This will be a long post without a tl;dr, so suck it up buttercup. Let's say, I take out a loan, and time comes, and I haven't paid it back yet. Once a Admin/Mod becomes involved, there will be a system of points setup, each involving a more severe punishment, but only a max level of set points would equal a ban. Failure to pay loan of : 1-100ecd (Just for example purposes.) A person could be flagged with "X" points or "X" flag. It would be left between the M/A (Mods/Admins) to determine the amount. Now, each offense would accrue points, that would fall off like the warning system, except one point per three months. Depending on the offense, and the player(s) demeanor, the M/A would assign points. It seems like a lot of bans seem to be loan related, at least from what I hear, and see from posts from when I was AWOL. Points or a Flag would be attached to said player, then the authorities involved could search through the players chests/vaults and auction off items to pay the person who did not receive the agreed upon amount of money. (Basically play IRS.) This player would then be required to write an apologetic post on the forums based upon a form created by the Mods/Admins. If no items of value are found, or maybe that player knew this was coming, and handed off everything of value to his friend? The player who committed the offense would be flagged, unseen by the world. This flag would have consequences such as anything this player is given/receives would be flagged as !drop, !sell, etc. If said player would have money given to him, it would automatically be transferred to the person who was wronged. Player has been caught using mods illegal to Ecc: Points/Flag added to his name, like warning, and at this point, possibly not allow that player to log while using Litemod/Forge/etc? Or we could create a server strictly for "cheaters" to play on until their sentence is served. In which, they cannot access any other servers. Then trying to figure out how they could creatively help Ecc, by building some structures possible, or by asking them to build monuments in the form of Ecc as an apology. It would be easy to see who actually put thought into it, and who didn't. Upon serving their sentence, or possibly building a truly incredible monument to Ecc, they might be released early. With this system, they will show up in the logged in players roster, bolstering our roster, so when new players come/return, it doesn't look so dwindled. Player is harassing another player or creating an unwelcoming environment: Points/Flag, and at first, possibly just an "X" hour mute. If their previous activity continues, considering I view that as damaging the Ecc community, I would damage their current standing. Possibly auction a piece of their current items, vacuum some of their Ecd, and possible revoke their /ch and /pm for a longer period of time. What if they accrue "X" points? At this point, they have been given multiple opportunities to learn, reinvent themselves, and mature. I would see this as the point where the player isn't likely to benefit Ecc as being on the logged in roster, and would ban them. A ban in the terms of "months", and none of this appeal stuff. I feel banning people and having an appeal system just adds to the workload of M/A, and is a rather useless system. I do not mean this in a condescending way towards anyone who put in this system, or manages it, nor who thinks it is a working system. For a little background that shows the character of a person. I've played a MUD for around 15 years now. Basically a Mmorpg, with nothing but text. Over that time span, I have discovered and abused many duping glitches, and mechanics that allows for killing things easier than intended. My punishments? Purges. I have many characters, and each time (I think 6). The Imm's would go through each one and just remove all my gear, purge it. Purge my bank account, and ALL currencies on each character. I would be back to square one naked, with no gear to kill anything etc. Every time, I fought even harder to get back to my original status, and push even further. Oddly, I am now a coder/builder/Imm(Mod) for it, and also lead a clan. My actions never caused harm to someone else, and I never have "tried" to harm someone else in any form intentionally. So, what is my rant about? I think the system of punishments should be revised at minimum, to take into consideration was the players actions intentionally toxic towards another player, or was it aimed towards themselves. Was it aimed to try to intentionally harm the ECC community? Etc. Possibly even change many things, even if temporarily to try to get a player base back, and then reintroduce the punishment system. Now, criticism is welcome, but, if you do criticise a certain aspect, or disagree with it all, instead of doing what is very easy for anyone to do and point out flaws, put a little more effort and create something better. It is very easy to find a flaw in any system, game, person, vehicle, etc. It truly takes effort to understand what the issue is, and try to build something better off the backbone of it. Love you all! Familyfurst
I agree with @LJKAzrael . It will be too much work for staff. If you scam someone, that’s illegal. You’re banned.
You break the rules you get banned. We already have a “player forgiveness system”, it’s called a ban appeal.
So, the apparent jist I am getting from everyone. Ecc is fine, even tho the pbase has tanked massively. If you do, what you have always done, you will get, what you will always had. Or Aka: "Insanity" Performing the same actions, over and over, expecting a different result. But hey, what do I know.
I really oppose this idea. If a player has gone inactive for two weeks, their inventory will be cleared - therefore, they will most likely lose their best tools and therefore their best way of earning money. If a player actively wants to pay off their debt, they will be limited to much less profitable ways of making money. Pumpkin farming? Not worth it without an efficiency axe. Mining? Doesn't earn as much without an efficiency/fortune pickaxe. Fishing? Takes a long time to catch a fish without a lure rod. Construction jobs with supplied materials? Would probably result in more complaints/debt due to the auto-sell. Anything that requires a tool? You won't be able to get a /repair from anyone (unless they offer it for free) because your balance is permanently $0. Basically, forcibly seizing everything a player touches locks them out of any profitable money making method and therefore increases the chance that they are going to say "I won't spend dozens of hours paying this off, I'll quit". The idea of a completely separate server (probably without ways to earn money to make it an actual punishment) breaks apart as soon as a player is dealing with two offences. If they were hacking to pay off a loan, they would now be exiled without any chance of paying their creditor until their hacking punishment ends. However, we are forgetting a pretty important thing here: Do we really know that the reduced player count is caused by the way the rules (especially the economy ones) are enforced on ECC? I'd argue that they aren't (partially due to the ratio between the thread count of the appeals and the complaints subforum).
I actually like the idea of the money going directly to the player who is owed the money. If the rule breaker has a limited balance of like $10k or something then thats enough for them to get some good farming tools (if they even need em).
However: Someone who is actively trying to pay back a debt will return the money without having server-sided enforcement. Someone who doesn't could easily abuse it. Buy 10 lotto tickets, bet $10,000 on sportsbook, gamble $10,000 at a casino, the list goes on. It's a very minor inconvenience for those who don't repay the damages, but a major one for those who do.
But this isn't what we've always had. Our punishment system is largely unchanged from a few years ago when we had hundreds of players on at a time. If anything I'd argue its way lighter as many offenses have been reduced to short tempbans instead of actual bans. I'd directly account the lack of players to the fact that the game itself is largely unchanged from those years ago, and there's very few draws to keep new people in. Frankly I think going out of our way to keep frequent rule-breakers around is likely to discourage players who play fairly.
