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Suggestion Township Changes

Irishman81

Senior Staff
Guide
Architect
Balance Team
Legacy Supporter 7
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
In previous maps, there were several more large townships/kingdoms than there are currently, which I think stems from a lack of adequate upgrade costs and restrictions on townships. I know when I first joined, I loved being a part of a large community that was striving for kingdom status, and (somehow) actually enjoyed helping out gathering materials and contributing towards a larger goal. With the current system, I feel that the townships plugin doesn't encourage the same goals and activity that they did years ago.

For example, lets start with a tier 1 town costing 25 coins. Personally, I'm 100% ok with this, because it encourages even small groups of players to easily start off and protect their builds. The main issue for me comes from the max amount of chunks claimed for a tier 1 town is 15. That's an insanely large amount of area that a tier 1 town can claim. Especially with the only cost being 25c startup, 50c per chunk, and 75c daily upkeep. My town members have shown interest in upgrading, but it logically doesn't make any sense. We have 6/15 chunks claimed, which is more than enough to have ample chest storage, a farm, and a darkroom underneath.

Another issue is that with the start of this map, one of the goals was to try and add incentives for towns to capture castles, as upgrade materials from castles would be required to upgrade the town. However, these items aren't even introduced to townships upgrades until level 3, and even then are very minimal (Essence of battle:1 - Glowing Heated Ruby: 10 - Warming Magnificent Topaz: 10 - Defying Lustful Emerald: 10 - Sparkling Pristine Sapphire': 10). To compare, my town, which to be fair has dominated the castles for the past week, has 1013 essence, 225 pristine sapphire, 479 heated ruby, 213 lustful emerald, and 276 magnificent topaz, and thats just after 1 week of playing. While it doesn't make sense to absolutely force every town to fight for a conquest point, I think increasing the required materials for tier 2 town and up is for the best. Even if a town is strictly opposed to pvping or doesn't have the man power to capture castles, they can always buy the materials off of larger/more pvp active towns.

I know we have township upgrades up to ~8, but I'm just going to a couple based on the current playerbase. Daily upkeep also needs to be looked at for the higher tier towns, but I'll leave that for now. Keeping this in mind, here is a rough suggestion for adjusting each township stats/upgrades to:

Tier 1:
-Reduce max members to 10
-Reduce max chunks to 6

Tier 2:
-Reduce max members to 20
-Reduce max chunks to 15
-Add 50 each of castle required items

Tier 3:
-Reduce max members to 40
-Reduce max chunks to 30
-Add 200 each of castle required items

Tier 4:
-Not sure what member cap is, but 60 sounds good
-Max chunks to 45
-Add 400 each of castle required items

Overall, I think that the townships plugin has been pretty successful, but I believe that adjusting the requirements would be beneficial to the longevity of the server.
@Kainzo @Dielan9999 (you have a pretty big township, wanted to hear what you think)
 

Kainzo

The Disposable Hero
Staff member
Founder
Adventure Team
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Location
The 7th Circle of Heaven
We want more towns, not less. The barrier to entry should be low. The upkeep should be where the costs are really hit.

Levels 0-2 should be pretty fluid and low cost. If we need to adjust some of the chunk claims, we should, though we cant hit too low because we dont want people to be completely camped.

Lets make Rank 0 = 9 chunks and scale from there.
 

spiralz

Obsidian
Joined
Jun 20, 2013
We want more towns, not less. The barrier to entry should be low. The upkeep should be where the costs are really hit.

Levels 0-2 should be pretty fluid and low cost. If we need to adjust some of the chunk claims, we should, though we cant hit too low because we dont want people to be completely camped.

Lets make Rank 0 = 9 chunks and scale from there.

This is why the Beta test existed as this is a suggestion that should have been made before the full release, not after towns have already built around the current setup. I've already spent a bunch of time digging out my starter town based on the current assigned values of permitted chunks (as I'm sure many other towns have too), so suddenly decreasing the amount of chunks my town is allowed is going to be a huge inconvenience. Kainzo, if you decrease the allowed chunks of first tier towns, can the current towns that exist at this level keep the amount they have now to keep from creating a bunch of disgruntled players?
 

Irishman81

Senior Staff
Guide
Architect
Balance Team
Legacy Supporter 7
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
We want more towns, not less. The barrier to entry should be low. The upkeep should be where the costs are really hit.

Levels 0-2 should be pretty fluid and low cost. If we need to adjust some of the chunk claims, we should, though we cant hit too low because we dont want people to be completely camped.

Lets make Rank 0 = 9 chunks and scale from there.
I agree that the barrier to entry should be low, and it is low. I'm saying that there aren't enough incentives to upgrade to higher tiered towns based on the current town set up, and not enough incentive to either capture castles or trade for the materials.
 

Dielan9999

Legacy Supporter 5
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Location
Temple of Melonmancy
I have a lot of opinions on the township system. I think cost should be ultimately determined by the number of chunks claimed and the tier should help reduce this cost. There should be more of an incentive for towns to increase tier besides the number of chunks you can claim. I think a town that is a high tier but keeps a small chunk count should get a discount - but if they claim a bunch of chunks it should rightfully cost more than the starter towns. That way every group on the server has an incentive to climb tiers.

No incentive and castles become a secondary objective. ya know?
 
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