Apply/Remove Admin Protections to Items & Creatures - Barebones Framework

 

What it is

[[Designed for as a barebones framework for modders to flesh out!]]

The mod provides three practical gameplay capabilities in Creative only:

1. Protect entities from unwanted interaction/damage/motion side effects.
2. Protect blocks from build/break mutation by normal play actions.
3. Toggle those protections in-world with existent workflows.
   
   

Those capabilities sound straightforward, but the actual solved problem includes:

• avoiding double-processing when multiple hooks fire for one action,
• reconciling stale versus explicit target selections,
• handling item-first versus world-first routing,
• persisting protection in a way that survives load boundaries,
• and keeping behavior deterministic under networked/server timing realities.

No Touch is a server-authoritative creative protection framework for Vintage Story 1.22+, built to make targeted world-state preservation reliable under real gameplay interaction conditions.

At a glance, it looks simple: lanterns/totems protect blocks and entities. In reality, it solves a deeper systems problem: player intent in Vintage Story is routed through multiple interaction paths, each with different timing and target semantics. No Touch Items exists to bridge that complexity into a predictable, honest gameplay contract: if you apply protection, the server enforces it; if you remove protection, the server removes it; if the game cannot confidently resolve a target, the mod refuses to fake certainty.

This is not a “nice UI wrapper” around a single command. It is an interaction-hardened server framework that keeps protection state coherent across spawn/load cycles, hand routing ambiguity, mixed block/entity selection contexts, and save persistence.

How to use

All lanterns are in offhand. The entity effected is in right hand (hotbar).

• Lantern of Protection (entities)
  Protects spawned/targeted entities.
  
  
• Lantern of Protection (blocks)
  Protects blocks when placed with the totem workflow.
  
  
• Lantern of Protection (existent)
  Toggles protection on/off for aimed entity or block.
  Needs Stick of Existent Protection in right hand with use (which is in hotbar)
  
  
• Stick of Existent Protection (optional paired mode)
  Used with existent lantern for alternate trigger pose.
  
  

3) Existent toggle (most important)

Hold Shift + Right Click to toggle protection.

Valid poses:

• Existent lantern in one hand, other hand empty, or
• Existent lantern in left hand + Stick of Existent Protection in right hand
  
  

Result:

• If target is unprotected -> becomes protected
• If target is protected -> protection is removed
  
  

4) Block protection

Use the block lantern flow to protect placed blocks.
Protected blocks deny build/break replacement behavior.

5) Entity protection

Use the entity lantern flow to protect entities (creative spawn/use workflows).
Protected entities get No Touch enforcement server-side.

6) Quick verify

Use /nt status and /nt probe to check what the server sees and confirm pose/target/protection state.

7) Troubleshooting

• Confirm server log version matches your latest build.
• Make sure you are in Creative.
• For existent, ensure Shift is held and hand pose is valid.
• If using the partner stick, ensure existent is in left hand and stick in right hand.

If you want, I can also write a one-screen “cheat sheet” version you can paste directly into your mod page.

Design Philosophy

No Touch Items is designed around four non-negotiable principles.

First, server truth is absolute.
Protection state is decided, stored, and enforced by the server. The client can suggest intent through interaction, but does not own authority over protected outcomes.

Second, intent must be explicit.
The mod prefers deliberate interactions (pose checks, modifier checks, strict interaction gating) over permissive convenience that produces accidental toggles or hidden side effects.

Third, diagnostics are part of the product, not an afterthought.
The /nt surface and structured logging exist because this mod intentionally deals with interaction edge-cases. Visibility into those paths is required for trust.

Fourth, composability matters more than cleverness.
The code is organized so modders can fork, strip, or extend without reverse-engineering magic behavior. The constants file acts as contract. Event hooks are explicit. Persistence rules are transparent.

What it is not

No Touch is not a complete ownership/claims political system.
It is not a generalized anti-grief economy.
It is not a territory map overlay.
It is not a giant UI-driven policy suite.

It is a focused server framework for applying and enforcing no-touch semantics on concrete targets in Creative workflows, with robust interaction routing and persistent state integrity.

License / use
Free to use, copy, modify, and redistribute this mod and derived works for any purpose (including commercial packs), provided you credit the original author (Squidbat) in your readme, ModDB page, or in-repo credits so others can find the upstream author for questions, debugging, or merge requests. Provide link to my profile. Same caveat as above regarding formal licenses if you need one

Github Link: https://github.com/19HarryHaller27/-Apply-Remove-Admin-Protections