So I've just lost a bunch of enchanted picks again, in the waste where you can't lock anything. I was using the stair in the wall trick thinking I was clever and not realizing that anyone with a YouTube account knows that trick and stone brick in the middle of a mine is definitely completely obvious. Had I simply buried it like I normally would, my stuff would still be there. I thought I was clever though. In our wonderful modern age and EULA situation, thieves can also hide themselves from the live map if they so choose. And since staff have no tools to track who opened what chest or took what items out of where, thieves have a pretty easy time going and robbing/griefing any operation they feel like. Unless you catch them in the act, they will tend to get away with it. So I suppose that theft is just a fact of life, to be mitigated by hiding things well and having a very large supply of whatever you can't lock, and I do. This loss is a mere annoyance to me, and normally I would probably sit back and just shrug it off. In fact, that was my initial reaction. Last time I got robbed, I took some pleasure in getting justice for the thief, who I discovered via shavingfoam's EMC Investigator. I didn't get anything back of course, but at least he wasn't off to rob someone else. This time is different. The EMC Investigator doesn't seem to be working, and even if it did, new players can simply hide themselves from the map right away before going around on their grief and theft spree, and nobody can really stop them. So I had a bunch of suggestions: Bait Chests Basically, they look like normal player creations and would be throughout all worlds. They would contain a mix of items, to mirror what a normal player might have, including damaged tools which are obviously something that isn't naturally spawned. Each chest would be hidden or have a sign nearby stating that theft is not allowed and this is someone's home/mine. If a player took items out of that chest, they would be banned automatically. Selective Logging One of the arguments against keeping logs is the extra computing power and storage required to track things. Indeed, on servers the size of EMC, these logs would grow very massive, very quickly. However, we usually don't care about 99.999% of these events. So I recommend having logs that would track certain key events such as: - Removing diamonds, diamond ores, enchanted pickaxes, and other valuables from chests. - Destroying specific blocks that are usually in creations like diamond blocks, enchantment tables, bookshelves, pistons, iron blocks, quartz blocks, ladders, doors. I feel this should be a manageable level of logging, and logs would only need to be kept for 30 days to catch all thieves. Most thieves will specifically target valuables, and show up on the logs. Location Tracking Every so often, perhaps every minute, maybe 5 minutes. locations of players could be tracked and logged. Staff could search this database at the grief site to know who was there.
For the selective logging: What if the owner of these blocks decided to break them? For the Bait Chests: What if a completely new player stumbles across one of these hidden chests, not knowing what normally spawns in actual chests, takes stuff from there without realizing it's another players? Just a few questions.
They would show up on the logs, and staff would ignore those entries when/if griefing happens. It would be obvious because the chests would either be hidden or placed near a sign which says 'Please Don't Steal' or '<Playername>'s Stuff - Don't Take' inside a structure that looks obviously player-made. I also recommend having damaged tools in the chest to make it very clear that it's not naturally generated. If they honestly didn't know, then they could appeal the ban. But I suspect most players are more likely to not read the rules and assume that theft is okay (as it tends to be on a lot of other servers).
Bait chests: Who says they or something similar don't already exist.... Selective Logging: Taking items in/out of chests isn't practical to log. Just lock your chests. The block logging is already done, though we won't reveal what is/isn't logged. Location tracking: MOST players in the wilderness are not there to do nefarious deeds and simply being in the area doesn't necessarily prove that they griefed so wouldn't be admissible as EMC staff evidence. Logging everyone would also be a waste of computing power.
I can't lock my chest because it was in the wasteland. I suppose maybe that's the real problem. Where location evidence becomes useful is if that player is the only player in the area when the theft/griefing occurred.
Just a small point in the plan, you dont know when it was griefed if you are offline so the staff would have to look at a time range of 8-12 hours as most people are not online in a that kind of range(sleep,school, etc.) And i think if you go to the suggestion thread youre idea on locking chests in the wastelands might become reality.. Thats my thoughts behind it, although i do understand that youre getting tired of grief and theft.
Locking chests in the wasteland is disabled because the wasteland resets every couple of months, a feature that was increased to 4 times a year per a previous suggestion thread. The wasteland is not meant for permanent settlement where you might require to store items for a prolonged amount of time. Location evidence still doesn't prove that player griefed even if they were the only ones around because it doesn't prove that your timing wasn't off.
Not to be condescending, but if we can't do something to avoid having your things being stolen, we should just tell people that chests aren't entirely safe in the wastelands. Not sure if we already have that warning though
We have the warning saying that the wastelands can be reset and that they shouldn't build a base/home in the wastelands.
Why not just let us Lock Chests in the Wastelands? If you are going to make an area safe to mine in, you are likely going to come back to it if you make a second trip. If someone wants to leave some tools behind in order to make extra room in their Inventory, that can be their option and their risk.
I know very well that the Wastelands(theoretically) reset regularly. I also understand that anything I leave out there including a Locked Chest would be lost if it were left out there when they reset. I can leave whatever I want out there and that is my risk to take with a reset or theft. Being able to Lock a Chest would eliminate one of those risks at a small cost. Other than that it saves Staff from having to explain where everyone's Chests went to people who can't or don't read messages every time the Wastelands are reset, I can't think of a reason why it should be disabled. If the intention is to make sure no one loses anything out there during a reset, maybe we should not allow us to place anything at all like chests or blocks?
The primary issue is that locking a chest is not free. When a player pays the 1000r to lock an item, they expect that item to remain there. Having a reset every quarter (yes this is what will be happening), the player will lose that chest a lot faster. In addition, the wastelands are on purpose advertized as a place NOT safe for building your permanent home/base. Allowing the locking of chests goes against this ideal and represents formation of a base.
Instantly banning should never happen. Instant logs, okay, instant bans, nope. The block tracking for important blocks is already in place.
Nobody wants to build any PERMANENT home or base in the wasteland. All we want is a TEMPORARY place to store material and tools during the mining process. Because it doesn't make sense to cart them out and back every time we go mining or even as we are mining with individual loads. Absolutely, you can lose your tools and material when the reset happens once every 3 months if you fail to notice any of the notice that should be provided. However, you can also lose it in the process of bringing it there or back when you die in lava. Mining is about inherent risks and anyone who's been mining a long time knows that you can and will 'lose it all' from time to time, no matter how many precautions are taken. I do feel that 1000r is steep for a temporary chest, and locks in the wasteland should have a reduced cost, and possibly a full refund. However, it would definitely still be worth it in a lot of cases. A chest placed out there in the open would be stolen every few days. This is a huge scale of difference between a reset which happens every 3 months. It's like saying why lock your door in California? It's on the fault line so you will lose things when the quake comes every century or so anyways.
Try using an enderchest. This will likely solve the issue of losing items when carting things to and from a mining location.
*Goes near bait chest* RainbowChin has joined the server *Backs away* Rainbowchin has left the server *Goes near bait chest* BloodRa1n has joined the server EDIT Found the gif!
This is probably out of the ability of what can be programmed, but when the waste is reset, the server pays back 500r from a locked chest that you'd normally get after breaking a lock. This would allow people to have their chests locked (Protected only from other players), and repays people for their locks. The main idea of a locked chest is only to protect your items from other players, and any chest that would be in the wastelands would be removed anyways. Why not allow us to be protected? I understand that it can tell players that "Oh, we can build a base I guess," but players can do that anyways. And they do, all the time. They read the rules about how it is not recommended, but since it's only a recommendation, they know the chance they take and they take it. The exact same would go for locked chests, but only for a few hundred rupees more for added safety from people. Personally I don't see why this wouldn't be added unless it isn't programmable, too much work, or can be done later. And it is probably one of those things.
As it's obvious this issue is now about the ability to lock chests in the wasteland, I've created a thread about that with a couple proposals: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/allow-locked-wilderness-chests.45027/ This thread can probably be closed now.
