Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26428291-20191019215904

Alright, so I posted this earlier in the #improve-conquest channel in the Official Server discord but I’ve decided to refine it a bit. Sorry if any formatting is weird, I typed this up in Google Docs originally.

This is my answer for talking point 2 that Mevans put forward.

2. Ideas for improving the "Socialisation" aspect of the game, to encourage people forming actual communities and settlements”
I’ll be referring to these “communities” as settlements.

When you pledge to a faction you will be able to visit a captain from that faction and establish a settlement.

I imagine the captain would give you a special table of command, or a banner (which I’ll call the control block), that you can place somewhere. A settlement would basically be an inverse conquest tile - an increased number of NPCs belonging to the faction you are pledged to would spawn. The settlement owner could give the settlement a name too.

Whoever places down the control block automatically becomes the leader of the settlement. In the control block GUI they will be able to recruit members to the settlement, and promote members to different ranks within the settlement. (You would only be able to join the settlement if you are pledged to the same faction as the settlement. Players would only be able to be members of one settlement at a time.)

Other options that the settlement leader has would be to summon trader NPCs (such as a smith, captain or a farmer). These trader NPCs would not respawn (=would not spawn a floating coin when they die.) and would have to be bought for a considerable amount of coin.

Travelling merchant NPC spawn rates could be heavily decreased out in the wild, but common near/in settlements.

Settlements would display on the conquest map:

See the blue squares located in The Angle. I imagine that the squares would be smaller and the “conquest zone” would not be as large, but this is just an example.

This is going to be a bit edgy, but: settlements would be able to be “taken over” via conquest. I’m not sure what this would quite look like though - I was originally thinking something like giving enemy players access to doors and gates throughout your build, but of course I do understand that that could be pain - and it would be especially awful if someone took over your settlement through conquest while you were offline.

Settlement sizes would scale with the number of people in the settlement.

More people in a settlement = more NPCs that spawn, more traders that can be spawned, more land that displays on the conquest map. Settlement sizes could decay if players are inactive, or are not spending enough time in their settlement area.

Some pre-generated structures would be settlements.

Any large village structure would be considered a “settlement”. I’ll refer to these special NPC settlements as structurement. Pledged players would have the option to remove or takeover one of these structurements.

If an enemy player launches a conquest into one of these structurements (provided it has not been claimed by a player) then they have the option to remove the settlement conquest.

Structurements would work as a weak form of banner protection in that they allow enemies to open the gates/doors around the village, but do not allow players to access chests. Players with positive alignment will still have free rein to access anything in the village.

Defending your settlement

Settlement owners would have able to (for 1,000 coins) summon a friendly invasion in their settlement area to defend against enemy players who might be attempting to take over the area through conquest.

Any warrior/soldier NPCs that spawn in the settlement will automatically be “hired units” of the settlement owner - however, they would not be able to be commanded outside of the settlement area and would not fast travel with you. They would be more like guards that spawn around the settlement that can be told where to go.

Troop Upkeep

Previously Mevans you’ve expressed your interest in adding a system of feeding/paying your troops - I figured that could be added with these settlements. Units would be assigned to a settlement (always the same as the player). Inside your settlement you could place down a special chest (with maybe a sword in an item frame) that your hired units could visit to collect either money or food.

As long as the units are within the bounds of your settlement, they would not need to visit the chest directly to collect their money/food. They would receive their payment just from being in the settlement.

Camps

I actually don’t know where I’m going with this, it just spawned from the idea about troop upkeep.

There could be a smaller version of a settlement, called a camp. A settlement can establish up to a maximum of 3 camps. Camps can be set up in conquested land and allied land. Camps would be controlled from a central control block like a banner or table of command. Camps would be able to spawn a maximum of one captain and one smith.

Camps would be important because having one in a conquested area will drastically reduce conquest decay, and when you are away from home your troops can “refuel” in a camp.


 * Camps are not a structure that spawns, it’s just a block that defines an area. Like banner protection. It is up to the player to build the camp. 