I’m staring this issue in the face this summer. I’ve got an established PC game, and an established PS4 game, and I’m scheduled for an 8 day family vacation in July. I’ve resigned myself to bringing a laptop so I can reset the PC timers (“No dear, seriously, I just need to log in to work for a minute…”). But I have no idea how I’m going to save my PS4 bases. If worse comes to worst, I’ll strip my best crafters, gear and supplies and find a safe place to log out. But I will think long and hard about the effort required to rebuild.
SWG had a full economy in which it was both pratical and easy to pay the “stay tax”. It was well integrated into SWG’s economy.
It is not the case in CE.
A similar concept could work, but it can’t be based on a in-game curency. Because there isn’t really one. The coins are random items with, somehow, a trading value. But also (mainly?) are ressources.
A “stay tax” in CE has to be based on something else. The issue being : what ?
If Funcom manages to solve the server clogging issue caused by abandonned thralls ; The freed computing ressources would help with longer decay times. And a “stay tax” wouldn’t be necessary.
I had an idea … potencially good, potentially very stupid … what if instead of the buildings going “poof”, they triggered a +++Purge ?
These purges would only target structures/bases at a 0 decay timer. And should be strong enough (think, one-shot-kill anything strong) to just kill every thralls/pets on a base and completly level the base.
I don’t, know … thing could get way out of hand if these +++ purges get bugged and attack anything they are not supposed to.
I fail to see what good that would do. If that Purge is doing its job, it’s effectively the same as the auto-destruct, except it takes 2424225252 times as many server resources, and has more points of failure. If it’s not doing its job, well… what good is it then?
But a way to, occasionally, extend one’s decay timer - player initiated, mind you - would be a godsend. If we had that, the “normal” decay timer could probably stay where it is (one week) without causing too many issues.
The good would be that it would destroy thralls and pets at the same time.
Preventing having abandoned thralls and pets littering servers and un-necessarily using server ressources like it currently is the case.
Recovering these ressources more efficiently by destroying thrall and pets at the same time that buildings are destroyed would free server ressource that could be used for longer decay timers.
Okay I see your point, but thralls and pets are supposed to have a decay timer now. They don’t follow the one from the buildings, granted, but if their owner doesn’t log on, they should die (or just disappear?) shortly. Of course I don’t know if that feature works, thrall clean-up has been a… buggy mess, and that’s putting it mildly, from day one.
Yes indeed, on an official server the game will despawn all thralls and pets on the 15th day after their owner has failed to log in. So the thrall decay timer is set at 14 days. So on PC and Xbox official servers the thralls and pets last seven das longer than the buildings. On PS4, due to the temporary increased building decay due to the PSN subscriber influx of players the time frame r both building and thrall/pet decay/despawn is similar.
(Not sure myself after a recent stream if thrall/pet decay timer renewal is proximity based (as stated in the stream) or log in based (as it has been since March when they introduced it). I’m currently testing it with an unwanted bearer thrall.)
To follow up on the “stay tax” idea :
We could imagine a sort of container like the thralls and pets feeding boxes. You put ressources in, and as long there are the required ressources, the ressources are a drained instead of the decay timer.
It should require T3 ressources (hardened bricks or black ice, shaped wood or shaped dryed wood and steel reinforments). And have a cap on how much you can extend the timer (how much ressources you can stock in).
The ressources cost should be high. Not something most players could afford to do ‘just in case’.
It should allways drain the ressources in, regardless of the presence of the owner(s). Contrary to the decay timer which only runs out when the owner(s) is(are) absent.
That way it would discourage players from stocking it ‘just in case’, leave and nerver come back ; leading to the structures remaining longer than necessary.
I played for an year on the same offical server and Funcom always extended the decay timer for holidays.
Personally I think it’s just normal each player has its own needs about time.
For example I can’t play each evening nor I have a Group of friends able to cover each evening of the week, so simply I do not play PvP but PvE-Conflict.
I think peoples aren’t forced to play on official servers or in online game, wich I think, excluded exception just like Holiday etc. always requires to play at least one time each week.
In PvE-Conflict for example the very economy of the game is based upon looting decayed base, and the space in PvE and PvE-Conflict is always limited because every day new players comes.
To extend the decay timer all the year and not for limited times (as it usually works for holidays) like someone suggested is not possible for that reason without ruining the game to others.
It’s sad, but it’s true.
Like a bank of some sorts. You can always rebuild a base…as annoying as that is. But thrall catching for armorers ect is the annoying part. I feel so anyways.
A thrall with a lock box is an idea.
That being said. I jist went with the economy and tax option in order to come up with a simple idea.
----there could also be an added dynamic in which you could nominate a friendly player. Perhaps using currency or something that would or could possibly help players on officials sponcer a person outside of clan in order to maintain a place. This could be good or bad.
You could hire a tyrant who could tear down and steal from you which could be a detriment and add to the social political concept of the game.
I dunno. Im trying to come up with a number of options for people not in a clan.
Personally if I know my clan mates are going to go on vacation I stay at their houses and rotate.
Also. My first ever time playing on officials was with a clan mate who had to serve in the military.
We was gone for 6 months and when he returned he returned to everything he owned exactly how he left it. Until a month later when things got wiped. Lol.
Which is irony in itself.
Ilke that idea. Alot.
Having your friendly neighbor checking on your place while your not home 
It’s nice and simple.
Or. How about this:
If we wanted a more player driven ecomony there could be a contract system. Player A will offer 300 hardened brick to player B. If player B accepts then player B is affiliated as a caretaker. They dont have access to mats, containers or anythung other than entry way to the house and a flag that stops thralls from being agressive.
Player A names a price and player B can counter the offer with what They want as mats. This creates in game trade amongst clans.
This could have a dual purpose.
If an Alpha Clan is dominating A smaller clan could also barter for support with another smaller clan and help defend while not being flagged by thralls.
This Could even help with purge defense and is very useful and friendly to new players as well.
This would literally create a trade system, bartering and a social element that is missing.
One mans trash is another man’s treasure. And the contract could extend 1 to 3 weeks depending on the agreement.
If the contract is extended to an entire clan instead of one individual. Then the clan leader must accept. Thus actually leading the clan. I mean. He or she can barter for the needs of their clan mates.
And the beauty of it is that it is fully optional.
Well, some kind of barter system would be nice regardless. Something to facilitate trade between players/clans. (and all barter/trade system need a hub where every one can list what they want to sell/bye for every one to see. That could be in Seperneru ?)
But i guess having this option into a larger barter system would work. Maybe an item acting like a token ? Craftable ?
And your friendly neighbor could still opt-in for free if he wants to.
But we’r starting to stroll away here.
Anyways. There are quite many options possible to improve QoL around the decay system and make it somewhat less messed up when it comes to how it impacts normal-fonctionning people with typical life imperative. And i wish Funcom would try to improve it.
Agreed. And in my idea the transaction is only completed once the time frame is up.
If you agree for a week. Then after that time the materials or barter is transfered
I’ve been playing on official PvE and PvP via PS4 since last August. I really don’t think the increase to the decay timer has caused any problems with buildings clogging up the server. One week is way too short for both players that want to take longer vacations and for new players that are Conan curious but not yet committed.
Will you have Internet access and laptop (even one that’s a ‘potato’) where you’ll be going? If so, you could use https://parsecgaming.com/ to remote into your gaming PC at home and refresh things mid-week in that way. You’d just need to remember to leave your PC at home on when you leave (mine stays on 24x7, but there are some people who shut theirs off at night for some silly reason).