The Case For easyPlace (Redux)

[Burger]

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
- Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 - 1948

I am once again asking you to reconsider the ban on Litematica's easyplacemode. We're all busy and handsome men so I'll keep this brief. While I obviously support its unban, I'll keep this post as objective as possible.

A quick refresher on what easyplacemode is: a setting which allows you to simply right-click a schematic block and the correct block will enter your hand, and then immediately be placed. Ordinarily, you would of course need to put the block in your hotbar, and then place it down. easyplacemode just cuts out the process of moving it from your inventory into the hotbar.

A quick refresher on why it was banned: it lets you place blocks 6 blocks away (rather than the vanilla 4.5), and lets you place blocks against air. I make this post in part because a new setting, easyPlaceVanillaReach, disables this extra reach, which I felt was the most exploitable feature.

In short, here are what I consider the pros and cons of easyplacemode with some thoughts appended. I'll add any that others might bring up.

Pros
- makes 3D map arts practical and accessible
-- staircased (3D) map arts are extremely difficult (I would argue almost impossible) by default - while you could argue that this makes them more impressive, I disagree simply because most people don't even know a map art is 3D by looking at it - the result is simply lower-quality map arts. If easyplacemode is allowed, I expect a renaissance of many, high-quality map arts.
- no unfair reach anymore
- it does not confer an "unfair advantage" like other banned features
-- compared to other banned mods, easyplacemode is incredibly tame and harmless - it only benefits builders and artists
- I will donate £0.01 to Action Against Hunger for every block placed by anyone using easyplacemode
-- allowing this feature could save countless thousands of lives and help in the fight against income inequality
- makes copying large builds from the build server less time-consuming
-- generally builders make their projects in creative first before copying them over - easyplacemode (and Litematica in general) just makes the process of building the same thing twice less annoying

Cons
- placing blocks on air could potentially be advantageous in PVP
-- as I never PVP I'm not sure how, but there are probably ways. Maybe it makes crystalling easier? An input from a PVPer would be good here.
- large builds and map arts shouldn't be easy
-- copying a creative build and spending more time on a map art is arguably what makes it rewarding and impressive; easyplacemode might negate this
-- also, building with Litematica is already really easy

Admin testimonials
Below are a list of the admins who have voiced their strong, impassioned support for the removal of easyplacemode's ban.
- clipchip - "maybe"

In short, I suggest allowing easyplacemode for building (but not PVP). The only effect, in my opinion, is that it would allow even more impressive and grand build projects and art pieces to flourish.

[OxT]

It wouldn't allow advantages in PvP as it only grants reach and airplace in placed schematics. Unless someone were to pre-plan all of their attacks in a fight and make a schematic for it it wouldn't do anything.

[Porkington2]

I can absolutely see the benefits of this as I would be able to make vast and intricate builds much faster. However, there is 1 major compelling argument against it: t's not very vanilla, especially with air place enabled. Once we're changing vanilla features to make building easier, where do we stop? Why not just let people paste whole builds straight from the creative server, as long as they have enough blocks for it?

If we can find a way to disable air place though, I think adding it would be much less controversial.

[Burger]

I can absolutely see the benefits of this as I would be able to make vast and intricate builds much faster. However, there is 1 major compelling argument against it: t's not very vanilla, especially with air place enabled. Once we're changing vanilla features to make building easier, where do we stop? Why not just let people paste whole builds straight from the creative server, as long as they have enough blocks for it?

If we can find a way to disable air place though, I think adding it would be much less controversial.

A fair point, but I'd say the slippery slope argument goes both ways: why not disallow Litematica entirely? It already makes vast builds considerably easier than vanilla and I could see many of the same arguments against easyplacemode applying to the mod as a whole, but I don't expect anyone would support banning it. Easyplacemode makes it even easier, true, but not to (in my personal opinion) an unfair or excessive extent.

I agree the air placement is unfortunate, but I don't consider that an unfair or even a bad thing when it comes to building.

[Porkington2]

I think the main reason Litematica (without easyplace) is currently allowed is that the user isn't provably doing any action that wouldn't be possible in vanilla mc. In theory, you could get the same benefits of Litematica from, say, having 2 Minecraft windows open at once, or taking many photographs of a build on creative mode before building it in survival, or just having a good memory.

Allowing air place crosses a line because it enables something that would be not just improbable, but impossible with a vanilla Minecraft account as Mojang designed it. True, in a pure vanilla server Litematica wouldn't be allowed at all, but still, we have to draw the line somewhere, and I think doing things that are straight up impossible in vanilla is objectively a pretty reasonable place to draw it.

[TonTheKidRS]

There is a similar feature to Easy Place, which is still technically legal (according to my understanding of how things work). It is called the Placement Restriction setting, and restricts the player from placing the wrong block in a schematic. You still have to pick or manually move the correct block in, but "far reach" and auto place do not exist in this setting

Edit: see this for more detail: viewtopic.php?p=33449#p33449