[Zz] Embassies

[Tezcatlip]

The concept of Embassies, which was highlighted during previous meeting, caused some mildly approved confussion and requires the opinion of the absent majority of zedkins. This post will elaborate more thoroughly on the subject. The idea is to provide some links between inner communities of the server as well as with individuals to form an intricate web across the whole community. The concept is still very raw and requires a lot of polishing.

Key feastures:

[list=]
[*]Representation of bigger factions (communities) of the server
[*]Promotion of smaller regions (smaller communities/individuals) aka advertisement
[*]Establishment of rules
[*]Submition for joining the faction box
[*](Potentialy) faction mailbox
[*]A conference room (for roleplaying purposes)
[/list]

The idea behind representation and promotion of regions is to allow new (as well as some less "explory" type of) players with the idea what is going on on the server. Let's look at 2 situations:

First: new player heard a lot of praising speeches about some faction, but have no idea what to do next. For example (happened before) some players join server and look for Dreadfall representatives to join the group, but representatives live in another timezone, while the ones who currently present cannot properly direct new one. A known embassy may fullfill the role of the information desk.

Second: some minor factions (hope to be counted as one) may want to introduce more players to take part in building new region and create a new community or present some unique services like trades and farms, that can not be featured in Zen for several reasons, and thus remain unkown for majority of community. For instance my end market is beyond the knowledge of both new and (to my surprise) even some veteran players - i remember being ignorantly taught how to use a shop plugin recently and that Zen is currently lacking the territory for new shops, despite beinog able not place it there due to space/claim managment/redstone limitations as well as the intention to reduce stress on competitors and ease the lag burden of Zen market. This also applies to other regions. I remember LeFozzy suggesting placing some directions in Zen to a self-replenishing shop, he was considering to build two meetings before (this one in conjuction with the invitation to another region is the origin of the idea in my head by the way) - embassies can easily provide such services.

In addition representation of some regions like end portal might be beneficial for new players, to a lesser extent embassies may fullfil this role as well.

As was mentioned above concept of emabassies suggests that they can be used to place some rules and guidelines for the region they represent. Like: anyone can build nearby as long as it fits the style of the region and does not interfere with the neighbouring claims or on the contrary no one is allowed to build in vicinity unless stated otherwise by the owner. If rules imply some supervising i suggest placing an input box for submition to join. Once the submition was reviewed the answer with the decision can be found in an output box.

Developing the idea of corresondence a mailbox can be regarded as a usefull feature. If someone is planning an event requiring a lot of people to participate, one will be able to communicate with the group instead of individuals. The information board would be beneficial as well. Donation boxes are also accepted.

The last feature is community driven. A little bit of roleplayng is involved. Inherently embassies are a collaboration effort, thus it implies that both sides are involved in the proccess. I'm not sure about how successful this will end up, but at least embassies are intended to make different factions to work together, providing both sides with the insight of other's point of view. I hope that this kind of interaction will somewhat force some negotiations, soothing some conflicts and providing a common territory to deal with arguments. Might however go terribly wrong as ones may want to get an edge threatening to destroy a beloved building of embassy.

As for the placement of embassies I suggest to have at least major faction's embassies in Zen. Maybe building a geographical or diplomacy district for this purpose? While minor factions can negotiate with bigger ones to have an embassy inside the territory of the last ones or have a proper exchange of plots for embassies (one has the embassy of the other and vice versa). I suggest presenting a claim/subclaim with managment perms (these allow to trust other players, right?) to both factions to retain the ambassadors from building giant pink godzillas inside accepting region, unless is approved of course. The guidelines for architectural style and permitions should be provided by accepting region (zedkins in case of Zen or region owner otherwise) taking into account wishes of the ambassadors. Involvment of both sides in building embassy is encouraged.

I am very much open to a disscussion about this concept and hope to see opinions and suggestions to shape a proper potentialy working concept or just give me a realization that the idea is garbage and I should forget it. Current version doesn't have many aspects I am particulary attached to, so everything is subject to change starting from the name "embassy" itself. I however won't be particulary happy, if the idea will end up reduced to a series of billboards in the middle of nowhere.

P.S. I should probably look into grammar and punctuation rules

[LeFozzy]

Well, to round up the necessities and requirements for such embassies,

-- it'd be good to have them on a region where new players simply go and learn about them without traveling to wild by themselves. so bridgeways would be a good location.

-- a concern about factions/groups having new players join them is a long process because they need to be able to trust them. simply because they might grief and ruin a lot of buildings and unclaimed areas. i.e nova is not claimed at all

-- I think for embassy buildings we could have a design and location selection like in zen merchant quarters, with plot size of 16x16 and height of 10 blocks on earth level and depth of 6 blocks. and styles should need further consideration. I'd prefer them matching a certain pre determined style as well as it should show what that group/faction is all about.

-- to remove confusion, where people can build totally depends on themselves as long as they do not get too close to other players, and i'd say that should be 100 blocks away or another region. And for that, factions cannot claim whole untouched regions to "secure" it for new comers. But they can have a say if someone else wants to come there and start building before hand.

-- Grouping or making factions have rather unexpected consequences eventually, they tend to cause drama and separation and a lot of toxicity in the end. If someone ever wants to "have" a faction that also require them to be mature enough and suitable for leading and preferably chill and "shouldn't panic and cause mayhem for every little thing". For this purpose I think Factions first should apply to zedkin council meeting for such an embassy and meet certain terms and rules before hand. once they are approved and given a spot for building, they can officially create their embassy.
the rules and terms should also be simple but binding and define the roles of a community/faction and their responsibilities.
and zedkin concil has any means to revoke their faction rights, if found necessary, be it terms violations or drama.

It's still open for many improvements, these are my major points at the time being.