TLDR: To lessen the impact of runners in Skywars, a border should be added that gets smaller and shrinks to the center island as time passes. Although the idea of shrinking borders has been proposed before, I have a more concrete idea of what it should be like. In-depth explanation below.
In Skywars, the current system is as explained below.
Overall match length is 10 minutes and 10 seconds. The first 10 seconds is a countdown period in which everyone is given time to look around. After you are released, the next 30 seconds consist of gathering resources at your team island. When that is over, for the next 9 minutes and 30 seconds, you fight. When that is over, and if there is more than 1 player remaining, it won’t count as a win for any of the players (only the “games played” statistic increments by 1). The problem with this is that because the full play area is accessible throughout the entirety of the game, people can and will just run away from you, from outer island to outer island. Combine that with the redstone ore distribution on the outer islands, and you get a game in which running to the outer islands is beneficial most of the time. The absence of a shrinking border and the redstone ore distribution incentivizes people to run or end the game in a draw, instead of actually fighting. It is stated in the rules that “prolonging games” is disallowed, but the game is designed in a way to incentivize people to actively break that rule. This game is an oxymoron. The game design and rules conflict with each other.
Below is what I propose. (I have taken into account the size of the map and player movement speed for this)
Extend overall match length to 13 minutes and 10 seconds. First 10 seconds is the usual countdown. The next 30 seconds is also the usual resource gathering time. When that is over, wait for the next 8 minutes and 30 seconds. When that is done, there will be 4 minutes left. When that happens, start shrinking the border. The border shrinking should start and end in 1 minute. When the border stops, the only playable part of the map should be the center island, and there should be 3 minutes left. No outer islands should be accessible.(“Outer islands” refers to the team islands, and the islands between the team islands and the center island.) By starting and ending the island shrinkage in 1 minute, it allows players to outrun the border, even if they get stranded outside for a moment. It also gives players that are at the corners of the border enough time to go to the middle.(assuming the border is square, they would have to run sqrt2(roughly 1.41) times as far, compared to someone who is at the edge in the half-way point of 2 of the border corners.) I recommend “start/end time consistency”, not “border movement speed consistency” for maps that require a larger or smaller border. We don’t want people getting thrown off by different border “start/end” times between different maps. Also, I recommend a square border for the visual consistency and the ease of programming. Minecraft blocks are fixed onto a grid, so a square border is more intuitive for players. Also, the fact that the “team island borders” exist leads me to believe that the code that can help render and create square borders already exists within The Hive.
Below are the other parts for “Skywars Balancing”