Here’s my suggestion for how I would like to see things changed:
Foundations should only claim a 3 space ring around themselves. Building a fully enclosed ring of foundations should automatically claim the land within the ring (in addition to the 3 space perimeter on the outside of the ring), assuming no other claimed land is within the ring (aka, you can not just wall in someone else to claim their land).
It should also be impossible to place foundations in the center of the roads or rivers. You should be able to build on the edges of them or build bridges over them, but should shouldn’t be able to completely wall them off, especially right outside of the newbie spawn point. You could have a base over a river with a bit of the water encased in your walls, but there would always be a place in the center for people to walk or drag thralls and continue on their way.
Reasons why this would be an improvement:
- New players are less likely to drop the game because someone decided to completely wall off the road at the start of the game.
- People are less likely to rage quit the game because they can no longer build, even within their own walls.
- It introduces new ways of playing even for PVP players since they can build towers to jump over walls and the like, and players have to begin thinking about verticality in their base defense strategies.
- If players are more engaged and less frustrated by things like this, they will continue to play the game for a longer amount of time. Players playing for a longer amount of time also means they are more likely to make cash purchases.
Everyone (except griefers) wins!