The Skyblock Server

No matter what type of subserver totalfreedom tries to implement, it’s more than likely going to fail and I’m not trying to be pessimistic it’s just how it’s previously worked. I’m not sure at this stage any attempt of extending the server will work considering what totalfreedom has been for (nearly) 11 years, which is and has been, at its core freedom server. Imagine if 2b2t launched a prison server where no hacks were allowed and the chat was monitored and heavily moderated, it wouldn’t sustain for more than 2? weeks. The gmod server failed, every attempt at the smp failed and at this point I would suggest against expanding, but instead improving the current server because that’s where TF get its player base, there are much more well established servers where people can go to play sky block and I think we should stick to what we’re known for

My opinion of the Skyblock server remains the same as it was when I made my thread about it, so I'll just repost what I said here.

This will probably be like "every other" skyblock server (there's thousands of them anyways) and will probably fail in a few months. If you let people use cheat clients, fly and do things normally considered "unethical" by other server standards, then it'd probably live up to the "TF" in it's name, but like the SMP server it won't so it's just another generic 'spin-off' server that really doesn't live up to the name "total freedom" and is just as forgettable like every spin-off server of TF. Instead of trying to add generic gamemodes the main server should be the #1 priority where 99% of all players go to anyways and think of when they hear "TotalFreedom". Also since it's not even part of the hub or can be reached by using the main server, it technically shouldn't be considered part of the actual server since you can't even join it from TF-proper. By this logic it's just an 'affiliated' server using the TF brand.

the whole totalfreedom thing doesn't work when its not totalfreedom instead its a network with a freeop gamemode among other generic things like skyblock

red you make excellent servers, URF wouldve gone well if it wasn't shut down, but the thing holding this server back from expanding is itself. tf aint a network and won't work as one. that's just how it is.

Let me clarify something, because clearly it's not super obvious...

This wasn't a "We'd like to do this, what do y'all think", this is a "We're going down this direction because we feel it's in the best interests of the TF Network, tada".

We've absorbed an established server into the network, and while right now today it is not fully integrated into the network, it is an established server, that requires no additional effort from our limited development team, and in the longer term will allow folks a totally different experience compared to what they've had to date.

TF in it's current format is going to continue to fizzle out until there's nothing more than a discord and a forum where everyone moans at each other, our current Freedom Gamemode is of limited interest, because if you wanted to go fuck around, you'd just go spin up your own server or use one of those free server hosts, something that was much harder when the server first came to be.

This is the first of a number of additional game modes we are looking to introduce into the network, and in this case happened to be an established server so required very little time on our part to integrate it as far as we have.

I appreciate some folks won't like it, won't agree with it and won't play it, that's all fine. The Freedom gamemode will continue to be maintained until there is literally nobody playing on it, and we will continue as we have capacity to expand into new gamemodes, in an effort to keep TF frankly relevant in the Minecraft community.

Just because other gamemodes have failed in the past, does not mean they always will in the future. Give it a chance to thrive before throwing your toys out the pram, especially when a lot of folks don't actually know much about it, much less have bothered to even join the server...

↩  Luke As I've said before, long term we will be moving away from "TotalFreedom" as a key brand name, because frankly that's not even representative of the current Freedom gamemode. As has been said before, TF is a community and I don't see why it should be limited to a single gamemode, which frankly is struggling to get people interested in it...

What the fuck?

↩ @'Ryan' you don't seem to understand what we're saying here

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↩ @'Ryan' This wasn't a "We'd like to do this, what do y'all think", this is a "We're going down this direction because we feel it's in the best interests of the TF Network, tada".

nobody is saying it was. people are saying it won't work.. because it won't

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↩ @'Ryan' We've absorbed an established server into the network, and while right now today it is not fully integrated into the network, it is an established server, that requires no additional effort from our limited development team, and in the longer term will allow folks a totally different experience compared to what they've had to date.

Don't you think there's a reason that the network you've absorbed had to be absorbed? Can you tell me what the playercount on there is like?

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↩ @'Ryan' TF in it's current format is going to continue to fizzle out until there's nothing more than a discord and a forum

And it's not by introducing Skyblock?

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↩ @'Ryan' I appreciate some folks won't like it, won't agree with it and won't play it,

The issue is that nobody is going to play it not just some folks. It's skyblock. It's been here for years. What's unique? Crates?

Who's actually gonna play it, Ryan? The 'preexisting 8 players'?

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↩ @'Ryan' Just because other gamemodes have failed in the past, does not mean they always will in the future. Give it a chance to thrive before throwing your toys out the pram, especially when a lot of folks don't actually know much about it, much less have bothered to even join the server...

..but it does. Patterns form. Clearly new gamemodes (or at the very least basic overdone gamemodes) don't work for TF. Instead of generic gamemode #2, go for something lesser seen that'd be more fun. Why not do minigames? I'm sure that'd fit in amazingly with Lyicx's job? I'd love to see paintball, spleef, etc.

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↩ @'Ryan' As I've said before, long term we will be moving away from "TotalFreedom" as a key brand name

And what will we be going for? 'ATLAS Network'? Because seriously if we keep doing this shite we are literally going to just be another bland as shit network that nobody actually stays on because they could go somewhere like Hypixel or elsewhere. There's modernising TF to ensure survival and then there's making it into your own network that is completely lost what originally made it charming.

↩  videogamesm12 please say this is a joke

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↩  Luke  videogamesm12 please say this is a joke

I'm afraid not.

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↩  Luke nobody is saying it was. people are saying it won't work.. because it won't

On the grounds that it already had an active player base, it can't do any worse than things like SMP... At least there is already some level of community established, not the largest, but it's better than fuck all...

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↩  Luke Don't you think there's a reason that the network you've absorbed had to be absorbed? Can you tell me what the playercount on there is like?

I wasn't involved in agreeing them merging into us, I simply approved the end result.

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↩  Luke And it's not by introducing Skyblock?

It gives us a better chance at surviving than doing nothing, which was my point.

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↩  Luke The issue is that nobody is going to play it not just some folks. It's skyblock. It's been here for years. What's unique? Crates?

Who's actually gonna play it, Ryan? The 'preexisting 8 players'?

I'll take those 8 existing players over 0 players at all...

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↩  Luke ..but it does. Patterns form. Clearly new gamemodes (or at the very least basic overdone gamemodes) don't work for TF. Instead of generic gamemode #2, go for something lesser seen that'd be more fun. Why not do minigames? I'm sure that'd fit in amazingly with Lyicx's job? I'd love to see paintball, spleef, etc.

This was a gamemode that required such little effort from anyone on the existing TF Team, it made it very easy and a very appealing deal. There's no custom dev involved, and everything is already configured and proven and good to go... We have had a cool gamemode which hasn't been done in Minecraft before written up and designed, and I'm really hoping we can actually develop and launch it soon, and we've got some other interesting gamemodes that are fairly un-common from what I've seen that we're looking to add. And I agree, I've considered options to be able to quickly turn the events server into various mini-games, or just flat out work out the best way to stand them up on demand anyway, and I hope that will all be to come in the future, but these things as always take time.

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↩  Luke And what will we be going for? 'ATLAS Network'? Because seriously if we keep doing this shite we are literally going to just be another bland as shit network that nobody actually stays on because they could go somewhere like Hypixel or elsewhere. There's modernising TF to ensure survival and then there's making it into your own network that is completely lost what originally made it charming.

I think there's an aspect of rose tinted glasses there, I can't say as I ever recall TF being "Charming", but for the record, the intent is to long term just refer to the network as "The TF Network" or something like that, few people actually call TF "TotalFreedom" anyway, the branding and such would all remain mostly the same (Or at least it wouldn't have to change) and the narrative for playing on the server would likely change with it.

Ultimately I want to be able to offer an experience which people actually enjoy, and while SkyBlock is not the silver bullet to solve all the problems, I see it as a baby step in the right direction and to ensure that TF doesn't just end up as an archived forum that we all look back on every 1 or 2 years like so many other communities that came before us.

A very impressive looking spawn. I think this sounds interesting and hope it does well.

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↩ @'Ryan' On the grounds that it already had an active player base, it can't do any worse than things like SMP... At least there is already some level of community established, not the largest, but it's better than fuck all...

8 players. They could potentially all leave by the end of this week. If they're a close group all it takes is 1 to leave for all of them to leave.

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↩ @'Ryan' I wasn't involved in agreeing them merging into us, I simply approved the end result.

Based on general management experience, people merge because their shit is failing. Based on the fact that their playerbase was literally 8 people, I can safely say this is why.

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↩ @'Ryan' It gives us a better chance at surviving than doing nothing, which was my point.

Disagree. Based on history it'll just fizzle out at the same rate, only difference being people play skyblock for a few weeks before getting bored.

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↩ @'Ryan' I think there's an aspect of rose tinted glasses there, I can't say as I ever recall TF being "Charming",

I say charming for lack of a better word. By this I mean we lose what it was originally created for, which is an all inclusive freeop instead of a generic network.

I'm just going to ignore the shitshow above me and comment about how in my short time of playing there I've genuinely enjoyed the skyblock, that's my two cents.

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↩  Luke 8 players. They could potentially all leave by the end of this week. If they're a close group all it takes is 1 to leave for all of them to leave.

In which case we got 8 players for "Free" for a week, and we have a fully functional gamemode that took none of our existing dev's effort to setup and maintain... Either way we've got something for "Nothing" which is far easier to maintain than our Freedom gamemode...

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↩  Luke Based on general management experience, people merge because their shit is failing. Based on the fact that their playerbase was literally 8 people, I can safely say this is why.

It's certainly possible, it's hard to grow servers in general. I'd rather give this a go and get it wrong than not try it...

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↩  Luke Disagree. Based on history it'll just fizzle out at the same rate, only difference being people play skyblock for a few weeks before getting bored.

Maybe so, but I'm going to do what I can to try to keep players on our gamemodes in general...

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↩  Luke I say charming for lack of a better word. By this I mean we lose what it was originally created for, which is an all inclusive freeop instead of a generic network.

And I have no intention of it becoming "Just a generic network", the challenge is balancing the huge amounts of dev effort required to make the custom gamemodes we have lined up, and the maintainability. The Freedom gamemode as is requires a huge amount of dev effort to maintain, so I am reluctant to put too much effort into trying to get new gamemodes out there because it'll take time and effort away from our ability to do dev on the Freedom gamemodes. It's a balance, and I'm trying to get it right, but I might not get it right first time...