These are the general suggestions I have currently heard of which have a higher chance of keeping the server active for a while.
Note: For Factions I have already most of it planned out, that is why Factions will have much more details than the rest, but that doesn't mean it should instantly be the chosen one, everyone has their own opinion.
Factions:
So, we already knew that the current setup was pretty bad. But from the last thread I made asking your opinions, I have gathered the following which will be done when and if Factions gets chosen:
- Reset Everyone's money.
- Creating Factions will cost money. (First thought $500)
- Either remove, or make Jobs not give money (So currently, no way to earn money after this).
- Claiming an area will also cost money. (First thought $50, + for every extra area/chunk it would cost 70% more)
- Claiming areas not connected to your first area will cost extra. (First thought $100 + 70% extra per chunk)
- Asking to get your Faction peaceful would also cost money. (So not everyone will be friendly, no idea on price)
- For every minute you would gain 1$. (This is the only $ income.) This means that you can create a faction after about 8 hours, BUT the reason for having a Faction is to group up, so basically to achieve this, you could split the cost. Lets say you have 8 people, then it would only take 1 hour to get yourself a faction. Teamwork
- Players get to have their own shops (Rule included: It has to look like a shop, not just a simply sign in the middle of nowhere. Also a way to get income).
- Vault room. Everyone gets the ability to buy a Vault room, a simply room where a chest is protected for them. Only the person who bought the room has access to that chest.
- New rule: All constructions (bases etc) will have to be above ground, OR a good notice-able entrance above ground leading downwards. (This to stimulate PvP, and get rid of hidden bases which makes PvP impossible)
- Make Lava flow again. (But only supporters can place lava. So if you aren't a supporter, you can always as one to help you placing it. This to prevent grief.)
- Set TNT heal to 30 seconds instead of 10s, this so raiding is way better.
- Possibly make newcomers immune to PvP (and cannot PvP themselves) for the first hour or so. (This to help newcomers stay)
- Killing players/mobs will have a TINY chance of dropping their heads, so you can use them as blocks to place. (Trophies)
And some other possible changes, everything listed above is a start.
Feed The Beast - MindCrack:
From what I have seen, this is a little bit like Tekkit, it uses a different launcher and includes a lot of different big mods.
The huge different between Tekkit and MindCrack is that there is no EMC (the energy mod which gives you all the items for barely any efford) AND it also has a lot of mods which makes the gameplay a lot longer and fun.
I cannot give much more opinion on this, because I have only played this for the sole purpose of programming in the ComputerCraft mod which is included in it (Not really interested in anything else myself), but a couple of other SG members have played it too and told me it was worth it.
Make sure to see what it all includes, it really has a lot of interesting mods in it:
You can find more about FTB here: Feed The Beast Wiki
And specifically for MindCrack here: MindCrack Pack - Feed The Beast Wiki
Voltz:
Note: This Voltz mod will mean explosive grief will be on, otherwise the whole idea of missiles will be useless, which is basically the whole mod.
Sorry Crazy Swede, but the desert server you suggested is indeed fun, but would only last until you find enough resources to survive, after that it would simply turn dead, which is too fast. :/