Well I found out that you have to ask for permission to claim a mayor of a town even if they have been permabanned on forums and in game. My suggestion is that if the player is inactive for over 1 year and has been permabanned you should be able to claim a town next to their town because there is no way someone can contact the town mayor if they're permabanned from forums and in game.
+1000 especially if there is an active mayor of the town willing to give their permission. It's crud that they can't just because they aren't original owner even if the original owner has been inactive for a very long time. My suggestion is 3-6 months of inactivity of the original town owner if there is an active co-owner willing to give permission and a 6-12 of inactivity if there is no one active to give permission. I favor the shorter numbers there but I'd be okay with the longer end so long as the silly rule was amended. Especially because they can still place the town 15 blocks away, all this rule is doing is making stuff look all wonky for no reason.
The current system is meant to incentivize town claiming and town transfers. People are more likely to transfer/claim a town if the said town is blocking them from placing a town.
Okay that scenario is all fine and good but there is a huge issue with it, an issue I had when placing my town that I'm still a bit salty about because I hate things being uneven. Imagine a town where the original owner has been inactive a very long time but there is an active co mayor using the town. You can't claim that town but that co mayor can't give you permission to place your town next to them as they aren't the original owner even if they want you to. Therefore there is a permanent depressing 15 block gap of silliness.
In all honesty I don't like having town policy riddled with a bunch of different "if"s. It's already pretty confusing and I really don't think we should be amending "if" this and "if" that to it. Removing the pointless 15 block zoning rule would be more effective and less confusing.
Yeah if you think about it, what is the 15 block rule doing at all? It's completely pointless. If you're going to be annoyed by someone placing their town next to yours, you're still going to be annoyed by them placing it 15 blocks away. Their local chat will still be your local chat, you'll still be able to see their town. 15 blocks is nothing. It's nothing but a hassle. If you don't want someone to place a town next to you, bribe them not to or build a tall wall. Good fences make good neighbors but stupid 15 block gaps just make people REEEEEE out about their wonky towns that are now wonky for again, literally no reason. Sorry this issue is clearly one close to my own heart.
I agree with you,especially if the play has been BANNED for more than 2 years. There is no point in asking permission if you can't even ask the player.
I agree with you. I currently cannot apply for president because I am placing my town as part of a nation, however one of the mayors is currently deployed in the military and there is no way to reach him. The co-mayor who is in charge was not given "official permission" by staff terms, so I am stuck as mayor rank and without a town until the official mayor is able to get back on.
I suppose I was a bit unclear when replying to the suggestion. I didn't state my thoughts on the suggestion, but the reason why it is the way it is itself, without my own opinion. As far as my actual thoughts on this suggestion go, I'm opting to agree with Nicit. I personally believe that the town zoning rules shouldn't be more complex than as-is and we should get rid of the pointless zoning rules instead. All it literally does it cause complaints and confusion for very little benefit. I'd much rather just simplify the process and help users expand their nation without having to worry and go through the hassle of complying with zoning laws.