Unfortunately if chaos ensues then so be it. Somethings pain around change is required to solve the greater issue and move things towards the right path. It will not be the end of the game to implement this and only a minor hiccup. Why?
- Any settlement broken up can easily merge again with a guild aligned beacon like they do in Aquatopia. Let’s remember the key feature that already allows people to segment themselves. Those people that do this currently WANT their own settlement name and their OWN prestige and stuff. It is the current design that forces people together and opt-out solves that.
- As Peyago tried to mention about people with roads breaking up settlements because they “surrounded” people’s builds with those roads - that intentional "settlement break up sounds like troll move done to intentionally harm people. So that person could easily have their ability to “opt-out” removed and the settlement stays merged.
- Settlements already break apart with buffer zones and people can easily plot around things like that to “reconnect” the settlements. Any excessive use to stop this is a CoC infraction and would be considered trolling and fixed.
At the end of the day - those that want large settlements without “choice” only do so because the want the prestige of other people for their own good or because they are intentionally gaming the footfall system to create the biggest city they can. Any group of people that want to be a city together and have a holistic settlement can do it now with the current system and the opt-out would not affect them.
I actually started the thread against plot buffers so that various people could share the concerns. In the end most of the issues people had were fixed. There are still a few things to tweak but the world did not end with them… Plus, remember that even though many had their concerns it was still implemented because the Devs knew it was better for the game as a whole to solve root issues. Opt-out falls into that domain as well unless the are willing to redesign settlements from the ground up and they just aren’t there yet.
This can almost come off as a threat and feels predatory. I don’t see how this type of communication helps support the view of taking care of the community/game or doing the right thing. This sounds like you will intentionally break apart settlements to take advantage of a system for harm of people. All this does is increase the proof that the systems are currently broken and that the average/casual player needs to be protected from people that are willing to do things like this. It actually helps prove why opt-out and FULL settlement control is required – only strengthening my position to push the following idea after opt-out is implemented - Thought Experiment: Remove Greater Settlements and only keep Guild Settlements