kent_allard_jr | Catan, Minecrafters of

The other night

wellgull were telling me about playing Settler of Catan marathons until the wee hours of the morning. Naturally I thought of Minecraft because ... well, that's what I've been doing since Spring 2011, but also because both games are about resource extraction, and I would love to see trading arise in a competitive, multiplayer game of Minecraft.

Anyway, here's a first draft outline of how it might be set up:

The game map uses the new "large biomes" feature. All cattle and sheep would be killed off in advance.
There are a series of designated "intersections," placed at equal-size intervals around the map.
In half of the intersections (or so) there will be ruins of villages and the ruins of a special building (a library, cathedral, a pyramid, whatever). Monster spawners will be placed in both.
In order to "control" an intersection, the player would have to have a contiguous, powered railroad connecting it to her starting position or to other controlled intersections. (My guess is players would be given some or all of the materials needed to build it.)
In order to "control" a village, she would have to control the intersection, destroy the monster spawners, and repopulate the village to a certain level. Two villager eggs would be placed in a chest in the ruined village, along with two animal eggs, either cattle or sheep.
In order to "control" a special building, one would have to control the nearby village and rebuild the structure, based on specifications given in a book in the ruins. Some materials that are not available locally would be required.
Players would start the game on opposite corners of the map, with a starter chest of adequate personal provisions (food, sticks, maybe iron, a bow and some arrows).
PvP would be prohibited, although some chests may include deadly monster spawners (creepers, blazes, what have you) which could be placed at will.
Players would get 1 point per controlled village, 1 per special building, and 2 points for longest (rail)road. First player with 10 points wins.

Any thoughts?