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Discipline too light?

Joka10

Soulsand
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
I joined in Dragongarde, and, for almost all of that map, noone in our town ever really had much of a reason to submit a PE. We had a couple exploiters banned for really major infractions, but that was about it. So, last map, I never really had that much experience with the discipline system. I read some threads about how discipline was too light compared to Sanctum, where there weren't that many rulebreakers (according to the OPs) because the banhammer was so swift. That was all, though. This map has been much different, though.

I've submitted several PEs, more than I feel I should have/should have needed to this map. With the changes in how towns get regions and how they can be built, pillars have been a much bigger issue, and grief as well. The town I joined last map was already regioned by the time I was accepted in. I helped build this one from the start.

So, the first issue I submitted a PE about this map was related to an iron 'vault' I made. It was essentially an LWC inside of a small chamber made of iron blocks. Iron is pretty common, and it was moved off of the rare blocks list near the end of last map. I had quite a bit, so I made that chamber. This was before our town had regions. So, a veteran player (keeping this anonymous) came into our town. He was a higher level than us, and there weren't many of us at all there, so we all died :/ In the time between dying and getting back to town, the player had left, but not before completely destroying the vault except for the LWC. I submitted a PE, and a mod arrived promptly. The response was "User has been dealt with". Within ten seconds of that message, the same player walked into our town and killed us again. He was a veteran, and clearly all he got from that was a warning or maybe a fine.

The next issue I submitted a PE about was when someone spilled lava on top of my house. We got the "User has been dealt with" thing again, but, as far as I know, all that happened was a fine or a warning. That one was a little more agreeable. I never found out who did that, but there had been some PvP right around when the lava got spilled, and it might have been a newer player, so the punishment wasn't that strict.

These incidents were in a span of about a week, week and a half. I was a bit upset about the vault one, but I assumed it was his first offense or something, and didn't let it bother me.

Now, the first thing we did upon settling in the area where the town would be built was place down a pillar that said "Mineris Town Center". For whatever reason, nearly everyone built on the south side of that pillar, just barely within where hamlet regions would reach. It was a dumb choice on behalf of many, and it made it so that our walls extended very close to the region border when we finally got regions. In one spot, they even stuck out a bit. We had a LOT of people pillaring up over the wall, and very few actually removed the pillars. Various people in town submitted PEs over a period of time, and got either the "User has been dealt with" thing where nothing visible happens, didn't get a response at all, or the pillar was removed by someone else in town who wasn't thinking and nothing could be done.

Eventually, we improved upon our walls by making them taller, slightly better looking, and not hugging the region as much. We couldn't pull it back far enough, though, because of houses, and people who pillared up high enough could get inside still. To this day we are still getting pillars. The first time I submitted a PE after we got the new walls, the response was "User has been dealt with" and the offending users were shocked by the staff. The next couple times I PEd, people in town pulled down the pillars before staff got there. Yesterday, a PE of mine got looked at for a massive pillar on our southwest side. "Users dealt with/fined".

Other people in town had been submitting PEs about the pillars before that, and had gotten responses like that. Yeah, I guess that's okay if it's a different person from a different group, maybe new, or a first time offender. However, it's been pretty much the same people doing this all map. They have plenty of offenses outside of what they've been doing at our town. They were offenders last map, too. Some of them I see submitting a mute appeal almost weekly, and many have submitted ban appeals too. They are getting the same punishment every time they do this. As long as they have money and aren't on low health when they get shocked, there is no reason for them to stop. Punishments are supposed to stack based on the number of offenses. I know pillaring without removing the blocks isn't really that bad in the great scheme of things, but without putting up a roof, which is illegal, we can't trust our walls at all. It's our fault partially for building too close to the border, but our mistake shouldn't be a reason for people to get away with breaking rules. They are getting away with it. A fine is not discipline in a videogame, and nor is dying (it doesn't even usually happen) from a lightning bolt. A warning is definitely not discipline. It works for the first offense, but beyond that... Some of these players have played since Zeal. There's no excuse for it.

Anyway, I've been biting my tongue about it till today. Today, those same users who have been getting by with breaking the rules all map mined a tunnel down to our undercity, below where creepers don't do damage. They took a creeper down the tunnel and blew their way in. They then proceeded to mass-grief our undercity with creepers, destroying much of the floor, as well as damaging our farms and many users chests. They blew open the chamber that encases the lift to the town hall. They took the lift up to the town hall. They took a lot of stuff from it.

Stealing is legal, yes. The whole 'using creepers to get into regioned areas' thing is debated, and I'm not really sure what its legality is. However, I am sure that mass-grief of our undercity by abusing a game mechanic is not legal. For those of you who don't know, creeper damage does not regen like TNT does. If players are not allowed to break blocks inside of regioned areas, or grief around them, it makes no sense whatsoever that this should be legal.

Anyway, apparently it was illegal, because we did get an admin response. However, all that was... was a rollback of the area. That's helpful, yeah, but the users got "dealt with" in the same way they were above, according to my townies.

There are hundreds of players on this server who play by the rules. Some have played since Zeal, maybe Sanctum, and have never gotten in trouble in any way. They shouldn't have to endure veteran users exploiting the apparent laxness of discipline to torment them. It's not right that all these users get are fines and electrocutions.

We've also submitted videos of one of them block-jumping (placing/breaking blocks in regioned areas, and abusing the lag between the time of their modification and their regeneration to get to areas they aren't supposed to). In the video, it was quite clear what the user was doing. I don't honestly know what the exact response was. I asked the guy who submitted the PM to the administration a few days ago what the response was, but I think he was AFK. All I know is that today, during the grief of our undercity, that player was there blowing up creepers with the rest of them, no worse for wear.

Our allied towns have also complained about the lack of discipline. I don't monitor what happens with them nearly as much as what happens with my own town, so I don't have examples, but I have noticed their complaints.

I can't imagine that it is just us who are bothered by it. Maybe others don't have such a problem with it because they organized the construction of their towns better, and it isn't worth the raiders' time to pillar up or dig down to get in. However, what I have listed above is the truth. I'm a bit angry right now, and that may have shown in places, but I have still stated the truth.

Collectively as a town, we have submitted a lot of PEs in the short lifespan of this map, and the staff are probably a bit annoyed and don't want to deal with it. I understand that, but we are still submitting them because people keep breaking the rules. It's the same people, over and over. We won't stop PEing if they're going to keep doing it, and as long as they aren't punished more harshly, they're clearly going to keep doing it. So do yourselves a favor, and us, and all the others they may do this to, and just take discipline a step further.



A final note: Everything I have listed above except possibly the creeper thing is confirmed to be illegal. Pillaring without removing is griefing, and breaking iron blocks is griefing. Pouring lava on houses is griefing. Blockjumping is exploiting. A nice, consolidated post about creeper grief is found http://www.herocraftonline.com/main/threads/creeper-damage-off-in-towns.25349/#post-228293 so I don't need to explain it all.[DOUBLEPOST=1349581371,1349563519][/DOUBLEPOST]Thanks for the cool ratings, but I would appreciate responses too...
 

Joka10

Soulsand
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Yeah, it doesn't amount to much.

Through a very strange sequence of events, we actually allied with our offenders today... Diplomacy aside, though, stuff like what I listed in the OP shouldn't happen. I'm not saying the staff should go back and ban them for the stuff they did in the past, but if, by anyone at all, stuff like that is done again, it shouldn't just be a fine and a shock.
 

Jazzacar

Wood
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
I whole-heartly agree with you. Admins tend to be TO nice, There should be one admin that just bans everyone that does something wrong, and if they really wanna get back in they can apply to be unbanned.
 

bearcat99

Sir GrowlMeow
Legacy Supporter 2
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
So you want more bans? Would banning people make YOU more happy? That's the easy way out.

We have a warning system. It is in use constantly. When someone breaks a rule, it goes under his name. By the 3rd warning, suspensions occur. In the end, it ends up with a ban.

First of all. "Dealt with" really means we dealt with it. Are you expecting that person to be banned? The guy who messed with the lwc iron and then came in to kill you is not a problem at all. He was warned/put on his record. He then came and killed you. Once again, were you expecting us to ban him or tell him to leave you guys alone?

Don't assume that pillaring is going on by the same exact person. Many people do it and all of them get it tacked on to their warnings. Also, pillaring shouldn't get the same hard warning as someone who griefs an entire area. So just because the person pillars, don't expect to see a consequence.

With your creeper situation, using a creeper to break in your town is LEGAL. However, using the creepers to destroy the town is not. It was rolledback and we dealt with the situation. You do not have a guarantee that we tell you how we are punishing them. The admin said "it is dealt with" is all you need to know.

Banning someone is a last resort. If you are looking for more of those, then you should probably find another server that doesn't play fair and doesn't care about their players.

If bans make you think people are getting punished, you are mistaken. There are many more ways to punish people: money wipe, level wipe, suspension, etc. Don't forget that we have a nocheat mod to stop fly hacking/other hacks and a mod that protects against xraying.

We thank you for your concern, but we are doing fine. HC is a hardcore server: we play no favorites and we follow the guidelines.
 

Danda

Dungeon Master Extremist
Staff member
Administrator
Guide
Wiki Team
Max Legacy Supporter
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Pretty much what Bearcat said.
 

Kainzo

The Disposable Hero
Staff member
Founder
Adventure Team
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Location
The 7th Circle of Heaven
How we dish out punishments is up to us. 99% of the time you won't know the punishment and it's frankly none of your business. You assume because the user wasn't banned that they aren't being punished.

We take all things into consideration. Ultimately, when I handle something that is a grief I do one of two things.

If the griefing isn't "severe" ie a 1x1 pillar. I'll fine the person 30-40% of their TOTAL coin.
If they have no coin, I dump them into GREYLIST mode. If it's a repeated offense, I'll ban them.

I am a founder so my system is a tad different but I feel it works :) people dont like wasting tons of coin for stupid things like 1x1 pillars ;)
 

Joka10

Soulsand
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
I know you have a warning system; I've read up on it in the past. However, nothing ever seems to happen. We've watched the people our PEs have been about do the things that make us PE countless times, and they don't get suspended no matter how many times PEs are answered. We've watched the people who make the pillars do the pillaring and leave them behind. It's the same guys over and over. I agree that minor grief like that shouldn't get a warning if it's just a one-time thing or something like that, but this is repeated over and over. I don't feel like repeated minor offenses should be overlooked just because they're minor.

I'm not asking for everyone and anyone to be banned. I'd just like this warning system to take into account more than just the major things, which it doesn't really seem to be doing. I'd like the little punishments people get to actually stop them from doing the stuff, which they aren't right now.

How we dish out punishments is up to us. 99% of the time you won't know the punishment and it's frankly none of your business. You assume because the user wasn't banned that they aren't being punished.

We take all things into consideration. Ultimately, when I handle something that is a grief I do one of two things.

If the griefing isn't "severe" ie a 1x1 pillar. I'll fine the person 30-40% of their TOTAL coin.
If they have no coin, I dump them into GREYLIST mode. If it's a repeated offense, I'll ban them.

I am a founder so my system is a tad different but I feel it works :) people dont like wasting tons of coin for stupid things like 1x1 pillars ;)
Them not being banned isn't the reason for my concern. It's the fact that they come back and do it over and over and over again, even after being 'dealt with'. I'm not asking to know what that means; from my point of view, I know all I need to know about it, and that's that it doesn't stop the offenders from offending again.

Through really wierd turns of diplomatic events, we are fairly confident that the offenders will not continue their pillaring, but they did it for most of this map's lifespan before a couple days ago. Going back and punishing people for something they did a while ago isn't what I'm suggesting. I just don't want to see more people doing what they did, and for whatever reason, the countless 'dealt with's didn't stop them.

I don't want everyone and anyone to be banned. What I'm not seeing is repeated minor offenses adding up to anything, which I feel they should. Right now, looking at this, the mentality I see is "If you can pay the price, feel free to break the little rules", which is basically the same as buying a pillar up the wall. If breaking the little rules is basically the same as buying a rule-bend, then there's not really a reason to have the little rules at all. They are there for a reason, or so I think, and it looks like anyone with money can disobey them.

I mean no disrespect to anyone. This is just what I've seen happening over the past couple weeks.
 

Danda

Dungeon Master Extremist
Staff member
Administrator
Guide
Wiki Team
Max Legacy Supporter
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Most the pillar petitions I've seen recently have had no pillars at the location of the petition.
Either:
1. you guys have removed it. Meaning I can't find the location
2. The guys that made it removed it.
 

Joka10

Soulsand
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Sometimes townspeople who don't know they've been PE'd remove them before the staff get a chance to look at them. However, many have been responded to, saying that they will be dealt with, and there are a great many of these. That ties back into the last post I made, which I'm not gonna retype for time's sake.
 

Danda

Dungeon Master Extremist
Staff member
Administrator
Guide
Wiki Team
Max Legacy Supporter
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Sometimes townspeople who don't know they've been PE'd remove them before the staff get a chance to look at them. However, many have been responded to, saying that they will be dealt with, and there are a great many of these. That ties back into the last post I made, which I'm not gonna retype for time's sake.
Almost every pillar I've seen were built by a different person each time. While it may seem like the same individuals leaving pillars behind it's not always the case.
 

JDFinal

Legacy Supporter 5
Joined
Dec 20, 2011
.
If the griefing isn't "severe" ie a 1x1 pillar. I'll fine the person 30-40% of their TOTAL coin.
If they have no coin, I dump them into GREYLIST mode. If it's a repeated offense, I'll ban them.

I am a founder so my system is a tad different but I feel it works :) people dont like wasting tons of coin for stupid things like 1x1 pillars ;)

I really like this system you have kainzo! Would be great if that became the standard punishment that all mods and admins gave out.
 

EvilThor

Legacy Supporter 3
Joined
Oct 31, 2011
Location
Internett
I kinda agree whit joka, and bear/kain...
The staff should not ban/punish people whitout a good reason, that is a thing that makes HC a place I wanna spend time.

On the other side, minor rule breaks should not be over looked...
I go around my town every day, I usually PE about 2-5 pillars every day...
Last map I PE'ed 3 pillars or so in total.

I'm not saying nothing happened to the pillaring people, but for the person making the PE it just looks like the admin/mod PE to the pillar and find it gone, or remove it. When you get the msg "Pillar removed" you just feel you are wasting the staffs time whitout it getting the rule breakers into any kind of trouble...
 

Joka10

Soulsand
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
I kinda agree whit joka, and bear/kain...
The staff should not ban/punish people whitout a good reason, that is a thing that makes HC a place I wanna spend time.

On the other side, minor rule breaks should not be over looked...
I go around my town every day, I usually PE about 2-5 pillars every day...
Last map I PE'ed 3 pillars or so in total.

I'm not saying nothing happened to the pillaring people, but for the person making the PE it just looks like the admin/mod PE to the pillar and find it gone, or remove it. When you get the msg "Pillar removed" you just feel you are wasting the staffs time whitout it getting the rule breakers into any kind of trouble...
This is pretty much how I feel. The staff shouldn't punish without reason, and a single pillar isn't a reason, but a bunch of them over and over from the same people are. As to what Danda said, about how it's often different people, that is also true, but they used a similar loophole to having money to get by the fines. Rather than just needing to have money to build the pillar, the group just rotated through who built the body, and the rest just build up it as they need to. Kinda "Oh I'll build the pillar this time so we don't get in trouble" mentality, I guess. I'm not saying staff should do background checks on everyone's town/guild as that's just tedious and most of the time, not helpful. That's just why some of them have turned up differently.

I do know from observation, though, that many of the offenders broke the rules of pillaring repeatedly, and some theoretically should have accumulated at least three minor offenses from that, which seems like it should warrant more than just another warning/fine.

I've observed a lot more pillaring this map. I think this is partially due to sealed towns being illegal. Pillaring now actually has an effect, whereas before you would just walk onto a glass cieling or something once you got to the top. I like that towns can't be sealed; it makes them generally nicer looking and makes raids more interesting. However I don't like that it is potentially the reason why people are bending the rules more. Last map, as we honestly didn't have problems like we are this one in my town, we didn't have much at all to report. I don't know if pillaring was a more severe offense because it happened more rarely, or a minor offense because nothing could really be gained from it. However, offenses like pillaring should be enforced more strictly as long as pillaring is still considered illegal, because now it actually provides a method to get into most towns. It's being abused more than ever, so it's becoming more of a problem; one that, as I see it, needs to be stopped.
 

Danda

Dungeon Master Extremist
Staff member
Administrator
Guide
Wiki Team
Max Legacy Supporter
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
While it may seem different on your end we're doing nothing different than we were last map.
You're seeing more pillars now than you were before because towns aren't boxes anymore.
 

bearcat99

Sir GrowlMeow
Legacy Supporter 2
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
Don't forget that many people didn't pillar last map because almost every town had a glass roof. Now those are obsolete.


@Danda copied me..... :p
 

leftovers5

Legacy Supporter 8
Joined
Oct 28, 2011
Location
USA
Pillaring should be disallowed entirely in my opinion. It's annoying, and prevents me from frolicking in the grassy fields of Verstad.

Seriously though, it's like we're dealing with babies. Take this scenario for instance:

Little Johnny just stole Little Susie's toys and broke her crib in doing so. Little Susie cried and felt victimized by Little Johnny, however when Mommy and Daddy came to inspect the damage, they tried to repair the crib, but let Johnny keep the toys.

How perverse is it that Little Johnny, or the raiders that exploit game mechanics to obtain valuables (ie the creeper explosion fiascos) get to keep their toys/items? Why does Little Susy/the victims not get her/their toys/items back?

Something seriously needs to be done about the penalization of users who blatantly pursue courses of actions that ultimately force other players into a victim-like position, to which said victim is essentially helpless. Yes, I understand that you repaired the crib/"fixed" the damage, but you've failed to acknowledge that you're ultimately FACILITATING the role of Little Johnny/the abusers, who willingly do whatever must be done for self gain.
 

Joka10

Soulsand
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
While it may seem different on your end we're doing nothing different than we were last map.
You're seeing more pillars now than you were before because towns aren't boxes anymore.
Don't forget that many people didn't pillar last map because almost every town had a glass roof. Now those are obsolete.


@Danda copied me..... :p
I commented on that in the last post I made, in the last paragraph. I said I thought we were seeing more pillars this map due to the fact that pillaring now actually accomplishes something other than letting you stand on a roof.

Pillaring and Superjump are essentially the reasons why everyone made box towns last map. One of those is legal, and much less widespread (only one class has it). The illegal one is able to be done by anyone, and the way it is enforced has not, in my experience, stopped anyone from doing it. Right now you're essentially allowing the cause of last map's boxes to continue to take place, and the only reason there aren't boxes is because they are outlawed. If the roofs are to be outlawed, the pillars should be too (and by outlawed, I mean that repeated offenses should amount to something more than they do now).
 

bearcat99

Sir GrowlMeow
Legacy Supporter 2
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
If you are looking for more punishment for pillaring, we can make the punishments a little more noticeable for the abusers, so they will think twice about not removing their blocks. I, personally, could probably go a little harsher on punishments for pillaring.
 

Santharix1

Wood
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
As us PvPers are told again and again...this is a hardcore server....aka doesnt mean just PvE or PvP. Stop complaining that pvpers should have 0 access to pvping because you don't like it. We have to deal with your ground-level roofs, and sky-high walls...the least you can deal with is pillaring if destroyed after.
 
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