Dealing with abusive players (Tutorial)

Since each town is made up of 40 citizens, the odds of finding 39 active, selfless, able, co-operative companions are nigh to zero.Some may slack off, some others might waste resources, some others might go as far as to completely wreck the town just for the hell of it. Since their actions lead to a loss of AP in the best case, and a total town wipeout in the worst, learning how to deal with them is of the utmost importance if a town wants to be able to hold out.

Selfish players

You will often meet players who think that getting the top score or possessing the most items is more important than working with the co-citizens to make the town last longer.

Their soul

• A high number of Home Upgrades distinctions
• Several Shunned distinctions
• A quite high number of Alcohol, Drug Tests and Drugs Taken distinctions.

Selfish Acts

Acts of selfish play can be:

• Taking food, drugs and drinks from the Bank to refill their own AP without any real purpose
• Hoarding important items, mostly weapons or drugs, to make sure they're the only ones to use them
• Upgrading their inhabitation up to House
• In extreme cases, taking defense items from the town to improve their own home

Solution

• Shun them so that they can't take anything important from the Bank and cannot hoard water
• Keep all important items in the Bank or in a locked home so that they cannot steal them
• Reach out to them and convince them to cooperate with the town, either before or after the shunning.

Griefers

When selfish players take a step forward, they decide that their only purpose in life is just annoy the crap out of well-working communities, even if this means triggering their own early demise, gaining few to no SP and distinctions whatsoever, and becoming infamous and hated by the rest of the players.

Their soul

• Very few SP despite having been in many towns, ergo many deaths in the earliest days of a town
• Extremely high Shunned and Hanged distinctions
• Often very little Forum Posts

Griefing acts

Actions griefers carry out are actions that willingly damage the town with little to no benefit to themselves, such as:

• Stealing important items from other players or the Bank without a reason
• Taking important items from the Bank and dumping them out in the desert
• Attacking other citizens
• Opening the town gates just before the attack, or closing them while people are still outside
• Wasting resources on repairing useless items like the Mini HI-Fi (Broken) Mini HI-Fi (Broken)
• Luring a citizen to a zombie-controlled zone and ditching them, leaving them alone against the undead
• Upgrading their home past House, consuming Defense items and such decreasing the town (and their own) chances of survival
• Producing Vial of Poison Vial of Poison and contaminating food/water/drugs with it
• Tampering with the Town Map or the External Map to trick others into going in unsafe zones

Solution

• Keep an eye out for Cyanide Cyanide pills.Griefers often secure them to quickly escape the town after disrupting it
• Shun them as soon as possible, but make sure that they are out of town.A particular exploit lets the griefers keep the items they bring out of town.
• To prevent the above mentioned exploit, play daredevil with them, and don't shun them will they get back into town.When they get back, they can be shunned and deprived of their goods.If they don't, they can be locked out to die and the goods can be retrieved the day after.
• Hanging is the only way to make sure the griefer is rendered harmless, as they can still scavenge for items to use against the town when shunned
• Attacking them, preferably with a Taser Taser into inventory, and wounding them is a good way to prevent them from further griefing
• Contacting Die2Nite Support and showing proof of their griefing.They will be either warned or banned from the game.
• If you suspect a griefer in town, Portal Lock Portal Lock is a good insurance investment, other than designating two or more "gatekeepers" so that in case a griefer slams the gate open at the last minute, they can close them just before the attack.
• Make a list of griefers and be sure to have them shunned before they can do any damage should you cross them again.

Forum trolls

All they do is annoy and provoke people in the forums hoping to trigger a flame war.Since offensive forum posters can be easily reported and banned, and who is angsty and asocial in general has the more viable option of Griefing, these individuals are pretty rare.

Their Soul

• Tons of Forum Posts
• Usually they don't even have a soul anymore, since their first trolling can get them banned.

Acts of Trolling

• Provoking players with posts of racial, sexual or otherwise offensive posts
• Tricking players into building/voting for the least-useful building
• Spamming/flooding into important topics
• Creating multiple topics to "bury" the ones in first page
• Harassing other players in general

Solution

• Simply click the Report link next to their post to have them banned.Game over for the troll.

Inactive users

These users are kind of special. It's not like they try to ruin the fun for everyone else; they just create their character and then don't use it anymore. They are easy to recognize in the citizens list; they haven't built a tent and they still have their Doggy Bag and their Citizen's Welcome Pack in their chest. The best way to deal with these kind of players is to post a list of their names on the forums and discuss what to do. It's possible to just ignore them and hope the zombies eat them first if they break through the walls. It's better though to file a complaint against them (minimal participation) and encourage other active players to do the same. That way, you can use their doggy bag and welcome pack for the good of the city.

Complaints

Since these play such a central role in dealing with abusive players, I'll go a bit more in-depth here. Complaints are issued by going to a citizens' house and clicking on 'file a complaint'. To go to a citizens' house, you can either go to the citizens list and click their name or you can click on their name in a forum post. Once you've done that, you should select what kind of a complaint you want to file, and lastly, you have to confirm it. If eight or more complaints are filed against a citizen, he or she will be shunned. That citizen will then become a pariah, and won't have as much privileges as normal citizens.

For example:

• They can't take anything from the bank. They can still donate items to it, though.
• They can't receive items from any members of the community that are not shunned themselves.
• They can't open or close the gates.
• They can't contribute AP to building construction.
• They can't vote on the daily upgrade.
• They can't take extra water from the well. (they're still allowed their daily ration, though!)
• Any items in their chest that can be useful for the town (construction materials, for example) will be deposited in the bank.

However, becoming shunned opens up new possibilities too. Things you can't do as a citizen, but can as a pariah:

• Hide your rucksack. This means that only other pariahs can see your hidden things. However, citizens have a chance to stumble upon your rucksack while searching.
• Search the city's waste. It will only give you low-quality items, but it might help you survive.
• Stage an insurrection. If this is successful, all the free citizens will become pariahs and all pariahs will become citizens.

Unfortunately, these new possibilities don't weigh up against the loss of your freedom, though. Try to refrain from the practices above and you won't become a pariah.