A few suggestions I thought I'd recommend:

* Idle Timeout - Since the server keeps bumping up against capacity, one thing I hear a lot of is people who have been trying to get in all day and couldn't. But then some people (and I've been guilty of this as well) will be AFK for a very long time. I've tried to get better at this and just start Disconnecting whenever I think my family aggro will keep me AFK for many minutes at a time. This would help reduce the strain on server resources, teach people to log responsibly, and allow for a greater throughput of players, and lower the wait time to get in. I would say 5 minutes is more than enough idle timeout. Anything longer than that, and the player should be logging off anyway. Another point to argue in favor of this is that if someone is standing on land you're trying to build on, and they're in the way and AFK, you either have to build around them or risk killing them and them losing all their stuff. That's no good for either player.

And on that note...

* An AFK Flag - Typing /afk would enable a temporary "AFK" prefix or suffix to the player's name in the /who list. If it's possible to add an effect around the player's character, that'd be cool too, but I reckon the suffix/prefix idea is simpler to enact.

* PVP/PVE player toggle - Players should be able to choose their "mode." If they are toggled to PVE, they cannot kill another player via weapons and spells, and they cannot be killed by those methods either, but mobs and all other normal damage still applies from mobs, falling, drowning, etc. In PVP-mode, they can kill and be killed with those methods. In order to prevent the toggle from being abused, it has a minimum 24-hour cooldown period before it can be toggled again. Or 3 days. Or a week. However long it needs to be. That way Asshat McAssface can't toggle to PVP right quick, attack, then switch to PVE to avoid retaliation. This would allow the Bad Boys With Something to Prove (BBWSTP's) their fun, while Those Who Just Want To Be Left The Hell Alone (TWJWTBLTHA's) can keep building and only have to worry about asshole monsters instead of asshole murders. It would also cut down on player griefing.

* Randomized Mine Service - The "Mayor" of a settlement can pay X amount of coin to an admin for them to randomize the mines below the city, within its radius, thus replentishing the mineral content. This would help prevent a lot of increasingly overinvasive mine expansions. I'm not sure what a fair amount would be for this service. 500c? 1000c? The Mayor can set the depth, since they might have underground structures they do -not- want randomized, and the radius is automatically limited to that of the territory + 100 blocks.

* A "Stock Exchange" - This might be a bitch to code, but would be a nice mod. Merchants and Banks could set prices for particular blocks, with each block declaration requiring a cooldown of 1-3 days or so. The Exchange keeps track of all these prices, and averages them out within the last cooldown cycle. So if the cooldown was 3 days, Merchant A could set their price for redstone at 5c/stack, Merchant B at 4c/stack, and Merchant C at 6c/stack, the exchange would show the average price for the last 3 days as 5c. But if Merchant D suddenly logged on and set their price at 20c/stack, then the market price would jump to 9c/stack. No one would be required to buy or sell at the market price (except the Banks' Gold Standard). However, all price declarations are logged and able to be ping'd by any player. So if you suspect someone of price fixing/gouging in order to raise the market value of something just so they can profit selling it (such as by declaring 20c/stack on redstone when its real value is ~5c/stack), you can see who did it. Abuses of it would result in removal of the ability to set prices unless the merchant could be shown to actually regularly trade at the price they declared. Such merchants should easily be able to recall some witnesses on their sales if their prices were that extraordinary.

I'll be curious to see the response these ideas get. Great thread, Chief!

Thank you, Ilsyde! Addressing a few points of your post:

I was thinking about something similar to your "randomized mine service" just recently although I'd actually force chunks re-generation every week whether mayors want it or not.

I thought about that, but there's four primary problems I see with forced chunk regeneration:

* Unless Chief is going to program in layer range after layer range of variable depths and areas, this will totally screw over many players. Because of the limited size of the map and of city footprints, many Mayors and players are making as much use of vertical space as possible. For instance, Rapture is far beneath the sea, at a level most mining operations would start at. The Safety Deposit Boxes in Gwenmarie Island are all belowground, as well as our tree-farm. Now granted, my tree farm and SDBs are capable of being moved (though it'd be rather a pain in the arse), but other cities have extremely variable heights, depths, and areas to be regenerated. A paid service forces the Mayors to do their own homework and then specify the area coordinates to Chief or Apher if the Mayor doesn't want existing infrastructure affected.

* Regenerated mine levels are effectively free money, limited only by one's labor force. Thus a very large city could put its considerable labor force into huge mining operations, week after week, completely emptying out their mineral footprint, dividing up the spoils, and then starting over again the next week, having it replentished for free. Smaller settlements with only a handful of people, however, might require half that time just to get a mine proper mine going before having to start it over again. Requiring payment to regenerate the mine will slightly offset this huge imbalance, because even though Giganto-Town's like EIC would at least be somewhat slowed down, or their profits culled a bit, by the cost of regeneration, and the smaller towns, like Gwenmarie Island, could hold off on paying the cost until it was felt that the most mineral wealth had been retrieved.

* Rampant Depression: Requiring payment for regeneration also helps offset mineral depression. If one has to pay a substantial sum to regenerate the mines, then much of the mineral wealth retrieved from the previous generation of mines would be "spent," and the influx of new minerals would be stemmed. If, however, the mines auto-regenerated on a regular basis, the value of gold, diamonds, redstone, obsidian, etc, will start to plummet as the market gets flooded with them. Already we are seeing this effect with diamonds due to the fact we have infinitely regenerating tools, which I like, but now imagine how much more worthless diamonds would be if all the diamonds in the world were replentished regularly. Requiring payment slows this effect considerably.

* Mineral and Memory Waste: Think about how much dirt, cobble, and gravel are harvested in between the acquisition of even one single element. All of that stuff has to go somewhere and be accounted for. Unless we're to start massive lava dump operations, and even that is something of a pain in the arse, then the map will get more and more choked with ugly-ass cobblestone everywhere and the game itself will start to chug from all the additional blocks it must keep track of. Requiring payment slows this effect as well.

I'd like to see this combined with special nametags (as before) like white for PvP players and the usual #7 gray for PvE players so you actually know what you're up aganst if you see somebody approaching you.
More vivid colors might be used if necessary of course.

What about donors though? Would their color status be changed as well? That might not go over too well.

Was also thinking about forced floods that change the landscape (by also adding clay, new biomes if possible and random hills/meadows) where city walls would actually protect their citizens, volcanoes that generate mountains etc. but these might piss off newcomers.

It might until they realize the benefits, but I LOVE this idea, though town upgrades and whatnot would need a full-time person to handle it, because anything outside of town ring + 100block radius would be destroyed. However, aside from that little concern, this would be a fantastic thing to have implemented. Think of the benefits:

* Eyesores that some player caused haphazardly (like 1-block towers 50 blocks high, trunkless trees, mine-shafts, dirt huts from some long gone player) would be erased, leaving pristine new land in its place.

* Surface items (like pumpkins, flowers, clay, etc) would be replentished, allowing for more decoration on the otherwise dull gray and brown urban landscape.

* It very heavily reinforces the city-based culture that the Chief is trying to instill on the server. Join a city, start a city, or have your stuff wiped out.

* It allows for raped landscapes near cities to be rejuevenated, adding to the aesthetic appeal.

* Roads would, quite realistically, have to be rebuilt over time. Perhaps an exception rule could be made for obsidian or something, so that cities willing to put in the time and effort required to harvest and carefully place obsidian roads would find they are permanent. It would also make for joint-efforts by cities to work together to get the obby roads completed in time before the next flood.

* Players who really really want a permanent monument outside of a city's range, could perhaps donate money dollars to the server to get a ring, the size of which is based of the donation amount.

That reminds me of another suggestion I'd like to see implemented: a command that lets you see all the cubes you've created with cuboid. My wife threw away my list and I have no idea what they all are now.

Awesome! I'll have to use that next time I'm on.

Libra and Drag I agree with all of your ideas, they all fit well with me, but they do each have their pros and cons.

As for the HeroCraft "Stock Exchange", this could really work for us. I mentioned this idea in the game, the other day, before I read this thread, and others disliked the idea due to the fact that it is not needed, but it really could benefit everyone. Now people won't have to shell out some unneeded coins for an item, when the Exchange keeps track on the pricing. (No more spamming /ch t with "Going rate of [insert item name here]?) Anyways, though this might be a bit hard to code, I think it could benefit us all.

As for Drag's idea, about the 5 redstone dust, I agree with this as well. Though it takes a bit of the death peanlty away, I often find myself wondering what's the point of having a mark, when the only time I really ever need it, is if I died. (Though I know it is needed, when lost in a mine, or a quick visit to /spawn without dying). I really hope this gets implemented, or at least something of that sort to cut down the long walk from the Spawn Tower - Nexus - City Port - Home.

I believe this was mentioned above, but why not just make it so first time players of the server are force spawned at the top of the tower, to read all the rules, and we have a "HeroCraft Official Members" group on the server, that will require a "test" for entry into the group. A test on what you ask? The rules of course, to make sure you know all of them before being able to spawn from somewhere other than the top of the tower. Anyways, basically everyone in the group should be able to spawn at the bottom of the spawn tower, or somewhere similar, to reduce the time spent.

Here's an idea that I don't think has been suggested.
Why not a trade market? Whether it be in the DH Commons, or elsewhere, that would allow any player to come in, and buy a "Market Plot", you could have the small market plots that would cost less, but would also hold less inventory, and the larger ones that would make the player shell out the extra coins for the extra space, inventory wise. Basically what this would do, would give the players an official place to meet to trade items, but would need a "Shop" plugin that myself and others have suggested on a different thread. This would get rid of those silly, half-assed trades, but at the same time, would keep Player-To-Player interaction.
This would also fit quite nicely with the "HeroCraft Exchange" suggestion, mentioned above.

Another idea would be some sort of official "Service Corner" (no not that kind of service you perverted bastard ) but a place where players (mainly new, or those low on cash) can offer services for a server set amount of price, and it would make it much easier for players who have the money, to help out the newer players, low on coins, without completely giving them the money for free, thus teaching them earning coins, requires work.
The "Guard" Service = 5c per half hour (Though this would require everyone to be a trustworthy community, because it would be a pain in the ass to code something like this, and probably wouldn't be worth it)

I'd like to see a slight re-vamp to the 'mayor' ranks. I know the titles have been talked about, but I haven't seen much else come of it, except for my King title of course.lol

Anywho, this is my take on what titles different sized townships should have, and what extra powers, if any, they should have. Note that this list starts at the top with the lowest rank, and the lower you go, the higher the rank. All higher ranks inherit the powers of the lower ranks, of course.

Hamlet: no title, 99% Authority within their official border, and general authority within 100 blocks of their border to keep people from building too close to the settlement without permission.

Village: Chief title, no extra powers.

Town: Mayor title, /protect powers. May have an admin make a Herogate for your town.

City: Governor title, ability to use cmod to create pvp on/off zones.

Capital: Lord title, no extra powers, but may have an admin make a healing shrine within your borders, no larger than 5x5 in size, that auto-heals you when you step inside. It is up to the Lord to make the building/area for the shrine, the admin will just add the realm/cuboid.

Kingdom: King title, access to Realms plugin, access to cmod heal/sanctuary commands, Kingdom floating ring border will be made of glass/lava, able to create and place TWO custom NPC's, one of them MUST be a greeter for your settlement.

Empire: Emporer title, able to create up to TEN custom NPC's. Empire border ring will be 5 blocks wide, glass on the sides, lava in the middle 3, glass under the lava.




Also, I have my opinions on border size which I'm sure Kainzo is already aware of, but going to post them here as well, as well as the costs (most unchanged). The cost changes would be from the point of the change on, anyone who already has a particular size settlement would not need to make up the difference in cost. Mayor does not count as a citizen, as normal.

Hamlet - 25r border - 2 citizens - 100 coins

Village - 50r border - 5 citizens - 500 coins

Town - 75r border - 10 citizens - 1500 coins

City - 100r border - 20 citizens - 2500 coins

Capital - 150r border - 35 citizens - 10000 coins

Kingdom - 200r border - 50 citizens - 15000 coins

Empire - 350r border - 75 citizens - 35000 coins



Again, this is all just ideas in my own head.

I have a suggestion about a way to add more income to the economy.

I suggest adding in the mod or whatever it is that causes weapons/tools to be broken we you drop them to the ground. I know a lot of people love the way things are now with being able to regenerate the durability of your weapons/tools but having this ability also causes things like Iron and Diamonds to be almost worthless in an economy based server, where other wise they should be worth more especially diamonds.

Like i said i know a lot of people like having infinite durability on there stuff but for an economy based server it just does nothing but bad.

A few comments regarding previous suggestions:

Village: Chief title, no extra powers.

But the title "Chief" is reserved for Kainzo. If Village heads become Chiefs, that means I couldn't call Kainzo Chief anymore. Maybe Village head could be called "Sheriff" or something.

I suggest adding in the mod or whatever it is that causes weapons/tools to be broken we you drop them to the ground.

This has actually been discussed roughly infinity times. The general consensus is that the infinite repair bug will be fixed in the near future, so adding the mod that breaks dropped things will only be extra work for the admins that they don't need.

Also, there's a very serious side effect to the "drop it and break it" mod: Roughly 90% of the trade that takes place on Herocraft is from people dropping stuff from inventory, rather than using chests. While it's easy to say "just use chests from now on," that's a lot easier said than done, old habits die hard, and we are absolutely gaurenteed to have people who didn't know about the Drop'n'Break before they try and sell something.

The economy is already being helped with the addition of the RPG Mod. Suddenly formerly worthless materials are fetching at least some degree of coin thanks to how much it costs to make a suit of armor, weapons, etc. It's not a lot, granted, but it helps.



Finally, another suggestion for the game:

Once the "drop and repair" bug is fixed, may I suggest a new spell be added that repairs tools/weapons/armor? Or alternately, you could make it a donor/mayor tier ability, like "protect", and still have it consume perhaps one unit of the primary tool material (like 1 diamond, or 1 gold, etc.) In this way, you still would not have infinite reuse of diamonds, but they could at least be stretched out a bit longer.

Maybe set the vendor price of redstone at something like 5-10 times market value (1-2c per dust). That way people only use it for emergencies and don't use the vendor as a way to bypass purchases from other players (because who in their right mind would pay 64-128c for one stack of redstone dust?)