OK... a particular grief got my attention, got me thinking and provided me with a solution that I think will make the entire server leaps and bounds more harmonious and lead to much less work for the admins.
This sort of grief wouldn't normally be considered griefing but watch the WHOLE video below before you make ANY assumptions.
Don't discount it after the 30 seconds because you think you've seen it - the admin following me last night made the same mistake... by the end of the journey he was saying "this is f@*cking ridiculous please post this on the forums, something has to be done about this"… you won't fully understand the scale of it until you've seen it all - trust me:
STILL READING! Have you watched the WHOLE movie yet? Why are you reading on? For Christ's sake go back and watch the WHOLE thing trust me.
Finished? Good.
BTW - Locations are in the Hawkeye info shown during a second MUCH LONGER video if you're interested (don't bother if you don't wanna sit through 9 mins)…. link here:
OK… Now the solution:
Imagine: This guy has managed to do ALL of this in a couple of hours across a couple of days? He said he was "just levelling up". Imagine what he could do in months… In fact this player has been around for over a year - it is entirely possible that HE is solely personally responsible for at least one of the maps being decommissioned all by himself. I personally think he should be forced to repair every single bloody bit of it until he has learned his lesson… but I digress.
This simple act has much deeper implications right through to the core of server policy and brings us an opportunity to make some tough decisions about its longevity. I know Cay and the team have made excellent changes along the way to try to minimise this issue:
- Newer maps have a restore function
- Regalia is totally non-editable
- Wilderness is a fair walk away
THE ANSWER:
You are right in thinking Noobs will ALWAYS get on, run around for an hour, chop the trees, cobble tower up the hillsides and then disappear never to return. This is why having the first landing world (Regalia) as non editable is so clever (a master stroke Cay) because the REALLY stupid Noobs (the ones who coincidentally do the most damage) leave before they even realise there is more than one world - that is a good thing - a sort of "loser filter".
But there are two simple steps missing:
[EDIT: Here is a draft proposal diagram that, with your feedback, we can evolve into a workable solution - e.g. "one boat" at Regalia dock would look pretty weird - working on it (with your help)]
STEP 1 - we have this already - Arrive in Regalia - non-editable
STEP 2 - WE NEED THIS - a buffer world (lets call it Anarcadia) between Regalia and the other worlds. Only one boat out of Regalia - Anarcadia is where it goes to:
An attitude exists which is not too far from "oh well - this happens - griefers gonna grief - each world in turn will eventually becomes so griefed that it too will be taken down".
That is Bull-shiatsu!
That is weak lazy thinking.
There is always a better way. It won't happen in a heartbeat - server policy takes years to evolve.
[EDIT: We've paid out on Bling enough now also - lets move on to finding the solution guys]
This sort of grief wouldn't normally be considered griefing but watch the WHOLE video below before you make ANY assumptions.
Don't discount it after the 30 seconds because you think you've seen it - the admin following me last night made the same mistake... by the end of the journey he was saying "this is f@*cking ridiculous please post this on the forums, something has to be done about this"… you won't fully understand the scale of it until you've seen it all - trust me:
STILL READING! Have you watched the WHOLE movie yet? Why are you reading on? For Christ's sake go back and watch the WHOLE thing trust me.
Finished? Good.
BTW - Locations are in the Hawkeye info shown during a second MUCH LONGER video if you're interested (don't bother if you don't wanna sit through 9 mins)…. link here:
OK… Now the solution:
Imagine: This guy has managed to do ALL of this in a couple of hours across a couple of days? He said he was "just levelling up". Imagine what he could do in months… In fact this player has been around for over a year - it is entirely possible that HE is solely personally responsible for at least one of the maps being decommissioned all by himself. I personally think he should be forced to repair every single bloody bit of it until he has learned his lesson… but I digress.
This simple act has much deeper implications right through to the core of server policy and brings us an opportunity to make some tough decisions about its longevity. I know Cay and the team have made excellent changes along the way to try to minimise this issue:
- Newer maps have a restore function
- Regalia is totally non-editable
- Wilderness is a fair walk away
THE ANSWER:
You are right in thinking Noobs will ALWAYS get on, run around for an hour, chop the trees, cobble tower up the hillsides and then disappear never to return. This is why having the first landing world (Regalia) as non editable is so clever (a master stroke Cay) because the REALLY stupid Noobs (the ones who coincidentally do the most damage) leave before they even realise there is more than one world - that is a good thing - a sort of "loser filter".
But there are two simple steps missing:
[EDIT: Here is a draft proposal diagram that, with your feedback, we can evolve into a workable solution - e.g. "one boat" at Regalia dock would look pretty weird - working on it (with your help)]
STEP 1 - we have this already - Arrive in Regalia - non-editable
STEP 2 - WE NEED THIS - a buffer world (lets call it Anarcadia) between Regalia and the other worlds. Only one boat out of Regalia - Anarcadia is where it goes to:
- Spawn point in the heart of the island with signs saying "dig and grief to your hearts content you fools".
- Massive wilderness with EVERYTHING anyone might want to dig/chop/mine etc (sand, clay, emerald... you name it).
- A Port town with boats to the other worlds just a short walk from spawn (on the south shore).
- This map gets reset every 3 months - signs at spawn are clear on this and it is a regular server broadcast and listed on the massive website.
- Yes, Noobs will still build there but they can't say they weren't warned.
- Fixes the Griefing syndrome - no question.
- MASSIVE reduction in workload for the Admins (no griefing to clean up).
- Increased economic activity (factions need to trade to make money so they can claim that land for the road they want to build).
- Everybody happy.
- World peace.
- Victoria Secret girlfriends for everyone.
An attitude exists which is not too far from "oh well - this happens - griefers gonna grief - each world in turn will eventually becomes so griefed that it too will be taken down".
That is Bull-shiatsu!
That is weak lazy thinking.
There is always a better way. It won't happen in a heartbeat - server policy takes years to evolve.
[EDIT: We've paid out on Bling enough now also - lets move on to finding the solution guys]
but I intend to see this concept matured to a point where it is:
