Goblin Squad Member
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The Empyrean Order, as well as other organizations, are attempting to facilitate the 3 company system into our organizations structure. In this endeavor we have come across a lot of questions essential to the planning and organizing of in-game company structures. We realize that you have a full plate at the moment, but these are all questions regarding the relationship and interactions between companies and settlements. Any clarification you can provide would be greatly appreciated. In the short term these answers will benefit the Landrush as there are quite a few organizations teaming up to take one settlement. In the longer term it allows organizations to better begin planning their in-game organizational structures.
1.) How easy will it be to enter and exit a company? Since we can be in three at once, with only one sponsored, how does that effect POI ownership?
2.) When you are in multiple companies, do you gain each of them influence? or do you choose which group gets the influence?
3.) Other than Achievements how do companies gain influence? Can you clarify diminishing returns after you have reached 50 members?
4.) How many people can a company hold? Are there any other drawbacks to having a large company other than Diminishing returns?
5.) Can you give us some more specific examples of how influence can be used, other than the following?
- All companies may use influence to forge alliances with other companies or settlements, usually to establish trade arrangements or provide mutual security.
- For empire-builders, influence is spent to claim territory in the Crusader Road region. When a company clears the dangerous inhabitants from wilderness hex, they may spend their influence to claim that location for their own.
- For mercenaries, bandits, and agitators, influence can be used to declare a feud—a state of PvP hostilities like a war between settlements, but at shorter notice and for a shorter period—against another company or settlement.
- For traders and crafters, influence can be spent on boons to help dominate an economy or profession, and on shoring up caravan defenses when transporting goods across the lands.
- Finally, for adventuring companies, influence can be spent to claim great rewards from successful escalation cycles, either for the benefit of the company itself or for its sponsoring settlement.
6.) It has been stated that one company might be able to control 1 POI and 2/3 Outposts or 2 POIs with difficulty. How many people were you
considering a part of that company? Assuming Influence is gained over time, do you anticipate such a company able control 2 POIs relatively quickly, or only after a good amount of time in the game?
7.) If some block of individuals belong to one sponsored company and one unsponsored company at the same time, can they hold a POI with the unsponsored company so the POI is not part of their sponsoring settlement?
8.) Is there a hard cap or ceiling to how much Influence a company can accumulate, based on the number of members? Is the cap directly proportional to membership, or is it lower for larger (50+) companies?
1.) Can the founding company of a settlement share control with other groups, mechanically, other than by adding them to the founding company?
2.) Can settlements be traded? As in if I traded a chicken for some cloth.
3.) Can a founding company/company in charge of the settlement un-sponsor a company from the settlement, like flipping a switch? OR do they just leave of their own volition?
4.) Can you give us more specific numbers on how many people can be a member of a settlement?
5.) How does settlement membership affect DI?
6.) Will Settlements gain a percentage of what the outposts produce, or is that up for negotiation between POI/Outpost Owners and Settlement Owners?
7.) Can you give several examples, not including 7, of what all a Settlement gets in return for sponsoring a Company?
8.) Is influence needed at all at the Settlement level other than starting/claiming the Settlement?
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CEO, Goblinworks
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Caveats – at best this stuff exists in a design doc, with no implementation at this time. At worst, it's a series of ideas in various people's heads that have yet to be reconciled and reduced to a plan. So take these answers as very provisional.
1.) How easy will it be to enter and exit a company?
Entering: Someone will have to approve or issue an invitation
Exiting: Should require nothing more than a button press and a confirmation dialog.
Since we can be in three at once, with only one sponsored, how does that effect POI ownership?
I think the plan is for companies to own POIs and not individuals.
2.) When you are in multiple companies, do you gain each of them influence? or do you choose which group gets the influence?
I think the answer is that influence generation is not limited by membership in other Companies.
3.) Other than Achievements how do companies gain influence?
TBD
Can you clarify diminishing returns after you have reached 50 members?
No. Can't clarify at this time.
4.) How many people can a company hold?
TBD
Are there any other drawbacks to having a large company other than Diminishing returns?
Probably not.
5.) Can you give us some more specific examples of how influence can be used,
No, not at this time.
6.) It has been stated that one company might be able to control 1 POI and 2/3 Outposts or 2 POIs with difficulty. How many people were you
considering a part of that company?
Answer hazy, ask again later.
7.) If some block of individuals belong to one sponsored company and one unsponsored company at the same time, can they hold a POI with the unsponsored company so the POI is not part of their sponsoring settlement?
I think the answer is yes.
8.) Is there a hard cap or ceiling to how much Influence a company can accumulate, based on the number of members?
TBD
1.) Can the founding company of a settlement share control with other groups, mechanically, other than by adding them to the founding company?
The act of creating a Settlement creates a new entity separate from the company. The two entities then diverge as their members desire. Companies don't run Settlements.
2.) Can settlements be traded? As in if I traded a chicken for some cloth.
Someone will figure out a clever way to do this by moving members and roles around in a Settlement but it's not a mechanic we intend to directly implement.
3.) Can a founding company/company in charge of the settlement un-sponsor a company from the settlement, like flipping a switch? OR do they just leave of their own volition?
Settlements will certainly have the power to boot unwanted affiliations - with characters, and companies.
4.) Can you give us more specific numbers on how many people can be a member of a settlement?
I think there will be no mechanical limit.
5.) How does settlement membership affect DI?
TBD
6.) Will Settlements gain a percentage of what the outposts produce, or is that up for negotiation between POI/Outpost Owners and Settlement Owners?
I think Tork has a rough idea of how this is supposed to work but it's far from definitive at this juncture.
7.) Can you give several examples, not including 7, of what all a Settlement gets in return for sponsoring a Company?
I think the answer is "nothing". Companies may want a Settlement to endorse them. Settlements will have to decide how to be compensated for doing so.
8.) Is influence needed at all at the Settlement level other than starting/claiming the Settlement?
I expect there will be a very complicated economic system related to many non-monetary aspects of character / company / Settlement / Player Nation interrelations. All of which are TBD.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I believe that we have been told that a player will be required to select a settlement for their character at character creation:
- Will a player be able to select a PC settlement as their character’s starting settlement, or will new characters be required to select an NPC settlement as their starting settlement?
- Does that newly created character begin (first appear) in that selected settlement?
- When a character picks a settlement, does that settlement become the character’s soul bind point?
- Will settlement governing bodies be able to turn off the availability of their PC settlement as a settlement choice at character creation?
- Does character selection of a PC settlement mean that the character is considered a member of that settlement pending governing body approval, or simply residing there?
I believe that we have been told that settlements might not be available at the beginning of EE:
- When do you anticipate PC settlement becoming physical entities in the game?
- Does a settlement location physical fill the hex in which it is located irrespective of the number of buildings in the settlement?
- Will the initial PC settlements have city walls (i.e., a protective structure that can only be destroyed by siege weapons) at the beginning of settlement activation?
- When do you anticipate that settlement building upgrades will be available in game?
- Will the initial PC settlements be able to set PvP windows from the start (i.e., when they first become physically present in game)?
- What is the anticipated minimum PvP window that can be set when the PC settlements become physically present in the game, assuming that having no PvP window is not the minimum?
- Is there a minimum PvP window increment for expanding PvP windows?
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Goblin Squad Member
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1.) Can the founding company of a settlement share control with other groups, mechanically, other than by adding them to the founding company?
The act of creating a Settlement creates a new entity separate from the company. The two entities then diverge as their members desire. Companies don't run Settlements.
***
Re: membership in the entity that runs a settlement:1)Is there a hard limit to how many of these you can belong to, like companies ? or a flexible, skills based limit ?
1a) Does it count against your 3 companies? I assume not, but I'll ask.
2) Can you belong to the entity that runs a settlement even if you are in zero companies sponsored by the settlement ? i.e. can being removed from a company remove you from control of a settlement ?
3) I *assume* you must meet the alignment and reputation restrictions of a settlement to run it, however, if you should slip and fall outside those restrictions, is the structure of that settlement running entity such that 'succession' will be automatic in some fashion ?
If not, will the 'second' rank just have to fight it out via 'demoting' the competition to make 1 person supreme?
(more as I think 'em up ; )
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CEO, Goblinworks
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[b]I believe that we have been told that a player will be required to select a settlement for their character at character creation
All new characters are put into NPC Settlements by some system TBD.
Does that newly created character begin (first appear) in that selected settlement
That's what will happen initially. At some point we may create a New Player Experience (i.e. a tutorial) and then that would change.
When a character picks a settlement, does that settlement become the character’s soul bind point?
No. You will probably have to change soulbinding points manually. Changing Settlements probably won't have any effect on your soulbinding. This is about a 50/50 proposition in my opinion between people who would hate to have their soulbinding point changed without their input and people who will hate having to remember to make the change themselves so there's no right answer.
When do you anticipate PC settlement becoming physical entities in the game?
It is unclear to me what the roadmap will be to evolve the proto-Settlements that are being seeded via the Land Rush into fully functioning Settlements. It is likely that this will be one of the most intense areas of Crowdforging. There are many either/or tradeoffs involved.
Does a settlement location physical fill the hex in which it is located irrespective of the number of buildings in the settlement?
There is some lawn around the house. But not much.
Will the initial PC settlements have city walls (i.e., a protective structure that can only be destroyed by siege weapons) at the beginning of settlement activation?
There will likely be functioning Settlements in the game long before there is territorial warfare. So this answer is "no", but that is not a meaningful impact on the security of Settlements.
When do you anticipate that settlement building upgrades will be available in game?
Unknown.
Will the initial PC settlements be able to set PvP windows from the start (i.e., when they first become physically present in game)?
There won't be any PvP vs. Settlements when they start, so the answer is "no".
RyanD
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Goblinworks Game Designer
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Caveats – at best this stuff exists in a design doc, with no implementation at this time. At worst, it's a series of ideas in various people's heads that have yet to be reconciled and reduced to a plan. So take these answers as very provisional.
1.) How easy will it be to enter and exit a company?Entering: Someone will have to approve or issue an invitation
Exiting: Should require nothing more than a button press and a confirmation dialog.
Since we can be in three at once, with only one sponsored, how does that effect POI ownership?I think the plan is for companies to own POIs and not individuals.
Yeh PoIs are owned by companies. This is a slightly misleading statement of course because companies can be run by individuals. See the next question for how this pans out...
2.) When you are in multiple companies, do you gain each of them influence? or do you choose which group gets the influence?I think the answer is that influence generation is not limited by membership in other Companies.
Characters can be members of 3 companies. Your primary company (determined by the player) get 100% of your influence gains. Your secondary company gets 50%. Your tertiary company gets 0%. If you are in charge of a company that owns a PoI this MUST be your primary company.
3.) Other than Achievements how do companies gain influence?TBD
Successful conflicts, completed contracts, escalation cycle and dungeon trophies, and special game events, are all slated as POTENTIAL additional ways to gain influence.
Can you clarify diminishing returns after you have reached 50 members?No. Can't clarify at this time.
The soft limit of 50 members actually more references how much Influence a company can hold at a time. Max holdable influence factors in company size and the way the maths work having more than 50 members does very little to increase max.
4.) How many people can a company hold?TBD
Are there any other drawbacks to having a large company other than Diminishing returns?Probably not.
5.) Can you give us some more specific examples of how influence can be used,No, not at this time.
Your list up there is pretty comprehensive.
6.) It has been stated that one company might be able to control 1 POI and 2/3 Outposts or 2 POIs with difficulty. How many people were you
considering a part of that company?Answer hazy, ask again later.
My maths is all running off the assumption that companies will have a max of 50 members. I am actually assuming that even 'big' companies will be more like 30-50 members, since outside of the really large meta organisations coming into PFO it is much more likely for social groups of around that size to make up the majority of the 'larger' companies.
7.) If some block of individuals belong to one sponsored company and one unsponsored company at the same time, can they hold a POI with the unsponsored company so the POI is not part of their sponsoring settlement?I think the answer is yes.
8.) Is there a hard cap or ceiling to how much Influence a company can...
Ryan has covered pretty much everything here. I have added a tiny bit of detail above where I think it is useful. Remember that although I have all of these systems planned out none of them will be implemented for some time, so all these designs are subject to change.
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Goblinworks Game Designer
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1.) Can the founding company of a settlement share control with other groups, mechanically, other than by adding them to the founding company?
The act of creating a Settlement creates a new entity separate from the company. The two entities then diverge as their members desire. Companies don't run Settlements.
***
Re: membership in the entity that runs a settlement:1)Is there a hard limit to how many of these you can belong to, like companies ? or a flexible, skills based limit ?
1a) Does it count against your 3 companies? I assume not, but I'll ask.
2) Can you belong to the entity that runs a settlement even if you are in zero companies sponsored by the settlement ? i.e. can being removed from a company remove you from control of a settlement ?
3) I *assume* you must meet the alignment and reputation restrictions of a settlement to run it, however, if you should slip and fall outside those restrictions, is the structure of that settlement running entity such that 'succession' will be automatic in some fashion ?
If not, will the 'second' rank just have to fight it out via 'demoting' the competition to make 1 person supreme?(more as I think 'em up ; )
1) You can only be a member of ONE settlement. The entity that runs the settlement is the SETTLEMENT.
2) You can be a member of the settlements rulers without being in any sponsored companies. Membership in settlement leadership is INDEPENDENT from company membership.
3) This question is about functionality too specific to discuss at this stage. I'm up for going over the conceptual top-level stuff about settlements but there is no sense in giving answers about individual functionality until the top-level stuff gets locked. Soz.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Great answers and thanx for the quick replies. I am glad to see the long weekend didn't slow you goblins down any!!
Just for clarification, joining a settlement does NOT count as 1 of your 3 companies you can be a member of, correct?
To give an example, If I want to be the leader of The Exalted Bastards (Company), a member of both UNC (Company)and The Vigilant (Company) AND be on the ruling council of Aragon (settlement) that is all good?
Speaking of the ruling council, is there, or rather will there be, any mechanical way to split the power of control among a group of members with in either a settlement or company, or will it need to remain a "meta" entity with the traditional "single leader" mechanically in charge?
If so, will that count as being the "leader" for purposes of POI ownership? Meaning I can be the leader of TEB (company) but not also a leader of Aragon (settlement) if they each own POIs?
Last question, Since POIs are ran by Companies, and settlements are very similar to companies, will settlements themselves own POIs, or will they only be owned by companies sponsored by a settlement to be considered "owned" by that settlement?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Great feedback guys!
I was curious where Chartered Companies fit into all of this. There is mention of a settlement chartering a company, and also mention of members only being able to belong to a single company that is closely associated with a settlement (is that the chartered relationship?), what is the relationship that exists there?
Thanks again!
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Goblin Squad Member
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The entity that runs the settlement is the SETTLEMENT.My question here is, who establishes the rules for settlement management? Does the establishing company set the rules by which the the settlement is run and then from there, those rules take over?
When the Settlement is created, the Settlement Charter defines a lot of parameters that control how the Settlement is managed. We don't really know what all those options are, or whether we'll be able to categorize the options so that different groups can manage different options.
For example, can it be set up so that a Democratic Vote determines the Tax Rate while a Monarch retains control over declaring that the Tax Rate is decided Democratically?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Just for clarification, joining a settlement does NOT count as 1 of your 3 companies you can be a member of, correct?
They've said a few times now that the Settlement is a separate entity unto itself. So it does not in any way count as being a Company and would not count as 1 of the 3.
If so, will that count as being the "leader" for purposes of POI ownership? Meaning I can be the leader of TEB (company) but not also a leader of Aragon (settlement) if they each own POIs?
Last question, Since POIs are ran by Companies, and settlements are very similar to companies, will settlements themselves own POIs, or will they only be owned by companies sponsored by a settlement to be considered "owned" by that settlement?
As above, completely separate. A Settlement is not a Company so it can not own a POI.
Think of Settlements as garages and Companies as vehicles. You can park a bunch of Companies in a Settlement and a Company can have a POI. As long as that Company is parked in your Settlement, the Settlement get the perks of the POI.
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CEO, Goblinworks
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Just for clarification, joining a settlement does NOT count as 1 of your 3 companies you can be a member of, correct?
Correct. Settlements are not Companies.
Speaking of the ruling council, is there, or rather will there be, any mechanical way to split the power of control among a group of members with in either a settlement or company, or will it need to remain a "meta" entity with the traditional "single leader" mechanically in charge?
I don't know what the plan is for Company management. It will likely start as simple as possible (one dictatorially empowered leader) and be Crowdforged.
For Settlements, the answer is more complex. We may still start simple with a dictator but the design is much more robust.
When the Settlement is created the mechanism involves the signing of a charter by the members of a Company. The Charter specifies various aspects of how the Settlement will be operated. This would include the government structure.
The Charter can be changed. The Charter specifies who can change it. So, for example, a Settlement may be a True Democracy (most issues require 50%+1 of the votes cast to decide an issue and most issues require a vote) but one person may have sole authority to change the Charter. Which means, de facto, that if that person doesn't like what the Democracy is doing, that person can end the Democracy.
We envision at least 3 states for the government of a Settlement:
Dictator
Oligarchy
Democracy
These options can be potentially mixed and matched. A Settlement might have a Democracy for Charter changes, an Oligarchy for most Settlement operations requiring a vote, and a Dictator for certain delegated financial activities.
The potential for developing this into a very complex fractal space is one of the most exciting things about the game design, IMO.
When a character joins a Settlement, they accept the Charter. So characters will have full knowledge of whatever political situation they're accepting before they join.
Last question, Since POIs are ran by Companies, and settlements are very similar to companies, will settlements themselves own POIs, or will they only be owned by companies sponsored by a settlement to be considered "owned" by that settlement?
Companies own POIs and Outposts. Not all companies will be Chartered by Settlements.
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Goblin Squad Member
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We envision at least 3 states for the government of a Settlement:
Dictator
Oligarchy
DemocracyThese options can be potentially mixed and matched. A Settlement might have a Democracy for Charter changes, an Oligarchy for most Settlement operations requiring a vote, and a Dictator for certain delegated financial activities.
Awesome! Thanks :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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We envision at least 3 states for the government of a Settlement:
Dictator
Oligarchy
DemocracyThese options can be potentially mixed and matched. A Settlement might have a Democracy for Charter changes, an Oligarchy for most Settlement operations requiring a vote, and a Dictator for certain delegated financial activities.
This is great!
I always wondered why games designed in western democracies only featured dictatorial run guilds.
I am really looking to join a settlement where i can at least vote for the dictator/oligarchs who run the place.
This is long overdue. Thank you GW!
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Goblin Squad Member
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Kard, sure thing!
We spent a few days really looking at some of the top questions we had on our minds. I am very happy with the result, and I appreciate Goblinworks team taking out time to answer a lot of the questions here.
I actually wish that this would get stickied since there is so much good info for everyone to read about. You could literally make a solid blog with the information that you have in this thread, lol.
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CEO, Goblinworks
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Lee suggests that I reiterate the paragraph I lead off my response with:
Caveats – at best this stuff exists in a design doc, with no implementation at this time. At worst, it's a series of ideas in various people's heads that have yet to be reconciled and reduced to a plan. So take these answers as very provisional.
Like all aspects of the game, this aspect will begin with a minimum viable implementation, then it will be extensively Crowdforged. Just a bit of expectation setting.
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Goblin Squad Member
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No worries. We'll just have to have flexible plans. (Urman remembers with amusement the announcement that rogues were not going to be able to walk all of the way up to their targets unseen. "But I planned my entire character concept on being able to one-shot or stun-lock my target like I can in other games! This is unfair!")
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Goblin Squad Member
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Back in September they changed the terms (link here).
The most basic form of permanent player organization is the company—a group of like-minded individuals who wish to adventure, craft, or conquer together. (You may have previously seen companies referred to as "venture companies" or "chartered companies" in previous blog posts, but for now we're using the simplest applicable term. This may change again in the future, but the basic concept will remain the same.) and
If they so wish, companies may become "sponsored," forging a powerful alliance with a settlement. Sponsored companies effectively become part of that settlement, affecting its Reputation and following its alignment just like the rest of the settlement's population. Likewise sponsored companies share the settlement's alliances or sanctioned hostilities with other settlements.
So there are 2 terms: "sponsored company" (effectively part of a settlement) and "company" (not linked, or used as a generic term).
The "chartered company" and "venture company" terms haven't been used by GW lately.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Tyncale, I think that the individuals that make up an unsponsored company can certainly belong to different settlements. So you could have a trading network company, perhaps, with a few members from each of several settlements. Or a strictly social club (a fine use for that tertiary company that gains no influence).
I think we've been told that we can belong to one settlement and three companies; only one of the companies can be sponsored (that's how our settlement citizenship is likely determined). I assume there might also be a few people who join a settlement as an individual member and belong to three unsponsored companies.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Can members of the same unsponsored Company be member of different Settlements? And if the company is sponsored by a Settlement? (alignments allowing off course)
First, I believe that Members of a "regular" Company (Venture or Chartered or some other prefix they haven't told us yet) can indeed have Members that belong to different Settlements.
Not all members of a Company that is associated with a Settlement have to also be members of that Settlement.
Second, I believe that Members of a Sponsored Company must all be Members of the sponsoring Settlement.
A "venture company" (sometimes also referred to as a chartered company; we'll get the terminology settled soon) is a social construct designed to cover the small-to-mid-sized guilds popular in other MMOs. It can be anything from a small group of friends and/or small adventuring party to a social organization several dozen strong. You can be a member of up to three venture companies, but only one of them can be a settlement-sponsored venture company (in other words, all the members belong to the same settlement). If a second venture company becomes sponsored, you'll have to choose to leave one or the other.