Towny discussion thread

Discussion in 'Survival Server Suggestions' started by ezeiger92, Feb 21, 2018.

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  1. ezeiger92

    ezeiger92 Well-Known Member Lead Admin Survival Admin

    I'm torn about where to post this, but ultimately I think it fits better in the suggestion board as there will (hopefully) be plenty of suggestions.

    Towny is a core plugin of our server, but has received very little use for a long time. Way back in the day, players made towns almost purely for competition, and other players joined these towns due to a sense of community. Every town used taxes to keep funded, and towns grabbed every possible player to win the numbers game against other towns. Chest locks were limited, so there were massive town-on-town (pvp) raids to try to find goods in unlocked chests.

    Without players with that kind of drive to grow towns, we need other factors to make towns more enticing, and that is primarily what this server is about. I haven't come up with many clever ideas in this category, and it really requires something that you guys want to have, but are willing to put in the effort to get. I want to have a discussion about changes to towny that will make you want to create and grow towns.


    I created the thread, so I'll start this off. Let's talk about:
    Idea 1: Limit chest locks, allow more locks in towns based on town size

    Old ideas:
    • Town chest locks - the town owns the lock rather than a player. Cannot be lock-picked unless entire town is inactive(?)
    • Outsider raid protection - players must be in a town to raid unlocked chests in another town


    Existing perks:
    • Toggle hostile mobs
    • Toggle pvp
    • Access to more (valuable) daily quests
    • Change plot biomes
    • Towny towns page
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018
  2. Mietm

    Mietm Member VIP

    Town Locks/Limited Personal Locks
    I believe in another thread (though I can't be arsed to look it up for proof right now) it had been mentioned that town-locks will be a thing at zero cost to the town itself. I very much like this idea and feel that if a town is allowed chest locks, personal locks could be limited to 10 or less. Especially with shulker boxes, everything needed should be able to be stored in that amount of space.

    Perks of being in a town
    Some perks already exist. If a person doesn't want to PvP, they can use a town as a place of shelter (assuming they're not running from battles). Monster spawning can be turned off for building in peace at all hours (especially important with the next update). You can change biomes of blocks to truly craft your own ideal space. You also have access to all the highest tier quests for more rupees. These are some pretty awesome perks and possibly not talked about enough - I should do a better job of it.

    I'm not sure what else you could add to entice people to start/join a town. You've already set the upkeep to 50 per plot per day, which is completely reasonable (Though will the next update allow plots that match chunk size and are the prices adjusted accordingly?). We do have a group who are very ANTI ALL TAXES OMG - and my own personal fear is that people will join and then quit and leave half-built crap to be cleaned up by admin later. Maybe people just need to get more comfortable with taxes. If you can keep the plot/player ratio pretty reasonable, shouldn't need more than 50 rupees per citizen of the town per day, and that's easily attainable via a single quest completion...
     
  3. ezeiger92

    ezeiger92 Well-Known Member Lead Admin Survival Admin

    Town locks were mentioned at some point, I highly doubt I said zero-cost though. It was suggested as a solution to town vaults being locked by inactive or former members. It also would solve town vaults being raided if that specific player left the server.

    Added existing perks to OP.
     
  4. Archenemy666

    Archenemy666 Active Member VIP

    Its been a thing on our server for a long time, and probably is a sentiment that is shared with other servers. Taxes just don't sit well with people. I find it hard to implement a tax in my town that i think is reasonable without upsetting players. There are those that will just up and leave when there is any kind of tax. I think this discussion is very important and I hope we can come up with good ideas that will encourage players to join towns.
     
  5. ezeiger92

    ezeiger92 Well-Known Member Lead Admin Survival Admin

    A tax is that player paying for town membership. If town membership does not have enough perks in their mind for that tax, they will leave. If towns had desirable perks, players would be willing to pay a tax for those features.
     
  6. Mietm

    Mietm Member VIP

    I think this hits the nail on the head. If you can make sure your town is reasonable in size (and stays within your means) you can make this work.

    Example:
    The town of Piersson has 5 people. They theorize that if you are in town, you probably own a plot and that is the the sole factor in deciding a town's upkeep. It makes sense to charge a 50 rupee tax a day.

    However, Piersson also has designated 1 plot as a "farm plot" and has built layered farms within that plot and storage at the bottom. All spare vegetables (and everything else) goes into that plot that no one lives on. This allows town members to zip right into the storage room, do a single quest for 100 rupees (the first farming quest) and move on with their day with a 50 rupee profit!

    Suggestions:
    • I am an outlier in that I don't feel the need for a specific building as my home. But perhaps the first plot a town claims could be upkeep free to allow building of a town hall or town spawn point or a town farm that no one would reasonably be expected to call their "home." Yes, this could be abused by people creating towns and just keeping them at one plot, but who would really want to have their entire build in a single chunk (assuming plots are resized)?
    • Also previously mentioned - not being allowed to dig below a certain point unless you are a member of a town - is that only in town plots or is that all over the main map? Would it be accompanied with a "digging below this point requires town membership!" message?
     
  7. ezeiger92

    ezeiger92 Well-Known Member Lead Admin Survival Admin

    Having a fixed price for all plots is an issue. It means that players who want to join a town would pay the same upkeep about as having their own town. Discounting the initial plot's upkeep is the polar opposite of what should happen. As you claim more plots, the average price for plot upkeep goes up, meaning it's more expensive to have a plot in a larger town!
    Instead, we could (with some changes to towny) set a base town upkeep, and then have a per-plot upkeep. This would lower the average plot upkeep as more plots are claimed, creating an incentive to grow towns and making large town plots possibly cheaper than starting your own town.


    As for dig depth, you don't have that quite right. Inside town grounds, there will not be a depth restriction. Everywhere else in the world will have a depth where players can no longer mine. For example, if a town allowed outsiders to build and break (why would anyone do this), outsiders could dig to bedrock within town grounds just like any member in a sane town. The message should probably read "Cannot dig at that depth without town zoning!"
     
    Mietm likes this.
  8. ezeiger92

    ezeiger92 Well-Known Member Lead Admin Survival Admin

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