Banning/Permissions Control List for Owners/Co-Owners

The problem with a thread like this is that ideas both good and bad get buried very quickly. Personally, I think my ideas rock. Then again I'm obviously going to be biased so take it with a grain of salt.

I do think there is a solution to be had here that both grants the town owner appropriate control but also addresses the big concerns here.

This thread of course, is really just asking us a yes or no question. Should town owners have a level of control to remove unwanted visitors.. The particulars of which is really another issue but comprise most of the discussion here. I'm not sure how we would break down the discussion into other threads though without those becoming another huge yes/no debate.

 

There is always a middle-ground, though there is also always people on both sides of an argument that will flatly refuse to compromise. I don't think there is any question at all that town owners should have some measure of control (this is just my opinion), but how that control is implemented i think is the key question that could use discussion.

 

Currently there is heavy discussion over in another thread over whether or not to have banning, and it struck up an idea within me because I haven't seen or heard about what we will actually be able to do with the player owned towns as far as what kind of features we can expect from an owner's perspective. Hence the poll above! Now that the Poll is over, read this related material below.
-/-<


Ok so take a deep breath, now... do it... ok? Great. No really take a deep breath....


Imagine You're the proud owner of a flourishing metropolis that goes as far as the eyes can see, you see your friends houses, a beautiful garden, several homes next to a low misted pond, and there's swans ooh the swans..

You turn around and see your rustic home weaving perfectly into a bustling community in the most welcoming place you could ever have been at that moment in time. You walk an obvious direction and find the stone plinth you use to settle all of your earnings for the month. Thinking to yourself, "I wonder if Chris or Darkstarr have paid their rent yet?" So you commence to forcibly double-click the stone plinth and that brings up your Owner's Window. What do you see in this window?

RULES​

Your first post should consist of an Owner's control list that you would like to see in your player owned town.

If you don't own a Player Owned Town, please imagine you do, be thoughtful, and create a list of features that you would like to be able to click on in-game, in your Owner's Window.

This should most definitely be limited to the menu feature side only.

Your submissions to this thread should be Realistic and as Neutral as possible, as to please as much of both sides of the fence as you could personally allow (to be able to ban or to not be able to ban).

This is just my first pass at what I think is a good start to an Owner's Window

• Add Permissions
• Remove Permissions
• Change LoT#'s Placeholder item (trees/cave/rocks/bushes/sand/etc.) must be vacant property
• List of Names/Property Owners (with Date Last Seen)
• Set Event and Date (Should be able to set events much like a calendar and alarm system for the town itself)
• Ban List
• List of Known Criminals

Optional Idea:

1. Dispense Magical Ban Stick - The Properties of the stick are written on the side, you read: "Sends Target to Random Instance"

Add yours or change some, or add more.

Be Constructive.
You're all winners in my book!

All Ideas Combined/Absorbed

Add Permissions
Remove Permissions
List of Names/Property Owners (w/ Date Last Seen)
Set Event and Date (Ability to turn Event on/off, or start/stop)
Ban List
Merchant List
Message of the Day (MotD)

 

This... is the answer right... here... I imagine these threads will merge one day. Here's the new thread about the control list, THIS NEW THREAD INVOLVES A BANNING POLL

take a poll on whether banning should be allowed in-game. I know the poll doesn't give many options but there is a Yes and a No all the same.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ions-control-list-for-owners-co-owners.19801/

 

Who would've thunk this would be such a hot topic.. that's spin-off thread number 3 and honestly I'm tempted to do one myself. lol Just to separate my own ideas from the mess of discussion in here and see what people actually think about them.

 

Yes I'm sure my thread will get buried with the rest of them lol. I just couldnt live it down, I had to put it out there.

 

• Add Permissions
• Remove Permission
• List of Names/Property Owners (with Date Last Seen)
• Set Event and Date (Should be able to set events much like a calendar and alarm system for the town itself)
• Ban List
• Merchant List
• Message of the day

 

hello everyone!

I have read until my eyes are bleeding on this thread, I am glad to see that so many people care which is good and I glad that there is so many with logical opinions. On the other hand though, It's amazing that this subject had to be so complex, and such a simple thing hand to be dismembered and in so many ways it made it hard to decipher what the root pro's and con's where. And believe me some dug deep to dream up some far out theoretical far fetched scenario's to justify there view point here. *chuckles*

IMHO: I think that those that paid for there own town should have the ability to govern it as they see fit as they are the one that paid for it.(I say this as a person who is not a PoT owner so it doesn't benefit me for them to have this ability) And so far the only half legitimate complaints about this is that. (1) people don't want to see towns they can't go into and they want a lot of in game content to explain why they cant go into that town. (2) town owners could charge RL money for plots in there towns and then boot them out after the fact. "which they can do anyway without the ban hammer" (3) exploiting for pvp purposes.

I think I have a good solution that solves the problems on both sides of the fence without going through a whole masquerade to do so. I say that any PoT that want's to be private should have that freedom and could do so by simply removing there town from the over head map except to those that are added to there roster. I also feel that that players who are individually banned out of a public made PoT should. have like a 3 strikes your out. With each banning increasing in time banned until perma banned. For instance: 1hr on first ban then 1day on second and finally perma ban. And during which time the player is removed from town and can no longer see the town on his map. As for pvp I do not understand how you can exploit this in any effective manner so I will leave it up to some one else to pick through.

For me this is a very simple effective solution and is little to no work to the Devs. "I am assuming anyway as I am no programmer" and as for the money sharks selling for RL gold. I would just spend my money in the store and save myself from such risks. As I am sure the housing market and supply and demand is on SoTA's top priority list. I do not see them letting the market get so stretched so as such ventures would be very viable. And again anyone wanting to pay RL money for plots beware that a ban hammer or no ban hammer. A PoT owner can at anytime remove you so buy at your own risk. \

*would say that's my 2cents but since it was long winded lets make it my 10cents lol*

 

I think I will make mine thread about how the ban should be handled, I saw several ideas in the thread, please add more if I have missed anything.

- Banned person gets private instance of the town, they can explore it, but they cannot interact with people who get the 'main' instance
- Banned person is attacked by guards on sight
- Banned person cannot enter the hex from map and gets message informing them that guards stopped them from entering the city or something similar
- Banned person does not see the city on the map at all

 

hmm I was going to cover some of those ideas myself. I was just about to post. lol I don't want to overlap though I think that might start getting annoying so maybe I'll just tag my comments in your thread?

 

Sounds like a good spin off!

 

length of ban (temp, permaban etc)

 

Sure, but if you have option I should add in the poll, please post here, I am afraid I will not be able to add options once the poll is posted.

 

Oh what the bloody hell I'll just post my own. LOL I feel like if we don't post separately the discussion on different ideas will get all jumbled up again.

 

Give me a minute and I'll think of a couple pole options for you.. I know there's one or two floating in the back of my head somewhere.

 

Ok poll options.. hrm.. ok here was an idea..

banned person is sent to jail and/or fined. (can't return until fine is paid)

You might make your poll multiple choice.. that might get a clearly idea of where people are at.

 

I like both of those ideas the Merchant List and Message of the Day, the MotD is a no brainer for certain. Would the merchant list be simple like the list of names? or what could we add that as in the same line of data as a date last seen, hmm, something like, Merchant List (with Highest Grossing/Lowest Grossing, or something better, or is it just a list? )

 

Any info on them at all would be fantastic

 

Ok this is spin-off thread number.. 832?

So this is apparently a hot topic and a bunch of us are posting our own threads on the subject in what is hopefully not a vain attempt to break down the discussion into smaller, bite sized chunks. There will almost certainly be overlap but please bear with it.

So this thread is meant to break away from the debate and focus on a handful of possible solutions that hopefully everyone can live with. What I'm going to do here is break this down into what I see as the main concerns against banning people from towns and offer up possible solutions to those concerns.

Again.. I'm looking for solutions.. if it's debate you want I ask you please go to the other thread.

Concern: Invisible walls & restricting content (also covers "white lists")
This is probably the biggest opposition to the idea of allowing town owners to ban trouble makers.

Solutions: Rather than banning someone entirely.. you could force them into their own instance. This would work effectively like putting someone on the owner's and resident's personal block list but work exclusively for that town. The "banned" individual could still enter the town freely.. just not in an instance hosted by the town owner or a resident.

Concern: Immersion breaking instant bans.
Some have expressed that they would be more accepting of the idea if it were handled in a more immersive way. Such as using town guards to expel an offending player. The problem I see with this is guards not being able to teleport or instantly kill someone.

Solution: Provide guards with a device of "detainment" such as a wand of paralysis that can't miss. There is precedence for this as there existed a "Wand of Detainment" in Serpent Isle. If you were arrested you would be hit with the wand and be sent to jail.

What happens when the guards catch you is up in the air.. but it would be an immersive way of dealing with offenders efficiently.

Concern: Abuses in PvP.

Solutions: PvP enabled towns cannot ban. Since PvP towns are free to dispatch offenders by lethal force, the town has no need of a ban function.

Detainment devices will not function on characters in active PvP.. that is both they and their target are in combat mode. There could also be a timer involved to prevent abuses.

Guild War Solution: Any ban is lifted when an enemy exists inside of a town.
Town owners should not be able to prevent PvPers from PvPing. It is consensual after all and non-PvP flagged players would still be safe. This would also negate artificially created "safe zones" through banning in non-PvP towns.

Am I missing any other major concerns?

Other options.. a simple 'kick' function.. timed bans.. which could be custom defined or a ban might expire after an event ends.. (assuming a hex can have an 'active event' flag or some kind).

 

On the topic of events.. I'd like to be able to manually start and end events.. as well as pass that ability on to residents. There should be some sort of time limit on events though so someone doesn't just leave one 'on' indefinitely.