City liberation event concept.

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Arwan
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City liberation event concept.

Post by Arwan »

I took a stroll through fell while I still had my young player status protecting me, and noticed that many (if not all) of the cities no longer had NPCs. Not only that, but there were many monsters living in britain, and a clan of baddies living in cove!

This sparked the Idea of having guilds, or similarly ogranized groups of players liberate these cities from the monsters as an event. But different from a normal event that lasts a few hours and finishes off with a prize, perhaps this can become a lasting source of entertainment.

In the real world cities produce goods, services and collect income from taxes. Perhaps after liberating a city, a guild would own it, and once populated and appropriately managed (and defended!) said guild would then have a source of income from the city.

Many cities have local resources that could be exploited, and even some nearby threats! here are some examples:

Britain:
Pros
Large city would mean large population, so lots of income from taxes.
Farm land to the west, to produce food.
Docks to access fishing, to produce food
Castle, allows for a large garrison of defenders
Cons
Nearby graveyard, causes frequent undead attacks
Infested sewers, causes frequent monster attacks

Cove:
Pros
Walled, unorganized monsters will have trouble attacking
Small access to farming and fishing
Access to large mineral deposits
Cons
Nearby Orc fort causes frequent orc attacks
Local food resources can only feed a small population
Small population means low tax revenue

As the above examples imply, there will be some management associated with owning a city, it should not be a free source of income. Cities will need to be defended, and since we humans cannot be around 24/7 to protect them, NPC guards will need to be hired, housed and fed.

By now you should get the idea, guild liberates a city, defends and manages it and receives material and monetary income from produce and taxes. A little simcity like minigame for organized guilds.

I understand that this is extremely complex to impliment, so perhaps start small. Create some method of capturing the cities, allow guilds to capture them (making it appropriately difficult) and receive small gold incomes every so often if they have protected it. If this much works out, it can be expanded from there. Otherwise It would be a fun event for a few hours with a reward at the end ^.^
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+Osiris
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by +Osiris »

I like the idea off there being a city to protect as an event. As we have had these kind off event held in the past, maybe not done and thought off as much as you would want but they have been held.

For there being a guild having to protect the city and having to pay/feed and hire NPC's to help guard it I'm not so sure that would work out.

How would a guild really benifit from this... you said about farming, now normaly harvesting is something you would do to help yourself out rather than a soruce off income.

Ok and you said "Large city would mean large population, so lots of income from taxes" is this as in players or NPC's?
If NPC's have to pay income tax.. It can't be a great amount for the simple fact we cannot have money being pumped into the world as easy as that, Ok the hiring off NPC's to help guard the city could cover alot off the tax, But it's then not really you having to work for the gold.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, because it's a good event having to protect the cities from take overs, but I think for now maybe that is all it should be, just an event.
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Arwan
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by Arwan »

There would be an obvious need for balancing to not flood the economy. The amounts of money should not be to large (100k a week from brit in its early stages for example), and there would need to be more money sinks associated with maintaining a city, such as upgrades, as the amount of income grows.

Money sink concepts:
Adding venues the city can support. Mage shop, stables, tailor, smith etc.
Upgrading guard equipment.
Introducing new types of guards. Mages, archers, necros etc.
Adding NPC happiness items and buildings. Musicians hall, tavern, deco.
Repairing damage from attacks.
Offering bounty to players on monsters killed within city limits.
Building walls.
Upgrading walls.
Repairing walls.
Adding siege equipment to walls.
Building a castle.
Adding special vendors for players.
Hiring police when population grows.
Building maintenance costs.
Building upgrades.
Housing for guards, citizens and workers
Building access to resources. Farms, mines, etc
Scouting patrols to give early warning for attacks
Watch towers to give a more limited early warning
Trade caravans to other cities
Guards for trade caravans
Patrols for trade routes
Safe places for trade caravans to shelter at night, while on route.
Increase industry capacity, (blacksmiths, potters, tailors, etc) to create trade goods.
Upgrading industry
Expanding the city

To make the income larger they will need to upgrade the city to support more people and harvesters/workers. Then buy places for them to get food and be happy. And as the income rises, so do the frequency and strength of monster attacks, forcing the guild to upgrade the defences.

Thus, as the income increases then so will the need to spend it. If it is still and issue, perhaps giving cities their own currency, and giving players access to the material income, special vendors and stuff like that as rewards for maintaining the cities.
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OldManAlewar
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by OldManAlewar »

+Osiris wrote:I like the idea off there being a city to protect as an event. As we have had these kind off event held in the past, maybe not done and thought off as much as you would want but they have been held.

For there being a guild having to protect the city and having to pay/feed and hire NPC's to help guard it I'm not so sure that would work out.

How would a guild really benifit from this... you said about farming, now normaly harvesting is something you would do to help yourself out rather than a soruce off income.

Ok and you said "Large city would mean large population, so lots of income from taxes" is this as in players or NPC's?
If NPC's have to pay income tax.. It can't be a great amount for the simple fact we cannot have money being pumped into the world as easy as that, Ok the hiring off NPC's to help guard the city could cover alot off the tax, But it's then not really you having to work for the gold.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, because it's a good event having to protect the cities from take overs, but I think for now maybe that is all it should be, just an event.

In factions, the tax income is from an added price on NPC vendors, this system is basically in place already, its just deactivated, and in stock runUO, its only for felluca.

how it works is that, for example, regs are 1 gp more expensive when bought there, which goes into the faction bank account


its possible to rig the faction system so that specific monsters also belong to a certain faction, but players cant kill each other, ive played on a shard before that had that.

basically it was PvM factioning, and i'm pretty sure CTH would feel right at home with the shadowlords :D
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+Colibri
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by +Colibri »

Well Arwan those things you wrote there each takes at least a day to code, some would take weeks.

I suppose PvM factioning would work, if we can make it work in trammel, and if all the monster fighting would be done outside of towns. I think this idea is just a lot... would be very nice to have it, but a whole lot of work.
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Arwan
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by Arwan »

I totally understand. But it would be a nice goal, and doesn't have to be implemented all at once.
And if it is never suggested, it never happens ;)
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OldManAlewar
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by OldManAlewar »

+Colibri wrote:Well Arwan those things you wrote there each takes at least a day to code, some would take weeks.

I suppose PvM factioning would work, if we can make it work in trammel, and if all the monster fighting would be done outside of towns. I think this idea is just a lot... would be very nice to have it, but a whole lot of work.
ll work with you to make it happen, if need be :)

there were 'invasion' type of Publishes (very large events) on OSI some years back, where monsters would come in and raid a town, if not stopped by players, and guard would be ... away/busy/gone


and yeah, things like this are a several month project, not to be taken ligthly
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OldManAlewar
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Re: City liberation event concept.

Post by OldManAlewar »

i have an IDEA that may implement this quickly

we have a paragon/champ-like "commander" boss who spawns a new monster every minute that its been spawned, and carries the town-gem that factions use in its backpack, the faction to kill him loots the town-gem, and can thus claim the (fellucan) town

he also starts outside of town, and follows waypoints slowly, untill he arrives safely in town, small army in tow, the longer people ignore him, the stronger his army of minions become.

this way, we use the normal code, and can support 4 factions, whichis about as much guild we have with more than 3 active players :D

Maybe, if this is possible, a moongate (in fel, yes) that will only work if the town is liberated.

once a town is liberated, the finance minister of the town can place bottles, regs, and other vendor NPC that will be taxed as normal in factions, allowing for a buildup of town defenses (buyable faction NPC's) for the next time the bad guy spawns ... in 48 hours.


i feel this could be done :) (in due time, hehe)
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