Patron myths busted
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Good myth busting video 
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Nice video. Funcom could have made the way the tavern works clearer by themselves, though.
Maximum or no maximum?
So… a maximum of three guests is supposed to be recruitable .
If all guests had a chance to be recruitable , that would give an incentive to build huge or multiple taverns with lots of seats, which is probably bad for public servers.
Limiting the number of recruitable NPCs solves that problem, and it even gives an incentive to build small - there more guests, the more effort is required to find the recruitable ones.
Building huge or multiple taverns is fun, though. And at least in single player, the game can support quite a huge number of guests without suffering any performance problems.
Crafters and fighters
Also, I’m confused what the new purge as well as the tavern only seem to give fighters, archers and dancer NPCs, but no crafters. Would have been nice to have these system complement each other, e. g. crafters at the purge, fighters at the tavern.
Maybe, that’s because they want to implement walking crafters later. But from the current state of affairs, this is weird.
Rare NPCs
It’s understandable that the chance for T4 thralls is low. However, it is very, very low, and I doubt that this is balanced. Once could build a tavern at level 20 or so, and with luck, a Dalinsia Snowhunter might appear, which would be a bit broken at that level in my opinion.
On the other hand, at higher levels, the tavern recruiting system is pretty much useless. Over a sane period of play time, one might recruit maybe 1 to 3 T4 thralls from the tavern. That requires building a tavern and checking it regularly for thralls, also a bit of luck.
It would be less of a hassle to knock out Cimmerian Berserkers the conventional way instead.
So, this needs some sort of balancing.
Taverns could be given tiers, or they could recruit higher tier guests if build on higher tier building materials. Build with T1 sandstone, get cannibals or low level thralls. Build with T3 materials, and higher level factions and higher tier recruits show up.
I think it would be nice to have something to enhance the chance of higher-level thralls to appear.
For example, higher level food and drink could increase NPC turnover or levels: Throw a lavish party, get more or better guests. That would introduce another gameplay cycle: hunt, cook, party, recruit.
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Im currently testing it actually and hiring thralls as soon as they appear to free up up sockets aka seat for the three per clan. Already 2 named not hirable have appeared. Obviously im not sitting there watching the grass grow - i go do what i normally do.
It makes sense from a purely mechanical point of view - crafting thralls aren’t npcs in the same way that fighters are. The crafter npc you knock out and the one you pull off the wheel aren’t the same entity. Crafter thralls are just an icon for the bench with an attached art asset.
Hopefully this will change once they do actually make the crafters use the ghost placement system for all the workbenches since you’ll be placing them in the world as proper entities like fighters are now.
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Yeah, it’s probably got mechanical reasons. But it would have been possible to put crafters in the purge, e. g. put them in boxes that need a key, or make the NPC in the cage despawn if you open it and put a tamed crafter NPC in your inventory.
I’d understand if they shunned the effort to do that, only to revert it later when they implement walking crafters. But as that may be a year or so away, or never even come at all - see the corrupted agility attribute -, a “temporary” measure would have been nice.
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Speaking of which - still waiting over a decade for that crafting system overhaul in Age of Conan, Funcom…
So far since the update i had…
Imiu of Derketo, Lisa longbow, Amurath swift, Prowler and another i cannot remember.
All these named are nothing special to hire, but i did.
Imagine that if i see them on their camps i will definitely kill them.
Npcs named that i couldn’t hire were plenty, Spinas, Daicas, Lianele, etc…
So i feel a bit trolled when all the “omg” npcs are non able to be hired and the “who cares” are available!
So be it, i enjoy the mechanic nonetheless, i don’t really care that it is the way it is on hiring, i love to see friendly npcs visiting my home (for my free booze of course lol), it’s something i was hoping to have since day one i started this game. If i had this mechanism from the beginning, probably i would never go online.
Thanks @Pixelcave for another beautiful video and @Akomo for bringing it up 
.
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That is the sad part, isn’t it?
Not all named tier 4s are equal.
If if one is lucky and gets a tier 4, what are the chances that they are one of the tiny number of useful employees?
Le Sigh, build a casino where we can hourly check on RNGesus once more.
But there is potential.
Dirty rumour is future updates will make crafter thralls like the barkeep, in that they can follow and be clothed. At that point, we may see them in cages and at the bar.
Doesn’t help the RNGesus issue tho.
At some interval, it would be nice if certain nameless tier 4s could be called to the bar as patrons like Iskar. Berzerkers and Treasure Seekers. Or anyone sprung out of a cage for later recruitment.
But that’s purely fanciful thinking for the future.
Altho, if they add other patrons like Iskar, perhaps those patrons could bring special names followers for sale? For example, a Nordheimer chief or Cult Leader of Skelos who could then be the purchase point for their faction of followers?
Again, just the future.
As always, gratitude to @Pixelcave for the deep dive.
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Just a follow-up as promised, showcasing all recruitable Named T4 Patrons which currently have a chance of showing up in your Tavern.
Brew your best brew and serve the tastiest drinks - good luck with your Patron hunt!
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I had a hireable Cimmerian Berserker show up in my tavern right after it opened but I didn’t have enough gold yet. I’ll probably never see him again.
Oh no, I can only imagine the feeling! I’m sure your coffers are filled now, just in case! Best of luck!
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You would spend gold on a thrall you can easily get for free, @Birder ?
Fact is … Funcom needs to drastically improve the pool of potential hirelings. It’s pretty much useless at this point…
Actually, yes. Once you branch out from Noob River you get so much gold what else are you going to do with it?
I now have 2 CB that I got the old fashioned way. In the future will we still be able to knock them out? It sounds like maybe not.
It’s a hell of a good point. You got me there… 
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Went to a random tavern on Isle of Siptah server -Black Hand Captain available.
And i didnt have 500 gold on me…there’s a lesson here!
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Yes. Give us the ability to carry with us a pouch that’s “lightening” 1000 coins.
Playing survival games i carry a lot with me, having a special bag that’s lightening these items is nice.
Then again now we have Camels!
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Good to know! Looks like the best option is finding good thralls on the map. So right now my biggest complaint would be how many good spawn-points are occupied by useless sorcerers 
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That’s what the bearers are fo-
Wait, no, then you already have a follower with all your money.
Yes, the camel pack animal!
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I am strictly a Siptah player. I only play on Official Siptah #6436 PvE.
I am loving the new purge and the new tavern system, because it gives me access to ALL the placeable thralls in the game.
Prior to both new systems, the only time I had access to EL specific thralls was the headhunter camps.
Now I have access to EL Bearers that have way more HP than the Siptah Bearers, EL Archers that start out with 30 Agility, Cimmerian Berserkers, Dalinsia Snowhunters and Cannibal Brutes.
All while having access to the BIC the game has to offer.
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