Goblin Squad Member
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In the last blog posting Over the Hill and Far Away Lee Hammock discussed hexes and settlements, and mentioned the six “Development Indices” settlements are measured on. The six indices are: Security, Industry, Population, Civilization, Spirit, and Morale.
Everyone will have their own interests at heart, but I am most interested in two of the six, Security and Spirit. But I’ll just talk about Spirit here (conjecture here, but I’ve not seen these six development indices mentioned in any depth so far anywhere else).
One of my two main characters will be a cleric, and spirit will (I believe) be generated by acts of a religious nature, prayer, piety towards your chosen deity, and perhaps various types of sacrifices, among other things. I like the idea of having some indication of the health of the community, even if the specific numbers are not known. (Some of the measures will be known, as they limit the types and amounts of structures that can be built, and probably several other features not yet discussed.)
Spirit possibly will be generated by having a number of clerics of the primary deity serving a particular temple. I will have a cleric of Torag, but I don’t think Torag will mind only having a temple or shrine to Iomedae (since they are divine drinking buddies anyway). Still, a higher Spirit score should allow for grander temples, and may be required for artifacts to be installed. It would be reasonable that if an artifact were installed in a temple, and many of the clerics dedicated to that deity defected or otherwise left the settlement, the Spirit score would drop, thereby rendering the artifact inert until the Spirit score was restored to its minimum required level.
Just some thoughts on how this will play out.
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Goblin Squad Member
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That could be. Maybe the relics will just provide a percentage of the spirit score, and always be "on."
I agree that spirit will be tied to clerics and temples. The only other use for a spirit score that I can think of would be more tied to morale.
My thoughts on what influences each:
Security - number of guards, amount of times the settlement has been overrun by monsters and etc, number of total members?
Industry - Crafting, all kinds of it lol
Population - Number of player members, number of NPC members which will grow based on other indices, Morale and Spirit will influence this
Civilation - Race based? NPC Order based?
Spirit - discussed above quite well
Morale - Based on everything lol
Thats what I think will be involved in the growth of the number.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Would Civilization be affected by alignment?
Id prefer not to have alignment heavily factor in to the indices. In a fantasy world, all of the above can reach a high 'score' in almost any alignment of settlement. The exception that comes to mind is security which might take a bit of a hit in a chaotic settlement (particularly CE), but would probably be very high in a lawful settlement of any moral alignment.
Civilisation could include developments whether mechanical/technological (e.g. aqueducts) or policy (e.g. governance, economic rules, etc).
Morale could include things like access to luxury items (would work nicely with Bluddwolf's suggested smuggling activities), access to high level and/or well equipped guards (overlaps a bit with security) and how frequently that settlement gets attacked (peaceful lives vs constantly on alert).
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Goblin Squad Member
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Somewhere in there, I think basics like food should be included. As I've stated in another post, I hope there will be a way to "deposit" staples like food for the upkeep of a settlement. Given the historical use of sieges to starve out an enemy, I think morale would take a pretty big hit if the food supply for the NPCs that do most of a settlement's behind the scenes work were cut off.
Unfortunately, in that sieges took weeks or months or even years, and none of us want to be online that long just for that purpose, I think it's likely that more immediate factors will be used.
Games like Civilization and Sim-City do come to mind with this topic. If you put "X" desired necessity/luxury/convenience (power plants, parks, efficient roads, stores for shopping, etc.) into your settlement, the happiness rating of your city increases. If you drop the level of "X" service (fire department, police, etc.) the happiness level drops and the NPCs move out.
Somewhere in there, I think basics like food should be included. As I've stated in another post, I hope there will be a way to "deposit" staples like food for the upkeep of a settlement. Given the historical use of sieges to starve out an enemy, I think morale would take a pretty big hit if the food supply for the NPCs that do most of a settlement's behind the scenes work were cut off.
Unfortunately, in that sieges took weeks or months or even years, and none of us want to be online that long just for that purpose, I think it's likely that more immediate factors will be used.
Games like Civilization and Sim-City do come to mind with this topic. If you put "X" desired necessity/luxury/convenience (power plants, parks, efficient roads, stores for shopping, etc.) into your settlement, the happiness rating of your city increases. If you drop the level of "X" service (fire department, police, etc.) the happiness level drops and the NPCs move out.
I'm thinking that they could just condense the time that it takes for Morale to sink to a level that has visible effect on the settlement. Perhaps food could be tied to settlement NPCs Morale, while alcohol could be tied to settlement guards and the Security rating? (Although "we" are taught that alcohol is evil, most all societies used it as a reward, or a benefit for good behavior up until recent times) I'm not sure what else could be used to impact guards and the security rating?
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Goblin Squad Member
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At some point in the not too distant future it would be nice to see some of the charts of all the buildings expected to be available in settlements and what they bring to the table for each category. I expect the EE period to be pretty spartan and several more buildings per patch will appear in the months of EE. Regardless, it will take a couple of years to hit the best structures anyway, as some of thos estructures will be dependent on having toons with the highest possible skills in very specific categories for the construction to become available. Maybe I'll ome up with a list for my thread "Lists, lists, and more lists".
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Goblin Squad Member
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I believe there was already a thread dealing with what people wanted in settlements that included the types of buildings. A forum search or Nihimon might point you in the right direction.
As for the point you make, I too would like to see a little more information on exactly what buildings and services GW expects to have for the EE period. It would give us something else to kick around here (and add our all-so-helpful comments to) and even provide those planning to create settlements some food for thought for their actual game plan.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I remember them saying that there won't be any settlements in the beginning of EE. See the Landrush Leaderboard thread.
I believe it was stated that the territorial control mechanics will be phased in, beginning with "Guild Halls" in place of Forts/Settlements when the Landrush happens, and then new mechanics will be added after that.
The full (as full as anything can be in a constantly evolving game) settlement and territory control system is expected to be in place by the full release.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well so far so good. The inn in the blog a few weeks ago looked pretty awesome. Looking forward to that. :)
I saw the buildings post. What I am looking for is what each structure adds to the settlement. They are using a quantity or number in each building design to define exactly what that specific structure brings to the settlement once it is built. That's what I'd like to see to get an idea of the eventual growth of settlements.