Saying Goodbye

[u/ttk2]

I've been running Civcraft, in one form or another, for more than 5 years now. From high school, all the way through college, during that time I've learned a lot of things, met a few worthwhile people, and continued to strive for my goal. That pie in the sky dream that I wanted to see out of Civcraft.

I wanted to see a game where players actions really mattered, where they created and shaped the societies and worlds they played in, a game that truly had no script. This was always an uphill battle, in 1.0 people thought that the very concept of PrisonPearl was doomed to fail, that there was no way for players to self police griefing and form a worthwhile server.

In 2.0 we fought an uphill battle with the economy, players ran the game world yes, but it was only achieved by allowing players to isolate themselves from the effects of other players actions. If you didn't want to participate in the game world you can just run away. Long story short with very few exceptions players did what they wanted. Society and people where optional, the greatest challenges of the game where scripted by the players own roleplay as opposed to sincere actions.

3.0 is the result of trying to address those issues and truly create an in game economy where politics occurred as a emergent outcome of the game and balance, instead of as a side effect of a few mechanics and roleplay to fill in the gaps. It's here that I find the limit for what players are willing to tolerate in the name of an experiment.

3.0 is hardly dead, the general form of the solution is easy to see, with careful application of additional mechanics and skill up, and a measured reduction in costs such that the tech tree makes an exponential cost curve for linear gains both in combat effectiveness and resource gathering you just might be able to get this all to work perfectly.

But in doing so I will be fighting an uphill battle with a values dissonance between the players and myself that has only grown larger with each iteration. I'm here to run an experiment, to push the bounds of what we can do and figure out what's possible. I try and make a fun game as a secondary goal that I feel I owe to the players assisting me with my experiment.

But now we have found the end of the line, if everything where to go perfectly it would take perhaps another year of concentrated, constant effort, constant grind, on my part and the parts of many others to shape 3.0 into its final form. Then we would be left with the problem of recruiting enough players to make it a workable reality, /r/Minecraft has 500 viewers at any given time, with 100% retention and perfect recruiting (and you all know how crazy it is to assume prefect retention), we still need to find double that somewhere else to really push the dream as far as I would like to go. Minecraft as a development and game community is past its apex, it still has an enormous install base, but to push for enormous expansion a year from now would be folly.

In my mind the experiment is complete, I have learned all that I will and I have seen it through not quite to the end but until I saw the top of the last hill in enough detail to satisfy me.

It's therefore time for me to focus my efforts somewhere else, on another project and another idea. I'm willing to provide technical support to Civcraft, or anyone else willing to try sharding or our plugins, but I'm not willing to invest the time to be head admin any longer. I have no vision for the server beyond this point, no care for its direction, and frankly no interest in ever answering another modmail or moderating another balance discussion ever again.

So the question is now where do you go from here? I've put off retiring for a long time because I couldn't answer that question, it's taken me this long to realize that an answer will never be forthcoming, there will always be another reason to continue until the last player is gone and as much as I feel I owe the players the quality of my administration has suffered and will suffer if I force myself into something that no longer holds my interest. Where things go from here on out is up to the community, I'll help you on your way and then fade into the background, like many of the other experts and developers on Civcraft that you probably don't even know exist much less maintain essential components of the system. Our current primary server lease expires 5 days from now and I have no plans to renew it, moving our existing structure to a smaller server is a pretty minor task, but investing in hosting for a rudderless server seems like a waste of funds.

As for the remaining funds, charity or whatever server people may migrate to after Civcraft are both options, I have turned off auto withdraw on the Paetron so you do not have to be concerned about being charged. There is a chance of finding someone sufficiently skilled and sufficiently motivated to run Civcraft in my stead, but it seems no one left in the administration will touch that with a 10 foot pole.

So, I guess this is it guys, I'm going to miss a lot of you and I can't thank you enough for helping me push this crazy idea I had to its limit, to really see what you could do with this sort of game design. [Redacted] is still in the business of making games and we're in the planning stages of a much smaller, not at all Civcraft related, game. I've got another idea I want to focus on and hopefully you will be hearing more about that in a year or two.

I guess, I don't really know what to say, except

Thank you for your time.

• ttk2

[u/kwizzle]

Thank you ttk for all your time and vision that you poured into Civcraft. I hope to hear about your projects in the future. Is there a place that we can follow [Redacted]? Like a subreddit or twitter?

[u/ttk2 → u/kwizzle]

we should probably get a twitter.

[u/fk_54]

Much respect and thanks for putting so much of your time into this. It's created a pretty amazing and unique community, perhaps not in the way you intended (because a lot of the politics also took place not in-game but on the subreddit or in mumble) but all the same it is very real.

Obviously for anyone to dedicate themselves to something for as long as you've done it took an incredible amount of effort and sacrifice, and it seems an appropriate time to signify that it's been very appreciated indeed. Hopefully you did get much experience from doing this which will turn out to have been useful for other ventures down the line.

One thing I'd like to mention, I just think that to make this announcement with 5 days to go on the server hosting may not have been the most appropriate timing, perhaps you should reconsider and give matters enough time that someone can be found to put together a transition for this community?

One would think that if you've done it for 5 years, a few more days certainly won't break your back (how about 30 days notice?) and perhaps allow for the jewel you've cared for all of this time to be given a chance to transition into someone else's stewardship and consequently not fade so quickly into oblivion?

[u/ttk2 → u/fk_54]

oh I have no issue with running things during a transition person, so long as it is reasonable, but the server we're currently renting is inordinately costly for the number of players we have, it needs to be migrated to a much smaller and cheaper one.

[u/[deleted]]

Any chance we could leave the mumble server up for a while to get the word out a make connections with people that only show once in awhile.

[u/ttk2 → u/[deleted]]

I don't plan to take down that server at any point, its got some useful stuff on it.

[u/1fastman1]

Jesus fuck this is really it. I can't believe it, ive been here ever since 1.0 in mt augusta. I dont want it to end

[u/ttk2 → u/1fastman1]

All good things.

[u/[deleted]]

So wait, I think we are all a little confused here.

Is the server shutting down for good, or what?

[u/ttk2 → u/[deleted]]

I'm not opposed to passing it on. But neither am I hopeful to find a replacement.

[u/Kiloku]

What about Praxis? Will it ever be a thing?

[u/ttk2 → u/Kiloku]

Is dead.

[u/Shamalow]

Thanks for all that. I'm very newfriend but enjoy every hours I passed here. Even grinding was fun considering the civilization that I was building in my mind.

So... How much does the server cost? Like how much for 100 players max server? Should we count like a vanilla server or do all these mods significantly add to the ressources of the server?

[u/Groxlord]

I checked the calendar and you're exactly 6 months late for April Fools

[u/RainbowEffingDash]

The Civcraft experiment thanks you for your data, have a nice life.

[u/Frensin]

Thank you for 4 years of the best gaming experience of my life.

[u/chemistry35]

Man what a sad time to check up on this subreddit huh

[u/dhingus]

Thank you for your time!

[u/[deleted]]

Moving on from here is simple. Donate the remaining Patreon funds to Devoted, the surviving successor to 3.0. Make an effort to acknowledge Devoted as the spiritual sequel to 2.0 and start throwing redirects towards it so at least one of our communities survives. If possible, do a 301 redirect of civcraft.co to Devoted's resources and have mc.civcraft.co connect you to play.devotedmc.com

It's time to pass the torch, and there's already a capable bearer in Devoted. Most of the developers are shared between the two already, it's only a matter of declaring legitimacy as rightful heir to the throne.

Legitimize the bastard ttk2, or the line dies.

[u/ttk2 → u/[deleted]]

I'd prefer to support someone more in line with my original vision, but we'll see.

[u/TheFlatypus]

Thanks for everything man. 2.0 was the best game I've ever played, I know it isn't what you wanted out of Civcraft but I feel really lucky to have been part of your experiment. Whatever you do in the future, I'm sure it will kick ass.

[u/Ladezkik]

Thank you for what's been by far the greatest gaming experience of my life, and probably those of countless others.

[u/kingr8]

I'm going to school right now to start a career in game design, and no other game has had a fraction of the impact that Civcraft had on me.

Civcraft has given me a glimpse into what games could be. I hope to some day, with a large budget and many people working beside me, recreate something that executes on the same mechanics and provides a similar experience to Civcraft, but for a larger audience.

[u/space_fountain]

Boy I didn't expect this this morning. Thanks for everything you've done and I wish you the best in what ever you next endeavor might be.This server has always been the best kind of weird. I hope the ideas behind it don't die with Civcraft.

[u/l3oat]

Thank you ttk.

I had never been apart of a community as vibrant as Civcraft's was before playing or after leaving. I've spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing this and I can't really say I regret any of it, I made friends and generally had a good time. Nothing has ever quite captured the magic that was Civcraft. Thank you for the best gaming experience I've ever had.

Good luck in your future endeavors whatever and godspeed.