Maybe the next improvement to the process could be: Since player schedules don’t necessarily sync up, and a beacon owner might generally not want to give up protections to just anyone, could we have some form of ‘requested plots’ that would notify the owner that someone without perms wants just those ones and they can simply accept as a one-time trade?
5 Likes
its an opt-in thing now. In other cases where protection is off, the plots will still show as reserved but you can still plot them
I don’t know why the system allows beacons to gobble up - save - take wild plots when the person didn’t plot it, didn’t pay for them, etc. The reservation system is only good for people that aren’t in a city, aren’t near a road, etc. It’s not great for communities.
If someone’s plots go out or are removed, the nearby beacon shouldn’t be able to reserve them automatically. If they don’t want a neighbor, then why did they plot in a town or on a road to begin with?
3 Likes
james
24
No. It’s only the player with the oldest claim who needs to give permission. This is highlighted in the visualisation. Contact them and ask for permission to claim the plots.
No. Older towns are controlled by the authority of the older members. It’s up to them. Their older authority gives them priority. Maybe they want the plots themselves? It’s their choice.
It allows communities to have a say over who joins their community. It gives them control.
Maybe they do want a neighbor and want a say over who joins. Given they’re already there, and have a time investment in the location, then I think it’s fair that they have some control over who can join their community.
6 Likes
Questions, idk if is a bug but friends automatically have surveyor permissions, and I don’t think I can take it away. Is that intended?
james
26
This will be because your beacon has the protection disabled - which is the same as giving everyone the permission.
1 Like
No you only need dumaru permission since he “owns” that reserved plot.
1 Like
It gives a person control over plots that they never plotted. You can’t control what Jimmy decides to do if he gets mad at everyone or decides to stop playing and never finishes his build. What if Jimmy gets mad and becomes a person that you no longer want in your community - or decides not to follow your community rules? It doesn’t solve anything really - you still have no control over Jimmy - you just block new people from coming in and you frustrate your neighbors that want to trade/move plots.
Will have to double check and I’ll make a post if it doesn’t work as you mentioned.
james
30
Correct.
The system and plotting in general isn’t perfect.
But it also stops Kimmy joining your community who you don’t want and doing all these things as well.
It’s gives a priority to an incumbent over an outsider. The person waiting for their neighbouring plots to expire before someone else swops in and grabs them for another 4 months.
I fully appreciate that this system isn’t ideal for your particular use case, a welcoming community mall. But there are many other communities that operate differently. I’m available to help you resolve issues that crop up with the malls. But I’ve had an order of magnitude more reports about non-mall plots than mall plots.
(I’m not suggesting you refactor your mall but) there are configurations of malls that would give the mall owner perfect control over the mall plots. Specifically rows of shop plots that are 4 deep surrounded by mall paths. With this configuration you could run an open mall where anyone can claim freely and not block anyone else, or an invitation only mall where the owner grants permission to join. In both cases the mall owner has authority over every shop plot and can control access as they desire.
2 Likes
@james regarding your discussion with @majorvex, would a 3rd reservation level be possible that would turn off horizontally reserved plots completely? I would prefer it this way because
- I’ve wondered before if newer players thought I didn’t want them plotting off of my road, even though protection is off.
- Sometimes it confuses even myself when I’m trying to figure out an area.
Edit: For reference, I didn’t understand the system at first because I haven’t cared much about who plotted next to me, but I’ve seen many more examples people gave where this helped them, and the complaint/issue level dropped substantially. Protections were def a step in the right direction.
It’s not perfect and that’s ok for sure 
. However it doesn’t really stop people from joining the community if you don’t want them to… or from stopping people that joined and then changed their mind and decided to get mad about something and cause problems.
People will naturally join a community with other people that they like - to begin with - regardless of the system in place, if they can.
With the limited permissions that we have I don’t see how you can actually stop another player from plotting or force them to unplot if they don’t want to. There’s nothing from really stopping somebody from joining your community. I’m not saying we should be able to stop people from joining (I’m the person that doesn’t want to restrict who joins my guild).
This is one specific scenario that doesn’t apply to a lot of situations though. Allowing somebody to protect or save plots they never had to begin with over somebody else that really wants to join kind of doesn’t make sense. If the neighbor wants the plots next to them then they should keep an eye on them and have a fair chance to plot them like everybody else
I appreciate your help with plots in the mall. I do not want priority over anyone else nor do I expect it.
I am not trying to be argumentative. I respect your position and all the work that you devs do.
Edit to add: it’s really just the reservation system that takes over plots someone didn’t have to begin with & there not being a way to transfer beacons.
Plot protection is a net positive and hopefully here to stay, just gotta work the system in your favor. Hopefully you can get permission to build where you want, if not there’s plenty of open space over yonder.
Also anybody with <10k prestige on their beacon has no protection zone I think.
2 Likes
Being able to have a plot buffer can definitely be handy and is great for a lot of people I’m sure. I even use it on a place or two.
The only thing that’s really causing a problem is the automatic takeover reservation system. If we could trade beacons or something like that then that problem would go away and everything would be fine.
1 Like
Tmmk
37
It is probably mentioned before but here goes…
The new buffer zone has its potential and it works as intended but when a “owner” of a city decides not to activate plot protection on a beacon this should actively shut protection down for all beacons that connect to this beacon in a city.
And make you plot what you need.
AAAAA
AOOOA
AOLOA
AOOOA
AAAAA
the O take over the same “condition” as L but O doesn’t share L “condition” with A.
(Granted this has flaws to)
Or at least change the conditions of the buffer zone and make it temporary (maybe a week or two max).
As i see it if someone then decides to take a space in a city they actively choose to wave those reservation rights.
It can’t bring any problems to linking settlements because settlements can’t be linked when buffer is active.
What happens now is some drop down plots adds pres and done. A huge gap where nothing happens for weeks-months. And a border of 2 plots think reserved.
Some build roads for others to connect to but can end up messy because a resident decided to activate protection and hinder growth in a city (potential ground that can’t be claimed)
Just how i see it.
1 Like
This is good 
for cities and markets that are built after you added the new buffer system - or ones that fit within the suggested configuration.
Obviously, if I had of known about the new reservation system before we built the mall last year, I could have designed the mall to fit within the new parameters. (They say hindsight is 20/20 
)
It’s ok though. We are adapting and working around it the best we can. And for the issues that we can’t work around, I do appreciate your willingness to assist. We are good
1 Like
Dumaru
40
I think she means all the other builds opposite the spot, so even if she gets the plots, she wouldn’t be able to transfer them to someone or allow someone to take it because of other plotters around having the protection on
