Age of Heroes - Chapter 1 Q&A

[Hansel]

ohh, what would happen to the rock noses farms? those works as inventory items… i wonder what would happen to the animal pens?

[CodeMage]

Nothing should happen there. Critters slots in pens aren’t thrall slots.

[Hansel]

not the same? i thought it was the same, it was set up as it only takes pets, they are still classed as inventory items, but i am not a programmer

[Pugilist]

@Kikigirl

I do not like the idea that they can open any doors

Yeah, that’s a real issue.

[Kikigirl]

I feel like those being adversely affected by exploits in PVE and PVE-C are just going to stock the hell up constantly on worker thralls and PVP is going to be worse…

Or, no door bases. I mean MUCH WOW -_-

Let’s see how creative I can be to make a worker pit XD Make it even more realistic by adding crens and a few emoting thralls on the ramparts while the worker thralls toil away!

[Hansel]

they should add a bribing system so you can have thralls open gates and allow attackers in. lol lol.

[erjoh]

@Kikigirl

Let’s see how creative I can be to make a worker pit XD Make it even more realistic by adding crens and a few emoting thralls on the ramparts while the worker thralls toil away!

For PVP it’s gotten real easy. Wall up a crafter in a 1x1x1 and then place your mass production facilities down. If emotes come into play, you don’t even need a 1x1x1.

[Kikigirl]

Oh no! You’ll be depriving them of fulfillment! XD

Y’know for PVP purposes I wouldn’t be so apprehensive at worker thralls becoming static in the list if we could once again knock other clans’ thralls out. It would add back another layer to raiding that I feel has been missing since.

[Deamo]

@Caroll With the living settlement update If I was to say place a T4 crafter in my base but then place that same T4 crafter in let’s say the pillory or the hanging cage will that prevent them wandering? And would I still get the bonus on my benches with them bounded to said hanging cage and pillory?

If not could this be a possibility in the future for evil players.

[DeaconElie]

I truely tried to stay away. Made up my mind I was done with this void. I know this forum is simply here to allow us to vent. funcom’s players emotional purge forum.

But this, you know this sort of stuff is a trigger for me.

@Hansel

cosmetic i meant because there is clearly no benefits, beside the clothing change (cosmetic) to player other than they eating a sandwitch (Cosmetic) . or cooking or doing an animation on a bench (they do it already) (cosmetic)

Tell me you don’t know what a cosmetic is with out saying you don’t know what a cosmetic is.
The only part of the new lively village system that is a cosmetic is being able to change the thralls look. PERIOD.
None of the rest of that is cosmetic, at all, in any definition.

Now lets try this. You have space in your basement for a pool table or a 500 gallon aquarium. One or the other you can’t have both, they take up the same space. Oh I’m sure if you want to spend the money and take the time you can set up something custom to do both, but do you think funcom is going to do that with lively villages?

Now that I’m here I read “can open doors and gates” and got instant kitty and bunny flash backs

I’m going to be losing thralls left and right around my bases. None of them are in truly safe places.
And I believe we are about to see the battle for safe spaces on PVE begin.

I also see bases being build with benches at the center and a court yard around them at about 2.5/50, 20 foundations big. So my daisy on the beta server may be very practical if I move benches to the central and talk to HR about setting up break benches and bunks.

I can’t build big, just not in me except for the friendship room I have no idea what to do with all this space. But the purpose was to build big and set up mazes. er umm test pathing.

So poor Ben T. Steel is going to have to run multiple benches. Poor guy.

@Caroll

They can also take food from a thrall pot if available.

So you all have fixed that, right?
Or more then likely, you don’t know it’s broke.

@Caroll

There is no direct control or toggle at this moment for this level of control,

But we are going to infer we are going to and never follow through.

2 words funcom, locking doors.

@Caroll

The purpose of Living Settlements is to make things feel more organic, natural, and immersive. They’re humans just like everyone else, as they always should have been. Protect them, or let them fight, that’s up to you, Exile.

thrall:

1a. a state of servitude or submission.
2a. an enslaved person who performs the duties of a servant.

Just a reminder.

One question though, who actually asked for this?

@Caroll

Exiles thank you for your support while we cook the new Age of Heroes!

Wish I could thank funcom for supporting their players, but I can’t.

I will thank you Caroll for sticking your head in the door of the snake pit. You’re brave.

[Hansel]

@DeaconElie

I will thank you Caroll for sticking your head in the door of the snake pit. You’re brave.

indeed, she is brave considering how things are around here.

[Croms_Faithful]

First please let me say a big thankyou kindly to Caroll for coming onto the forums to give us this Q & A and provide a clearer picture of how it will all look when finished. A couple of questions/concerns:

@Caroll

Could we limit where workers go or have off-limits places in our bases?

Crafter thralls will wander to fulfill their needs up to 50m from the workstations. They wouldn’t need to wander away and access other rooms in your base if they have a campfire, bed, and seating locations near their stations. Building and decorating with this in mind can help you limit access, such as with tavern patrons.

Ok so let us politely consider this a little more closely for just a moment. Let us say, purely as an example number, I have roughly ~10 -15 crafters stationed at my base. Does this mean I am going to have to put down some 10-15 additional beds (and chairs) just to circumvent them from all piling into my own bed? Because if that were the case, I would prefer that much like Fighters, Archers and Dancers, that they Did NOT sleep at all.

Thrall Pot & Pet Feed Box

If followers are going to wander to campfires to feed themselves, could we please fix the thrall pots and pet feed boxes to aid in distribution? Not to mention keep our fighters, archers, bearers, dancers, pets, etc well provisioned for when we summon Purges too?

[GullTopp]

my base is ready…
now, given my personal experience with the bar, whether on an official or private server in a large or small base, empty or full server…the animation often bugs
i can’t wait to see that…
i hope i’ll be surprised…

but given your choice to permanently place the craftsmen, it’s starting badly…
knowing that the more the game progresses the more the choice increases, it would have been more judicious, even for the fighters, especially the rarer ones, to have the possibility of being sent back to inventory, thus creating an interesting dynamic between players… especially with your development turn… but… do as you feel

[CodeMage]

@Croms_Faithful

Ok so let us politely consider this a little more closely for just a moment. Let us say, purely as an example number, I have roughly ~10 -15 crafters stationed at my base. Does this mean I am going to have to put down some 10-15 additional beds (and chairs) just to circumvent them from all piling into my own bed?

If you don’t mind, I’ll engage in some speculation based on what they’ve told us and shown us so far.

It looks like the crafters will be given a set of “needs” to fulfill while they’re in the world. When the need kicks in, they execute a behavior associated with that need until the need is fulfilled. I don’t know the details – such as whether these needs are hierarchical, how they’re chosen to kick in, how long it takes to fulfill them, etc. – but I would expect them to kick in at random within certain parameters.

If that’s the case, it’s theoretically possible, although hopefully unlikely, to hit a situation in which all 15 crafters have the “sleep need” at the same time. So if you want to make sure your bed isn’t used by the unwashed masses, one way would be to provide full redundancy for crafters’ beds.

On the other hand, it might not be the only way. For starters, we don’t know what are the limits on their need-fulfillment algorithm. How far does their pathfinding algorithm look for a bed? If you place a thrall in your volcano outpost and the only bed you own is in your jungle base, will your thrall set out on a long trek towards a soft pillow? My gut tells me “no”.

Then there’s the possibility of placing obstacles. We know thralls can’t use elevators. If your bed is only reachable via an elevator, thralls won’t get to it. I’m hoping that there will be other ways. When the TestLive update is out, I intend to check whether they can navigate “foundation stairs” formed by sinking and raising neighboring foundations. Also, I’m still waiting for an answer about whether they will successfully navigate stairs and/or ramps. Plus, there are certain sloped roofs that can be used in place of ramps, and I would be very surprised to find that thralls can path over roofs

Finally, you could always place your thralls in a “cage” built from a set of raised ceilings or foundations with no stairs, surrounded by fences or windows.

[Hansel]

@CodeMage

Finally, you could always place your thralls in a “cage” built from a set of raised ceilings or foundations with no stairs, surrounded by fences or windows.

thralls like to teleport, i have seen it in the tavern system, also, when you are not arouind and the walls are not rendered, they will pass them liuek there were no walls,

you can see this on a purge, when i died and respawn when i come back, i have seen enemy by passing obstacles.

this update, is really NOT looking good at this point, with all the problems we see on a daily basis with thralls, and the tavern system,

i guess time will tell, but i can forsee problems with people complaining with their Crafters now causing issues … and all of that, so we can see them go eat and sleep ? they could have accomplished the settlement goals with the current thralls already deployed. as simple as, if no task given (such as guard, they will wander around. if with task, they will remain in task.

now we have crafter that we as the lord of our places have no control at all on how our settlement works.

i still cant find a valid justification from funcom to do what they are doing to a system tthat was working without any issues. ( the old system was client side).

EDIT and not to mention the plethora of pathing issues we see in CE with thralls… and how they get often confused.

[Hiveshadow]

we dont know in the other chapters if they want to make so you have better controll of your settlement, we need to begin1place before we can get more. and we dont know how the system REALLY works, just blaming a system we dont know just show you are not happy becuse you dont get what you want. and yearh make gaurding thralls walk around will be nice but if they have a system in chapter 2 or 3 to that i more than happy to waiut for that. you can make a small room to you thralls if you dont want them to walk around with no doors and give them some chairs and beds that is fixed but go agressive on a system we have not tryed yet not a good idea but after you have tryed the system then go ahead say what you want. that is just my meaning

[Hansel]

@Hiveshadow

and we dont know how the system REALLY works,

they already said we will have no control, once placed , they will act on their own.

@Hiveshadow

f they have a system in chapter 2 or 3

i dont deal with IF. or stuff that has not been said… right now as it is, you have NO control on what your crafters do, please read their responses.

@Hiveshadow

you can make a small room to you thralls if you dont want them to walk around with no doors

1, so i need to work around the system if i dont want them walking around? how about a little bit of control on their behaviour?
2. thralls teleport… quite often. check the tavern system…
3. if base is not rendered , the thralls will pass thru no rendered spaces. (it certainly works like that right now.)

@Hiveshadow

not happy becuse you dont get what you want

its not about me, i am not alone in the sentiment that people should have full control of the behaviour of a cosmetic system. they should have started to test that behaviour with fighters , if not guard, do this. same with crafter, if not task is asigned, roam. no one will complaint if they have options, my point is TO HAVE OPTIONS. not to force a big change like this.

so what happens with outposts? we cant have it because you dont have empty thrall spots to run benches?

again i am not to go talk on the if, my complaints are based on what i saw on the stream ,and all the possibly implications of a restrictive system (because it is a restrictive system, as it is now and how it has been presented)

so we all now need to play Dennis Exiles? i did not want them to change the way i play the game, i am ok with them adding stuff and to create options. that does not mean , to take out a system that has worked flawlesly for years,. for a system that will and mark my words, will bring LOTS of problems to a game that is filled with tons of problems waiting to be fixed.

From the top of my head :.

what do we gain?

• thralls can take care of several benches at once (very positive if you are short of thralls or starting. , but not very smart for people that has been around for years, and have hundreds if not thousands of thralls stored in chests, we often give away tons of them for people coming to play CE)

• you can dress thralls with what you want, and posibly rename them. (no negatives on this one , as this has been requested over and over again.

• thralls wander around (without control) and eat , sit, and sleep. (good really good if that did not meant a drastic change to how we have our outposts, manned with thralls that work as inventory items and does not cause server lag)

what we loose?

• total control of how we want to see our towns/ bases alive.
• you will not have the man power to fuel several outpost at onces with benches on official servers. .
• crafters can be killed, by npcs if they happen to wander around outside because the ai is stupid in CE.
• thralls will count on your already small limit of thralls, for a 10 man clan we can have only 20 thralls per person. and yes in clans EACH member usually builds their own place, so they enjoy the build system which is one of the strong points of the game.
• lots of bugs coming (count of it)

Edit, instead of the basic 15 thralls you need to run the base, please add 1 sorcerer , (16) and 2 priests for one single religion : 18 thralls, not going to say that most players out there runs at least 2 religions on their bases, and the most hardcore of players have all religions and t3 temples unlocked with t4 priests praying there, (ymir still uses the set emote on their temple)

EDIT 2 : the least restrictive way if to. have a separate thrall count for crafters, so they dont touch our leveled thralls. if i was to set a limit on crafters i could think a good starting point for a 10man clan to have 80 crafters, that would be 8 crafter per person, that will grant certain independence on what you want to ahve in your base. but still need to to to main base for … well some specifics that might be needed.

in an outpost or a clan member base : you need : 1 taskmaster, 1 smelter, 1 blacksmith, 1 armorer, 1 tanner , 1 alchemist, 1 cook, that is if you want to have certain degree of indenpendence.

also keep in mind that each crafter is associated with the faction, so i am going to see a lot of casualties for exiles faction crafters, most people will focus on cimmerians, and volcano. siptah is a different animal.

[Cauthey]

@Kikigirl

Let’s see how creative I can be to make a worker pit XD

Artisan pit. Good call, Kiki. This will become the new meta on PvP servers. A base built around a center mass of quality artisans at the heart. Encased in a pit, or foundation + foundation fence cube. As to adequately protect them from would be raiders.

Forcing raiders to spend every last bomb to crack open and murder your crafters.

I will need to think on this. There will definitely need to be base revisions. At least for us lowly solo players.

[Cauthey]

@Hansel

they should add a bribing system so you can have thralls open gates and allow attackers in

From the sounds of the comms from Funcom - it sounds as though the artisans are already going to be actively coming and going, etc. Opening the doors of your secure bunker so they can wander out and have a smoke break, etc.

[Kikigirl]

Well @erjoh has a good point, you’ll be able to encase your worker thrall in a 1x1. So I imagine with most effects (entertained, etc.,…) if it is the same despite the 50m radius (even though it is pretty big) unless that has been taken into consideration, you’ll be able to (or forced to) bury these guys far up or down with stacking.

My mind is going all over the place as to the very big changes that players will employ in their bases. Not all will be peachy keen.