So for example I have a situation similar to this and I don’t know how to handle it. I cannot tell if someone is griefing or not when I have a remote location on a relatively uninhabited planet out by a stream because I think it’s pretty. I come home yesterday to see that even though there is no one else for miles, someone has decided that directly in my “back yard” is a great place to start a stone foundation for their build. I get it that the location is beautiful, but there are many vistas all around. Maybe they missed my beacon because I had not built much more than storage and a small starter wall. The unfortunate part is that once my back wall goes up, they will completely lose their view.
So they were not around and I put up some of my back wall to show them that, hey, you are literally going to have a wall blocking your view.
Something tells me that when they come home they will be upset. I know I would.
I don’t know how to handle this; if I can’t find the person and I am reserving my land for a later build, I don’t want to be rude, but as far as I am concerned, where I plotted is MY land and I have a right to put up a wall that blocks their view if it fits in my ultimate design for the place and if I feel they are just too close considering the amount of unclaimed land around us. Any feedback on this very specific situation I think helps the discussion. It certainly helps me.
It’s been written and reviewed at the moment. We’re expecting to see it released next week. Until then, I’m going to refrain from commenting on what’s been said here, it’s an interesting discussion to read through.
Maybe put up a sign with some message? That might help a bit
Yeah…I thought this would really not bother me, but I made my build just outside a large settlement so that I had access to the portals and someone built a wall like right between me and the settlement. Cool wall, BUT I now have to run alll the way to the other side of the settlement to get to the portals, or dig under the wall.
I was literally like two plots away from the nearest build…and I got cut off. Now i’m finding that I have to just get outta dodge, because of this wall. I may be having a trauma response to Trump, but my god…Could they not build a hole in the wall for those with settlements right outside?
Haha 
Yeah, until there is some clear guidance from devs, which should be soon, we have to live with that kind of annoyances 
I have just gone subterranean until private planets, working on underwater now!
I may not have the best attitude about this and may catch some flak but here goes. You were there first. You are using plots you already had taken not plots you added after you saw them build. At least you only did a small part of your build so maybe some discussion could happen, but in the end you found the site plotted for a build and I think you should build it.
When I am looking at places to build, I normally run around to see if anyone else has a beacon in the area. It is not enough to look for a settlement as when they do not have enough prestige they do not show. If there is no one else around then I take my plots and will feel free to build as I want on my plots. If someone comes later and my plots block their view, they can ask if I can give them up (maybe) or if there is a compromise we are both happy with. But in the end, I did plot and plan a build, and I do not think I should be required to change it due to someone else taking adjacent plots. I can choose to make changes but that in the end should be my decision.
Edit: this is different then taking plots adjacent to an already existing build or settlement. Then I do think it is polite to discuss with neighbors what is being built and show some deference to a themed village.
I agree with you, first come definitely doesn’t need to care about someone who plotted beside him
When I read all these stories, I realize how lucky I am.
My neighbors are nice people. The work that have been done to build roads/bridges to allow fast travel and connect everyone is amazing.
But this is not a themed settlement, you must love perpetual chaos to build here haha! 
I hope planet renting are on the way. This will open the door to giant flawless themed builds.
I’ve had a handful of builds with different neighbors. All but one have been great, fixing roads and bridges and adding pass-through a where we wanted to direct traffic while keeping other areas private.
Only one neighbor was ever a jerk, and built walls/ tore down connecting land to block any connections to his area of the town he joined.
90% of all the players are great. Most will work with you to make a the best builds they can with you. A tiny minority don’t want to work together and build walls in the middle of town. But those few drive a lot of discussion because they are problematic.
I wish we had an in-game mail system so we could send messages to other players when they aren’t immediately there. Build discord’s are helpful for planned communities, but I really think we need some in-game support for more ad hoc communities.
I think this would be a great feature.
My problem with this lack of real possibilities beside talking with your neighbor is, that i am one of the player who had no contacts ingame before last wipe. We started with just 2 people and have some nice Ideas and running 3 smaller Areas on 3 planets.
My Little Garden is build at our first place and i wanted to keep them for new people who want to join us, if it will be old gamer friends or new people we get known ingame.
We are not able to plot all of these areas that big as we planned them.
So we are always depending on the players polite sense, who think it is nice to settle there.
I can understand, that the Player Portals at the Hubs and their connnected areas are like a cookie to use them freely for own fast travel from home to all areas. But if it will be the only cause to add yourself to a still established Settlement (except obvisiously free to build towns), then it looks very weird to the previously owners.
I hope you all can appreciate the government after all this. Without it we have Boundless. A world where you keep what you claim and no more. The little get eaten by the big and you have to solve problems for yourself. What makes grand cities so grand is the work and effort and compromise and sacrifice that went into building them. If you don’t want people intruding on your land, build a wall or go play minecraft. This is a sandbox game where anything is permitted. For most of our problems here, the only answer is diplomacy.
First greet your neighbor.
Second, Offer friendly request.
And if further problems…
Third, make a Trade (Be creative)
Fourth, offer further compensation. Continue as needed.
Fifth, Move elsewhere.
Sixth, Suck it up.
And if your worried that your new found trading friend might screw you, Your right. He/She might. That’s Boundless. That’s RL.
As i said, the communication is the key.
Telling people „Go to Minecraft“ does not help at all.
But your view is competition orientated, a valid view as the view of others are valid too.
As far as plotting,
If you build in a city, unless there are guidelines (like yaffion afilion (knightb’s city)), you should expect your neighbors to build things that clash, and some builds you probably will not like, some you will. That is part of a city even in real life.
I too once lived in a very remote area, and was surrounded. If you are really serious you need to pre plot everything before construction begins! Seriously, this is the reason Aquatopia even exist. And assume the point where you stop plotting something else you might not like will begin. If you really want control beyond that for radical purity of the build, then a dedicated server with perm controls will be the best solution for you.
For the malicious types we have seen them a few times before. Most people you can talk to and work with. The few times I have herd of or seen plot wars occur. People usually move or build around something, also sniping beacons is also popular. You have to be patient but it tends to work.
As for a prestige war,
This appears to be very intentionally part of the game. From the very beginning of me playing again, I have been stockpiling prestige, I devote a certain percentage of all my income to doing this, and for good reason. While the devs did indeed nerf roads after the Critonia War. Seizing control on a settlements is going to happen again, I have already seen it, so I recommend you stock pile prestige blocks in case someone decides to start a war with your settlement. Also a good reason to be a part of a group, it is a lot harder to wage a prestige war against a group with a several members.
As for player combat, it will not happen on the worlds flagged for no player combat. So the above two issues are basically separate from that. However, how the mechanics will work in worlds that are flagged for player combat, are still undecided. Personally, I would love to see a factions derivative in the worlds flagged for player combat, beacons fit in perfectly for that. Many of the people I would really like to fight are many of the other backers I have known for a long time, and am friends with. Many good times and funny stories are yet to be had.
The thing i don’t really like is when someone take over the warden they can change the settlement name…
Also they become the only one can change the name in the settlement.
The work you spent entire month to build a nice town / portal hub can be taken by others in 1 - 3 day.
The only thing needs to do is connect to ur settlement and start to build a solid brick tower and chisel it.
Most of us not only build for prestiges, we also build for the beautify, so its no way to compete with some one just build an ugly thing in 1 day…
A lot of guild they build up their city / town with their guild name, like portal seeker / aqua / chisel king, and someone can take the warden to troll really easy.
This system should be remove, or change to the first person in that area have the right to change the settlement name.
Also if i want to keep the warden and the beauty i have to buy a lot of plots (a lot), to hold up my prestige (because you need spacing to build, so yeah you still need to buy plots…)
This is a little be pay 2 win for warden in my opinion.
Also why i care about the name so much ?
Because the name to represent the guild on the settlement means this project not a personal project.
Its a group project, and a lot of people work together to complete the project.
So yeah settlement name mean something to me.
As an old minecraft builder, I tend not to start with a plan. I build based on the environment and just wing it as I go, often tearing things down and rebuilding them as inspiration hits me.
So, as of right now I am in constant fear that someone is going to just grab plots near me to be a jerk. I keep going back and forth in my mind if i just want to grab as much land around me as possible, and not care about the cost.
My second issue is after a large amount of time building I noticed a small shack down by the water near me. From one end of my plot it just looked like a lump of earth (thanks PS4) but I saw it was an actual cabin when i got to the other side of my build. We are pretty far away, and I haven’t seen any changes to his cabin since release, but he has some pretty high level equipment in there. I just don’t want to make my neighbor unhappy.
People really should follow the Golden Rule, but that can be in short supply on the internet and in games.
I’m also sad about all the talk of private servers and kinda wish this never happens. The community is really going to suffer when that happens and some of the best builders leave.
Supposedly when we get the option to rent servers, we’ll be able to decide who gets to build on the planet that we rent, though it would still be tied to the main universe, from what I have understood atleast.
Private servers will be hosted privately, of course - but won’t be tied to the current universe, though supposedly will also allow for modding.
Against a drastical step like that, but what if there would be a voting for 24h and all players who are owning beacons in the settlement and who come online that 24h can vote and only if more then 50% are ok with this change the name is actual changed.
Names set in stone are a bad idea cuz places change sometimes, so do settlements,
Anything will be better than the current name system for settlement. 