General My opinions on the game server rules and how they could be improved

First things first, I want to point out why I'm making this post. Reading the rules once again, i noticed a few going issues that I couldn't simply accept. The rules often verbally restrict things that could be restricted through gameplay, e.t "I'm not allowed to" instead of "I can't" and have other smaller issues which need to be adressed.

The main 2 issues I noticed are:

• Verbal restrictions on things that could be restricted through gameplay
• Restrictions on things that if done, don't bring any harm to the enonomy, the players, or any advantage to the user.

Adressing the issues with the rules would both help the mod team and the players, reducing unneeded strain on both sides.

This is a post to try and bring the Wynncraft server rules to be more reasonable and clear, with various notes on the reasoning and how game mechanics should be adjusted to justify the changes (in italic text). Here goes.

(oh also open the actual rules on the side for comparasion, here's a convenient link)


Wynncraft Rules
Game Rules​

1. No hacking/hacked clients.

Any modified client that gives you a gameplay advantage is hacking. Modded clients that do not give a gameplay advantage (for example optifine) are allowed. (ex. fly hacking, aimbotting/killaura, water walking, xray, entity tracker, speed hacking & possession of a hacked client, even when not in use.)

Spoiler: Extra information

Having a hacked client running when you connect to Wynncraft is not allowed even if none of its features are enabled. There’s no reason to join using a hacked version other than to hack, and it creates too much of a risk that it will be turned on and thus being an unfair advantage. If you are unsure if a mod is allowed send a private message to one of our moderators.

No changes, all good

2. Macros

Macros are only allowed to be used to automate chat commands (with the exception of rapid message or command spam). Any automated macros that allow performing interactions with the game world are not allowed. That includes using macros to bypass any anti-AFK systems in place.

Executing 3-click spels in one click or holding down the mouse button to continiously attack is not fair to other players. First thing: it's something impossible to do on a vanilla client, which already makes it an unfair advantage. Second thing: with super fast weapons you have to properly time your clicks to use them to their full potential, and, whether this was intended or not, dropping this effort for yourself with mods that let you just hold the mouse button to consistently attack at the optimal rate is not fair game.

3. Do not abuse bugs, glitches or exploits.

Any behavior of the game which is unintended by the developers and gives the player an advantage or can otherwise be exploited is a glitch. Using those to your advantage or showing or sharing any information about a glitch or an exploit with another person (other than moderators or QAs) is not allowed and will be punished for if done by any player. (Duping, bypassing restricted areas, bypassing territory cooldown, and excessively using colored text in chat are some examples. Leaving the map and exploring out-of-bounds is highly discouraged and will be punished on repeat offences, or if any gameplay advantage is gained by the player.)

Spoiler: Extra information

Not knowing that something is a glitch is not an excuse and can be punished. If you are unsure if something is intended you can send a private message to one of our moderators. If you find a glitch and report it to us and/or create a bug report marked as exploitable you will never be punished provided you don’t use it afterwards.

I removed/added some stuff from the bracketed area.

Leaving the map is seldom fine as long as it does not also trigger any of the other exploit examples, but it can lead to leaks of information regarding future updates, which are not really welcome, that's why repeat attempts to explore offmap shall still be punished.

Possesion and distribution of bugged items is also fine as long as it does not trigger any of the other exploit examples (using a bugged item to dupe, for example, is obviously not allowed).
If a given bugged item is safe from triggering any abusable bugs, it's safe to distribute as a collector's item through /trade. Putting those to the market would lead to confusion among players, though.

Colored text in chat is harmless. It's fine if only used in small portions, but if it's used to attract a lot of attention in a short period of time, it is worthy of a mute (please, don't ban for chat violations)

4. Do not curse at, insult or harass people.

Includes bypassing words that are censored. Swearing is fine, as long as it is not abused and not directed at someone. (This includes, but is not limited to, racism, bigotry, sexism or sexual harassment, belittling players, ignoring requests to stop annoying them, making fun of mental illness and other psychological issues that one may have as well as suggesting suicide and jokes thereof.)

5. Do not spam.

Spam is sending messages extremely quickly or sending messages with no useful content in an attempt to clutter chat. (This includes through /p, /r, /msg, /report, shouts and trade market booth descriptions.)

No changes, all good.

6. Do not misuse /report.

Tools to contact mods are only for serious issues. (Fake reports, spamming /report, reporting to get attention, sending joke reports.)

This rule is also fine

7. Do not scam players.

Scamming is tricking someone into underpricing their item, buying an item from you for an overprice or tricking someone into buying an item that was not promised. Additional information concerning of scamming other players can be found in this thread on the Trade Market. A price check (PC) does not offer you immunity or extra protection from a scam.

Spoiler: Information about loaning

Loaning is moderated the same way as lending - the account currently holding the item will be counted as owner. Not returning a lent/loaned item is not a scam, so always ask for a collateral when lending items.
Predatory loaning schemes are not allowed. In cases where these appear to be widely organized and/or affect a large quantity of players (determined at our discretion), the moderation team may choose to investigate reported loans and deal punishment where necessary.

After some discussion in the comments we figured out that the rule was never meant to target the trade market - well, it would be weird if it did, and either way I did some clarifications here so it's clear it doesn't have anything to do with the market.

8. Information on keeping and/or trading certain items.

It is not allowed to sell vanilla items and UI items on the Trade Market. It also is not allowed to intentionally abuse glitches to obtain them. Some items are allowed to be traded on the market, though. See the spoiler below for a more detailed explanation.

Spoiler: Extra information

1. Not allowed to keep or trade in any way (must be reported):

• Glitched items that can be used for duping/exploiting in any way
• Duped items/Items acquired through illegal means

2. Allowed to keep, not allowed to trade on the market:

• Items with broken IDs (items that have weird purple text as lore)
• Pre-Gavel equipment (items that didn't update to the ID system, items with special characters in their name)
• Old dungeon keys
• Vanilla items (default Minecraft items that lack the lore that Wynncraft items have. For example, a Wynncraft Rotten Flesh item will have “Crafting Ingredient” as lore, a vanilla one will not)
• UI items (items that have glitched out of the user interface, for example the item identifier checkmark)

Those, if put on the market, could outwit intended items as the most expensive ones and take an important spot in the economy, which was never intended.

3. Allowed to keep and trade with no restrictions:

• Glitch dyed armor
• Stacked unidentified boxes for armor/weapons/accessories that are still functional
• Positive to negative ID items (like jester set)
• Enchanted items that work normally
• Seaskipper passes and unprocessed materials
• The rest of the item pool

The market should ideally not accept most of those glitched items. Trading them through /trade is okay, though. Either way, no punishment should be inflicted on the seller or buyer. Instead, the trade should be cancelled by a moderator (if for whatever reason the bugged item being traded isn't properly blacklisted)

I tried to come up with a comprimise here between removing the rule entirely and leaving it as is. It should prevent glitched items from taking over the ecoomy without applying any further needless restrictions.

9. Do not advertise.

Advertisement of Wynn-related content is allowed if they comply with the information in the spoiler below. Advertisement of YouTube content, Twitch content, Minecraft servers, etc. unrelated to Wynncraft is not allowed. You are allowed to talk about any of these, but sending a direct link/IP in the goal of advertising (without conversational context) is not tolerated. Invite links of Discord servers (except the official Wynncraft Discord) and similar third party platforms are only allowed if specifically requested by the receiving party.

Spoiler: Extra information about shout advertising

Advertising in shouts is only allowed if:

• Wynn related content (shops on the Wynn forums, Wynn videos, Wynn streams, etc), and...
• Only once per hour max, and...
• The creator of the content has to be the one to shout, and...
• No more than 3 times a day max, and...
• If it's a livestream, it has to be on Wynncraft and you cannot switch to another game/server/IRL stream for at least an hour after shouting (to prevent people from playing Wynn for a minute, shout about it, and then switch to another server for cheap advertising).
• External URLs for Wynn-related content are allowed in the shout itself.

This includes guild advertising, such as: "Join <guild>!", but those can be shouted by any members from that guild (still subject to the once per hour limit and 3 per day max for the whole guild).

I think the link can stay in chat if it's in context (and not just an advertisement). I made an attempt to clarify this here. Some servers are bad with this - imagine a peaceful, respectful convo going on, someone sending a link to a service or a social (not as a nasty advertisement, but as a light hearted recommendation or an attachment) and getting muted or dare i say banned for a few hours for "advertising", though it was nowhere close... It's a really easy thing to determine if a link was in context or not, and the mod team is 100% proficent enough to manage this.

Also, i repeat once again - do not ban for chat violations, please just mute.

10. Do not impersonate players.

Changing your MC name as well as your nickname to a name very similar to a staff member and/or claiming you are staff when you are not. Staff includes Content Team. Impersonating other players with names or nicknames without their consent is not allowed.

This one is fine

11. Do not make deliberately kill players outside of PvP/Hunted mode.

Leading mobs towards people in safe areas in order to get them killed or pushing players into unsafe and dangerous areas or into lava/water is not allowed.

Okay hear me out, PMIs are just another kind of gameplay issue easy to solve through gameplay means. Why not just make city defences (guard golems/guards) stronger and make mobs despawn or run away if led into a safe zone?
"Using totems to make mobs keep spawning in a city is also not allowed even if you didn’t bring the mobs there." is a really badly worded sentence, and this issue could be fixed by just removing natural mob spawns from safe towns? Olux and Gelibord are the issue here. The idea of making a safe town a natural hostile mob spawining location makes no sence in itself.

12. Do not buy or sell in-game items for real money.

Using real life money, or something worth real life money, to purchase an in-game item from another player. This includes selling/buying Wynncraft store items for items in-game or selling art or services for real money using our platforms. Breaking this rule directly breaks the EULA, which will never be tolerated, and which will be punished for, accordingly.

13. Rules regarding alternate accounts.

Alternate Minecraft accounts are allowed to be used ingame. If one of your accounts breaks a rule they will all receive the same punishment.
If you are banned, you are not permitted to use an alternate account to continue to play, as this is ban evasion.

Spoiler: Info on Shared Accounts

Anyone who you willingly give access to your account may use the account as if it is their own. Additionally if the account violates any Wynncraft rules it will be considered an offense against that account regardless of who was using it. For these reasons sharing accounts is highly discouraged.

The two are fine

14. Do not leak information.

Leaking information about unreleased content or updates, including blocked off areas is prohibited. This does not apply to unreleased content that has been shown publicly by the content team or admins.

Oh it's that rule. There was a lot of discussion on it and I ultimately settled on leaving it alone, as it was proven to me that the game's reputation was likely factored into this rule and most leaks are not in good faith.

15. Refunds Policy.

We cannot refund items that are acquired in-game, no matter how they are lost. For any problems with items (packages) that are purchased through our store, please contact us at [email protected].
Any items shared between accounts will belong to the account holding the items regardless of initial ownership. Entrusting other players with your items will put you at risk for not receiving them back and will not be refunded.

16. No inappropriate usernames, nicknames, pet names or skins.

Usernames, nicknames, pet names, guild names, guild tags, crafted item names and crafted item lore that contain vulgar or offensive language or innuendos are not allowed. This is true for all languages. Player skins that are offensive or nude are not allowed and must be changed to something appropriate. Builds on public housing plots must also be appropriate.

These are based from the start, untouched

17. Minimaps.

Minimaps and waypoints are allowed. Entity radar that shows mobs and/or chests are not allowed. Player radar is allowed only to show players who are mutual friends with you, party members, or guild members (the same restrictions as Wynncraft’s online map).

Using an entity radar in Hunted mode to find other Hunted players or a chest radar to find secret loot chests are some examples of what this rule is meant to prevent.

I removed the cave map restriction here, other than that... okay? I think the only actual purpose of the cave map point is to prohibit people from seeing out of bounds content, which, as we have discussed, doesn't really hurt anyone, especially by just seeing it on a small minimap.

18. (removed, due to the possibility of proper gameplay restrictions)

Look, this is one of those issues very easy to fix through gameplay means. The fix I'm thinking of is:
If a guild loses an attack on another guild 3 times in a row, the attack cooldown on that specific defender guild for the attackers specifically is increased by 10 minutes every time they lose. The increased cooldown counter stays there until they win or for 2 durations of the cooldown.

Let me explain, this fixes both the stalling described (by eventually not letting the sub-guild to attack the guild and reset the cooldown before the other guilds get the chance to attack) and keeps the way of warring basically the same - what kind of guild would instantly lose to a defender guild 3 times in a row, after all? It also solves the workaround of using multiple sub-guilds - they won't be able to stall for long with their cooldowns to attack the stalled guild continiously increasing.

The point, once again, is, if there is a way to fix a gameplay issue through gameplay, fix it through gameplay.

19. (removed, you guessed it, due to the possibility of proper gameplay restrictions)

Sorry, but that one is just stupid. It's not really hard to implement an AFK timer after which the player will no longer recieve any drops, XP, etc. and if macros are used to bypass such a system, those are covered by rule 2.
And it is even easier to stop mobs from spawining in unintended areas after a while of the player being there.

And even that is not really needed, because, you guessed it again, one killing quest mobs doesn't harm anyone and the xp/loot gains of such mobs just should not be made high enough to encourage this in the first place!
If a specific quest mob absolutely has to drop a high amount of loot, there are 2 possible fixes: either make a system that makes the mob drop less loot on repeat defeats, or move all loot it has above the "safe to grind" thresold to the quest rewards pool.

20. No In Game Bots

You are not allowed to waste server player slots with bot accounts for any reason. Bots outside of the game that use the information provided by the public API are allowed.
(Specific example: Setting up bots in different worlds to track and send information when an xp bomb drops, providing a free alternative to paid features.)

No matter what I may think, this rule is fair.

Now, this thread is subject to further changes, so if you have feedback, leave it in the comments and we'll discuss.

 

friendly reminder to say any sort of thoughts and negative feedback on the thread you have in the comments

also, i'm not covering forum rules here, just in case, don't ask

________________________________

Another suggestion I propose related to the rules: put the rules (or link to them) somewhere on the help page. No new player would really decide to look for the rules on the forums, it seems like a really unfitting place to look.

 

For rule #11 the "no mob totems in towns for spawning" rule is probably designed with Olux in mind. Olux for some reason has consistent spawning of slimes.(Shouldn't be a thing anyways)

 

If there are hostile slimes there it's not really a safe zone, after all. Though I have never seen any.

 

I've been killed by them multiple times. They are also very hard for guard to kill because when they die, they split into more monsters, each of which can then split into more monsters. (They might be able to split again, but I'm not sure)

 

Could be because the biome is swamp there and that's vanilla slime

 

I don't think so. It goes from being a large slime, to being a bunch of silverfish, to being a bunch of small magma cubes.

 

it's one of the slimes from the crop failure quest (no idea why it spawns in olux very infrequently)
there's also gelibord where mobs literally spawn in the floorboards

 

yeah um gelibord is an even worse situation

 

2/ 3-clicks macros seem to be slower than just spam clicking anyway, and it doesn’t give a real advantage imo. I don’t think you can hold to spam them?

3/ Making ppl teleport back to Ragni when they’re outside of the map is 1/ annoying, imagine you’re near Gavel- 2/ prob difficult to set up? You need to make ppl under the map and outside the map get teleported and exclude every single area that goes in a lower y or every single quest room idk
As for colored text, the rule seems to imply that you’re not even supposed to be able to use colored text in the first place. If you find a glitch to use colored text, oh god RIP epileptic people in Detlas i guess

4-5/ These rules aren’t really related and nobody merges these rules together usually?

8/ The rotten flesh example was a really bad example. For the unintentional additional 0, if the seller just keeps the 0 and doesn’t remove the concerned item, they’ll probably be punished. And yes, an additional 0 can be a lot. Selling something to >1 LE instead of 10 EB is an example.

9/ That change would just create a massive amount of reports. You can’t just detect whether a link is sent because of a conv or just to advertise i think. So the only way to punish advertising is… reporting it.

11/ mentioned above

14/ maybe it’s because of the BETA access for HEROs/CHAMPIONs? i don’t remember if while having access to the BETA they know things before the others soooo-

17/ This rule has absolutely no reason to be deleted. 1/ no player radar for hunter mode ig? 2/ no mobs radar for the starred mobs farming 3/ no chests radar because the whole point of searching for them becomes useless. People probably sent somewhere where every single chest is in the map but I think they search for them manually 4/ cave maps are obviously to not be able to see oob stuff in the map.

18/ I have nothing to say yet about this change. Didn’t take any guild action yet to understand all the territories stuff-

19/ There’s already something to prevent you from getting drops when AFK. The problem with IDs might no be fixable? idk - and for mobs that are not supposed to be farmed, they’re supposed to respawn for other players maybe?


Conclusion: i think the rules are already perfect like that why tf do you want to add these random changes

 

i do this because i want more freedom tbh, also thanks for the feedback, i'll try looking into this

________________________________

2. They said this about the main attack, i think. This should probably not be allowed.
3. However hard this might be to do, it's easier than looking for people out of bounds with the moderator force. And it's not really hard too.
4-5 i wasn't emphasising that, and by merged i mean a single rule for appropriate chat behaviour.
8. Yes, 1 zero can be a lot, but it doesn't mean it will then get bought. Look, there could be a gameplay fix to this - let the buyer undo their purnchase till a few minutes after.
9. You can detect it easily, and it's the moderation's business anyway to manage this (so they will 100% be able to distinguish). It is really easy to detect whether an attachment was in context or not.
14. people make youtube videos on the beta, and those even get featured in the discord, not lying here.
17. I actually can agree here, makes sence for this kind of stuff. If so, there should be clarification for the reasons of this rule then.
19. Well, they are supposed to respawn for other players, i'll say more you can force them to respawn with /class (it really needs fixing, that command), but even so farming those mobs doesn't/shouldn't reasonably provide advantages to the player (over grinding in intended spots)

I have edited the post with some clarifications and changes, once again thanks for the feedback!

 

This is not the sole responsibility of us as the content team. If you accidentally find yourself out of bounds and you see something you are not supposed to see, we can't just wipe your memory like Fruma. If you learn information you're not supposed to have, it is a bannable offense to leak this information, regardless of source.

 

But what exactly is so extremely horrible about knowing the information?

________________________________

doublepost: i think that rule was worded a bit too agressively in the first place, it could stay in some form, i don't yet know which though.
There should be a punishment for this, but not an in-game one. Just a lengthy ban on the forum or wherever this was posted.

or the rule is fair as is and it's just my attitude pushing me to fight against it

 

No.

Many CT projects have been cancelled because people leaked them, for instance the item Inhibitor

Leaving the map results in the leaking of information.

 

How can a leak impact the development of a piece of content at all?

I still don't see why a leak of offmap could be harmful in any way. It's way, WAY less meaningful info than an item leak, the chance of you finding anything important there before getting sent back by an automated trigger or a moderator is statistically impossible.

 

Oculism set up a trigger at his warp that would tell him whenever someone has visited it on the live servers, and apparently it has been triggered once already. It happens.

 

Wait, what warp? After looking on the discord, I see those are admins' out of bounds places where they do whatever they want. I'd like to hear more of the story nontheless.

Anyway, it could be prevented by setting up a trigger all around the map perventing getting too far away from the game world, and with this in place, I'm certain that no important info will be leaked.

 

for example because it was supposed to be a secret

If we still do not want stuff to be happening, why remove it? If a trigger proves to be ineffective (for any reason), I could leak everything legally, which is what we do not want.

 

Still not a reason to halt development! Even if it's not a secret to the 5% people who saw that leak.

It is a good point, but if a trigger was added, it's really unlikely that it'd be bypassable (when in concept, spending 1 game tick there already makes you teleport out), and the inclusion of the "no leaking offmap" rule would be basically pointless and even harmful to the cause by making people more curious of what lies in the offmap.
And even then, again, it's not really harmful to anyone if someone leaks an offmap screenshot or two, so while we do not explictly want this, it makes no sence to expictly try and punish people for it. A good course of action would be to just patch up the vunnerability that has lead to the leak.

 

As a programmer and someone who spent some time around humans I tell you, give it a month at maximum and people will find a way.

You make it as hard to cheat as possible, but you still make it illegal.