Option for dedic servers to allow players above certain XP

[Gingerbread]

Hello guys,,

 

I just wonder if developers can put an option for dedicated servers to allow people that has some certain game experience.. So we can put that inside the ini folder and only players let us say above 300 hours gameplay can join to that public server. Because to be honest i am really worried about being griefed by someone who just buys the game... This griefing happens in my classic dst dedic server but I have seen less griefer in my caves beta server so far. Problem is I dont use any mod and I dont want to be punished cuz my server is vanilla.

 

What I saw is, people that have more game hours tend to grief less compared to someone just buys the game. Also babysitting a newbie player with 10 minutes game experience is not a good thing for me..

 

What do you think about it?

 

Thanks.

[Rily]

Its a good idea, has the potential to fragment the community but is a good idea, I would like to play with some kind of XP filter too

[Gingerbread]

Its a good idea, has the potential to fragment the community but is a good idea, I would like to play with some kind of XP filter too

 

i dont understand why it will have potential to fragment the community? I mean if someone puts up a password, it means its his server and his rules. Why would not this to be allowed? I am sure there will be a lot of servers that is going to be open to everyone... There are group only servers. There are private servers. No one says these servers cause fragment in the community and definitely more players play in private servers than dedicated servers.

 

Also using no mod in your server is kind of punishment to server owners if this idea would not be implemented.

[Exhu]

Hello guys,,

 

I just wonder if developers can put an option for dedicated servers to allow people that has some certain game experience.. So we can put that inside the ini folder and only players let us say above 300 hours gameplay can join to that public server. Because to be honest i am really worried about being griefed by someone who just buys the game... This griefing happens in my classic dst dedic server but I have seen less griefer in my caves beta server so far. Problem is I dont use any mod and I dont want to be punished cuz my server is vanilla.

 

What I saw is, people that have more game hours tend to grief less compared to someone just buys the game. Also babysitting a newbie player with 10 minutes game experience is not a good thing for me..

 

What do you think about it?

 

Thanks.

 

Agreed. Yesterday I had a guy who had owned the game for two days whispering to someone else about how they should burn our 800+ day old base down. Luckily I saw the whispers in the console and gave him fair warning that he'd be banned from the server if he didn't drop that idea right away.

 

Newer people to the game tend to think they can just do whatever they want. An xp filter would be really nice.

[TemporaryMan]

I like this idea just for the sake of filtering out the people who feel compelled to rip out all the flowers to make garlands on Day 1, severely impairing my ability to hunt butterflies.  With Wigfrid.  Okay, so I have an all-arthropod meatball recipe, what's so strange about that?  It's not like anybody ever makes butter muffins.  Wings just sit in the ice box until they rot.

 

Admittedly, my concerns could probably be solved through education.

[Mobbstar]

Hypothetically, there is now an option for servers to limit players by their minimum (or maximum) game hours.

 

What about people who played lots of base (or RoG) DS and decided to give DST a try? What about people who watched other people play? What about people who used to play at a friend's up until recently? All those people would be kept out despite being familiar with Don't Starve's basic mechanics.

 

What about the people who are new to Don't Starve in general? They wouldn't find any "good" servers, because all "good" servers keep the "trolls" out. Besides some stale, unpopular and forgotten servers, the only inviting hosts are trolls and goblins laying sadistic traps to harass innocent newcomers. They would feel excluded, unwanted, they'd drop the game before getting going.

 

Of course that wouldn't be the case if playing with friends in a private game, but firstly not many people have the needed bandwidth and computing power, and secondly many people play Together for the purpose of making friends to begin with.

 

I hope this essay contributes to the debate. I will amend and exemplify my points if needed.

[Gingerbread]

First of all your assumptions are just exceptions. What is the percentage of the experienced player among 2 hours DST game experience? I am sure not more than 1%. Most of the newcomers are not even going to play the game for so long. Some of them even will not pass 50 hours. Since the game is not important for them, they feel like  they can grief anyone in a server without any filtering (some of them, but this percentage of griefers in new players is much more higher than people above 200 hours this is my observation throughout this caves beta stage.). And I do not want this as a vanilla server admin.

 

The thing is it is too easy to put up a mod to prevent griefers but I am against modding my server. I dont like any of the mods. I love to play vanilla and survival... Now since I play vanilla anyone with a torch can burn a base in the first day. I like to invite people to my base and in caves beta branch I have seen less griefing compared to normal branch and most of the players joining to the server was above at least 200 hours.

 

There is an option to make your server a group server. There is an option to put up a password but still there are servers that are open to everyone.. This game hours filtering is not going to make all servers close to new players.. How do I know? I asked to 2 server admins and they were negative to this implementation. OK they have right not to put on their server but I would like to put for my vanilla server. Also, one of the server admin who is against this has a lot of mods in his server. So, I expect this filtering from devs not to be punished by a newcomer just bought the game because my server is vanilla.

[artemiyME]

I stand by Mobbstar's narration, there is ways to limit people form griefing, there are easy ways to tell if they have bad intentions or if they are just new and dont know what they are doing, there are tentacle books, telelocator staffs, and weather pains, GIANT worldgen, inconspicuous base locations, aaaaand there are rollbacks! give some people who commonly show up on your server admin powers and your job is done.

 

Bottom line if you want to be a good public server you have to learn how to a) deal with a possibility of your base being griefed, or server reset at any moment b) how to help newbies learn and c) how to discourage griefing.

[Gingerbread]

well artemiy. It is easy to rollback yes but not everytime admins are there. Banning people is not a problem for me since I can even ban someone came to my server a month ago I got a serious log archieve at this moment. I dont think most of the servers have this opportunity. If no admin is online at that time and if someone griefs and if you are a vanilla server, who is going to stop them? You cannot stop. I cannot stop too but I can ban that guy anytime anywhere if he is reported and if I can confirm him from log files. Most servers cannot even ban the griefer if they leave the server.

 

Interesting thing is, when I was banning people from my server in classic DST, most of them are not even trying to come back after some time because as I said, game is not really important for them. They are there because they got bored and it is a new game so they just wanna enjoy by burning people's base. In caves beta branch, most of the banlist is trying to connect to my server. I realized that fact. They keep coming every other week but they get refused and they are regular players.

 

But at least you can put a filter not to allow someone who just buys the game and comes to your server.

 

This is your opinion. I respect that and this comments really prove that you would not use this filter if it exists. But I would like to use if it is implemented. This pretty much looks like a mod that prevents you to light structures on fire for few days. They have that mod, and I just want some sort of filter not to allow anyone to the server that does not play for some certain time. Pretty much similar. You should not really trust in your admins because they will not always be online there.

 

if the game is not important to a person (generally these people are new players), you cannot discourage anyone.. That is the important part and he will do it whatever you say. I do not want to rollback server for someone with 2 hours of game experience comin to server and burn everywhere.

[Hypersomnia]

Since the game is not important for them, they feel like they can grief anyone in a server without any filtering (some of them, but this percentage of griefers in new players is much more higher than people above 200 hours this is my observation throughout this caves beta stage.)

 

Newer people to the game tend to think they can just do whatever they want.

 

I think those explanations/justifications are illogical. Every single player was, invariably, new, at some point. However, you weren't like that when you were new, right? Claiming that newer players have such specific characteristics rules out any other perfectly reasonable personality trait possibilities... Doesn't it make more sense to think many different kinds of people will be attracted to the game? 

 

It would be fine if your motivation for wanting an XP filter was, specifically, being able to play with people who have a certain level of knowledge about the game. But that's not the case here, and the problem is: If this becomes generally accepted as a solution to griefing—something no one wants—then, in excluding new players in general, innocent players would receive severe collateral damage. For example: Flushed out from servers hosted by veterans, griefers would only be able to cause disasters within unrestricted servers, and new people who want to play innocuously would be forced to constantly deal with that if they ever want to have an enjoyable gameplay experience, which should be an essential right from the very beginning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gingerbread]

I think those explanations/justifications are illogical. Every single player was, invariably, new, at some point. However, you weren't like that when you were new, right? Claiming that newer players have such specific characteristics rules out any other perfectly reasonable personality trait possibilities... Doesn't it make more sense to think many different kinds of people will be attracted to the game? 

 

It would be fine if your motivation for wanting an XP filter was, specifically, being able to play with people who have a certain level of knowledge about the game. But that's not the case here, and the problem is: If this becomes generally accepted as a solution to griefing—something no one wants—then, in excluding new players in general, innocent players would receive severe collateral damage. For example: Flushed out from servers hosted by veterans, griefers would only be able to cause disasters within unrestricted servers, and new people who want to play innocuously would be forced to constantly deal with that if they ever want to have an enjoyable gameplay experience, which should be an essential right from the very beginning. 

 

Well i am talking from personal experiences... I experienced less griefing in caves beta branch where more experienced players were comin... I have no idea if you are a server admin but this is the truth and I have a vanilla server and I dont want to add mods to my server and ruin my DST game.

 

To be honest when someone adds mod that does not allow newcomers to burn object, thats a game breaking. It is impossible to survive in winter start for someone comes to the server. Nobody talks about this and finds this illogical and everyone tells me to add mods. I do not want to add mod and I am coming up with a solution based on my experience and long observations (6 months). Nobody finds private servers illogical.. Most of the players are there and not much players actually are in dedicated servers.. I am a server admin for almost 6 months and I got enough time to make observations. There are 2 big server admins who are against this idea so if it is implemented, then they will not add it means that someone who wants to play there can continue to play in those servers if they want to do so. But what if other server admins want to add this?

 

If there are group only servers, private servers where limited people are allowed to prevent being griefed, then there is nothing illogical about xp filtered servers proven to be lest prone to be griefed with long observation.

[Hypersomnia]

I experienced less griefing in caves beta branch where more experienced players were comin...

 

However, was that really because the players were more experienced? No, it was because beta branches are likely to be much less populated. All that confirms is something we already know: Griefers are a minority.

 

Nobody finds private servers illogical..

 

If there are group only servers, private servers where limited people are allowed then there is nothing illogical about xp filtered servers.

 

You missed the point in the second paragraph of my previous post. Basically, what I said and what's illogical is this: If the criteria for identifying and controlling griefers is whether a person is new to the game or not—a characteristic shared by everyone at some point—you'll be punishing the wrong people along with your enemies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gingerbread]

 

However, was that really because the players were more experienced? No, it was because beta branches are likely to be much less populated. All that confirms is something we already know: Griefers are a minority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You missed the point in the second paragraph of my previous post. Basically, what I said and what's illogical is this: If the criteria for identifying and controlling griefers is whether a person is new to the game or not—a characteristic shared by everyone at some point—you'll be punishing the wrong people along with your enemies. 

 

 

yes caves beta branch is less populated because the reason is more experienced players know that it exists and they keep comin to the servers here in this branch.

 

(now there are 5 players in my server and only one person has 100 hours and others are above 200). they will not grief because at some point they will get caught (sooner or later). Because people who play regularly will be recognized more and you can know him well over time. But you cannot know someone who comes to server today and never comes again.

 

I understand you but the problem is not everyone is going to play this game for so long. If 10 thousand people buys the game maybe only 10% will continue to play the game for a long time. if a game is not really important to a player, he will be more likely to grief. 

 

[t0panka]

I like PolarBear idea and not only because griefers but also i would like to play once with more experienced players. I have nothing against new players but i am little bored with explaining everything to new players and at the end they will for sure make some mistake that will ruin something

[False]

I agree with PolarBeer and t0panka. Firstly, I dont like servers with mods as well. There were times when I when out in winter and found half way that I cannot light up a tree.

 

Regarding xp filtering, I also support it. Basically, I think what PolarBeer want is to prohibit someone from doing damage to the camp that other experienced players have devoted their time to. Most of the time, serious damage are caused by either griefers and newbies. And most griefers really dont care about the game, even if you ban them, they jump into another server. And a lot more griefers are on the way to your server.

 

From what I have seen so far, most griefers like to do as much damage as possible to the camp in a short time, which results in a fact that they dont play the game long. So, xp filtering would be helpful in filtering out a large part of griefers. As for those experienced griefer, who might join the server and start with an innocent sentence 'Where is your camp?' and then after you show him/her the camp you have built, they play normal for a few days and prepare to do damage silently. They take the cut grass and twigs you harvested, they steal food whenever no one is watching. Over time, you find that you have been working hard to collect food and resources, but the stored amount is only decreasing! For these kind of griefers, banning would be useful as there are not many of them and banning each one means you will not encounter him/her again.

 

As for the effect of xp filtering on newbies, I think it's logical. The reason why PolarBeer suggest an xp filtering instead of just jumping into a private server is that he still wants his server to be an open one, which is important for the majority players of this game. If the xp filtering screens out newbies, then private server definitely filters out 90% of players. And to be honest, most of the private or group so far are set up to avoid griefers.

 

And when newbies join camps set up by experienced players, they are literally counting on others to support him/her. I mean, everyone wants a camp to share fire and crock pot, but not in the way that a players does not collect grass, twigs, logs and only eat. Not to mention newbies tend to make mistakes that cause as serious damage to the camp as griefers without even realizing it.

 

The question is, what does newbie expect when he/she joins a camp set up by experienced players? If he/she wants to play and learn, maybe he should at least read some wikis about DST or host a server himself to try to survive himself for a few days. As far as I am concerned, as long as a player can live on his own or contribute as much as he consumes, I am okay with that. The newbies I am talking about is always asking 'what is this used for?' or picked up all the flowers or burning everything he saw when he joined in winter. Joining others while knowing you can only do more harm than good and planning to count on others to support you is irresponsible and experienced players are not obliged to take that for granted.

 

As for whether newbies will find no places to go after xp filtering. I guess not. Because if thats the case, all the serves would have been private by now. But yeah, the absolute amount of servers available to newbies will be less, but I doubt the reduced amount would be substantial compared to the private servers right now. Meanwhile, for experienced players, the playing environment would be more comfortable as they can move further into survival without newbies making obvious mistakes. Furthermore, an expected portion or existing private and group servers will go back to public but with xp filtering, which is beneficial to the majority of the players as well. For newbies, is it bad to play with other newbies and finally frozen to death in winter? I dont think so, the point of the game is to face the challenges and try to improve yourself to survive longer. Survival with other newbies that cannot support you and you really need to count make contribution to survive, that's the true idea of this game.

 

So, placing an xp filter should have more pros than cons.