Hello. I would like to suggest that wall torches and light sources for houses/bases require fuel. Once this is implemented then a player will know if the base is active or not.
What do you mean by active? Whether anyone is at home to keep the lights on?
Not sure if they could do it, but it feels like an irritant having to get fuel to keep them lit. It’s more you have to micromanage, especially if you play solo or have a large base.
I don’t think many would be happy having to spend an hour getting stacks and stacks of Dry Wood, then run around another 10 minutes or more dropping them into a light source inventory.
And unless they had a one-slot inventory, there’d be nothing stopping someone from just dumping stacks and stacks of wood to burn for quite a long time.
On the roleplay side of things, I would assume the RP would treat the torches as being one-off items that are being replaced by thralls of the base. While sconces or braziers would be tended by a thrall for that purpose.
It’d be something of a metagame issue if you were RPing and treating these items as ever-burning.
Ark has the same feature except what they did to balance the annoyance is the fuel source on light sources would last longer then other things that required fuel. So all you have to do when your home is turn lights on or if you are a big guild with lots of lights you would need to stock your light source say once a week… It just makes more sense and then any base that is inactive wont have any lights and it will be known.
No its just a feature that completly makes sense. Its a survival game and they make things realistic like eating and drinking… Night and day cycle… Fuel sources for fire and somthing simple like this simply makes sense. Not to mention the torches cause lag but anyway i always find empty abandoned bases with torches blazing away when they should be extinguished if the base is no longer occupied… They never noticable decay for me at all…You will see a big difference at nightime when you go running around looking to raid bases or active bases… The lights will be on. But my guess is anyone who goes against this thread plays the game with day cycle only… And like i said to remove your weird micromanagement idea/problem whatever that even is… Just like ark all they need to do is make fuel sources last longer on light sources… Then there is also the argument on whats the point of climbing a huge cliff because you see torches to find out its already abandoned and raided?..
Alot of things outweigh the unreasonable feature of light sources not requiring fuel.
It seems more a thing for PVP people to be able to tell when a player isn’t around, to raid on them. I don’t know all the mechanics of that side of the game, so not sure.
But as said, this is really just a micromanagement annoyance. There is no real practical purpose for it.
No matter how long fuel lasts on a light source, you are eventually going to have to take time to gather fuel for them, on a semi-regular basis.
This is something that takes gameplay from being fun, to being a chore. And that is a bad idea for video games.
I play day and night, btw.
It all seems perfect to me… Forget your micro management bullcrap players have tons of fuel in their house anyways and already are tasked with chores.
And eventually to solves your problem it would in fact be a good idea to have a thrall automatically walk around and light your torches or somthing simular when you are in the presence of the home or once they are commanded to do so.
I think every other open world mmorpg survival game requires fuel for light sources so there is a big question mark in my head.
Having fuel as a requirement may make logical real world sense.
That doesn’t make it enjoyable to have to deal with in the game.
I’d rather see my fuel going to something worthwhile. Like my campfire or forges.
Not wasted just to make people feel more roleplay immersion, when that can easily be achieved with their imagination.
@zerog has it right.
If you want the RP side of things, thralls are constantly doing “background” work.
Cleaning sand out, since the buildings have gaps in them and let sand in down south. Cleaning up mud and the like in the north where it’s wet and rainy. Preparing food, tending their stations, patrolling the bounds of your property, etc.
That’s all from an RP standpoint, and not something that actually has to be “seen” in the game. I’ve been RPing for the better part of 15 years. Sometimes you learn to ignore engine limitations and work with what you have.
Oh heeellll no!
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No need for this if buildings with lights are abandoned the will be gone in 8 days that’s why we have the decay system just like feeding thralls or pets I hated this I became a slave to my slaves I would have to spending a little over an hour to get food and cook it then put them in thrall pots in my main then my outposts this was not fun I’m a solo player played since EA and this almost got me to quit the game I already have to grind to upgrade my buildings and other resources it was burning me out grinding to keep lights on will be an annoyance … No
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I truely hope this wil never happen I play solo in official pvp I already got my hands full with way to many chores.
I think if this will be needit in the future I will just have a very dark base and everyone can think I don’t live there anymore
I have thralls. Are you trying to tell me that I can force them to smelt iron for weeks on end without rest or pay, but I can’t get anyone to go do the Conan version of changing a light bulb?
I already have to do the job of collecting rocks myself, so why would I want to add running around keeping all the lights on?
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#1 you shouldnt offer a suggestion and then respond with hostilities when the suggestion is countered with constructive criticism.
#2 We already have a way to tell if someone is home or not. We have 2 primary methods; 1) Press esc and check the player list. 2) Cooking stations and furnaces produce light when activated.
#3 I played ARK for forever before coming here. NO ONE has ever said “gdam I just love filling these torches with wood everyday”. Structures + gave us torches that didnt need fuel for that reason on ARK.
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bad bad idea i would keep the game on eternal daytime if you had to fill torches up man id rither see that wood go to insulated wood and handles and dry wood than burn it away in torches same with the coal the coal powers my furnaces why would I qaste valuble ress on torches??? please give me one legitimate reason aside from “RP” to do this? you can still rp the torches needing as u can turn them on and off but i would bet my conan game that 90% of people agree with me the task of having to fill them with fuel alone is enough to make my skin crawl…
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@Lecta survive. build. dominate.
Your idea is good in the “survive” early game.
After months, even if you play this game as a rolegame, you’ll be able to dominate not just a home with few slaves, but really cities.
This game offers you mechanics to make thralls do their work ? No.
You have to take the fishes from your fishtraps even if you dominate half of the map.
You have to personally cook food for your thralls.
You have to mine stones to continuing expand your fortress.
You have to take care of all things in first person.
This will be only another thing to take care.
It will be more immersive ? No, because if this situation (dominance of a fortress) happens in real life or playing Dungeons And Dragons (I’m DM since 2004) you do not have to do all things because your thralls do it for you.
Here they not.
So no, it’s a good idea just for first few levels, in one week or less of play you’ll be too powerful to be the one who have to take care of this but the game don’t allow you planning fortress maintenance using your thralls !
It will be a good idea… in another game with a manager system at high level to manage this kind of things.
Do you ever seen the warlord of an entire city doing the tour of each light just to refuel them ? I doubt it 
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It used to be like that in the early game. It was hell to maintain. So I doubt they will put it back.
I understand the nay and yea. I agree with parts of both, but will still vote Nay…
Now a check box for an Admin, that would be cool.
Probably could make use of them barrels we can make and fill those, and those feed lights withing a specified radius. reduces the micromanagment of what you propose but achieves a similar effect
As the game does not have a mechanism to link light sources to an on/off switch for areas or a “fuel refilling” type station I would not like to have to refill my light sources to keep them turned on as it is difficult to get to lights that are placed above the character height. for example: wall torches placed on walls 3 high from the ground.
As for telling if the players who won the base are active or not - the time left on the decay timer will tell you that to some extent. If it counts down to nearly expired every week and then gets refreshed once a week indicates the players are less active. If you see the players online frequently and the base you are interested in has the decay timer at maximum whenever you look at it with a repair hammer that indicates the base is frequently used by the owners.
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