Zeigh

but what about stopping an undercover griefer (your nieghbor) and would it be coding/user friendly?

I'm just trying to grasp my head around all the suggestions about how you protect your home and land while still having war. The honest people of the game (citizens) need a reason to live in a town and the mayor needs a reason for wanting people in the town. taxes is a good solution for the mayors needs, but what do the people get in return? Protection, and quite frankly the mayor should be the one to provide it. sure i could buy a protected lot (how it is protected is yet to be determined). while the citizens are being protected and honestly paying taxes the outlaws are scheeming on ways to destroy, raze, and pillage. by the sounds of beta 3, that's what's going to start the wars (big group of bandits gather together make a town and start taking over and have to be stopped). a full on protection sytem would destroy the want for being a bandit thus destroy the pvp warfare. so with that in mind i ponder on how to suggest a system that welcomes vandalizing to some extent. gives a need for currency and gives a reason to be a member of a community that i couldn't do myself. this is more for a confirmation as to what we are all talking about. if i've missed something please fill me in. i do wish to help

I was thinking about the protection issue while reading this post. a solution for block protection theft/grief etc would be a "scouting" npc that you craft. The Scouters role would be to, well scout along a patrol route that you manually set up. once placed you would have to r-click the scout with markings made from ink, then place the marking on the ground starting from the scout and going to where ever you need him to scout. the scout will walk along this route at all time using a certain area detection(possible for thief to hide in shadows behind things etc). if the scout find a person where they dont belong (possible to set up properties as far a threat rates on people and on groups) they give out a warning. if thief doesn't retreat from area with-in time frame scout give then the scout summons gaurds based on the tier of scout you craft, i.e tin=1, bronze=2, steel=5, red steel=6. the gaurds could act as pigmen chasing down the person until they either leave the zone or die. adding a locking feature to chests that can be picked is also a good idea. this is realy a rough outline on this issue, but i believe this could solve the item protection issue but also doesn't limit players abilites. if someone has already mentioned this then ignore please xD