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Public Guide for Starting and Maintaining a successful town

Written by The_Squirrelman

Introduction

The main player-based goal in towny can mean many things. It can mean building and expanding your own town in solitary fashion, or with one or two friends. It can mean joining a town, becoming an assistant, and successfully helping administer and expand the town. It can mean being a homeless wanderer until you have the necessary funds to start your own town, for people to join, and for the town to grow. I’m here today to show you how to go through with the last option, the opening, running, and maintenance of a successful town.

Experience

You may be asking, The_Squirrelman, what makes you experienced in managing towns? You’re in a town with two people, and there are obviously much larger towns out there. Why should I listen to you? Before I went into private towns, I’ve owned one town, and co owned another. The first town I owned had about 45 residents, not the best, but an admirable number at the time. The second town I co-owned with a good friend of mine, CaptaineAli. This town was large in wealth, with up to 400 million in items, bank money, and resident money. We kept about twenty residents, and the town was prosperous, one of the wealthiest towns on the server. With proper management, new ideas, extra time on our hands, and hard work, our massive town contained a 10 stack grinder, hundreds of plots, and everything one could ask for in a town. From three stables totalled to more than one hundred horses, large quartz mansions, villager spawners, passive mob grinders, potion machines, you name it we had it. In my eyes, that is the towny owner’s dream, and I hope I can help aspiring town owners to that place one day.

What is a town, and what does it need?

Well yes, as a mayor, you should know the proper commands to run a town, and what it really is. A public town is really what you define it to be. The most common kind of town is a player living space town, where town residents live in the town, build houses, use town facilities, and keep valuables at their towns.

Town commands a mayor should know:

./t new (TownName) - Creates the town with the specified town name, at the location you’re standing.

./t - Allows you to see your town’s information, such as residents, bank value, taxes, nation, coordinates, etc.

./t deposit (Amount) - Allows you to deposit money into your town bank. Money in the bank will pay upkeep.

./t withdraw (Amount) - Allows you to withdraw money from the bank.

./t add (IGN) - Adds a player to your town.

./t kick (IGN) - Removes a player from your town.

./t claim - Claims Unowned plots for the town. Must be claimed next to town plots.

./plot claim - Claims a plot for oneself

./plot set embassy - The plot becomes an embassy, a plot that can be claimed and owned by non - residents.

./plot set shop - Sets the plot to a shop plot, allowing plot owners to set up chests shop

./plot set arena - Plot becomes PVP, and has an Arena tag.

./plot set reset - Sets the plot to an original, Unowned, unbuyable state.

./t set homeblock - Sets the town spawn to current location.

./plot forsale (Price) - Puts plot for sale at the set price, allows town residents to buy plots.

./plot notforsale - Makes plot unclaimable by residents.

./t set tax (Amount) - Sets a daily tax for town residents. This tax is auto paid every 24 irl hours.

./t toggle public - Toggles whether or not non town residents can teleport to the town, or view coords.

./t toggle fire - Toggles whether or not firespread is on in the town.

./t toggle mobs - Toggles whether or not mob spawns are on in this town.

./t toggle explosions - Toggles whether explosions are on this town.

./plot toggle fire - Toggles firespread on an individual plot.

./plot toggle mobs - Toggles mobs on an individual plot. Great for grinders and livestock.

./plot toggle explosions - Toggles explosions on a single plot.

./t set name (Name) - Allows you to change town name at any time.

./t rank add (Name) Assistant/VIP - Adds specified resident to rank of Assistant or VIP.

For a more specific guide on towny perms, feel free to see the following link: http://meepcraft.com/threads/theeditsons-guide-to-towny-perms.690/

PHASE 1: Getting Started.

First, you need to earn a good sum of money. Parkour, ./jobs, and selling enchanted items, parkour, and for those good at pvp, acquiring and selling player heads are all good ways to make good sums of money. A presonal recommendation for amount of money that should be made before starting is 75k. Enlisting a partner who can be a co-mayor will ease this process along the way, both in money making, building, and running the town.

Pick a guy/gal you trust. There has to be trust, there has to be attentiveness, and there has to be ability to cooperate well. If you guys are a great cohesive team, your town’s success chances are likely to be multiplied.

Once you and (hopefully a partner) have acquired a good sum of money, make the town. Have a vision for it while you look for location, so that you know when you find the right location. Take your time, as moving a town is both expensive and impractical. Also make sure that nearby regions of your town are unoccupied, so that you have plenty of room for privacy and expansion. Make sure it’s a scenic locale as well, so that border residents at least have something pleasing to look at.

Go to your location, have the to be mayor ./t new name, then IMMEDIATELY toggle the town to private, using ./t toggle public. Then, invite your to be co-mayor/assistant, add them to the appropriate rank, and get ready to work.

PHASE 2: Building Up.

Now you’ve got your perfect locale, your spot, and you’re ready to go! What now? Well to start, you want to take care of your upkeep. Find the biggest nation you can, and join it. It’ll give you a plot bonus, allowing you to have more plots without seriously affecting your upkeep. Now, it’s time to construct.

Though it may be tempting, DO NOT CONSTRUCT YOUR SPAWN FIRST. Your money has just begun, and unless you’re a donator, or you have incredibly rich and generous friends, you need to build utility buildings. Grinders, farms, generators, auto-brewers, stables, and other machinery that produce machinery are the kinds of builds you need. Begin producing merchandise, selling it, creating business contacts, and finding regular customers. A suggested money goal is 200-300k, before you start preparing to make your town public.

First, you want to build your spawn. Make it suitable to your needs. If you’re looking for cost efficient but nice looking, consider some one or four plot tower drop ideas. If you’re thinking big, you might consider hiring a builder. When doing so, always ask to see previous builds, and if needed, ask a staff member to check that this building was actually built by your possible builder. Unless you have a specific design in mind, recommendations for larger and more pretty towns spawns are 3 by 3, 5 by 5. If you’re going extremely large building, go ahead, but make sure it looks nice. Square buildings are the best, due to the fact that the rest of the town’s planning is more organized, allowing one to divide their town into four sections, with main plotwide roads going out north, south, east, and west.

When you’re done with the spawn, begin planning residential areas, town staff areas, utility areas, and others. Set out the plots, and make sure there’s room for expansion. Make the main roads one plot wide, so they can actually look nice, but otherwise, just put a border of your choice between residential plot areas. Leave a good amount of plot areas, and give every player 1- 2 plots to be safe. Also, take some time to discuss with your co town runner(s) the rules, as you will probably be opening soon. Still, always remember to keep making more money.

PHASE 3: Opening

Now, here there are two possible splits/options. You can either open up your town, ./shout advertise your town with a nice message, and invite people one by one, or, you can hold a grand opening. The grand opening would consist of displaying your town’s wealth, builds, or others in a fashion that would make a player actually come, and possible move or stay. However, this method rarely works well and is never cost effective, so I personally suggest the first route, ./shout advertising. It both costs little, and is better for new towny members to see and join. As you add residents, begin making the utility machines look nice, make them easier to use, and overall attempt to add on to them and increase their efficiency. Be sure to enforce upon people looking for towns of your excellence, facilities, and open attitude. Open some shops, using the ./chest plugin, as a small method of income. Be sure to sell grinder or farm access for certain prices. Show possible new residents around the town, inviting as many as you can on a tour. And all in all, be a friendly guy to your townspeople, but be enforcing in terms of your rules, unless change is necessary.

As you continue, make some defining structures, such as towers, or other markers, and open more facilities. Kindly ask your players to make buildings look nicer, and as you add more residents to your town, so should your plot bonus. Keep claiming land, and start making non merchandise producing town areas, such as race tracks, obstacle courses, mob arenas, PVP arenas, and host town events, to increase town popularity, and give the residents some fun. Along with a rules board, once you feel you have enough, add what all your facilities and fun sites on your board. Keep adding residents, accepting any you feel will cooperate with you and can pay taxes. Make sure your taxes are low however, as most new players want a low tax town. When you've got lots of people, town tax will accumulate in larger quantities.

In addition, keep in mind, ALWAYS keep finding ways to make money. Whether it’s selling horses with the stables you’ve made, selling grinder access, or just using the grinder to sell enchanted items, it’s up to you. Just be sure to keep that town bank a lot fuller than it needs to be.

PHASE 4: Maintenence

You now are rising in residents, and people love your facilities. However, how do you make sure your residents stay? A huge starter is hiring assistants for your town. As resident numbers rise, try adding a resident in another time zone who’s responsible to help manage the town. They can help you with many things, such as handling plots, adding residents, and fixing machines.

Now, you're in the process of just holding down what you have. Keep adding new residents, keep adding facilities, and keep hosting new events for your residents' and non residents' fun.

Suggestion List:

Possible Facilities:

-Grinder: Blaze, Zombie, Skeleton

-Passive Mob Farm: Pig, Cow, Sheep, Chicken

-Horse Stables and Breeding Center

-Slot Machine

-Auto Potion Brewers

-Chest Shops

-Pre-built Houses

Possible Fun Buildings:

-Arenas

-Race Tracks for Horses, Boats, Pigs

-Archery Range

-Jousting Lanes

-Horseback Combat Arena

-Afk Machines

Possible Events:

-PVP Tourneys

-Racing Events

-Drop Parties

This is the end of a comprehensive guide for Starting and Maintaining a Successful town. This was written by The_Squirrelman, and last updated 06:16 PM EST, August 15, 2013. If there are any questions or concerns to be voiced, be sure to inform The_Squirrelman, or a Supermod+. Thank you, and the staff hope you found this guide useful and enjoyable.