Slavery

[Haba]

Heya!

Since the server is down (again), I decided to take the time to post an idea that I've been formulating.

Currently in the game, all combat ends either the victor murdering the knocked out combatant or simply letting him off with a "...and that'll teach 'ya!". What if there was a third option?

Since H&H is no Habbo Hotel, I think slavery would fit right in. So instead of slaying your foes, you chain them up for display in your village!

To provide incentive for the victor to spare the loser of the fight, the slaves could also be used for various menial tasks. A few examples:
- Slave chained next to a rock and a basket - you tell them to keep the basket full of stone.
- Slave chained next to a tree and a basket - you tell them to keep the basket full of branches/leaves/berries/whatever
- Slave chained next to a river/clay pit and a basket - you tell them to keep the basket full of clay
- Slave chained next to a bed... well, you get reduced travel weariness when you sleep in the bed next time

To spice things up a bit, maybe the slaves could also be rescued or released, returning the control to their rightful owner (aka the player). This would also enable non-violent way to handle criminals.

Thoughts?

[Jeff]

It would be perfectly useless. The slaved person simply wouldn't play anymore.

[kedrigh]

It would be perfectly useless. The slaved person simply wouldn't play anymore.

slaves could simply be numeric resources which can be assigned to various task via interface, with the character being deactivated until the slave is rescued or killed.
no need for a human player to actually play the slave.

[Haba]

Yes, that was my idea. Obviously the player would no longer control the character as long as he/she was enslaved.

For all practical purposes, that char would be dead ('cept ancestry perhaps?). Village claims etc. would be inherited normally and so on.

Now if the slave would be rescued, then that would obviously raise some interesting issues. Do they just teleport back to hearth? Need to be escorted back to village?

And do slaves need to be fed?

[Jeff]

You told it. A deactivated character. If you die, you can at least reincarnate. Deactivating that char mean you lose everything (until you get freed, if someone will ever free you). Why someone should make another character, then? If he want to free the other char, he need to be strong enough. And then the slaver can simply threaten him to kill his other char, and if he does so, the ex-slave should do another char to reincarnate.

[PhaedrothSP]

I don't even know where to start shooting this down.

[Raephire]

Confinement should only last a few real life hours in game before you break out naturally.

[Haba]

You told it. A deactivated character. If you die, you can at least reincarnate. Deactivating that char mean you lose everything (until you get freed, if someone will ever free you). Why someone should make another character, then? If he want to free the other char, he need to be strong enough. And then the slaver can simply threaten him to kill his other char, and if he does so, the ex-slave should do another char to reincarnate.

I see two options:

a) Allow the player to take their own life during slavery
b) For practical purposes, have the new char act as a reincarnation of the old one

This naturally might open up potential abuse (players getting two high level characters) but it is hardly impossible to work around. Just a few ways from the top of my mind;
- remove the 'buff' from the reincarnation if the old char is saved
- give significant enough penalty for the old char if he gets rescued
- just have rescued chars retire once saved from imprisonment. Reincarnation could get a portion of the lost stats/points as a reward for saving his ancestor.

I don't even know where to start shooting this down.

#1 rule for creating an innovative environment for creating fresh ideas - shoot ideas down early, as unconstructively you can. Good job mate!

[PhaedrothSP]

Mostly I just don't like the idea of slavery.

If a character is enslaved, most likely the character wont be used again, and just takes up space in Slaver's camp/village/whatever. Since the slave won't be doing any work, the slaver would probably just kill it off to make room for something else. So unless the slaves are just going to be bots/npcs that are assigned those menial tasks that anyone can do, I don't see much of a use for it.

Edit: Oh, and the would be slaver could just not enslave the character and murder it, so the next incarnation doesn't get the bonus from rescuing the old character.

[Potjeh]

That was exactly the suggestion. Still, I don't like it. What's to stop me from enslaving a bunch of my own alts to boost my productivity?