I would be lying if I said that my way of running this server is not first and foremost down to my personal taste and preference. Many decisions in a personal project are often just that, and there is nothing wrong in doing it different than someone else.
Well, the easiest answer to the question in the title would be to say; I let the community decide. But as with many things in life. Its not that simple. Don’t get the wrong idea though, community feedback is important, its just not all there is to it. I can not just simply roll with any change simply because the majority is on board with that. I have set some guidelines for myself, or more specifically for the server. I want to keep them as simple as possible and yet wanted them to be a useful guide on how to judge ideas and tackle issues.
The 7 Golden Guidelines for Server26.
- Keep the server running for as long as possible.
- The world shall never be reset.
- Keep the integrity of vanilla save files.
- No power should be obtainable trough reallife currency.
- Nothing should be obtained via commands or adminshops.
- The meta of the survival vanilla game should be altered as little as possible.
- Any change that would cause a potential alteration from the vanilla survival meta needs be weighted against its benefits in security, safety, performance, overhead, equality and economy
Now the first few are actually pretty solid and straightforward. Number 6 and 7 are the ones that are useful to us to decide whether to add/change a feature of the game or not. But before I go any further, I feel I need to explain what I mean by vanilla and meta in this context.
“What is vanilla?”, “Can I switch to peaceful and call it vanilla?”, “Is disabling mobGriefing, the daylight Cycle, and increasing random ticks to 100 vanilla?”, “Are datapacks vanilla?”, “Is Spigot, Paper and Fabric vanilla?”.
Well, yesn’t.
As I said, its not that simple. One can make the case that all of these are vanilla. Or one can say that only the default settings to those things are.
When one makes a server that calls itself vanilla, they are unwillingly taking a side in this. I will have to decide (for myself) what I constitute to be vanilla, and what not. I have to draw the line, maybe even multiple lines. A new line for every question. The lines I draw between vanilla and non-vanilla does not have to align with everyone else’s, and it does not have to be perfectly straight (well, it should show some consistency).
Some might say for example that Paper is not vanilla. It would be considered semi-vanilla. Others say as long as you don’t need mods its still vanilla. Another approach would be to say that only anarchy servers are true vanilla. All rules should be imposed by the game and not by the people. But then again, most anarchy server run Paper or something of that nature.
What I want to say is – in my personal opinion – Server26 is a vanilla server. In this article I do not plan to unravel and clear, once and for all, what vanilla is and what not, because this is a subjective question. If you think that adding land claiming to the game makes it no longer vanilla, that is fine. Its is an absolutely valid opinion. It is just one I do not personally agree with. I too often encounter servers that claim to be vanilla, which, in my opinion, are not.
Vanilla, in the context of the guidelines mentioned above, is meant less objectively (that is how the game actually runs/works) and more subjectively. That is how authentic is the experience as a player, and how much different the playing experience, aka the gameplay, is.
Which brings me to the next term “meta”. What I mean by survival/vanilla meta is simply how players play the game. Not in regards to a particular playstyle (Technical, PVPer, Farmer, Casual, Role-playing) but to tackling problems and challenges in the game as a whole. That means, in which way does the gameplay change? Not only actively, but also re-actively.
I want to go into more details with specific examples in the future, but for now think about how teleport commands (warps, tpa, home) affect the way people navigate the world and how they travel around. What they build, where they build, and what they consider before taking on a journey (be it big or small). How will this new player behavior effect the server (the map and new players) in the present but also in the future.
Any decision that is made be ever so small, has at to be viewed in these regards at least once.
The feedback and the ideas brought to the server by its community are invaluable, but the community really wanting a feature is just the first step of this process. Any idea needs to be thoroughly analyzed and tested.
You may think, that is way too much effort to put into, you are overthinking things. Maybe, but I’d say its just what this server needs to feel genuine and true to itself over time.
When you join, it should feel like you are playing the vanilla game you know and love. Even though there are some quite big changes from actual true vanilla you should feel how they harmonize and not get in the way of the game.
That being said. This server does not have a whitelist. (so no way I am not having land claims on a public server).
But not having a whitelist is down to personal preference. The server could be more vanilla without one, I am aware of that. But that’s not how I want to run it.