Thoughts on map borders

[Kommunističeskiĭ]

Me and some friends are working to overhaul and re-balance my Tekkit server. Our goal is to remove everything that allows transmuting (EE, UUM, scrapbox, etc.) and remove some OP items such as energy links (devalues BC engines and oil) and quantum suit. We've got most of the details taken care of, but we're stuck deciding whether or not we should get a map border.

Pros:

• encourages PvP by not having all of the advanced/fightable players immediately set a goal to travel 100 kilometers before settling on a permanent base
  

Cons:

• all the non-renewable resources will run out eventually, meaning after a few months there will be no place to mine without running out into someone else's branches, and a few months after that there will be no more diamonds or uranium
  
• the shorter the radius the easier it will be for griefers to find people's bases. We have Towny installed, however we don't want to put too much manual regulation on griefing besides water+lava cobble volcanoes and forcefield-buster frame contraptions. I was happy to see that nukes are fixed in 3.1.3 and now respect claimed land, by the way.
  

I personally am leaning towards no border, but it does get boring after a while if everyone worth raiding lives super far away from each other. Yet they couldn't become 'worth raiding' without given appropriate time to stock up on resources and machinery to begin with... Oh what to do, what to do... What are your thoughts?

[LogicChip10]

I think it would be best to have no border because it would be a pain to have to deal with depletion of resources... also borders just make everything bad imo.

[mobilephone2003]

I'd get a map border regardless, as I could spend an entire day on your server going as far as possible to fill up your disk space

[Bangers]

I've heard some server owners complain that larger map sizes increase lag, and that the further from spawn someone builds, the laggier it will be. Is there any evidence to support this?

[ace223]

I am not up to date on the latest mods running in tekkit, but if Mystcraft is installed then you can use that for mining and just every month regen the mystcraft age.

then you also dont have massive quarry holes in the world

[lulz]

Definitely map border tbh. You could always load up another map and regularly (or when needed) reset for a fresh source of recourses.

[Silent]

I would use WorldBorder, set it to say 10 000 blocks squared then pregen for lags sake

[Djinnii]

I'd use the boarder.

PvP, raiding and griefing doesn't even come into the equation unless you actively encourage that sort of behaviour.

People will always find ways to PvP regardless of where they live or how far away they live. Better to condense players to a given area and save on resources and lag.

You are either prepared to deal with griefers, or you aren't. A world boarder will do nothing to change that.

Some of my best SMP experiences have been when we had 5 or 6 players living close together, and subsequently started working together to build bigger and better things.

[Kommunističeskiĭ]

I'd get a map border regardless, as I could spend an entire day on your server going as far as possible to fill up your disk space

I have 500GB on my VPS fully dedicated to Minecraft, so disk space isn't a problem.

I am not up to date on the latest mods running in tekkit, but if Mystcraft is installed then you can use that for mining and just every month regen the mystcraft age.

then you also dont have massive quarry holes in the world

Mystcraft in Multiplayer? *goosebumps*

I would use WorldBorder, set it to say 10 000 blocks squared then pregen for lags sake

I've use WorldBorder before. Hmm. 10k radius sounds like a good compromise between border and no border. I used to live that far away; it was a 2 minute train ride from spawn via nether.

I'd use the boarder.

PvP, raiding and griefing doesn't even come into the equation unless you actively encourage that sort of behaviour.

People will always find ways to PvP regardless of where they live or how far away they live. Better to condense players to a given area and save on resources and lag.

You are either prepared to deal with griefers, or you aren't. A world boarder will do nothing to change that.

Some of my best SMP experiences have been when we had 5 or 6 players living close together, and subsequently started working together to build bigger and better things.

Well, it does change that. At 2k radius border it will be much easier to grief, and like I said, griefing should be allowed. It's just some people... They take it to the next level and spend all their time torturing one player by whatever means they can. In such case, the player either beats the troll or moves away. The border would take that second option away.

[mobilephone2003]

If resources aren't an issue it's really your choice, do you want players scattered around miles away or within some means of limit to find each other by walking/flying (if you allow that)? How popular is your server currently?

Public towns are warpable anyway if they're public and people can set waypoints on each town spawn, or you'll be setting warps of your own anyway, or people can meet at spawn.

You haven't said much about your server either way other than "you want balance", which won't be affected by a border

[Djinnii]

Well, it does change that. At 2k radius border it will be much easier to grief, and like I said, griefing should be allowed. It's just some people... They take it to the next level and spend all their time torturing one player by whatever means they can. In such case, the player either beats the troll or moves away. The border would take that second option away.

2k is a little extreme for a public server, so sure you could see it that way. Although a more typical boarder size is more like 8-10k. But really you can set it to whatever you want. I just prefer to have it, so I don't get some players going 30k blocks away from the spawn or whatever and using up twice as much memory as other players who stay fairly close together.