Factions

'''  The factions server is full of action, drama, and poison squids. Read on if you're intrigued.'''

Purpose
Factions is all about getting to the top. Essentially, it's a war. And as we all know, all's fair in love and war. The love part is a bonus on this server ;)

Ahem... ANYWAY,  this is done through gathering a following of people to share and entrust with a base, items, information, and tasks. This group of people is your faction. You will constantly be competing with other factions for one common goal; staying afloat, any way possible. For many, this means deceit, trickery, betrayal, and total objective thinking.

Beautiful isn't it? Free for anyone to join, so if you haven't yet, be sure to find your place in factions before it's taken!

Bases (Credit to Umena)
Now, I will do a mini review about bases and faction bases. What's a base (captain obvious attacks)? A base in minecraft is the place around which all the actions in minecraft orbit. People place their crafting stuff, items, chests, farms and a big etcetera (ok, not that big) in their bases.

It seems cool, doesn't it? You can have a well organized base, with hundreds of chests, beacons, nether portals, end portals... with a cool design (depends on which materials you use and the use you give to them), and completely anti-mob. And, when we're talking about factions, we must mention two types of bases: personal and faction bases.

Personal Bases (Credit to Umena)
Personal bases are usually small, with just the essentials to survive and store materials. Talking in general terms and ignoring that some players play always without a faction with more than one player, they are not claimed and easy to raid if found. That's why some new players get that many raids and lose their starter kit, and become easy targets for factions who want to climb on the ranking of top factions. The advice I would give to players are the following:

-Build as far away from warps as you can. It doesn't matter if you have to go to X-400000 Y493845797395. Other players are often lazy and will not track you unless they're really focused on raiding you. However, if you use /home command to come back instead of walking there, tracking is almost impossible.

-Do not build on high places. I agree that tree houses are cool... that Heidi had an awesome house on the top of the Alps... But you are in factions, damn! A tree house, a sky house or even a home dug inside a floating island are extremely easy to find.

-Do not leave any kind of hint that you have been there. Many bases (I think 7 by now) Have been found because of leaving torches close to them or their mines, there were trees half cut... there were non-grown saplings on the floor... really, dude... be a bit more decent when trying to hide your stuff.

-Do not make windows. I know, I like fresh air too... but windows and glass let light trespass them. And what happens when an enemy is travelling in the middle of the night and sees a light? Yes, raid. Also, some minimaps have dynamic light, which can be used to find light sources over ground level.

-Avoid building over ground level. The underground is better... you know, moles are friendly, worms are tasty... and there are not any neighbours trying to steal a cup of sugar (or a cup of diamonds)... and yes, they are not shown on minimaps. If you built on the ground, the minimap would show a strange structure like "hey, look... a golden roof in the middle of a forest! How usual!" unless it is built with dirt and grass or with wood and leaves.

-Redstone is cool. Build redstone doors, they are almost invisible from the outside and do not have the side effect of letting people target the entrance so easily. Also, traps can be built to improve security. How about a pitfall-lava-crusher-obbycage trap? Yolo.

-Water is also cool. Yes, it is. Underwater bases for one person are extremely difficult to find if the owner doesn't reveal its location. Avoid little shallow lakes, look for an ocean and build in it. Then cover everything with sand, dirt or gravel... and most importantly, do not make cool roof windows: they're like a beacon for raiders who are tracing or just walking around. From now, at least one personal underwater base and one faction base have been found because of the roof windows.

-F*** the police. Pro players usually know all this information, and will go to look for all known mistakes such as torches, doors, mines or half cut trees, and expect that other pro players do not make this mistakes. However, if you build your base in quite an obvious place you have a great chance of not to be traced by pros, as they will be looking for people about 10.000 blocks away from spawn. But... yes, newbies use to find this bases quite often, so be aware of that, because newbies are easy to stop with traps.

-Journey to the centre of the Nether. DO NEVER... and by never I mean a strong NEEEEEVER, build a nether portal inside your personal home. It's noisy, has particle effects, emits light... it's like having a disco inside your house, damn! so yes, if you have one, make sure you build it like 300 blocks away from your house. Or you can turn it off every time you come back.

-A house in the end? If it happens that you find an end portal and you build in the end, you'll come in a 2 phase cycle: First, your stuff is safe from all other players who are not prepared to find a portal for about... a month maybe. Second, you come back one day and you see that your house is gone. Yes, my friend.. the end may reset at some time, so do not build there.

Faction Bases (Credit to Umena)
Now, I'd like to talk a bit about faction bases: the most complicated feature in factions. A faction's base is usually bigger than an individual one and are often claimed. However, some factions leave their bases unclaimed, and other faction's bases are owned with a faction with... yes, with only one member. A normal faction base can have a lot of features, and I will try to explain them so they're easy to understand even for beginners:


 * One member faction base: Maximum 5 protected chunks, often small. They use to follow the common rules for personal bases, but are claimed, so it's difficult to steal without exploding the walls as if was the end of the world. Very easy to build a passive defense system and... if the owner logs out, explosions cannot occur in his faction's territory. Disadvantages: If the player is killed 3 times, and the enemies know where his base is, his land can be taken away, so he loses all his stuff. It's easy to find, because (this is an example) you see in the chatbox /~snipers "u r dead"/ when you walk on the claimed chunk, then /~Wilderness/.


 * Unclaimed faction base: Usually take between 3 and 4 chunks. They're often known as "true bases" because they are the place where a faction can really hide when danger ocurs. Difficult to find, if built in the right place (you can follow the guide for individual bases) and use /f home to come back to it. Passive defense can be built too, and traps activated by the victim, which is awesome too. They also give the faction a nice advantage, because they can claim land from other factions without having to do /f unclaimall first. It is also cheaper, since you do not have to pay for claiming the chunks. Disadvantages: If only one member can be traced to where the faction base is... and there's no one inside the base in that moment... yes, raid. Usually guards are needed in this kind of buildings.


 * Claimed faction base: Can take as much chunks as their power allows to. A huge advantage, if a faction has 15 members and has only claimed 4 chunks, as they can take a lot of damage without danger of being conquered. Doors and trap doors will stop invaders from moving inside the base, death chambers and obby cages can be built... and they're easy to defend and expensive to attack. Sometimes, they are safe even if the enemy is inside, if built correctly. Farms can be built, and they can be over the ground level. Sky claimed faction bases can be really difficult to attack, and bedrock level claimed bases are the same. What's more, if a faction builds underwater and claims land... cannons cannot work because the torch dissapears when put on them. Disadvantages: easy to find, can be conquered if you do not have inactive full-powered players in the faction and does not allow the faction to conquer land (unless it's next to it). Tactical advantages: Can be used to simulate a base, even if the faction base is unclaimed and somewhere else. Enemies can be trapped inside it. If they are in your territory, they can't teleport anywhere. Unless you let them go. (Experiments have been done on this).

Guide to Building a Faction Base (Credit to Umena)
A conqueror faction's aim is to raid every enemy they find, get their resources and maybe conquer a nice built-by-someonelse base. A faction like this needs to hide a lot until they gather enough resources to start their conquests, and need a base which can cover their needs. What's the best type of base, then? Unclaimed faction base, of course. Conquerors move a lot, so make sure you have a potato farm, to go on long trips to look for other faction bases. Do not grow animals: they're noisy. Specially cows... An underwater base is awesome for this type of faction, coz it allows hiding and mineral getting, as well as an infinite source of water. About water: make sure there are no currents inside or around the base. Moving water is as noisy as a skeleton. An Xp farm would be nice too, if you find spawners close to it. The base should be terribly far away from warps or spawn, too. Do not care too much about it being cool, just make it functional, all you need must fit in it, except for the Nether portals, and must not be seen from any side. The mine entrance must be sealed, and torches should not be put in it until you are a bit further. It's true that mobs may spawn, but... do you prefer a mob or a full diamond enchanted player drugged with all kinds of potions and apples? I know.. creepers can blow up the entrance of the mine, so put water in it but, anyway, you can use /f home to come back, can't you? I will not recomend a certain m

aterial to build it, but avoid expensive or difficult to find materials. Obsidian is higly reccomended, as it takes a lot to be broken and normal people may not grief it very often (damages can be easily repaired). Traps are highly recomended, and hidden chests too, so check out some tutorials and start building.

Now, maintenance. An unclaimed base is easy to keep, cheap to build and... easily raidable if safety measures are not taken. First, a guard is always need. People with a minimap which shows a reasonable area are the best guards that can be found. When they see enemies coming, he can tell his parners and they can come to get their stuff before the raid or defend their base. Do not do "all the people" attacks, they leave the base unprotected. Organization in chests is not important here: raiders will get valuables faster if the items are classified by name, use or type unless they do not know the alphabet, which I think everyone does... if they have little time before faction members come to stop the raiding, and items are all messed up, it will be more difficult for them. An ender chest would work to keep the most valuable items in it (diamonds, enchanted books, a photo of your bf or gf...). To mess with your enemies, you can claim a chunk (only one), build a tower in it and over protect it. It will be the targets of all attacks, even if it's not the true base. Make sure to put lots of chests and crafting stations so they can believe that's your real base. You can even tease them by putting like 4 double "diamond" (also known as empty) chests. Make sure you do not use your best gear when defending, it's not worth it.

There are a lot of tactics for conquerors, which I will explain in other posts but, for now, this advice could help you build a nice base. Do not forget the main rule: Destroy all the evidence after building a base somewhere.

Being a Defending Faction (Credit to Umena)
We all know that there are different kinds of factions. Each one with a different aim and a different procedure. In the last post, I talked about conqueror factions... now it's the turn of defending factions. There are different ways to become a defending faction... because you want to, because your base has been discovered and you don't want to lose it... or maybe you are a masochist.

In this case, the best faction base which can be built is the claimed faction base. Once our base has been discovered, there's no need to hide it any more, so if we have an unclaimed base built in the right place (you can take a look to my last post), claiming it would be enough to stop any king of raids until we find somewhere else to live. We must know that our power is not unlimited (which would be horrible, as the whole world would be claimed in 5 days or so), and that 1 power is equal to 1 protected chunk. If you are lucky and have an inactive friend, let him or her join and stay in your faction to give you extra protection (up to 5 chunks per inactive player) me and some other people call this "static power". Even if the power of all active members is lowered to 0, if you have 2 inactive players (for example), your power can remain in 10 forever, so 10 chunks can be protected without any worries of being conquered.

Now, about building... most of the rules in unclaimed bases are the same. However, as it's claimed and raids are more expensive and difficult, they can be built on ground level. What you first have to know is how big does it have to be... you can have 1 chunk base, and it can still be as big as the Empire State, and take all the space between bedrock and the sky. As in medieval times, a wall is highly recommended. It will stop mobs, for sure. If you want a creeper-proof wall, you can cover it in water (this will also stop TNT and low-level cannonballs) or lava (this is expensive, but extremely effective). If you place a liquid on your walls, please mind the gap between the train and the platfo... ok, no, mind that you should leave a 2 block empty space between your fluid wall and the limit of your claim (this will stop other players from mixing your water with lava or your lava with water). What you build inside the walls is up to you, but I reccomend building the chest room as deep as possible, so cannons have to spend like 1000000 gunpowder and 203943248290 blocks of iron to break all the floors and walls to get to it. If you are a troll and like making others suffer, you can build a water layer between the floor and the roof of each department in the base... even between every wall. Also, make sure you make only ONE way to walk up and down the base, so in case the enemy enters you can easily stop the raid by closing a door, putting blocks in the way or opening that cute piston which releases lava inside the building. Please, mind that lava will destroy wooden doors, but not trap doors (which seems weird to me), so if the enemy is inmune to fire, this will not help at all. Make like 10000 rooms in the base, all of them locked with a door. Make wooden stairs and put trap doors in the way... use stone buttons, not wooden ones to activate traps and secret doors... plan a defense system when attacks occur (I will tell you some tactics in the future)... and make an archery tower. Why? Because towers are like a magnet for cannons, and easy to repair, and the place to stay if you want to defend your base. Make sure there is not a way in, so it's not easily accessible except for you and your partners.

Now, about maintenance: as they're easier to find or already found, this bases may be attacked quite often, and will need a lot of rebuilding unless you build really carefully. That's why you should care a bit about what materials you use... "Umena, I've done an iron block base :B" is something stupid because after a single triple iron block-triple gunpowder cannonshot you are like "Can someone auction some iron, please D:?". So cobblestone is the best material to build this places. Also obsidian can be used, as it is easy to find (not to mine). You can use dirt but... one cobblestone shot is enough to destroy a wall made with this material (Experiments have been done about this). While an attack is occuring, make sure all doors are locked, and watch the walls carefully. As soon as you see a way in, cover it, so they can not enter... if they are in, just shelter in the most safe place in the building, teleport away, or simply disconnect (if you are not the target of a fight, because if you disconnect in the middle of the battle, you die).

Other tips:

-Build next to a war zone to direct enemy attacks to another side of the walls (cannons can't be built in war zones)

-Build underwater (cannons can't be built underwater)

-Build a one chunk base (troll your enemies with a hundred doors, stairs, trap doors, water walls and ceilings... and impossible to conquer. Also, easier to repair)

-Cage enemies inside your base. If they are dumb enough to enter all at the same time, you can block the way they used to enter so no one can get out and no one can rescue them. Then, ask them to put items inside a dropper which leads to a claimed chest and release them.

-Make an "almost always open door". People will enter without thinking. Close it with redstone when they are all in and cage them.

-Arrows and bows should be stored in the tower, so they're easier to get when being attacked... and you can build more than one tower to distract cannons from the real targets. Use of beacons is reccomended once the base is found, as they will give you a huge advantage in front of your enemies (imagine if you had 6 beacons... lol), but do not build the pyramid over the ground level, put it three or four floors deep, so cannons do not target it. This is it, sorry about forgetting something this important.

Staying Afloat Pre-Faction (Credit to Umena)
"Thenewone: Hi, all, I'm the new one! Nice to meet you all " "Someone: Welcome!" "Thenewone: which warp should I go to" "Troll: do /warp wild3" "Thenewone: Thank you :3!" 5 seconds later: "Thenewone was slain by Troll".

Hi everyone and welcome to a new tip list. This time, I will tell you some important things to take into account before starting playing in overworldpvp... and avoid situations like the one you have seen over this text. So, here's the list:

-Say hello to everyone, do not be impolite. Do never be rude and say something like... "Thenewone: HAHAHA I'm gonna slay you all, I'm a pro, blahblahblah!" 5 seconds later "Thenewone was slainshotchoppeddestroyed by 1000 players at the same time". Yes, or something like that may happen.

-Do not exit spawn without warping. Do /warp wildX to leave spawn and do not tell where you're going to. Exiting spawn directly may become a nice fox hunting game, with you being the fox and a faction being the hunters. ("What does the fox say?" "Thenewone was slain...").

-Do not stop to type when in a war zone. Someone might find you and kill you.

-Make sure you do not leave hints to faction tracers. Some of the tracers are very good and can find personal bases with the only hint of a sapling planted on the floor (they plant themselves automatically) or a random torch placed somewhere.

-Do not put a 30 blocks high tower... you won't get lost here, use /home to come back to your house and do /set home to set the place where you will appear. You may like to install a minimap in your minecraft client, instead of leaving hints to tracers.

-If you ask to join a particular faction, they will not let you join in, as they will think you're an alternative account and a spy. Ask in general terms or do /f need. Also, tell your abilities without sounding pathetic. "Thenewone: Pleaaase, I need a faction!" after 1000 times... "Leader of a faction has invited Thenewone to his faction" "Thenewone: /f home" "Leader of a faction has kicked Thenewone from his faction" "Thenewone was slain by 14 faction members". So... yes, do not be annoying when looking for a faction. If you can't join today, they may let you join tomorrow, when you have a diamond gear, or prove you are useful.

-Remember, joining a faction is important, but being safe and strong is even more important (and will give you more chances of joining a good faction).

-Do not spend money creating and dismantling an individual faction unless you vote daily (minimum 300 C can be won per day).

-Vote daily to receive 6 diamonds every time. In 5 days or so, you will have enough to make a spare diamond gear.

-Do not trust anyone. People will try to trick you if you're a beginner... make sure to leave all your stuff when meeting other players you do not know, so they don't steal important things from you.

-Although you start with a starter kit already equipped, you can do /kit starter a second time to get more apples.

-Save your apples and don't eat them. Finding them naturally is difficult. You'd better go hunting or eat your mushroom soups before eating the apples.

Staying Afloat as a Faction Leader (Credit to Umena)
"Thenewone: Who wants to join my faction?" / "Random player: I do" / "Thenewone has invited Random player to his faction" / "Random player has joined your faction" / "Random player: Can you promote me, please? I can't put my diamonds in the chest" / "Thenewone: Ok, here you go" / "Random player: Thanks"

Ten minutes later...

"Thenewone: Eh, random, did you take the diamonds?"/ "Random player has left your faction" / "The new one was slain by Random player".

Hello and welcome back to a new tip list, this time about creating a faction and being a leader. There are different kinds of leaders as there are different kinds of people, for sure, but there are some tips which may be useful for you to start a new faction. Let's say Thenewone has read this guide and has successfully survived the first hours in the server, and has built his personal base. Now, he can't join a faction, and has created one by himself. What should he do now?

-Build a faction base. Do not use your personal base as the faction's, keep it in case you need to escape fast. You can read the guides about building faction bases, of course.

-Claim your base or leave it unclaimed? At first, when getting members, claiming the base is highly reccomended, even if you want to become a conqueror in the future. As soon as you see that members in your faction are loyal and useful, you can stop recruiting and unclaim the base to start the conquests.

-Don't promote faction members at first, make a trial first. This means, give them time to prove they are useful without allowing them to open chests. Put chests out of your claims and tell them to leave the resources they gather there. If they are active and gather a lot, you can promote them. Do not trust people who want to join your faction and not another one, they may be spies.

-Build a jail for your faction so you can jail suspicious players there. WARNING: Jailing may kill the jailed player.

-Do not put all your resources in the faction base. Keep some in your personal base just in case (traitors or betrayals are common in factions, I'm talking from my personal experience).

-Do not allow people to visit your faction, unless they're allied with you and you trust them 250% of the times, you have helped each other for the last 3 weeks, you're siblings, you know each other from real life... of course, its up to you, but safety is first.

-Don't be rude or you may start a war. Don't be a hypocritic leader saying "I'm a fair person" and tricking everyone at the same time. No one will trust you if your behaviour is changing every five minutes. Also avoid direct lies like "I will not attack you" 5 seconds later "cannons: no gunpowder, please load the barrel".

-Do not set an offensive faction description. I'm completely against that: this is a friendly international server, so never, NEVER do something like this, please.

-Remember you're the leader, so give an example to all your faction members about how to behave. Don't say "Be kind to people" when you're the one who's insulting everyone.

-Remember your responsibilities: you're responsible not only of your safety, but also about the other members'. You must manage and moderate the use of resources, and you should be an active player.

-Do not take decisions all alone, or your members can become upset in less than 3 seconds.

-If someone has not done something bad for your faction, there's no need to kick him or her out. If you start kicking random people just because, your members may start fearing and may take their resources to their personal homes so they do not lose them.

-Of course, you can become a traitor yourself and steal all your faction's resources and say it was a raid... however, if this happens a lot, it's possible that other players find out what's happening and ally to kill you, claim your base and hundreds of things.

-You do not need officers in your factions. Give titles instead, as officers have a great chance of doing something you wouldn't like unless you trust them a lot.

-Do not reject players because they're bad ad pvp. Each player is good at something, so you can have miners, archers, knights, potion makers, tracers, etc. Even newbies can become proficient in some of this jobs with a bit of effort.

-Finally, don't forget you are in a partially hostile world, so you will not regret having secrets and plans which your faction members don't know about but will help them (and you) succeed.

The rest of the features are free to choose, as you may become a conqueror, a defender, a trader, a tracer, a troll, ahm... a lot of different aims can be achieved with the correct actitude. Remember: safety of your faction is first, and when being a leader, you're not a chess player. You and your friends are the pieces, and must work together to succeed. Don't hesitate to become involved in your own plans, become a target for enemies and lose your head if your plan requires it. What's better? A leader who dies to save his or her faction members or another one who sends his or her subordinates to do all the work for him? I think there's not a right answer here, but... which faction members are happier?

Tips and Tricks for Faction Leaders (Credit to Umena)
Thenewone has become Thenormalone... he's read all the tips, and has thought of new tips himself, and now he feels prepared to start making plans for his faction. Here, there are some tips for you to remember:

-Assign roles: every role is important, and you must choose people carefully. Do not give a miner the title "Captain". Do not give a builder the title "hunter". Do not give a tracer the title "potion brewer". Take your time to see what's better for each of them. Please, notice that roles may change when being under attack or attacking. Farmers and miners may become good bringers. "I need arrows!" Then, a miner teleports to him and gives him what he wants. Or "A LAVA BUCKET, NOW!" and our beloved miner brings a warm lava bucket. "More gunpowder!" And the builder brings us a lot of it. "A raid in our base!" Says the tracer, who's stayed in the base when attacking, since he's terrible at pvp.

-Do not share all your plans when you first think about them: discuss with high rank members, strategists and officers before telling it to other members. Doing this, you will see what does your faction think about your plans and will also see weak points in them, as more brains think more than one.

-Experiments: Make a big experiment room. Test the effect of potions, of the different cannonballs, etc. You will not regret having that information. Do not trust information from people you do not know. They may say "Obsidian can't be broken by cannonballs" when they cannot be broken by stone or tnt cannonballs. Iron cannonballs are lethal for obsidian.

-Training: be sure you train (I like train/s) your members in a particular plan. For example, if you plan to enter in a base, build a wall and tell them to get to the other side without actually breaking it with picks. See who's more successful and then decide.

-If you are a faction member: you are as important as your partners and your leader. Even if you are the farmer, you are important. If one funcion is not done, the faction is not gonna work properly, so do not feel sad if you're not in the plan and continue your role. Your power is useful to the faction, and is even more useful if you are safe in the base rather than assaulting an enemies base.

-Glossary: It's not necessary, but you can assign meanings to words. For example "moths" can be refered to players who're being distracted without realizing. "Moles" can be refered to players who're digging underground to get in your base... however, the words and the meanings can vary a lot, so feel free to choose. (I reccomend to say "lava trap" or similar when enemies are approaching. This may make them to be careful for some seconds, so you have time to do something).

-Information is power: Do not let the enemy know what you know of them. If you know where their base is and you plan to raid it do not say "HAHAHAHA! I FOUND YOUR BASE, AS*****S!" Or they may change their base before you raid it, claim it or whatever. Speaking about plans in public chat is not a good idea, I swear (Unless you are planning something else).

-Appearence is important: if you want the others to think you are not planning a thing, make sure to look as newbiely as possible, look pathetic, look like a crybaby and try to agree with the members of your faction about telling in public chat that you're a useless person and all that stuff. Some wonderful pvp players hide pretty well their abilities using this strategy. You should not try to look more proffessional than you really are, unless you plan to become the target of all the players in the serve.

As soon as you are sure that you and your faction are ready to start planning, tell your leader about it. Or if you are a leader, start planning! And remember: Other players may interfere in the plans you make, so be ready for the unexpected and make B, C, D and E plans, useful alternatives just in case something happens.