Although the controlling player sounds like a total control freak, I understand where he's coming from. Valheim is a game that can be played in so many ways and different people want to have different experiences. I believe the rules I set for my own server could create an environment that every kind of player can enjoy and I would love to hear your feedback on them.
Server Rules/Honor System and an explanation for each:
1) Start a new character that will only be used on this server.
My intentions behind this rule were to force a new playthrough and to prevent transferring resources from other worlds. I believe this keeps the game fresh for longer and keeps super geared people from making the game trivial.
2) Do not use other player's buildings or resources unless given permission by that player.
My intentions behind this rule were to keep disagreements at a minimum and to force players to experience every part of the game. I also believe this arrangement could encourage trading among players. If someone has resources that you need, but don't want to farm, you could trade them a different resource they may need.
On our first server/playthrough everyone lived together in a single house but everyone did their own thing. Some people had no interest in farming and only wanted to explore, others were only interested in farming but never wanted to build anything. This removes massive elements of the core gameplay from their experience and reduces the amount of consumable content.
Also, I would spend hours farming resources for food, equipment, building, etc. only to come back and find all of it had been used and there was little to nothing left for myself. I would spend hours reorganizing chests so everything was easy to find only to come back and find it all messed up. It was extremely frustrating and not how I wanted to spend my limited time playing.
Some people, like myself, may rather have control over the things they worked for/invested time into. I am glad to share my resources with other players on my own terms, but not free access.
3) Check with other players before building near them; this rule does not apply on the starting island.
Building/landscaping is arguably the largest and most replayable part of the game and some players will take it seriously while others will not care about it at all. My intentions behind this rule were to keep disagreements to a minimum and to create a central community hub.
Everyone has to start out on the main island so everyone should be able to do whatever they want on that island. This could make the main island the most interesting/diverse and a great place for players to run into/interact with each other while also protecting the interests of people who want to create beautiful builds.
4) No griefing!
Doesn't need much of an explanation. This isn't a PvP server – people put time into the things they collect/build, don't be a dick.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/rz1gyo/in_regards_to_the_controlling_player_post/
