AlexaNightfire

Everything that Aurora has explained so far in this thread  is awesome and helps a lot, thanks! But I do still have to agree with Ouchmousie in that there are quite a few grey areas left up to interpretation, and a little more clarification could be useful, perhaps by adding more to the FAQ. I personally have seen some of these grey areas be abused, and they lead to most of the conflicts I see when playing: people arguing whether or not what they did or what someone else did was against the rules.

I love that there is a definition for camping now in the FAQ, but I still think it needs a little work. I am going to attempt to explain why I find the following rule confusing and ambiguous, which I think is leading to a lot of conflicts at monuments with loot, camping, and spawn timing. I will also explain why I think perhaps a rule and definition on spawn timing will help as well.

Here is the current rule as shown at the following link:

https://rustez.com/faq/question/68-can-i-camp-in-loot-areas/

“Camping is when a player, or their team, loots and then logs out or remains inactive (AFK or idles) in concentrated loot areas and returns to active gameplay to take said loot when it respawns.”

Depending on how you read it and interpret the commas and grammar, there are at least two different ways to understand this rule, making it confusing to someone who is using it as a reference as to what gameplay is and is not acceptable. There are also a lot of common situations that are not covered by this rule, leaving players to infer for themselves what is and is not acceptable, leading to conflict, and potential abuse of these grey areas.

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First interpretation:

“Camping is when a player, or their team, loots and then logs out or remains inactive (AFK or idles) in concentrated loot areas and returns to active gameplay to take said loot when it respawns.”

The way I interpret it: A player/team has looted a monument. They then log out at said monument, only to return to active gameplay to take the loot again when it respawns. OR A player/team has looted a monument. They then remain inactive (AFK or idle) at said monument, only to return to active gameplay to take loot again when it respawns.

This implies that you CANNOT do a monument twice in a row merely by logging out at the monument. It also implies that you CANNOT do a monument twice in a row by AFKing at the monument waiting for it to respawn. However a reader can still infer from it, due to its ambiguity, that you CAN get to a monument (i.e. Brad at launch site), find out it has not been done yet or is not yet available, wait around on the rooftops, and do it when it spawns in, as you have not done it twice in a row. A reader can also infer that you CAN do monuments twice, three times, four times plus in a row, as long as you are not logging out at it or AFKing at it.

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Second interpretation:

“Camping is when a player, or their team, loots and then logs out or remains inactive (AFK or idles) in concentrated loot areas and returns to active gameplay to take said loot when it respawns.”

The way I interpret it: A player/team has looted a monument. They then log out at said monument, only to return to active gameplay to take the loot again when it respawns.This is not allowed. A second scenario is directly included in this interpretation of the definition: a player/team cannot remain inactive (AFK or idling) in concentrated loot areas, regardless of whether or not they just looted it.

This implies that you CANNOT do a monument twice in a row merely by logging out at the monument. It also implies that you CANNOT wait around (AFK or idling), regardless of whether or not you just looted the monument. A reader can also infer that you CAN do monuments twice, three times, four times plus in a row, as long as you are not logging out at it or AFKing at it. This interpretation implies that just waiting around is not allowed as well. However it is still ambiguous: what constitutes AFK or idling? For example, can a player/team wait around on the rooftops of launch site for Brad to respawn, if they are jumping around chatting, looting barrels, and therefore technically not AFK? Are you only allowed to wait around if actively engaging in looting or a puzzle?

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One problem with both of these interpretations of this rule is that they do not cover one problem that I find leads to a LOT of conflicts and monument/event-hogging: spawn timing. I think that if a definition and rule on spawn timing is also created, and made publicly available, it will greatly decrease the amount of conflicts with monuments, once the rule is widespread and known.

My definition of spawn timing:

Spawn timing is when you are aware of a schedule of when loot resets at a monument/event, and you abuse such schedule by doing one or more of the following:

1. waiting by being AFK or idling at a monument and only returning to active gameplay when the timer goes off to signify that the loot has reset; 

2. logging off at a monument and only logging back on when the timer goes off to signify that the loot has reset;

3. placing a sleeping bag (or home location) by a monument. Have the monument reset schedule on a timer and either:

a. be online, pausing your gameplay to spawn/teleport at the sleeping bag/home location immediately (or almost immediately) by said monument/event as it respawns

b. be offline, logging in just before the monument/event respawns, and then spawning/teleporting to the sleeping bag/home location immediately (or almost immediately) by said monument/event as it respawns.

The third part of the spawn timing definition is not covered at all in the current rule on camping, therefore leaving up for use and abuse by players.

With both of my interpretations of the current rule on camping, a player can read and infer that since there is no mention of spawn timing, it is completely allowed and within their rights to do so. This is mostly an issue at garrisons on the modded servers, as they spawn on a schedule, and only in certain locations, but can happen at other timed monuments as well (rigs, any monument puzzle.) 

I have personally seen a few players mention openly in chat how they spawn time garrisons by placing sleeping bags at every location, timing when it spawns, spawning/teleporting to their nearest /home, and then taking garrison before anyone else has a chance to react or breathe! How is that in any way fair to a regular player who is following rules and not looking for grey areas in the current rules to abuse? Especially if people using the spawn timing technique do it twice, three times, four times plus in a row? Some players have also created techniques for garrison so that even if someone else does show up to try to help/participate, they are blocked from doing so, and/or unable to get any loot if they do use explosives to try to help. This definitely needs to be addressed, as I feel goes completely against the friendly community standards that most of us are trying to achieve on RustEZ servers.

One thing that has helped a lot is how Death changed the Brad and Heli spawn timers to be random. Since there is now more randomness as to the timing between event spawns, it means spawn timing more of a non-issue in most scenarios for server events. But for events/monuments that are still on a timed reset/spawn schedule, like the garrison as mentioned above, spawn timing is still very much abused and very unfair to those who do not use it, as it means it is near impossible for a player who is not abusing it to get to a garrison in time to help.

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One last thing: Aurora I LOVE the last part of your post and just wanted to highlight it further:

Quote

19 hours ago, Aurora said:

Public monuments and events are server-wide events in public spaces and typically aren't meant to be soloed. If others want to participate there's nothing you can do about it – they want to have fun, the same as you. Compromise is a big part of playing on a community server.  

- If players join and participate: share the loot. Most players do. If they don't  report them.
- If players join and take the loot w/o participating (or fires one arrow kind of deal and say "BUT I HELPED" and snags the crates) , report them.
- If players are being greedy and claiming (hogging) events and not letting others participate, report them.

 

 

I have not gone into the issue of loot sharing in my post, as I think Aurora’s explanation above is perfect. Perhaps it could be added to the FAQ as well? 

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In short, while having the current definition of camping in the FAQ helps, I find it is still ambiguous and up to a few different interpretations, so some clarification/rewriting could go a long way to help. I think adding a rule/FAQ about spawn timing would do wonders to help as well. As Aurora said, it is incredibly important that we all take the initiative to report if we feel that someone is breaking a rule or not properly sharing loot, so that we can all continue working together to make the community awesome and positive! Thanks for reading!  

Just as players can store cars or horses for personal use, they are allowed to store a boat in a boathouse.

If you follow the links I shared, you can see that Fishing Villages do sell motorboats and RHIBs (the large boat.)

Motorboats are 125 scrap at fishing villages. https://rustlabs.com/entity/motor-rowboat

RHIBs are 300 scrap at fishing villages. https://rustlabs.com/entity/rhib

A kayak blueprint is 50 scrap at fishing villages.  https://rustlabs.com/item/kayak#tab=exchange A paddle blueprint is 25 scrap. https://rustlabs.com/item/paddle#tab=exchange

There is no way for a player to differentiate whether a boat was bought or found. 

It is best to follow one of the solutions I mentioned in my previous post if you are having trouble finding a boat.

I second what Watcher and Skudrunner said.

Following is some information pertaining to boats that anyone, especially new players, might find useful.

While Facepunch did bring back procedurally-spawned boats in the December wipe (see changelog here https://rust.facepunch.com/changes/1) there are very few in the world, and often will spawn on lakes with no ocean access, rendering them rather useless. If you want to save some scrap and credits and find a procedurally-spawned boat, the best way to do so is to fly around the edges of the map, scanning the coastline. 

Boat hogging, or lack of boats, is kind of a non-issue now with the arrival of fishing villages in the September update. For those who are not familiar with fishing villages here is a guide, though the prices are outdated: https://www.rustafied.com/updates/2020/9/3/fishing-villages-are-here . A motorboat costs 125 scrap, and a RHIB costs 300 scrap at a fishing village. It is recommended to store them inside, under a roof, so that they do not decay.

On the modded servers (Scourge and Survival) you can purchase a Motorboat or RHIB signal with credits. Throwing the signal will send a plane toward your location in a few minutes that drops you the boat of your choice.

As for the rest of your statement Sw4mp, there is nothing wrong with a player building a boathouse to store a boat, provided it follows all the server rules regarding to building. There is also no way to know how they acquired the boat, as you can see above, there are many ways to acquire one now. However, accessing or entering another player's base without their permission is not allowed.

 If you are having trouble, I encourage you to try the methods I described in this post.

Hello,

Adding decay to the Pure servers is certainly an option, but I sadly doubt it will do much to curb the issues of massive builds. 

I think it would also add the issue that anything that was built without all the foundations connecting (as is possible to do on Pure servers now) would start decaying automatically, and active players might intentionally lose parts of their builds and items in that way.

If you ever hop on a Scourge server (especially US Scourge) it is easy to see that decay does little to prevent players from building huge bases, or placing huge amounts of deployables. 

Some other possibilities to combat lag and massive builds were discussed at length in this post here: 

Another possibility might be to further reduce inactive purge. I am not sure how many days it is set at for EU Pure, but it does the best job of clearing up builds from inactive players.

 

I knew what was coming, but it did not make it any easier to watch.

F

35 minutes ago, souptime_365 said:

The whole point of mods like TP is to use them.  Yes, blackmarket is a convenience but if Death doesn't intend to have it used as a functional part of the server he should just remove the mods all together and publish a proclamation stating how he wants everyone to play on his servers and he'd be totally within his rights to do so because they're his servers.  

If Death doesn't want people accumulating "Rust wealth" so that people can self-determine how they'd like to play on the server while utilizing said mods, he should remove the mods, add more rules and regulations, and give the admins the additional responsibility of policing peoples play styles. 

If Death doesn't want "Rust-wealthy" people using TP as their main mode of transportation because he has an ideological position on how people should travel on the server then he needs to remove the TP mod.  He should make it clear that people need to utilize vanilla modes of transportation because RP type people get a warm and cozy feeling seeing people out and about on horses and cars and shit.

In my suggestion I clearly stated that it would be a logical first step in addressing an issue.  Baby steps... if that doesn't work, maybe limiting specific entity counts would be a next step but just like real life, blanket bans on things like planters and composters without thoughtful game theory on how it might play out is how you end up with game breaking unintended consequences and blowback.  

The only person who has any right to inflict an ideological position on how people should be playing on the server is Death.

If Death wants to create some sort of visionary authoritarian utopia of a PvE-RP server with community farms and limiting player's ability to self-determine the outcome of the game as designed by FP and the mods currently installed, that's fine too.

 

To be clear, I was speaking on my own understanding of the black market and its use, from having played before and after it was introduced, and from talking with admins, including Death, and other players about it over many months. Of course, I am not speaking on behalf on anyone else except my own opinions and understanding, and this statement is true for everything else that I say on this forum as well.

In terms of “the whole point of mods like TP is to use them”, I agree with this statement only to a certain extent. Like the blackmarket, they are there for use and convenience, but not to be the main thing you rely on. For instance, the whole reason there is a cost to /home teleporting in the first place is to prevent overuse and encourage other forms of transportation. Similar to how trade cooldowns were introduced: to encourage face-to-face interaction and player shop use, as many people were overusing the /trade mod.

I apologize if my previous post came across against accumulating Rust wealth, or seemed like I was trashing any players or their playstyles. I was merely speaking against overuse of some passive forms of scrap-making (farms, composters, fish farms), that can have negative performance impact in massive quantities.

5 minutes ago, SKUDRUNNER said:

We know for a fact at this point that the number of entities is causing issues. Why wouldn't we start with that? It makes no sense to start with something else.

The black market revamp/re-balance has been mentioned quite a few times as something that is in the works. But as mine, and other’s have mentioned above, it is unlikely to do anything to combat the main issue that is being discussed in this thread, which is the performance impact of massive farms. So I wholeheartedly agree with what Skudrunner just said. It only makes sense that the “first step” that myself and others are proposing involves limiting planters, fish traps, and/or composters. Or perhaps even a blanket entity limit per player. Yes, people should be able to play and enjoy the game they way they want it to, but in some cases, maybe more guidance is needed to make sure a single player, or group, are not having such large negative effects on server performance and creating tons of lag,, sometimes ruining the game experience for other players. Be it rules concerning farms, an entity-limiting mod, or even just focussing on a case-by-case basis on some of the biggest trouble spots or concentrated areas.

I disagree with most points of your analysis souptime_365. To start with, the black market is not there for necessity, it is there for convenience. My understanding is that it was created as another way for people to earn credits, and spend them on items readily available so that you don’t have to find them on the map (convenience), or have to wait to take a public heli (convenience and reward). It was introduced before there were places on the map that sold transport, so that a player didn’t have to spend hours trying to find a boat or mini. It was also created as a way for people to get something back from excess resources at the end of wipe, as people would find they had amassed large amounts of resources with nothing to spend them on. In this way, the black market was rewarding players for their usual efforts and playtime by giving them credits back in return. I don’t think that buying things from the black market, or using distress signals, was intended to be a common daily occurrence for everyone, but actually a form of convenience and/or reward.

Before the black market was created, people would have to find other ways to get transport, find salvaged hammers, and would grind up zombie kills and time on server instead to get credits. In this way, people were more aware of the work it took to get credits and their credit usage and therefore would usually be much smarter with respawns, revives, and teleports. The game was more of a grind and harder in some ways: more about surviving and figuring out ways to get what you need and how to get there. Now, with Air Wolf, Fishing Villages, Ranch/Barn as well as car spawns, and mini/car taxi services, it is no longer difficult at all to find transport.

Another point is that most people who create massive farms, or massive scrap endeavours, do so in order to get high amounts of credits that are not really necessary for your day-to-day teleport or revive cost. They already have tons of credits, and do it as a more passive way to get scrap, an alternative to the active ways (monuments, zombie killing, fishing with rods, etc.) to ensure they are always making scrap when not online. I totally get it; it’s fun and fulfilling to look down and see boxes filled with scrap, or have hundreds of thousands of credits available. Therefore I really don’t think that making things cheaper on black market would help: a lot of players would still be making massive farms anyways with the goal of making credits and profit.

Yes there are some exceptions: newer players who are low on credits, creating big farms to farm scrap to trade in for credits. But for the most part what I have personally observed is that it is not the case: it is mostly veterans and those with lots of credits already who know the system and take advantage of the ability to build farms, compost farms, and fish farms of unlimited size, as is allowed right now, and trade in for massive amounts of credits. Futrex presented a great idea; having community farms for use, or buddying up with your friends and/or team and using the same farming facilities.

Home teleports were already capped out at 200 credits max a day each /home. Even teleporting to home is a convenience, not a necessity, so I agree with this cost incurred. I believe Death has been looking into re-balancing the black market as well in the near future, so all this may be a moot point after all. Plus, if a player really gets stuck being unable to revive or teleport, or needs transport, there is almost always someone ready and willing to help in chat.

However, in terms of the current subject, I  really don’t think a black market rebalance would fix the problem of massive farms, and unnecessary large amounts of planters, fish traps, composers per person. I think the last few months has show that without a limit, there is still a lot of of people who if they can, they will build those massive lagfests, be it 100s of planters, fish traps, and/or composters, as it is ‘allowed’ right now.

I can't speak to the other cases, but in this instance, I believe a lot of the trees were actually removed by Death in order to limit overall entity count (as confirmed by multiple players in game chat who were there at the time of the Disappearing.)  If you fly over the map, you can see that there are now WAY less trees and forest areas. So no, it was not player retaliation against you (this time at least.)

I agree it can be frustrating to find a forest gone around you. However, trees, rocks, ore, are all public resources and up for grabs for whoever mines them. There are no rules in terms of who can mine or chop what. It would be kind of cool though if there was a way to TC-protect trees, but I have no idea if that would be possible to code.

 

I fully agree. I touched on the idea of limiting farms in my post yesterday at this link here:

 

Even if there is no set rule in place, if we each take charge and temporarily reduce what might be our usual farm size when there are way less players around, it might go a long way to help. Nobody needs millions of scrap, 100s of large planters, fish traps, and/or composters.

I second everything that Aurora said, and agree with most of Skudrunner’s points as well. Buckle up, prepare yourselves for an essay. My apologies for the length but I have a lot of observations as well as possible solutions to share…

To me, one of the best things about the RustEZ community is that 95% of the time what I see is everyone working together, be it fresh spawns or veterans. Yes, there are sometimes hiccups and annoyances, but they are pretty much always worked out publicly in chat, over voice, or with the help of an admin. I think that what a lot of the main issues you all are describing boil down to a few things: A. “loot goblining” or monument hogging, B. build size, and C. difference between age/maturity of players. The recent influx of new players, and return of a lot of older (more veteran) players, on the US servers especially has amplified these issues.

One thing that I truly believe though is that creating a separate server for subscribers would not really solve any of these problems, but might just amplify them instead. On top of that, I think it would create a divide between “us and them”: the subscribers versus the rest. A divide like that goes against the community feel that most of us work together to achieve. We should all strive to treat each other with the same level of respect, no matter the name colour (rank), or amount of time played on EZ servers.

For point A, “loot goblining” or monument hogging: a lot of the worst offenders I have noticed for monument hogging ARE VIPs or subscribers! So while there would be +less+ of those on a subscriber-only server, what would likely happen is a lot of the worst offenders would just move to the new server, and bring the problem along with them. The other scenario that I see a lot is a new player who is unsure of the rules, makes a mistake, is politely informed of the rules, and then corrects their behaviour. The best bet is to screencap and/or screen record, and report any time you see someone hogging a monument, camping, or refusing to fairly share loot, and then share with admins. Admins cannot be everywhere 24/7, and cannot take action if they are not aware there is a problem.  For those who have a tendency to hog monuments, maybe consider bring along a few new friends in chat and showing them the ropes. Also, I think when personal heli and Bradley loot instances are re-introduced, that alone will mitigate a ton of related issues.

Another possibility is to limit monuments, garrison, and events and say that you can only do them once in a row (i.e. you can’t go back and do the same monument twice in a row with the help of camping, spawn timers, etc.) OR: You (or your team) can only do each monument once a day. The problem with this is that it would be difficult for admins to enforce 24/7, but if people step up, voluntarily follow the new rule, and set an example for others, while reporting repeat offenders, it might just be possible and make it so that more people get a chance at heavily contested events and monuments.

For point B: build size, lack of “wilderness”, and lag builds: again, a lot of the worst offenders for this are VIPs or subscribers. I have personally seen people admit to having 100s of planters, use 1000s, of power, or own 100s of composers and fish traps. It might not be much for say, one or two people to have excess amounts of these things in their builds, but with a player base of 200+ people, it’s easy to do the math and see how quickly these excessive builds and entities add up, heavily increasing server load, and possibly contributing as well to server crashes. While having a subscriber-only server would *theoretically* help this, I don’t think it is a far reach to imagine that players would just push the boundaries even more with some of the things they build and place, still creating a ton of lag spots.

I love farming and making scrap too. I get it as I love it and do it too. I love the neon signs and decorations and when everything is nice and pretty. However, we are in unprecedented times with the popularity of the server and player base size. So perhaps if we all restrained ourselves, at least temporarily, and reduced a bit of our personal load on the server, it would go a long way. I see a LOT of unnecessary builds and entities from new and old players alike.

For point C : I think a lot of the negative interactions described in the above posts are caused by difference in age or maturity level of players. What might be fun for someone, for example pretending to be a fish in chat (as I do sometimes lol), might be annoying to an older player. Remember, you can always mute some in chat, which now mutes them in voice chat as well. It can be trying sometimes, but patience is key. A little kindness can go a long way, especially with players new to the server who, for example, might not fully understand the server rules yet. A possibility to help with this, although this would be hard to enforce, would be to open another US server that is adult only (21+.) This would make a more mature location for subscribers (and others) to play, if they so choose, without hiding it behind a paywall which, in these trying times, a lot of people might not be able to afford. We could do a poll to see if there is an interest in such a server, what mods it would run, and if it runs a custom map (something cool like Earth again maybe?) On top of that, I do not think there would be enough of a player base to justify having a subscriber only server, and the costs associated with it.

Continuing on from my last point, maybe it is time to do a poll on reopening a PvPvE server? They have floated in and out, in different capacities, and there might be enough interest with the recent Twitch popularity to revive it, and reduce player base on some of the other US servers in the process. Also, as Aurora said, there are also RustEZ servers with less population, including Scourge servers, that players might want to move to (even temporarily) if they want a less busy place to play.

In short, let’s all continue to work together in these unprecedented times to continue to make RustEZ servers a safe and enjoyable place to play. I think most of all, it starts with being proactive instead of reactive. Let us all consider our own actions first: maybe we don’t need 200+ composters. Maybe we don’t need to do oil rig or heli 5+ times a day if we are already fully kitted out. Maybe instead of doing garrison solo every hour, invite a few newcomers to come along, and share the loot and strategies with them. These are already things I see happening all the time, and would love to see more of. It is what makes the community so great: the ability to adapt, share, and help each other out, while having fun in the process. I know the above issues can be especially frustrating, but a few kind words, re-explaining of rules, and not escalating to anger or retaliation, can go a long way.

Thanks for reading and if you see a flying fish in the air, be sure to give me a wave!

I'd love to try this and see if it helps! Restarts with notice, even if frequent, aren't remotely as frustrating as random crashes and rollbacks. 

I'd also love to know if there's anything that we as a community can do to help, be it temporarily limiting building size, or turning off electricity etc. when not needed.

If you have a group of friends that wants to do a purge/raid/loot day, one workaround is: last day of wipe, you can have each other authorize on the tool cupboards, then "raid" each other that way.

A lot of people have specific rituals and things they like to do the last day of wipe, and a purge or full server PVP event would just completely ruin that. I'm fairly certain this idea has been brought up many times and vetoed because of this.
It might however be potentially possible for admins to run a PVP event close to the end of wipe where you can bring your own gear. Like a PVP/deathmatch arena, or one where you could bring and use your own gear. I know US Scourge has had Deathmatch arena events before. Approach one of your server admins and see what they say about it.

Hope this helps!

F1 to open console, then type:

bind b backpack

Hope this helps!

Happy New Year to everyone!

I couldn’t decide on a single screenshot, so here’s a compilation of some of my favourites from the past year on RustEZ servers!

I know 2020 was rough for most of us. I am an optimist and try to see the best in things and people, and some of the best and most positive moments of the year for me happened on RustEZ servers. Personally, I was able to play the game and escape from some of the harsher realities of the world. Logging on, you can always be certain to see a friendly face, and be greeted by helpful people and volunteers whenever you need assistance. In a year where a key theme was distance and physical space between individuals, RustEZ brought us together and allowed us to keep those real human connections going, albeit in a virtual way.

We are all in this together. Never hesitate to reach out if you are feeling alone or need support, in-game or out.

Here’s to a whole new year of hilarious moments, crazy events, ridiculously funny bugs, rockin’ pool parties and concerts, and much more! Cheers to 2021!

-Alexanightfire (aka Meowy Christmas)

I am against this!!!!

Pog is very important to us poggers. We take it very seriously.

Good luck all on becoming the next pogchamp!

Signed, Meowy

omegalul

Howdy everyone. I know that people love building beautiful farms and bases, and all sorts of great things on our servers. I know that one thing that people don't love is bases with so many windmills that you can't even look in their direction without fear of losing all frames, or your computer heating to such extremes that you can fry an egg on it, seasoning it with the salt from your tears, while watching your game crash. I think every minicopter flyer has felt that sinking feeling deep into their core of their being when they fly near a massive wind turbine farm, as their game freezes and they lurch headfirst into the ground, wondering why, oh why did they decide it would be a good idea to fly to their destination...

So I have a potential solution to this... Taking the beautiful Test Generator and giving it a revamp! A lot of people are willing to spend the money on a Pumpjack as the credits and scrap it delivers make it worth the money in their eyes, but find it hard to spend money on many test generators in order to fulfill their power needs. So why not make the Test Generator more enticing for usage?

I don't know if this is possible, but changing the output of a Test Generator to, say, 250 or 500 power would make it much more useful in these Rust days when seemingly every cool and needed item uses power, especially for those of us who love farmin' up a storm! I'm sure that this would be enough to entice people to throw a few dollars towards a Test Generator every wipe, and majorly reduce map lag as they would no longer need to place multiple Wind Turbines, and build massive towers to support them. It would mean way fewer lag-inducing entities overall, and make the majority who don't have top-end PCs much happier and less afraid to fly.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

In-Game name: alexanightfire

Map grid location: E11

Build located at X-1497 Z466. Safe teleport hut for build tour located at X-1439 Z516.

~~~~~

*Build will be left unlocked for public viewing after the build tour Sunday!*

*Please use caution when flying in, as not only is it in a garrison hot spot (potentially SAM sites!), but the build might lag a bit at first when loading in.*

*A heads up that there is currently a Facepunch bug with cams, such that if you view one, you might have to toggle “hide signs” on and off again in settings to be able to see signs again.*

~~~~~

Welcome to S.M.A.R.T., the School for Marvelous Academia and Resourceful Teaching!

S.M.A.R.T. is both structurally and spiritually inspired by an elementary school I went to, which was built in 1895, making it one of the oldest remaining schoolhouses in my city. Future additions expanded it to meet the growing population of its surrounding area.

My vision is based on the school how I remember it, and therefore includes the additions that existed at that time. This build encompasses three floors, as well as two recess areas, and a front and back entrance area. Each room has been meticulously designed and decorated. All graphics (save for the cam graphics) were created by me.

My teacher was Ms. Baxter, and she did an amazing job of making learning fun. Our class was a grade 4/5 split, and she designated a different era for each grade to focus on and explore for that year; for the 4’s, the Middle Ages, and for the 5’s, the Roman Empire. My vision for S.M.A.R.T. is an imagining of this idea; what would a school be like if each teacher chose a theme for their class and ran with it, both in syllabus and decoration?

You’ll notice that each classroom has its own theme, feel, and arrangement, to suit the grade level and teaching style. I strove to make each room unique and fun in its own right. There’s lots of puns and pop culture references, and maybe even a real photo of myself hidden somewhere, so keep your eyes peeled! B-)

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please reach out to me on discord, alexanightfire#2115.

Thanks for checking this out, and I hope you enjoy S.M.A.R.T.!

Looks awesome! I love it Such a fun place to hang out, and one of my favourite places to kayak around. Very creative!

It would be awesome if the teas that provide bonuses (like % ore when mining) were tweaked to last beyond death if you revive yourself! Just tested and if you revive with an ore tea boost, you lose the boost regardless of how much boost time you have left . Thanks!

Yes! I would also love the ability to leave photos in mailboxes if possible. That way can leave photos and nice messages in mailboxes to spread cheer

Just to provide some further information…

According to the Anti-Defamation league, while ACAB is classified as hate speech…

https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/acab

They state it needs to be judged in its context. In this context, it is clearly referring to the current ACAB movement, hashtag, and acronym that can refer to a variety of terms (All Cops Are Bad, etc.). It is on a black background, possibly symbolizing the current social media blackout movement (described here https://theconversation.com/blackout-tuesday-the-black-square-is-a-symbol-of-online-activism-for-non-activists-139982.) The use of ACAB is rampant across social media in this new, current use nowadays.

As seen in the imgur link (https://imgur.com/pxExfQk), it was placed to provide counterpoint to the Blue Lives Matter flag (some history here https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/08/the-short-fraught-history-of-the-thin-blue-line-american-flag ). This flag, from its history, can also be construed as problematic and racist, having been used as a symbol for white supremacists, and can been seen as promoting a systemically racist police ideology as well. It is unclear the context and backstory behind which it was placed as a sign on US-Scourge, but could definitely be seen as hostile or racist to passersby and to POC. So one could definitely potentially argue that it also goes against the rules of the server (as a symbol of racism). Or the flag could simply mean support for those who risk their lives everyday at work in the police or public service. The context here is uncertain but debatable. 

This current ACAB movement (reflected in the sign as seen in the pic) is widely different, and is not used the same as the skinhead history of the term, nor does it have the same meaning or connotations. It specifically is a reaction to the systemic racism that is found in police forces worldwide, and can be seen as a direct offshoot of the Black Lives Matter movement. It is used as a form of protest, and used by those advocating police reform. Further information on the current use of ACAB and its relation to Black Lives Matter, as well as police reform, can be found quickly on the internet.

https://www.gq.com/story/history-of-acab does a good job of explaining the current meaning, and explains how it is not the same as was used by racist skinheads of the past.

I still hold my opinion that all political signage, including both of the above, are not appropriate for public viewing on the servers. While context is everything, the meaning and history can take different forms depending on how you look at it. Political symbols, words, flags, etc. can have widely different meanings according to each individual's personal experiences and ideology. And the servers are not a place for debate, or such signs that can invoke political toxicity.

Thank you all for your time in reviewing these matters and coming to a clear ruling to avoid issues in the future, and to continue to make Rustez servers a fun and clean place to play.

I read the ban report earlier today and it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Forgive me if this is not the proper place to post this, but it directly relates to this ban.

I have been reflecting since I read this ban report on differing opinions on political and related signage in-game, as well as whether or not punishment (i.e. banning) is necessary or required for such things, or if less severe routes should be taken (such as remove image from the sign and give warnings not outright bans for first offenses, etc.)

Regardless of my own political leanings, I think there should be a general rule or statement made about political signage in-game, and the punishment (as required), should be the same no matter what the sign says, if it infringes this rule. My original post with my position on political signage in-game can be viewed here at https://rustez.com/forums/topic/3405-signs/?tab=comments#comment-10973 .

The fact that this sign was singled out to receive a ban (even if only 3-days), as well as revealing who put the sign up, sets a really bad precedent in my opinion, unless the person who placed the sign was a repeat offender (i.e. continuing to place political-related signs or signs that go against the rules of the server after being warned).

In the original imgur post (https://i.imgur.com/pxExfQk.jpg) as taken by Stv) that alerted admins to this sign, nearby signs provide important context in which this ACAB sign was placed that I think have been ignored when dubbing this sign as being used to promote hate. Most of the other political-related other signs could be viewed as “hateful”, “hate speech”, etc., depending on your own personal political leanings.

Also, naming who put this sign up, and not the numerous other political-related signs that have been placed around the US Scourge map this wipe, potentially places a target on them for griefers or other tomfoolery.

In short, I would like to see more consistency in punishment for signs (if necessary), as well as more clearly delineated rules on what is acceptable signs in publicly viewable areas of the server. I would like to thank all of the admins for their dedication and to the servers and to the players. I know times are tough and it can often be very difficult to figure out the right way to approach things.

Big F. Thats my base... was just about to hop on and upgrade too

UPDATE: Just some walls, TC, and my bag lost. I will rebuild!

Yes please! I play to keep my stress level down and relax and seeing political ads and propaganda like that is just a stark reminder of what I'm trying to avoid by playing and choosing  to play on this server.
Do what you want in your own base, but a little more discretion is definitely in order for public signs/billboards.

In-Game Name: Meowy Christmas (Surprise! It's Me!  )
Server: US-Scourge

Map Grid: D17

Build extends from the South-East Meowyland sign in D17 and ends with the Gingerbread Santa's Workshop at the North Side. (Build includes the South-East Meowyland sign, but not the North one.)

Consists of two main buildings on the South/West side of the road; Christmas at Meowyland Public Concert Hall & Shops, and Gingerbread Santa's Workshop, which are connected by Candy Cane Lane.