Version 2.0 in the works....

With practically everything automated and managed from team assignment to respawning, weapons, power-ups, map selection and matches; all with constant feedback from the system informing you of what's going on, check out the latest version of Minecraft King of the Hill, now with all new Domination game-type.

The idea

We attempted to have a PVP game between a bunch of teams on one of our servers one time, and it totally failed. Afterwards we threw around ideas on how you could create PVP game-types in Minecraft, and King of the Hill was suggested. This is the result.

How to Play

The Map

The map is made up of four different biome-themed King of the Hill arenas, surrounding a central management/spawn area. Each arena is surrounded by different stalls and shops, and it all floats over the void.

The Central Spawn Area

The Central spawn area, or Hub, is where players default spawn. There's a room that teaches you how to play KOTH, there's some extra rooms, Enchanting room for player use, team scores, etc.

The Arenas

Each arena is made up of four bases, all color-coded, and a large playing field with a hill in the middle. Above the hill is the admin/referee area, where there are a few controls specific to that arena that are required for gameplay on that arena.

Below is a written explanation of how to play

How to get started

Pick a team

Before starting, teams must be decided. KOTH supports up to 4-teams made up of up to 4 players each. Each team has a specific color, and that is their team color throughout the entirety of all the matches.

Picking an arena to play in

Once you have your teams, it'll be time to pick an arena. In the Hub (Central spawn area) there's a giant dial on the ground and a small replica above the KOTH Management room. Clicking the button sitting on the edge of the giant dial will start it rotating, changing from one biome's block type to the next. Once you hear the clicking of the dial start you're ready to hit stop and see where it lands. The dial will slow down and stop on an arena.

Once the dial stops on an arena selection, the path to the selected arena will light up, indicating the direction to that arena. Just follow the lights.

Setting up for the start of a match

For every match you will need an additional player in the server to be the referee, admin. They won't play in the matches, but instead will make sure it all works correctly.

Each team should assemble in their team's area (denoted by the color of their base) and the referee should be in their referee box upstairs.

Ideally, plugins should be run on a multiplayer server to prevent players from being able to break blocks, and also to be able to control time.

Even if not running plugins, the setup is the same. It needs to be night and all the players of a team need to set their spawn by using the provided beds.

When all the teams have set their spawn points as their bases, and everyone is ready to start, the referee will lock all the doors, it closes access to the arena either through the stairs down to the arena floor or through the team bases.

If any score lights are on then there's a reset button to make sure they're all reset to zero.

Start a round

To start a round, the referee toggles the Game Start (yellow) lever. A light will appear rotating around the hill beneath the referee and will click each quarter rotation, with a tone sound each time it completes a full revolution. For the duration of the round the light will rotate around, counting cycles.

Playing a round of King of the Hill

When a round starts, the clicks will start from the hill cycling.

The objective for each team is to hold the hill as long as possible. For a team to capture the hill they need to push the button for their team's color on top of the hill.

Only one team can hold the hill at one time, the team currently holding the hill is shown by a light next to their team's button on top of the hill.

After Capturing the hill

Capturing the hill is only part of it. Once you have captured the hill you must now hold it. To indicate how long you have held the hill there are colored blocks that will move from your base towards the hill. Each time the hill completes a cycle your blocks will move forward a set distance. If another team captures the hill your blocks will not move backwards, but the team who now holds the hill with have their blocks start to move towards the hill.

About to win the round

When you are one hill cycle away from winning the round, the stair case on your side of the hill will light up, and two tones will sound.

Winning the round

If you hold the hill for one more cycle after your staircase lights up, then you win the round. This is indicated by all your blocks lighting up, and everyone else's being reset. You will have won that round, and your round wins are shown on the back of your base, as well as above the hill.

Next round

The referee needs to reset the map for the next round. To do this he just toggles the Game Start (yellow) lever off until the hill stops cycling. Then toggles it again to start the next round. Each team should be in their colored area before the next round starts.

Winning a match

A team wins a match when they are the first to win 3 rounds on the map. When the referee see 3 rounds have been won, he needs to reset the map by toggling the Game Start (yellow) lever to the off-position, and unlock all the doors. He also needs to reset the arena team scores so the next time they play on the map everything is ready to go.

The winner's match win is automatically submitted to the match wins board, which showcases how many matches each team has won.

Continuing to play matches

Playing additional matches follows the same process outlined above. Making sure the arena is reset after the round win.

Winning the game

A team wins the game when they are the first to win 3 matches.

Resetting for a new game

To reset after a team wins the game, the referee needs to push the score reset button in the Management area in the Hub. This will only reset the match team scores, not the arenas, so making sure all the arenas are returned to default is important.

Rules to take into account

- Players should not break any blocks
- Players should only play with the weapons and armor found in the map, they should not spawn items in
- Players should not break any redstone or otherwise risk breaking the map
- Team players should respect the referee

Additional Notes

Currently in Beta

We're currently in beta, while the map works in Single Player, it hasn't been tested in a multiplayer scenario, hence why it's in beta. If you run into bugs please inform me.

It's not fully automatic, you still need a referee

This is true, the referee is needed to control some of the systems.

At this point in time we are in fact looking at how to make it more automated, but at this point you do require someone looking over the games.

Having this person does make sense, especially on a multiplayer server, as this person would most likely be an admin or moderator with the ability to kick/ban troublesome players and maintain permissions so random guests don't go around breaking blocks.

I have ideas, I want to submit them

Then leave a comment or message me.

I want to build my own King of the Hill maps

I plan on making a video at some point outlining how the system is built, I may also look at providing a schematic of an arena.

Will there be a version 2 of the map that has more biomes, other features

Already started on a version 2. :D