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https://github.com/sashimii/civcraftlongforminfo


https://github.com/sashimii/civcraftlongforminfo

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README 

        
Original Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/1u08uu/we_built_a_living_breathing_world_on_rcivcraft_a/



##Introduction



As a gamer and a creative type, I've always been interested in building worlds. It largely started with my love for MMOs, which I would play to no end with friends back in my ol' high school days. However, things got stale. I was playing in a world built by someone else, and so the experience truly was not my own to have. It was difficult to feel ownership over what little accomplishments I would achieve. 



My criticisms would be similar to those leveled towards the gaming industry implicitly by the makers of The Stanley Parable. When games did get collaborative, they often lacked conflict between players. It's not hard to see why: you spend your time in game design school learning more about structure and providing a sort of curated experience, no matter how much of a sandbox many triple-A games purport to provide. 



Voxel based games like Minecraft changed the paradigm a wee bit, and are still changing the paradigm, but for now I did not find it to be enough. What makes our "real world" so compelling is the fact that we, our ancestors, built it.



##Collaborative World-Building on a Minecraft Server



Enter: /r/Civcraft. A reddit user by the name of /u/ttk2 had the idea to create a Minecraft server that tossed the structure of most traditional minecraft serves aside, instead taking more of a political economist's approach to building a world: create the conditions necessary for players to build their own political economies, and only have the administration enforce a very small set of rules: no doxxing, no hacking. That's it.



He then put forth a relatively simple vision:



> Civcraft is an experiment for communities, political ideologies, debate and discussion. Our backstory is based on history, not fiction. We’re forming a new direction for game-play, not just about surviving the elements, but about surviving each other, where players can work together to create and shape civilization or to watch it crumble. A world open to any idea, manifesto or philosophy, created by the players. We hope to push minecraft to it’s fullest potential in order to foster discussion, experimentation and community building. This is the great pastime and challenge of mankind: Civilization.



It would be an understatement to say that it was the best server I played on, and perhaps even game.



### The Server Mods that create these conditions 



There are a few server mods that are required, and many of these mods are developed by the community itself. I've posted the mod information from [the site]: 



* [Citadel](http://i.imgur.com/kHJVX.jpg) lets you protect blocks from other players through a system called 'reinforcement'. To reinforce a block, type '/ctr' and right-click the block you want to protect while holding Smooth Stone, an Iron Ingot, or a Diamond. The item will disappear, and the block will be reinforced. When a block is reinforced, other players have to break it multiple times to actually destroy it—the number of breaks depends on reinforcement material. Stone is 25, Iron 250, and Diamond 1800. Thus, protection is possible but not impenetrable. But how do you know who breaks your chest or burns your house?



* [JukeAlert](http://i.imgur.com/t9DaPOS.png) is the answer. Jukeboxes have been repurposed as the equivalent of security cameras. Anything someone does while whithin eleven blocks of a jukebox you've reinforced will be logged on it, and can be read by looking at the jukebox (we call them 'snitches' by the way) and typing '/jainfo'. Snitches will also tell you in chat whenever someone enters their range. Of course, it doesn't do any good to know who did something if you can't stop them.



* [PrisonPearl](http://i.imgur.com/XbhkK.jpg) makes it so players can imprison each other (called 'pearling') in The End. Kill someone with an ender pearl in your hotbar and they'll be stuck in The End and tied to the pearl. Destroying the pearl releases them. Remember that someone can do this to you, and usually will if you attack them, grief their buildings, or steal their items.



* [RealisticBiomes](https://github.com/Namrufus/RealisticBiomes/wiki/Usage) makes farming harder by limiting growth rates of crops and making them only grow well in certain biomes. Crops on Civcraft are important because regular experience gain is disabled and crops are the only way to produce it; this is done in conjunction with another plugin: FactoryMod.



* [FactoryMod](https://github.com/gmlaxfanatic/FactoryMod/wiki) is the primary way we encourage capital investment and discourage hermiting; it enhances and expands the tech tree through 'factories': structures that let you produce more of an item, cheaper, but for a significant upfront factory-creation price. They also let you produce experience from crops such as wheat, carrots, cactus, and mob drops. Even though you can produce more from raw materials using factories, it's actually harder than vanilla minecraft, largely due to RealisticBiomes and our custom map. The details get pretty complicated, but there's a guide [here](https://github.com/gmlaxfanatic/FactoryMod/wiki).



## [Our Wiki, Used to Document the World's Lore & Information](http://civcraft.org/doku.php/start), updated by players, not admins



## [The Subreddit](http://www.reddit.com/r/Civcraft/): /r/Civcraft



## [World Transportation Map](http://civcraft.slimecraft.eu/map.php?zoom=1), created by players, not admins



## [A Website for Posting Bounties Against Criminals](http://www.civbounty.com/) created by players, not admins



## A World Built by Choice: Your Own. 



No other game I've played has provided such a collaborative world building experience where each choice you make is meaningful:



* Will you feed a starving vagrant in your travels with some food, only to see him or her grow into a harbinger of chaos on the server if you do, or see a potential defender of peace never play anymore should you choose to leave them starving?



* Will you treat a new player who walks into your city with suspicion or with open arms?



* Will you impede on the sovereignty of a foreign nation to capture one of their citizens who broke your nation's laws (or simply because you don't like them)?



* Will you push aside all morality and ethics to pursue the life of a bandit, knowing full well you will subsequently be on the run from the law?



* How will you regulate your city's economy, society, polity if at all? Why? For what plan or purpose? Remember that your method of organization impacts the effectiveness of your nation.



* How will your society be organized? Power to the many or leave it all to one? Perhaps a compromise?



* Will you simply leave your city should you see it overrun by tyrants? Or will you risk being imprisoned indefinitely should you fight to protect it?



There are many other choices to be made and none of them predefined, but they are each made by individuals and by groups. Together, these choices end up forging or severing ties between players, leading to different outcomes going forward, for how long the term may be. Your bonds with others will further entrench your choices within a particular set of choices: defined not by design, but by your own personal history in the world. Your like or dislike of others on the server is significantly more *real* in a sense.



This has led to the creation of many cities, nations, factions, companies, communes, and other such organizations. Some of which have an "us versus them" mentality, due to months of conflict.



Furthermore, there are massive farms and vast roads and railways laid out by players across thousands of blocks, connecting cities.



## Some Towns and Cities



* Aurora: [High-Res Map](http://i3.minus.com/iEvPNzuEKbuWh.png). [A Render](http://i.imgur.com/z2yGM4J.jpg) of the Bayside Cottage. [Fisheye view of the pier](http://i.imgur.com/IFMKgxO.jpg). Aurora has an elected governor who distributes land and appoints "superintendents" for the districts, who do maintenance on the roads and derelict abandoned houses. The governor also elects city judges, with the number of judges being equal to the square root of the city population. It is the third largest on the server.



* The Commonwealth: [Here's our nation's map](http://imgur.com/BtOKzEF) around 3 weeks into the server. [This is our map today](http://imgur.com/RaFdHUB), around 7-8 months later. [Here's our skyline](http://imgur.com/axK90cM,rLPK59q#0) from over a month ago. I'm *the King of the Commonwealth*, which is a constitutional monarchy with a Westminster style parliamentary democracy. Our city is split into boroughs, each administered by a steward or a Lord. Any group of players can band together to form a "borough" or a district within our city, as long as it is distinct from current boroughs/districts. We are the second largest. 



* New Leningrad's [Panoramic Render](http://i.imgur.com/fILnR8s.jpg) of its Brutalist architecture. Founded by Zombie_Lenin, it is perhaps the most glorious Workers' Republic to ever belong to Workers and/or be a Republic on Civcraft.



A larger list of cities kept up-to-date by players can be found [here](http://civcraft.org/doku.php/cities2).



## About Our World and its History, to be posted in this thread



We feel a single encyclopedic post wouldn't do justice to the individual and collective experiences each of us face on this server, so I'll be inviting fellow players to share their piece of our world with the /r/WorldBuilding community in this thread specifically so as not to spam the subreddit. I hope this is okay. 



This thread will consist of their pictures of their towns and cities, tales of their history, /r/civball, and stories of their personal experiences. I hope this will solidify the server's World Lore.



I will begin with my own. :)



## Above all, We Welcome You to Build This World With Us on /r/Civcraft. 



We are currently running the 1.6.4 minecraft client. You can set your version to 1.6.4 in the Minecraft Launcher. Our main server address is **mc.civcraft.vg**



Whether you wish to join an existing city or build your own is up to you. Many folks will come to your aid whether you wish to join a city, or build your own with others. Just as long as you come help build this world with us, whether through collaboration, compromise, or conflict.