Freehold Bidding System Needs Changed

BlackSheep77

I'm seeing a lot about people not liking the freehold bidding system. Most of the people seem to be against not being able to own a freehold at all, which by the looks of it, many people won't due to it's limited nature. However through families most people can?

If so that is really cool because it encourages teamwork, something lacking in modern day massive multiplayer games. While theoretically still giving freehold co-ownership access to all or almost all people

But people are talking about buying gold in the game to afford freeholds since it will take such huge effort to own one. This is a problem I think because I've played and seen other MMOs, some that have tried so hard to stop gold buying and can't. I remember Runescape even tried only allowing players to make somewhat fair trades which ended up terrible because people couldn't trade their friends or gift people things.

So considering gold buying will be an unfortunate aspect of the game, wouldn't it make sense to go about players getting a freehold in another way that also encourages teamwork. One that would much less likely to be able to be bought with real life money. The node advancement is done by doing tasks in the area IIRC, like profession tasks, quests, ect. You don't have to pay to have a node upgraded.

And the same for the mayors, all but the economic stage anyways lol.

You don't have to pay to build a boat or pay for dragons(those are just rare drops right or got from being the king of a castle)

There has to be a better system for getting a freehold that's still team based. It feels like leaving it up to bidding is asking for gold buyers. And people including Steven are saying that all trading is subject to gold buyers which is true but out of everything I can think of freeholds are probably the worst things you could possibly streamline to them. Considering they are limited somewhat as well, so desired and able to make a lot of money with from what I've heard.

Can't there be a way that's not based around gold or trading?

TydinSol

Dripyula wrote: »

daveywavey wrote: »

Dripyula wrote: »

Imagine the players build some kind of capitol/metropolis with the highest city type node level.
And it is a HUUUUGE city that might be the absolute, most impressive looking city on the entire server.
How come that the best "forge" for example isn't also there? It is THE CITY!!
Why would some PLEB players private little freehold forge be better than the one inside the city?
Must know the reasoning behind it.

Elitism.

Which would be a very lame, smug & boring reason.
Finished the video for it too. [ Development Update with Freehold Preview - 11AM PT Friday, June 30, 2023 ]
So there is a little bit of cosmetic freedom and they are similar to the garrison in WoW.
You can process stuff there at your own workstations and also grow ressources you might otherwise find only scattered around the world in a thinner manner.
Hmm, hmm, so far so farm.

Yeah makes no sense that the highest level of blacksmithing, leatherworking and whatever can only take place there. I can understand if it can also take place there but trying to make such tiny country estates into something that can compete against counterparts of the same profession inside of a vastly renowned metropolis, just appears silly to me.

Oh boy I just hope that freeholds are not becoming a form of timesink or cheap "PvP reason" which will always just be resolved with higher numbers or something.
In Planetside 2, an 'FPS MMO' you can build tiny bases sometimes in between the innitial bases in the zones on the map. But it means nothing.
The balancing is non-existent and the faction with the most players on the server can pretty much dominate everywhere they want.
Given of course they all focus on the same front or continent.


Now I'm thinking that people conquer or destroy an already taken freehold, hold it for the duration of reallife days needed to build their own "masterclass workshops", (if they could not conquer it without having to scorch everything to the ground), produce the goods they innitially wanted and then run off into the four winds, cause they can't be bothered to defend the freehold 24/7 or something.

Or a guild having 100 members and having to put 30 of them in two shifts each day on "guard duty" to be near the guilds freehold and then switch in different timewindows, to make sure it isn't raided or conquered.
And then it all breaks down if player stop playing. xD

Such stuff always sound epic in theory but in praxis it is always the most unimpressive reasons why a guild or group of players dominates an area or why not.

The freeholds are part of the larger economy. They will have the best return, the fastest processing time, and will be able to do the highest level of processing. No other place will have that. It will be used as a means to control the economy. In the wiki, Freeholds are only vulnerable after the node falls for a set period. So if nodes can only be attacked in the server prime time, the freeholds are only vulnerable for an hour after the node falls. Don't quote me on the exact amount of time, that is just the number sticking in my head.

Freeholds make more caravans since you have to get the resources to the freehold and from the freehold. They will help support more PVP since they are limited. Conflict is good in games or else the game will stagnate and no one will want to cause any ripples. Peace will cause the player base to lose interest. There is the other side that also needs to be address. Constant war will also fatigue the player base and cause them to leave for a time to recover.

In the vision of AoC, Instanced freeholds would only work if they are 1) limited in number 2) have a risk for materials brought in and leaving 3) can be forciably made to change hands because of node loss and 4) can be pillaged once a node falls. Once those are in place, its no different than the plots they have in the game that are not instance. Instanced might even make it worse.

If you were to make them instanced, like Islands in Albion, the whole game will need to be redesigned. Economy, nodes, conflict, caravans, artisan classes and skills, the whole thing or it falls apart.