Goals Collection
Moving forward we will no longer be using community centers or tribe cells for the purposes of goals collection nor issue handling across the majority of the cluster. The following maps will still have tribe cells due to the way the maps are built and our inability to use specific teleport commands:
- Aberration
- Extinction
On these maps, tribe cells will be built into the teleport hubs established on those maps.
Goals Pick-up
Instead of you traveling to a community center to deposit contributions, we will use our nifty teleport command to come to you. A new command allows us to teleport to a specific set of coordinates, rather than to the player (who must be online). This comes with the reality that you will need to build your own cells apart from your main base. The following are the requirements for us to come to pick up your contributions:
- Contributions must be stored within a dedicated space away from your main base and any dinos
- The entrance to the structure must be pin-locked
- The storage containers inside the structure must be unlocked
- All dinos must be stored inside of cryopods
- All contribution items must be stored in vaults or dedicated storage (dedicated storage is preferable, but not required)
Tickets
When you have something for us to pick up, you will still need to submit a ticket. We will need the following in those tickets:
- The exact coordinates to the storage cell, obtained with a GPS while standing inside the storage cell
- The pin code to the entrance for the storage cell
This new methodology should simplify things for our players, as well as take some of the time pressures off of the admins. Other major aspects of this are that it significantly reduces the number of structures we have to maintain, the space we take up for community structures, and the rebuild time following a scheduled wipe.
Structure Decay Timer
We will be significantly increasing the structure decay timer across the PvE cluster. This move is meant to ensure that community structures are not devoured by auto-decay if we space refreshing them. Currently, the structure decay rate is set at 2x. We will be looking to set the decay rate at 10x, which should set the decay rate of Tek structures at 200 days. While this will also benefit our active players, it does come with a drawback: base spam. To combat this we will also be setting a hard limit on the number of days a structure can remain abandoned before we destroy it.
Decay Limit and Admin Handling
The decay limit, once this change is implemented, will be 15 days unless a tribe has put themselves on extended leave. At 15 days admins will use destructive commands to remove all tribe players, structures, and dinos. Given the size of the cluster, we will also need to rely on you to let us know when you come across a base that needs to be destroyed. If you come across a base that has been abandoned for 15 days or more, please submit a ticket with the following information:
- The exact base coordinates, collected with a GPS
- The name of the tribe or owner
It is still going to be necessary for you to keep your structure decay timers refreshed, particularly for any outposts or water pens you may have. All you’ll need to do is render those structures in once every two weeks, and all will be well in the Land of Oz. We will not replace anything lost if you fail to refresh your structure decay timers.
Voting
We like to include everyone in the process of deciding the direction the cluster is moving, but there are some instances where we have perhaps been a bit short-sighted on handling changes to established settings or rates. Moving forward, the process we use for voting is going to change slightly, and is detailed below:
In the event that we are voting on changing an established setting, rate, limitation; or anything that directly impacts the player base (established here means that we are seeking to change something that is already in effect on the cluster or a server):
- The vote will not conclude before 48 hours from the start of the vote
- To ratify any change, a 25% majority will be required
- if 100 people vote, 75 people will need to vote in favor of the change
We don’t want to rob anyone of their ability to vote, and we don’t want to make changes when the result of a vote is essentially split. If a majority of the community is not in favor of a change, that change will not occur.
Events
The mood of the cluster has been rather diminished of late, and that includes the Support Team. We spend a considerable amount of time juggling things and rebalancing to what have been some rather rapid changes, that we don’t have much time to decompress. Suffice it to say, we’re all a bit fried at this point. So, we’re going to shift gears and start having some fun for a change. The event server is sitting there all lonely, and we’re going to start making use of it. We are going to try to run at least one event every weekend moving forward. We will also be building a raid base on the event server, chock-full of goodies, that you can all take a crack at. We will try to plan any big events a week in advance, but there are also going to be some spontaneous events because why not?
That’s all for now folks. Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Arking!
