This is good to hear, so for this hypothetical new world. Here are a few ideas:

-A map thats a bit smaller than the current piratecraft map, because indeed it would be pretty easy to hide things.

-The no live map is perfect, this encourages explorers and mappers to go out in the world and create their own maps and sell maps to other people! It’s perfect.

-Maybe using a plugin remove/ban items, like the vanilla boats. That way people are more likely to use ships they have created, and also because the vanilla boats are faster than the actual ships. idk this could be up to debate.

-Maybe making so there are SOME admin made docks around the world so that people making a trade run that could take a while( like a day or 2) they would dock the ship there at the end of the day, and continue the next day. (Maybe make it so that the ship is either rob-able OR they can lock the ship somehow even though its an admin claim, idk.)
Just some idea I just thought of.

Disclaimer- these are just my ideas/thoughts so no need for sarcasms/insults, but feel free to debate, question, discuss these ideas.

A new world with no map or tp is a good idea but it has pros and cons-
Pros
•Has a more realistic feel (pro for me, con for the ‘splosion’ kiddies)
•Brings meaning to location
•Makes travel and exploration a main theme
•Encourages crews to base/work together

Cons
•Isolation/boredom, how do you find other players, are they friends or foe’s?, are enemies to close/too far?
•Difficulty, its as lot harder, and no one fights already because of pre-determined outcomes and resource cost.

Those accepted, what i would like to see in this case is a world based on more realistic gameplay elements. Without turning it into a kit server i think there should be far more emphasis on play rather than grind. Have up to iron gear only, no diamond or enchants basically (maybe some exceptions) , no ‘super splosion booster marvel comic book’ pots or apples, making the combat more skill not resource based which lowers the bar for entry so players have far less to lose by participating in fights, wars, sieges in larger numbers more frequently. That being said there must also be rewards to balance and encourage building and growth after taking away some grinding elements. Not saying its easy to balance and its certainly experimental, just like the current world, its set the rules and let it go where it may and adjust where required. No guarantees.

A theme to add to above-
• A world based on Sid Meier’s Pirates (one of the greatest all time games) where the world is a map of the Caribbean/world and we use ships to trade/pirate/wage war between nations on each other. Have the historical Towns setup. Trade centers in each (server controlled maybe). NPC governors (maybe) issuing letters of Marque etc. NPC controlled Naval ships hunting down pirate players ships (very difficult to implement but ‘ideas’)

my 2c

I think a non tp world would be great, especially if it encourages people to use move craft to get around.

I’ve also thought a lot about how we can bring ships to life, both with econ based mechanics, but also as an actual primary location where pvp takes place.

So I’ll try to make it as understandable as I can, while at the same time keeping it simple.

The world:
lots of small islands as gods mention.
very few semi lagre one that could maybe have room for 2-3 towns with a decent path system connecting them all.

like real life Caribbean.

The econ:

trade towns spread across the map, ideally 7-8 maybe even more, but it can always start out as a few. They would be pvp protected (entire settlement/port), to simulate that once in harbour, you’re basically safe, because the settlement is protected by a governor of a nation that is not pirate (that governor is not a player, nor is he existent in game). This is not to give anyone power as no players would run this. Its just to ban pvp from civilised places, such as towns and move it to the oceans where it is every man for himself. All trade towns would have kinda the same rules, but certain places buy things at a high rate and sell low. other places have different rates, so to encourage players to transport goods from port to port, making a living out of sailing and trading.

The Piracy:

As no one can kill you on land, they will be forced to build/obtain a ship and hunt you down, if they so wish to kill you or steal your loot.. if this could work the way intended, then we would have created a unique experience for players, to even make a life as a merchant sailing between settlements earning cash to buy things with, oorr make a life as a pirate, hunting these merchants, hijacking their vessels, to either steal the goods and sell it themselves, ransom the ship or make a deal with another captain who wants to buy the ship. Idk if we can make certain ranks and disallow them from entering certain claims? if so, make trade towns no-pirate zones. make maybe 2 or so pirate islands, for pirate rank only, where goods are bought too, but at a much lower rate. This would actually compensate for flaw if i pirate steals loot he hasnt bought himself from a merchant ship, then he cannot just sell it at a regular port to make double the easy bucks.

Idk if we should have islands where players could also claim land, I guess we would have to have that for players to even obtain resources in the first place.

another idea would be to make the new world only focused around trading and looting at sea, but that would really take a lot of work making an entire economic system based around goods sold and bought and ways to obtain wealth. you would not be able to dig for resources, you would have to buy them with money you earn.

Honestly this last one I think might be too much for piratecraft, it would be very cool in my opinion to have a different world like that, but yeah.. Trade towns and more focus on transport of goods and fighting at sea along with regular minecraft would be cool too.

You could just copy over a bunch of towns from the old server onto the new one, put them on smaller islands and then have a team working on setting up the trade economy so its balanced, trial and error of course.

building bases could be restricted to the small islands and then semi larger ones could be admin claimed and have trade towns on them, gradually we can add more and more to give the world more variety.

Don’t allow bases to be built in the air or on water. If it gets too cramped, make more smaller islands or make the world bigger. Honestly I think you should maybe make the new map 1/4 of our current one we have now and see how it goes. . . ..

wu.. nice, i like the idea of a new world

Let me know if my idea could work and if it even sounds interesting to anyone but me. An yes, of course it has bits from others ideas discussed before, but think about it all mixed together.

i like these ideas, and i have a few others myself as well as elaborating on others-

-i am for the no diamond armor, for as much pvp as i do, i think it will make the world have a more piratey and dangerous feel.

-no shulker boxes (as much as i love the damn things, its kind of overpowered in a world like this)

-should we have access to the nether and end? the only things this would eliminate if we didnt have access here would be glowstone, quartz, some brewing ingredients, endstone and chorus (im sure we could find another way to implement this in, like sell it at a trade town or something)

-i agree with the no building bases in the ocean, i dont know how we could implement this, maybe also if someone wanted to live on the seas they would be restricted to a pirate ship.

-slower fire spread. this  could devastate cool looking ships fairly quickly, and i think if we slowed it down it would give a more realistic feel to it and give players the opportunity to save their ships if they get lit on fire.

-Dangers out on the sea! i think there should be certain areas around the map that have spawners at the bottom of the ocean that spawn huge beasts, like squids that attack you (kraken), or guardians that blow up parts of the ship (Callie do your magic XD)

-i dont know if this was obvious before but i highly recomend the island map layout (perhaps a different biome for each one or each “area” of the map?)

-i think the world should only have like a 4k to 5k block diamater of the border, so it will be easier for players to find eachother without the live map. (this could be expanded as others join the server.) Also, this hardcore type aspect may turn away other players, so we may only have like 10-15 players be regulars on there at first.

All the suggestions above are awesome but I was thinking we can add 1.8 pvp so fights don’t take to long and you don’t need large all god crews to kill players quickly which could just run away by the time you get them low. It is also better for minecraft players because people have been fighting like that for years then Mojang changes it and screws us all over. I think this might get hate lol. (This could be on the new server or on both servers idk)

I love Bislo’s idea of a world based around the dynamic between merchants and pirates, and I have some ideas on how to make that work.

If we want something different enough to contrast with the main server, how about a world which is set up as a trade-centric survival/plots server?

The idea is that the world would be admin claimed, with the ability for players to purchase pre-designated plots of land on which to build houses and personal ports.   Most items will generally be obtained from server-shops, player-trades, and PvP.  In addition, many items are only obtainable from certain ports, which players will need to travel to via ship to obtain.

Here’s an example scenario:

Players begin their journey in the new world penniless, in one of the large port towns.  Their ultimate goal is to become a successful merchant.  They can start their career by delivering cheap goods on foot between different parts of the town/city.  They must be wary of pirates, who might attack the town at any moment.

Players quickly save up enough to purchase their first dhow, and can now begin trading more expensive goods between ports.  They’ll need to rent dock space while they bring their goods to market, or risk their precious cargo being plundered as they shuttle their inventory to the shops.  Despite the lack of a dynamic-map, most of the seasoned pirates have learned how profitable it is to lurk along the trade routes with the most traffic.  They do not fear the exorbitant bounties they have racked up.

With the ability to travel, players are also able to find and purchase their first plot of land.  They must sail from port to port to buy the desired materials to build a house, where they can safely store their goods for future merchanting trips.

Players can buy larger ships as they can afford them, or build the ships themselves at their house’s dock.  One caveat might be that smaller plots of land do not have enough space for larger ships, which may be an incentive for the player to sell a plot and move to a new area.

Eventually, players may become wealthy enough to buy larger swaths of land, on which they can build their own port towns.  They can set up their own limited-stock shops that other players may now begin buying and selling from, giving the economy an opportunity to grow.

Here are some supplementary ideas:

• Teleport-free, as suggested by many others.
• Arbitrary land-claiming is turned off.  Plot purchasing is the only way to own land.  Possibly, plots are siegeable.
• Areas exist at the edge of the map which are not part of the admin claim.  Players can travel to these areas to gather materials that server-shops don’t buy and sell.  Possibly, these areas reset every few weeks to refresh the resources and discourage players from settling down away from the trading/pirating action.
• Vanilla boats are disabled.  A sky-island world would remove this necessity, though.
• Consider whether PvP should be enabled in trading ports.  Perhaps, depending on the ports’ theming, some could be lawful and PvP free, while some are shadowy or full of anarchy, and therefore PvP enabled.
• In-game ranks are shared between both worlds, but perks are adjusted to be relevant to the new world.  For example, if vanilla boats are disabled, /kits should not contain vanilla boats.
• The new world retains the same rank requirements for ship sizes.
• Items are not transferrable to or from the main PirateMC survival server, but playing on each respective world should somehow benefit a player in the other.  For example, new world currency could be redeemed for certain unobtainable goods in the survival server, and vice-versa.  This would encourage players to play on both servers, and minimize isolating parts of the community.
• Emeralds are used as the main currency.  This forces players to carry their currency on their person, which makes piracy an even more formidable threat.
• A currency bank system.  This would be very easy to simulate if emeralds were used as currency.  It could be as simple as using the current /balance plugin, and building banks for players to [sell] emeralds at.  Banks could be placed strategically, so that some markets have quick access to a bank, and others have no bank at all.
• If possible, ships can not move in any direction where they would be directly adjacent to a non-ship block.  This would prevent the world becoming cluttered with unsailable, abandoned ships.

One nice thing about this sort of server is that it almost certainly wouldn’t require any additional plugins than what PirateMC uses now.

Edit:

Sorry, I missed GodsDead’s post saying the new world is not totally possible at the moment.  Hopefully this post is still constructive for thinking about the future!