Basic Rules for Villages and Village Unions on VC

[Akomine (OP)]

Villages of VillageCraft
VillageCraft provides player ownership over regions called villages.

We try to keep our rules simple, and most of the information below is already obvious, but some of it isn't obvious, so it's worth reading and understanding.
The following are the rules and guidelines for how villages are handled on the server:


CLAIMING LAND in the OUTLANDS
1. Anywhere that isn't in a village is the "Outlands". This is where you can start building a village.
2. Simply starting to build a village in the Outlands establishes a land claim.
3. Since anyone can build in the Outlands, your village can be griefed while it is still unprotected, however VC Staff can rollback the grief and punish the griefer.
4.  (NEW! - 5 Feb 2022) It is suggested you build 200m away from existing villages, unless you have owner consent to be closer, to comply with Village Tiers requirements.

PROTECTING A VILLAGE
1. Protection makes your village official. You own it and can start adding members and making rules.
2. VC Staff protects villages with WorldGuard regions, and there 3 basic requirements:
    - At least 5 structures (or 1 very substantial structure like a castle)
    - A design with style and effort put into it (this is at staff discretion - we won't allow cobble/dirt cubes to pass as a structure)
    - $5,000 service, paid to the staff member (Admin or SuperModerator) who protects the village for you.

EXPANDING A VILLAGE
1. Expansion makes the physical protected village region larger, and has only one minor requirement:
    - Convince a VC Staff member why you need the expansion (you have buildings that are currently not in the region that need protection, or you intend to build out further and want it protected before you do).
    - (NEW! - 5 Feb 2022) Make sure your Village Tier allows for expansion, and how much it allows for.
    - $0 service, expansion is free.

VILLAGE OWNERSHIP
1. Villages are owned by whoever is listed as an owner in "/region info". The VC Staff do not have any ownership rights over your village - you own it.
2. Any owner can add another owner, just be aware that you now jointly own the village equally. Be careful who you add as an owner.
3. Owners are responsible for their village, can create village rules, manage how land is used, and manage who is a member.
4. Only VC Staff members can remove an owner, which the other owners much convince staff to do, usually by a vote among owners.
5. (NEW! - 5 Feb 2022) Village owners who go inactive may have an extended inactivity leeway, depending on the Village Tier, which can prevent them from losing ownership for longer than the usual 2 months.

VILLAGE MEMBERSHIP
1. Village owners can add and remove members at will.
2. Should there be no active owners of a village:
    - Any active members may determine how to fill the vacancy.
    - If no method is agreed upon, a democratic majority of active members can choose which member(s) will become the new owner(s), and then ask VC Staff to make the changes.
    - If a non-member wants to own the village, they need consent from all active members.

INACTIVE VILLAGES
1. If a village has no active owners or members, it can be purchased by anyone from a VC Staff member. The selling price is up to the buyer and Staff to negotiate.
2. In some cases, Staff may simply remove protection from old unsubstantial villages or decide to preserve outstanding villages as public property.

VILLAGE RULES
1. These are up to the owner(s) to determine, must be available for all members to read, and anyone in the village must be given the opportunity to read them when they join or when the rules are changed.
2. Villages are still under VillageCraft's rules: http://www.villagecraft-server.com/forum/index.php?topic=3898.0

VILLAGE UNIONS Old thread: http://www.villagecraft-server.com/forum/index.php?topic=3434.0
See below:


-------

Village Unions on VC
- Unions are where a power structure is created to govern multiple villages (regions). Federations and confederations are examples of this.

- Unions can have a large "Union Land" region that encompasses the constituent sub-village regions and the land in between them (federal land), within reason.


- Not a union: Expanding a village by adding another region to it (as parent/child regions) is not considered creating a union.

1. Constitution:
   a. Must have a constitution.
   b. Must be clear and accessible to anyone.
   c. At a minimum must include:
       i. - Name of the union,
       ii. - The power structure of the union (who is in charge? is it a democracy? etc),
       iii. - How union land is handled (who makes decisions about federal land that is in the union's protected region, but isn't in any one sub-village's region?),
       iv. - How to join and leave the union,
       v. - How to change the constitution.


2. Joining a union requires:
   a. All owners of the village that is joining to give consent to join under the constitution.
   b. The union to provide consent for the village to join (however the constitution makes this happen).

3. Paying for protection and perks:
   a. The union region and each sub-village region must pay for protection and perks individually (mob repellant, for example, is not shared).

[Lividup64]

I am pleased to say that a village has proudly used these rules in order to successfully and democratically make an inactive village join a village union!