Establish "Self Defense Rule"

[AIM-9X]

Over the past five days, the (SEA) Pure server has seen players plundered by some trolls and mini helicopters and attack helicopters stolen due to the absence of an admin. Despite their atrocities, the players were unable to take any action simply because it was a PvE server, and they had no choice but to accept the result of having their base looted after reconnecting.

(Please note that despite posting in-game chat, in Discord’s Help channel, and on the official website’s Help page over the past few days, there was no response.)

 

To prevent harm to honest players caused by the absence of administrators, please establish a minimum self-defense rule. At the very least, your items and assets should be protected from invaders within your own TC (even if it means becoming a player kill), and please bring back some turret and trap features so that your items are not looted even when you are away. Even if you set up a Bear Trap or landmines, they won’t work, and the shotgun trap is too weak as a defense because it can be broken through and looted.

 

Please keep the above in mind to ensure smooth PVE server operation. If not, a management system with 24-hour rotating on-site staff should be introduced.

 

Thank you for operating the server.

[Sweet Tooth]

Might I suggest the best option is for players to lock doors boxes use windows on window frames and build a garage for the Helis

[AbsenceOfLight]

Hi AIM-9X,

Thank you for taking the time to make a note of this.

Myself and others have recived many similar complaints and concerns on top of my own direct experience being raided on wipe day, unfortunately.

I understand that players would like more freedoms to protect themselves and their bases and it has been discouraging to bear witness to the negative behavior growing on what was a light hearted and fun PVE experience, and damage an  otherwise wholesome players game experience.

Often to bullied/trolled and griefed players myself and others have suggested giving Elysium a go because a lot of effort has been applied to increase player safety and includes loot protection measures that are a better reflection of RustEZ as a whole than what Pure on it's own generally  supports due to community server limitations, the unmodded vanilla experience of Pure and design choices made by the developers.

All of that does not actually solve this increasing problem unfortunately, but it's an attempt to soften the dissapointment that comes with increasingly unavailable administrators. 

I have made suggestions to others around floating the idea of making some nominations from regular players into a poll that people could cast a vote towards to create some transparancy towards the induction process as far as scouting and accomodating new administrators and there has been a lot of encouragement for players to apply, also. Hopefully there will be some more proactive playeradmins in the future to bridge the gap.

It is also imporatant that players take note and report negative players that hurt players to help build cases to assist administrators when actioning their roles and applying the server rules correctly when they are available; it is disheartening seeing growing negativity develop amongst our friends and our teammates on this PVE server, especially designed to be a safe haven absent of PVP players and their often toxic attitudes that are better suited to PVP environments where on some servers the rules are more in tune with their style of gameplay (not many, if any to be fair )

With that being said and wipes impending and reccuring apocolypse quickly approaching, try not let these griefers bother you. Note their names and their actions and make reports. Not all the responsibility rests on a player to take every available means to create an inpenatratable fortress, in fact we should be able to have fun, build whatever (within reason) and be comfortable enough in the community not to have to go overboard on protection measures and oversurvellance to be able to enjoy the game and socialise safely without being taken advantage of by the opportunistic. 

I have made a suggestion earlier around potentially adding player permissions to increase their ability to make stronger, more cohesive reports like adding a new command such as " /checkbox " to see if any unauthorised players have accessed deployables attached to the TC's permissions list. It is also important to remember that on modded servers TCs come locked as standard, on Pure they don't, so please make sure you take care when building and make it part of your TC building routine to add a lock or codelock to your TC every time, before you move to the next activity. 

Something I enjoy doing is keeping a spare box (just with some basic starter supplies) for new players that might be new, might not speak a common language or might not know the rules to help mitigate some trouble makers from hurting other players by stealing from others or breaking in. That's not exactly what is expected of an admin to help give every new player a head start (Elysium, scourge and survival cover this aspect well with playtime rewards) and that is not to say every new player is a trouble maker! () however by keeping a small amount of surplus items it can also really help players who might have been griefed or hurt or had their bases raided by having some items on hand to donate in times of crisis. That is what the in game community is about and is essential in times of administrator shortages. /essaying

Tldr: add a lock to your tc, spread the word. ()

 

[Sweet Tooth]

20 hours ago, AbsenceOfLight said:

I have made a suggestion earlier around potentially adding player permissions to increase their ability to make stronger, more cohesive reports like adding a new command such as " /checkbox " to see if any unauthorised players have accessed deployables attached to the TC's permissions list. 

Hi AbsenceOfLight

as has been explained to you in the past this is never likely to be a thing given we already don't give players that info as Admins as it will just lead to things like witch hunts occurring 

[Crazy Frog]

I agree that giving players access to player activity or access logs is probably not the right solution. That could easily turn into accusations, witch hunts and unnecessary conflicts.

However, I think we can solve the underlying problem without giving players any investigative tools at all.

The issue isn't really “players need better bases”.

The issue is that the current protection model depends too heavily on an administrator being online.

On a PvE server, that creates a very strange situation: if someone deliberately steals a Mini, Attack Helicopter or accesses property while nobody is available, the victim has no meaningful way to prevent it and the admin can only deal with the consequences afterwards.

I would suggest exploring an automated TC-based Property Protection system instead.

The concept would be:

TC authorization determines who is allowed to interact with protected property.

For example:

• Containers and important deployables inside a protected TC area cannot be accessed by unauthorized players.

• Deployables cannot be picked up or manipulated by unauthorized players.

• Minis and other player-owned vehicles could be associated with the owner/TC authorization, preventing unauthorized players from simply taking them.

• Protection could apply particularly when the owner is offline, which would directly address the situation where there is no administrator available.

• Players would receive absolutely no information about who attempted to interact with their property. They simply get protection.

• Administrators would retain whatever information is necessary to investigate reports internally.

This is important because it separates protection from surveillance.

We don't need to tell players:

“Player X accessed your box.”

We simply tell the server:

“Player X is not authorized to access this property.”

And the server prevents the interaction.

That completely removes the witch-hunt issue while still protecting legitimate players.

I would also avoid solving this by simply enabling shotgun traps, landmines or other PvP-capable defenses. That changes the nature of Pure and can create an entirely different set of problems.

An automated protection layer would preserve the PvE philosophy much better.

The helicopter issue is probably the clearest example.

If I park my Mini at my base and log off, I shouldn't have to assume that the only thing protecting it is whether an admin happens to be online at that exact moment.

The server already knows:

who owns/controls the TC,

who is authorized,

where the property is located,

and whether the owner is online.

That information could potentially be used to enforce protection automatically rather than requiring an admin to react after the damage has already happened.

I'm not suggesting that this should necessarily be implemented immediately, or that we should change Pure's vanilla philosophy without discussion.

I'm suggesting that this is the technical direction I'd investigate:

TC authorization → ownership → automated protection → no player surveillance.

It addresses the actual weakness without introducing PvP, without creating witch hunts, and without requiring 24/7 administrator coverage.

If it is technically feasible within the limitations of Pure, I think this would be a much more scalable solution than expecting players to continuously build around the possibility of another player exploiting an admin absence.

[AbsenceOfLight]

Hi Crazy frog

Your TC idea is kind of already implimented across the board, at times it has been confusing when the building privalage gui isnt straight forward in regards to base decay and what rate being enabled or not I agree.

As far at witch hunting goes, correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that giving players access to their deployables interaction data would actually stop witch hunting if there was any on your server.

As I understand witch hunting is the act of false accusations and evidenceless defamation however even the term is archaic and bullying/trolling/griefing/harassment  covers that already, (its 2026 afterall ) and having access to this real time data to be able to determine theft would in fact stop the idea of witch hunting.

You mentioned the heli theft scenario, any TC mod doesnt usually cover parked helis in the building privalage space but would be cool if it did, on modded like I already mentioned have those protections already even on your heli.

It's been mentioned by other players being able to put a code lock on a heli would be cool but even with all the mods, however if there is not enough community operating the community aspect of the server it will increasingly attract negative people unfortunately regardless of admin presence. However having the right admin will also attract good players as well, corrupt admins tend to attract corrupt players ngl

Players running player events and community stations greatly decrease the level of toxicity and server rule infractions.

Mutual respect goes a long way as well! I hope you have a great wipe! I am away at the moment and haven't started the new wipe yet but excited to see the new map when I can