Testing 226: Ornamental Crops!

[james]

Hey Everyone.

Thanks for the comments and feedback about the beacon changes.

Please make sure you’ve digested the comments I shared here:

Buffer Zones Design Issues and Concerns

The vast majority of support issues we get are about plotting. The game isn’t doing enough in the rules of the game to restrict and resolve this. The game basically allows you to plot anywhere and leaves it up to players themselves to understand and respect any potential claiming etiquette rules. These rules are basically impossible for new players to know. These rules can be ignore by players. Players are then left relying on goodwill from others for resolution. If not, they’re left relying on…

Also inlined:

@james

• The vast majority of support issues we get are about plotting.
• The game isn’t doing enough in the rules of the game to restrict and resolve this.
• The game basically allows you to plot anywhere and leaves it up to players themselves to understand and respect any potential claiming etiquette rules .
• These rules are basically impossible for new players to know.
• These rules can be ignore by players.
• Players are then left relying on goodwill from others for resolution.
• If not, they’re left relying on moderation to resolve issues.
• This then will always conclude with 1 side being unhappy - you either had plots taken from you, or were refused action.
• It’s extremely hard to moderate and sucks quite a bit of my time.
• We’ve had everything from players in tears over plots to players asking for the contact details of our lawyers.
• At some level you could say - it’s a sandbox! Let’s just see what happens - conflict is interesting!! But is it? There is ultimately nothing you can do - short of waiting for the other player to leave. Which doesn’t sound like fun to me.
• Relying on the CoC is fine - but it can leave many players feeling frustrated. And this is just the players who actually contact us.
• We do already have a reservation system - it’s called claiming plots. But players are often plot limited.
• The current system is: Plot first, Fight second.
• The proposed system is: Request first, Plot second.
• We need a plotting system that is explicit about where you can and can’t plot.
• I think the system should favour the player who was there first.

---

What this system does mainly does it give an entitlement to players who were there first.

You should have a say over who can claim an available plot next to you. Your investment in your beacon is longer and that should count for something. Players would often prefer wilderness than an unfriendly or unwanted neighbour.

We’re obviously aware that there is an extremely complex set of beacons already in the worlds. We didn’t rush to implement this, and have being thinking about it since originally proposed (last October).

I will make sure we have suitable admin commands for tidying up the history in certain circumstances.