Severoth
12-21-2005, 04:28 PM
A lot of information about player cities/towns is still speculation as a lot of info hasn't been released. However, the developers have mentioned some ideas about their vision for the purpose of player cities. Allow me to try to reproduce what little elaboration the devs have provided on the forums and FAQ, as there seems to be a lot of aloof ideas and misinformation.
First thing to keep in mind is that traveling will be a task that is not only dangerous but takes time. If you and your guild are raiding some high-level dungeon, the nearest NPC town is going to be a LONG ways away. This will be nothing like EQ or WoW where traveling was trivialized. You could travel across continents/oceans in a matter of minutes in those games. Forget that. That's not how it works in Vanguard according to the devs.
Now, when you and your guildmates go into this far-way dungeon fighting and you fill up your inventory bags with loot and/or harvested items, it just won't be feasible to visit the nearest NPC town's vendors and/or bank to sell/save all your items. The nearest NPC town's vendors may be an hour's journey or longer away from your dungeon. Who wants to spend several hours traveling just to sell every single evening? Unless you are making a living at trading goods, I doubt you want to deal with that inconvenience.
Instead of making the 2-hour round trip to the nearest NPC city every evening to empty your bags, you will have a mount/vehicle that you can "park" near this high-level dungeon. Your mount/vehicle acts like a storage container, where you can empty your inventory bags after playing in the dungeon every evening (I'm not saying this is the only function of a mount/vehicle but rather one of their functions). Now, this is pure speculation, but maybe your mount/vehicle requires a "stable," at which to be parked. Now, there is reason to build a stable near the dungeon entrance. If you put up a house near this dungeon as well, this house serves as even more storage for all your loot and harvested items. Now your guild has reason to put up houses and a "stable" near the dungeon entrance, because no one wants to do a 2-hour round trip every evening just to sell loot and empty bags.
Since crafting is going to be an integral part of the game, there will be even further benefits to building a city and making it big. Vanguard developers have hinted at a system that keeps track of how "big" a settlement is. That might be determined by number of buildings, or number of players entering the city daily, etc. But however the city's size is calculated, it's size will determine whether it can support a "higher tech level." Once again, here goes some personal speculation, but let's assume a city that has an "anvil" has a "blacksmithing tech level of 1." Once it becomes a certain size, the city can build a "forge," giving the city a "blacksmithing tech level of 2." If the city grows further in size, it can upgrade to building a "foundry," giving the city a "blacksmithing tech level of 3." Let's say the easiest-to-craft items require tech level 1. Harder items require higher tech levels. The most-difficult-to-craft items will require a high tech level. Only the largest player and NPC cities will be able to obtain the highest crafting tech levels.
Why does this matter? Let's assume your guild has put up a "stable" and houses outside a dragon layer. Your guild plans to raid this place every night for the next couple of weeks. Having a player built city near the dungeon will make emptying/buying/selling loot much more convienent. After raiding many nights, your guild has collected many rare dragonscales that are a rare and required component for some very powerful armors that your high-level blacksmith can make. However, unless your player city has a "blacksmithing tech level of 5," your blacksmith will have to travel to the nearest city with such a high tech level. The next nearest city is a 5-hour journey away. Now there's some motivation to upgrade your city's "blacksmithing tech level."
Another thing to remember is that if your city is built in a hostile area (i.e. near a high-level dungeon entrance), roaming monsters will attack your city's structures. Unless players are currently online to fight off the monsters, or you have enough money to hire NPC guards, then the monsters will destroy your buildings (the buildings have hitpoints like characters).
Once you are done raiding this dragon layer after several weeks, you may want to move on to another high-level dungeon like the evil wizard's keep. However, the evil wizard's keep is a 6-hour journey from your current city at the dragon layer. Time to abandon your city (eventually monsters will destroy it completely if not defended), and build a caravan. Everyone in the guild joins the caravan, which allows a large amount of belongings to be transported. In addition, everyone who "joins" the caravan will move with the caravan whether they are online or offline. If you can't stay online for the entirety of the 6-hour journey, then you can join the caravan and go offline. When the caravan reaches its destination, you will arrive with it even if you are offline. However, make sure enough players are online to defend the caravan from monsters along its dangerous journey. When you arrive at the new high-level dungeon, time to begin building your city anew.
Maybe there will be a mechanism that allows ownership of structures and cities to change (I can only hope this happens). For example, if guild A is done raiding the dragon layer, and they want to move to raiding the evil wizard's keep. But guild B is currently raiding the evil wizard's keep, constantly killing the good bosses, etc. But guild B is tired of raiding the evil wizard's keep and wants to raid the dragnon layer, but guild A has the dragon layer camped. If guild A and guild B can communicate and arrange it, hopefully, they can switch ownership of cities and swap which dungeons they are camping. This way, each guild doesn't have to completely start over from scratch when moving. This is only my hope at this time.
If your guild isn't large enough to support a large city by itself, then your guild will have to cooperate with other players and guilds giving them reason and incentive to build in your city.
The large traveling times / distances help facilitate the profession of trading. Guild A has a bunch of extra dragonscales from the dragon layer (and these dragonscales can only be found in this dragon layer). Guild B has a bunch of extra magical orbs from the evil wizard's keep (which can only be found in the evil wizard's keep). Both magical orbs and dragonscales are key components in powerful crafted items. Traders can buy the extra dragonsalces from guild A and travel to the other guild B's city and sell them dragonsalces for craftable gear. The traders then buy the extra magical orbs from guild B and travel back to guild A's city and sell them magical orbs for their craftable gear.
The interior of buildings can be whatever you make them, but the exterior of buildings will be limited to match the "theme" of the area. Other structures that might be build-able could be a bank for extra community storage space, a wall for city defense, a fountain to inspire crafters and increase their chance to succeed at crafting, etc.
Because of the time to travel, a guild will want to raid with each other. Keeping a guild spread out among smaller towns would serve to create mini-guilds within the guild. Also, not only is there motivation to all work together on the same dungeon, but also to work together on building a city as large as possible to support high crafting tech levels.
I pulled this information from the dev's statements. When I speculated, I said so. Of course, as the dev's say, everything is still open to change before release.
First thing to keep in mind is that traveling will be a task that is not only dangerous but takes time. If you and your guild are raiding some high-level dungeon, the nearest NPC town is going to be a LONG ways away. This will be nothing like EQ or WoW where traveling was trivialized. You could travel across continents/oceans in a matter of minutes in those games. Forget that. That's not how it works in Vanguard according to the devs.
Now, when you and your guildmates go into this far-way dungeon fighting and you fill up your inventory bags with loot and/or harvested items, it just won't be feasible to visit the nearest NPC town's vendors and/or bank to sell/save all your items. The nearest NPC town's vendors may be an hour's journey or longer away from your dungeon. Who wants to spend several hours traveling just to sell every single evening? Unless you are making a living at trading goods, I doubt you want to deal with that inconvenience.
Instead of making the 2-hour round trip to the nearest NPC city every evening to empty your bags, you will have a mount/vehicle that you can "park" near this high-level dungeon. Your mount/vehicle acts like a storage container, where you can empty your inventory bags after playing in the dungeon every evening (I'm not saying this is the only function of a mount/vehicle but rather one of their functions). Now, this is pure speculation, but maybe your mount/vehicle requires a "stable," at which to be parked. Now, there is reason to build a stable near the dungeon entrance. If you put up a house near this dungeon as well, this house serves as even more storage for all your loot and harvested items. Now your guild has reason to put up houses and a "stable" near the dungeon entrance, because no one wants to do a 2-hour round trip every evening just to sell loot and empty bags.
Since crafting is going to be an integral part of the game, there will be even further benefits to building a city and making it big. Vanguard developers have hinted at a system that keeps track of how "big" a settlement is. That might be determined by number of buildings, or number of players entering the city daily, etc. But however the city's size is calculated, it's size will determine whether it can support a "higher tech level." Once again, here goes some personal speculation, but let's assume a city that has an "anvil" has a "blacksmithing tech level of 1." Once it becomes a certain size, the city can build a "forge," giving the city a "blacksmithing tech level of 2." If the city grows further in size, it can upgrade to building a "foundry," giving the city a "blacksmithing tech level of 3." Let's say the easiest-to-craft items require tech level 1. Harder items require higher tech levels. The most-difficult-to-craft items will require a high tech level. Only the largest player and NPC cities will be able to obtain the highest crafting tech levels.
Why does this matter? Let's assume your guild has put up a "stable" and houses outside a dragon layer. Your guild plans to raid this place every night for the next couple of weeks. Having a player built city near the dungeon will make emptying/buying/selling loot much more convienent. After raiding many nights, your guild has collected many rare dragonscales that are a rare and required component for some very powerful armors that your high-level blacksmith can make. However, unless your player city has a "blacksmithing tech level of 5," your blacksmith will have to travel to the nearest city with such a high tech level. The next nearest city is a 5-hour journey away. Now there's some motivation to upgrade your city's "blacksmithing tech level."
Another thing to remember is that if your city is built in a hostile area (i.e. near a high-level dungeon entrance), roaming monsters will attack your city's structures. Unless players are currently online to fight off the monsters, or you have enough money to hire NPC guards, then the monsters will destroy your buildings (the buildings have hitpoints like characters).
Once you are done raiding this dragon layer after several weeks, you may want to move on to another high-level dungeon like the evil wizard's keep. However, the evil wizard's keep is a 6-hour journey from your current city at the dragon layer. Time to abandon your city (eventually monsters will destroy it completely if not defended), and build a caravan. Everyone in the guild joins the caravan, which allows a large amount of belongings to be transported. In addition, everyone who "joins" the caravan will move with the caravan whether they are online or offline. If you can't stay online for the entirety of the 6-hour journey, then you can join the caravan and go offline. When the caravan reaches its destination, you will arrive with it even if you are offline. However, make sure enough players are online to defend the caravan from monsters along its dangerous journey. When you arrive at the new high-level dungeon, time to begin building your city anew.
Maybe there will be a mechanism that allows ownership of structures and cities to change (I can only hope this happens). For example, if guild A is done raiding the dragon layer, and they want to move to raiding the evil wizard's keep. But guild B is currently raiding the evil wizard's keep, constantly killing the good bosses, etc. But guild B is tired of raiding the evil wizard's keep and wants to raid the dragnon layer, but guild A has the dragon layer camped. If guild A and guild B can communicate and arrange it, hopefully, they can switch ownership of cities and swap which dungeons they are camping. This way, each guild doesn't have to completely start over from scratch when moving. This is only my hope at this time.
If your guild isn't large enough to support a large city by itself, then your guild will have to cooperate with other players and guilds giving them reason and incentive to build in your city.
The large traveling times / distances help facilitate the profession of trading. Guild A has a bunch of extra dragonscales from the dragon layer (and these dragonscales can only be found in this dragon layer). Guild B has a bunch of extra magical orbs from the evil wizard's keep (which can only be found in the evil wizard's keep). Both magical orbs and dragonscales are key components in powerful crafted items. Traders can buy the extra dragonsalces from guild A and travel to the other guild B's city and sell them dragonsalces for craftable gear. The traders then buy the extra magical orbs from guild B and travel back to guild A's city and sell them magical orbs for their craftable gear.
The interior of buildings can be whatever you make them, but the exterior of buildings will be limited to match the "theme" of the area. Other structures that might be build-able could be a bank for extra community storage space, a wall for city defense, a fountain to inspire crafters and increase their chance to succeed at crafting, etc.
Because of the time to travel, a guild will want to raid with each other. Keeping a guild spread out among smaller towns would serve to create mini-guilds within the guild. Also, not only is there motivation to all work together on the same dungeon, but also to work together on building a city as large as possible to support high crafting tech levels.
I pulled this information from the dev's statements. When I speculated, I said so. Of course, as the dev's say, everything is still open to change before release.