At the risk of being ridiculed because the idea won’t work or it has already mentioned, I feel I need to share this idea because I love the game and it has so much more potential.
The hope is to increase player participation in settlement governance and wars while addressing complaints such as lack of gold creation, in-game economy, taxes, fast travel and “having a purpose”.
This is my suggestion of how a Minor Settlement could work.
Notes:
“Player”: can also mean Company.
“Mayor”: is used to describe a governor of a Minor Settlement, to avoid confusion.
I am not a game developer. Some suggestions may not be technically feasible. These are just ideas.
Building and Size
-
Minor Settlements can be placed by any player in the world the same way a tent is placed.
- Alternatively, AGS places the Minor Settlements in the world. However, I think player selection would provide greater freedom and self-determination. Players would also have a better sense of what their specific server requires in terms of resource collection.
-
Resources are added to complete the building like a tent.
- The amount of resources should be fairly high, for example:
- 1000 green wood
- 1000 stone
- 1000 fiber
- 500 lumber
- 500 stone bricks
- 500 linen
- Upkeep costs should be in the form of more added resources, say 10-20% of the build resources per 5-7 days instead of gold.
- Any player from the world should be able to add resources to the upkeep costs. So if players like the location or services provided by the Minor Settlement, they can contribute to its continued existence.
- The build cost and upkeep cost would ensure that players don’t place Minor Settlements just for the sake of the benefits that come with it. They would have to maintain it or it disappears (or downgrades, eliminating the benefits).
- The amount of resources should be fairly high, for example:
-
Minor Settlements probably should not be allowed in Landmarks.
Placing a Minor Settlement probably should create its own “Landmark Zone” to avoid too many Minor Settlements placed too close to each other or too close to Settlements.- Alternatively, AGS sets zones within territories and only a limited number of Minor Settlements can exist within each zone.
-
The size of the Minor Settlement should be smaller than a fort. Probably smaller than an outpost. Perhaps the size of a town hall.
Quests
-
A Minor Settlement should have its own town quest board.
-
Town quests contribute to upgrades and upkeep as usual.
Crafting and Refining Stations
-
A Minor Settlement should be allowed 1-2 crafting stations and 1-2 refining stations, chosen by the Mayor. The reduced amount of stations will create limitations to it being a full Settlement but also allow for specialisation of the Minor Settlement.
-
A Minor Settlement should have lesser refining stations than the number of refined resources required for upkeep of the Minor Settlement. In the above example, you would need a woodshop, loom and stonecutting table. With a maximum of 2 refining stations, the Mayor would still need to visit the Settlements or other Minor Settlements to refine the required materials for upkeep or they can source it from other players. This would somewhat alleviate the concern that people will not visit Settlements anymore.
-
Crafting and refining should be tax free or lower tax than Settlements.
Trading Post
-
A Minor Settlement will have its own trading post.
-
Items bought and sold in the Minor Settlement trading post are tax-free.
-
Players have the option of placing a buy order or sell order that connects to the Settlement trading post in that territory, but if it is bought/sold through the Settlement, tax is payable.
-
Minor Settlement trading posts should not be connected to other Minor Settlement trading posts. The Settlement should act as the hub.
Fast Travel & Inn Recall
- Players who fast travel or recall to a Minor Settlement should be charged gold coin and that money should be paid to the Mayor.
- Alternatively, players are given the option of paying gold coin or azoth to fast travel.
Storage
-
Players can pay a very small, one-time, gold coin fee to the Mayor to store items at the Minor Settlement.
- Either a one time storage usage fee; or
- Fee proportionate to weight.
-
Alternatively, free storage for all players at a lower capacity than Settlements.
War
-
Let’s call wars for a Minor Settlement a “Battle” for the purpose of this post.
-
Battles for a Minor Settlement should only be able to be declared when the territory is in conflict.
-
Any player can declare a Battle on a Minor Settlement regardless of influence contribution.
- Alternatively, the player must have contributed a small amount of influence, say 1%.
-
Battles will take place around the Minor Settlement.
-
The vanguard for the Battle is chosen at random.
-
Battles should be on a smaller scale, say 10 v 10 or 20 v 20 and perhaps a shorter time frame.
-
This will allow more players to participate during a declaration of war, potentially the entire faction(s), increasing involvement and motivation for all players in war.
-
Corrupted should not invade individual Minor Settlements.
- Alternatively, if corrupted do invade Minor Settlements, the difficulty should be reduced.
Faction Alignment
-
If the above war idea is implemented, then it follows that a player from any faction can own a Minor Settlement in a territory regardless of which faction that territory belongs to. There is no point having Battles for a Minor Settlement if, ultimately, the Minor Settlement will convert to ownership of the faction that wins the war. Maybe make it so a player cannot build a Minor Settlement in a territory unless it is owned by their faction but they can take it over through Battle.
-
In that case, there should be some penalties to having a Minor Settlement in a territory that is not controlled by the Mayor’s faction. Maybe the Mayor should pay tax to the governor of the territory if they are a different faction.
Housing
I do not think Minor Settlements should have houses that can be owned. Minor Settlements need to be different enough from a Settlement so that players have a reason to visit both. Settlements should retain the benefits of housing.
Pros
-
Governing settlements is a huge and exciting aspect of the game but only a small amount of players will ever get to experience it. There are only 11 governable settlements meaning only 11 players at any one time get to experience governing in a server with a 2000 player cap. At the very most, 11 companies worth of players get to feel what its like to own and work towards building something. At the time of writing, my server has over 340 companies. If each territory had just 5 Minor Settlements, another 55 players/companies get to experience that feeling.
-
Increases the amount of fast travel points to address the complaints of too much walking. Also provides the option to pay for fast travel with gold to address complaints of azoth cost while at the same time keeping that gold within the economy as it is provided to the Mayor.
-
Reduces the burden of tax on the players which in turn will keep governors of Settlements in check when setting their tax rates.
-
Increases player participation and motivation in war. In my experience, every war is generally fought by the same 50 strongest members of each faction with a few exceptions. That’s 150 players out of 2000. If Battles are implemented at 10 v 10 and assuming at least 5 Minor Settlements in 11 territories, that’s potentially another 550 players from each faction. Or at least another 50 players from each faction if you assume siege times are set one after the other. But easily more if you simply increase Battle sizes or the amount of Minor Settlements. It would also widen the variety of players who get to participate in war because each Mayor will be able to hand pick players for the Battle.
-
Creation of gold into the economy through Battles (also more azoth) and extra town quests. Town quests may be repetitive but picking up similar quests from the Settlement and other Minor Settlements could make them more efficient to run.
-
Potential for unique specialty Minor Settlements. Imagine a Minor Settlement outside an expedition or elite camp where you can buy potions and food or sell your unwanted loot. Imagine a Minor Settlement next to fishing hotspots that sell bait and rare fish. Imagine Minor Settlements near crop farms where players can do the hard work of clearing mobs to farm cooking ingredients and sell them at the Minor Settlement. The list goes on.
Cons
-
Fewer people in Settlements: this needs to be balanced by making Settlements and Minor Settlements different enough so that players have a reason to visit both. From what I have suggested, Settlements would still have the benefit of housing availability, full crafting and refining station availability, and being the trading post hub of the territory.
-
Large companies still control all Minor Settlement ownership and player participation in war: while possible, I think it would be more difficult with the increased upkeep and numbers required. At the lower estimate, a company would need 100 members to completely fill a war and Battle roster. I do not know the size of large companies as the game only shows 51+. I also think members of large companies will begin to splinter off into their own companies once they have the option of governing their own Minor Settlement.
-
Resource areas are inundated with players and resources depleted: I can think of crop farms as an example. Where a player could normally get a few cooking ingredients that they need for free, other players farming there take them as soon as they spawn. It might be harder and more frustrating but you can always wait for the spawn and try to gather it first. And it would not make the resource unobtainable as we can assume that the player farming has listed it for sale at the Minor Settlement.
-
Fast Travel exploit: the risk that no one really cares about the Minor Settlement or utilises its other features but just maintain upkeep to have it there as an extra fast travel point. Well, I can’t really think of a solution for that.
-
I am sure there are more cons that others will point out.
I understand my suggestions aren’t perfect and this would be a big task to implement. I am not expecting miracles. I just hope that the game can move towards something like this to give more players the full experience of the game.
Thanks for reading.