Warning beacons of Buyan.

[Gauteamus]

Eilenach.jpg

Yes, I guess the beacons of Gondor were sort of mocked in Discworld with the clacks(along with the internet),
but didn't those paragraphs give you goosebumps when you read them first?
The films did a decent job with the goosebump scenes, but are ofc. incommensurable with the books.

Anyway.

I was thinking loosely of suggesting a sort of beacon warning system. I am not at all sure how this would work, and two issues we have to face are: how sensitive are we to possible NPCs running around doing jobs like lighting beacons versus the fact that players are not online 24/7, whereas the villagers we are supposed to represent* would be much more isochronously alert.
The other issue is that metagame warning beacons already exist (HH forum, private faction forums etc.). Any beacon chain mechainc we can thinkof will just be an ingame down featured version of something that already exist outside the game.

A beacon system is already possible under the current rules, but are sort of limited by the short visible range of Campfires, and their limited burning duration (how long do they burn anyway)? Another problem is that a villager at each campfire in the line must come online to light it, or the chain will be broken, but that is actually a quite cool mechanic.

Alternatively, the beacons could be setup to work automatically, but this NPC dependency is kinda not fitting the game.

One possible set of beacon mechanics:
They work much like milestones (meaning long lists of linked elements, no branching options).
If beacon(n-1) is lit, a small graphical change is done to beacon(n) telling the villagers it should be lit.
Graphically and object wise, it would probably be good if beacons and campfires are merged under the same rules, but beacons could also be another object altogether.
The meaning of a lit beacon must be decided by the villagers beforehand, probably the meaning is: check private forum or means of communication ASAP on login.

A better mechanic than the "linked list" would be to alert all beacons within Line of Sight** that a beacon is lit, and change the graphics/villager clue accordingly.

*I forgot what insightful stuff I meant to put in this footnote when I first asterisked it.
** Yet another reason an underlying heightmap as basis for the 2D map would be awesome!
EDIT: I do not really mean Line of Sight here, more a sort of radius of sight, possibly with the radius modified by the terrain on which the beacon is built:
Mountain > Mudflat > Grassland > Moor > Forest or smthng

[OvShit]

At one hand, we already have PMs system. At other - that`s an interesting mechanic.
So, +1

[Wolfang]

Beacons should have a visible effect on peoples screens withing a large radius so they know something's up.

[Avu]

If it's not automated it's useless and even if it's automated I'd rather have a village bell that rings automatically when someone leaves an assault or vandalism scent.

[Repercussionist]

It sounds like a lot of complexity for, as you said, something that already exists. While it's a cool idea, I just can't see them being very effective.

[niltrias]

It would be cool if this were implemented with the "Horizon" system that the devs mentioned in passing long ago.