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Author Topic:  Using Permissions, Zones, and Private Slots to Control Your World  (Read 2241 times)

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*Originally written by IllogicTC

A lot of people here already know how permissions work. However, newcomers may not and I don't believe I've come across a concise thread dedicated to thoroughly explaining them. Thus, the subject of this thread will be an in-depth explanation of permissions, zones, and private slots, and how you can use them to control your world. There is also an explanation of the "ghosting" feature under the Admin Section in the Overview Of Permissions. Please note that in 1.7, "ghosting" is not yet available.


Permissions are used to control your world. They provide the host (and any identified admins) with the power to keep griefing to a minimum, which in turn keeps fun at full blast! As of v1.7 of Total Miner: Forge, there are seven permissions the host can provide or deny to any person who joins their world:

Admin: Admin allows the player to change the permissions of other players. They can also kick obnoxious players if necessary. This is a very powerful tool, and should ONLY be given to people you can truly trust. In v1.7, admins can also specify "zones." Zones are areas of any size which may be set to help stem griefing. The spawn zone will mark an area will people may spawn. The non-edit zone is an area where NO ONE can edit, unless a player is specified. Then, only that player and all the admins can edit there. The non-PVP zone is a safe haven where people can go without having to worry about getting shot up by other players all the time. Admins can also view the zones, and can change or delete them.

Edit: Edit permission allows people to build and destroy in your world. Most blocks can be placed or destroyed with this permission, but they are limited only to whatever blocks they have in their inventory for placement, and can only destroy one block at a time using the pick, sledgehammer, hatchet, or shovel. Note that this permission also allows the player to place pretty much anything except Lava, Water, and Spider Eggs. This means that they can use this to bomb your house with trees, so do be careful!

Blast: The Blast permission allows a player to utilize explosives. More specifically, the detonation of them. A player with Edit permission can place explosives, but unless they have blast permissions the explosives will not go off. This permission covers TNT, C4, the Grenade Launcher, and Boom Arrows. If a player tries using the Grenade Launcher or Boom Arrows without blast permissions, it will let them shoot but there will be no explosion. This permission is quite powerful, and educated use of it will make the difference between a world where people will use the explosives for good (like creating tunnels, etc.), or for bad (blowing up your castle).

Fly: This permission really only effects Creative mode, and gives the host the ability to force people to walk if their map requires it (or to help the host keep a better watch on a suspicious visitor!).

Map: This permission allows the player to turn on the map in the upper-left corner of the screen. This can be useful to hide certain things behind walls, etc. without them having an extra tool to find whatever it is you've hidden. There are more creative uses, like using this in conjunction with a hidden entrance, so they have to work to find it! The map permission will eventually grant people the ability to "ghost" other players. Think of it like a spectator cam from Halo or something. Basically, when you select a player to "ghost," you will see what they are seeing as if you're looking through their eyes. Note that "ghosting" is not yet available. This is just an explanation for when it IS available.

Grief: This permission covers a plethora of things in many subjects, so it would be best to explain the powers this permission grants in list form. The powers granted are:

*The ability to destroy furnace, shop, chest, and spawner blocks. All other blocks are covered by the Edit Permission. It should be noted that Locked Chests are different, and are only destroyable by the owner of the chest, or the server host.
*The ability to edit NPC text, and to kill NPCs. It should be noted that in addition to the Grief Permission, combat must be enabled in order to kill an NPC.
*The ability to remove items from chests. There are general-use storage blocks called Crates which allows anyone and everyone to put stuff into and remove stuff from them. Use these for "everybody" storage, and the regular Chests for friends-only storage.
*The ability to use the Replace Block, Fill, Get Shops and Clear Creative mode features.
*The ability to place Spider Eggs, Lava, Steel Spikes and Water.

Griefing, as you can see, can provide the right people with a lot more creative tools and opportunities, but also can give the wrong people the ability to do all sorts of things to your world that is very hard (and sometimes impossible) to repair. This permission should be treated almost like the admin permission: Only a VERY SELECT FEW get it.

Save: While this feature is currently disabled as of version 1.7, in the future this permission (along with admin permission) will allow the player to save a copy of this world to their XBox. This is kind of like the Share feature, without having to set up the share session.

Good and Bad Examples of the Power of Permissions

In this section, I will cover examples for each permission on how a player can use them for good, and how they can use them for evil, to give you a better picture of what it means to properly handle player permissions!


For Good: The Good Person will uphold the honour given with this virtual sheriff's badge. The Good Person will help moderate permissions for other visitors as appropriate, and will be quick to act against bad visitors by removing their permissions or kicking them from the game.

For Evil: The Bad Person will see this high amount of power as a sign that they now have the ultimate griefing tool. Since they can edit permissions, they will usually make sure to give themselves all permissions, and may remove permissions from other players. They can even remove all permissions (except for Admin) from the host! Using this power, The Bad Person will set themselves up with the other permissions and go on a griefing spree, or maybe they will just kick all of your visitors out of your world for no reason. The Bad Person may even set up random non-edit zones, making it so you can't even work on your own map! They will also remove non-PVP zones so they can go on a killing spree.


For Good: The Good Person will utilize this permission in good, productive ways. In Dig Deep worlds, The Good Person will help with the mining of ores and the finding of blueprints and wisdom scrolls. The Good Person may also help build a good defense against cave-ins and spiders. In Creative Mode, The Good Person will contribute builds to your map that are of an honest nature.

For Evil: The Bad Person will see this permission as just a tiny ounce of power, but one that can none-the-less be used to annoy the host. In Dig Deep, The Bad Person may hoard minerals for themselves and then quit the game.  The Bad Person may also destroy your houses, albeit only one block at a time. In Creative, with the addition of a sledge hammer, The Bad Person will use this opportunity to put holes in your builds. They may also build things of a dishonest nature, like swastikas or genitalia.


For Good: The Good Person will use Blast as appropriate. Using explosives to mine for ore easier, or maybe to create a tunnel with a real purpose in either Dig Deep or Creative. The Good Person will utilize the Grenade Launcher or Boom Arrows as appropriate, for destroying spiders or for quick modifications/removal of items WHERE IT IS NEEDED.

For Evil: This is a glaring opportunity for The Bad Person. The Bad Person will use this to quickly and efficiently destroy large portions of your map. The Bad Person may even use explosives when combat is turned on to keep killing other players, which will likely annoy them.


For Good: The Good Person will utilize the Fly permission to full effect, using it as a quick transportation method or to reach tricky, up-high areas on big builds.

For Evil: The Fly permission doesn't provide much of an opportunity for The Bad Person to do evil things, except maybe skip portions of an RPG/Adventure map, or just keep buzzing around in front of you like a gnat or a fly, which can get annoying.


The Map permission does not really grant The Good Person or The Bad Person to do anything special; it just lets them see a little bit behind walls.


For Good: The Good Person will use the permissions allowed with Grief permission to provide an honest build. Sometimes water or steel spikes are necessary to complete the look and feel of a build, and The Good Person will use this permissions appropriately to provide just that. The Good Person will also be fair with items in chests (as in not steal them all just to toss into lava), and uses the Creative features as intended to help with builds.

For Evil: This permission is tied with Blast permission for "Nicest to have" for The Bad Person. The Bad Person will place steel spikes all around the central player spawn so people keep dying when they join your world, or maybe The Bad Person will flood your house with Lava? The Bad Person may also steal items out of chests and sell them off or get rid of them completely, making you lose out on the several hundred titanium you had stocked up! Or perhaps, The Bad Person will make your NPCs say nasty things. There are so many potential uses The Bad Person can find for the Grief permission that really, it should be handed out to people as rarely as the Admin permission is.


Since this just lets you save the game, and as of 1.65 this is disabled, Save permissions really don't grant The Bad Person anything to really work with, but will eventually allow The Good Person to make plans for your world even when you're not online.


Private slots allow you a perfect opportunity to stem off griefers from being able to even LOAD your world! Private slots work similar to the way an XBox Live Party Chat set to "Invite Only" does. Private slots can only be filled by people who you've personally invited to come into your world.

Defining Private Slots

To set up your private slots, go to the menu to host a game. While you are in this lobby, on the left you will see there are many options you can change. Up towards the top is the total number of slots available for people to join your world. Remember, though, that you are a player too, so you will take up a slot. So in reality, if you have your total game slots set to 16, only 15 other people can join (because you take up one slot).

Right below the game slots option is an option called Private Slots. This sets the amount of slots reserved only for friends that you have invited. So, let's say we want to save three spots for friends, and let the rest be available to the public. So we'll just leave the game slots at 16, and set private slots to 3. Now, only 12 public players can join the game, and you have 3 spots that can only be taken by your friends when you invite them.

Now, let's say for example, you don't want ANY random person joining your world, just people you invite. This is easy. Whatever game slots is set at, set private slots to that -1. So if we leave the game slots at the default 16, make 15 private slots (because remember, you count as a slot too and you don't need to reserve one for yourself). Now, all the other slots are set to private, so nobody can join your world except people you invite! This is especially useful if you're really worried about griefing, or if you and your friends are building a good build and don't want random people seeing it until your work is complete.

Some Examples and How to use Slots

If you just want a few spots saved for your friends, but don't mind people from the public joining: Just set your private slots to how many buddies you expect to invite to your world. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to have an extra private slot or two, in case another friend hops online and wants in your game.

If you don't want anyone to get into your world except people YOU invite: Set the private slots to be one less than the total slots. So, if you're hosting a game with 19 slots total, set private slots to 18. Remember, though, that not even people on your friends list can get in unless YOU invite them!

If you don't mind anyone joining your world: Just leave private slots at 0. Then, anyone can join your world (up to the limit set by the total game slots).

Why Bother With Private Slots?

The private slots have their uses, that's why! Here's a couple of examples of how private slots can actually ease your workload:

*If you have a couple spots saved for friends, now you don't have to worry about asking people to leave so your friends can join. They'll ALWAYS have a spot just for them.

*If you don't want the public at large to enter your build at all, just turn up the private slots up to be right below your total slots. Then, only your friends can get in when you invite them, and you won't have to keep stopping what you're doing to kick random people out. Remember that randoms hate being kicked while they're loading in, and it will likely be reflected in a future low rating of your world on purpose, or maybe just word of mouth not to visit your world. By essentially locking out your map with max private slots, they'll just have to wait until you're finally ready to unveil your map and host with public slots! :)/>

And intrepid Miner can probably think of even more uses, but these are the basic reasons for which they can be used.


What are zones?

Zones are a new feature that is in v1.7, and allows people with admin permission to assume micro-control over their world. With zones, you can make safe havens for people to escape being killed, or even make sure that your builds don't get messed up by griefers. Zones can be defined anywhere (with the exception of spawn zones, see below), and can be any size.

So what do the zones do?

Non-Edit Zone: There are two types of Non-Edit Zones. When you create a zone, you can specify a name (anyone currently in your world) to be attached to it.

If you do not specify a name, it's a completely locked-out zone. NO ONE can edit in this zone.

If you DO specify a name, only they and the admins can edit there. Even then, it is limited to edit; markers cannot be used (by admins, I have not tested for the person who is marked for the zone). This would mean that if I specified Player_123 as the owner of the zone, only Player_123 and anyone with Admin permission can edit there.

Non-PVP Zone: If you have PVP on in your map, you can use these to mark out safe areas for your visitors. Whether it's the grandstands in an arena, the spawn area, or just areas where you'd like people to get some peace, Non-PVP Zones will allow you to provide them just that. In Non-PVP zones, visitors can't be hurt by other players.

Spawn Zone: The spawn zone is an area marked out for people to spawn into. If you don't want people popping up at the default "beginning" area, just use this to make them pop up wherever you want. Spawn zones are naturally non-edit zones; this cannot be changed. The area you mark out cannot have any blocks in it. This is to make sure people don't get stuck inside the map.

That's neat.... How do I use it!?

Zones are specified exactly like Marker Fill/Clear operations. You define an area (which can be ANY size, just like the measure command) first. Then, go to the Main Menu.

From here, go to Game > Zones. Select Add Zone. The area you have marked out will be the boundaries of the zone. It will ask you for a name; make sure to be specific enough in naming so you don't forget what's what in the list. After you have it created, you will be able to edit the zone. If you have a checkmark in the Spawn option, it will be a spawn point. If you have a checkmark in the PVP option, people can fight each other there. If you have a checkmark in the Edit option, everyone can edit there.

Turning the PVP off will make the zone a no-kill area. Turning the Edit off will make it a non-edit zone. See above for more details on non-edit zones, since there are two types.

Use this guide, understand the nature and power of every permission, manage your visitors, and Happy Digging! If this guide helped you stem off griefing, I'd like to hear about it! :)