Vision 2023

last updated: 31 March 2022

A survival multiplayer creative Minecraft server with a little touch of creative survival that’s so much more.

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary this year, we would like to thank all WolvHaveners around for their continued support of the server.

As time changes, our player base will change, and the server itself will also need to adapt to said change

Vision 2023 sets out our plan for a renewed server experience for the next 10 years.

To Summarize

When Fifth Haven is made the main world of the server in 2023

• Main gamemode of the server becomes creative; survival will be seperated from WolvHaven City
• Pangaea will be reset in 2023; Nether & the End will be reset when the server updates to 1.18.2
• When the server updates to 1.18.2 in mid 2022, players will have 6 months to transfer their survival assets from Pangaea and WolvHaven City to the new survival world
• Builder rank will be formalized; Architect & Engineer ranks will only be awarded based on contributions within WolvHaven, and can only be promoted from the Builder rank
• Sandbox will be closed, a new no-frills freebuild creative world is proposed to take its place
• Removal of official manually operated Metro driving experience. Players are welcome to create their own manual metro driving experiences in their own claims or in the proposed freebuild creative world

Fixing our identity crisis, focusing on creative

WolvHaven currently faces an identity crisis where the main gamemode of the server which people are placed on is in Survival, despite the server often appearing to others as a creative server, and the ever-growing player base that prefers creative building.

However, we acknowledge that there is still a section of the server’s community that still plays survival once in awhile, hence we will not be getting rid of survival entirely; but instead just making it a secondary gamemode.

What this means

Starting from Fifth Haven, the main game mode of the server will be creative

• Inventories between WolvHaven City, and the survival worlds will be unlinked
• WolvHaven City will shift towards becoming a creative showcase city

Why the change

We want to streamline the server experience and make it easier for newcomers to enjoy. Despite this, there are also a couple of other reasons for the shift.

1. The current format is confusing for newbies. The main idea of WolvHaven City is for players to gather resources in survival, and trade in the city. However, this is not as clear-cut as it seems.
2. City Exploration in survival can be boring or tiresome. Fifth Haven will be over 10x larger than the current iteration of the WolvHaven City world, which can already be tiresome to explore around in survival. Limitations such as hunger, etc. further make the experience less enjoyable. In addition, certain services such as metro reliability has decreased over the years due to certain limitations and new performance requirements; making survival in the city unpleasant.
3. Fairness. Players with creative or architect rights in the city tend to use such gamemodes to decorate their spaces within the city, despite being expected to source for such materials in survival. This is hard to moderate, and is not fair to others.
4. Administrative Burden. Due to the need to protect the city’s infrastructure and buildings, players who wish to setup stores or shops in the city need to wait for Staff to setup regions for them, creating unpleasant waiting times to get started.
5. Simplifying Server Technicalities. The full segregation of survival and creative worlds allows for server’s technicalities such as plugins etc. to be further streamlined, reducing further points of failure.
6. Giving Fifth Haven more life. Let’s admit it. Allowing people to get creative in the city and contribute makes the place a more fun place to explore (and perhaps fewer empty shell buildings).

A new Creative Experience: Proposed freebuild world to replace the Sandbox

Staff have reviewed feedback provided over the years and have found that there is a sizable chunk of players who want a no-frills creative experience. They want to build transit infrastructure, or whatever they like without the added work that comes with building up an entire claim or city.

Veteran players have also often reminised the loss of the Innovate world; which was a world similar to the Sandbox dedicated to a transit infrastructure building competition back in 2013 which stayed on till 2015/2016.

Similarly, staff have also noted the downfall in popularity of the Sandbox world, which has become the least popular world in the server since 2018.

Sandbox to be Closed or Replaced

Staff are considering closing the sandbox, with the introduction of a new Creative world similar to innovate to replace it, but with natural terrain generation.

If introduced, our creative worlds will be as follows:

• Gardellia – the original city-building world with pre-built rail infrastructure; a bit more restrictive due to its nature
• Calidia – the city-building world for players who are serious with bigger ambitions and value more space for their claims
• New Freebuild World (name to be decided) – creative freebuild, players can build whatever they like (within the rules) without the fuss that comes with starting a whole claim by themselves

WolvHaven’s 5th City: Fifth Haven

We will be changing up the WolvHaven City experience to make it more inclusive to the community. (From Fifth Haven)

Fifth Haven will serve as WolvHaven’s showcase city and will be a community effort.

Builder Rank to be made official

We will solidify and make official the currently hidden “Builder” rank which allows players who did not meet the requirement of Architect/Engineer to build and contribute to Fifth Haven.

Architects/Engineers will plan out city, and Builders can help assist in the realization of these plans. We hope this will also facilitate knowledge transfer, and also improve everyone’s building skills.

Builders will also be allowed to fill in or occupy existing empty buildings or add buildings into defined locations that are open to contribution without the need for permission to do so.

They can import their companies/franchises/restaurants or decorate the interiors of most buildings or add on new ones to developing areas; and be promoted to architect or engineer based on their contributions.

Builder applications will be assessed based on the following proposed criteria:

• Do they have WorldEdit qualification?
• What have they created or contributed in the server?
• Does this player understand the role?

Builders will receive an additional [B] tag behind their existing rank tag, similar to that of [PS]

Removal of (Official) Manual Metro Lines

From the introduction of FifthHaven, Manual Metro Lines will be a thing of the past — at least within the City. This was a tough decision to make but was necessary given the following reasons:

• They get boring quickly; and attract players who only come on for the purpose of driving trains.
  • We cannot build a new Metro line every year to keep such players entertained; it isn’t sustainable
  • Players who only come on to drive trains tend to not interact or participate in other areas of the server
  • Low player retention rate due to repetition
• A lot of administration and frustration is involved in the licensing process
• Manual Metro driver related incidents, and trespass are the top cause of official warnings/bans

This however, does not spell the end of Manual Metro Lines in the entire server. The community is more than welcome to construct Manual Metro Lines in their own Gardellia/Calidia claims or build their own rail networks in the aforementioned proposed creative freebuild world.

Retiring of the Train Examiner role

With the removal of official manual train driving, the existing train examiners and the department will be disbanded when the server shifts to FifthHaven.

Acknowledging Contributions: Changes to the [Architect] & [Engineer] rank

Many have expressed their distaste for the current structure of the Architect and Engineer ranks, citing that many who receive the ranks do not actively contribute to the official WolvHaven city. However, the decisions on an application & selection process continue to remain contentious.

From 2023, or earlier, all applicants for the Architect & Engineer rank must have held the Builder Rank previously. Players can only apply using builds or contributions that they have made within the WolvHaven server (that includes Gardellia & Calidia).

A one-time audit will also be done through existing Architects & Engineers, and inactive members/non-contributors will lose the rank to ensure fairness in the system.

A new home for survival: Pangaea Reset

I will admit our handling of Pangaea was not the best. Minimal effort was put into maintaining the world and it has degenerated into quite a mess, as reflected by the feedback of many.

Feedback has shown that the majority of WolvHaveners are in favor of a Pangaea reset, and this is what we will do. But we are holding off the reset for when the server updates to 1.18 (expected mid-2022) to take advantage of the new terrain generation.

When the server updates to 1.18 we will have a new survival world, and also reset the Nether, and the End concurrently.

A transition period of 6 months is to be expected to allow players time to transfer between the survival worlds.

Why not now?

We hope that Fifth Haven will be ready by end-2022 for this transition to take place. There are several reasons why we will be waiting till then.

• Interlinking between the worlds
  • Our survival world and the current WolvHaven City have been so interlinked it would be irresponsible to immediately unlink the two. Players have stored and kept items obtained from survival in the city, and built shops there.
• Pangaea’s Replacement
  • When Pangaea’s replacement after the server is updated to 1.18 is made public, players will be encouraged to shift their survival items from the current WolvHaven City into the new replacement world.
• Major Infrastructure needed in Fifth Haven
  • Some key projects in Fifth Haven will still need to be completed so that we can begin the concurrent development of the city in different areas of the world.

A general timeline

• Mid 2022 — Server updates to 1.18
  • Pangaea’s replacement created & opened to public
  • The nether & the end is reset
  • Transition period begins (of 6 months at least) — players to transfer items from Pangaea & WolvHaven City into the new survival world
  • Sandbox is closed and new freebuild creative world is opened
• End 2022 — Fifth Haven is ready
• Early 2023 — Transition period ends
  • Existing WolvHaven city enters READ-ONLY mode, switched to creative mode, eventually retired from the server
  • FifthHaven to become main world of server

For discussions, questions, or suggestions, please send your messages in #experience-reform in discord. Thank you!

I understand that these changes will take time, and I appreciate your continued support for the server and regret any inconveniences caused. Thank you, and I hope that this will be the beginning of an era for a greater WolvHaven server for all to enjoy.

SilverWolv