Name: @Thorpian Problem: Placing towns near those with owners that have quit, owners that rarely (if ever) come online, and owners that are not original. Say I bought 3 towns, and I want to place a fourth near them. But that 4th town would be catty-corner to 2 other towns, as well as adjacent to the 3 I bought. I can't place it unless I get approval of all 3 original owners but 1 comes on every 5.9 months, 1 hasn't been seen in a month, and 1 has completely quit (months and months ago). What do I do? Solution: Make zoning laws "opt-out." Meaning that any request to place a town bordering to another town (within 15 blocks as the rule stands), must tag the original owners of the bordering towns (as it is now). HOWEVER. Instead of the request being denied unless the original owner approves, the request is automatically granted within 15 days (unless the original owner says no). Contingency clauses: i. Players must contacted by in-game mail system, as well as by Forum PM. ii. In the event that the original owner has not been /seen within 6 months, thereby eliminating their right to their town if another player wants it (by server rules -- see Town Claim), the zoning law is bypassed and permission is granted to the placed town. Reasoning: 1) But wait, what if they get mad if a town is nearby because they wanted to expand? If this is they case, chances are they're actively playing! So they'll deny the request. That being said, even within 15 blocks, they'd still get just as mad...and 16+ blocks away is allowed. So who is being protected by the original system? Very few people if any. 2) What if they build something ugly that detracts from my town's value? If you're actively playing, then you'll just deny the request. If not, then your town's value has already dropped significantly if you're not on for 21 days! TL;DR: Let players build towns where they want unless original owners of bordering towns say no, instead of denying the request unless original owners say yes.
Both the contingency clauses aren't really needed. Simply have the GA+ handling the app tag the OO's in question. They get 7 days to respond. If they don't opt out of zoning, tough. Could send forum PM's like in claims but the stakes are lower.
Still, 15 blocks away is better than having a town right next to my town. I don't want to log in after a week of inactivity to find that some random town is placed right next to my town. ._.
15 Blocks is right next to yours anyway, Your not going to be able tp put anything in that 15 blocks either, so if anything it makes it frustrating for people who want to make there towns fit together. --- Whats even worse is Player A places a town in Rising Player B places a town directly next to Player A, Player A agree's to the placing of the town. Player A or B goes to place another town directly next to there own town. But because the other Player is Inactive for Months, i cannot place it, even though we were both fine with placing towns next to each other before... Which means the Player wanting the other town, needs to place it 15 blocks over, rank up and wait for 6 months, claim the other players town. and then move there second town back over to close the 15 block gap... How backwards is that?
Well, 2 things. 1 is that we could easily add ways of alerting people (forum tags and/or forum PM's - at least one of which sends an email to your default email address under default settings). Another is that towns 15 blocks away are more of a hassle anyway. If someone places a town blocking your expansion and you decide to buy/transfer it or claim it, if the zoning laws had blocked it you either have to deal with a town move app or live with a 15-block unprotected gap. Seeing as 15 blocks is still keeping the entirety of a full size town within local chat radius of your town, and those town residents can still find their way into your town, I really don't see how 15 blocks makes a difference at all.
If 15 blocks is right next to my town and doesnt make a difference at all like you say it is, why does it matter if you could just place it 15 blocks off?
The only issue I would have is if I had an entrance to a town from the wild - placing a town right next to it kills the entrance. OTOH if I really really wanted a grand entrance, I'd just make the town that bit smaller to protect the space... Provided there is a warning as suggested there is no issue because I would have a chance to object. 7 days seems plenty to me. You don't need access to the game, just the forum, and tbh if you are running a town then really you need to be responsive, you are mayor after all! And if the alert could go to all town owners then it is up to you as mayor to ensure you have a co-mayor if you are going to be out of touch.
+1 However 15 days is too short for me, I agree with a month inactive. I was nice enough to let a person put a town right up against mine and he and his co-owner went inactive for over 2 months. I tried contacting him, with no luck. So when I bought my additional town, I had to have it 15 blocks off my original town. I think that it's messed up that I allowed him to put his town next to mine, but then that stopped me from putting a town next to mine. How much sense does that make?
What about if we made a staggered minimum notification length based on last /seen. If player has been gone long enough that they cannot be found = 1week. Otherwise make it 3 weeks or a month?
We need this. I currently have a town right beside a person I use to play with. He decided to have his town placed right beside mine, then He went inactive. I wanted to start a new town right beside my current town but because this player was inactive I had to place my new town 15 blocks away, which is a major inconvenience to my overall design. Heres the problem, I sent him forum PM's and ingame mail with no response from him, It was getting very close to the 6 month mark and the player decides to logon for a quick moment then disappear again without answering in game mail or forum messages, so now I have to wait 6 months again? Or hope he comes on to give me permission to build my new town where I want it? The current system is flawed and needs to be changed sooner rather than later........
I like the idea of a forum PM sent by game admin/mods during the town/claim/move application. Then you have say 2-4 weeks to respond, if the person does not respond in that time frame then its simply ignorance is no excuse.
