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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.
Family Size, Artisan Profession Specialization, and Self-Sustaining Families
Gizerd
Member, Alpha Two
First, this is my first post after binge-reading and watching videos posted in News and I just want to say I'm so very excited about Ashes of Creation!! These are just some thoughts and please pardon any ignorance of game mechanics as I'm still learning.
After thinking about who I might create a family with and what we might do together, some things occurred to me.
**To help the discussion, I've made some assumptions.
Right now, with the published Artisan classes, assuming the ability to master up to 3 Professions, a single family could cover every Profession with just 7 people: 2 Gatherers, 1 Processor, 4 Crafters. Well under the maximum 8(9) family member cap.
This creates what I'll call a "Self-Sustaining" Family: a family that can rely solely on itself for every type of end game crafting need. This family could hypothetically never visit the market for raw materials, processed materials, or end-game crafted items. (This does not mean that all blueprints and high-end materials can be acquired without raids and groups, simply that they could process and craft it as a small family).
If we assume that there are quite a few Professions missing, we might be able to create a list that looks something like this:
In this hypothetical list, the "known" professions are in blue and I've included hypothetical professions that match every Gathering profession. Remember that this is just a hypothesis, not necessarily a suggestion.
In this scenario, a single family would need 10 people to be "Self-Sustaining", which is impossible. Therefore every family would need to venture into the market for materials or items to be purchased at some point.
There are pros and cons to each scenario.
Self-Sustaining is nice on a small community scale. You have a group of very close friends and you are all able to share a small family bank, live near each other perhaps, and use each other's freeholds. It's almost like having a small village within the larger civilizations. Families missing some members could even search the world for people to join them. This community feel would be great. Overflow and final products would still make it to the market, but the family would not necessarily need other Artisans in order to produce and progress.
On the contrary, not being Self-Sustaining would require even a close-knit family to venture to the marketplace together for materials or items. Not that there aren't a lot of other reasons to go to the cities (quests, group queues, etc.) but if we consider just the crafting aspect of the game this makes families rely in small part on the larger community. They would need to sell some of their materials as they go in order to afford other Artisans. They may make more contact with other Families.
As Developers start to add to the Artisan list (if they are intending to add to it) weighing these two scenarios might be a consideration.
In my opinion, I think being able to create a Self-Sustaining Family would be great. Since not everyone will want to do this or be able to do this, I believe it will create a wider range of community types that may not have been considered. You have your soloists, 3-4 people families, 3-4 people groups, 8-person dungeon or regular groups, Self-Sustaining families, PvE Raid groups, and PvP Siege groups as a spectrum of community types. I think overflow items will still make it to market and end-game items will be a great way for the entire family to reap the benefit of their hard work. A Self-Sustaining Family would also be a commodity to established guilds but more importantly, a Self-Sustaining family might survive if they negotiate with Sieging Attackers to save themselves.
Anyone else have thoughts?
After thinking about who I might create a family with and what we might do together, some things occurred to me.
**To help the discussion, I've made some assumptions.
Right now, with the published Artisan classes, assuming the ability to master up to 3 Professions, a single family could cover every Profession with just 7 people: 2 Gatherers, 1 Processor, 4 Crafters. Well under the maximum 8(9) family member cap.
This creates what I'll call a "Self-Sustaining" Family: a family that can rely solely on itself for every type of end game crafting need. This family could hypothetically never visit the market for raw materials, processed materials, or end-game crafted items. (This does not mean that all blueprints and high-end materials can be acquired without raids and groups, simply that they could process and craft it as a small family).
If we assume that there are quite a few Professions missing, we might be able to create a list that looks something like this:
In this hypothetical list, the "known" professions are in blue and I've included hypothetical professions that match every Gathering profession. Remember that this is just a hypothesis, not necessarily a suggestion.
In this scenario, a single family would need 10 people to be "Self-Sustaining", which is impossible. Therefore every family would need to venture into the market for materials or items to be purchased at some point.
There are pros and cons to each scenario.
Self-Sustaining is nice on a small community scale. You have a group of very close friends and you are all able to share a small family bank, live near each other perhaps, and use each other's freeholds. It's almost like having a small village within the larger civilizations. Families missing some members could even search the world for people to join them. This community feel would be great. Overflow and final products would still make it to the market, but the family would not necessarily need other Artisans in order to produce and progress.
On the contrary, not being Self-Sustaining would require even a close-knit family to venture to the marketplace together for materials or items. Not that there aren't a lot of other reasons to go to the cities (quests, group queues, etc.) but if we consider just the crafting aspect of the game this makes families rely in small part on the larger community. They would need to sell some of their materials as they go in order to afford other Artisans. They may make more contact with other Families.
As Developers start to add to the Artisan list (if they are intending to add to it) weighing these two scenarios might be a consideration.
In my opinion, I think being able to create a Self-Sustaining Family would be great. Since not everyone will want to do this or be able to do this, I believe it will create a wider range of community types that may not have been considered. You have your soloists, 3-4 people families, 3-4 people groups, 8-person dungeon or regular groups, Self-Sustaining families, PvE Raid groups, and PvP Siege groups as a spectrum of community types. I think overflow items will still make it to market and end-game items will be a great way for the entire family to reap the benefit of their hard work. A Self-Sustaining Family would also be a commodity to established guilds but more importantly, a Self-Sustaining family might survive if they negotiate with Sieging Attackers to save themselves.
Anyone else have thoughts?
1
Comments
Characters may only master one of the three parent artisan classes.
It is possible to master up to two professions within this mastered artisan class per character (subject to testing).
The 'physical limit' of a family (9 people) doesn't seem to meaningfully affect 'whether or not those people are willing to add an alt or a 10th person who is not explicitly within the Family'.
From my group's side, we actually already know who the 10th is (and the backup, if a system change happens), and just did the calculation for 'which of us doesn't need the few benefits apparently afforded by the family system due to their playstyle'.
Two families together makes a Clan, and so on.
Thanks for another style of question to add to this month's Q&A. You can count on us to deliver the question:
"What benefits are planned for the family system to offer, at this time?"
Seems to me that 8 players would form a Guild, take advantage of Small Guild perks and still do all the stuff outlined in the OP.
They could also create several families with alts.