History of the Badlands

To date, the Badlands has been through a total of four generations or phases. The complete history of the Badlands is chronicaled in game, in the form of a Badlands History Museum. The museum showcases many artifacts described throughout this wiki, and allows players to experience some of our history first hand.

Original Badlands: The Early Days (June 2011, MC Version 1.6)
The Original Badlands era began with the creation of the server in mid June of 2011. AndyFox42 and Docithe, becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor leadership of the Badmin who ran the server they had played on previously, decided to start up a community of their own. They were accompanied by several players from that server, and quickly attracted several new faces as well.



The Original Badlands server was hosted by an extremely low budget server host. At the time neither Andy nor Doc could host a server due to lack of adequate internet speed availability at either of their homes. Since neither of them knew if their server would be popular or if they would even play on it much themselves, they went with the cheapest option. They also knew very little about configuring plugins or running a server, and weren't sure if it was something they would even be able to do. The original incarnation of the Badlands server cost $19.99 per month, could hold 12 players (though it bogged down a bit with 12 people on at once as they would later learn) and ran Minecraft version 1.6. Server upgrades were purchasesd slowly but surely during this period, and it quickly became apparent that the server had outgrown the host.

 After considering various names, Andy decided to call the server "The Badlands." It is believed that this decision was motivated by the fact that he had just started watching Star Trek: Voyager and, in the pilot, the protagonists chase a group of terrorists into a dangerous area of space known as the Badlands. The other name that was considered was Smashcraft, with which everybody is surely happy to have avoided being stuck.

Prominent figures during this era besides Andy and Doc included SafetyMoose (Now Banned), Friendcool99 (Now Banned) , RocketPSI , pwnage10 (Now Banned) , CrayzGurl , GiovanniZeko , feckyeslife , Bill_P , Krakenarrior , liberatus20 , nnccmm , Eldergroan , Gundamned100 , Juan7731 , and deaddog909. Halfway through this period liberatus20 (today known as Cordestian ) was chosen to become the first Administrator of the Badlands (even though Andy and Doc carried the Admin title in-game, they were technically Owners and not actually Admins. Much later, an Owner  rank would be added.)

Old Badlands: The Rapid Growth Period (September 2011, MC Version 1.8)
As time went on, the Badlands continued to grow and thrive. The server migrated to a better host to handle the increasing number of players and reduce lag. As the number of players jumped from around 60 to over 300, it became apparent that another Admin would be needed. The decision was made to promote Lorxase, making him the second person to ever be awarded this rank. Like Cordestian, he was chosen due to his exemplary performance of Moderator duties, high level of activity, strong reputation for helping others, and overall positive attitude.

With the release of MC version 1.8, the Badlands moved to a new map. Version 1.8 introduced new features such as changes to biomes which could not be fully appreciated without generating a new map. After some deliberation, the decision was made to do ahead with the change. With the implementation of this new map came the development of Spawn City.



Spawn City was an ultra modern city built around the new spawn building. Most of the buildings were skyscrapers, and there was a network of realistic streets connecting them together. The majority of the buildings and roadways featured at Spawn City were copied and pasted from Minehattan, a town on the Original Badlands that had been created under the supervision of 37Stitches. About 50% of the city of Minehattan was used to create Spawn City. The other half was never placed back on the server following the move. By this point, 37Stitches had lost interest in developing large buildings and began to focus more on raiding and PVP which had just become legal, thus Minehattan was never fully recreated in the Old Badlands.

Realizing that this was a time of change, Andy, Doc, and the Admins implemented several other changes on the server to coincide with the map change. The most notable change during this era was a move from "survival" gameplay to "semi-hardcore/pvp." this meant that players were now allowed to PVP even if the victim was an unwilling participant. Raiding was also allowed, though players had the option of locking their doors and chests for a fee to prevent falling victim to such things. Towns and settlements were declared safe zones, meaning that PVP and raiding were not allowed within their borders. The wilderness however, referred to as "The Badlands" was a no-man's land where an attacker could be lurking at any moment. In general this was well received, and players were largely content with the server experience during this era.

New Badlands: The Merger Era (November 2011, MC Version 1.0.0)
It was mid-November of 2011 when AndyFox42 and Docithe began talking to Iaccidentally. Iaccidentally had also been an Admin under the Badmin, before the Badlands server was created. He too had become frustrated with her behavior and had started his own server. His server was known as the Shark Tank, and it was also populated primarily by players that had left the Badmin's server with him. Recognizing these similarities, the three began to talk and it wasn't long before they were discussing merging the two servers into one.



Initially, both servers' maps were retained on the newly merged server. The server's name and branding remained "Minecraft Badlands." After a few weeks it became obvious that the only way to get both groups of people to merge into one would be to create a new map and have everybody start over together. It was this line of thinking that caused the Badlands to go through its biggest change since its creation. After extensive discussion and deliberation, the decision was made to make the New Badlands a muli-world server. Every type of gameplay would be offered, including hardcore PVP, traditional SMP, freebuild, Nether, and The End. Each world was given a name fitting with the "-lands" theme (The Badlands, The Heartlands, The Highlands, The Netherlands, and The End for which nobody could come up with a -lands name.) By configuring the server in this manner, the Badlands was able to offer every single type of multiplayer gameplay meaning players would no longer have to change servers when they felt like playing a different style. 

By January, MCBadlands.com had 650 registered members, about 425 of which were listed as "active." The server population was higher than ever before. The staff lineup was modified to include two plugin developers (Iaccidentally and Direct1221, who was later replaced by Zarubinator) as well as some additional staff members. All of the Shark Tank staff members such as rainbowZeppelin, TJK99 , Ebil_Apple , and tazyload, retained their ranks in the merger.

Unfortunately, the merger was not to last. After a few months, conflicts arose between Iaccidentally and the two original Badlands Owners, Andy and Doc. There were several issues, but the biggest problem was that the developers never really developed much of anything. When discussions were being held prior to the merger, Andy and Doc  were assured that custom plugins would be written for the server, which would enhance the gameplay experience. Throughout the nearly 6 months that the merger was in place, no original plugins were ever created. In fact, Andy found himself offering to pay outside plugin developers to write custom plugins, since the in-house dev team really did nothing.

The developers' failure to develop anything, coupled with several personality conflicts, led Andy and Doc  to rally the Badlands staff (who were equally dissatisfied with the outcome of the merger) and quietly prepare to excommunicate Iaccidentally  from the staff. Preparation began in March, with several staff helping to construct a new website and select plugins for the new server. Several staff donated the funds needed to purchase the new dedicated server, which would allow the Badlands to break free of the merger. In May of 2012 the Badlands maps and databases were covertly ported over from the old server to the newly purchased one, and the Neo Badlands era began without a developer in sight.

Neo Badlands Era (May 2012, MC Version 1.2.5)
Emerging from a server-host change and a merger gone sour, the Badlands embarked on a new path in May of 2012. The website was hosted on the Enjin network by popular demand, since most players had found the previous merger-era website rather bland and uninspired. A dedicated server was purchased from Beastnode, the hosting company that had run the Badlands during the Old Badlands era.

With the removal of the developer rank, Andy  and Doc  resumed their duties as plugin installers, bug fixers, and configuration gurus. Realizing that this was a big job, they began to share these tasks with the Admins who were more than happy to step up and help.

There were other changes to the lineup as well. The Moderator rank was reverted back to Officer, the name by which it had been known in the Original and Old Badlands. The scope of Elite Builders was expanded, and the staff began to seek their expertise in planning and constructing official server buildings. The Senior Citizen rank was added and awarded to all players that had joined the Badlands during the Original Badlands era. Several new staff members joined the team, and brought their own unique style of leadership with them.

Many new features were added to the Neo Badlands. Spout, a third party development project that allowed for the addition of custom items and menus into Minecraft, was once again added to the Badlands. During the previous era, Spout had been removed from the server by the developers, who insisted it "didn't work." It was later determined that they were simply trying to prevent its use on the server because the Essentials plugin development team, with which the developers were closely associated, were not fans of the Spout project. With the removal of the individuals blocking its installation, Spout made a triumphant return and over 100 custom items were added to the server. The Badlands became a proud donating supporter of the Spout project.

During the Neo Badlands era it became customary for the Owners to hold "wool ceremonies" when promoting a player. These large gatherings were typically held at spawn, attended by many players, and included the awarding of a ceremonial colored wool block which matched the rank color associated with the rank being given. Typically, this presentation was followed by a party during which items such as cookies or cakes were given out to all in attendance.