October Mod Update

[Josh3738 3137]

Hey everyone! The plan when I started was to do an update once a season depending on how things were going for the team and the server, but after feedback from the community and lengthy discussion with the team, we’re endeavoring to make a number of changes in protocol, communication, and transparency which start with monthly updates and a couple other changes.

 

• These updates will come after the main mod meeting every month (typically towards the end of the month)
• Updates will include:
  • Announcements (If any)
  • Rules (Changes and reminders)
  • Mod meeting notes (Agenda and discussion of all non-sensitive topics)
  • State of the Team (who’s on the team, current/future projects, and standing precedents)
• Rule changes will include explanations of their reasoning
• While the mod team has tracked larger precedents set as a result of vagueness in rules for a few months now, these will now be included in the monthly update so everyone is aware of them until the relevant rules are patched

 

I don’t expect these changes to fix everything nor do I expect these to be the only changes we end up making, but it’s a good next step in endeavoring to correct a string of problems that stem from communicating how the team does things or why we do them.

Announcements

Upcoming War Pause and Changes

Spoiler

At the conclusion of the current conflict, wars as a whole will be paused for 2-3 weeks while a number of changes are made. These changes include:

• War eligibility changes to curb mass nation switching for wars
• Siege plugin tweaks
• Better automating the war plugins and process to place it fully in mod hands
• Clarifications to war timelines
  • When warclaims will be relative to when they’re posted
  • Ally, build, and roster deadlines

Villainy Blacklist Trial

Spoiler

The concept of villainy blacklists has been tried a handful of times to varying effect as a consequence of its design and application by past staff. Ideally, it serves as an alternative to a straight ban and a middleground punishment option that more directly targets poor villainy to better allow someone the opportunities to integrate into communities and learn to be better, barring them from that aspect of the server rather than barring them from the entire server.

 

In an effort to test its reintroduction and potential for full integration with the infraction system, we’ll be implementing a trial period where blacklists may be handed out as a consequence of serial poor villainy.

Villainy Blacklists

Basics

• 1-3 month length
• Bans to follow for continued poor villainy
• Blacklisted individuals will be prohibited from participating in any villainous behavior such as raids, arson, banditry, etc.
  • Anything which harms others or their property
  • Does not apply to self-defense
    • Harassing folks into attacking first does not count as self-defense
  • Does not apply to carrying out duties in their own land (ie. guards)

How does someone get it?

• Whole team has the opportunity to weigh in, same as with reports

How does someone get rid of it?

• Private appeal to the team after the expiry date

Rule Changes

CRP Clarifications

Defining “Unhindered”

Spoiler

There was confusion as to what constitutes “unhindered” during flee emotes, so the most common rulings/general precedents were applied.

 

Combat Roleplay / CRP (Default) 5.3 & 5.3a

5. In order to join an ongoing combat scenario, you must make two emotes making your character’s presence known before being able to engage in the ongoing combat. Likewise, to leave combat you must emote three times unhindered, making your character's attempts to leave known.

1. The first of two emotes to join will be your character making their presence known at the sight of conflict and is non-combative. On the second emote, one may begin to prepare for combat (drawing weapons, connecting to magic etc.).
2. Although you need two emotes to join combat, only the first emote must be made in the 15 minutes before the CRP lock.
3. An unhindered attempt at escape constitutes your character being reasonably mobile and able-bodied, with mechanically accessible means of escape. (ex: city gates are open.)
   1. Hindered attempts at escape include but are not limited to: a player shooting and or casting a spell at you. Aiming and charging up the bow/spell does not constitute hindering. Players must maintain line of sight and be within range of the player to hinder their attempts.  Missing with LOS constitutes hindering. Things such as small objects / trees, barrels, etc do not count towards losing LOS for the purpose of the escape rule.

 

Clarifying Draw/Swing Emotes

Spoiler

In comparison with the range of movement and action abilities, especially when it comes to some spell casting and lore feats, drawing a weapon is a minor enough thing as to not constitute a full action and thus may be done in the same emote as an attempted strike.

 

Combat Roleplay / CRP (Default) 2.1

2. You may move four blocks per emote, or eight blocks per emote whilst mounted, whenever performing an action relevant to combat. An example of an action is swinging a melee weapon, blocking a strike, aiming a ranged weapon, preparing to throw a projectile, or casting magic.

1. You may draw and attack with a melee weapon in the same emote.

 

Clarifying Conflict Soulstoneing

Spoiler

It was confusing to have the soulstoneing rules relevant to conflict separated, so they’ve been combined. Additionally, it was felt that the scope of “conflict” wasn’t necessarily as evident compared to what’s been ruled on previously, so the explicit mention of raiding and organized villainy was added. Rallying in Cloud Temple to soulstone to the nearest region pillar has also been clarified as the intent behind the rule as a whole is to prohibit soulstone use entirely if there’s going to be conflict at the destination. 

 

General Combat Rules 6 & 6.1

6. Use of soul stones in order to travel during or leading up to conflict is disallowed. The use of soulstones for: raiding, the general intent to pursue conflict, and/or organized villainy is disallowed. This includes travel from Cloud Temple.

 

1. Soulstone pillars can't be "camped" or lingered around with the general intent to pursue conflict either.

 

8. Camping soulstone pillars for CRP is not permitted.

 

Clarifying “Mounted” Includes Boats

Spoiler

For the rare cases that it’s been relevant, movement for boats wasn’t necessarily decided or evident in the past, so it’s been attached to the mounted rules as far as conflict is concerned. This is only for boats which were already placed down prior to any conflict starting. You still can’t pull a boat out of your pocket.

 

Combat Roleplay / CRP (Default) 3

3. You may move eight blocks per emote, or twelve blocks per emote whilst mounted or in a boat, when your character is solely focused on sprinting and not being reasonably attacked.

 

Clarifying Mech Flee Vote

Spoiler

In line with the CRP default premise, no single side in a conflict is able to unilaterally shift the conflict to PVP before the 1.1 threshold of eight or more people, so 1.3 has been amended to explicitly require the consent of both parties akin to the initial decision of CRP or PVP in 1.

 

General Combat Rules  1.3

1. When a party emotes to pursue combat, parties must decide whether it will be resolved through CRP or PVP. Once a decision is made, it cannot be reversed unless both sides agree. If neither side agrees, it defaults to CRP.

1. If the conflict includes eight or more people, the defenders may vote by majority to switch to PvP. Afterwards, it requires the consent of all groups involved.
2. Guards are defenders when in their own land.
3. The decision to mechanically flee should be decided by both parties when any party begins an emote with the intent to pursue combat.
4. In the event of mechanical flee, both parties must wait for the countdown to finish before moving, moving early is not permitted.

General Rules

Clarifying Mods in Roleplay

Spoiler

Client-side mods which add aesthetics to the base game, while permissible and available to all, are not required or used by all and should thus have no bearing on RP. We’ve added 7.1 in the context of General Roleplay and what’s ultimately admissible in RP.

 

General Roleplay 7.1

7. Your inventory, actions (ex. punching), and mechanical location are considered admissible in RP. You may not roleplay items that you do not currently possess in your inventory (this excludes small, non-combat and non-magical trinkets such as rings and necklaces).

1. Features from mods such as Figura are not visible to all players and are considered inadmissible in RP. 

October Mod Meeting

Pushing Amendments

Spoiler

Protocol changes: Streamlining the idea/precedent to rule/policy change pipeline, channels are dedicated to confirmed precedents and completed, formatted documents to stage for team, mod admin, or admin team approval dependent on predefined admin protocol.

Patching Minor Rules

Spoiler

Staged items are all approved to be implemented alongside the mod update.

Forum Rules Your View

Spoiler

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/241227-your-view-forum-rules/#comments

1. Expiry Dates of Warning Points and Appeals
   1. Given the current one year protocol, the number of points required to incur extended/permanent punishment is high enough that folks who actually get that high in that span of time shouldn’t be allowed to continue their behavior.
2. Anonymous Posting
   1. The intent behind the anonymous posting rule was to try to curb the tendency for such posts to be low-effort and often just a reflection of OOC opinion through some nameless, faceless figure. These things are otherwise addressed in other rules and needlessly bar what could otherwise be well written responses whose only fault is excluding the character name.
3. Reserve “r” Posting
   1. In many cases, reserve posts are edited in 5-10 minutes and mods don’t even notice. Realistically the rule aims to keep the forums clean and to prevent folks from pursuing the whole “first” mentality. The rule should be amended such that the thread owner can report it if they want, but it otherwise shouldn’t be an issue that takes up our time nor should it incur full warning points if an “r” post is hidden at the thread owner’s request.
4. Leniency and Reports
   1. Generally bring back the usage of 0 point warnings for non-issues or lighthearted banter. Continuous cases should otherwise follow standard enforcement, incurring full points and relevant punishments should behavior continue.
   2. We need to be more consistent with full warning points handed out to folks posting on reports they’re not involved in.
5. NL Perms - Organizing sub-forums and more management roles
   1. This is on the to do list.
6. Rep/Upvotes for OOC Clout and Separation from IC
   1. On the one hand, it’s true that folks sometimes try to ratio one another with upvotes. On the other hand, they’re there for showing some level of appreciation for the quality of a post and its content, and it’s not an issue with things like culture posts, lore, etc. Realistically, it’s just most evident at the heart of the problem, that being when it’s used in low-effort replies, poorly put together RP posts laden with OOC references, and memey shitposts. A crackdown on that sort of behavior should be the first step in attempting to curb the sickness itself rather than the symptom. Otherwise, the idea itself may be something to consider in the future, possibly in the form of a trial period in removing rep on comments or visible rep count to all but the poster.
7. In-Game Chat Screenshots
   1. In several cases recently, in-game screenshots have been used as an OOC means to cement one side’s “truth”. (ie. “Here’s my screenshot, this is what actually happened”) If a screenshot does not add to RP narrative and is meant to demean or attempt to justify RP through OOC means, it should be removed, possibly falling under the rule which prohibits using screenshots without the other player’s consent.
8. Consensus items to be revised for admin review

 

Staff Distrust

Spoiler

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/241839-your-view-and-mine/

1. Protocol for handling reports (Defined under the Reports sub-forum)
   1. Public Reports - Anything lesser than what follows
   2. Private Reports - Reports that deal with disturbing or sensitive material as well as situations involving Harassment and Slander
   3. Staff Reports - Reports against members of the staff may be sent to the team's Admin over Discord.
   4. Admin Reports - Admin level reports against members of staff or other players may be sent to an Admin over Discord or emailed to [email protected]
   5. Obviously folks can always ask us if they’re unsure about which category their report may fall under.
2. Report Communication
   1. How are we informing players of their punishments?
      1. The only person who needs the details of their punishment is the one being punished, and their friends can ask them about it if they want to share.
   2. How are we informing reporters of the decisions made?
      1. Communicate whether a punishment, ban, etc. was handed out or not in concluding their report.
   3. All of this will be better baked into the reports and appeals protocols.
3. Degree of Transparency
   1. Why we don’t share certain info:
      1. So the reporter doesn’t get harassed
      2. So the punished player doesn’t get their name dragged through the mud
      3. Potentially sensitive or inappropriate content
   2. Improvements can be made to communicating decisions, but we’re not going to adjust how transparent we are in terms of pieces of info shared.
4. Potential for bias and how we mitigate it
   1. The potential for bias is an inherent factor in decision making across every staff team because, at the end of the day, we’re all people with our own opinions and preferences too. Understanding that that will always be the case, we can take steps to mitigate it as much as possible in how we make important decisions. This is a big part of why all reports, barring staff reports or special circumstances, are put to the team rather than a single mod. Policy can otherwise continue to be improved where possible.
5. Consistency of rulings and punishment
   1. Better communication coupled with the streamlining of setting precedents and turning them into clear rule changes is a good first step in trying to improve the situation by situation rulings of the team.
6. Mod Community Meetings
   1. This is an idea that’s been floating around for a while that we’d like to try sometime soon. Akin to admin community meetings, it’s a platform where we can more directly field discussions about the things we’re working on or things we just released.
7. Communicating what we’re working on
   1. We’ve got the mod discord and forums to communicate with and pull feedback from for projects, but it’s not always as clear what we’re working on, why we’re working on it, or why we ultimately made the decisions we did. Mod team updates should shift to being released every month after the mod meeting rather than once a season, and they should include our current precedents, our reasoning for rule changes, and why we’re doing certain things. A general synopsis of the mod meetings should also be included so folks are aware of the ongoing discussions.

State of the Team

Current Team

Spoiler

We’ve had several additions since the last update. @Java17 and @410,757,864,530 Dead Xannites (Trinn) (despite the discord training role) are full mods now, and @_mady07, @Xarkly, and @Aeusare undergoing training. Our single departure was @Zacho. A big thank you to him for his time and effort on the team.

 

As of right now, managers and mods are:

Projects

Spoiler

Active

Rule Clarifications (Ongoing): A review of the current rules looking to see where things could be confusing or otherwise require an amendment.

 

Forum Rule Changes: A review of forum rules and proposals for admin consideration given discussions.

 

Naval Warfare (Early Stages): System for naval effects, battles, and movement of armies.

 

War Changes: Plugins and systems updates during the temporary pause.

 

Protocol Reworks: Updates and overhaul of various mod protocols.

In Consideration

Mercenary Companies: System to allow for regulated non-nation parties in conflict.

 

Precedents

 

Spoiler

We’re pushing most of them into the rules changes in this update, so there's only the one. As we better review and document these, this list will expand.

• Inventories/items of banned players may not be transferred to others or otherwise redistributed

Afterword

As always, the rules of the server stand as both reference and guideline for how we should proceed, but they’re also flexible and should adapt with the times and what’s available to us so we might provide the fairest, safest experience we can. Things can be changed, and it’s your help and feedback that lets us know how we can change things for the better. A big factor in how we adapt and introduce rules and systems is player feedback, so join the Moderation Discord if you want to give input on our active projects and anything else you’d like to see changed.

 

Your Mod Admin,

Josh

 

[wowj 9747]

lector

[Metamancy 1766]

thanks guys. i love moderation

[Malta 2811]

LMFAO villainy blacklists im ******* crying ts writes itself 

TOO MUCH WAR GUYS PAUSE ALL FUN BTW

funny as hell admin team thanks for the trick and treat 

[Orlanth 4667]

@Josh3738 Blink twice if you need help.

(hey guys why did my friend sam get banned for 3 months for a joke made by members of moderation team?)

[rdowdy 263]

regular staff updates go brrtttt??? (it won't last)

[TofuGomi 362]

18 minutes ago, Josh3738 said:

Clarifying Conflict Soulstoneing

  Reveal hidden contents

question about this- when it comes to hostage situations, it states that whoever the captive is can leave after 2 hours (unless royalty). in this case, are they free to just ss out? or would they need to just emote escaping? or would the people who are guarding the area/the person who captured them in the first place decide? 

[Zqppy 918]

Question, if some one breaks the rules..
Why would they not get a Warning or a ban like every other type of punishment

Why would adding a Villainy blacklist be a good idea?

[Generi 621]

20 minutes ago, Josh3738 said:

wars as a whole will be paused for 2-3 weeks

does this include the warclaim on saturday...

[Pancho 4197]

Villainy black lists are needed for fiends who camp the roads 24/7 doing single sentence emotes. Billions must touch grass

[indiana105 5126]

NOOO I CANT KILL PINK TAGS WITH BOOMSTEEL ANYMORE

 

”just ban them for breaking the rules!!” they don’t obviously. if you ban someone for being a **** there’s gonna be an 80 comment “free my mans” thread

 

if mods r more comfortable slapping ppl w blacklists then at least its something

[Unwillingly 18099]

27 minutes ago, Josh3738 said:

The concept of villainy blacklists has been tried a handful of times to varying effect as a consequence of its design and application by past staff. Ideally, it serves as an alternative to a straight ban and a middleground punishment option that more directly targets poor villainy to better allow someone the opportunities to integrate into communities and learn to be better, barring them from that aspect of the server rather than barring them from the entire server.

we have magic blacklists because magic in and of itself is a restricted element of the server. villainy is not a restricted element so why are we reintroducing villainy blacklists? cannot express how much I disagree with this

I guess my simplest question is... why? for what tangible reason? if someone breaks the rules enough to warrant punishment, why mitigate that punishment by still allowing them access to the server at all? what's the point? why is simply enforcing the rules and banning people for things that are already against server rules not enough? ignoring the conceptual issue with it there's no way this can be implemented without introducing convoluted rules and case-by-case scenarios

this sucks please don't do villainy blacklists, just ban people if they break the rules

[subatomic 1497]

Get me on the team rihgjt now

[GMRO 6186]

10 minutes ago, indiana105 said:

NOOO I CANT KILL PINK TAGS WITH BOOMSTEEL ANYMORE

 

[Agy 756]

12 minutes ago, Unwillingly said:

I guess my simplest question is... why? for what tangible reason? if someone breaks the rules enough to warrant punishment, why mitigate that punishment by still allowing them access to the server at all? 

I am guessing it to be in the form of a more "active" warning? The affected individual is actually punished in a tangible manner that locks them out of a certain part of the server.

It's honestly not that bad an idea if it's used in the right grey area, they should more than enough have gotten the message that they are treading on thin ice far better than a mere slap on the wrist by moderation and obviously if they continue then obviously a ban would be very much fast approaching