How about rather than buildings decaying, they just become abandoned. Then someone can run up and claim it. It should work the same way buildings convert with joining clans, and can function the same way you can dismantle a decayed building.
It would add diversity to servers, create dungeons since the thralls would still be hostile, add new opportunities for newbies to survive.
It’s definitely worth a try. It would bring me back to playing the game for sure.
i’d support this as it would mean that if your base decayed and someone claimed it it would still exist giving you the chance to reclaim it eventully!
I could imagine some problems with this system. I don’t know about the server you play on but the one I am on would have little to no free space to build.
The decay system is in place to clear the server of abandoned buildings so that others can build where inactive players were. It also reduces the amount of information the server is processing so you get a better gameplay experience.
If buildings were claimable it would become the decision of the new owner to keep or tear it down. I think people would probably be split on the decision.
In addition what happens when the original owner logs back in after the building is claimed by someone else. Stuck inside a building they built and no longer own.
It’s an interesting concept for sure and I think there is room for improvement on the current system. But I prefer The decay system over a claiming system. I wouldn’t mind being able to recover resources and gear in PVE when destroying a decayed building.
Just my 2 cents.
The decay system could still be in place. It could decay to the point of losing its owner, then it could start to decay to nothing. Between the point where it loses its owner and disappears completely (maybe all the doors and beds would disappear first) is when it could be claimable. If you didn’t want to claim it or wait, you could just dismantle it immediately after it lost its owner.
They could deal with the second point you brought up by just having anyone that hasn’t logged in for more than 2 weeks (the time required for structures to become claimable), forcibly spawned in the desert.
Well odds are the new owner would have looted them by then so they really wouldn’t loose anything… (If they still do have their stuff I guess they better hope they can get the new owner to let them out.)
Aria-of-sorrow hits the concept perfectly. As it is on the server I used to play on its swamped with buildings that say decayed but arent gone. The drag on the server is still there, the building is still there (mostly), the perfect spots are still taken. It’d be cool to be able to just claim it rather than having to blow it up.
P.s. i thought there was a tear down button for decayed buildings? I’ve used it once, but never saw it again. The bases I’m referring to are so decayed where it should say owner it just says decayed, but theres no destroy button. Thats where id like to see a claim button. And if it isnt claimed, just let it disappear!
The button you are thinking of is Demolish, and its still there, you just might have to log and relog to get it to pop when the decay timer is up.
I would LOVE a claim buttons. Builders like myself would love to repair structures that other builders put some effort into, rather than just blow them up. This would also and a bit of (i cringe even saying this) realism to the game. Sacking and claiming castles instead of just razing them to the ground would be a ver welcome game mechanic (in my humble opinion.) Even beter if you get to take over abandoned thralls / animals.
Sacking and claiming stuff would be ultimate. Im not sure how they could make it work, but raiding and defending would get real!
It should be a little more difficult than changing the owner’s name in the DB, otherwise there’s no reason why it isn’t implemented yet. Or the devs never thought about it…
I’ve came with this idea just after the release in may las year, aside the option to demolish the building, you could craft a flag that would cover X area, so you would have to put it in the center/heart of the building, if the flag doesnt cover it all, you would have to put another one on the missing spot.
The idea of this Claim Flag, is to make conquering a base more fun, and not just a button push as the demolish decayed buildings, so if a player/clan want to claim said building because of how well is built and avoid the farm/build work, they must craft this flag, take it to the heart of the building, and wait for some time before it becomes the new owner.
The claiming time could be some hours, maybe a day depending on the building size, in PvP servers, that would add an interesting spice for competition and conquering bases, as the flag can be destroyed (high hp) with bombs, and others placing the Claim Flag.
It is ironic that the one thing in a raid that cant be looted is the actual base! Or even just the materials of the demolished pieces. Not everyone wants to farm all day to build a base, it would be funner to steal a base or to smash it to bits and take the building materials from the ground.
Can you repeat that again? We can’t actually take the materials from the containers or the debris of the demolished structures with us coz they are too close to a base? What is “a base” we talk about? I thought that a base is the whole creation we build, from top to bottom, side to side. 
In other words a (reverse?) capture the flag feature?
The problem with this idea is you have in mind a home.
But for the game there’s no difference between a home, an entire city, a block around an obelisk etc.
Do you really want to make a block claimable ? I don’t think so.
Me for sure no.
Something like that, more about a conquest point, like in WoW and GW2.
I’m not familiar of such feature. Elaborate?
In those games, as in Battlefield and several other games I believe, there are areas you have to control by standing on it for some time, so other players can come and fight for it aswell. Check it out, WoW Battlegrounds Arathi Basin, GW2 WvW or any Organized PvP match, I know its kinda hard to find a good video free of all those addons polluting the screen, GW2 will be cleaner I think, If you’re a FPS guy, go for Battlefield itself that has its maps 90% conquest mode.
Why not? You could just destroy it and gather the materials. Or ignore it until its gone.
There’s no real downside to the idea. Im sure griefers will still grief, places will go unclaimed, the mechanics will stutter as usual, but the difference would be that you would have the option to take a place ( or just some block) for a short amount of time creating a more static feel to the world. Rather than waiting for the world to rot you would be taking and building onto already created architecture.
Because new trolls with the will to just take control of the server ruining the game to everyone could claim it this way 