Oh, are we doing the thing where we suddenly act like long-settled features of the server are up for a vote again? That's my favorite game!
Leave the warps alone.
There's nothing saying we can't change our minds about features of the server though, or even discuss them.
Because I have the urge to type things out today, let me write down some feelings about a huge part of why I'd like to see the warps go away on Neocraft...
Whenever I play Minecraft in SSP, or single player, I'm always amazed at how different the game is compared to playing on Neocraft. If I want to trek south across three biomes to a jungle, well I have to go out my door and actually walk there. And if I want to take multiple trips then I can either build a road to guide me along, or make a minecart network, or link nether portals, but no matter how I do it I have to actually go there. I don't have any teleport commands or warps to go back and forth. The interesting part is that the journey there is almost always more fun than actually being there. I find all manners of caves along the way, pits going deep underground, maybe an awesome mountain that is just begging to be built on top of. I'll pass a field full of pigs followed by ponds full of chickens swimming away. I'm out and about, actually playing IN the game.
And once I have that road built that spans four biomes I always end up building little bases along the way as shelters from the night. Farms for food have become so important now that I sprint everywhere to get there faster. I chug potions of speed like a coke addict. But all of this travel gives the rest of the game so much purpose. I have a netherwart farm to feed my potion addiction. I have farms at all of my bases because you never know when you will find yourself out of food from all of the sprinting. I have huge mine complexes to dig up the iron I need for my minecarts. Finding an abandoned mine is a huzzah moment simply for the free tracks and fencing.
Actually
having to travel puts the survival and exploration into the game and makes it far more interesting.
On Neocraft, if I want to get from my fortress to Dome City, I simply type /warp domecity and I'm instantly there. No journey, no using rails, no seeing what Spuit built along the road. No seeing the art museum, or the high rise apartments, or the huge monster bones jutting out of the ground, I simply teleport right past all of that, and if I hadn't ever walked the path to see those things I wouldn't even know they were there at all. Food farms lose most of their meaning when you can travel instantly with a few keystrokes. Minecart tracks go neglected. Nether portals are hardly used. Farms go unharvested. People don't travel anywhere over the land, they simply zip around like omniscient wizards ignoring the land or the threats (or wonders) that inhabit them.
Neocraft is a survival server but I rarely feel like it is one. I personally hardly ever use the warps, I prefer to run around the land and see things. I've built roads across the biomes, I've built a nether portal network connecting places, and I've built structures and oddities along those paths, but in my travels across them I hardly ever come across anyone else because everyone simply teleports everywhere. It's a multiplayer server that sometimes feels very isolated and alone. There are few roads and fewer bridges, and if you have built something that doesn't have a /warp associated with it then chances are that very few players have actually ever even seen it.
This weekend we had the server updated but the warps aren't working, so people were using the roads, they were sailing in boats, they were riding the minecarts, and they were using the nether network, and this past weekend was the most fun I've had on the server in a long time. People were noticing things they hadn't seen before, they were building new portals and roads, and giving directions to others and talking about landmarks and planning to build more stuff along their travels, and it was an atmosphere that I rarely see on the server anymore. Reminded me a bit of the old Neocraft back when we started out, before we had more than like one or two warps.
My personal feeling is that having a system of travel like the /warps takes a huge part of the survival and exploration game out of the game, and actually hurts the community feeling more than it helps.
Whew, there, I feel better having gotten that out of my system. Now I can get back to work...