[~New Builds~] Saving Blockland | Our Survival Guide

Author Topic: [~New Builds~] Saving Blockland | Our Survival Guide  (Read 10660 times)

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Get Building, and get building good, I recommend investing some time into reading this guide if you aren't too good at building.  And don't get discouraged, I'm an awful builder myself, but I was able to build this map, in only two days. If you're stuck, look at some images online for reference, this will help you speed up your building process.

Also, make sure your saves ONLY use default bricks, this will be important for new users to get right into the game without downloading massive amounts of other content to get your save working. Keep in mind there are two types of saves.

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We need Single Player saves for people who don't find the servers listed online to be interesting or fun, this is a fail safe for possible failures in future parts of this guide. If you find your save is taking too long to make, it is likely you're trying to make a large map. Focus on building small enclosed areas with lots of detail over large and empty maps.

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Saves for online use are also very important. We need these so new players can create, edit and invest themselves into our game, just as we have. We also need this so that players can invest themselves into learning the game without using the tutorial. Tutorials are boring to play through, and our Tutorial doesn't cover all the aspects of the game. By creating multiplayer maps that are fun to play, newer players will find themselves editing your maps and using them for their own creations, before moving on and making their own.

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Unfortunately, since we really can't do much here in the traditional sense, we will have to get creative. Blockland is a very unique and fun game, I mean this. But due to how the game is marketed, which is not at all, not many people know about it. So what should we do? Upload videos about Blockland, as often as possible. These don't have to be much, they just have to show the game in action, and try to focus on items made from part one if you can. Also, if you have the money, Buy the game and gift it to people who you know don't own it, get people to play it.

[Steam Version here!]

If you're feeling a bit more creative we need some new types of videos under the following categories:

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A video that in five minutes or less, shows off all of Blockland's unique features, and multiplayer capabilities. It should have some good music, and be easy to understand.
Example

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Videos or content that show new or veteran players how to do things, or what to do for various things. How to create simple addons, recommended saves, how to run a server, how make a good avatar, recommended add-ons etc.

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It's not going to be easy, and no doubt we will have people in the forum who who strike back against this, and go down the easy "Blockland is dying" route and give up. These forumers aren't worth your time or mine, ignore these comments, or you will end up trashing our chance to save this game.

Remind yourself and others of accomplishments that have been done as this project goes along, and keep in mind that we are making a difference.

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If you're not up to giving away your builds, then host a server with a new and innovative idea. Try to avoid old game modes like Falling Bricks and Death Run. Try something new like an Arcade Building server or something else that, while it is still a game, takes advantage of Blockland's unique ability for Users to create anything they like. That is why the old City RPG gamemode was so fun, it was a game where you had a direct impact on what the server looked like. So create a server that has creativity with a purpose. AVOID FREEBUILDS,
TDMS, DMS, and RPs!


Freebuild servers are open and blank servers to screw around in, and they have no purpose for the player to build, no motivation. Without motivation, the player will get bored and move along to some other game.

TDMs and DMs are overblown and overdone. Almost Every game supports a DM type gamemode or is the purpose of the entire game, we need to exploit this game's unique game mechanics.

RPs, if I need to say anything about these that most people don't already know, RP's are the lazy user's Freebuild Server. It's a Server where users can build, and also pretend to do whatever, but these usually create unneeded tension and attention, and also it makes the game look bad, avoid this.


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As we continue along improving this game, remember why you're doing it. I'm certain you have your reasons if you find yourself motivated as I have. But my reason is because I want to see the block land I found when I joined back in 2009. A large game with limitless possibilities for fun and to explore my imagination.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2018, 02:09:35 PM by Master Matthew² »

Saves:

Modern Pool [Default] {Jpeg,Bls}

The House {Jpeg,Bls}
« Last Edit: January 25, 2018, 08:46:35 AM by Master Matthew² »



Nice idea and overall thread layout OP.

Nice idea and overall thread layout OP.
Thanks, i will be updating thr OP as we go along.

For those creating Saves and User Guides, those will be featured in the Reserved area.
Those creating Adverts, I will feature that in the OP in it's appropriate area.
Also, if anyone wishes to upload their saves videos or guides through discord, instead of this thread, i will gladly accept them there as well.

I can alsp retake screenshots of builds if anyone needs it.

Remember, the builds must use default bricks only!!

But for now, we need to work together to Save Blockland.


« Last Edit: December 24, 2017, 10:37:23 AM by Master Matthew² »

Step 6: Bully one of our resident autists into committing a shooting and convince him to name-drop Blockland in his manifesto

A snippet I took from my speech about Blockland that might help.
Quote
Blockland should have more sporting events like racing, football, and basketball. GBFL is fine and all, but that only happens for a few weeks each year, and after those events, there's nothing else to come back to. And Blocklanders tend to think that HUGE maps are the way to go. I believe smaller maps with simple ideas like a TDM or maybe a unique gamemode such as boulder dash should be done more. You Blockheads need to get together with like four or five players and make a gamemode together at the least. Stop thinking that You have to make the most complicated gamemode ever, just see what you can experiment with and go for it. I also think if you want more people to hop on the server, Modter is the way to go. It reduces lag by a million times and it can still look good if you guys really try. I usually start with big terrain for the base ground and work my way up towards the smallest possible terrain (8x is my limit). I believe that Tier + Tactical is one of the best weapon packs because of how fitting the weapons are to the game design-wise. I think more weapons should be pushed towards that style rather than making the most realistic weapons and items possible. And if you're not a good builder, but want to host a gamemode, just choose one from the forums! There are plenty of games that you can host that people will enjoy! Don't stress about wanting to create your own gamemode all of the time. Those gamemodes on the forums are for you. Use your resources. And don't stress about not having 99 players on a server. Sometimes having less players on a server can help create a more enjoyable experience. It creates less lag and helps forces a more cooperative relationship with the players on the server.

A snippet I took from my speech about Blockland that might help.
I disagree with quite a few things in this snippet.

I believe we need to focus on the main and unique game mechanic that blockland has.
Building.
If we had simple minigames with building as the focus of the game, then multiplayer would expand.

But as far as the game itself, we should focus on single player also, adding reasons for people to play in single player.

Back when I started Blockland, I would explore the maps we had to find things, but since we no longer have maps, we can only use our building skills.
Sulking on the fact that we no longer have what we had will get us nowhere, we just have to adapt.

So building small builds with lots of complexity using default bricks will almost certainly fix that issue.

As far as DM and TDM minigames, whether complex or simple I believe we should avoid these entirely as most servers use large and taxing builds for these,
and to those who use smaller builds, while these may be visually impressive, there are other games that already do this far better.

We have something other games don't have, and somehow most of our servers and minigames completely ignore this, and it just doesn't make anysense.

Building, Eventing, servers with Minigames that don't disable the previous two features, THAT is what we need.

step 7: get really good at coding and modeling and release none of the things that we make that are genuinely cool

I disagree with quite a few things in this snippet.

I believe we need to focus on the main and unique game mechanic that blockland has.
Building.
If we had simple minigames with building as the focus of the game, then multiplayer would expand.

But as far as the game itself, we should focus on single player also, adding reasons for people to play in single player.

Back when I started Blockland, I would explore the maps we had to find things, but since we no longer have maps, we can only use our building skills.
Sulking on the fact that we no longer have what we had will get us nowhere, we just have to adapt.

So building small builds with lots of complexity using default bricks will almost certainly fix that issue.

As far as DM and TDM minigames, whether complex or simple I believe we should avoid these entirely as most servers use large and taxing builds for these,
and to those who use smaller builds, while these may be visually impressive, there are other games that already do this far better.

We have something other games don't have, and somehow most of our servers and minigames completely ignore this, and it just doesn't make anysense.

Building, Eventing, servers with Minigames that don't disable the previous two features, THAT is what we need.

I definately agree with the singleplayer aspects of the game. For people reading, it doesn't always have to be a shooter or some military game. You could make it a puzzle game or a horror game. Sometimes a Treasure hunt is a good way to get players invested in exploring. An extremely fun way to test out your eventing skills is to make some treasures hard to reach, and the only way to get to that treasure is through a puzzle. Also maybe sometimes complexity can be helpful, just to show off the beauty of the builds. Though I did state that this game needed some unique gamemodes such as boulder dash, my art teacher has taught me to "draw what you know". If you know how to do treasure hunts, do treasure hunts. If you know how to do an adventure, do an adventure.

Step 6: Bully one of our resident autists into committing a shooting and convince him to name-drop Blockland in his manifesto
im totally on board

on topic though as nice as this thread is, anyone not already doing these things probably won't be swayed by this topic.


We're now going to be having the option to build as a group on my server.

Server is currently : Online

Until we have a topic it will be offline.
Vote Here: http://vote.block.land/?action=viewPoll&poll=78
« Last Edit: December 24, 2017, 01:52:03 PM by Master Matthew² »

Update: The New Castle is coming along great!
Screenshots coming soon, but if you can't wait, the server is up.