I find it a bit strange that I have thralls but I still need to do the S***T work myself ;-). I am talking about mining trees, stones, iron etc.
So think about this. In the real world I’d tell a thrall to go mining while I am offline. In order that he would not run away, I’d chain him to a element like a foundation. The key to the chain is held by me of course. This would make the functionality RP-correct
So how do you do it step by step:
Create a new item for chaining thralls - like a “very long working chain”
Create an item to lock the chain to a foundation - like a “working chain fixation”
This fixation has to be built on top and in the center of a foundation for instance (could be a T3 foundation as sandstone might get loose someday and thrall could run away)
The player creates those items, takes a thrall and runs off to a farming spot with iron e.g.
The player would take any thrall with muscles (T4 or named would farm a bit faster), place a foundation to a spot where he wants to farm something
On top of that foundation he would place the “working chain fixation”, and attach “Very long working chain”
He places the thrall next to that foundation
Chains the thrall to the chain
He gives the thrall a tool respectively to what the player wants to farm (if it is a pick axe the thrall would mine anything which can be farmed by a pick axe)
Thrall starts mining in a specific radius around the foundation - depending on how long the chain is of course - my recommendation ~ radius of 10 foundations ~ diameter of 20 foundations
Thrall farms everything in this radius
If nothing left for mining the thrall waits until the iron or stone or whatever respawns and starts again
Player would take mined stuff from thrall occasionally, if thrall inventory is full - thrall stops of course
To avoid that players or clans are spamming those around the map, a clan could only have a max number of these items above. Let’s say 3 items… So only 3 farming thralls could be around, anywhere on the map
These thralls can be killed and looted on PVP so you’d better look out for your thralls or other players take advantage of your thralls mining stuff.
A bearer or fighter thrall would work to do that, bearer has more inventory slots and most of the time the bearer is not doing anything anyway.
I like the idea of mining Thralls but the idea for chaining to a foundation has 1 fatal flaw: the foundation would stop the mines materials from spawning.
What if miners are lead to a spot to mine and left “scouting” they then mine nearby resources until inventory full or scouting time is up?
The Exiled Lands Thrall Labor Union forbids this. Our thralls are professional fighters or archers, or specialists such as bearers and entertainers, and union regulations prevent them from engaging in work other than that. They already made concessions regarding the use of acceptable quality tools and agree to work using whichever sharp or blunt implements we give them. Regulations for work uniforms have been made similarly flexible. It’s appalling to see how some of our valued professionals need to work without appropriate protective equipment, such as helmets, eye protection, safety gloves, etc.
If you wish to file a complaint, please address it to Thoth-Amon in Stygian Office of Bureaucracy, Khemi department.
…
On a more serious note: This is one of the better suggestions for thrall-operated harvesting, as it has natural limitations to the amount a single thrall can harvest. Restricting this to the simplest materials, such as stone, wood and plant fiber, would reduce the tedious chores a high-level player needs to do for low-level materials (even though it’s really no big deal to go harvest a few thousand wood or stone with a top-tier tool) while not giving free, unlimited access to rarer materials.
One point from a Single-player perspective, though: while a Single Player is offline, the “server” doesn’t run, ergo, the workers don’t work either. This applies to crafting stations such as Carpenter’s benches, Furnaces and Wheels of Pain, too. Furthermore, although these crafting stations have a system to “catch up” on time while the player is online but elsewhere in the game world, the rest of the world freezes and doesn’t progress until the player returns to the area. So in Single Player, resources don’t respawn until the player returns to the area.
You basically want a Moschops from Ark. You wouldn’t need a chain because the thrall’s mind is already broken. If they could resist then they should have a chance to convert all your other thralls against you. They kill you in your sleep and burn your base to the ground. Or you would log in and you would be on a wheel of pain. Pushing it until you eventually filled up a bar. Then that T4 bearer would put you in his head backpack and carry you off to your new station. A foundation with a chain then gives you a pick and this is your new life.
This idea would work with the exception of the human aspect. On PvE I would wall off a prime piece of farming land so that people couldn’t kite stufff onto my workers. I would have the field with some high end thralls to defend my workers (I did this for my Moschops because they literally would wander around and harvest for me). So now I have my base (which is a 50 x Hexagon (needed to be that big because of shrine proximity)) I also have a 100x100 box not near my base cause I don’t want to look at it so probably in the starter zone near an obelisk so my workers can farm for me while I… also farm for me… or sleep. Now My neighbor also see’s this and is like well I need a 110x110 box because he’s gotta out do me. Anyway so the other guy on the server that lives on some island in the swamp also needs to put a massive box up in the starter zone cause it has the basics and low threat potential. Unless they can get brimstone but then the first 1-5 people to put their box up in the brimstone field are going to have their farming bots just lock that down because an actual player sitting there waiting for the staggered respawns would have an awful yield.
I don’t believe adding harvesting thralls would make the game better I think it would do the opposite.
So I’ve given it some thought and a new alternative inspired by Dragons Dogma Pawns is for miners/harvesters who follow the player equipped with either pick, hatchet, pick axe or sickle and automatically harvest nearby resources. They would be programmed to “attack” the resources with the tool and therefore be useless in combat and need to be defended by the player. This method wouldn’t allow them to do all the work automatically but would enable to reduce the players workload, higher tiers would be more efficient and maybe even have higher carry capacity.
I can see that working better than a farming bot which would be the original thing. However I can put my followers on Guard area + aggressive in a walled in area with a thrall put have the worker follow me then go AFK for a little while.
I can see some players trying that but the walls would disrupt material spawn, being AFK would eventually lead to dehydration or starvation and wouldn’t be as productive as working alongside the thrall.
The spawn radius is I think 4ish tiles from the resource. Your perimeter would be a 20x20 box you could watch netflix or work from home in the middle of it while you have 6ish guards and your 1 guy follow you set a time for every 15 minutes so you could eat/drink. It would not be super effective but it would be doable.
It wouldn’t surprise me if that did happen, and perhaps there is no realistic way to have harvester/miner Thralls. I personally wouldn’t see the fun in spending resources to wall off an area so that Thralls can then re-harvest those resources while I don’t play the game, but I’m sure there are people who would love the option.
I am sure there are, as Ark shows Especially single players have a huge workload to get a small base from T1 to T3. The comment above about a thrall following instead of being placed is nice as well - so you could put it on “guad area” or “harvest area” while you and your thrall are harvesting. This would half the amount of time you need to spend mining.
Personally I think the devs are very creative and could also work out a way to prevent brimstone place being packed by walled off thralls. Maybe if they only harvest low tier resources like mentioned above? Could work …
I do like this idea. Some passive amount of materials could be collected per day that doesn’t ‘break the game’. but gives you a reasonable amount of passive gain.|
This mechanic sort of already exists in the form of gold/silver veined rocknoses.
Also works with regular and greater rocknose if you’re looking for a little extra iron or crystal, although you probably get what you need harvesting the stone to feed the critters (I still don’t know how they eat and crap stone, why don’t they eat meat then crap stone?)
So…Have a Harvesting Pen same as the animal pen, place a max of 5 harvesters, fill pen with food, harvesting resources stops when food is gone (higher tiered food produces higher yield of resources).
The harvesters could in theory be trained much like the rocknoses to produce different resources.
(I still don’t know how they eat and crap stone, why don’t they eat meat then crap stone?)