Restrictions and House Point Reduction

[JustinS]

Hi,

I have a feature in mind which might make the game more realistic. For example, creating a small hidden passageway to open the Restricted Section in the library would allow access. Although there will be NPC's or one NPC which move around and "defend" the area, they sort of act like cameras, and if they see you or you get too close, you will be caught and there will be consequences. The main reason for making the restricted section open, but still restricted, would be to hide books in the library which hide darker magic. This also allows the writers to make more books about dark magic, and to implement more dark artifacts for example.
What would happen if you're caught? One option would be a house point reduction. For example, 10 house points reducted from the student's house.
There could also be a side quest (of which I think there should be more) where players must go into the Restricted Section to find information about a certain topic. House point reduction will of course not count then, although you would simply be teleported outside of the restricted section.
There might be other sections in the castle that would also be restricted, and if seen points will be taken off.
This idea also allows the server to add invisibility items, such as the Invisibility Cloak, which could be an item only the first 3 players can receive from a special event for example. This would hide the player and make them invisible, although they can still be heard! Certain spells might also remove the cloak from working properly, or take it off the player and put it back into his/her inventory.


Breaking the in-game rules might also take of house points. For example when a student is extremely disrespectful or does something that is not allowed. Breaking class rules might also lead to a small reduction of house points.

This is just an idea that might make the achieving of house points more realistic.

 

[JustinS]

I also thought of making certain floors restricted after a certain Minecraft time (For example night times) although this wouldn't really be beneficial to anyone and it would be quite annoying.

 

[Palindrome]

While I get where you're coming from with House point reductions, there's also the issue of "punishing the many for the actions of the few". While that concept works just fine in other spaces, I don't think players would respond well to this sort of addition to the gameplay- albeit I still think this is an interesting idea in other ways, especially in terms of adding more lore about dark magic into the world in an accessible way.

 

[Pankakes]

While removing points as punishment works in the HP books and movies, in games there's really no tangible consequence and therefore many players like to troll.
I don't think it'd be easy enough to distinguish which player got caught because they simply failed and which player got caught purposely because they want to sabotage the house cup

 

[JustinS]

While removing points as punishment works in the HP books and movies, in games there's really no tangible consequence and therefore many players like to troll.
I don't think it'd be easy enough to distinguish which player got caught because they simply failed and which player got caught purposely because they want to sabotage the house cup

That could be true, although breaking the rules doesn't always involve multiple players. When someone clearly does something terribly bad, then it will be easy to distinguish. Could you maybe give an example because I don't quite understand how people would troll to sabotage the house cup?

 

[Palindrome]

Trolling this new function would be as simple as purposefully getting caught several times over, or several times over on several accounts. Adding the point deduction function to your idea with the "hall-monitors" if you will, would also be a way that some trolls might be able to rig the House Cup by creating alts in the other houses and purposefully losing points. There really would not be a way to monitor whether or not they're trolling in any absolutely certain way, which is @Pankakes point (and a good one, at that).

 

[JustinS]

Trolling this new function would be as simple as purposefully getting caught several times over, or several times over on several accounts. Adding the point deduction function to your idea with the "hall-monitors" if you will, would also be a way that some trolls might be able to rig the House Cup by creating alts in the other houses and purposefully losing points. There really would not be a way to monitor whether or not they're trolling in any absolutely certain way, which is @Pankakes point (and a good one, at that).

Oh I see, I understand now. A way to stop that would be to check alts if that was possible (Im not sure if that's possible). Secondly, it would probably be quite obvious to see if someone is trolling - although students are caught automatically and not by staff so that's a problem.

This system can still be used for Quests though! Not necessarily the point reduction as I mentioned, but the "camera" feature. This basically means that some quests require going into the Restricted Section, in which you would need to be really careful to not get caught - otherwise you would be teleported back to the spawn.

After hearing these arguments my idea has kind of changed. I think making a House Point reduction system would be too difficult because of trolls and alt accounts. The camera feature in my opinion should be implemented into new quests and events. Thank you for your replies!

 

[Mekala]

Hey @JustinS and everyone else!

Thanks so much to everyone that voiced their opinion on this topic! The first part of this suggestion about house point reduction is a duplicate of another thread that you can find here. We do not want to implement any gameplay that removes house points, because it punishes a whole house for the mistakes of one person, thereby possibly creating a negative atmosphere, and because it is easily abused. The NPC Hall-monitor feature is something that we are already using in quests, such as in the "Escape the Doom Moon" Quest from the Star Wars event. We'll also continue using this feature where we can and when it is appropriate for new content.

I look forward to seeing more from y'all in the future! Have a magical day!