Vetronia Map and Visitor's Brochure | VeteranCraft General Discussion | Forum

"Welcome to Vetronia!  See the sights!  Make Minecraft memories that will last forever!"

I mentioned something like this in the chat soon after I first joined. I was going on a "tour" of the cities, and while the LiveMap really helped get me around, I didn't see everything.  I had completely missed Kamemura on the trip, which was sad, because it's gorgeous.  When I mentioned it, I rightly got a lot of , "no, exploring is better and more fun!" So I've been thinking since then, and seeing how most new people experience the server.

First, some thoughts.

My career IRL is as a City and Regional Planner, specifically right now as a Transportation Planner (hence probably why I'm building Highmoor roads-first).  Planning, as a career, is focused on many aspects, but specifically one universal truth: Location, location location.  With /tp, /spawn, /home, portal ships, and Redstone-powered transit lines, location becomes not as important.  If it were, we would all be huddled on the shores of the mainland.  As it is, we're very spread out.

For the most part, that's not a problem.  As I said, location is mostly irrelevant.  It doesn't matter that my mine is a world away in the Outer Reaches when I can instantly /home there.  But what I've seen become a small issue, as an example, is that a LOT of people are crowding the area Avalon.  Here is where location IS an issue: Avalon's portal ship is the closest to the Spawn.  When new people ask, "where can I build?" we say, "take a portal ship."  They take the first one, like the area, like Avalon, and decide to set up a structure.  

[As an aside recommendation, I would suggest working out amongst the ship owners a rotation, and get meat or frell to move the ships, so the area that wants more traffic can be the first in line for it.]

So this sets up a few issues:

1) Vetronia is comprised of a very nice spawn and several well-established cities, but for the most part is very rural.  There are little houses out of the way here and there, but even with the transportation infrastructure, it's pretty isolated.

2) New members get lost.  I'll be honest, I looked at the LiveMap for about an hour, just soaking up the map, before I ever logged on to VC.  Most users won't do that.  They see Vetropolis, find out they can't build there, and then rely on members to get them somewhere.  Most of the time it turns out well, yes.  Sometimes it doesn't.  The intrusion upon Avalon is the best example I can give, but going deeper into "Planning Theory," the problem is that despite the infrastructure and wayfinding, Vetronia isn't a very cohesive civilization.  Each city is sort of like Hawaii: so far out of reach that it doesn't feel like a part of the U.S.  Trying to get newer members to acclimate to that is difficult.  I know it's beneficial to have a complicated setup to chase away the kiddies who wouldn't belong, but I wonder how many good players have left because it's not easily accessible.  I'm not critiquing VC at all, just raising a question.

3) Exposure:  Some people really want it.  Others, not so much.  I'll use the example of Scottland.  Scottiefinn has been asking for residents like crazy, and that's alright, but I'm wondering if there would be a better way for him to advertise.  But especially cities that do not have a portal ship set up yet, but would like the revenue from residents, getting newer players out to their areas are difficult.

All that to get to a suggestion, right?  This is really one suggestion, which I'm going to suggest be on the wiki, but really would have two components:

1) A map.  The community gets together in an effort to develop the Vetronia map into something you'd find in a store.  The LiveMap is awesome, and fantastic for play, but its capabilities are very limited when it comes to providing more information.  Labels, roads, geographic features, water bodies, possibly "political" boundaries, etc.  For instance, what is the name for the name for the Bay to the west of the ocean, which feeds Highmoor?  I'd like to give it one, but how does that information get distributed?

I recognize the need for exploration and discovery, but I'm not sure that Vetronia is the best place for that anymore.  The OR and the new map coming with 1.3 can serve those functions.  Vetronia is where we live, and where we want others to live, and if that's going to be the case, it needs to be known (at least the Residenced areas) And we need to take ownership of it.  If there are areas that we want to keep wild, wouldn't that be best to note on a map?  If someone wants to make a road, wouldn't it be best to build off existing roads?  It really wouldn't take much but a screenshot of the LiveMap and someone with access to Photoshop.  Properly executed, it could be updated on a regular basis, as well.  

2) A Visitor's "Brochure."  There are those who don't want their area publicized.  There are also those (like me) who aren't ready for their area to be publicized.  For everyone else, though, one of the great pleasures of Minecraft is being able to show off what you've made.  From the pictures on the site and the server pages, there is SO much that hasn't been shown, even in the video.  Perhaps the best way to get the information across is to allow everyone with a Res'd and portal ship'd city to qualify for a sub-page on the wiki, which they will be able to use to "pimp" their city.  Tout the features, show pictures, describe the location, detail the residential opportunities, give shop menus, etc.  Something more expansive and formal than the forum threads.

Anyways, that's just my idea.  If you can tell I've been thinking about this, I hope you can tell how much I have enjoyed the last 3+ weeks on VC.  I definitely plan on sticking around.