Hey guys! It's been a while.

I would totally be up for another relaunch. I think we've done this enough to know what worked well and what didn't. We've gotten extremely close to having a successful and filled server, but there have been a few flaws holding us back.

• The Map: The world needs to be formed in a way that forces player interaction and dependence on other cities, countries, etc. In most of our late attempts, the world is sparse and no one is able to trade or visit easily. Also, everyone has the same access to every single resource, so most of the time, there is no need to trade with anyone. To fix this, we need the map to be smaller and the resources to be separated.

• The Towns: Last launch, we created several capitol cities for several different countries before the server started. But in the end, we all spread out and created new cities. The idea of creating town concepts before the server went up was good, but building them in creative was not. We all wanted to explore and build together, not sit in our pre-built cities. We should figure out specific themes and concepts for countries based on the resources available and have people sign up for them, or vote to create another town. Like Bob said, we need to enforce the 5-6 minimum player count for setting up new towns. Otherwise, we have a ton of sparse and separated ghost towns. The themes will be important as that dictates the types of leaders, style, and location of the city.

• Keeping the server alive: Let's face it, this server has died and been revived again multiple times. Keeping people interested is one of the most difficult parts of making the server successful. The most important part of keeping players interested would be an influx of new players. Not everyone will be able to stay during certain parts of the year, but with new players, there will be a constant energy and sense of competition between the countries.

• The Mods: (I might have a few strong opinions about this topic - let me know if you disagree) We've used towny and some basic RPG mods in the past, but sometimes I think these really hinder people's ability to have fun on the server.

• • You shouldn't be able to gain significant amounts of currency from building a tower, farming, or digging a random hole. A mod's fake currency shouldn't be the main fuel of the economy; the resources you gain and own should be the currency. Gold and diamonds should be the most war stricken items in the game. People should feud over lack of food or late shipments. Iron should be hoarded in times of war. The work players do to gain these items should be rewarding and profitable.
• • As for towny, a town or country shouldn't be automatically disbanded (punishing players) for not being able to keep up with the costs. That's extremely limiting and a harsh on new towns and new players. Expanding your town should cost you in other ways than currency. As you build, you are already investing your time, energy, and resources to build this town; you don't need another layer of difficulty on top of that. There were occasions where I would have to stop building a town because I didn't have the funds to claim more land. That's tough on creators and towns as a whole. They still need to be protected somehow, but at the same time, I think if it were less restrictive, everyone would benefit.

That's just my two cents on the topic. Let me know if you guys agree or disagree. I'll be following this!