Hi gang! 3 part guide (to make sure I don't exceed post limits): Intro / guide, Shop guide & real life example (my own residence). So yesterday Aikar has released a new update and in my opinion it's the most exciting one yet: introducing Residence Permission Groups. Yes, you FPS lovers: the RPG has finally made it onto Empire Minecraft! Err, wait a sec... Now, I read & seen some of the comments and I agree: at first glance it seems as if an already pretty complex system has become even more complex than it was before. Somewhat anyway, because never forget the: "play your way" motto. You don't have to use all this. But, it can make your life a lot easier, as I will show you how so. What are Residence Permission Groups? Before I get into the groups themselves it is important that you're already somewhat familiar with the residence flags. In a nutshell: residence flags are permissions which you can either set or deny globally (for your entire residence) or which you can give (or deny) to or from a certain player. An example: if you'd like me to help you build something on your residence you would need to give me permission to place & remove blocks. So you'd use: /res pset ShelLuser build true ("residence player set ShelLuser build to true"). A permission group is basically the same thing, with the main exception that its flags will apply to a group of players. This can make it easier on you to set (or deny) a flag to several players without too much effort. Let me give you an example where residence permission groups could truly excel... Building made easier with permission groups First doing it the old fashioned way... So you got your own residence on the Empire and are getting ready to finally build something you always wanted: a castle. Unfortunately this is going to be a huge project so you're asking some of your friends if they could help you. Fortunately that won't be too much of a problem on the Empire and before you know FriendA tells you that they're ready to build! All you have to do is give them permissions, so you use: /res pset FriendA build true /res pset FriendA use true And you're well on your way. Now, a castle could use some kind of cool gate but unfortunately for you guys this redstone stuff is causing you some problems. But.. Enter the Empire: after asking around a bit it doesn't take long for PlayerR to show up and he's willing to help you with the redstone stuff. All he needs is permission to build and permission to use redstone. Oh, and while you're at it you should also make sure he can use pistons. He tells you that he read somewhere about piston flags. So you quickly issue these commands: /res pset PlayerR build true /res pset PlayerR use true /res pset PlayerR redstone true /res pset PlayerR piston true (is this really necessary? you wonder...) And your project is once again well on its way. The next step is the treasure chamber; every castle needs one, right? You guys quickly come up with the great idea to make a secret piston door and also create some kind of donation chest near the main gate which will transport all the items right back into your treasure chamber. Only one problem: PlayerR knows how to make piston doors, but secret ones? And when it comes to hoppers... PlayerR isn't so sure he can be of much help here. Fortunately enough PlayerT comes along and he's all too eager to help you with your treasure chamber. All he needs are "redstone flags" and: "Oh yeah, you should give me hopper access too!". Things do become a little more complex but eventually you worked it out. So you issue: /res pset PlayerT build true /res pset PlayerT use true /res pset PlayerT redstone true /res pset PlayerT piston true (you're still not fully sure, but best to be safe!) /res pset PlayerT container:hopper true And once again your project is well on its way. In the mean time FriendA has finished building your castle walls and is now looking at the main piston door. He tells you that although PlayerR did a really good job on the door it doesn't really look as nice as it could have. PlayerR is a really good redstone engineer, but designing is still a bit of a problem. "Tell you what", FriendA says: "just give me the same flags which he has and I'll change a few things to make it look better". You now let out a sigh because... What were the flags which PlayerR had? But you really want to get this build to work, so off you go: /res info (aaah, so those were the flags you gave PlayerR, makes sense...) /res pset FriendA redstone true /res pset FriendA piston true In the mean time there is a problem with the treasure chamber. But there is no need for alarm, PlayerT tells you that all he needs is you adding his friend PlayerT2 so that he can help him finish. You now start to become a little upset and begin to wonder if it isn't easier on you to simply give everyone the admin flag and let them work it out amongst themselves. WARNING: Never, never, give out an admin flag for the sole reason that it'll be easier on you. Make absolutely sure that you can fully trust the people you hand this out to, especially because they could abuse this in very extreme ways. And because you basically gave them permission for this the staff cannot help you out here if players do turn to abuse! Besides; all of this can now be easily solved and the only thing you need is a little residence group magic. Doing it the modern, RPG, way... So you're going to build a castle. When thinking things over you quickly realize that you'll need 2 main things: people who can build the structure and people who can build the redstone circuits. You check the wiki on residence flags and quickly find out which flags you need. You decide to make 2 groups: builders and redstone and give them specific permissions. In the mean time you also learned that you can set several permissions using a single command. So you now use: /res gset builders build,use true /res gset redstone build,use,redstone,container:hopper,piston true So basically you set the residence flags for both groups (builders & redstone). And because these groups didn't exist yet they're now automatically created. Something you can check using: /res glist. So now FriendA and PlayerR come along and instead of giving them all those different flags you can now simply add them to the right group. So: /res gadd builders FriendA /res gadd redstone PlayerR And that's all there is to it. So when PlayerT and PlayerT2 come along you don't need to bother with adding even more flags. Instead all you have to do is: /res gadd redstone PlayerT,PlayerT2 Then FriendA suddenly tells you that he'd like to polish up the piston door a bit; make it look better. So you decide to give him access to those redstone permissions as well. It couldn't be easier: /res gadd redstone FriendA Now FriendA is part of both groups, which allows him to build and use those redstone permissions. Help, your residence is being invaded! So all your friends heard about this new castle you're building and in no time the builders complain about players who get in their way. They can hardly build or someone gets in their way again. You really need to do something... Couldn't be easier when you're using permission groups: First you decide to deny anyone to come to your residence, all you need is to set the (global) move flag to false. But you do want your builders to stay, so you also make sure that they are allowed to move: /res gset builders move true /res gset redstone move true /res set move false So first you give the move flag to both groups (builders & redstone, which contain FriendA, PlayerR, PlayerT and PlayerT2) and then you deny everyone else access to your residence. Now I can hear some people thinking: surely this would have been just as easy without groups? After all, all you'd need is: /res pset FriendA,PlayerR,PlayerT,PlayerT2 move true and then simply deny the move flag (note that the command is longer though). Here's the thing: adding flags is one thing. What about removing them again? When the project is done and your friends no longer need their flags you basically also no longer need those groups. So all you'd have to do is remove them and you're done: /res gremove builders /res gremove redstone And of course you'd need to set move back to true: /res set move true. But I do hope you can see that this is a lot less typing than the old fashioned way. Because without groups you'd have to do something like this after you're done building: /res pset FriendA,PlayerR,PlayerT,PlayerT2 build,use,move,redstone,container:hopper,piston remove. More typing, more chance that it doesn't fit the chat screen and I think also much more confusing.
Access signs: Using residence permission groups without permissions! As I hinted at above: residence groups can also really help you out if you maintain a shop with several friends. In fact: if you're running a mall and you're currently using dozens of access signs then this section could be very interesting for you. Why? Simple: because you'd better prepare to move over and let a new player take the lead. I'm abusing this guide to introduce you to the next huge mall which will completely take over SMP2 very soon now: Introducing the new ShellMall! My new ShellMall! Well, don't judge me just yet, I agree that it still needs a little tuning. Just wait untill I finish my gravel path! But until that time lets pretend that this is a huge mall. Here I have 2 main 'wings' if you will. On the left side I sell all sorts of wood types. Right now these are oak logs and planks and at the end birch logs and planks. The right side of my mall is more special: the redstone section (of course!). Here I sell redstone dust and redstone torches together with repeaters and comparators. Now, obviously I cannot run a mall this large on my own; I'll need help. So I got some of my friends together (without telling them, it'll be a surprise!) and decided that I should use 2 groups on my mall. One group of players will be in charge of keeping my wood reserves in stock while the other will take care of the redstone. This way we can all make sure that the mall keeps running. And the best part: all I have to do is set up an access sign. I decide that I want 2 groups: wood and redstone. So I set this up: My wood section, now with access signs! And this: The speciality section: redstone! So now that I have set up my access signs all that's left to do is to create the groups. Which is quite easy: the moment you set some flags for a group (as seen in the first part) or add people to it then the group will be created if it doesn't exist yet. First I start with my wood section, and I'm sure I can trust DoubleCakes9001 and AyanamiKun to take care of this one. I therefor use: /res gadd wood DoubleCakes9001,AyanamiKun: The wood group has been created! So at this point both DoubleCakes9001 and AyanamiKun can access the chests on the left. So if you're reading this guys then my advice would be to start chopping wood already The redstone section is much more special, and for this I'll need all the help I can get. As such I decided to add quite a few people who are all experts with the redstone: Here's hoping I'll make it through the weekend And I'm done. Right now I've added people to my residence groups and the access signs will handle the rest. But wait, there's more... Have you seen what I did in that last part? All joking aside I just added: AussieZaid, Uber_Corq, CakeMaster0702, EPIC_ARW, PenguinDJ and D_Aratm to the redstone group. That's 7 players in total. I then gave the redstone group access to my chests using an access sign. So effectively I just gave 7 players access to one chest using one access sign. Have you ever tried to give more than 3 players access to a chest? If so then you'll understand what I did here and why this is so special...
