Information about upcoming Empires Update

Discussion in 'Empire Updates' started by chickeneer, Apr 10, 2023.

  1. Note: That some of this information could be outdated now! It is not a living document, and I will not be updating it as mechanics change. That is what future wiki pages will be for to, track the current behavior.

    What is the Empires update?
    Empires is EMC's custom guild system for creating permanent groups for shared communications and grouped building and other Minecraft activities. Much of the initial Empires update is the infrastructure for controlling role hierarchies within an Empire such as Owners, Officers, and regular Members. You will also get to rep your empire within the community by setting a primary empire which will show your empire’s tag in the tab list and in chat (player settings on this explained later). In the future, these Empires will own the Outposts in the wilderness. That functionality will be a separate update which has not been developed yet, so the specific details are not fully known.

    Full details on costs for creation/expansion/etc will be announced upon release. Those details are not available at this time.

    When is the Empires update?
    The update is almost nearly ready for release, but I am extremely busy in the coming weeks. So the release is very unknown due to scheduling concerns as I am expecting release issues which will require follow up bug fix updates. So unknown, but it will be released before the 1.20 update.

    In addition to the Empire specific features which are being added, empires also tie into several existing EMC systems such as…

    Chat Channels:
    New chat channels for communicating cross-server within your empires.

    An Empire Chat Channel where all members of an empire can see the messages.
    • /chat empire <empire>
    • /c e <empire>
    • /ce <empire>
    An Officer Chat Channel where only officers/owners can see the messages.
    • /chat officer <empire>
    • /c o <empire>
    • /co <empire>
    Signs:
    Empires can be specified on lock, access, and restrict signs. This works exactly as you would expect so that any member of the empire can use these locked/access chests and blocks.
    The outpost update may create finer control on giving more targeted access based on roles. Again, the details for any such update is not yet known.
    There is a special syntax with signs to add an empire to that sign, which is prefixed with an exclamation mark: !empire-name or !tag.

    Residence Permissions:
    You can also set residence permissions for your town residence for all members of an empire or specific roles of an empire. Of course there are chest interfaces for this addition and shown in /res info appropriately.

    A note about the order that residence permissions occur:
    It checks Player -> Res Groups -> Empires -> Area. So for example if a flag is set on a specific player, the logic never makes it to the group/empire/area flags also set on that residence for that action.

    Here are the commands:
    • /res eset <res> <empire> - Sets residence permissions for an empire (all players in the empire get the permissions)
    • /res erset <res> <empire> <role> - Sets residence permissions for a role from an empire (all players with that role get the permissions)
    Player Settings:
    Added a new Empires category in Player Settings with the following player settings available initially.
    • SHOW_EMPIRE_CHAT_TAG_SELF (on/off) - Set to display your Empire's Tag at the beginning of chat.
    • SHOW_EMPIRE_CHAT_TAG_OTHERS (on/off) - Set to display others' Empire Tags at the beginning of chat.
    • SHOW_EMPIRE_NAME_TAG (on/off) - Set to display your Empire's Tag in the tab list.
    • ALLOW_EMPIRE_INVITES (allow/friends/block) - Set who can invite you to an empire.
  2. Below is a breakdown of all current empire commands which have the following aliases: empire|empires|emp|guild|clan|e. Meaning that everywhere you see /empire - you can run the same command with /e.

    /empire (alias for /empire listempire|list for yourself)
    /empire help

    There are many commands for handling base membership in the Empire including inviting and deleting an invite you have sent out. The receiving player then has the choices to either accept or decline the invitation. If they never want to get invited again, they can run the declinepermanent subcommand. Obviously ignored users will be unable to be invited. A future update will be bringing back permanent ignores, but that is a separate topic.
    After a player has joined, they will be able to leave at any time or an officer with the necessary roles will be able to kick members from the empire.
    • /empire invite <empire> <user> - Invites another player to the Empire
    • /empire uninvite <empire> <user> - Removes an invite to another player for joining the Empire
    • /empire accept <empire> - Accepts an invite to join an Empire
    • /empire decline <empire> - Declines an invite to join an Empire, and blocks reinvites for 15 days.
    • /empire declinepermanent <empire> - Declines an invite to join an Empire permanently.
    • /empire undecline <empire> - Removes a declined invitation to join an Empire.
    • /empire kick <empire> <member> <reason> - Kicks a member from the Empire
    • /empire leave <empire> <reason> - Leaves an Empire.

    There are many commands for managing the empire including creation, color changing, name changing, and tag changing. A note about tags is that they are 1 to 4 characters in length. All names and tags are unique for all empires on EMC. So no two separate empires can share the same tag/name.
    • /empire create <name> <tag> - Allows you to create your own Empire.
    • /empire changecolor <empire> <color> - Sets the Empires color.
    • /empire changename <empire> <newname> - Changes the name of your Empire.
    • /empire changetag <empire> <newtag> - Changes the tag of your Empire.
    • /empire expandroles <empire> - Expand the number of roles available for the empire
    • /empire expandmembers <empire> - Expand the number of members available for the empire

    There are several commands for querying information about yours and other players’ empires. You can find out who is in any empire, who is online in an empire, and if you have the necessary role permissions create a broadcast message to online members of an empire. There is also a special title feature that individual players of an empire can be given a title to be distinguished within the empire - this requires a special role permission to set and remove.
    • /empire listempires|list <player> - Lists all current empires that a user is a part of.
    • /empire online - List online members from empires you are in
    • /empire online <empire> - List all online empire members
    • /empire info|listmembers <empire> - Displays information about an Empire
    • /empire primary - Displays your current primary Empire.
    • /empire primary <user> - Displays the current primary Empire of the specified user.
    • /empire setprimary <empire> - Allows you to change which Empire is your primary Empire.
    • /empire broadcast <empire> <message> - Broadcasts a message to online Empire members.
    • /empire title set <empire> <member> <title> - Assign a special title for a member of this empire
    • /empire title remove <empire> <member> - Removes the title from members of the empire

    For various upgrades that empires will be able to purchase now and in the future with the future Outposts update, there needs to be a mechanism for spending rupees and tokens by an empire. These are the commands for managing this. The allocation system is nuanced and will require a more in depth explanation at a later time. The core idea is that the bank does not “Hold” any of your rupees/tokens but instead you allow an empire to spend rupees/tokens directly out of your balance. But you keep that currency until it is time to spend on a purchase. No other player can retrieve your contribution to the Empire’s bank.
    • /empire bank info <empire> - Show how much Rupees and Tokens the Empire has available.
    • /empire bank allocations <empire> - View your current allocation information and limits.
    • /empire bank allocate <empire> <currency> <amount> - Changes your allocation of rupees/tokens to an Empire (the amount your Empire can deduct from you). Does not remove those rupees or tokens from you.
    • /empire bank allocationlimit <empire> <currency> <amount> - Changes the minimum balance limit for rupees/tokens that your allocation can deduct you to.
    • /empire bank donate <empire> <currency> <amount> - Donates funds to an Empire.
    • /empire bank withdraw <empire> <currency> <amount> - Withdraw funds you donated from an Empire.
  3. The role system of Empires is extremely extensive to give you complete control over what roles can do which actions. This is another feature that will require a dedicated explanation of the full mechanics. Each empire is defaulted with 3 roles of Owner, Officer, and Member which will work great for most players. These more advanced roles commands allows you to further customize your roles to be individualized if that interests you.
    • /empire roles list <empire> - Show the current role assignments for an Empire.
    • /empire roles list <empire> <role> - Lists all empire members with the specified role.
    • /empire roles new <empire> <name> <description> - Adds a new role to give a different set of permissions
    • /empire roles delete <empire> <role> - Deletes a role, removing it from everyone
    • /empire roles addperm <empire> <role> <perm> - Adds a permission to a role.
    • /empire roles delperm <empire> <role> <perm> - Removes a permission from a role.
    • /empire roles rename <empire> <role> <newname> - Renames a role.
    • /empire roles description <empire> <role> <description> - Changes the description of what a role is for.
    • /empire roles assign <empire> <member> <role> - Assigns a player a new role. Does not remove previous roles.
    • /empire roles unassign <empire> <member> <role> - Removes a role from a player, removing any permissions it was giving them unless another role also gives it.

    Here are examples of some of the specific role permissions. There are a couple missing, but that should be rectified before the release of the update.

    OWNER("Grants all Permissions"),
    KICK("Allows kicking of members from the Empire"),
    INVITE("Allows inviting members to the Empire"),
    ASSIGN_ROLE("Allows assigning members roles"),
    BROADCAST("Allows broadcasting messages to members"),
    NOTICES("Allows setting up notices"),
    BANK("Allows managing the bank of the Empire"),
    BANK_VIEW("View Bank Balances"),
    ASSIGN_TITLE("Assign a user a custom title"),
    MANAGE_EMPIRE("Manage Empire Properties (TAG, Color, Upgrades)"),
    ROLES("Manage creating and modifying roles"),
    ADMIN("Grants many permissions an owner has"),
    OFFICER("Grants many Officer related perms"),
    MEMBER("Grants default Member related perms");
    ADMIN.addSubPerms(OFFICER, BANK, MANAGE_EMPIRE, ROLES);
    OFFICER.addSubPerms(KICK, INVITE, ASSIGN_TITLE, MEMBER, NOTICES, BROADCAST, ASSIGN_ROLE);
    MEMBER.addSubPerms(BANK_VIEW);
    BANK.addSubPerms(BANK_VIEW);
    ROLES.addSubPerms(ASSIGN_ROLE);

    An exciting feature of Empires is a notice system. Think of this as a bulletin board that delivers a message to all Empire members when they next login. There is also a mechanism to create a notice for only officer/owners of an empire.
    • /empire notice check <empire> - Checks notice status for this Empire.
    • /empire notice read <empire> - Reads unread notices for this Empire.
    • /empire notice history <empire> <page> - Reads notice history for this Empire.
    • /empire notice new <empire> <message> - Adds a new notice for this Empire.
    • /empire notice newofficer <empire> <message> - Adds a new officer only announcement for this Empire.
    • /empire notice remove <empire> - Removes a posted notice for this Empire. Get the id from the
    Finally, with such a large amount of changes available to you, there also needs to be logs available to see who changed what. At this time all logged actions are separated into 3 categories of general, bank, and roles. Some roles are viewable by all members whereas others are only viewable by empire admins.
    • /log empire general <empire> (page) - Shows general logs for an empire.
    • /empire log general <empire> (page)
    • /log empire bank <empire> (page) - Shows bank logs for an empire.
    • /empire log bank <empire> (page)
    • /log empire roles <empire> (page) - Shows role logs for an empire.
    • /empire log roles <empire> (page)
  4. Known Future Updates to Empires:

    Integration of Empires into the Antigrief system. The specifics of which are unknown but should come before the Outposts update. The struggle in implementing is determining how best to implement the commands/interface which specifies which empires can break blocks or roles, per server. I don’t want to rush this change.

    An outposts update to finally give more empire-level control in wilderness outposts. The plan for this is before the end of 2023. Hopefully this summer.

    I would like to see us implement Discord linking with empires. So that emc discord linked accounts could chat in their own Empire specific channel from on discord to in-game chat channel. There are numerous options we could take here that will need some work.

    An application system for onboarding new members into an empire. This concept has some beginning code written but is unlikely to be finished in time for the initial Empires release.
  5. Other changes with this update...

    This is a difficult thing to explain, but many core EMC systems were updated to modernize EMC code to newer Minecraft features. This is easiest explained by stating that ANYTHING color formatted on EMC has received some type of rewrite. This change will be elaborated on later when we release this update. I fully expect some individual formatted messages to not show correctly on release. This is a difficult thing to explain, so stay tuned!

    With that. I think I have said everything I want to initially say about the Empires Update. Feel free to ask questions and I will attempt to explain and correct misworded explanations in the preceding posts.

    I would like to emphasize that some of the features of Empires is for advanced uses. And you do not need to leverage most of these added features to enjoy the new system. So do not feel overwhelmed. The primary reason that I am putting so much detail out there now, is so that the contribution team can start working on wiki pages which better breakdown the logistics of the system for everyone to understand and use.
  6. Super hyped! It's happening, it's really happening!
  7. huge, cant wait for outposts to feel more organized with this update! My only question is can you join multiple empires at once? and is there a limit to how many you can join?
  8. yay

    can this please be pinned to the main page? i never see these threads cause they arent ever pinned
    We3_MPO and MrSocks75 like this.
  9. also, question: do you have a maximim number of empires in mind that we could be in at the same time? also can we be in our own empire with our alts?

    YAY TY Mr. Chicken
    We3_MPO likes this.
  10. There are no plans yet to limit the maximum number of empires that a person can join. Admittedly, there is going to be some pagination issues if someone has joined 20 empires. Meaning that running `/empire list chickeneer` - would conceivably run over the displayable chat window. That is a behavior we could fix later.

    I don't plan to promote this thread to the front page at this time. Ideally this information gets transcribed into wiki pages and is formatted and linked in the update. And/or the next newsletter whichever comes first.
  11. sorry, another question: for empire tags, to clarify, do empire tags get created by each individual player, or is it an empire-wide default empire tag? and i guess that would kinda also lead me to ask how to pick to display one over the other and how long said empires tag can be characters-wise. im on my phone, so sorry if this is somewhere in the OP
  12. Empire Tags are 1-4 characters in length and can only be a-z,0-9. Empire names can also have underscores and currently have a length limit of 20.
    The Tags are per-Empire. And each EMC player has the ability to set a "primary empire" which controls which tag would display in tab/chat.
    FadedMartian likes this.
  13. aw sweet. sorry another question: will empire tags/names have to be unique? like a username? or can anyone name/ designate said empire tag/name like residence tags are?

    TY
  14. All empire names and tags will all be unique from each other.
    FadedMartian likes this.
  15. Unless i've missed something, i was hoping this would've included the ability to claim land out in the wilderness, From what i can gather its laying the framework for future wilderness updates, but for now its focused on the town.
    It seems like a much improved group system in its current state.
    Anyway, is there any plans for teleportation from wilderness to town in the future updates?
  16. i think chicken said that would be part of the "land claiming" update (essentially the Empires Update 2.0/ the other half of the update)
  17. yeah i saw that and the hype i had sort of faded away
  18. Yeah Empires never included outpost stuff. I'm not really sure where that idea came, sorry to hear your disappointment.

    Edit: I should clarify. Nothing here is really town specific. The things that affect town are only a side effect of the update. Empires are completely separate from your location in a server. And a completely separate code system from groups. No substantial overlap.
    crystaldragon13 and FadedMartian like this.
  19. An extra follow up.
    My plans for later in the summer include some rudimentary systems to simply in game register the claimed outposts and associate them with their owning Empires. Rudimentary implying it will be incomplete and simple enough to be rolled out in a reasonable length of time. I could see that teleporting could be included in such a quick system