John, I appreciate you opening this topic. Siege trolling has been a frustrating issue and I think a lot of us are very eager to find a solution to this.
- Can we come up with a system that doesn’t involve constant policing from GMs?
I honestly don’t think the trolls are that numerous. If there was a strict policy in place to deal with them (a specific rule in the terms of service plus a way to report offenders) it shouldn’t take up much of a GM’s time. Honestly, without GM involvement there will be continued problems no matter what system we devise. Trolls will always find ways to skirt around the game mechanics.
If you want to shift the burden of policing over to us players, I think that could be accomplished. Let’s say a player identifies a troll, and they right click on their portrait to find an option to report him as a siege troll. If ten (or however many) players do the same thing, it’s safe to say this is a siege troll and should be kicked off the map. Or at least they lose the ability to drain supply from towers.
- What are the characteristics of bad behavior that are different than good behavior?
Rapid draining of tower/keep supply by one person, rapid deployment of siege, and deployment of siege to obstruct useful areas (such as placing siege directly atop the supply hut so honest players can’t get supply) are all traits.
- How do we prevent bad behavior without making too big of an impact on good behavior?
Some things can be in the game mechanics, such as not allowing siege to be built directly atop fixed NPCs or inside supply huts. Unfortunately, anything done to prevent rapid deployment could impair our ability to rapidly deploy legitimate siege.
- What restrictions might we be able to live with as good players in order to prevent bad behavior?
Any restrictions could limit our ability to legitimately use siege to defend or to repair walls, which may swing the advantage to the attacker. I know attackers use siege as well, but I don’t think they will be impacted as much because it’s not like they have to go to a supply hut to build more rams, they can only use the supply they carry before they have to run back and get more.
- To kick off the brainstorm I’ll throw out this idea: When a player places a piece of siege they receive a stack of “Exhaustion” A stack of “Exhaustion” expires after three minutes If a player has three stacks of “Exhaustion” they can no longer place siege
I’m somewhat against the Exhaustion idea, though I admit it has some merit. I just think trolls will find a way around it. Any automatic system in place should be augmented by a way to report trolls to GMs and there should be a written policy to punish and/or ban these kinds of trolls.