We have big plans for our new survival server! Here's how it'll work:

Our Survival server will be run on a separate port from our Freebuild server, most likely port 25252. It will have several features:

• A close-to-vanilla Minecraft experience. Our aim is to let you play Minecraft the way you do in Singleplayer, but with your friends helping and sharing the experience. To that end, we will be making your Survival experience as close to Singleplayer as we can, with the exception of enhancements to protect the entire server against griefing incidents.
• Cooperative play. PvP will be disabled in the main world and nether (as prior experience shows that the server usually rapidly degenerates into chaos when this is on). However, if there's enough demand for it, we're considering setting up a separate PvP zone accessible via a portal at spawn, which will run the Factions mod. See below for more details of this proposal.
• Nether portals! Yes, just like single player, you will be able to build a portal from obsidian, light it, and waltz into the flaming nether - except this time, you can bring your friends!
• The area around spawn will be DELETED every month! The distant lands far from spawn will also be impermanent... Don't worry, there's plenty of "safe zone" between. More on this below.

Nether? In my multiplayer?

It's more likely than you think. We're taking advantage of Bukkit's multiworld capabilities to bring you the ability to construct and use working Nether portals. It'll work identically to singleplayer, though a few of the visual effects will be missing, for example:

• No wibbly-wobbly effect when you stand in a portal. There's also no loading screen, but the server may send you a message in chat to let you know that it's preparing the Nether for you to enter.
• In the nether itself, the ambient lighting and mysterious red fog will be absent. However this is purely a cosmetic effect and will not alter your Nether experience in any other way. It's simply a bug that exists because your Minecraft client doesn't realise it's now in the Nether.

What's this deletion business about?

Quite simply, the main Survival world will be split into a series of concentric zones, some of which will be regularly deleted and regenerated next time somebody visits. This graphic shows the current proposal:

The spawn point will be set in the centre of the light blue area, rather than at zero. There are technical reasons for this. We're going to see if we can find an easy way to let you know which of the zones you're in, so that you don't end up building in the wrong place. The varying areas of deletion are:

• Spawn zone* (cyan). This is the area within 256 meters of spawn (1m = 1 block). The very center will of course be reserved for the spawn point itself, the surrounding lands within 256m will be free for anyone to build on, as long as they don't care about their creations being deleted at the start of the next month. Those new to Minecraft are encouraged to experiment in this area.
  At the start of every month, this entire area will be deleted by the admins and regenerated as blank terrain. Following this, everyone is encouraged to gather at the spawn point and work together to construct a new and unique spawn point. It will then be protected and remain for the rest of the month.
• Permanent zone* (green). This area begins 256 metres from spawn, and extends out to a generous 1.3km from spawn. This area may be extended out to 1.8km if we start to run out of room, though this shouldn't happen for a long time. This area will never be deleted (unless we reset the entire server, that is!) Anyone wanting to build a permanent structure should do it here. It won't survive anywhere else!
• The Marchlands (yellow). Beginning roughly 1.3km from spawn (or 1.8km if we extend the Permanent zone) lies the Marchlands, refreshed every week (or possibly monthly along with spawn). This area is a good place to carry out mining operations, as you probably won't end up mining into someone's home, and you're virtually guaranteed that there will always be minerals down there to find. Just don't log off in your mine when the time for deletion comes around - it's not fun logging on and finding yourself encased in rock.
• The Wilds (magenta). Beginning a distant 1.8km from spawn (or 2.3km if we extend the Permanent zone), anything outside this boundary will be deleted daily, ready to be regenerated by the next intrepid explorer. This is a great place to find non-renewable surface resources such as pumpkins, mushrooms and flowers for dyes. Explorers will love it too - you can wander as far as you like and not worry about making the map too big. Just remember to bring a compass or you'll never find your way home!
• Summary: Spawn zone* (0-256), deleted at the start of each month. Permanent* (256-1280), never deleted. The Marchlands (1280-1792), deleted weekly. The Wilds (>1792), deleted daily.

* These two areas need better names! Please suggest some here!

What about protection?

We're still deciding how far we're going to go with this. At the moment, we're considering the following idea:

The survival server will have three groups - Guests, Rookies and Veterans.

• Guests can build anywhere in the cyan Spawn Zone, excepting the spawn point itself. However, they are physically unable to leave the Spawn Zone.
• By asking a mod or a Veteran, they can be promoted to Rookie, which allows them to leave the Spawn Zone and build in the inner section of the Permanent Zone (the inner 8 green squares in the diagram). They can also freely wander the map, and build in The Wild, allowing them to collect resources from there.
• Finally, after about a week of regular patronage and not causing any trouble, a mod can upgrade them to Veteran, which allows them unlimited access to the entire map.

Many of our existing trusted players will probably be started at Veteran level.

What's this about a PvP zone?

Some of our players will undoubtedly want some PvP action. Possibly more. In anticipation of this, we're running a poll to see how many of you are interested. We would also love you to comment on this proposal in the thread if you think you have suggestions, see any issues with it, or if you just love the whole idea! The details are as follows:

The PvP zone will not be within the main Survival world, but will exist separately. A portal at the spawn point will link to the PvP zone, with another portal at the PvP's spawn returning players to the main world. Dying in the PvP zone should respawn you at the PvP spawn point. (If we can't manage to set that up, then it's a short trip through a portal to get back in.)

We believe player's inventory within the PvP zone should be kept separate from the inventory outside of it, for two reasons: First, it makes the PvP zone more like an arena game - Sure, when you die in the PvP zone, you lose all the items you had, but when you step back through the portal into the real world, you still have everything you walked in with. Second, it prevents people getting an unfair advantage by bringing in items from outside the PvP zone. Our idea is that in PvP, everyone's equal, and we all start from the bottom. If you want diamond armor, instead of walking into the game with it, you have to earn it inside the game. Please comment on whether or not you think separation of inventory is a good idea.

Running around hitting other people with swords gets boring after a while. To make things more interesting, we're proposing running the Factions mod within the PvP zone (it will be unavailable outside of it). This gives you the ability to join a faction (or create your own). Factions can protect their land against modification if they have enough Power, and can become allies, neutral, or enemies with other factions. All-out wars are entirely possible.

The rest of the survival server will have the usual rules against TNTing people's houses, setting forests on fire, etc. But in the PvP zone, it's anything goes. No legitimate Minecraft item will be banned. (Things like flying mods or speedhacks are of course considered cheating.) TNT will be a perfectly acceptable weapon. The server ranks (guest/rookie/veteran) will mean nothing in the PvP zone - everyone should be equal in that respect.

In order to keep the action fun and fast-paced, the size of the PvP zone will be limited to 500x500 metres. There will be an invisible border that you cannot cross. The resources within this area are likely to be limited, and for this and several other reasons the PvP zone will be reset monthly at the same time that the spawn area of the main world is reset. The reset will create a new map with fresh terrain, and dissolve all factions, essentially starting a new game. Things will get interesting if most of the map happens to spawn as a desert biome!

We are considering also running iConomy in the PvP zone to further widen the possibilities. Especially in a map with finite and possibly scarce resources, iConomy allows players to sell some items (such as wheat that they farmed) and buy others (such as diamond swords, armor, or even gunpowder). However, to buy and sell, they must carry valuable items as they make the dangerous trek between the relative safety of their faction's base and the shop located at spawn, making them a prime target for would-be attackers. The shop and spawn point would be PvP-disabled to allow trading in peace. Comments on the iConomy idea are welcome.

Okay! This sounds awesome! When do we get it?

Uhmm... well... probably not for a little longer. The Survival server itself, along with the Nether support, can be set up within half an hour (though it won't be until we get some responses on this proposal!) Getting the auto-deletion set up will probably take somewhat longer. The PvP zone will probably take a few days to set up, but fortunately that can be added in to the running server fairly painlessly. User ranks hopefully shouldn't take long to set up, if we decide to use them that is. So far we've been very happy with the way our community has self-regulated itself on Tempworld, however we have had issues with troublemakers and griefers coming in from outside, which the user rank system is designed to prevent.

Happy Minecrafting!