Suggestion Town Limit, Audit and Taxes - Solutions to a Growing Problem?

[Nalestom]

I feel that we should do this in 'baby' steps. First, I feel that we should reintroduce audits and taxes, also a strict town limit. THEN we can focus on what IHaz has suggested. If we continue to focus on what he has said, then we'll move far too distant from the original point.

I think it would be amazing if we saw the first few town audits within a month from now. The audit has already been announced, so any active members of any town (especially the mayor of said town, who should be browsing the forums on a semi-regular basis anyway) would have seen the thread @Brutalacerate made regarding the audits. Therefore, there is no excuse for any active towns to not pass the audit - towns that don't live up to the audit's standards should lose their regions right then and there.

Once we've weeded out what towns are inactive (and, therefore, what members of the community are truly active enough to play the game,) we can enact a maximum town limit and start to impose stricter restrictions on the towns that already exist. For example, I don't think it's too unfair to ask that, once a Hamlet gains its regions, it has a maximum time period of one month before it must upgrade to a Town. A Town is then allowed three months to upgrade to a City. Cities do not need to be upgrade any further, as no City should be forced to join or become a Kingdom if it wants to act as an independent voice. However, if after gaining regions for four months, a Hamlet is not able to gather a total of 35,000c and ten additional citizens, it is obvious that the Hamlet is not growing sufficiently and is thus inactive.

Thoughts?

 

[MajorasMask]

-Snip-

I'm liking the idea, baby steps, baby steps. According to Brutal, however, he would only do the audits when he has time. If this is the case with not just him, but other admins, then maybe there should be a new position in the staff system? A position which checks citizen lists and taxes? (Which would still go to Lastivity).

I feel that guides could already do this, to be honest, now their petition viewing skills have gone, as i've been sold, there isn't much else for them to do.

 

[Kainzo]

Tax will be an automatic thing btw - if your town doesn't have the cash to pay, you'll automatically lose the region

 

[malmenca]

The citizen audits need to be done, however I think that it should be the mayor's responsibility to do so, otherwise the town will be penalized (Coin removal) A limit of 15 towns being enough (Possibly a few too many?), anymore than that and I think you will be spreading out the population of Herocraft too thin, After all we only have a cap of 200 at a time, and atm we don't hit over 150.

Agreed on a low limit around 15 but it is hard to penalize towns via coin removal, the mayor could just give all the money to a citizen. One could add a "tax" of sorts that would be paid if mayor didnt do their job, but then again more work for the staff. If the township plugin worked this could work more effectively, but it doesn't.

 

[MajorasMask]

Can someone fill me in on the full abilities of the ''township plug-in'' people keep talking about?

 

[MsGigi]

I posted this in the wrong place >.> ooops....

 

[HolyRane]

Can someone fill me in on the full abilities of the ''township plug-in'' people keep talking about?

Same, I keep hearing about it, but I've heard the "http" plugin talked about for 7 months and right now it's mostly just a hassle.

 

[malmenca]

No, the map isn't far past fixing. That attitude will get nowhere. What do you want to do, just say ''yeah, we'll let the community die out, everything will be better upon a map wipe''? No. There is NO need for a map wipe at the moment.

You're suggestions suit a map wipe, mine don't. See the difference? My suggestion involves no plug-ins, no adjustment of skills, no extreme modification of the rules or how the server structure/facilities work..

1. The map, to many, seems far past fixing.
2. Bryns suggestions aren't off topic either. They offer a solution to the problem presented. (A solution vastly different from yours, but still a solution nonetheless.) Not to beat a dead horse, but the semantics you utilized in the thread title and first post don't make his suggestions "offtopic" per say.
3. Your suggestions aside from a town cap, should already be happening.

I think many people feel the map in its current state is stale and needs something to shake it up. To some, that thing is a map wipe, while others think it needs to be something entirely different.

My suggestion is in fact a map wipe, with many of bryns suggestions. I've heard countless times, people telling me "Oh I'm gonna play again once there is a map wipe." it could solve so many issues many people have.

 

[malmenca]

Same, I keep hearing about it, but I've heard the "http" plugin talked about for 7 months and right now it's mostly just a hassle.

Well fyi @HolyRane and @MajorasMask The HTTP plugin is the plugin that will automate towns. When u wanted to make a town, you stood on the block u wanted to be the center, and typed a command, it took your money and created a town region. It was supposed to auto collect taxes, remove inactive members (30 days or something). It has ranks included for region permissions and stuff (Mayor/council/normal people, or whatever the ranking system is.)

It does not work. In any capacity. It is. in fact, more of a detriment than anything else. The town Sycamorium Gravcawk (formerly America) which has gone from Jorict, to me, to Eliterubberduck, back to me, and now Graink, according to the plugin, is still owned by Jorict (and called America.) It is not possible to have town ownership, within the plugin, change hands so Jorict is still the owner. Jorict is inactive and is the only one who can promote people within HTTP to officer so Graink remains a "normal" townie, and people who we don't want to have the officer rank have it.

 

[MajorasMask]

@malmenca Please keep the topic of ''Map Wipes'' away from this thread. As for the HTTP/Township system, thank you for informing me.

 

[Nadastorm]

Update:

I have noticed that the thread linked has been locked. I'd like to remind those reading this that this has nothing to do with removing the Heroes plug-in. The plug-in would work fine following this idea.

Thanks for the notification. I just wanted to say that in that thread I never said we should remove Heroes, I was just pointing out some potential flaws like grinding and saying what has been on my mind for weeks now. I didn't really know what the problem was, I didn't know what the solution is, I just knew something was wrong and it had to be fixed.

I think Majoras has hit the nail on the head though, we don't need more towns, we need better quality towns. With more active people together you're less discouraged, a community grows, and you all work together fighting and building. Now the tax system and audits should be happening to prevent inactivity, but from what it seems mods haven't had time to do so. The township plugin is supposed to regulate these eventually, but who knows when that will be. Didn't it take them weeks to add in towns after hamlets? And Mal is completely right, it is a hassle at the moment, you can't even transfer ownership of the town to someone else and players must be online to add them to the town plugin.

In addition to what everyone else has already said, I would like to mention town security a bit. By no means should towns be 100% safe, wars and pvp are fun, but I think there should be more protection. Let me explain. Many times in my town people abused their region rights, let others into town, stole from citizens chests, and then ditched the place. I know you'll say lock your stuff in a LWC, but still this happened so many times I got discouraged and thought I couldn't trust anyone anymore, not even my own town's citizens. That's why I bought a plot in Dragon. I'm not saying give everyone should get a LWC, but I think there should be a punishment or rule against abusing region rights to steal.

 

[whitemagehealu]

There is a rule... It's illegal to join the town with malicious intent and steal from the town.

 

[HolyRane]

There is a rule... It's illegal to join the town with malicious intent and steal from the town.

I also forgot to touch up on this topic, I think this rule shouldn't be in place, this is a HARDCORE server, and if you let retards that steal shit into your town, you deserve it, it's hardcore for you to have to PICK and choose your members, not just blindly let everyone in. I personally am a believer of LWC'ing ALL of my stuff and never adding anyone to them.

If people don't want to LWC their shit, they should accept it's fair game.

 

[Nalestom]

Personally, I don't think starting from scratch with a map wipe is completely necessary. I think there are plenty of rule and policy changes that the staff can make that will turn the server around and start to make it fun again. The issue isn't the map itself, the issue is the policies that were presented alongside the map. Don't change the map, change the policies.

If we take baby steps, we can change this map into an extremely fun experience for everybody. The trouble isn't in the changes themselves, the trouble is taking the first step towards those changes. Which would be town audits.

 

[Nadastorm]

There is a rule... It's illegal to join the town with malicious intent and steal from the town.

The thing is that the people who raided us many times were with us from the beginning when we created the town and to see someone you've trusted for so long turn on you is really upsetting. I can get over such things but it happened enough times to make me stressed out for while. Imagine if you were new to the server though and your stuff got stolen by someone from your own town multiple times? They'd probably quit or go inactive and I don't want that happening. Just something for future mayors to keep in mind I guess.

 

[MajorasMask]

I also forgot to touch up on this topic, I think this rule shouldn't be in place, this is a HARDCORE server, and if you let retards that steal shit into your town, you deserve it, it's hardcore for you to have to PICK and choose your members, not just blindly let everyone in. I personally am a believer of LWC'ing ALL of my stuff and never adding anyone to them.

If people don't want to LWC their shit, they should accept it's fair game.

You could easily act like someone good when you join a town, then wait for nobody online, to then destroy the town. Not everyone can store everything within LWCs, what about the many stacks of building blocks, food and plants that people have? Don't think that ''not choosing retarded players'' is easy. In D101, we had plenty of good members. We had no bad apples. But, on certain days, one or two of them raided everything. This was unfair, not only could we not avoid it but we couldn't stop it. Luckily, we had other towns to support us, aswell as some staff. As we know now, the rules have changed to prevent such madness.

The mass cleaning of a town from unfaithful/dick players, through the looting and dumping of every chest, has led to nothing but chaos in the past. Remember Lorien? That town got raided clean, and I didn't see many TC in months, let alone Lorien members. Remember the Communist Collective, that got raided clean too? We all know how that ended. GOOD and strong communites are ruined when douchebag players come in and abuse their region abilities. What next, should we allow griefing? Why not remove regions? Why not even have towns? Why not all the items available for you HC players wanting stuff ''Hardcore''?

Don't use the excuse that this server is ''hardcore'', that people should ''donate'' to get more LWCs and ''man up''. One, I see nothing hardcore with being 100% looted when you arn't there. Two, donors shouldn't be OP like they were in Sanctum. Finally three, as for ''manning up'', yeah sure, i'm certain EVERYONE would like their chests being abused into, their town raided clean with nothing left, with enemy recalls inside, that sounds so legitimate; but let's shake it off, we should be men not wimps (/sarcasm).

That's my rant over.

 

[HolyRane]

All I'm saying is that it's not hardcore to make stealing illegal.

 

[MajorasMask]

All I'm saying is that it's not hardcore to make stealing illegal.

Stealing from your own members using an insane unfair disadvantage is not hardcore. It's stupid.

 

[HolyRane]

Stealing from your own members using an insane unfair disadvantage is not hardcore. It's stupid.

Let's not argue this point, but I disagree.

 

[iHazBryn]

Stealing from your own members using an insane unfair disadvantage is not hardcore. It's stupid.

In zeal me and my friend Roguemind had a guild that was "Good". Our goal was to destroy all evil towns. One day he went in "Undercover" and joined One of the eviler towns, I Forget the name. He then procedded to gain their trust, get into their LWCs and when the time was right, we got the guild in and took everything they needed for A: Building the town, and B: Causeing chaos through PVP. We didn't clean out their members chests or dump things just for the hell of it. We only took what 3 guys could carry in 2 or 3 trips. That night was epic, sneaking through the town, past people in their plots, and then bring it back to our base of operations 100 blocks away.

When the admins got involved, roguemind told them about the "Operation", and they laughed and told the town that they wern't going to do anything about it. It was all in the spirit of the World of zeal.

We may not have set them back much, or even caused them distres, but that night has to be one of the most dear to me moments on this server.

RIP Roguemind, wherever you are..