[opinion/suggestion] The protection maybe too powerful by default. (Can it be made more configurable?)

[Ruchian]

I wanted to make a couple of suggestions for this mod for a couple of reasons. This all includes an opinion of my own that is based on some simple observations. Please don't take those as an insult.

To put it in words, my opinion sounds as followed: This mod's protection system is in my opinion too absolute. If you feel okay with people feeling that way you'll probably be okay reading the rest. Anyway..

There are a couple of problems I see when modpack makers include this mod in their packs and server runners start hosting these modpacks playable for a larger audience on their default settings. This made me wonder a couple of things. The first question is an obvious one to answer for most, but what exactly is this mod supposed to do in a multiplayer setting?

I realize the following of course:

• It helps other players figure out who made what and who lives where, for example for role playing purposes, to ID things, to have more clear vision of who is where or simply for privacy.
  • It helps figuring out who is who's ally and / or enemy. (usually though people aren't playing enemies of one another in the same server). For that end the added the map integration helps really well as well.

But then, why the protection? This one might come with answers like: "People don't like creepers." (and they don't want to build their base out of obsidian) or "People are afraid others might steal their stuff."

Now lets say that these servers have a few more mods running on their server, such as Pneumaticcraft or RFTools, maybe even securitycraft. These mods provide means of 'securing' places, which includes chests and an entire base if needed, but this requires 'effort and time'. For example, both RF Tool's forcefields and Pneumaticcraft's security station require 'power'. This of course also means that these systems aren't absolute. (Power can run out, its as simple as that.) Against the creepers, one could simply prevent it with a server global rule. The positive side of this is that it still allows TNT to detonate and mine blocks, this is however not the case with FTB Chunks's protection system.

A problem this mod brings is that protection system renders a lot of features, some of which are added by other mods useless or meaningless. Because for example, you can trap a wither with dirt and a wooden fence, even if the game is set on Hardmode or Hardcore. You can pretty much make a dirt safehouse in the end to fight the dragon from. A single click on a map is all that is needed to turn dirt unbreakable. Even in Vanilla as such, the mod adds game difficulty breaking features. This extends to modded minecraft. For example, a number of mods have these very difficult to obtain 'witherproof' blocks, that you may want to use for a wither cage. Thanks to the protection, you can use dirt.

This absolute level of protection can be abused by trollers. They can for example teleport entities (such as other players) in a dirt cage and get them to drown or burn relatively easily. They can also claim an area of chunks around the place a player tries to mine to make them stuck. Even for regular players, it just poses a lot of issues for people who for example simply want to look around at someone else's base.

What I have encountered a number of times is that friendly players fell into my cabling tunnels and got stuck, simply because they didn't have the same level of jump enhancement. They couldn't break a single piece of dirt or stone to get out so they needed to wait for me to log in and break a block or ask an admin. They will suggest you to ally them, but this could be a trick to get them to invade your privacy. (stuff you collected, etc.). I'm not saying that they will take things, but if at first you haven't allied them already, then there isn't any true reason to ally them just because they get stuck.

There are a couple of suggestions I want to make to combat these scenarios:

• Perhaps a whitelist of blocks that can always be broken. (Stone, dirt, cobblestone) in a claimed zone, or a whitelist of tools that can always be used (a regular pickaxe or TNT), or perhaps a whitelist of blocks that it protects from specific events (chests, wood (against creepers, but not against lightning and fire), etc.).
• The ability to let the protection feature cost something specific to keep it up per chunk, or keep it temporary (so long a player is online within a specific time period for example). Something like this will let players put in more effort for wither cages for example or use alternative means to protect their base. It will also make it less of a cheese to beat bosses if the cost is set high enough. You could also implement a cost system for chunk loading through the mod as well. I think some server admins would appreciate this simply because it would mean chunks are not permanently loaded.
• Maybe turn the protection features into a seperate more configurable addon type mod? (this is more a suggestion that came in mind when I thought about modpack makers and server owners using default settings on their servers). It may be easier for them to set up in this case. This addon could be server sided specifically, where the original chunks could simply acts as a means of intepreting it on the client.

As a side effect, due to the severe level of authority required to currently break a block in a claimed area, one cannot check upon other players completely. This in effect allows abusive admins to cheese their game over that of regular players. I have seen in one server that an admin pretended to be quick to endgame, but they were using creative endless RF sources to power their incomplete machine setup. Covered up with unbreakable dirt this would not be detectable. Although yes, due to the capability of fake players interacting with the said chunk, a simple co-ordinate based block exchanger could reveal what was actually powering it. Of course they weren't too happy when they realized their creative RF source was missing, thinking it was somewhere in the world instead of deleted through lava. So I imagine such an admin might have complained, perhaps even here, about the protection not being powerful enough. Yet here I say the opposite, it is too powerful.

Such admins by the way, resort to using the recipe proxy mod crafttweaker to 'disable' the block/item that could have been doing it, possibly saying it 'ignores claims' and was to protect people from 'trolling', but as I made apparent, this mod actually makes trolling currently quite easy. All that is required is the desire to do so. I strongly believe that these people have realized this internally anyway and that these people simply want to cheat without anyone knowing and then pretend that they're better or faster faster than others. (Which of course also makes them more easily bored and more snoopy around other people's bases.) Of course you cannot help people's behavior, I'm just naming a scenario I have seen and that I find it unfortunate that this mod has as an example made it quite difficult to spot possibly cheating admins, which in itself can be fun to do. (To server admins reading this: Just a hint, don't do 'tests' in a public server. There is a very thin line between testing and cheating anyway.)

To summarize my thoughts in more simple terms: What I like about the protection system Pneumaticcraft for example has over FTB Chunks is:

• It costs power.
• It has a bit of difficulty to set up.
• It is not absolute, even if you can power it endlessly, the developer of the mod purposely made the security station hackable. Of course it requires a lot of effort to do so, but this in itself makes it extremely interesting to me, because it means if you truly want to protect your stuff there is more you need to do than just click on a map. Unfortunately this entire system is rendered meaningless entirely when this mod is present in a pack as well. Unless the server turns off the FTB Chunks protection system entirely, which in most cases they don't even know that they can, people will most likely use one click protection and laugh at others that take the effort of exploring the pneumaticcraft alternative. And yes this happens. For example: despite both of these mods in their full glory being in a lot of modpacks such as AllTheMods6, the security station is due to FTB Chunks often completely ignored. So practically, one of the things I am wondering is if there isn't any way of helping players feel more persuated to take the harder approaches towards protecting their chests and homes than a simple click, by default. and practically I am also wondering if this mod's intention is to make dirt capable of sealing withers and turning hardmode into easy mode in some cases (boss fights), and if trollers should be capable of trapping someone in a dirt house forever if they desire to do so.

Part of minecraft is survival from the unexpected, such as endermen teleporting in front of your nose, opening their mouth and hitting you randomly, or sneaky creepers booming behind you. I get that not everyone like it when they keep blowing holes in your base, but just look how many holes they make elsewhere. They're designed that way. You're more focussed on combat when there isn't a base around you. They're psychological obstacles designed to sneak into your safe place and ruin it. What I mean is that it isn't intended to be just a creative sandbox. There are a ton of mods that turn harder difficulties into a lot easier ones and some even practically make you a god compared to vanilla. I'd say don't feel frustrated, just be more careful. Keep in mind these things happen or turn the global rule off if it is too much. (I really hope this mod's intention is not to provide easy mode)

[Crazydude323]

If you want configs to customize what is and is not protected by chunk claiming, then fair enough. But if you're asking for a way to have the chunk claiming not protect things at all, that's actually already in the config options. In the "serverconfig" folder, which is inside the world folder of the server.

[Ruchian]

I mentioned the following Unless the server turns off the FTB Chunks protection system entirely, which in most cases they don't even know that they can, So it was diffidently the first. Currently I simply find it too powerful for most friendly servers. It would help if it had some more customization options.

Thanks for the input though. Had I not known, this would have been helpful.

[ItWasBroken]

I would love to see FTB chunks more configurable for servers. My friends and I are starting a server soon and wanted to make chests accessible by outside players (for looting purposes, think "don't leave your base open if you dont want to get robbed), but wanted to keep the anti-griefing function in place. This is just one example, but would be really cool to see added as a configurable option.