Towny DYNMAP

Since we're starting fresh, how about we add a Dynmap this time with players town spawns registering on the map?

 

Why?

 

Is this a serious question?

 

Yeah.

 

It's a good question, too

Why is this needed, at all? What does it actually do for anybody?

 

Dynmap is a program that allows players on a server or on a single player world to understand where things are located at on a map. It also allows players to know where their town is in relation to others vice versa.

Although the implications of such an addition are not tremendous, it's still a neat feature players could use. Also with the server starting fresh it believe it's a great time for such an addition to be added.

 

this was suggested and denied in the past due to memory issues and lag and the fact that it will be so much easier to raid towns
put effort into things

 

I know it was denied in the past for these exact reasons.

Regarding the raiding, /random made it a lot easier to raid towns as well. And hopefully now towns will be a lot harder to own and maintain I don't believe town raiding will be much of an issue for a while. Even if it was, I don't see how the dynmap would negatively impact this. Anybody can do /random or do /town list to view towns that are about to fall and /set homes there.

 

Like @Muunkee said, it makes it super easy to raid towns, bases, and the like. Plus, some people don't want their towns to necessarily be seen, so this effectively defeats the purpose of private towns.

Finally, it's insanely resource-heavy, and the devs have other things to work on (*cough* getting the server back up and running first *cough*).

 

Just looked into it

If this was a lightweight thing, it'd be really cool to have, but everything said above plus the fact that its demanding makes it seem pretty useless

 

Well, with the dynmap, all you need to do is find a built-up area without a claim. Then you just walk there and claim it.

It literally makes it super easy to find old towns. Plus, town raiding will start almost immediately--people will join, make towns, and quit. Additionally, with the dynmap you can also easily find and raid all the outpost plots of a given town, not just the main town body.

Furthermore, /t [name] displays the coordinates of the town spawn for all public towns. Is that not enough?

Lastly, some people have outposts or even entire towns they want to keep private. Like, if I'm building something or working on a collaborative project, I don't want people stumbling into my town because they thought it looked cool on the dynmap.

 

I'm not trying to suggest a full on 3d model of a 20kx20k server (Which is about 71gb-84gb of space required) I'm talking about a simple 2d platform.

Also if players wish to keep plots private they have the option to dig underground.

Regarding raiding towns, it's a fact that it's going to happen no matter what. But it's something that is always going to happen, adding a dynmap sure may help players 'raid' but it's always been first come first come basis.

Something like this

 

Well yeah, but it'll still show the town claim above it.

And what if I don't want everyone spying me and seeing where I am at any given moment??

Plus even 2d dynmaps are insanely resource-heavy. For a dev team as small as Meep's, fixing so many things at once can prove fatal and lead to stagnation like we saw with the last towny release.

 

I think this would be pretty cool but I don't think we have all that much space at the moment.

 

It's not something that needs to be 100% focused on get this done right now type of suggestion. It's a suggestion for further down the line.

Although I'm not a Dev, I don't believe 2d dynmaps could be insanely resource-heavy.

Also regarding the dynmap, further down the line perhaps an options to go private or public within the dynmap.

 

You still haven't answered my question: what benefit does a dynmap provide other than "it looks cool and might be nice" ?

 

When assessing this suggestion on paper, it seems like a good idea - it's Google Earth for MeepCraft, where we can see the various settlements of players almost like we would see cities on a real map. However, it is stressful on the servers; as Meep has such a small development team, it is not feasible to support even a 2D map on the servers. Despite that, however, there are gameplay-related issues in this suggestion.

Players wish to keep plots private and have them look good. What's wrong with building great temples, palaces, homes, or anything, outside? An underground city is already a theme, and it is completely impractical to attempt to build a riverside settlement underground. Most players who wish to make their town private simply do not want people nearby, there is no problem with that. The last time I gave out coordinates to my town, I was forced to remove the settlement I had created there, as someone had walked over a thousand blocks simply to reach it; I genuinely had assumed they were joking.

You are oversimplifying the raiding aspect a lot; you do realize that as /random only allows you to check your vicinity for towns to raid, a map literally allows you to scan the entire surface of the world and premeditate raids? Any town is a drastically easier target, should a map be implemented.

 

-Quote from previous post
''Dynmap is a program that allows players on a server or on a single player world to understand where things are located at on a map. It also allows players to know where their town is in relation to others vice versa.''

 

The benefits of that do not outweigh how resource-demanding it is. /towny map is a command which allows you to understand the general surroundings of your town.

 

-quote from previous post: You still haven't answered my question: what benefit does a dynmap provide other than "it looks cool and might be nice?"

Like, I get what dynmap does, but how/why does that make Meep better?