Possible new ranks - Terraformer & Terraformer+

The appropriate rank for you would be [B]Terraformer+. The main aim of this system is to create a group of people who have experience with terrain and whose main purpose on the server is to create and improve terrain.

You could also contribute to the Terraformer document system we’re creating.

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I would reverse this though, have Builder [T] etc instead of the other way around, to show they can do terrain stuff as well, the community would know if that person is more focused on terrain or building, and I think that people that have applied for terraformer would stay focused on terraforming anyway, even if they got the builder tag as well, and vice versa, I get your point with wanting terrain experts, so you don’t want builders to half focus on terrain, but focus on either terrain or building, not both, but I think builders wouldn’t apply for hard terrain jobs if they’re not capable of doing it, and if they did, we could just reject their project. Hope this makes sense

Can you outline the entire rank system you’re proposing, so it’s clearer?

Because at the moment I can’t tell if you think having a seperate Terraformer rank is a good idea or not.

Who would take on responsibility of training these new terraformers though? I know that whee has started to train a few select people, but he is far often far to busy to start checking everyone who wants to be a terraformers work ect.

Yeah will do later today, thought it was a bit confusing

So the system would select for people who could do their own research and have the ability to do stuff largely without supervision.

I think the Overseers would be able to handle these applications as well, with some input from whee if required. As long as we can see that the person has done a bit of research on the ‘scenes’ they’ve created, and has placed the appropriate plant/rock types as a result, it doesn’t take an expert on that particular biome to approve it.

Again, when it comes to the area details project for a new Terraformer, it doesn’t really take a terrain expert to tell if they’ve done a thorough job or not.

By the time they reach Terraformer+, they will have proven two things:

  • They can do their own research
  • They’re dedicated to doing large-scale projects on their own

Terraformers will also have access to a unified set of documents written by whee and others which will help them.

I’ve thought more about this. This is the worst possible solution in my opinion. People would just collect the [T] an accessory but feel no obligation to do terrain - because their title would still be ‘Builder’. There is a lot of power in having your specific job title next to your name.

Ultimately, doing terrain requires more research and more work than being an average builder. Terraformers would have to be dedicated to this role.

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Ah that makes sense, you might want to change a bit on how you advertise this role then, no offence to the people you tagged on discord, but a couple of them I can almost guarantee would not be capable of doing their own research, and I have a strong feeling their idea of terraforming is far, far different from ours.

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I think in reality, this is actually a harder rank to obtain than builder, and should really be advertised as such, not as an easier cop out rank if you cant build houses for shit.

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Maybe, yes, but there should still be a way for builders that are capable of doing major terrain stuff to do it, since I don’t think there will be many terraformers, not enough to do everything at least.

I think you’re kind of missing the point of the rank as a whole. If a builder wants to do a major terrain project like you mentioned, that’s what the rank would fulfill. No active project has so much supposed terrain work for the project leaders to do that couldn’t be done by a Terraformer who would likely have a better understanding of what to do anyway. Yeah I mean builders still would have voxel/WE if they need to paste a tree or two that’s fine, but they shouldn’t (and wouldn’t) do anything significant.

Dunland is the prime example here because the project leaders haven’t (understandably) been able to do the terrain work, meaning it’s fallen to Whe. So even if there is terrain in a ‘standard’ project to be done A) 99% of people don’t really want to and B) they usually have no idea of what to do anyway. Terraformers in this instance would be the specialists who are more readily able to do that kind of work because they have an interest and are properly trained.

Having it the ‘Builder + [T]’ way around the way you’re saying blurs the roles of the rank to the point where it’d be far easier to just not have a role at all and pick interested builders to help whe. Either do it properly or not at all IMO.

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Yeah I guess you’re right indeed, I misunderstood the point that was made I think

Lovely idea.

Thoughts on calling it “Landscaper(+)” instead though? Seems more fitting considering “terraforming” usually refers to global scale stuff.

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Sounds like you’re looking for input on something you’ve already decided to do. Just try it out if there’s any candidates.

To some extent yes, but the discussion has modified the original proposal. We’ll discuss it at the meeting on Saturday and then work towards implementing it.

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