Suggestion Solutions to Proxy towns and 'Vacations'

[ACwavelength]

In this post I'm not hating on holidays, just making points about some things that don't do the server any good.

Proxy towns
Towns all over loka have been making proxy towns on their own continents for resources, domination etc. This may be because it needs less effort and resources to make a town somewhere else than extending your territories further out. The trouble with this is that it's now too easy to dominate other towns and biomes on your continent with minimal conquest. This is also bad for the economy. Instead of buying resources from residents of a biome, all you have to do is make a proxy town there and you've got an unlimited supply.
However this is something that can't be stopped easily, because of how making new towns work, but I did come up with a few ideas:

• Alliance Lock - for about a month after leaving a town that you fought for, you'd be locked to your town or alliance as a nomad. This means you can't create new a town at least on the same continent. This should slow down the spread of popup proxy towns without excluding them altogether.
• More biome buffs - Just make large scale conquest on regular conquests profitable. Things such as the more territories you have of a biome, the more of that biome's items you produce, or if you have territories in 3 different biomes you get extra strength.
• Strongholds - Territories would be assigned their own stability value. Ones that have many others connected to them, and are adjacent to the town get a higher stability value than new ones. When their stability reaches a certain level, they become stronghold territories. What benefits these would bring, I don't know, but it could mean golems protecting inhibitors or attackers not being able to use modules. Basically it would make these territories more difficult to attack. I hope this would encourage large scale conquest, hopefully pushing towns into different biomes.
• Trader - Bit of a weird one, but I'll suggest it anyway. These would be NPCs connected to void storage and industries that could sell their biome resources to passers by for a set price. They could be programmed with offers for bulk buys and could feed their profits into the town's balance. I hope this would promote trade and exploration so that even fairly inactive towns could sell stuff and keep their town alive as a reward.

'Vacations'
Players sometimes go to other towns, usually on different continents to get their alliance buffs. Of course this means they're less inclined to fight for rivina and balak, or to buy stuff from other alliances. Because this is a relatively smaller issue than proxy towns, I only came up with one solution to it;

• Buff Lock - This would work with Alliance lock. If you joined a different town (Not in your alliance) while Alliance locked, you would have to fight for that town at least once before you get any buffs.

I put vacations and proxy towns in the same suggestions post because they both make the whole idea of living in a town feel temporary, so much so that you could switch between alliances and continents and it wouldn't really matter. I had the idea for an official colony variant of a town, but I think that's for another post. If anyone else has any suggestions they're probably better than mine cause I'm not exactly the most experienced player on loka... Also don't get toxic cause you like to visit other towns or you have a few colonies, I just want there to be an actual economy on the server.

 

[TheFreshLemon]

This is also bad for the economy. Instead of buying resources from residents of a biome, all you have to do is make a proxy town there and you've got an unlimited supply.

People move for conquest or to farm resources, if people actually sold or traded the resources it would be different and probably only move for conquest, but people don't, Kalros resources especially (dark oak, spruce, and ice). No one trades or sells them and if they do they're selling it overpriced.

Alliance Lock - for about a month after leaving a town that you fought for, you'd be locked to your town or alliance as a nomad. This means you can't create new a town at least on the same continent. This should slow down the spread of popup proxy towns without excluding them altogether.

Why though? If you locked for another town and then created a new one, you wouldn't be able to place neutrals or warp to anything. You also wouldn't even be able to join a new alliance or the previous one you were in, because you can't after Conquest Truce ends. So maybe they just want a head start on creating their town and leveling it up before Conquest truce.

Trader - Bit of a weird one, but I'll suggest it anyway. These would be NPCs connected to void storage and industries that could sell their biome resources to passers by for a set price. They could be programmed with offers for bulk buys and could feed their profits into the town's balance. I hope this would promote trade and exploration so that even fairly inactive towns could sell stuff and keep their town alive as a reward.

Couldn't people just walk to spawn with their resources and put it on the market for a set price? It was made for a reason and just got an update, I feel like people should actually use it and be in a safe environment instead of pinging a radar on their way to trade and get ganked. This would also be rewarding to inactive towns because it could make the people active, as they gather and sell their resources at the market in spawn.

More biome buffs - Just make large scale conquest on regular conquests profitable. Things such as the more territories you have of a biome, the more of that biome's items you produce, or if you have territories in 3 different biomes you get extra strength.

Doesn't this kinda already exist? The more territories you own the more your industries produce, which includes the items in the biome you live in.

 

[koi0001]

Doesn't this kinda already exist? The more territories you own the more your industries produce, which includes the items in the biome you live in.

I think he means the benefits would be further developed or beneficial to towns as incentive.
It's a little unbalanced in my opinion

 

[GeekyKidGamer]

I dislike this idea. I own a town and always move to Vinovia, I go there because I am still able to go to fights for the alliance, but also because I can still build in both towns. If this topic is from moving from continent to continent, then that is also dumb, making this a thing that would ruin Loka because not many people do conquest, so they move to areas that do conquest.

 

[ACwavelength]

they're selling it overpriced.

Then of course there should be a limited price range for biome items

If you locked for another town and then created a new one

the whole point of that suggestion was that you wouldn't be able to make a new town or join a hostile one

It was made for a reason

So was my suggestion. It was so resources could be bought from inactive towns. Active ones might actually sell stuff, with some changes to the market.

I feel like people should actually use it and be in a safe environment instead of pinging a radar on their way to trade and get ganked.

That's the risk with trading with inactive towns...

I dislike this idea. I own a town and always move to Vinovia

I know new restrictions may sound bad, but remember they are for the server's benefit.

 

[GeekyKidGamer]

I know new restrictions may sound bad, but remember they are for the server's benefit.

this is a bad idea for the server, Most people don't like to stay in one place for too long, like me, this is not beneficial in any way. Maybe it is to you, but not to the server.

 

[TheFreshLemon]

Basically I think that those suggestions aren't necessary and that people should use the resources that Loka's staff team has given, before adding new ones for no reason.

the whole point of that suggestion was that you wouldn't be able to make a new town or join a hostile one

I'm saying that it's unnecessary because, if they're locked they cannot do anything in the first place other than collecting resources until Conquest Truce.

So was my suggestion. It was so resources could be bought from inactive towns. Active ones might actually sell stuff, with some changes to the market.

If people won't sell it in spawn market, why would they sell it in their town through an NPC? If a town is inactive what resources do they have to sell and why do they need a reward?

That's the risk with trading with inactive towns...

I wasn't talking about inactive towns. Inactive towns won't be online to see a radar pinged let alone have territories, but actives ones will. Instead of actually gaining resources people will lose resources and once again it's unnecessary since there's a market at spawn.

 

[TheFreshLemon]

Do I smell more Wolf Force Toxicity?!???!

I know new restrictions may sound bad, but remember they are for the server's benefit.

 

[mindblaster007]

This completely contradicts what you previously said.

People move for conquest or to farm resources, if people actually sold or traded the resources it would be different and probably only move for conquest, but people don't, Kalros resources especially (dark oak, spruce, and ice). No one trades or sells them and if they do they're selling it overpriced.

One of the points of this thread is that Proxy towns should not be allowed, or should be restricted. The whole point of Proxy towns is to gather resources so they don’t have to trade. As the screenshot you posted says, trade is a requiremen, not a convenience. A proxy town destroys this allowing someone to claim an abundance of a resource so they don’t have to trade.

 

[SilentStormSix]

They usually have to take the tiles to get the resources, which encourages conquest. By adding this you are most likely going to reduce that. And what is wrong with moving to another town to take a break, get materials, or do conquest?

 

[TheFreshLemon]

This completely contradicts what you previously said.

One of the points of this thread is that Proxy towns should not be allowed, or should be restricted. The whole point of Proxy towns is to gather resources so they don’t have to trade. As the screenshot you posted says, trade is a requiremen, not a convenience. A proxy town destroys this allowing someone to claim an abundance of a resource so they don’t have to trade.

?!?!?!?
1. That's not the only point of "Proxy towns" as we said above people make them/move towns for conquest, gathering resources, or helping another town.
2. Trade is a requirement that no one is doing, so people found another way to get those resources and if you stop them from doing it then they will not be able to gather them.

 

[koi0001]

2. Trade is a requirement that no one is doing, so people found another way to get those resources and if you stop them from doing it then they will not be able to gather them.

I was wondering if this was a core issue that you were referring to. Just to give my two shards here (thanks @Kaph) trading has and always will be a problem. Loka simply isn't structured in a way which allows seamless trading and economy.

The playerbase is considerably small, niche resources are never essential and essential resources can be obtained by anyone with relative ease.

From my perspective this isn't exactly an issue. Although it can be frustrating and it may appear as if it takes away from some mechanics such as biome unique drops it really is like that by design. I'm not disagreeing with your point regarding trading I'm just highlighting how it's a very difficult topic to tackle.

 

[SigmaFlash]

Not everything on the server can be exactly the same for everyone. It is a matter of creating relationships in order to join these towns and obviously some people just like to move around a lot.

 

[SilentStormSix]

Ok guys its time to never lock to a town ever again... now i get to move every month to a new spot on kalros1!!

 

[ACwavelength]

if they're locked they cannot do anything in the first place other than collecting resources until Conquest Truce.

which hopefully would deter popup proxies...

destroys this allowing someone to claim an abundance of a resource so they don’t have to trade.

So that they don't have to trade, or fight. To make an actual economy on loka does not mean making a few changes to how the market works, it means making changes to how conquest and trade itself work. I think you all know that I have a point here, so please put the server before your personal gain for once.

people found another way to get those resources and if you stop them from doing it then they will not be able to gather them.

The whole point of biome resources was to fight for them or trade for them. When a town could just create a proxy on another continent, what's the point of a beach head? Why fight your way across your continent to get to another biome, when you could make a proxy there? What's the point of buying overpriced stuff from some town when you could make a proxy in it's biome and you have all the stuff you want?
I didn't say my suggestions were perfect, and I knew that this wasn't the only reason why people weren't using the market, I just wanted to highlight these problems so better solutions could be thought up.

 

[mindblaster007]

2. Trade is a requirement that no one is doing, so people found another way to get those resources and if you stop them from doing it then they will not be able to gather them.

I see people constantly selling restricted resources all the time in the market :/ Not to mention I know of a few towns that cut deals with other towns outside of the market. For example, a town with ice would trade ice to a town that had sugar cane.

 

[ACwavelength]

Wow all this time and still no admin response? You'd have thought the admins didn't care about conquest/trade on the server...

@Cryptite pls read

 

[Magpieman]

Wow all this time and still no admin response? You'd have thought the admins didn't care about conquest/trade on the server...

@Cryptite pls read

Both myself and Cryptite have read the post, we have just been crazy busy working on Loka recently. Hence why we haven't had time to respond in detail. 'Admins' don't have an impact on features being developed so they would only respond like any regular player.

I can't give a crazy detailed response right now, but in short, I agree that personally I do not like players town hopping. This was part of the beachhead discussion and is very complex, so we need to be careful we work everything in together. I don't think we should prevent people town hopping without giving them some alternatives that solve the reasons they town hop in the first place, like having a way to get restricted resources etc. So preventing town hopping can mess with the Loka ecosystem and balance, if we don't change it alongside other things. Equally, there are some people who don't see it as a major problem and is not worth jumping through hoops to try and solve it.

As for the specific solutions, you propose, some are fairly solid. Strongholds are probably a touch over complex and a win more mechanic (hard to overthrow old powers), but I do kind of like the core idea. It's very interesting. It would certainly give an advantage to those towns that have been there a while, we would just have to couple it with preventing people from keeping towns alive that aren't truly active.

In terms of economy, I believe it can never be truly balanced in Minecraft due to the fact that supply is always infinite due to Minecraft's infinite world and no timed restrictions on resource gathering. That doesn't mean we can't make it a little better, but there will always be problems unless we give each player a weekly quota of how many of each resource they are able to gather. Our plan currently is to focus a balanced economy more around custom items we add to the game that we have more control over.

We have taken all your ideas on board and will factor it into beachhead/conquest discussions that are ongoing. Some nice thoughts, I appreciate the post.