Survival 5

Survival 5
Survival 4Survival 6
Clockwise from top: The four world spawn points; Corgi, Labrador, Shepherd, and Akita
Server World
Type	Survival Multiplayer
Opened	18th March, 2022
Version(s)	Minecraft 1.18.2 — 1.19.4

"Currently the plan is to bring Sur4 to a close on Mar. 14th. Then launch Sur5 on Mar 18th!"  Scooberson, announcing Survival 5

Survival 5 was the fifth iteration of Survival Multiplayer worlds on the Dogcraft Server. It succeeded Survival 4 and brought with it the update to Minecraft 1.18: Caves & Cliffs: Part II. Launched on March 18, 2022, the season spanned four parallel worlds (an increase of two from the previous season) — Shepherd, Akita, Labrador and Corgi. A few months into the season, the server economy was reset and new systems were put in place for Dogcraft Dollars and Player Homes; a fifth Mall world launched alongside this.

Although the sheer number of worlds split the player-base and induced a lower player count than previous seasons, Cyberdogs rose to the challenge and by its end in late-2023 the season was ultimately defined by builds like the urban metropolis of Leon, the minigame district Puppy Park, and the unprecedented development of coordinated infrastructure projects—both old and new—in the form of the Survival Railway Network, Community Rail Network, Road & Horse Network, Connected Seas Coalition, and others.

History & Development

See also: Timeline

Announcement & Release

"Cyberdogs, Our two worlds, the era of Sur4 has come to a close. Husky and Beagle are no more."  Scooberson

On the 3^rd of January, 2022, it was announced by Headmod  Scooberson that the Dogcraft Server would be updating and that after that Survival 4 would soon be ending to make way for a Survival 5. Some details about the new world were revealed, such as the continuation of two worlds (later changed to four), a total reset of claim blocks (which would be re-earned), purchases and DCD balances, a mall world reset. It was also announced that Survival 5 would update to Minecraft 1.18.1 and later would update to 1.18.2.

A further announcement on the 1^st of March revealed further details. The Survival 4 worlds were to be taken down on the 14^th of March, and Survival 5 would be launchon the 18^th of March. The number of worlds was to be increased to four; named Corgi, Labrador, Shepherd and Akita after the results of a community poll. It was also announced that the server's economy systems (currency, homes, mall) were undergoing a major reconstruction at Rendog's request, and that they would not be ready or present for the beginning of the Survival 5 worlds.

Economy Rework

Survival 5's mall, which was opened alongside a reworking of the economy.

"The much-anticipated Dogcraft Economy 3.0 update is just about to go live and we are excited to share with you what’s coming in this update to the server!"  bBrain

Survival 5 launched without the presence of Dogcraft mainstays such as Dogcraft Dollars (DCD) and multiple homes system. Homes could be set by sleeping in a bed and using /home to return via teleport, one per each of the four worlds, a significant departure from the default setting of Survival 4 or earlier 'diamond home' item which provided infinite homes. As per previous worlds which launched without a Mall, a player-run alternative was set-up and become popular quickly. This player-run mall, MOTTO, used diamonds as a form of currency in the absence of DCD.

Three months after the launch of Survival 5, in June 2022, the economy was rebooted. Dogcraft Dollars made a return, but were distributed using a new, more linear formula which is tied to ReNDoG's patreon pledge in order to lower their supply and therefore increase their value: Hourly boost × (your time played in that hour / the total time played on the world for that hour).

Homes were once again available in theoretically infinite amounts, but now at an exponentially increasing cost in DCD for each new one set, so that escaping the vanilla survival movements constraints were a reward for accumulating DCD rather than a baseline feature: Private home cost = 25 * 2^(home count). Public homes also returned, now becoming more expensive for each other public home globally: Public home cost = 2000 * (global public home count).

Closure

"Due to increasing International safety, legal and logistical concerns, I have decided that from next Season onwards, Dogcraft.net will be open to 18+ year old players only."  Renthedog

On July 14, 2023, in a message to Cyberdogs by ReNDoG it was announced that for the next iteration of the server, a new minimum age restriction of 18+ would be introduced for the Dogcraft Server due to "increasing international safety and logistical concerns," indicating that the season was to begin to draw to a close. In a follow-up announcement on September 1, 2023,  Princess223 announced that Survival 5 would close "sometime between October 1 - 15" to make way for Survival 6 and the rule change, also revealing a number of details about the upcoming season, including the decrease back down to two parallel worlds. The following day—on September 2, 2023—permission to create World Downloads of Survival 5 was granted and a tutorial video and Dogcraft Wiki guide was released to the public. The Wiki also began accepting download submissions and began an end-of-world event on September 13.

Server Events

Main Article: Events on Survival 5

Server Events, both player-run and those organized by the Dogcraft Creative Team were held throughout the season. The Cyberdog News Network made a revival, providing rolling coverage of events once again starting at the beginning of 2023, and the establishment of a Media Team within Staff meant the Dogcraft social media channels saw use once again to help promote various festivities.

Server-organized events in 2022 included the Survival 5 End Openings in April; the Polar Palooza and a ReNDoG Base Tour Contest in August; the Halloween Harvest Fest Fair in October; and Christmas in December. 2023 events included Valentine's Day in February, St. Patrick's Day 2023 was celebrated in March, alongside the 1-year anniversary of the world with an Anniversary Album Contest; and an area was built for Easter 2023 in April—which featured a Build Battle judged by ReNDoG. During the late Spring and Summer of 2023, the Throwback Worlds were introduced to let Cyberdogs revisit past seasons; a number of Throwback Tours were held to celebrate.

Community-organized events were more numerous in Survival 5 than in previous seasons. Build sessions for public works projects became popular, and were held on a near-weekly schedule. New Years 2022 was held in Leon as a community-first initiative instead of being organized by the events team as in previous years; a first for the server. Other events included Capture-The-Flag (also in Leon), Food Wars, the Transport Triathlon, and a plethora of gatherings for station and RHN shelter openings.

Builds & Projects

Though players were separated across a number of worlds, Dogcraft's long-lasting multi-faceted server culture endured, and the four worlds included a number of settlements, group bases, and large-scale transport infrastructure projects that were already landmarks of previous Survival worlds.

Settlements

Leon Central Station in the community-built metropolis of Leon

See also: List of Settlements

The City of Leon, a metropolis founded by  ashapink,  eybwam,  strawberrysham, and  zacattack2097 on the launch of Survival 5 became commonly regarded as the de-facto "capital city" of the season thanks to its impressive scale, quality of builds, and meticulously planned layout. Leon would play host to a number of server events, including New Years 2022 and a Capture The Flag event. It also served as the headquarters and backdrop of the CDNN.

Other settlements on Survival 5 included Caelon, the spiritual successor to Gaia on Survival 5; and the Allay Grove built by  FaeryElise,  Genesis1224, and  PhoenickRoxs.

Infrastructure

Infographic outlining transport networks that are connected to a Spawn in Survival 5 as of November '22

Player-run transport networks were once again a major part of the Survival 5 landscape, and varied across all four worlds.

The established Survival Railway Network (SRN) was joined by the newly formed Community Rail Network at the launch of Survival 5, created to ease the burden upon having just a single project be responsible for public railways across so many worlds. The establishment of the CRN, however, started a season-long breakdown in communication between server and SRN leadership, partially confounded by the transition of both server and project leaderships and successive restructurings of both the SRN and Dogcraft Creative Team (DCT).

The Nether Transport Network also returned, serving the nether dimensions of all four worlds, while the Connected Seas Coalition returned to provide immersive boat transport infrastructure between the many seas of the worlds. The number of different projects led to the emergence of several transport hubs, combining multiple modes of transport.

Group Projects

The Fire Forge, by the Marsh Mechanics

The Marsh Mechanics — led by  TrueAxo and  CanadianSteampk further grew as a well-known name on the server following their establishment in Survival 4, and the group built a significant number of bases and led a range of projects from early on in the season through the dog days in early-mid 2023. Their builds, across all four worlds, included their Headquarters on Corgi, The Fire Forge built underground in Akita, Coral Sand Heights in Labrador, and the Windswept Kingdoms in Shepherd.

MOTTO—short for the Mob or Thing Trade Organization—was established early on into the world as a diamond-backed shopping district, serving as alternative to the official mall in a similar manner to Tickles Trade Hall or the Stone Exchange in past worlds. The lack of the historically server-backed Dogcraft Dollars in the launch window of the season caused an informal economy to develop, furthering demand for MOTTO; by the time the proper mall was introduced, the area had become rather "city-like" itself.

Puppy Park, an area for minigames established on Corgi by  H_Di_Chemici,  XPModder, and  Xambaka features twelve complete games and opened officially in late 2023, accessible by its own CRN Station. Other, established player circles such as the group builders of the Home Tree on Survival 3 and Emerald City on Survival 4 worked on projects in a more private manner, while the Staff Team also collaborated on an area for staff located near the headquarters of the DCT, which includes meeting facilities, HeadMod offices for the different branches of staff, and moderator roster statuettes.

Reception

Groups such as the Marsh Mechanics consolidated as a team to enable building a diverse array of builds across all four worlds

"Because we are expecting a large number of people, we've decided to expand from 2 worlds... to 4!"  Scooberson

The number of worlds available during the season—four—had a significant, protracted impact on the server community during the lifecycle of Survival 5. While Survival 4's split to two worlds was brought about by necessity due to poor single-server performance during the launch window (partially induced by high player demand during the COVID-19 Pandemic), the addition of two more worlds for the fifth season was carried out to allow for expanding the scope and capacity of the server in anticipation of increased promotion by ReNDoG.

Although initial reaction to the addition of further worlds was fairly muted in comparison to the more pronounced criticisms the initial Survival 4 split faced, popular opinion by the end of Survival 5 among various group base and project circles was that the extra worlds considerably divided the community, stretched public works projects thin, increased tensions among players, and led to an overall less-developed and more dilute demography. A lack of promotion by ReNDoG and the server's launch at the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic as players began to return to their daily routines led to a low player count in the latter months of the season, particularly on weekdays, which only served to exacerbate the white elephant of having four worlds.

The Nether Hub on Labrador, built and maintained by the Nether Transport Network.

While the number of worlds drew criticism from portions of the player-base, other changes to the server were received more warmly. The economy system's scaling home/public home pricing system helped promote the use and development of public infrastructure, and concerted efforts to improve the organisation of public community projects culminated in the merger of the .Path Network Group and Road and Horse Network, who set about building a vast number of shelters to promote building across all four worlds. The Nether Transport Network scaled to the challenge of four worlds, building four complete Nether ice-boat systems, while a return of the Cyberdog News Network, spearheaded by  Txp_ and  Montenator led to the formation of a dedicated media unit in the Staff Team, helping consolidate a sense of community in spite of the increased digital barriers of division.