I’m looking forward to seeing what the upcoming changes are to BuildBox, and this is really isn’t meant as a “hurry up” post.
I thought I would chuck in my two pence (us Brits don’t use cents). I see the logic in removing the powerful WorldEdit commands from people joining the first time, as I imagine it can cause a lot of grief to clean up if not done in their plot, or potential crashes if done in the plot world. As such I fully support making WorldEdit Builder+
Similarly, I understand that the standard of Builder ranks do tend to fall over time, and so it may be desirable to rank reset. But as others have brought up in this thread, the problem with doing this and simultaneously raising the requirements to achieve Builder is that it alienates the people who primarily play on the other Blocktopia servers.
Whether they wish to test out a design for a DoD build, or build a beautiful map for one of the other servers it’ll often be of a larger scale, requiring terraforming of the area or large buildings. Now of course these things can be done by hand without the WE commands but it just adds time and hassle, particularly if you are just going to recreate it by hand in DoD.
A reasonable response to this is: “Why not just load up a single player world with WorldEdit commands?”
For me, this is not ideal as I tend to build a number of things with KingSam, which invalidates anything built on BuildBox as it’s not an independent build.
In fact, a lot of people like to make maps in teams, however in order to get Builder currently, you need to build independently, co-operative builds are not taken into account.
“Well, how about setting up a simple server with WorldEdit? That way you can collaboratively build and have WorldEdit commands.”
Well yes, I could, but it seems an awful lot of effort for a build particularly if it’s a map for a Blocktopia server. Would it not be logical to build it in the Blocktopia community build server? Where you can easily get feedback from people who perhaps play on the AoD/RoF/Infection server more than you, and get artistic feedback from BuildBox members.
The following may seem like a bit of a side note, but bear with me. I had an issue with A+T when it was first released, “what’s the point in a adventure map server? Surely I can just download a map and play it myself” I thought. But then I actually tried doing it, and frankly, it was way too much hassle, particularly if I wanted to play with other people. So I came round to the server after that, it has it’s place and it’s nice if you want to play an adventure map, you still feel part of the community if you’re doing a solo map, and can go through them with others easily. Why should BuildBox be so different?
I personally am not sure whether the first rank should be about your building ability, should it not be more about your trustworthiness?
If there is to be a rank between this TrustworthyPlayer rank and Adv. Builder, then so be it. However, if so, I question whether it should only be Operators judging the quality of the builds. BuildBox operators are moderators, whilst they are OFTEN promoted from the Adv. Builders, it is not a requirement to be an amazing builder. Therefore shouldn’t Adv. Builders as the top builders also be able to say “Yes, you are a good builder, and you’re climbing your way to Adv. Builder, have an improved rank.” Of course, some Adv. Builders may wish to just build and not be pestered, and that’s fine.
I’m not trying to step on any toes with this post, but I hope people can get some use out of my thoughts and feedback.