So it was originally announced that local spawns End Portal and Nether Portal would be gated behind Treant. I mentioned how this would be pretty terrible for a nether hub etc, especially with shops being at local spawn now. To me it seemed like it was just an oversight, but as the season gets on and the nether hub is being talked about by the build team, I think it's time we bring it up again.

Gating the end portal so we have to find our own? I think it stinks, but you can find other end portals. But gating the nether hub is a huge detriment to everyone. You're basically telling the builders only Treants will get to see their builds, and for everyone else getting rid of a super convenient way to get to spawn, shops, and elsewhere after you yourselves have said you want to stop TP eyes from being so prominent. We're all planning nether highways, but what's the point if the thing we're all trying to link up with isn't going to be accesible to us.

I guess I just thought this was something that would be addressed by now. Even people I talk about it with on the server don't actually believe the nether portal will be gated by ranking because of how ridicuous it sounds. But it still hasn't been addressed so I figured I'd bring it up.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

And yes I realize that you're gating the portal not the hub. But it takes away all reason for us to go to the hub. 

Honestly I think having the end portal blocked too is unnecesary. Yes, we can find other end portals, and there's already a path to an End Portal through the nether highway, but it's exactly because of that that it shouldn't be blocked if it's at spawn. Because... why would it be? All it does is make players who don't have access to it question why they need to walk a couple hundred blocks to get to the end while a portal is right at spawn, posing as a minor inconvenience to them that they'll grumble about.

I really don't understand the decision to rank block the portals at all, and I hope they're both made free for any rank to access.

I disagree with one of these thoughts.

I'm fine with the Nether Portal being open to all.

I think the End Portal should remain gated.  This keeps the End to players who have been on the server for a while.

I would imagine that the End is going to be there a long time and resources (Elytra) are going to run out quickly. Those rare resources should not wind up in the hands of players who show up for 4 days and then leave.

This season nobody is Treant yet unless they paid for it. So really it's just those who paid get an easier way to the end. 

But even later on there's a massive gap between players "playing for 4 days" and Treant. Restricting wild players from the end portal at local spawn even then they have to log every day for over a month, but sure. But Treant? Seems a bit much.

 To be clear, I didn't bring up the end in this post because I'm not as upset about it, you can find other end portals. But I still think it's just another slap in the face to player who didn't pay money this season because there's zero chance even the most dedicated non-paying player can make Treant by the time the end opens. To make Treant you need to vote every single day for over 5.5 months. 

But I think if you're using it as a way to gate elytra from non-paying players, or not even new players but players who haven't played every day for 5.5months. That's really bad.