Looking for advice concerning the future of Lion's keep

So, as I mentioned in my introduction topic, me and Galwail have built this humble little castle not far from Orcshire. Well... It's actually more of a giant epic fortress, when I think about it. Anyway, there's still a lot of work to be done, but we decided to share a glimpse of what we've done so far with you guys and ask for some advice while we got your attention.

Therefore, let us proudly present to you...

The Lion's Keep:

Yep. So, we have this nice and spacey castle, featuring multiple courtyards, marketplace, baracks, storage houses, epic mineshaft and even a freaking wizard's tower. While there is still more building to be done, the thing Lion's keep misses most right now is some life. It already got ridiculously large for just the two of us, so we are coming up with some ideas how to turn it into something more than a dead memorial of craftsmanship. You could even say we got Plans. Ranging from running the marketplace and renting rooms to starting some kind of faction.

But theres one major problem with all that.

We're both green as shit.

For instance I only recently discovered that looters simply bypass our /cprivate door by attaching a lever next to it. Is there a way to counter that? Or should I report such things as a ban-worthy incident? Well the point is, if we can't even lock our door properly, I can barely imagine what kind of epic failure will we get ourselves into while trying to run some kind of service for players. Therefore what I'll do now is throw in a few ideas/questions and if you guys find major flaws in some of them, please let us know before we do something stupid. We'll be really grateful.

1. Marketplace. Basically a big open air market area, linked with some of the cities with teleports (not sure how that would go with the no teleport between major cities thing. Would a one way route Ecce,Abby,Ache,Crater -> Lion's keep <-> Orcshire be acceptable?). While we would sell mostly our own stuff there, other players could also rent stalls.

2. Renting rooms. Players can rent a room with a bed and a chest. The rent must be renewed after one month.

3. Let people populate the outskirts. Theres already a large somewhat protected area around the castle (more palisade walls and water moat yet to be built), Where it would be great to see some kind of medieval themed village. Thing is, once we let people build there, someone will inevitably build something unspeakably ugly and we'll have no power to do anything about it, will we... Same goes for hiring helpers for expanding the castle. If they screw up and we remove the thing, does that make us griefers?

Well, that's actually all i can think of right now. If you'd like to suggest other ideas, absolutely do so.

As for the ideas i mentioned, the main thing im concerned about is doing shit like that in a PvP-free area. The more it gets popular the more various individuals will camp there to murder innocent traders/turists. We can of course try to enforce a no-pvp area with our own powers, but lets face it. It's just the two of us. There are certain violent factions out there which can completely overrun the castle.

Hm, when i think about it, it probably all comes down to the simple fact, that i should stop being a greedy dick and donate a few bucks to the server. Orc, if you're reading this, would that make things like protected zones negotiable?

Well, thanks for reading all the way to this point (fuck you if you just skipped to the last paragraph). Please bear in mind that this was posted in the Questions and Answers subforum for a reason. If you'd like to offer your help, visit the site or w/e, then please don't type it here and send us PM instead. We're not taking in any associates or residents as of now, but we might be very soon. Also if you happen to run into our keep in the game, please be advised that all the gates into the castle outskirts are open for public, as is the whole lower part of the castle. It makes me sad to see people get banned for griefing, when they could have just used the nearby door...

embair wrote:For instance I only recently discovered that looters simply bypass our /cprivate door by attaching a lever next to it. Is there a way to counter that? Or should I report such things as a ban-worthy incident? Well the point is, if we can't even lock our door properly, I can barely imagine what kind of epic failure will we get ourselves into while trying to run some kind of service for players. Therefore what I'll do now is throw in a few ideas/questions and if you guys find major flaws in some of them, please let us know before we do something stupid. We'll be really grateful.

if people put levers on your door to bypass lwc, its a grief and is bannable

To be perfectly honest, it was seeing the Lions' Keep that inspired me to start Caladan.

I love the ideas about the market and rooms. Really does need a waypoint in /spawn.
I would suggest 2-way teleporters to all major cites and other sites you deem worthy, provided they provide the signature materials.
Maybe under the wizard's tower, build a teleport center?
(I would love to setup a 2-way tp setup with you when Caladan is more finished, if you will let me.)

As for outer population, the only way you could enforce is to donate, get zoned, and then enforce some kind of written building code.

Just my 2 gil...

--merged post--

Oh, one small suggestion: give your walls an overhang, to keep out the spiders.

[Shameless self-promotion]The walls in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] are made with this feature.[/Shameless self-promotion]

I'm open to any suggestions for plugins that you feel would be beneficial to whatever you're planning.

Just a polite reminder before you get jumped on by the others, please don't double post, there's an "EDIT" and "DELETE" button

Awesome castle dude!

put locked switches and presure plates down.

wow this is amazing! Get a /getpos at the castle so I can visit it please.

And also you dont need to worry about looters when you have locked chests

Also rooms with beds could be a bad idea as they are known for causing voids on this server

Could always use wool beds instead. Of course, it will be cosmetic only but it doesn't cause a chunk error.

Gorgeous.

Thanks for all the kind and/or helpful responses!

4o66 wrote:To be perfectly honest, it was seeing the Lions' Keep that inspired me to start Caladan.

That's awesome! Btw It could be absolutely epic if we could in turn inspire more people to match our style. You now actually gave me inspiration for an interesting concept of a loosely bound builders association. I might come back to it later, after I think it through more carefully.

In any case I'm really looking forward to seeing Caladan grow!

4o66 wrote:
Oh, one small suggestion: give your walls an overhang, to keep out the spiders.

Ah yes them god damned spiders. I think adding overhang wouldn't work esthetically with how the walls are built currently. I should have though of that from the beginning. I will probably try to stop them from reaching the outskirts using water moat (with hidden overhang and/or cactuses). Until than, visitors better pay attention

Orcworm wrote:I'm open to any suggestions for plugins that you feel would be beneficial to whatever you're planning.

Wow. Now that's a great thing to hear. Unfortunatelly for the moment I am quite occupied with figuring out what can i do with the plugins already present . Actually let me shoot a one quick questions right here:

Is there a way to manage a custom group for lwc locking? As in /cprivate g:lionskeep, and then just add/remove trusted players as needed? (i know i can use /lwc mode persist followed by /cprivate <list of names>, but this would still be a whole new level of comfort).

You'd be best off taking a look at this:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I haven't used half the commands on that list so I think you'd know more than I do as an actual player.

Orcworm wrote:You'd be best off taking a look at this:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I haven't used half the commands on that list so I think you'd know more than I do as an actual player.

Okay. It seems you can only use the groups as they are defined in groups.txt on the server, so no player-managed groups. With a bit of research, I would say Faction plugin is what would work best for stuff like that. I am pretty sure that particular plugin was already suggested here a few times , is there any chance it would make it in? Seems to me that it might fit in nicely with the 4 cities concept.

Factions would be AWESOME.

Especially if there would be some way to have factions adjust diplomatic stance based on incursions, kills, etc. (Have no idea what plugin does, just rambling.)

Would also be nice to keep some areas like Lion's Keep or Caladan purposefully neutral. (Think neutral cities in WoW.)

Faction is a great plugin... except it's totally user-controlled, anyone can make a faction and use any of the commands within the plugin. If there was a seperate version that included permissions for creating a faction then it would be a no-brainer.

And permissions to stop territory claiming, let's not forget that.