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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Should you be able to hire guards on your freehold?
ArchivedUser
Guest
Heyo,
In the last stream, the question was asked, "Can you hire guards for your freehold?" To paraphrase the answer, "No, you can't hire guards for your freehold. When you're inside your buildings, you are not flagged for PvP. You can be attacked on your freehold while outside of your buildings. The [felt like very made up on the spot] reason for that is because we want to rely on player agency for things like protection."
The 2 times I can think of when guards would matter:
- Coming to your aid if you (or your friends/guildmates/etc) get attacked on your freehold, and
- After a successful siege, your freehold is destroyable for a period of time. The guards would presumably help defend.
If freeholds are meant to be a place of crafting, taverns, and reprieves, it seems like it's against the nature of the game to not be able to hire guards. What are your thoughts on this?
As a related but different thought... it'd be nice if you could attack people on your own freehold without corruption penalty. This would give you the ability to have "bouncers" or to enforce "no trespassing."
tug
In the last stream, the question was asked, "Can you hire guards for your freehold?" To paraphrase the answer, "No, you can't hire guards for your freehold. When you're inside your buildings, you are not flagged for PvP. You can be attacked on your freehold while outside of your buildings. The [felt like very made up on the spot] reason for that is because we want to rely on player agency for things like protection."
The 2 times I can think of when guards would matter:
- Coming to your aid if you (or your friends/guildmates/etc) get attacked on your freehold, and
- After a successful siege, your freehold is destroyable for a period of time. The guards would presumably help defend.
If freeholds are meant to be a place of crafting, taverns, and reprieves, it seems like it's against the nature of the game to not be able to hire guards. What are your thoughts on this?
As a related but different thought... it'd be nice if you could attack people on your own freehold without corruption penalty. This would give you the ability to have "bouncers" or to enforce "no trespassing."
tug
0
Comments
Also, one thing to remember guys is that although we like to imagine these scenarios where we'll seclude our home away from players and repel them by having protection surrounding it; the game we are playing is NOT a survival game.
Largely, it will consist of us interacting with other players. If the only thing you can think about is how you can't wait to "defend" your home, then.... you're kind of stretching the genre you're playing in. If we can't protect our homes, it makes sense... there's no real need to other than to roleplay. If they decide we can, then all right!
I would prefer variety, and maybe because of the city guards in WoW, hiring NPCs feels blazé even with different cosmetics
Even if they were "bouncers", that only came running after combat started - the damage is probably already done at that point. And since there's no pick-pocketing or theft that we know of, then what is there to protect? You still own the place even if they do manage to kill you.
If they do manage to sit there and grief you (i.e. killing you over and over again just for the fun of it), their corruption score and penalties would go way up, probably attracting bounty-hunters to you anyway.
Besides, if there really was a siege, all guards would be recalled to protect the walls and the inner city. And it makes sense to hire them for caravans - that's essentially the city protecting its commerce and livelihood (aka, part of how they make money.)
Although, if you did a lot of production or provided a lot of trade and taxes to the city from your freehold, I would totally be on board to have the city council vote to give you extra provisions or protection - voting to send you guards to protect you and your customers from any "annoyances" that might scare them away.
To my knowledge, this is all that has been confirmed. Currently you can't hire guards but if you build freehold close to where guards patrol then they might come help if they see conflict.
I share their view on this atm. I think you should use friends for guards if you are online. If your freehold could be attacked while offline then npc guards would make sense to me but the only thing is vulnerable is you, the player, while you are online so i think you should ask other players to come help you if you need protection.
The only time your freehold is vulnerable to attack is after a successful siege which you will know about days in advance. Get your guild together, call some friends... Pay me and my guild.
The problem with recent MMOs is they have become too solo-friendly. MMOs were born from the idea that the lone wolf player is somewhat helpless compared to cooperating with other players, and the design philosophy we have been seeing is aiming to promote that interdependence.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a good example of having a player-owned NPC companion which is so useful and powerful, that there is no point to partying up to quest with or craft items. They could even replace players in dungeons (with little difference in power level) and made them a near-mindless affair.
I can understand why there is no intention to allow for NPC guards in freeholds: it's to promote player interdependence, and it's possible to get organized to respond to attacks on properties belonging to your nodemates (yeah, I just made that up). To borrow from existing methods of player organization in EVE, guilds and alliances of the same node can start their own intel chat channel to report comings and goings of known enemies or neutral parties. If an enemy warband is sighted and needs to be responded to, a PVP leader can call for a posse to gather at the node capital before heading out to repel invaders.
Players can also set up checkpoints at node entry/exit points to camp for the typical clueless hostile who wandered into the wrong neighborhood, serve as the first line of defense and also serve as intelligence gathering observation posts.
Instead of asking for an easy way out, get organized.