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Should you be able to hire guards on your freehold?

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

Comments

  • Yes and design them how you like male or female what race and class. Also pick what wepan they have given them your guild logo/design can be  somthing that a player spend alot of time on could be good fun. But am sure it won't happen
  • Sw684 said:
    Yes and design them how you like male or female what race and class. Also pick what wepan they have given them your guild logo/design can be  somthing that a player spend alot of time on could be good fun. But am sure it won't happen
    Hopefully buy that weapon from a player made weaponsmith :)
  • Yes and they should be wtf pwn elites, lol.  No night capping my crib.
  • They stated that "Hired help" for freeholds wasn't in their design plan, but what about the hired help that we choose when we are escorting our caravans? Wouldn't the mechanics be similar? Picking a single npc to guard your freehold vs Picking a small group of npcs to guard the caravan?

    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! 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited January 2018
    I would lean towards not hiring NPC guards. I would prefer traps. But a poison vial that breaks when stepped on from a rogue, or a big game trap from a ranger, or an imbued some from a summoner that will pop out a minion when a stranger gets to close. 

    I would prefer variety, and maybe because of the city guards in WoW, hiring NPCs feels blazé even with different cosmetics

  • If you have a shop on your freehold, what's systems would be in place to stop guards from attacking every potential customer?

    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.
  • its confirmed you will be able to do so. 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited February 2018
    BCGiant said:
    its confirmed you will be able to do so. 
    http://www.aocwiki.net/Ashes_of_Creation_Livestream_2018-1-18

    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.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited January 2018
    To a limited degree e.g. one or two I personally feel that guards for your freehold would be very useful. Even just being able to place a simple small watch tower and garrison a couple of archers may persuade people not to attack you.
  • Considering that your freehold can be raided after your node looses a siege then guards are a must have just like @McStackerson said there, it has been confirmed by IS already.
  • Sorry, I might have miss-lead people. It hasn't been confirmed. You currently can not hire personal guards for your freehold. Unless my reading comprehension is bad, all that post is saying is you could try to position your freehold so that it's protected by the nodes guards, not your own.
  • Leaning towards no just because I'd like to see more community involvement or mercenary type work. With NPCs then comes npc balance, the number of guards, how long they are there vs what they cost, distance from City, travel time, node zoi, AI ability.

    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. 
  • BCGiant said:
    its confirmed you will be able to do so. 
    http://www.aocwiki.net/Ashes_of_Creation_Livestream_2018-1-18

    To my knowledge, this is all that has been confirmed. Currently you can't hire guards but if you build a your 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.
    Ah that's just me misreading the contents of the image, though still I tought I heard that we will be allowed a scant amount of guards for our freeholds.
  • BCGiant said:
    its confirmed you will be able to do so. 
    http://www.aocwiki.net/Ashes_of_Creation_Livestream_2018-1-18

    To my knowledge, this is all that has been confirmed. Currently you can't hire guards but if you build a your 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.
    Ah that's just me misreading the contents of the image, though still I tought I heard that we will be allowed a scant amount of guards for our freeholds.
    BCGiant said:
    its confirmed you will be able to do so. 
    McStackerson has provided the quote from the stream, but they just said their intention is no NPC guards for freeholds.  
  • Yes, I need some dudes to guard my veggies! 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited February 2018
    I'm not for it.

    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.
  • I said yes, but my caveat is that I think that the ability to hire guards should be an unlockable feature of a metropolis and not baseline. As in the mayor can choose to build a structure that gives the perk of hiring guards. And it possibly should only be for military and economic.
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