Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-25178962-20150615142220/@comment-24899099-20150617145606

An Observer wrote: Qoazi wrote:

You seem to have missed that this is not supposed to be an argument over the cost in time or Resources and Draggability or anything of the sort.

It is wether or not Compost, Piles of rotten leaves placed on the ground; can be considered a handbuilt Structure. Oh Qoazi, keep this argument in-thread, it is very relevant!

But allow me to clear things up with what I believe NoBanana was trying to get across. He was comparing the breadhouse to a farm, and posing the question as to why these qualities in common were not enough to count farms as a handbuilt structure.

Let's look at their similarities: both require labor to create

Let's look at their differences: the breadhouse is aesthetically pleasing, bread is more valuable than compost, breadhouses have no in-game functionality

Now, which one of these elements validates placed objects as a handbuilt structure? It can't be the appearance of the structure that decides it- that is extremely arbitrary and may differ from person to person. It can't be the value of the materials, otherwise two mithril stacked on top of eachother would be considered the epitome of custom building. It can't even be the lack of in-game functionality that makes a custom structure, because while there is passive benefits to some custom buildings (like the breadhouse keeping out rain), there is also custom buildings of wide acclaim that do things with obvious in-game functionality like lumbermill based farm waste recyclers.

So then, what makes placed items a custom building is the effort and labor put into it. This would qualify (at least higher-end) farms as custom buildings, and so they should have the same protections as other custom buildings. Well, If you look at it the other way it can't be the effort put into it, as that is extremely arbitrary and what takes half an hour for one person may take five minute for Another, As you mentioned it can't be Aesthetics, As that too is arbitrary (And Believe me many ugly things are handbuilt structures).

So what then can it be? Perhaps Complexity? Let's Endulge in that thought.

So, What does a Farm need? Leaves, What do you do with the leaves? Craft them Once, And then? Place them. That's it. That's a farm. Wether or not it should be larger (AKA it's size by any Count) is decided by the individual and therefore cannot Count if we are to remain authentic.

Now, Let's look at something that is very simple, But not a custom building; The Hut.

What does a Hut Need? 4 Tree Stumps, And a large leaves, And they are crafted in total 3 times, And then it is placed. Only about 3 times as complex if you Count each part and step as 1. But that was most likely the simplest building in the game.

Compared to many handbuilt structures that is naught.

(Altough this is IF arbitrary things would not Count, Fact remains that they do, In fact Handbuilt Buildings is Completely based on arbitrary feelings of those who view them.)

As a sidenote there is Another reason it is hard to add such a protection to farms. We can't let a single compost be protected, If that was the case people could get others into trouble because they foraged That single lonely compost that for some reason is now a handbuilt structure. This would mean we would need a "Minimum size", Perhaps 5x5 farms? Or 20 compost in a X stud radius? Well that would be disliked as if someone foraged even one of the composts of a 5x5 farm then it would no longer be protected, And it'd be Really hard to prove it was a 5x5 farm to start out with. And in most cases the farm wouldn't even exist when we were called for, And since only ~10% of robloxians know how to screenshot, And only 1% actually ever do, And only a small percentage of those screenshots actually have proof on them it is rather hard to do anything at all about it. You might say: "Doesn't the same apply to handbuilt structures?" And while it does, People who make handmade structures tend to be more experienced, And it is also done ALOT more rarely than farms.

Beyond that We wouldn't want all farms to be Forced Into a certain size just to get protection now would we? It'd just be tedious and would force all farms to be large even if you just wanted to farm a single berry.

(PS. This doesn't neccessarely mirror my personal opinion on the matter)