I dream of a day when you can build a village in conan and the thralls will wander around and interact with things, bringing life to your builds. A pipe dream maybe, but a valid dream regardless.
But until that day, I had an idea: Thrall Patrols.
Thralls would have another command where you give them a start point and an end point, and they would walk back and forth between both points. You could adjust multiple things about said patrol, for example how long a thrall would pause at the start/end point before continuing their patrol. If an obstacle is placed in their path, they’d find a simple route around it. Naturally, a thralls start/end point could not be placed on or near player structures, as well as forbidden building places like the unnamed city.
Share your thoughts.
If patrol points could only be set within a player/clan’s build claim, that would avoid the danger of it being used as a ‘passive invasion’ tactic or blocking off important structures, so that shouldn’t necessarily be a problem. The basis sort of already exists in the code - we can already order them to ‘move’ to a specified point, so if there was a way to set a few (or at least two) such points (and get them to walk between them instead of scurrying), that might form the groundwork for such a system.
I like it 
I’d love to see such a thing in the game (ideally with potential for more than two ‘waypoints’ to allow more complex routes), and your suggestion of setting a pause time at each end (or waypoint) would also be really cool - anything that gives our bases more life is great by me, and this seems like it would be a big boost in that area. That said, I suspect the objection (as always) may be server load - if servers had to memorise and keep replaying routes for (potentially hundreds) of thralls across the server, I can imagine that might be an issue. But if there is a way to do it, I’d certainly love to see it
I love this idea as well; setting waypoints and increase the interaction with NPCs.
The fact is that role-playing, building and survival is a central element;
and as soon as you are mid-game you start investing time into your base and your followers;
making them more “smart” and the game a tad more “interactive” (it already is great! dont get me wrong) would add a lot! i could even consider giving Thralls complete packages of behavior (a list of emotes and actions over a timeline to perform) to simulate your base like a settlement; so players can create their world interactively and immerse themselves and enjoy a custom user experience;
that serves everyone right (not pre-build cities but rather being able to create settlements and behavior yourself) - and if you compare development investment, it should be lean and easier as well.
I hope thats a good addition to your idea, but basically it was already a great improvement in my humble opinion.
Have fun!