Rules around Claims and Inactivity

This page lists the server rules around how claims are to be made and how inactive claims should be handled.

Motivation

Historically, there has been a lot of claimed territory that is effectively unused, usually because the person that made the claim

• claimed way too much, and haven’t been able to use all of it; or
• hasn’t been active on the server in months; or
• has left the server altogether.

This wasn’t really an issue in the early days of the server because there was a lot of unclaimed land left, but the map is getting more and more filled in now. Ultimately, it doesn’t really benefit anyone if there are huge areas that both are empty and which no-one can use.

Rules

The following rules apply to both new and old claims:

1. Claims should be small enough such that you can reasonably make use of most of the claimed territory within a reasonable amount of time.
2. Relatedly, you can’t expand your claim if most of your current claim is unused; if you want to claim a landmark somewhere, that’s fine, but then only claim that landmark and some of the surroundings and not everything in between it and your current claim.
3. To expand an existing claim or make a new claim, you must be an active player on the server. It’s possible for multiple players to share a claim.
4. There are a number of claims that are just way too big and which will be reduced in size; we still need to figure out what claims exactly that applies to.
5. If someone hasn’t been active for a number of months, their claims may be reduced in size to encompass only a small buffer zone (like 100–200 blocks) around any structures they’ve built within their claims.
6. Claims that are fairly small may be exempt from this.
7. Any natural maritime territory (lakes, oceans, rivers), but not player-made canals or lakes, does not count as unused claimed territory.
8. If someone hasn’t been active for a number of months and additionally doesn’t respond to any of our questions as to when they’d be active again—or responds by explicitly affirming that they do not intend to return to the MC server—their claims will be dissolved.
9. The same applies if someone leaves the server without any indication of ever returning (we’ll wait a few days to see if they come back in that case).
10. If someone hasn’t played on the server for over a year, irrespective of other participation, their claims may be dissolved (we’ll reach out to you ahead of time before doing that).
11. If someone is banned, their claims are dissolved immediately.
12. If someone’s claim would be reduced or dissolved as per the rules above, and the claim in question is shared, instead that person only loses ownership over the claim, and the claim is reexamined for reduction or dissolution.
13. If, after someone’s claim has been dissolved, that person later rejoins, they do not regain their claim or any of the items that used to be part of it. They have to start from scratch, basically.
14. A dissolved claim is terra nullius, and anything contained therein is for anyone to do with as they see fit.
15. Excluded from this are structures that are part of server infrastructure, specifically rail lines and roads. These may also be built outside any claimed territory provided they actually serve a purpose and destroying them is disallowed; players may, however, relocate rail lines within their own territory if they are in the way, provided that this doesn’t prevent others from using the rail line so modified.
16. Some unclaimed territory that did not result from a recent dissolution of a claim may contain pre-existing player-made structures that are not infrastructure. It is generally not permitted to modify or destroy such structures without first claiming the area that contains them.
17. When establishing such a claim for the purpose of modifying an existing structure, this must be stated explicitly, and the claim must be approved before any modifications can be made.
18. It is likewise not permitted to build any new structures of this sort in unclaimed territory. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis. In particular, this rule does not apply to the nether, where building new structures is allowed anywhere, so long as they are reasonably far away from other player’s structures.

Additional Comments

Regarding the entire ‘will’ system that is currently in place, I’d like to make a point that people who have been banned from or left the server do not have a say in what anyone else can or cannot do, and they especially don’t get to decide how their previous claims are to be used by others.

If they left amicably and if their wishes are reasonable (e.g. ‘maybe don’t blow up that one thing I built’), then you guys are free to decide whether or not e.g. some buildings should become protected by the UŊ or something. In this case, such a protected area should encompass only said buildings so the surrounding land can be repurposed.

Note, though, that going against the wishes of someone who’s no longer on the server is not against the server rules, just like how breaking a UŊ law isn’t against the server rules either. However, someone who has left trying to decide what others can or cannot do is expressly against the server rules from now on.