Hello Campers, and welcome to the first State of the Realm! This will be a recurring post where I’ll go a bit deeper into the current state of things as well as the direction we’re heading with the community and all the surrounding STUFF. The cadence for these posts will ideally be monthly, but in reality will likely be “whenever they happen.”
We’ve got a lot of topics to cover today so let’s just dive right in.
Minecraft
The Java Minecraft server has been live for several weeks now and has been going great! It’s been wonderful to see folks making their space, streaming, building, creating alliances and all that good stuff. As things continue to stabilize both technically and culturally, we’re getting closer to a more broad announcement of the server, marking its formal launch.
There is not a set date yet for the end of the open “beta” period, but it will likely happen within the next month. Primarily we’re getting ready for the logistics of adding more people, and I personally have a couple of in-world additions I’d like to prepare around spawn before opening up to the world.
**Minecraft Wiki Articles**
As we continue to expand the server and build our territories, documentation will help to make sense out of chaos! I want to continue to encourage folks to fill out locations on the Astral Campgrounds Wiki coordinates page, and we encourage folks to create articles articulating parts of the server which they are primarily active in to help give a sense of life, history and lore to the server! Now is a great time to make your own Userpage space on the wiki.
https://wiki.astral.camp/en/handbook/java-server-coordinates
The Astral Campgrounds RPG
If you’ve been playing around with Botany and whatnot, you’re already participating in the very beginnings of a larger project to build a simple, realtime, ongoing RPG into the Campgrounds. This is entirely optional and will remain as such, but stands as an additional way for folks to have fun with the community and participate in something bigger than “just a chat server.”
I am currently in the planning stages for the next major update. The update will bring, among other things:
- Economy overhaul
- Stats, skills and leveling
- Inventory and item improvements
- Equippable gear
- Two new skills (for reference, Botany is the only “skill” currently)
As the RPG is fleshed out further, it will also be setting the stage for Fall of the Suremaker, which is the first major story arc for the RPG itself. Fall of the Suremaker will be a months-long storytelling event which will use the Campgrounds RPG as the vehicle for telling the story, while community participation and collaboration will be key to the story.
Campgrounds RPG Channels
To help foster community engagement around the ongoing RPG stuff, I will be making a new section in Discord specifically for RPG discussion. We currently have a pseudo-official Botany chat as a thread in bulletin-board, which served as an inspiration for this change!
Starting off small, we will simply have two channels: camp-rpg and botany.
There is a strong chance that there will also be camp-rpg-events channel, which will be similar to activity-feed but will specifically contain just the RPG-related events, rather than a mix of RPG events and user-generated content. This is not yet finalized though.
Campfire and The Lodge
The Lodge has been fairly stable since its launch a few months back, but will be getting some updates shortly. Ongoing improvements to the inner workings of Campfire are currently underway, and next up are some Lodge changes.
In addition to making a few improvements to the general look and feel, expect improvements to Embers, user activity feeds and profiles.
Ember Updates
Embers are a Campgrounds-specific way to Post On The Internet™️. Embers can be seen in your activity feed and act like any other place you may write something online, but are primary to the Lodge. If you have your profile set to public via your settings, your Embers can be read by anyone on the web.
Up next for Embers are replies! You will be able to create an Ember “in regards to” any other event in the activity feed. This will allow for simple threads and follow-ups. Additionally, Embers will be able to be regarding any URL on the internet, creating a simple way to “reply” to… anything, really!
The purpose of Embers is to simply give Campers a lightweight way to express themselves via their profiles. Speaking of which…
Profile and Activity Feed Updates
What’s the point of a profile if you can’t customize it? Profiles in the Lodge will be getting a few updates, including custom accent colors, custom link management and better filtering options for your activity feed.
Currently, Lodge profiles show posts and Camp events in a unified feed when you are logged in as a Camper. However, part of the vision for the Lodge is to allow people to have a simple profile page on the web that can aggregate all their STUFF. Currently, if a non-Camper views your profile (when set to public), they only see your posts, not camp activity such as random drops.
In an effort to better separate content and the Campgrounds RPG, activity feeds will be split by “Content” and “Campgrounds”, with the default being “Content”. “Campgrounds” events will only ever be visible to logged-in Camp members. A simple toggle will let you browse everything someone has posted, or just see their history of what they’ve been up to around Camp!
The Lodge will be an ever-improving app for Campers to hang out and unify their Campgrounds goings-ons. Expect continuous improvements, bug fixes and quality of life changes as the weeks go on.
Onboarding Updates
As we continue to grow in size and complexity, we will be updating our new Camper experience to help reduce the shock factor of joining a complicated new Discord sever.
Currently, we have a wonderful culture of welcoming new members manually. This is great, and I don’t wanna lose that. However, it does mean that if nobody is around to welcome a newcomer, they can just be kinda… left there!
To that end, I will be making updates to Campfire to automatically welcome new members and direct them to the Orientation Room channel. Additionally, new members will no longer automatically receive the “Camper” role, and will instead need to confirm that they have read the rules and whatnot in order to receive the role. This will be handled self-serve via a reaction emoji or Campfire command (exact specs TBD).
The Camper role will grant access to the majority of the Campgrounds. Without the role, new joins will be limited to the Welcome Center and Camp HQ sections. Campers will still be encouraged to proactively say “hello” and “welcome” to newcomers, but this one extra step should hopefully streamline onboarding a bit without being too impersonal!
Staff Update
A quick update on the Camp Counselors (the server staff). I’m thrilled to announce that ThatsAsh has joined the Camp Counselors, and will be helping out with the Minecraft server alongside Sylvie and myself!
We are continuing to take a look at the way that our staff and community moderation works, which leads me to the next announcement…
Join the Firewatch!
Are you an Excellent Camper? Have you been around the campgrounds for a while? Do you know the ropes and know how to spot bad vibes from afar? Are you ready to help your fellow Campers and Camp Counselors? Join the Firewatch!
The Orienteer role is becoming the Firewatch. The Firewatch is a volunteer group of tenured Campers who will act as community moderators, keeping an eye on things and helping to make sure that all is well in the Realm.
Anyone is welcome to apply to join the Firewatch with only a couple of simple requirements:
- You must have been an active member of the Campgrounds for 100 consecutive days
- You must not have received any warnings from staff in the past month
Members of the Firewatch will have a unique color to their name, will be displayed separately in the active users list, and will have access to a private channel to interface with Camp Counselors.
The goal here is to help empower dedicated Campgrounds members to help give back to the community and keep things excellent. It takes all of us to be actively participating in making a great space.
To apply to join the Firewatch, use the new /request-access firewatch command. Staff will review your request and grant you the Firewatch role if you meet the requirements. If your request is denied, you will be notified privately with the reason why.
That’s a Lot. Can You Summarize?
Well, fine. I encourage you to read it, but here’s the summary.
- The Minecraft Java server is going well and will open up more broadly in the coming weeks
- The next Astral Campgrounds RPG major update starts development soon
- The Lodge will be getting new profile and Ember improvements
- Clarity in separation between user content and Camp events in Activity Feeds
- Onboarding to the server will be streamlined a bit via Campfire
- ThatsAsh is our newest Camp Counselor
- Orienteers are now the Firewatch, and anyone can apply if they meet the basic requirements
- New chat channels specific to the Campgrounds RPG
Questions? Comments? Confusion? Chat away in this thread.