Photon SMP Server

Overview
The Photon SMP is a series of three servers hosted under the Photon banner, which all encompass faction elements. The servers are minimalist survival multiplayer with minimal (unofficial) factions.

The "Photon SMP" (November 27th, 2020 - February 20th, 2021)
The server was created on November 27th, 2020 and had an initial livestream of Photon viewers. It existed as a regular SMP server.

First SMP Guild Information: SMP Guilds

The Moderators were Beny (moderator), CatosOtherStuff (moderator), Koovaek (moderator), Darkraiomega5 (moderator), C_Alamo (administrator), and Photon (owner).

The SMP initially started with a large influx of players. The SMP suffered from major TPS issues initally on the server host, MCProHosting. Photon moved to PebbleHost shortly after, though with similar results.

The server was supported by the donators, which were separated into Spark ($5), Orb ($8), and "Why?" ($20). This helped with funding the server, though it was still in negative cashflow. Photon eventually moved to a cheaper and more powerful host, Bloom.

The Photon SMP Tournament happened and players began to progress quickly. Darkraiomega, a player and future admin, became the richest person on the server, gathering 64 Netherite Blocks. AKurbyBurby won the tournament, which earned him the Dragon Egg.

Though the server was generally popular, large wealth inequalities and eventual boredom struck the server. The Industrial Revolution had begun and the rich had become the tycoons. New player interest was fairly non-existent, plus a incomprehensible legal code named the Photonic Codex made the rules convoluted and boring to read.

The server peaked in December and January with player support gradually decreasing into February. People had gotten bored. In a community forum led by Beny and Alamo on February 20th, the decision was made to reset and modernize the Photon SMP. With that, the first SMP was over and the route was paved for the second SMP.

The Photon CMP
The CMP (Creative Multiplayer) server was a very short-lived fork of the Photon SMP. It was intended to let players craft and build whatever they desired on a small world within the Photon SMP. However, players found out that Photon was not good at configuring servers, and many exploits and immense lag forced Photon to shut down the CMP the same day it opened. It was never reopened, and the CMP marks within the discord were erased completely.

Europa - The 2nd (February 20th, 2021 - March 2021)
The convention on February 20th, 2021 voted to reset the SMP. Many, like Malorem and Adventurer32, opted for a full design of the concept.

It was decided to host the server as a factions server on a 1:100 map of Europe. Spawn was built in Venice and players spread throughout the mainland. However, the scale was far too large (SMPEarth was 1:4000) and players were slow at moving around. The End was only opened briefly, restricting access to Elytras.

The most powerful factions on the server were generally unable to seize full control, as the amount of land to control was far too large. The largest faction by power, Germany, only controlled a small portion of land within Venetia not far from spawn, not even within any proper borders of any German nation (excluding the Holy Roman Empire or German-occupied Northern Italy). The largest faction by land, Prussia, controlled only small sections of Berlin and Konigsberg, far too small to exercise any dominant control.

The playerbase gradually lost interest until the decision to destroy the Photon SMP was made. Photon announced the end of the Photon SMP and the Bloom server he rented was cancelled.

This server is censored by Alamo.

Photon SMP v3 by Phantom & yosteric (July 8th, 2021 - August 2021)
The concept was revived by a Pheton member named Phantom, who had general interest in the dying days of the previous two servers. A good friend of his called yosteric5 lent his server to Phantom for the time, allowing the project to start.

SMP Guild Information: 3rd SMP Guilds

Yosteric had a spare server lying around that was used to host wynncon, which could be used to host the server in the downtime. Yosteric donated the server for the time being, which allowed the server to proceed.

A short v3 beta was ran on the 7th, showing the server worked. It contained huge amounts of admin abuse by Terrasteel and ended in around 3 hours.

The official server was announced and started on the 8th of July. The first wither was killed by Christifire and the dragon by AKurbyBurby, though the egg was withheld by Phantom.

Two major guilds emerged, 12 gaming led by former great AKurbyBurby, and the Crusaders, led by the admins Phantom and Terrasteel. Despite initially remaining peaceful, a conflict erupted after an attempted (failed) assassination of Gang member _Calamitas by Terrasteel. The conflict escalated after the base of the Gang was blown up with a Wither, leading to the death of the villagers at said base.

Without promotion by Photon, this server suffered the same issues are the second, and the plug was pulled by yosteric5 in a few weeks.

Photon SMP v4 (December 26th, 2021 - Present)
Photon initially wanted to make the fourth SMP as an experiment called 1024C or 1024 3, which involved a world that was 1024x1024x1024 blocks, taking advantage of Minecraft 1.18's increased world height. This idea was scrapped after it was determined to be too laggy after testing on his computer.

This server was bought on the 26th and has not yet been released as of the 28th of December. It is a regular world.

The server was released on December 29.