I challenge this statement - there are very few servers that do not charge for features. Many servers offer no protection and the only way to farm is to try and hide under a lake or somewhere like that so that you can use the water as a source for crops.
I would also like to state that the main reason I decided to stay here on ECC is:
1. The community - yes we have our problems but it was the most friendly place I ever played with more people willing to help out than anywhere else. Surprising, since we all have to work for our assets.
2. There was not a single server I played that did not reset protected zones (if they even had them) every time an upgrade was done. The plugins used by many other servers are not nearly as stable as ours nor is there nearly the support that is offered here.
3. AndrewKM - I have yet to hear of any server owner so involved and caring about their server or the players . Perfect? No, while hard to believe, Andrew is a human being (not a hamster like most think) :D and has real life issues just like all of us.
I hate to see players quit, for whatever reason, but if they will quit over something so simple as water placement, then, perhaps it is better for them to go now. This server is not for everyone by any means.
I personally believe we lose a lot more players when they find out that begging, trolling, and scamming are not welcome here.
It would be great if we could keep every single player that visited, however, the reality is that this will never happen. When we see players complaining about things, it would be awesome if all of us would take a minute or two and explain how the server works, possibly offer to place a few spots of water, or maybe give them a little food.

 

first impressions are key:

A player joins and spawns in the tutorial. But it's not really a tutorial, it's more of a knowledgebase. You don't really know where to start and it's pretty confusing.
After the tutorial there's spawn itself, which at this point is fairly convoluted, hell, even I can't always figure out which direction what is.
If they haven't quit yet at this point then they're likely somewhere in the wild or in the mining world. This is when people generally try to set up a house with a little farm or try to mine. The ones that try to build a farm will figure out they can't even place water. They can't even build a farm. A good portion of these people quit. The others might ask how they can place water, and these people generally get helped and end up living in a town. These are probably the keepers. They keep playing.
That leaves the miners. They generally min(e)d their own business, and problems that plague them are unrelated to this suggestion. So I won't talk about that.

Anyway, my point is: Not being able to place water leaves a bad first impression. A bad first impression means they quit and will likely never return again.
And comparing it to other servers is silly. A lot of players haven't played on other servers, or they've only played on minigame servers. They've never experienced these restrictions, and it leaves a bad impression. And just because it also happens on other servers doesn't mean it's a good thing.

 

Hey Kuke, I understand what you are saying here but do you have a better solution? The current spawn into the tutorial is something that was fairly recently implemented based on suggestions of concerned players. It may not be perfect, but, it is at least 90% better than before.
I am not sure it is ever possible to be able to help every new player - some will never take the time to learn and will never have the staying power to survive on an economy server.
As for comparing it to other servers, those that have not played elsewhere will find out that is just how it is out there in the server world - donations help keep good servers running. Hopefully they will realize this is an awesome server after they look around and see what is out there and decide to return. If they have only played on minigame servers, this will most likely not the server they are looking for anyway.

 

1. I just built all my farms without water, and they worked perfectly.
2. This is a hardcore economy server.
3. You can always just get people to place it for you.
4. I feel that not being able to place water shows that you have dedication.
5. As of now, I still don't have water. I've been doing it this way for 2.9 years. :p

 

The problem with 3 is when its in a town you have to wait for a mayor to add someone to the town If hes even active

 

Good answer. I didn't realize that, because I get so few residents who want water to be placed, and I'm usually on daily.

 

@Nicit6 yours

 

I think the 74% yes to the 26% no clearly shows what the community thinks on this problem

 

I do not believe this should be allowed to builders freshly starting out as they are features that are too easily abused for griefing, however maybe have them as a ECD feature for residents instead. But this would introduce another problem, what about all those that have paid for water/pyro features already? The server would be expected to compensate for the feature loss. I don't see it happening as anyone could save the ECD to purchase the feature through someone else if they really want to.

 

Maybe get the ability to place water for a day if you vote on 2+ sites or something?

 

Just remove the water donation feature all together and don't give anyone credit or refunds if they have bought it already., I have paid for it and so have many others. But I really think this is a must, free water for all.

 

+1

 

I like it

 

I like the idea that you should be able to apply on the forums to be able to place water (with ECD; not sure how much that should cost) and then maybe change how the donation features of water work, so 'water' would have the features that 'water+' has atm, and 'water+' could be updated to something like you get depth strider 3 effect when in water, or able to break blocks at a normal rate under water, so as if you were above water. Or something like that.

And as for lava, I say keep that as a donation feature, because people would defiantly start griefing and trolling with it. And placing lava is not something I would say is necessarily a thing that everyone needs to have, unlike how water is used to build farms etc, which is the way that most new players earn their money, and they often don't have enough money to buy perms to a farm straight away or to pay someone to place water (So yes, I think water should be able to be gotten through applying on the forums).

So +1 to water,
-1 to lava placement.

 

I really like the idea of Water Placements, but certainly not Lava Placement.

This got me thinking. If we want to really engage and motivate people to be the best they can be, how about we set a bar for people to reach?
When a Resident ranked person applies for a Mayor rank, a town comes with the Rank. Correct? Since people really enjoy using farms, how about they build their own farm? That's right, The water feature can come with the Mayor Rank! (Since water is needed to make an efficient farm.)

So when Resident's apply for Mayor, these perks can come with it

• You keep all the perks of being a Resident
• Access to all Mayor commands
• Increase in LWC limits from 100 -> 300.
• You get a nice new [Mayor] tag in the server!
• You get to join the Mayor group in the forums!
• You receive a protected town area where you are able to add/remove members and assistant owners.
  • (Chests/Doors are still accessible by everyone so remember to lock them!)
  • (As well I still recommend everyone within their regions uses LWC on their doors!)
• You receive access to post in our Mayor applications forum
  • (Upgrade your town with awesome features!
• Access to all Water Feature commands

If the Water Feature comes with Mayor, than builder only need to work up $100 000 ECD ($15 000 ECD for Resident, and $85 000 for Mayor) to receive the Feature and everything else that comes with the specific ranks.

Overall I think the Idea is cool but needs to come with an in-game price and dedication to EcoCityCraft. This will motivate the newer people of EcoCityCraft to achieve their goal without paying out of their pockets for a Water Feature.

@Canadian_Apple

 

+1
I like this idea :)

 

Great [modedit] idea

 

I voted no and this is why: I think even a little bit of water in the hands of a few griefers is able to cause a lot of trouble for everybody else. I am used to paying for features in online games and though I won't be paying real money for water I think that wall is good protection.