Hello! I've played on this server about a year ago, and recently now, and have always enjoyed it. I understand that, as a drug oriented minecraft server, there must be police to counter the ability to sell drugs. What I don't understand,, however, is the prevalence and permitted status of "particle texture packs"
Particle texture packs? What the heck are you talking about?
I'll clarify what I'm referring to, as some may not know what these are. A particle texture pack refers to any texture pack used by the Cops/SWAT/etc on the server in order to detect players who have consumed a Potion of Invisibility before selling their drugs. These texture packs are not designed for this server, but are texture packs that simply exist and happen to have particle enhancing effects.
With the vanilla MC textures (or the textures of the MC Drugs texture pack), potion particles appear as circular wisps which circle the player. On top of that, when an invisible player (or any player) runs, they both make noise and leave a trailer of "crumb" like particles behind them. A competent police officer should, without any additional help, be able to track down all but the most skilled of sellers jumping parkouring around the selling area. However, many players who play as police used these aforementioned texture packs. Particles will appear bright, vivid, and are otherwise obvious to see. Something which would take careful observation and skill is, with these texture packs, made as obvious as if you were shooting off fireworks everywhere you went
So what? Why is this a problem?
My understanding of Minecraft factions, having played on and off since 2013, was that player skill should be the determining factor in any in-game encounters. This might be cunning via TP traps, or intelligently finding and raiding a base, or using a variety of weapons and other means to win a PVP fight. Servers generally disallow any outside resources that modify the game in a way to give an unfair advantage over others. You are not permitted to use an x-ray texture pack to raid a base, because although you may very well have found a base without it, it's still an illegitimate unfair advantage to see through the ground. You may have won a given PVP encounter, however using an aimbot to lock onto players and kill them without trying is an illegitimate unfair advantage.
If one of the core dynamics of this server is Cops/SWAT being able to arrest players selling drugs, then why should any outside modification of the game be permitted? The police already have many, many advantages over a player selling their drugs:
-They spend an incredible amount of time in spawn, gaining knowledge of every nook and cranny of the selling area
-They have the ability to buy mounts which ride faster than even Speed V potions
-They can camp the drug dealers, silently waiting for hours as players try to sell their drugs
The situation is already skewed in favor of the police to begin with; and it should be that way. The police are many and have only one goal, while the average player has many goals and is trying to sell drugs to fund various endeavors. So then, why do the police need another advantage on top of that, using outside modification of the game?
How would this even be enforced? Sounds like a skill issue!!
I've personally been arrested 1 time, and my friends have been arrested a couple of times respectively. Early on in coming back to this server, we genuinely believed some of the Cops were using player aura. They would move in ways which made absolutely no sense and gave away their hidden knowledge but without being blatant about it. For example, I would be crouching inside of a building, invisible, making absolutely no noise. A Cop who had been doing unending patrols would, for no apparent reason, sit outside of the building for nearly the entire length of my invisibility potion. The cop wouldn't come inside, or even look directly at the building, but I could see him outside waiting like a vulture. The minute I left the building from an open window, the cop was on me, and only being close to the Grower dealer saved me from getting arrested.
There are numerous similar stories, where the cops seemingly know exactly where we are, but don't immediately act on the knowledge. I've had a few times where I've sold my drugs and was sitting at the bottom of the spawn river, talking to my friends, when out of nowhere an officer would jump down and try to arrest me. Furthermore, when confronted, they would often not admit to it immediately. They'd have an excuse about hearing a noise, or seeing the vanilla particles, but it was always obvious which cops had no sort of texture pack and which ones could see you invisible, 100 blocks away, 40 blocks up on top of a tree. If this is perfectly acceptable, why wouldn't they just admit it outright, or brag about their texture packs? Much like a person with an x-ray texture pack, they would use hilarious excuses and innuendo before finally admitting to what they were doing.
This would have to be enforced like any other rule; by reports being accepted by the staff followed by monitoring the person before making a determination, the same way an x-rayer would be caught.
Conclusion
Overall, I don't understand how this was permitted to begin with. The police already have a significant advantage over the average player trying to sell drugs, so why would this sort of thing be permitted? I've heard some claim it "doesn't make a big difference", so in that case, why would it need to be used or allowed at all? In the same vein, I've had a few people tell me it's simply how things are, that complaining about it means nothing will change, or even accuse me of breaking the rules after I called them out for this. If it's not an issue, why is there so much hiding and defensiveness surrounding it? Maybe nothing will change, maybe there will be some mental gymnastic rationalization on how this is required for the police, but I simply see it as no different than x-raying a base with a texture pack. Any input is welcome, thx.
Particle texture packs? What the heck are you talking about?
I'll clarify what I'm referring to, as some may not know what these are. A particle texture pack refers to any texture pack used by the Cops/SWAT/etc on the server in order to detect players who have consumed a Potion of Invisibility before selling their drugs. These texture packs are not designed for this server, but are texture packs that simply exist and happen to have particle enhancing effects.
With the vanilla MC textures (or the textures of the MC Drugs texture pack), potion particles appear as circular wisps which circle the player. On top of that, when an invisible player (or any player) runs, they both make noise and leave a trailer of "crumb" like particles behind them. A competent police officer should, without any additional help, be able to track down all but the most skilled of sellers jumping parkouring around the selling area. However, many players who play as police used these aforementioned texture packs. Particles will appear bright, vivid, and are otherwise obvious to see. Something which would take careful observation and skill is, with these texture packs, made as obvious as if you were shooting off fireworks everywhere you went
So what? Why is this a problem?
My understanding of Minecraft factions, having played on and off since 2013, was that player skill should be the determining factor in any in-game encounters. This might be cunning via TP traps, or intelligently finding and raiding a base, or using a variety of weapons and other means to win a PVP fight. Servers generally disallow any outside resources that modify the game in a way to give an unfair advantage over others. You are not permitted to use an x-ray texture pack to raid a base, because although you may very well have found a base without it, it's still an illegitimate unfair advantage to see through the ground. You may have won a given PVP encounter, however using an aimbot to lock onto players and kill them without trying is an illegitimate unfair advantage.
If one of the core dynamics of this server is Cops/SWAT being able to arrest players selling drugs, then why should any outside modification of the game be permitted? The police already have many, many advantages over a player selling their drugs:
-They spend an incredible amount of time in spawn, gaining knowledge of every nook and cranny of the selling area
-They have the ability to buy mounts which ride faster than even Speed V potions
-They can camp the drug dealers, silently waiting for hours as players try to sell their drugs
The situation is already skewed in favor of the police to begin with; and it should be that way. The police are many and have only one goal, while the average player has many goals and is trying to sell drugs to fund various endeavors. So then, why do the police need another advantage on top of that, using outside modification of the game?
How would this even be enforced? Sounds like a skill issue!!
I've personally been arrested 1 time, and my friends have been arrested a couple of times respectively. Early on in coming back to this server, we genuinely believed some of the Cops were using player aura. They would move in ways which made absolutely no sense and gave away their hidden knowledge but without being blatant about it. For example, I would be crouching inside of a building, invisible, making absolutely no noise. A Cop who had been doing unending patrols would, for no apparent reason, sit outside of the building for nearly the entire length of my invisibility potion. The cop wouldn't come inside, or even look directly at the building, but I could see him outside waiting like a vulture. The minute I left the building from an open window, the cop was on me, and only being close to the Grower dealer saved me from getting arrested.
There are numerous similar stories, where the cops seemingly know exactly where we are, but don't immediately act on the knowledge. I've had a few times where I've sold my drugs and was sitting at the bottom of the spawn river, talking to my friends, when out of nowhere an officer would jump down and try to arrest me. Furthermore, when confronted, they would often not admit to it immediately. They'd have an excuse about hearing a noise, or seeing the vanilla particles, but it was always obvious which cops had no sort of texture pack and which ones could see you invisible, 100 blocks away, 40 blocks up on top of a tree. If this is perfectly acceptable, why wouldn't they just admit it outright, or brag about their texture packs? Much like a person with an x-ray texture pack, they would use hilarious excuses and innuendo before finally admitting to what they were doing.
This would have to be enforced like any other rule; by reports being accepted by the staff followed by monitoring the person before making a determination, the same way an x-rayer would be caught.
Conclusion
Overall, I don't understand how this was permitted to begin with. The police already have a significant advantage over the average player trying to sell drugs, so why would this sort of thing be permitted? I've heard some claim it "doesn't make a big difference", so in that case, why would it need to be used or allowed at all? In the same vein, I've had a few people tell me it's simply how things are, that complaining about it means nothing will change, or even accuse me of breaking the rules after I called them out for this. If it's not an issue, why is there so much hiding and defensiveness surrounding it? Maybe nothing will change, maybe there will be some mental gymnastic rationalization on how this is required for the police, but I simply see it as no different than x-raying a base with a texture pack. Any input is welcome, thx.