town idea! 
Be prepared to submit the following:

TOWN DETAILS

• Name (does not need to be final)
• General Description
  • Provide reference images/mood boards
• Lore Outline
  • Write that backstory!
    • How did the town come to be?
    • Why do people want to live there?
  • Does not need to be polished
• Desired Biome/Location on the Map 5 Overworld
  • Work with the map, not against it
    • Cannot create a new biome or landmass
  • Outline an area using Dynmap.

EXAMPLE BUILDS

• Town Landmarks:
  • 2-4 builds to showcase aesthetic and building skill
    • Can be smaller scale
• Road Design:
  • Typically 5-7 blocks wide
  • Composed of a repeating or randomized pattern
  • Must demonstrate elevation changes and turns
• Plot Borders:
  • Show how plots will be demarcated 
    • Do not use valuable blocks, as players will be able to destroy/build them.
• Mailboxes:
  • The design for where plot purchase signs will sit outside of the plot
  • Typically 2 blocks high
  • May suggest a head(s) from https://minecraft-heads.com/

BUILDING TEAM

• Staff Sponsor:
  • A Nerdcrafteria Staff member that is on-board with the town idea
  • They will be your liaison throughout the player town process
• Town Board:
  • 3 or more non-staff players
  • Closely tied to town inspiration and vision
  • Recruits other players to build team via #player-town-recruiting
  • Balanced decision-making on town needs
  • Coordinates fundraising campaigns for the town
• Builders:
  • Players who want to help build based on the town theme, but do not contribute to formal town decisions
    • These players can follow instructions from notes on signs, Discord, etc.
    • Their work is subject to change to better fit town theme

2)  Application Review

Submit your application here. Staff will review your submission and deliberate based on the information submitted, so please take care to include all the information mentioned above.

Towns will be evaluated on a first-come, first-served basis. Submissions will either be rejected, reassessed, or accepted. If your town idea just needs a few tweaks, we will work with you to make the necessary changes to get it approved. 

Common reasons staff may reject your town idea:

• Copyright Infringements:
  • Ex: Disney Landmarks, Hogwarts, etc.
• Unclear Themes:
  • If staff can’t understand the theme, players will likely be uninterested/confused
• Pet Projects:
  • When it’s clear only one person is interested in the town/theme and will not involve anyone else
• Server Strain:
  • Block Palettes that heavily rely on transparent blocks, like glass and leaves, heavily tax processing power and will require re-evaluation
• Similarity to Another Town/Project:
  • In order to have a healthy server, we need a variety of places for people to explore and experience
• Diagonal Plots:
  • All plots must be rectangular aligned to the Minecraft block grid.

Current off-limit themes and areas due to towns in the work staff-side:

• The valley west of the mountain in the NW: around x:-900 z:-900

3) Town Planning and Promotion

Congratulations! Your Town has been approved—you’re allowed to proceed with coordinating build plans, hyping up the town to players, and kick-off the fundraising process. If you are unable to complete these steps within two weeks, your concept is likely not defined well enough to move onto the construction phase and will be reassessed. 

A Town-specific channel will be created within the Nerdcrafteria Discord to facilitate player collaboration. All town communication must happen in that channel. It will be open to all players, but the Town Board will be in charge of planning builds and achieving milestones.

BUILD PLANNING

Town Board members will be able to mark out a rough layout using wool blocks on the map.
You will be expected to define:

• Town Borders (rectangular)
• Landmark locations
• Roads
• Terraforming requests for Staff

FUNDRAISING

The magic of Player Towns is founded in the mutual joy of bringing an idea to life. Map 5 has a variety of unique biomes to fill, and we’re excited to see what inspires you!

Before fundraising begins, all approved town ideas are guaranteed a maximum of 15 plots, no bigger than 15×15.

The Town Board may set up plans for Llama fundraising in order to unlock more plots and a higher maximum plot size. You’ll have 14 days to raise funds. 

Each tier of funding requires a minimum amount of player participation and has a cap on donations per tier. This is used to gauge interest in the town—the more donations, the bigger the town (kind of like a Kickstarter). 

The most one player can donate towards a town is $20k Llamas, split between three tiers. This is to ensure the Town has genuine interest across a wide player base. Donations are non-refundable. Refer to the following table for a reference of each fundraising tier.

Example: A new Player Town, ExampleTown, has caught your eye! You can immediately donate up to $5,000 llamas to help ExampleTown reach Tier 1—unlocking additional, larger plots.

After 9 other players have donated, ExampleTown has raised over $50k Llamas, meaning they’ve reached Tier 1!

The Town Board continues to organize fundraising events, and now that they’re working towards Tier 2, you can donate an additional $5k Llamas. You’ve doubled your total funding towards ExampleTown, as well as the 9 other original backers.

Excitement about the town continues to grow, and 10 players who didn’t donate in Tier 1 also donate the Tier 2 maximum of $10k Llamas.

As the two weeks of fundraising wind down, ExampleTown has received $350,000 Llamas from 27 different players. That means they unlocked a total of 25 plots for their town, with a max plot size of 25×25!

4) Let’s Get Building!

All town construction must be completed within 60 days of the start date. The Town Board is expected to appropriately delegate tasks with players chosen to help with construction. All communication regarding these tasks MUST be done within the town-specific Discord channel. Player safety and comfort is the number one priority, and the Staff Sponsor will be monitoring to ensure everyone is being respectful (DFTBA!).

Within the Town region, all Builders (including the Town Board) will have unlimited access to /fly. Other players will not have access to the region, though the Board may recruit more builders at any time. Builders will be in Survival mode and can build with resources they’ve gathered when Staff are not available to give Creative access. 

Additionally, WorldEditing Subcontractor Services may be proposed and priced based on complexity. The Staff Sponsor will handle requests as-needed.

The Town Board is expected to coordinate with the Staff Sponsor for scheduled access to Creative mode. This is entirely reliant on Staff availability, but we will do our best to coordinate specific time-blocks. As a reminder, all Staff members are volunteers that play in their free time—please be respectful. 

Important: Any player found to be using Creative mode for personal gain will be permanently banned from the server without appeal.

Plot layouts will be marked by wool until ready for official plot borders. If your Town Fundraising unlocked larger plots, you will be required to have a minimum 2:1 ratio of smaller plots to max-size plots (ex: Tier 3 can have 20 plots ≤15×15 to have 10 30×30 plots).

Building is the hardest part of the Player Town process, but also the most fun!
We’re excited to hear your ideas! Feel free to ask questions on Discord in the #get-help-from-staff channel.