Be prepared for a wall of text, although I’ve tried to keep this as interesting as possible.
MCSG V2 was introduced in February 2013, and has since become one of the most iconic Survival Games plugins around. It fixed many of the problems which were seen to be harming V1 and transformed the way SG worked on this server, creating a fresh new experience for players who had been playing for a while. It has served us for nearly 18 months now, and while it has had some criticism, the overwhelming majority would now agree that it has served the server brilliantly.
However, I believe it is time for a change. We have already tried it once; in September, a ‘V3’ test system was introduced, and yet in what is testament to MCG listening to its community, when people disagreed with the change, it was withdrawn, and rightfully so; the system was flawed. I personally think that we as a community should now start working on a system which can successfully replace V2.
Why?
There are a few reasons for which I believe V3 would help the server. Firstly, I think the server needs something new; especially for old time players, playing the exact same system for a long time can become boring, and however good a game is it can never stay interesting forever. V2 is now 18 months old, which feels like a very long time; in fact the vast majority of active players will have only ever played on V2.
Furthermore, V2 is in no way perfect; of course, any SG plugin will have its flaws, but I believe that while V2 is excellent, there are a lot of flaws which could still be ironed out to make the game more interesting and its tactics more complex. This will be explained in far more detail later.
What to change?
Currently, I believe that one of the big problems with the plugin is that it is far too easy to get stacked out of your mind with so many secondaries that there is no use trying to spare them, thus nullifying a lot of tactical play. Here I’m going to list ways I think the introduction of V3 could change that, as well as a few other flaws.
Iron armour
This has been one of the primary criticisms of V2. It wouldn’t really be an MCSG game nowadays without at least 2 people in full iron – I agree this has to change. The likelihood of getting iron armour, and possibly chain armour too, in tier 2s, needs to be reduced, as it is simply too easy; even a 2 tier 2 route is often enough for 7+ armour bars.
jonnysurvives suggested a system in which there is a maximum of 2 armour pieces in a tier 2, and a maximum of 1 piece of iron armour; personally I’m not a fan of this since it takes a tiny bit too much luck out of the game. It should still be possible to get ridiculous armour from a single tier 2, but I shouldn’t be expecting 6+ armour bars from each tier 2. However, jonny has the right idea; tier 2 armour needs to be nerfed.
Arrows
Currently it’s also far too easy to get arrows. In most games that I do well in, by the time it gets to deathmatch, I have 40+ arrows. At this point it’s pretty much like having an infinity bow, and it’s pointless rationing your arrows; most people just bowspam every fight once they have that many. One thing I prefer in the plugin of
that other server is the fact that you really need to decide when and when not to use your arrows since they are rarer.
(Sidenote: it is way too easy to craft arrows. There need to be fewer feathers especially. Those things are useless and just clutter up your inventory; the stack size you get should be 1 or 2 and not 5.)
Food
Here’s one which really grinds my gears. There are so many different types of food in V2. What is the point? So many of them are very similar to each other.
Currently we have (off the top of my head): Raw Chicken, Cookies, Melons, Raw Fish, Raw Porkchop, Raw Beef, Bread, Pumpkin Pie, Potatoes, Apples, Carrots, Cooked Chicken, Steak, Cooked Porkchop, Golden Carrot, Mushroom Stew, and Golden Apples (+cake, but that barely counts). That is 17 different types of food. Having that many is pointless; it clutters up your inventory and is a pain.
I think we should add cake as a rare item in tier 2s (since it adds something interesting to the game), possibly add stacks of 2 of wheat, but remove:
-Raw Chicken: no-one eats it
-Cookies: very similar to melons, don’t add anything
-Raw Fish: Very similar to melons, don’t add anything, their cooked counterparts aren’t even in the game
-Pumpkin Pie: Similar to bread, nothing special
-Possibly remove either porkchops or beef since they are effectively the same?
-Remove either potatoes or mushroom stew since they restore the same hunger and same saturation
This would leave us with 10/11 food items. This is slightly less cluttered, and there is something unique to each, but still enough that there is variety imo. I also believe that the amount of food you get should be cut slightly – we shouldn’t be starving each game, but it’s very rare nowadays to see someone not have enough food to comfortably be eating high saturation food all game. Making it a bit more difficult makes it far more interesting!
Tier 1s
So much of the game in V2 relies on whether you got a good route or not. Of course, this should matter greatly; however, on most maps nowadays if you do not get a single tier 2 then you are quite simply screwed. Anyone with 3 ½ armour bars doesn’t stand a chance against someone with 7+. Tier 1s are overpowered on h***, and we shouldn’t add chain armour, but as
jonnysurvives said, I believe gold items should be made a very rare item in tier 1s, so that you actually have a chance of killing someone and winning without getting a tier 2.
That is all for now, since this is 1000 words. To conclude, I really believe that a new plugin, coded with reference to the community, would benefit MCG. Thanks for reading and please leave your opinion!
*thanks to Wyz_Guy for the idea, and jonnysurvives for some of the logistics.
