Big idea: thralls

[ekzarh]

My proposal is - introduce NPCs - trhalls - slave in medieval Scandinavia to do simple tasks. Sort of legit bots.

They may be implemented via barter stand take/give hands to make it easier to implement.

Examples of tasks:
Honey/wax collection
Wool/milk collection
Kiln/smelter reload
egg collection
cheese taking out in time.

Mechanic is - you point a hand on where to take things, and point where to put things. It may be either a single take-put cycle (wax/milk/eggs) or 2-way take=put-take-put (container-ore-smelter - smelter-metal-container)

This is nice but rather risky thing to do so a lot of thought shd be put into it.
Here's my ideas to keep things balanced.
1. Thrall shd be captured. 2kk LP + 100 avg stat) or more character should be caught during raid or alt grown and sacrificed to make that.
2. Thrall shd use subtokens monthly or it dies and needs to be recaptured. Maybe at bigger rate than player (1 subtoken/2 weeks?)
3. Thrall shd consume 20l water and 200-300 FEP equivalent of food daily or it dies and needs to be recaptured. If thrall is doing nothing - maybe less)
4. Thrall shd be less effective than human. Some % of collected goods will be lost due to it is a stupid thrall.

Some ideas on implementation in the easiest way:
1. Build thrall barracks (requires steel for steel bars)
2. Capture a thrall (option on knocked-out character if it fits lp/stat prerequisites). For character owner it is identical to death and leaves murder scents. Shackles item will be received and placed in inventory
3. Put shackles to barracks slot, put subtoken to another slot, put water/food into proper containers.
4. 4 hand items will appear representing consequent take/put actions. Right-click them on existing stockpiles/containers.

Overall, this mechanic has a big space for evolvement - some level/quality/grade system for thralls, more tasks to perform etc. It may also bring additional money (but pay-to-win scenario shd be avoided at all costs) and make botters/legits a bit more equal.

For ethics reasons you can rename "thralls" to "peasants" or "NPCs"

[ekzarh]

Oh, and more.
Character from the same account can use shackles item of his ancestor to regain some part of lost lp/stats. What a big vendetta wars may come out from that

[Asgaroth22]

1. Thrall shd be captured. 2kk LP + 100 avg stat) or more character should be caught during raid or alt grown and sacrificed to make that.
2. Thrall shd use subtokens monthly or it dies and needs to be recaptured. Maybe at bigger rate than player (1 subtoken/2 weeks?)
3. Thrall shd consume 20l water and 200-300 FEP equivalent of food daily or it dies and needs to be recaptured. If thrall is doing nothing - maybe less)
4. Thrall shd be less effective than human. Some % of collected goods will be lost due to it is a stupid thrall.

Lol, these requirements are silly. No one would give a shit to get a thrall. Ever. Maybe just so they could kill him to show how much they care for the system. Sorry if i sound too offensive, but this is bullshit.

[pedorlee]

This idea has some nice things.
In legacy bots became something very popular to avoid some tasks, but there was no ai behind them. They were coded as scheduled tasks using coords and objects around them. Ais are aomething unthinkable here because of the leak of handwork coding and even in that situation and how this game is build it would be very difficult.
Anyway you had, Imo, a cool idea.
If you kill a char, by x or unknown by "fate" requeriments, you could have it trapped in your base as a ransom. That char has no ai and it remains there, in a cage for example, untill someone pays a fee. Once this is done the char can be retrieved by its original owner.
This rocks for a raider and gives the chance for a player to have his char back.

[Granger]

In legacy bots became something very popular to avoid some tasks, but there was no ai behind them.

The game is structured so there is no real need to make them think.

They were coded as scheduled tasks using coords and objects around them.

Only the stupid ones.

Once you have the built a foundation that the bot can explore an area so it'll later find it's way to stuff it has seen, use a generic interface to fetch/store items in containers and teach it how to operate the workstations (which for most is just fetch/store items like with containers, for others you'll have to add fuel/fluid and maybe light it) you're set and what's left is to fill in a list with the crafting recipes (what items to fetch and which action at what workstation to perform) and how much you want to have in stock for each item.

Foreaging is just a question of a good pathfinder with some logic that can cover area effectively without much overlap, only real problem you have is when people start to mess around with the toons you automated.

So is relatively simple (not rocket science, just takes time to get it right) to create a bot that can run each and every job in a village, even running multiple characters in parallel that work together. No hardcoded coordinates or objects needed at all if done right.

[pedorlee]

Nice lesson. Thanks Granger.

[ekzarh]

1. Thrall shd be captured. 2kk LP + 100 avg stat) or more character should be caught during raid or alt grown and sacrificed to make that.
2. Thrall shd use subtokens monthly or it dies and needs to be recaptured. Maybe at bigger rate than player (1 subtoken/2 weeks?)
3. Thrall shd consume 20l water and 200-300 FEP equivalent of food daily or it dies and needs to be recaptured. If thrall is doing nothing - maybe less)
4. Thrall shd be less effective than human. Some % of collected goods will be lost due to it is a stupid thrall.

Lol, these requirements are silly. No one would give a shit to get a thrall. Ever. Maybe just so they could kill him to show how much they care for the system. Sorry if i sound too offensive, but this is bullshit.

Any requirement can be balanced out to make it not too easy not too hard.
I've taken a daily consume of an average alt in an average village.
15$ is nothing. If it's not your case, go get a decent job. No offence
And if you are raiding something better than a hermit palisade settlement - such stats are common. Anyway people do raids for loot or for fun, one more reason to raid is just better

[ekzarh]

[quote="Granger"][/quote]
Bots are kinda bad thing. From many perspectives incl bot user's pleasure from game. Hardly avoidable though. No time to repond in detail rignt now, maybe later.

[Asgaroth22]

Any requirement can be balanced out to make it not too easy not too hard.

How many alts and how many villages exactly have you taken into account to make these calculations?

I've taken a daily consume of an average alt in an average village.

A daily consume of an average alt in an average village is 0 food. Yous starve the alt to death and make a new one. That's how it works right now.

15$ is nothing. If it's not your case, go get a decent job. No offence

None taken. But look at how many people have left this game just because they had to pay 10$ to even play it. Those who stayed are already paying at least 10$ a month if they want to compete with others. Paying another 30$ a month for a thrall? No thanks. Even if someone talks their villagers into contributing to this, they're going to be in minority. Not a thing that would need implemented anytime soon if ever.

And if you are raiding something better than a hermit palisade settlement - such stats are common. Anyway people do raids for loot or for fun, one more reason to raid is just better

Raiding and capturing your foes to make them work/ransom them is an idea I approve of. However, not in the way you propose it. I mean, who would give a shit? There are people in the game that would gladly do any of these chores you mentioned for 2 sutokens a month, hell, even I might do it. It's a few minutes and i'm keeping 30$ in my pocket.

[LadyV]

What happened to the days when people wanted to play their own games? No thank you I do not wish to have slaves or bots to play my game for me.