Minecraft Frontiers

Hello explorers,
What’s lore? Where’s the lore? And what can we see from incoming, new lore? Is lore actually important? Well I’ll tell you!

I hope this helped answer some of your questions about the Minecraft Frontiers lore, and if you happen to have any more questions just ask below.

Cheers,
Chad

Combat is at the core of our experience. Naturally, it is one of the first systems we drafted out. With our update to 1.9, combat is getting an overhaul, offering even more choices for the players. Paradoxically, it is not the blocking that is being added (we had that in already). The new addition is a feature we call damage types.

The Vision:
Minecraft does not offer a rich combat experience to begin with. In the heat of the battle, players usually only run away or hit the enemy as often as possible. Even with the addition of shields in 1.9, vanilla combat still leaves a lot to be desired.

In the spirit of Minecraft Frontiers, our custom combat plugin makes sure the player always has something to think about. Do you want to block? If you attack, are you opening yourself up to a counter attack? Do you have the support from your allies if you go all out? During every moment of the battle, the player has a range of options available. Combat is no longer only about hitting the enemy in the most efficient manner, it is also about outsmarting your opponent.

Frontiers Combat:
Our combat system consists of three components:

1. Damage Types - picking the correct equipment for the fight.
2. Stamina Management - deciding which action to take.
3. Action Skill - carrying out the action skilfully.

To be the winner, you will need to master all of these aspects. Doing one thing correctly and failing the others will result in a difficult fight (and probably your defeat).

Damage Types:
This is the newest addition to our combat - and it is something we are very excited about. In our first beta test, the limitations of having a single damage type were becoming obvious. A sword that does 6 damage is better than one that does 3 damage. One that does 9 damage would be better that one that does 6 damage. You get the idea. There was very little "thinking" when choosing equipment. The decision simply comes down to figuring out which weapon offers the most damage over a period of time.

With the introduction of damage types, weapons no longer only have one damage value. Instead, they may deal various types of damage. For example, a sword might do 3 piercing damage and 3 fire damage. At the same time, another sword will deal 3 piercing damage and 3 ice damage.

Similarly, armor and shields will protect you from specific damage types. A fire armor set will help you a lot against fire weapons, but will be useless when fighting an ice sword. This should result in a very interesting decision making process. Players will be able to figure out which enemies are vulnerable to which types of damage and equip themselves accordingly. There will not be a clear "best weapon", as certain weapons will be better in different situations.

Stamina Management:
This aspect of combat makes sure players approach the skirmish tactically. Every player has a set amount of stamina that slowly regenerates over time. Both attacking and blocking drains your stamina, so it is up to the player to figure out what action is the best.

Blocking is usually cheaper than attacking. This means that timing your blocks correctly will result in a stamina advantage for you, in turn allowing you to exploit an oponent who cannot defend themselves. On the other hand, blocking for a long period of time will slowly drain out all of your stamina, leaving you open to a dangerous payback.

A nice by-product of this is the fact that weapons come in different varieties. Large, heavy weapons usually dish out a bit more damage, but drain a lot more stamina. A dagger may be weaker, but will allow you to attack a lot more often. Combined with damage types, this results in an incredibly rich array of combat styles to choose from. No two players (or NPCs) will ever fight the same way.

Action Skill:
Finally, it is important to be accurate with your attacks and blocks. Missing a lot of attacks in vanilla Minecraft may not matter much. Here, every missed attack means wasted stamina, which is detrimental to the outcome of the fight. Similarly, poor blocking timing and direction will leave you exposed to a counter attack.

When confronting NPCs, they will each attack in a different way. They dynamically adapt to the weapons they are using, resulting in a very interesting experience when fighting a new NPC for the first time. It is up to you to learn how each NPC prefers to fight and exploit their weakness.

There are many situations where combat may be the viable course of action. From dungeon crawling with a group of friends, proving your worth against others in the arena, to hunting animals out in the wilderness. No matter the reason, we hope you will always have enough choice to make every fight memorable.

Will you...

Hello Adventurers!
We are very excited to announce events, a new community experience! This is a sneak peek of what is to come. The first event will be happening in the coming weeks!
Events Summary
Events are a captivating part of Minecraft Frontiers. They deliver a rich, storytelling experience, with you in the lead role. From exploration of ancient ruins, to averting a political crisis, players will embark on journeys shaping the future of the world. While events have not been mentioned before to the public, it has been a feature we have been looking forward to since the start of the project.

There are two kinds of events: community events and story events. Community events are built around a minigame, with the goal of bringing people together and having fun. They happen in a less story driven setting. Think arena tournaments, treasure hunts, races, or light roleplay evenings. On the other hand, story events represent a deep experience with rich lore. They let you shine in the spotlight as you follow the story arc over the course of several weeks. Story events often have multiple outcomes, giving you the opportunity to sway the future of the game world.

Sneak Peak
While we don’t want to give away too much too soon, I can promise you that the first events will give you the exploration of your lifetime. A long forgotten tale is returning to Elpida, waiting for you to uncover its mysteries. You definitely don’t want to miss out on our events - participating in each one will come with exciting rewards.
We are very excited to share this tidbit of information with you. But we are even excited to see what the community thinks of it.

Cheers,
The Minecraft Frontiers Team, Saphiria

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of our community members!

No matter where in the world you are, the Minecraft Frontiers team wishes you only the best this Christmas. Remember to relax and spend time with your friends and family. After all, that's what Christmas is about.

So you are here looking for something interesting and new? You are in the right place! Read on and get to know our idea - an idea that will not only completely change the way people play Minecraft, but will bring back what many videogames are missing.

Foreword from the owner:
I'm Tom, 23 years old, studying Psychological Research (you know, reading people's mind and stuff). I love a good story, enjoy games and meeting people from all walks of life. The number one thing that makes games fun for me is immersion - if it can make me believe I am there for just a minute, I'm sold (@Tomas).

Quite a few people were interested in my idea and now we have a team of about 14 people working on and off, trying to deliver this beast of a project! We have Matt, a champion at everything from organizing staff to managing plugins. Our awesome builders, who have been placing blocks into some pretty neat formations (screenshots below!). We have a couple of lore writers thinking up impressive stories that are both original and make sense. It's all blending together great - and there is always space for new talent. So that's our passionate team, here to create a bold new frontier.


The Project:
Think of an RPG server with classes, quests, levels and a storyline that guides your character from a nobody to the savior of the world. Now throw that idea out the window! When we sat down to design this experience, it was instantly obvious that majority of games out there are the same old thing, just slightly different settings. Our goal is to make a player experience that is like nothing you've played before. We call it a living universe. What is a living universe?

• Plays on its own - it lives without the need for a single player. Farmers plant crops to make a living. Bakers buy the wheat and sell their bread to others in the marketplace. Politicians make big decisions for citizens and collect taxes. Warriors explore the wilderness and defend trade caravans. It is constantly interacting with itself, resulting in a completely dynamic experience.

• Smart NPCs - so the above sounds like the smartest NPC system there could be, right? Well there is more. NPCs chat with each other, share their experiences and knowledge. Did a thief steal from a caravan on the other side of town? Well the other trader won't know about it - unless someone told him! The goal is for each NPC to have a meaningful life, making decisions on a daily basis - possibly being "smarter" than most players!

• Expanding towns - if a city prospers and the villagers are happy enough to make love, politicians will start thinking about expanding the town. If you don't log in for a month of two, chances are you will come back to a very different place - full of new buildings not created by the admins, but planned and built by the NPCs!

• Dynamic economy - the town economy goes beyond supply and demand. If warriors bring back rare weapons, the old iron daggers will drop in value - but that's not it by far. A player set up a new bakery that makes tastier and cheaper breads than the old bakery in town? Locals will quickly realise and start enjoying the new yummy breads. Shame on the old greedy baker who is now out of a job!

The Players:
So we have a world that lives on its own. Where does the player come in? That is the beauty of it all. You log in and have a meaningful decision to make! Who will you be? There are literally hundreds of possibilities and our team is here to let you be who you want to be. Through systems promoting role-play and interaction, we let you blend into the already living world.
You not only get to explore this rich universe, but since everything is dynamic, you also get to change it! Things you do and the way you spend your time really makes an impact. No more RPGs where you log in with level 1, stop playing a month later and no single soul cares. As soon as you log in, the world has already changed!
We keep our fellow role-players at heart, letting you do things like:

• Write your own lore - and if you ever get in trouble, don't be surprised the elected senator can dig the local library to find out records on your character.
• Own valuable property - no endless plots. If you want to own a building at the heart of the town, you have to work for it. But if you are lucky enough to own that tavern in the town square, you bet all those NPCs will flock to your events!
• Be known - both players and NPCs will get to know you over time. If you feel like it, you can even dabble in politics to really stir things...

Music is easily one of the most overlooked parts of any game. Done right, it can go by without being noticed in-game. But if it’s missing, the experience will never really captivate you. When I think back on the games I’ve loved over the years, they all share something in common – a memorable soundtrack.

When working on Minecraft Frontiers, we understand that if we want our explorable places to stand out, they will need a soundtrack to accompany them. Whether you are walking around the capital, or fighting your way through a dungeon, the memories you keep should have the right flavour to them. Music lets us quickly express what the current setting means. Is it a dangerous area? Is this part of town full of rich politicians? Was this ruin built thousands of years ago? All these questions would take pages of lore to answer, but a soundtrack can do that in couple of seconds.


Creating the plugin:

The music plugin (MF Music, as we call it internally) has already gone through several iterations. We want our experience to be easily accessible by anyone – the music system has to be handled by your Minecraft client. Downloading an extra piece of software is a hassle the player should not have to go through. The early prototypes of the system were interesting, allowing us to play the custom soundtrack to our players, but they did not respond to the world at all. The main point of having music is to attach it to the world in a meaningful way. Without it dynamically adapting to the world, there is little point of putting all the effort in.

Today marks the day when the system is complete and rolled out on our test server.

A powerful system:

In the current state, the soundtrack seamlessly integrates with our regions. Not only will you hear music based on which region you are in, the soundtrack is also able to prioritize a specific location. Are you in a tavern in the capital? The soundtrack will understand that being in a tavern overrides being in a town, selecting the tavern music. This allows us to define very specific areas in the world that will have a signature piece of music attached to them. Dungeons may be broken up into sections (or sections of sections, the inception potential is endless), giving you just the right song for your memorable boss fight.

Next to that, the soundtrack is able to change on the fly. Coding all of our plugins internally means everything can dynamically respond to what is going on. The soundtrack is no exception. The songs attached to regions are not set in stone, but can change as the world itself is changing. Walking through town, doing your Sunday grocery shopping, will sound very differently than walking the same street during a bandit invasion. The current system is as flexible as any of our other features, able to adapt instantly to what the world is doing.

A taste of our world:

All of our music was created by professional artists. When it comes to immersion, we strive for delivering something that will blow you away. Music is a big part of our experience, so we decided there would be no compromises. As a result, all of our songs are properly licensed. We are able to deliver great quality with no fear of copyright infringement.

Trading is the core of our Economical simulation. With all of our plugins being designed in-house, we have the opportunity to create systems that are tightly linked to one another. Trading is no exception, as it seamlessly weaves into everything the players (and NPCs) do.

Our Economical simulation is inspired by our real world, so this article may be a bit too heavy for some readers. At the same time, those who love trading and business will appreciate the depth we are going for.
Currency in other games

In a large majority of games, coins are generated by everything the player does – you kill a monster, it drops gold. You finish a quest, it drops gold. You sell your stuff to an NPC, it drops gold. In all of these situations, the gold is generated out of nothing, increasing the total amount of gold present in the game world. In other words, when you first start the game, no one has any gold. As players progress, the overall gold in-game increases with no limit.

When you first start playing, nobody else has gold, so you can buy a lot with it – a house, the best piece of armor, a rare pet. As more and more people generate gold, the gold you have loses value. When everyone has 1000 gold, your 10 gold coins don’t mean all that much. A house no longer costs 10 gold (everyone would have hundreds of houses if it did). It instead costs 1000 gold. Is the house 100x better than before? No. So why is it more expensive? Your gold coins lost value. This is called inflation.

To prevent inflation, games create money-sinks. If coins get generated out of nothing by simply playing the game, a money-sink is a system where coins disappear into nothing. This tries to provide balance by removing currency on one side, while it is being generated on another. A money-sink is similar to and admin shop: someone loses gold while no one gains it. An example would be purchasing a mount-riding license, paying transportation fees, or losing gold when you die.

There are two big flaws with this system. First, it does not feel natural to earn money out of nothing. In the real world, if I get paid by my employer, it is out of the money they have. He is not magically printing it in his basement (hopefully). Second, as more people play the game and get better at earning money, the developers are forced to create more and more money-sinks to balance that out. As this never really works out, you still see rapid inflation in most games. Leaving an online game for a year, you'll come back to find your money worth next to nothing.

What are we doing differently?

The system we have tries to give you the feeling of meaningfully earning and spending money. Instead of magically generating money for everything the player does, we funnel currency into Elpida through trade. Trade is the process of sending items off shore, in exchange for currency. This is where the coins are magically generated in our world. Part of the coin goes to the player, while the rest goes directly into the town treasury through taxes.

The money then stays in Elpida for quite a while. Players trade the currency between each other, with NPCs and with the town. This means a lot of the payments you make on a daily basis aren’t gold-sinks. Money doesn’t disappear, it just gets traded to someone else. If you go to an NPC and buy 10 expensive bottles of wine, they will have the money you gave them and spend it themselves at a later point. If you buy a land permit from the town, all of the money you spend will go into the town’s treasury. Likewise, if an NPC rewards you for your help, it will be from their personal bank account. This results in a much more connected environment, an environment that makes more sense intuitively and feels alive.

By keeping the currency in the loop for a while, the way in which you spend it suddenly matters. If you do not buy equipment from NPCs, but instead blow your money on a fancy town house, that makes a lot of impact. NPCs will have less money to spend, while the town will have more. At the same time, if you don’t pay taxes and hide your money with your friends, the town stops prospering, while players get more money overall. Banks will not just be a place to store your coins, but elaborate institutions where smart bankers can keep or release their money based on currency value predictions. There are numerous ways your spending impacts the economy.

As much as we love keeping money in the loop, there also needs to be an equivalent to a money-sink. Inflation would skyrocket otherwise. Again, we do not place the money-sinks inside the players’ transactions, but rather apply them to the town. Each town will have to spend their earned money on upgrades, upkeep and and importing goods from afar. This is where money is removed from the...

Senatorial Auditor Synedrus stands at the podium, studying his audience and collecting his thoughts. He takes a deep breath and begins. “My fellow Patraeians, I stand before you today bearing grave news. Pertentus, Senator of the Republic, beloved Governor of this colony, and my personal friend, has died unexpectedly of a sudden illness. While we have no reason to suspect foul pl—”

A cry from one of the onlookers interrupts him. “Illness? He was poisoned!” The ensuing commotion drowns out Synedrus’s attempts to regain control of the crowd, and he stops speaking.

Once the chorus of yelling dies down, he resumes his speech. “While we have no reason as of yet to suspect foul play,” he enunciates, glaring pointedly at the original troublemaker, “I can assure you that I will do everything in my power to determine the true nature of the Governor’s lamentable demise. In fact, I shall be overseeing the investigation personally before my departure for the mainland. It was indeed fortunate that, by a happy coincidence, I was in town at the time of his passing. I have known Senator Pertentus, for most of my life, and I do not intend for his death to go unpunished, if indeed there is reason for such punishment.” Here the Auditor pauses to look searchingly at each member of the audience, as if daring them to have had any involvement in the Governor’s passing.

“May his soul travel with ease to the realm of the gods. Furthermore,” he continues, “I have been named executor of the deceased’s will. It would seem that the Senator desired a complete restructuring of the colonial government in the event of his death. This is a rather unorthodox move on his part,” Synedrus says, frowning, “but Pertentus was no ordinary man, and I shall see it done.”

“R-restructuring?” inquires a frail tribune standing nearby, an indignant expression upon his face. “The council would never—” Synedrus sighs as the crowd once more dissolves into chaos. Perhaps it is best to end this speech before a mob forms. At least his primary duty has been fulfilled, and there is much work to do before he can return to civilization. The Auditor departs the podium amidst a cacophony of shouting and hurries off before anyone can grab his attention.

Politics is a complicated field. You have to balance the needs of many competing groups all while furthering your own agenda and making sure you don’t upset the general public. Radicals aren’t appreciated in politics, and are usually met with hostility, and a losing election. People who stick with the status quo are prided because no one wants the delicate balance upset. In Elpida, the role of a politician is no different.

Elpida has a political triumvirate running the colony. Each member of the triumvirate is responsible for dealing with a section of the colony’s duties. The economic conditions, including how trading occurs, what taxes are associated with it, and how heavily ordinary citizens are taxed, are primarily controlled by the Minister of Trade. All parts of the justice system, from controlling the town militia to serving as the chief judge fall under the duties of the Executive Magistrate. Lastly, charged with managing urban construction, town expansion, and housing is the Prefect.
But just telling you about the positions running the colony of Elpida isn’t any fun. I mean, politics is for rich people and probably controlled by the admins right? NOPE.

Following the start of the server, an election will soon take place to determine the next three members of the triumvirate. Running for a position will require a certain reputation with the town of Elpida, and enough money to campaign for yourself. After a registration period, voting will open up to all members of the server (residents of Elpida) and the votes will be tallied up after a few days. The winning candidates will then be put into office and given control of their respective position. Of course, you’ll have a lot of responsibility as a politician. Being a politician is a full-time job and lack of dedication will lead to losing the next election or even being prematurely being removed from your position (angry mobs are not good things to have outside your house!).

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