The Big City Map Needs Change

Support Suggestions Box
#1

There’s no getting around the fact that the Big City Map is an absolute mess of utmost disorder. It would seem that “Big City” is nothing but a vessel for hosting the nostalgic emotional attachment to old buildings; like a paste-bin for creations built by upper-ranked individuals.
Most will agree that the map itself needs serious revision, and that it has been neglected for too long.
Here is my recommendation:

Reset the Big City map. Not only will a clean slate will get more people involved, but we can do more just by starting over. Forget about the sentiment of the old buildings. Big City shouldn’t be a paste-bin and you know it.

Implement a custom map. Either with Worldpainter/world generating software, or with the same biome generator in the creative world. The map as of right now looks straight out of 2013 Minecraft - bland.
A custom world will create a geographical diversity to a new Big City that will allow the creation of suburbs, hiking trails, cities, ports, beaches, historical sites, anything.

lastly, only individuals that have displayed a great capability of building skill and creativity in the creative world or survival world should be able to build in Big City. The map should be a bastion of exceptional creativity, structure, planning and care.
Think of the World of Keralis Map: http://mccp.worldofkeralis.com:8123/#
The creative world simply lacks these qualities, and the countless hollow wool skyscrapers scattered across the landscape in all imaginable places are evident of this.

Don’t tell me Big City is already a city. It’s a series of plots with skyscrapers, surrounded by copy-paste spam seizures, random block-art, flying cargo freight ships and airplanes on highways, among other things.

There are a manner of ranks, none of which reflect creative skill and building ability. This new Big City should be a bastion for those who want to excel in a passion-project with many other like-minded players.
I believe this new Big City will offer a cohesive, collaborative approach to building that this server may sometimes lack.
To the staff, I implore you at least consider some measure of change.

-LordChieftain

#2

We fully agree that BigCity is lacking at the moment, which is why we’re actually in the middle of migrating to a new map. This new map will be a custom map which will be structured more like an actual city and the surrounding area. A lot of the mess you’ve noticed is actually just preparation for this move.

It won’t be a complete reset, we will be transferring some builds, and we’re currently in the process of bringing buildings up to standard. That’s what the random coloured blocks on top of each build indicates, if you check the spawn for BC you’ll see there’s a key of what block types mean what.

As for allowing all ranks to build, I’d be fully in favour of allowing anyone to build if they can show the required standard.

2 Likes
#3

Test City has historically been where Members are allowed to mess around with content for Big City, and if we see good projects there we have copied them over before. I think all of us want Big City to flourish as much as possible, so I think we’d all be open to letting anyone build as long as they can meet the quality standard.

#4

It’s always been a policy to allow anyone to build in bigcity provided they can build to a good enough quality. No reason anyone shouldn’t be allowed to if they can.

#5

Chieftain, if you warp to the spawn in BigCity, you will notice that a sign in the foreground explains that there is a migration is in progress. This migration is long and has received much consideration from several members of the staff. I acknowledge the issues you point out on this situation, but many of what’s been brought up here has been assessed already.

I notice you mentioned a website as an example for our’s to follow. I’ve visited this server, and to be honest, I’d rather prefer the open and communicable standards of BigCity and Project City Build over the dull regulations of which are monotonous upon what could have been potential builders within that domain. You may disagree, but an open server with mindful and sensible staff is better than another that functions like a stern corporation. Still, your input is important and is being assessed to a degree that concerns the future of BigCity.

#6

At the moment, a holding vessel is exactly what the BigCity map is (although for all builds of the correct standard, not just for the “upper-ranked individuals”) because…

This is currently in progress, and is the reason for all the coloured halos above builds.
A complete list is at the BigCity warp, but essentially, purple will be deleted, orange requires a complete rebuild/rescale, yellow requires interiors and/or roof details, green are ready to be transferred.

There is no reason to start from scratch when we already have a sizeable pool of good builds which we can put to use. A lot of them have been built for the sole purpose of using them next map.

This is exactly what we plan to do.

I’m of the personal opinion that that’s what BigCity currently is, minus the planning part. To fix it, for the next map, we already have a basic layout of the entire region, which will contain 2 cities and a few smaller towns on a map of roughly 30k x 30k. We also have a few themed districts planned, each with a set of specific guidelines to keep it looking nice.

It is a city. We’ve never used plots, the vast majority of the builds are done freeform and fitted together.
I think the ‘copy paste spam seizures’ you’re referencing are the few areas we have with basic builds in different colour schemes for us to use as reference.
We plan for the freight ships and planes to be incorporated into the new map.

I hope this clears up some things about our plans for the city.
I’m currently in the process of writing a design manual for the new map, as build standards are going to be much more strictly enforced this map. When it’s in a more complete state, I’ll post it on the forums for everyone to read.

In the mean time, if you want to contribute to the city, you can do interiors for any of the builds with a yellow halo above them. Let us know which ones you do so we can tick them off of our list.
Or, you can make new builds, either in creative or BigCity, whichever you want, let us know you made it for BigCity and we can find a place for it in the new map.
If you want to do an orange build, let either me or Wairoa know and we’ll copy it to an open spot for you.

3 Likes
#7