suggestion Settlement outposts

[Adambean 43]

On top of my ever growing wish list I'd like to suggest an expansion to settlements whereby extra land can be claimed away from an existing settlement's land as outpost territory. Example scenarios include claiming a safe camp past difficult terrain, a trade floor closer to a main highway, or a dock at a waterfront away from the town slightly inland.

 

• This outpost land would behave exactly as if it were part of the settlement. (Size, border, permissions, etc.)
• Players would not join the outposts directly. They would not need to have their own mayor or officers. (Unless the settlement became massive!)
• The settlement token should have a name "outpost token".
• The settlement token could still be used in many ways the same as the primary settlement token, e.g. banking.
• Optionally be independently navigatable with highway waystones.

 

Of course such land should not be cheap. It would need various conditions to prevent excess misuse:

 

• Cannot be created in enemy kingdom territory and/or maximum distance restriction from the primary settlement. (No founding them right outside an enemy kingdom town!)
• Outpost territory should cost a minimum of 50% more upkeep per tile than a standard settlement tile.
• It should also have a reduction (50%?) in its size allowance per citizen.
• Outposts should have their own deed guards separate from the parent settlement and other outposts, though they should be able to be reallocated. Outpost deed guards should either cost more upkeep or have a transfer fee.

 

I am in two minds as to whether outposts should have their own balance/upkeep though.  On one hand upkeep should be managed centrally by the parent settlement, but enemies need to be able to conquer an outpost.

 

On a technical level each village entity would require a "parent ID" field to reference the village ID of which it belongs to. (NULL parent ID would denote the primary settlement territory.) Many properties of the village would of course need to be inherited from the parent settlement.

 

Looks like the Deed Maker mod by Cuddles could serve as a potential stop-gap for this, but that's only available to level 5 GMs, and each additional settlement you make is fully independent. (Not really outposts.)

 

This idea comes from the Towny mod for Minecraft.

[Wargasm 1,927]

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Edited June 17, 2019 by Wargasm

[Adambean 43]

36 minutes ago, Wargasm said:

-1

 

If you want it, deed it.

 

That's misunderstanding the point entirely. If you deed elsewhere you lose your existing land.

 

Outposts are not for replacing your existing primary land, which is why outpost land would have to be more expensive to claim and hold.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Adambean

[Batta 441]

I've been on so many servers where players built 1x1 shacks all over the place, just to effectively claim more land than they had deeded.  Since nobody else can deed over the shacks, it is a way to beat the system (on servers that allow it) and basically claim extremely vast areas. Your outposts would do the same, wouldn't they?  Basically tie up large areas where nobody would be able to deed.  If an outpost was placed strategically enough, it could make it difficult for newer players to ever find a big enough area for a decent deed.  Or are you thinking that others would be able to deed right over your outpost?

[Adambean 43]

Outposts could help you greatly with that.

 

By having outpost tiles cost more than primary ones they would decentivise building 1x1 shacks all over, providing you barred building houses off deeds. -- The extra upkeep cost wouldn't be worth it. 

[OneShotPaddy 1]

I understand what you're saying. And if you're seeking opinions, I'm going to respectfully and humbly offer mine here:

As someone who is trying to start an economic server, I feel it defeats the purpose. If one player can claim multiple areas (on some servers there is no deed upkeep) then they can effectively lock down a lot of natural resources (tar, ore, trees, animals, etc.) which are needed to stimulate economic growth.

Even if we don't consider that, if the rent is going to be high (such as on my server), it really just gives players more rope with which to hang themselves. When they suddenly realize they can't keep up with the costs (even on an average rent server) and they lose all their land, they are going to be discouraged. 

And finally. What is the point if I can own a dock, a mine inland, a farm, a tar pit and a clay pit, in interacting with other players? When will I ever trade? What would I trade for?


Respectfully, I feel that this is something that would only increase the existing problems of players huddling-up by themselves and there being ultimately no real economics until higher levels on most servers.