Tharine

Tharine here with another wall of text - this time we're looking to discuss what kind of features we would like to see implemented in the design of the highly sought after /duel plugin. This was an idea proposed way back in January in the large forum thread discussing ways in which we could improve the Survival server. It's implementation has been stalled for some time now, passed up in favour of handling more immediate issues or other features we intended to add over the course of the current revision, but there was some early brainstorming between the admins a short while ago on just how we would begin to consider setting it up. The results of said brainstorm are summed up in the description here in one of the two large subreddit posts that introduced the 21st revision of Survival. For the link-phobic, the description: Invite other players to a 1-on-1 duel, via the /duel command! The idea behind this command is not to change PVP gameplay itself, but to add some extra, fun incentives. When challenging a player to a /duel, you can choose to “bet” some amount of iron/diamond/etc on the outcome, which the challenged player must match to accept the duel. If either player can kill the other in a set time limit, the winner will be rewarded with the loser’s bet, plus extra perks if the right conditions are met! During the duel, both players can still be attacked by anyone - but if this happens (or either player disconnects), the duel is ended without a winner and the bets are returned immediately. (This setup is still tentative, so let us know if you have feedback! Particularly regarding perks - we’re thinking fun stuff that won’t affect gameplay, like maybe another way to acquire player skulls.) Now, this isn't by any means a confirmed setup of how we will be moving forward with implementing a duel plugin. The idea behind making bets per duel was a consideration for how we might appropriately make it fair to earn player head drops from fighting in a duel. We wouldn't be eliminating the plugin that handles getting player head drops from armoured kills - and that's why we need to think about how to keep things on even ground in terms of how you acquire them. There would be little incentive to fight in armour to acquire head drops if you could simply enter a /duel with a friend and acquire it without any requirements. So, we'd like to kick off some discussion on what kind of features people would like to see with this plugin. Some general questions to get us started: What sort of outcome would you like to see as a result of winning a duel? ​This can be anything from physical rewards (semi-rare loot, player head drops, winnings from a bet, etc.) to effects (fireworks/thunder, potion effects) to perhaps setting up some kind of duel leader board (if resources permit such a thing). What requirements should there be (if any) for allowing a duel to take place? Should there be requirements for setting up a duel? If so, should there be a setup where meeting different requirements would net you different rewards? For example, an unarmoured duel might result in some form of non-rare drop, and maybe some effects, whilst an armoured duel could win you more difficult to obtain rewards. Requirements could potentially vary from type of armour worn to including a betting system, where a higher bet might net you a greater reward. Should duels have limitations to them? For example, only having the ability to hold one duel at a time; duels may last for only a predetermined amount of time before being cancelled. Limitations could also be along the same lines as requirements, in the sense that duels could perhaps not take place if either player was equipped with a certain item. Should there be the ability to cancel the duel at any time? Would there be interest in the ability to cancel a duel early? This could have both negative and positive side effects, the positive being moreso towards being able to put a stop to the duel if it was setup with unintended requirements. There are obviously a lot more features to discuss than simply those four questions, but it's the end of a tiring day for me so i'm not quite the ideas person right now. Also my wall of text is getting a bit long too (as per usual) It's important to keep in mind how complicated it might be to implement any particular suggested features of this plugin. We're running with ideas just at this stage, as I understand there has been interest in perhaps having something custom written for this. If we don't have the resources, we can definitely look into existing plugins that best reach the expectations of what we're all looking for. Even if we don't end up with something custom written, I would much rather people have the ability to enjoy duelling each other with a pre-existing plugin than not have that option at all With that said, please leave a comment if you have any ideas or suggestions for how we should get /duel setup!

I hope i'm understanding it right, but would disabling hopper minecarts be a good, at least quick, solution to this? I know that we can also track dispenser and rail edits made near chests suspected to have had the loot stolen from, and ban on instances of that under the rule that Vortex has highlighted, for anything that crops up in the meantime.

Would you say this is an accurate representation of your approach to PvP?

I'm not really keen on the reputation system personally (it doesn't really work well with what we use the forums for, in my experience), and I think moving to make it more reddit-esque would kind of nullify the point of having a subreddit entirely :/

Bad timing, sorry :(

In following the trend of the recent AMA threads, i've been asked to set up one as a Survival admin as well, so let's do this! I'm open to answering questions on pretty much any topic, but I will refrain from commenting on things that may compromise the servers themselves, spoil (potential) surprises for future revisions, or questions pertaining to my life that I may not be comfortable answering. I'm a pretty candid individual otherwise, so ask away and i'll let you know if it's not something I can give an answer for. I've left the topic for this one open so that any of the other Survival admins can join in and answer questions pertaining to the server itself, or even if people would like to direct questions to them personally. I'll try to respond in an appropriate time frame to any questions I receive, and I look forward to seeing what people are curious about!

Hey kyle, Incredibly disappointed to have had to issue this ban, but I appreciate you being so forthcoming with the truth. As Barlimore rightly noted, this is your second ban for xray. You are fully aware that this is against the rules, and a long time player here, so i'm sad to see this has happened again. Following your ban, you also logged into the servers using the account yardleysoccer, which has been permanently banned from our servers as per our policies on ban evasion. I'll be looking into some additional details and discussing your ban with a few of the other moderators. If I haven't responded within 48 hours, feel free to bump your appeal by commenting here. Ban for kyle_yardley on c.nerd.nu for Xray nerd.nu/appeal by Tharine on 2013-05-16 06:29:38 (no more bans, 3 notes)

I think we've always kind of looked over this because Optifine has been one of those mods that most people use, and personally speaking I remember doing some checks for xray only a short while ago and being completely baffled by the fact that I couldn't see through the lava to check the edit I was viewing. I had thought something was wrong with my client, but it had just been the first time in ages that I didn't have Optifine installed. If you're using the mod, it's one of those things that you just take for granted and don't tend to think about, in my experience. I know of people who swim in lava to find diamonds, and it's honestly slipped my mind that you can't do that in vanilla minecraft. I looked into what setting this is, and it appears to be the Fog option (Video Settings -> Fog) which you can set to off or fast (or additionally 'fancy' if your graphics card supports it - mine does not) that actually makes seeing through lava possible. It's not immediately obvious (unless you're stood in lava at the time) that changing the setting does this, but the difference between off and on is quite clear. We've allowed this method so far, but not necessarily in any official sense, so you're quite right to bring it up for discussion so that we can settle on something as a group. I think I would be in favour of moving to make this method of locating diamonds into the category of 'not fair gameplay' as it does require you to use an external mod, however popular it might already be. I'd like to keep this discussion going, as I see we've breached into discussing other mods as well (such as Rei's minimap), and i'm keen to hear player feedback on such things in general. Additionally, if anyone has any counterpoints to the original topic please voice them! There's usually two sides to every argument, so I think it would be good to hear both the reasons for and against allowing using Optifine to locate diamonds under lava.

Hey greytoxic, thank you for being so forthcoming in your ban appeal. I can't easily locate the relevant screenshot I had for this ban right now, but I believe you're quite right and that your ban was for replacing another player's claim sign with their name edited to include the word 'gay' in it. You've gone ahead and read the rules, and that's all I would have asked you to do upon appealing anyway, in addition to understanding how we handle issues such as this. Being that you've already done this, i'll go ahead and unban you now :) Ban for greytoxic on c.nerd.nu for Homophobia nerd.nu/appeal by Tharine on 2013-05-02 02:32:21 (no more bans, no notes)

Seconding hoping this isn't a permanent break <3 I hope you enjoy your time off though, it's well deserved :)

Was discussing this offhand with some other moderators upon seeing this thread, and I don't feel there would be any issue with moderators having this command at all. I have to use this myself if I get stuck outside of /mode (as admins can't be /tphere'd), and I feel comfortable extending that ability to moderators outside of ModMode as well. Just don't use it whilst in combat situations, or in a player trap, and you're pretty much good to go.