Architect Archive
Thread: Player cities = griefing tool?
Pasted from the SWGCraft forums, this lady has a chilling point...
>>>Has anyone had this happen to you?
My sisters and some friends have a settlement North East of Mos Entha near the battlegrounds. We’ve been there for quite a while and have several well established shops. For a time, ours was the second largest player settlement on the planet and we still have people moving in and out. There are three large PAs in the area that have always been respectful, polite and friendly. We’ve never had trouble or felt pressured to join since our group has little interest in PA politics.
The other night one of my sisters was out fiddling with her chemical factory when a wookie walks up and says: “Do you live here?”
My sister proceeded to tell him of course and that there are several shops in the area for different needs and if he needed directions to any of the local PAs that she would help if she could.
The wookie then says: “Well a bunch of friends and me will be getting together and forming a PA, and we’ve chosen this place as the site of our Player City. If you don’t want to join us, you’ll have to pick up your houses and move outside of our city limits or else we’ll have our militia /warn you and then kill you until you leave.”
My sister laughed in his face.
The wookie said that he didn’t care that we had been there since the beginning and that they would make us leave or tax us to death.
Needless to say, she /ignored him.
I’m all for player cities and the trappings that come with it, but there needs to be a jack*zz check so that people can’t use the mechanics as a griefing tool. Maybe a ground-check like when you try to set up a construction zone—there can’t be any houses in the footprint before you set it down, then after the city limits are set, you can build inside the ring. I don’t want to see the privilege of having player cities get vaporized because of some immature punks want to cause trouble. And YES, player cities should be considered a privilege--the cities that exisit now and/or Dev built settlements work just fine for player needs (just not in some of the areas that we would like). It would be nothing for the Devs to say: "Sorry, Player Cities seemingly would cause more strife on the community as well as our DB so they are being postponed indefinitely."
Has anyone had this happen to you?
My sisters and some friends have a settlement North East of Mos Entha near the battlegrounds. We’ve been there for quite a while and have several well established shops. For a time, ours was the second largest player settlement on the planet and we still have people moving in and out. There are three large PAs in the area that have always been respectful, polite and friendly. We’ve never had trouble or felt pressured to join since our group has little interest in PA politics.
The other night one of my sisters was out fiddling with her chemical factory when a wookie walks up and says: “Do you live here?”
My sister proceeded to tell him of course and that there are several shops in the area for different needs and if he needed directions to any of the local PAs that she would help if she could.
The wookie then says: “Well a bunch of friends and me will be getting together and forming a PA, and we’ve chosen this place as the site of our Player City. If you don’t want to join us, you’ll have to pick up your houses and move outside of our city limits or else we’ll have our militia /warn you and then kill you until you leave.”
My sister laughed in his face.
The wookie said that he didn’t care that we had been there since the beginning and that they would make us leave or tax us to death.
Needless to say, she /ignored him.
I’m all for player cities and the trappings that come with it, but there needs to be a jack*zz check so that people can’t use the mechanics as a griefing tool. Maybe a ground-check like when you try to set up a construction zone—there can’t be any houses in the footprint before you set it down, then after the city limits are set, you can build inside the ring. I don’t want to see the privilege of having player cities get vaporized because of some immature punks want to cause trouble. And YES, player cities should be considered a privilege--the cities that exisit now and/or Dev built settlements work just fine for player needs (just not in some of the areas that we would like). It would be nothing for the Devs to say: "Sorry, Player Cities seemingly would cause more strife on the community as well as our DB so they are being postponed indefinitely."
so do you think there will be mechanics to keep this sort of thing from happening?
Not sure about how player cities will work, but today when you try to place a structure you have to find a spot that isn't taken or have any other hidden reason why you can't place it. Wouldn't a player city be the same? if there is a settlement you would not be able to place what will be the core of the player city.
As I am not into the player city discussion much I dont know whats needed to make a player city aplayer city. is it a special construction of sorts or is it just moving up from a PA to a player city?
I sure hope that there are checks to prevent the things that you and your friends experienced to happen. If not I sure they will find it in the TC and implement it.
My suggestion is to write a ticket and tell about the abuse. Then atleast they (SOE) are/should be aware of it
I wouldn't worry.... I agree with you, you were there force, so to bad for them
As for the militia, they wont be able to touch you. In order to be apart of the city (where the militia can touch you).... you have to join the city... I am unsure how one does this, but I assume it will be from the house terminal
So if you don't want to join you dont have to.... Only problem I could see would be if they built around you so that you would have to walk through their city to get to your house... I wouldnt worry much....
If I were you when the city does come, I would join anyways so u can use the shuttle port and then your customers can use the shuttle to get to the city.
i know that's not what you want to here... but if you look at the screens of the terminal for cities it describes the city size as a radius.... If you are very small i would think they could annex you into thier city.. and then give you the big boot. also large guilds could moveinto other cities vote in new mayors and do the same. It will be interesting to see how this works b/c the flip side isone house can stop a whole cities growth (another PA to PA grief) Lets hope for the best and see how things work out 
my advise is to take your architect and build a city hall first and really piss them off. I'm more than sure you can beat a guild to it 
Oh, I've definitiely had it happen to us. My guild, on Radiant, is called Watchkeepers. We have a small and growing town named "The Vale" east of Keren on Naboo. One morning we all logged in to find a PA hall had sprung up not 50m from our western outskirts. The hall belongs to a PA called, impressively enough, "gIMPS".
It's unfortunate that they picked such a spot and will not leave, as we will all soon be declaring a faction opposite to theirs. They only have a few structures up, as well, whereas we, with the benefit of a couple of months, have many.I don't see their aim, but they will not move their ugly hall from our area. It will definitely be a form of griefing if anyone, even an opposite faction can build their PA hall within sight of your own. It will certainly be a source of grief for the poor "gIMPS" if they do not see the folly of their ways in the face of a much larger force. Taxes will be interesting.
Devs, please be aware of the potential problems involved in this.
FlangeSplitter wrote:
It's unfortunate that they picked such a spot and will not leave, as we will all soon be declaring a faction opposite to theirs. They only have a few structures up, as well, whereas we, with the benefit of a couple of months, have many.I don't see their aim, but they will not move their ugly hall from our area. It will definitely be a form of griefing if anyone, even an opposite faction can build their PA hall within sight of your own. It will certainly be a source of grief for the poor "gIMPS" if they do not see the folly of their ways in the face of a much larger force. Taxes will be interesting.
Simple solution - Takea few faction points, and get yourself a mine field, and set it up infront of their PA hall. That should take care of a few problems. A turret or two would be pretty, I'm sure. Then it's just a matter of cleaning up the corpses.
I think the area has to be clear of houses to create a Player city.
To the best of my knowledge, no one (probalby not even the 'devs')yet knows the mechanics of the following things:
1) How a player city will come into existance (personally, I would bet it will be with the placement of a City Hall).
2) How the 'city radius' is defined.
3) How 'zoning' will be implemented.
So, although people have brought up good points about potential problems, I think many of them are based on what may prove to be unfounded assumptions.
Unfortunately in the game getting somewhere first has no significance. I believe that areas that city halls can be dropped will be few and far between, maybe 5 or 6 per planet. You figure there is going to be a minimum distance from NPC cities 3000m minimum. Then a minimum distance from any other City Hall.
People are going to be in a race to drop city halls and good spots are going go quickly. Unfortunately a large group can force you to move. Once they get a militia they can put you on the ban list and kill you till you don't come back.
Once folks have a city hall I think they will be able to place it just like a PA hall. I think a starting city is going to have a 125m radius, I think that is what is in the screen shot they posted. The radius will grow with the number of residents.
I think it will be terrible if people try and make their city exclusive to their PA. There just aren't going to be enough player city sites available. I think cities should be faction aligned, but not necessarily PA aligned. PAs are going to start cities and probably always be in charge, but they should not force out none PA members as long as you are a good neighbor.