Dear developers. Hostages

That’s a great point. If it were a slider setting, like ‘Player Hostage Duration’, then players on private servers could turn it off, if they preferred. You’re right, they’ve previously had to make some hard decisions, like restricting raid times, and implemented them as options for server admins to decide.

It’s amazing how fast this thread has grown. Just over a day and already has third place for most posts in the General Discussion.

To fuel the discussion further, I’d love to have some options, like nailing a player to a cross. Eventually they would bleed to death. But they can be freed, thus bringing the gameplay full-circle, as a player liberates another. Perhaps alliances are formed. “Who put you there, and why?” A five-minute time-out before death. Enough to take a piss, and reconsider your life choices.

I don’t think we need to avoid certain gameplay features because of the possibility for griefing. Maybe some people haven’t played PvP servers as much as others of us have, but griefing is a fact of life. Players will find ways to grief one another, no matter the mechanic. Building ‘cells’ around a player who falls unconscious out in the open. Spamming global chat or local chat with sexist / racist / downright revolting remarks. Repeatedly killing and raiding players until they quit the server. Being ‘captured’ by another player should be the least of your worries, if you’re scared about being griefed. If a player can and will capture you repeatedly to grief you, they will also resort to other tactics…

No.

The OP is asking Funcom to add a facet to the game that is literally a griefing tool. If Funcom adds it all the relatively decent people will get tired of the abuse and bail while the griefers all fight with each other. It would be suicide for the company because not only would they lose income from potential new players and expansions, the effects of simply adding this feature would bleed over to any new games and they would lose potential customers who know that Funcom may add that same sort of crap into whatever the new game is.

Where is the critical thinking in this world these days? Why do I see so many people asking for things without stopping to think about the possible effects it would have on others? I’m not even asking posters to think about the effects on businesses, a 12-year-old cannot be expected to think about that sort of thing (they can be capable, just not expected) but instead just ask themselves ‘how would I feel if my idea was used against me?’.

This thread makes me ashamed to be human.

Edit: as far as the ‘griefing is just part of PvP, deal with it’ issue… griefing is NOT part of PvP. Players fighting other players is part of PvP. People who go out of their way to make others lives miserable (camping spawnpoints, insults, ‘jailing’ the unconcious, etc) are simply people who need to be banned from any decent server. The fact people think this is acceptable is a perfect example of why private servers with active mods are a good thing. If I got a message on Discord about that sort of activity I’d wake up at 2am just to log in and ban the person doing it.

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Pretty sure the general point of agreement in this thread is that this setting would default to OFF on official servers, just like the ‘loot kept on death’ setting or ‘raid time restriction’. There would be no permanent enslavement, with chances to escape after waking up (from being truncheoned), or an alternate to remove bracelet and suicide out. Logging in to see yourself in a cage or on a cross is no different or worse than being in the starter zone after being raided, where you start off on a cross…

‘Player Enslavement’ settings would strictly be a private server setting and a very strong RP tool. I play on private servers for that precise reason of being able to have griefers banned, to regulate the kind of people allowed to stay around, and the ability to add mods. If you are ashamed of people because of the ‘enslavement’ endorsements, then you clearly haven’t read the books, watched the movies, or taken thralls in the game. This would be a very complicated mod, but I hope someone could pull it off (I sure as hell couldn’t do it)! :sweat_smile:

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I never said griefing is a part of PVP, deal with it. In fact, no one did.

I said that people will grief no matter what, they already do with the pvp mechanics available. Do you ask yourself how people would feel when they get home from a long day of work to find their massive, well crafted, fortress destroyed? That happens now, constantly. Guess how they feel about it? They feel awful… but it’s still in the game.

As I’ve stated before, I am a roleplayer first and foremost. I don’t care for most PVP mechanics, especially when it comes to public servers because 70% of the server population is there to ruin your day. That being said, I don’t think any of the features should be cut or removed, and I don’t think that adding the ability to capture people would make anything worse.

Here is why - just like the rest of the PVP settings, it could be turned off, adjusted, scheduled etc. If you don’t like PVP you can play on PVE servers. If you only like certain pvp features then you can go to one of the official PVP servers that have the settings that suit you, so there would be servers where capturing is not possible. Options are available now, why wouldn’t they be for this? People avoid the things they don’t like already, and could do the same with this.

Just like I said before, and just like many others said before, escape would be possible and very easy. You’d take damage while being dragged, so that person would have to be very careful in regards to getting the unconscious player back to their base safely. This would make them very vulnerable as they traverse and
it gives you a chance to be rescued, it also makes it likely that you’d get away, via death.

Not to mention, if players have to use truncheons to knock someone out, the chances of you winning are pretty damn high. You can always run away, just like in any pvp situation.

Finally, please try and take a step back and read what you’ve wrote. Most everyone in this topic has remained civil, and posted well-thought ideas and possible solutions (you know, critical thinking). You talk about being ashamed to be human because of this, but you’ve pretty much personally attacked everyone in this thread because you don’t agree with them.

What does that say about you?

I’m guessing you don’t even realize how you sound, but you know what, that’s okay. I know you feel strongly about the topic, and you are responding emotionally.

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We do indeed remain civil in the meatworld, as it should be. Truth is this is a very brutal game. It brings out all the best parts of humanity.

I’m going to be blunt. Server life is often about bringing someone or a group of someones to bear. Maybe they foundation spam. Maybe they KOS below the river. Maybe they break whatever ruleset the server has. Usually they’re oblivious and they don’t or won’t care. They have caches of stolens, and no home bases. They get off on ruining the world. I want their heads on pikes and a way to bring them to bear. This seems fun and fair.

It should be understood that our relationship with the Devs is via suggestion box, and this brainstorming is extremely useful not only as discussion matter but as fodder for the modder.

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So, there ya go Bread.

And I know exactly how I sound. Continue asking for it, by all means, but Funcom adding it will cause more problems for them than they will want to deal with. My own personal feelings aside, chew on this: certain groups in the US are attempting to blame violence on video games and not getting very far due to the multiple studies done proving video games have vry little effect on violence IRL. Now ask yourself how those groups may react to a game that not only promotes violence and slavery of NPCs but imprisonment and slavery of player characters?

Do you remember all the noise created by the fact CE has dongs in it when the game first showed itself? Yeah, multiply that and make it bad press (since promoting enslavement of players cannot be spun as a good thing to non-RPers no matter how hard you try). Now go check the server list and estimate how many servers/players are from America.

I understand your concern, but I don’t think it’s needed. ARK is far more public, and mainstream than Conan, and it has the ability to capture people, in fact, it’s far more intense than what any of us are proposing.
Nothing has come of that, and nothing would come of Conan having that feature.

The only news I remember in regards to the dong slider was articles written by people that were amused by it or just kind of rolling their eyes at it. Like I said, I get your concern but I don’t think it’s necessary. If any kind of stink were to be raised in regards to Conan it would have happened already. NPCs or not, thralls are slaves, and if people were going to go after Conan about anything, it would have been about that.

In regards to what @TwinCrows said, I think you’re putting a little bit too much of your own emotions onto it, they’re basically saying the same thing that I did. Griefing will happen no matter what, they’re not saying live with it, or that it’s okay. They’re saying that it exists now, and will always exist. It even exists on PVE servers. People will be jerks no matter how hard you crack down on PVP. You could strip down a game to its rawest form, and people would find a way to ruin your experience. Heck, I’ve been griefed in Animal Crossing: New Leaf!

The fact of the matter is, you just don’t like the idea, and that’s okay. Those that are supporting the idea of capturing players have a lot of good solutions for making it interesting, and the people that oppose the idea have a lot of good examples of why they oppose it.

At the end of the day, added or not, the feature isn’t the end of the world for the game. It’s just an interesting idea that you’re not in favor of.

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I agree… if a stint about Conan having slavery was an issue, then it would have been brought up when the stories were written. They’ve had 80 years to make a fuss (Especially considering it was written only 70ish years after the 13th was ratified). I doubt they’ll make one for another 80 years.

It all still just boils down to if whether or not it’s fun for all involved parties. It’s one thing if people want to get their panties in a twist over the enslavement of npc’s; though that just seems silly to me.

But how do you make it fun for the person that gets captured so that they don’t just completely negate the whole point of making the system in the first place by either killing them self via bracelet removal or (if server settings allow) simply disconnecting? At that point you’re then making people NOT want to play your game.

This is the kind of stuff you need to consider when making something like this.

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Add it as an optional setting for unofficial pvp servers. Do not add it to offical servers cause it will just be used to grief (look at the Ark servers, some players have been chained up for over two years!)

This allows some admins who like the idea to add it. But my guess, there would be more player against it, then for it.

I am ambivalent about this mechanic.
Might be fun for those doing the capturing, but not so much for those being captured.
I can see where both sides are coming from.
If everyone was “stable”, it might be alright.
But, not everyone is “stable” and that can cause problems.

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I have to agree with @Scooper. He is more in the loop than I ever will be and I do not see how this game mechanic adds to the game. As far as I am concerned, it will never happen on any server I run.

Ok sure, I’ll support your idea, as long as you are cool with me keeping your character locked in a box for days on end so you cant play at all.

This topic seems simple. If there’s an “Off button” then who cares, let those who want to paly with the option play. The end.

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You necro’d a 5 month dead topic.

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Oh, I didn’t even notice … Sorry about that Taemien.

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Since this was necro’d anyway, let me answer that. Because I see this mindset (“just make it an option”) a lot around here, and it’s not as problem-free as it seems. People who care could include those who prefer official servers, and won’t have an “off” button, or those who’d rather the limited development resources be spent elsewhere.

I don’t know the answer to this question but “official server” can only be ran with this option set to “on”? They couldn’t have it set to “off”?

As to the “Development Resources” I would agree that this would be low on the list.

But I will say it would be kind of cool to go thought the experience once. It would be fun to try and talk you way out of the cage. I agree with the masses though, it would get old very fast.

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Could have? Technically yes, but practically no. Official servers will always reflect the developers’ vision of the game, and if they develop a feature it’s because they feel it’s part of said vision. So a feature that defaults to “off” will almost certainly never happen.

That’s not the same thing at all. The Admin panel is not a gameplay feature, it’s a “cheat” menu available to singleplayers and server admins.

Gameplay features are things like: The Purge - Thrall Feeding - Pets - Sorcery (if/when it comes). And those will never be turned off on officials.

I suppose you could make a point for “PVP” and “Building Destruction” being gameplay features that are turned off on (some) officials (yes I’m arguing against my own point now).