This post is about the Thrall Population Limit system instituted in 2021 and still active today.
The Thrall Population Limit system was implemented in 2021 to reduce the number of thralls on servers. The basic settings are that each clan gets a base of 50 thralls with an additional 15 slots awarded for each clan member. A solo player/single member clan will have 65 thrall slots.
This is your softcap limit for thralls. You will be able to place 65 thralls in the world. If you add another person to your clan, your softcap is 80 thralls.
If, subsequently, this person leaves the clan, the soft cap will return to 65.
While the softcap prevents you from placing additional thralls, the hardcap is the number, above which, resulting in automated deletion of thralls. The hardcap is, currently, the softcap+10.
On official servers, this automation process is set for every 60 minutes. Every 60 minutes, the server will determine if your placed thralls exceed the hard cap and, if they do, it will calculate the weakest thrall you own and delete it.
This is all from 2021, so why bring it up now?
With the impending Crafters AI implementation crafters will now count against your thrall population limit. This is manageable as long as you keep under your thrall softcap.
If, however, folks leave your clan, players may find themselves over the hardcap and the weakest thralls will be deleted. Since we are not aware of how crafters are calculated for the power formula, this is a concern. After all, for me, a T3 Blacksmith/Alchemist, is worth more than a Cim Berserker because of the recipes they unlock
Additionally, should the stress testing mentioned in the livestream result in a reduction of the number of thralls per clan and/or additional thralls per player, players may exceed the hardcap without any action.
I speculate that, if the thrall population parameters are reduced, the hardcap add number will be increased, temporarily. After all, in 2021 the hardcap was the softcap+100.
Great, wonderful information. What’s my point?
Point:
- The Dev team does not play the game on regular settings
- The Dev team is, frequently, unaware of how their changes will affect actual players
- Players have been adversely affected many, many, many times when the Dev team implements new systems
We are scheduled to find out more on Thursday. i have already setup my beta server to test if there is any modification of the thrall limits.