Mod Question | Support | Forum

Apologies for the long overdue reply, I'm just emerging from a very, very long rebuild of VC plugins. I see no problem using this mod, since it is strict a client mod and does not affect the server. Matter of fact, Its pretty cool and could have save me a ton of work on some builds

This just happened to catch my eye again. I do plan on testing this mod extensively. Chances are that I will also use this mod extensively on some of my larger builds. As far as I understand, Print Mode will only auto-place blocks in a 3x3x3 region IF the player has the blocks in their inventory (i.e. no spawning).

For the purposes of eliminating lengthy rule interpretation and questions, that future members may eventually raise, I'll address this now.

While there is no specific rule that prohibits the use of auto-placing functions, they do provide an unfair advantage over other players. We want to ensure as much as possible that players' creations are a direct representation of the blood, sweat, and tears that they put into it. It is the same reason why we don't spawn items or allow the use of other building tools such as WorldEdit.

Our desire is to keep rules at a minimum. Rest assured that if this does become a problem, a rule will follow quickly. The good news is that the plugin provides us with the means to disable certain features and we will update our ModCop plugin to disable Print Mode.

Let me offer a personal case study that demonstrated our desire to be fair.

A few years back after I expanded Vetronia from a 6Kx6K map to a 10Kx10K map, I was working feverishly to expand our main railways into new territories. Even though I could use WorldEdit features, each block was placed individually. Even so, I can falter at times.

After having built dozens upon dozens of railway towers over a period of 6 or more hours, I was faced with building the last one. I was tired, needed sleep, and wanted to be done. Rather than building it, I cloned it. In my mind I justified that a build constructed 99% by hand and 1% by other means was good enough to be considered legit. After all, I did remove the corresponding blocks from my inventory.

The next morning, guilt settled in right after I woke. Now that I was well-rested and had some time away from that grueling task, the justification I made didn't seem as clear. A wrestle with my conscience quickly terminated the justification. I logged on that evening, cleared the tower with WorldEdit to undo the clone, and rebuilt it by hand. I didn't compensate myself for the blocks I had disposed. It was the penalty I forced myself to pay for my moment of weakness.

Mr_Macintosh said
I think it may already be in the rules. As quoted from the "Server Rules & Info Section":

"Bots, hacks, mods, mechanisms, and such that circumvent our AFK system or automate gameplay will not be tolerated."

That is, if you want to consider it automating gameplay. 

Yes, it could certainly fall under that rule, though we'd need to put a disclaimer that headings (i.e. Unattended Gameplay) are only for descriptive purposes and do not expand or restrict the scope of rules. I can just see someone arguing that it is legal because it is not Unattended Game play. I only mention this so we all can chuckle knowing that someone would eventually bring it up

Frenchy said

My coding expertise extends to basic Python but from what I've observed of the Schematica print function is that it seamlessly switches between blocks used to build. In this case I don't think using a system to simply detect the placement speed of blocks would work, but if you could detect not only the frequency of placed blocks and at the same time the diversity of blocks used, maybe that could clear some of the false-positive that could result?

Unfortunately there is a pyrite lining to this function because Schematica offers the possibility to change block placement speed, as well as placement radius, which means that a player could in fact reduce the placement speed significantly enough such that the function would no longer determine accurately between a fast builder and someone using Schematica.

 So true! That's what makes writing detectors so much fun and a pain at the same time. Nor, could one be reliable enough as a basis for automated actions other than to give moderators a heads up that something might be amiss.