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Welcome to Joyful’s Civilization Experiment. If you are reading this, you are probably about to play in the second TEST server. While everything isn't set up exactly how it will be in the event, many things will be similar. This experiment will use a custom plugin called CivCore which changes the game in quite a few ways to incentivize cooperation and empower players. This experiment is NOT like a normal Minecraft civilizations event. The only rules that are enforced by admins are:

• No cheating
• No harassment
• No racism/sexism
• No combat logging (this is temporary until we finish a custom plugin)

Breaking any of these rules will result in a ban.

The Basics

This experiment is a challenge. Players who enjoy problem solving and overcoming challenges will enjoy this event. Unlike other Minecraft civilization events, actions such as RDM and Griefing are not against the rules. Although admins do not enforce rules against these actions, players are encouraged to enforce these rules themselves in order to protect themselves and their builds. In order to empower players to do this: Death is (almost) permanent.

Reviving Players

The only way a player can rejoin the experiment is if another player in the game brings them back via a costly sacrifice of food. In the real event this cost will increase exponentially for each time the same person is revived, but in the test server this cost will stay the same. The crops that are required to bring a player back only grow in their unique separate biomes. In order to gather all of the required crops, players will either need to operate farms in every biome on the map, or trade with players from each biome who are already farming their local crop. It is recommended for groups of players to maintain control over the entire biome that they settle. If another group of players from a different biome is able to establish farms then you will lose your trade leverage.

Because bringing players back is very expensive, we warn all players to pay attention to their surroundings and play cautiously. DO NOT trust everybody you come across, pay attention to the death broadcasts in chat and take note of the names of frequent killers. The more organized and aware your group is, the better the chance is that you will survive.

Stamina

This experiment uses a stamina system. Stamina does NOT get used by actions such as: sprinting, jumping, crafting, or smithing. Stamina DOES get used by actions such as: breaking blocks, placing blocks, fishing, and farming. Stamina takes a decent time to regenerate, and this is by design. If you run out of stamina, the "stamina cost" for that actions hits your hunger bar instead. When your hunger bar is empty, you can no longer perform actions that require stamina. Players in the early game found a lot of success by grouping up and working in shifts. While half of the team rests and regains stamina, the other half is mining/building. Once a group of players establishes a good source of food, they'll be able to trade food for time. Instead of waiting for their stamina to regen, they can instead keep performing actions until it becomes a food cost, then quickly eat and keep working without having to take a break. The stamina system acts as a food cost for actions while giving unestablished players the ability to perform tasks and survive without starving. We recommend that groups of players focus hard on establishing large sources of food in order to overcome the limitations of stamina.

Progression

Wood and Stone acts exactly like vanilla. Bronze is an alloy, which is made by combining Copper and Quartz (which spawns in the overworld) in a Copper Anvil. Iron is not required to progress from Bronze to Steel, however Iron is very useful for its much higher durability compared to Bronze. Steel is an alloy of Coal Blocks and Iron Clumps. Diamonds are combined with steel in a Smithing Table to make Diamond armor/weapons/tools.

Material	Utility Block	Required
Wood	Crafting Table	N/A
Stone	Crafting Table	Wood
Bronze	Copper Anvil	Stone
Iron	Crafting Table	Bronze
Steel	Iron Anvil	Bronze
Diamond	Smithing Table	Steel

Ores

Ores do not spawn like they do in vanilla. Ores are much more scattered, with local deposits existing in specific areas. There are above ground hints though that will tell players where high concentrations of ores are.

Ore	Hints
Copper	Diorite
Quartz	Calcite
Iron	Andesite
Diamond/Coal	Granite
Gold	Messa
Coal Sheets	Fossils

Tips for Leaders

Regardless of your goals going into the event, the time may come when you have to step up as a leader in your community. Leadership is a tough skill to master, and it will take time to understand how to balance the multiple conflicting interests and personal goals of all of the people in your community. We'll briefly lay out all of these challenges in a bit so that you're not walking in blind, but for now let's touch on the most common mistake we've seen: Larping.

Larping has been the downfall of many groups, especially in the early game. What we refer to as "larping" is the establishment of political and economic systems for aesthetics sake, or because of a real world affinity for these systems. The most common of these "larp" systems is liberal democracy (although this also applies to Capitalism, Socialism, Monarchy, Fuedalism, etc). Because most of the players live in countries with liberal democratic systems in real life, they find it natural to set up liberal democratic systems in the game world. However, due to the drastically different conditions of the game world, those systems are typically unable to meet player's needs, and communities which adopt them quickly collapse. This is not to say that democratic systems will never work in this event, just that those systems should come about as direct solutions to problems (just like they did in real life). In order to avoid a collapse due to a "larp" system, as a leader you should ask yourself: What are the immediate problems of my community? (Are we facing a food shortage? Do we need protection from other groups? Are players getting bored in our community?). The political and economic systems you adopt should directly solve these problems.

Balancing Contradictions

There are many contradictions that you'll have to deal with and balance as a leader. The biggest contradiction will most likely be: the needs of the group vs the enjoyment of the players.

Enjoyment vs Necessity

There are many boring jobs that are very important to the survival of the group such as: Farming, Mining, Organizing Storage, etc. Some members of your group will find these actions fun, and some will find them very dull. Its up to you as a leader to balance these needs. After all, the players in your community could very well leave your community to join another group, or just leave the game altogether if they're not having fun. Entertainment is a big need for societies in Minecraft, just as they are in the real world (however, not for the same reasons). Since Minecraft is a game, if people aren't enjoying their time in your group, they have the power to simply leave. On the other hand, if your players are taking time to do fun stuff, they're not doing the boring tasks that keep the society functioning. Its up to you as a leader to balance this contradiction and to not fall too far to one side or else your community will collapse.

Progression vs Protection

The same materials which are used to craft the special Anvils which let you unlock new tiers in material progression are the same materials which you need to forge armor and weapons to defend yourself and your community. Because of this, you need to make a choice as a leader: Do you use the ingots you have now for weapons and armor to protect yourself from other groups, or do you use those ingots to make higher tiered anvils to hopefully one day be able to forge even higher tier weapons and armor. If at any point you have the material edge over other communities around the map, it may be better to invest resources into weapons and armor to launch a preemptive strike while you have the technological advantage instead of continuing to invest in new anvils. Remember: you can be attacked at any time. The other groups do not need a good roleplay reason to attack you first. Sometimes offensive is the best defense. If you have peaceful relations with other communities, it may be best to continue progressing to increasing your productive potential. The choice is yours, but make sure you balance progression and protection, because invest too much in protection at the wrong time, and you'll fall behind other groups. Invest too much in progression at the wrong time, and you could be scattered into the wind and have to start from square one.

Beauty vs Utility

People love making beautiful builds for fun in Minecraft. This game gives players a lot of freedom in how they can create. In this event beautiful builds also serve a practical purpose. Having the nicest looking town makes it more attractive to players. There will be many times when communities collapse and groups of players will have to migrate. If you're community has beautiful builds, it gives these migrating players confidence that your town has their stuff together and could be a nice group to join. It also gives pride to the players in your own community. Humans naturally enjoy aesthetic beauty and will be more willing to stay in a town that looks good. On the other hand, spending a lot of time building will slow down production in other areas such as mining, which could possibly open up your town to the risk of being invaded if you can't keep up technologically. Communities which build with utility first will have more time to spend digging up ores and expanding farms. Its up to you as a leader to balance the beauty of your buildings with the utility of your buildings in order to avoid falling behind or losing out on new players.