I implore You to read it all. If not, here is the TLDR:
- Total Freedom is a terrible creative server with lack of building tools, lack of griefer protection, limited WE-usage overall a shitty experience to play on, even for the average player with the amount of crashing.
- Solutions to these problems are to either remove the plotworld or shrink the size of plots; community-driven projects (e.g. build battle), re-add Voxel-Sniper and add GoBrush (responsibily), completely overhaul WorldEdit – rethink blocked/banned commands and blocks, give players more leeway in regards to edit size. Fix the ridiculous amount of time it takes for World Edit to perform a single edit.
- These are what I see as the primary factors in TF’s decline.
The Elephant in the Room
For the past several years on TF, or perhaps even for the majority of its lifetime, there has been a constant underlying problem with a core aspect of the server. Perhaps this was not as noticeable 5-8 years ago as it is now, but I can certainly attest that it has dampened the enjoyment I get out of playing on TF.
Total Freedom is a piece of shit creative server, which has become even more evident with the revival of the game, but a clear stagnation, or perhaps even decrease, in players. With the (increasing) amount of (good) creative servers avaliable to players, the issue has only been exacerbated – why would an average builder, or just player for that matter, choose to play on Total Freedom over other creative servers such as Builder’s Refuge, or pretty much any other creative server wherein you are granted access to tools such as Voxel Sniper, World Edit and Gobrush. TF is too restrictive on World Edit usage for the average player: actually, World Edit is just terrible. Other tools such as Voxel Sniper or GoBrush are non-existent. Blocks such as sand, gravel, concrete powder are banned from WE usage; World Edit takes five minutes to simply do a medium-sized edit, and the other factor of the looming threat of griefers – even if you’re in a supposedly “safe” area all help to provide a shitty experience on a shitty server.
The Average Player
Just to exemplify how the average player experiences this firsthand: I join the server because it attracted me with the title “Total Freedom” and the “all-op” aspect. I enter the Freedom server via the hub, and I begin to build. I want to make a tudor-style house, and thus I want to use white concrete powder, and because I have a big wall to fill, I use //set White_Concrete_Powder and; nothing happens. I look to my chat, and see the message: “Invalid value for
I think to myself, okay, that’s reasonable enough to block blocks affected by gravity, (although you could simply disable gravity). Minutes later, I now wish to make a pond. I make a hole with //brush (_are ops even allowed to use this command?). I place a solitary block of water on the edge of the hole and type //fixwater 30. Again, nothing happens, because water is blocked. I again shrug, and decide to instead use stained glass for water.
I select a big area encompassing the hole and type //replace air blue_stained_glass. It works! But nothing’s happening? I now notice there’s a bar slowly filling up at the top of my screen. I wait for two minutes until the bar is halfway, and I think to myself. This server is a shitty false advertisement and leave dissapointed.
Two days go by, and I’m bored. I decide to give Total Freedom another chance, because I still have yet to finish my build. I click join and I walk over to the Freedom server portal. I find the spot where my build was… and it’s griefed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a very common tale.
Now granted, we now have coreprotect and worldguard to help mitigate the issue of grief – I just thought to point out the fact that the average player is not aware of this: they are not aware that flatlands and the overworld is a battlefield; they are not aware there exists a plotworld (because it is not mentioned anywhere); they are not aware that they are supposed to save their builds as schematics whilst in flatlands/overworld (again, because it is not mentioned anywhere). This is not to mention other factors such as server crashes (granted, this does not happen so frequently any longer).
Total Freedom used to at least live up to the “All-op” aspect, and certainly in its infancy, it lived up to the name as well. Of course restrictions are to be made in order to have a playable server (which TF barely was in alpha/beta MC days), but this is too much – too dissapointing. Total Freedom is a false advertisement.
Total Freedom is a Stinking Pile of Feces.
I mentioned previously that I could also attest to this. Here’s an example from earlier today. I want to continue building on my mansion in the Master Builder World (MBW), but for the past three days World Edit has been blocked for me in the MBW. I’ve notified nearly all executives (incl. Wild) of this issue, and still nothing has happened. I realize that our developers are busy with keeping the server stable and all, but this is not the first time.
I then travel to my personal plot in the plotworld, and I decide I want to make a Greek city district. I run in to several issues along the way.
1) Concrete Powder is blocked (even for Master Builders)
2) Water is blocked (even for Master Builders)
3) WE is dogshit with the time it takes to perform.
The fact that the rank “Master Builder”, which is supposed to be a prestigious title with associated perks given to the best builders on Total Freedom, still have these limitations clearly exemplifies, once again, why Total Freedom is a terrible creative server. There is literally not a single reason, other than the community, as to why I would choose to play on Total Freedom over any other creative server, even though I have the highest-attainable builder-title on the server. But there are a plethora of reasons for me to choose others over Total Freedom.
I recently saw a message on the Discord server which prompted me to create this thread. It read something akin to:
“Congratulations to Lykhant for being the first ECD in TF history to actually complete a build (TF HUB) that ends up being used”
Now, the following is not to throw shade at Lykhant, I think they are a great ECD, and I am very pleased with the hub: especially the christmas theme. But I have two overarching issues with the above quote:
1) It’s a falsehood to say that Lykhant is the only ECD in TF history to complete a build that ends up being used. (Literally ask anyone before 17’ of any builds/spawns I supplied.)
2) That it completely glosses over the fact that I, alongside the MB team, made – three – different spawns to be used for the server. Two got ruined in two different MBW griefs, and the last is basically stood finished in MBW, but was interupted by a (nonsensical) ECD voteoff to remove me from the position. These are the images I have in my screenshots folder from different time periods (unsorted). Keep in mind, these are far from the finished versions which were present in the MBW prior to the grief:
The island spawn:
https://imgur.com/a/oyl9uT5
The forest spawn:
https://imgur.com/a/D72eg7g
The Mansion:
https://imgur.com/a/Tsmsy7c
The Valley spawn can be seen in the MBW at present date.
The MBW has been griefed at least on three different occassions. A world that is given to Master Builders to have a permanent place to hold their builds. We did not even have a recent backup of the world. This is an utter tragedy in my eyes. Many hours lost because of poor server management. The only reason why I continue to play here is because I have a great deal of friends, whom I have amassed over the years. But instead of whining, I think it is only appropriate to give some suggestions on how to move forward.
Amendments
Since the idea of a plotworld ever came up, I have always been against it. It simply does not fit the server.
(As I am writing this: I just went on the server to count the size of the plots in the Plotworld. But as I enter the command //count
Anyways, I still have ten fingers able to help me count the plot size on Total Freedom and it is 100x100. This is actually an increase since Seth managed the server as far as I am aware. The point of a plot world is to give the player a – small – plot of land to display their builds on. Thus, when you fly over the plotworld, you are met with a great deal of plots within view, so you can easily catch some inspiration from other players. Now, if you fly over the plot world, you can at max see four plots at a time in view – completely ruining one major aspect of the plugin. And again, a plot world is not a good fit for a server named Total Freedom, which entirely depends on being community-driven. 100X100 plots give players the ability to seclude themselves on their little plot of land away from other players – completely removing the “community” aspect of the server. You cannot see anybody building near you. You are alone on your very own plot of land instead of building near spawn in the flatlands or the overworld creating friendsships or screaming “griefer!” and quickly seeing a strike of lightning meet the offender head on. Plot Worlds is a multiplayer plugin for single-player play. Total Freedom is a community.
Therefore, I have two proposals to consider:
1) Remove the plot world entirely.
2) make the plots far smaller (15x15, or max 30x30), this making it easy to browse a variety of different plots, and hopefully having some players near each other as they build on their own respective plot. Right now, the Plot world is boring as shit to look at. A shitty spawn, shitty plots scattered about. I have suggested this before: Make a grand spawn with MB plots located near the spawn in order to inspire and entice the average player to build.
The other glaring issue are the building-tools on the server. I suggest that we, in a responsible manner to prevent abuse, re-add Voxel Sniper and add GoBrush to the building arsenal. Will they need to be restricted? Perhaps, but they should certainly be avaliable to – every – player on their own plot, where they can not ruin another player’s build. And of course I also say that they should be fully avaliable to all MB’s on the server, if they are too be restricted for the average player. And lastly (this might be controversial): if they are to be limited: give the exact same limitations to Admins, because if the average player does not need it, then I do not see why an Admin would need it as well.
World Edit should be far less restrictive. Commands such as //count, //brush should be avaliable to the average player (certainly in the plotworld, and perhaps in an almost unlimited manner in other worlds). Sand, concrete powder etc. should – not – be banned. If they are such a big nuisance, make them non-gravity in all other worlds except the plot world, where they should keep their gravity.
Fix the ludicrous time it takes to perform a single edit with World Edit. A huge overhaul is needed to fix the sorry state that World Edit is in. All banned blocks should be reviewed, every blocked command should be reviewed, every restriction should be discussed.
One thing that I welcomed with open arms are the build battles arranged periodically. In general, - any community-driven project is immensely welcome -, so we can once again foster a thriving community on the server. And the fact that build battles give the players the prospect of winning a prize is even better (although I am on the fence on coins and the associated perks, but that’s for another thread). Systems such as the schematic repository, wherein players can download their own schematic from the server and also upload an outside schematic to the server, however, once again this is too limited. The average player should be able to upload their own schematic to the server without an Admin’s help. If the schematic is crude, too big, or used to crash the server, then this should be handled – ingame – not by blocking the function entirely. (is the schematic repository even avaliable anymore?)
If this is not happening already: make periodic (daily) backups of both the plot world and MBW so we never have the issue of a grief occuring slowing down, or entirely destroying, a project. It really is dissapointing that I have to list this as a solution.
Finally, I also advice that we implement a way to inform players A) to save their builds, B) of the plot world, C) of community events, and D) of any other significant information that almost seems privy at the moment. Rules should be clearly listed in the hub (or at least have a sign givin a summarized version or simply informing of /rules).
The overarching message of this entire thread is for Total Freedom to live up to its name. We cannot advertise ourselves as a Freedom server where everybody gets op, when “op” has lost all meaning pertained to it. This, to me, is the most pressing issue causing TF’s stagnation in players.
I chose not to put a poll on this thread because of the amount of proposals within it. I look forward to seeing your comments, disagreements or your own suggestions on how to improve.