Region Protections

[Vykoden]

This post is meant strictly as an amicable means through which all players, mods and admins can openly and freely discuss the current rules regarding region protections on PvE. It is not the purpose of this post to start or continue arguments. However, personal experiences and opinions are encouraged. 

 

The current rule on region protections states: "Protections are only to prevent grief and other unauthorized edits. Protections are not used for "claiming land". Mods will only protect builds (houses, rail, farms, etc.) and clearly established large projects, such as cities. Requests to protect empty land or to protect a very large buffer around a structure will be denied. Land that has been significantly improved through road/plot making or terraforming can be protected at staff discretion."

 

First let me ask/address some issues with how these statements are written:

1. "grief or other unauthorized edits." Please give me an example of an "unauthorized edit", under this rule.
2. "Mods will only protect..." "... and clearly established large projects, such as cities." How do we make our future city a "clearly established large project, such as cities"?
3. "Land that has been significantly improved through road/plot making or terraforming can be protected at staff discretion." Why is this "at staff discretion"? Can't we just say that, if a city makes plots or does "significant ... terraforming", it can reasonably expect said terraformed land to be protected under a region?

​In my opinion, this is an example of a rule that is neither clear nor needed nor followed by mods and admins; especially for cities. It is flawed, in my opinion, primarily because of the word "discretion". Discretion means that there is no set rule and that each situation could be handled differently by different mods and admins. This type of discretionary rule, IRL, is the cause of many controversies and has been the source of many controversies in Nerd for the last four years.   

For example, "police discretion" is what caused the riots in Ferguson, MO. Discretion is also what killed Trayvon Martin. And, discretion was used by every Nazi SS soldier during WW2. These might seem extreme, but they are all only examples of discretionary rules. 

The rules clearly state that mods will protect "clearly established large projects, such as cities", but Placenta couldn't get its building area protected even after constructing a cobble fence around our desired building area. How much more of a "clearly established large project" could we have made it?

By making the fence, we said, "This is where we want to build as a city." Is that not clearly established? 
 

Furthermore, in an always-evolving map with unset boundaries and limitless possibilities, it simply does not make sense, in my opinion, to attempt to restrict undeveloped land protections in any way. The map is not short on building space, like the old days. There are no borders. So, not being able to reserve and protect undeveloped land doesn't add up. In fact, as was noted by several communities in the other thread, it becomes an inconvenience for players in way too many ways.

The players involved in Placenta, although Nerd veterans, have only been back on Nerd for the last 8 weeks. However, in that time, because of this rule, we have experienced the following:

• We could not protect our undeveloped but clearly-defined building area.
• We could not demolish an abandoned, unprotected derp shack. 
• We could not prevent two strangers from building within our community;
• Nor can we remove what's left of their buildings, after they left our community.
• We could not effectively evict a non-contributing player;
• Nor could we remove their structure.

​I will assume that the members of Placenta are not the only Nerd PvE users who have had similar difficulties. Although we may not hear from them here, if there is one community with those complaints and concerns, logic dictates there is, at least, one other ... and more-than-likely far more than that, who share these experiences.

 

If there is any doubt, I would recommend a new poll. The question should be phrased as:

"Do you believe region protections should allow players to protect undeveloped land? (Yes or No)"

An easy solution might be to base protections on number of players active in a build. For example, 50 square meters per person seems acceptable to me; in which case, if a town has 5 residents, said town could have 250 square meters of undeveloped land protected. 

In my opinion, there should also be a poll concerning allowing cities to govern themselves, including removing evicted players' structures, but I'm prepared to take it one step at a time. Let's work on this first.

This is a forum, so let's talk about it. I look forward to any and all supportive or critical responses.

Respectfully Submitted,
-Vykoden
 

Edited August 17, 2015 by Vykoden

[Guest Former Staff]

For example, "police discretion" is what caused the riots in Ferguson, MO. Discretion is also what killed Trayvon Martin. And, discretion was used by every Nazi SS soldier during WW2. These might seem extreme, but they are all only examples of discretionary rules. 

Respectfully Submitted,

-Vykoden

 

 

This is the opposite of respectfully submitting an idea in a game on a multiplayer server where people place blocks together and have fun. While I'm all for civil conversations, I'm not going to entertain a community conversation where we're using real deaths of real people to make points about region protections on our servers.