Township System. Ultimate gold sink suggestion.

Hi all. This system I used extensively on Angel Island before it went down. Angel Island had some incredible features that I believe fit here perfectly as it was the same style and era. The system is one of the main reasons I played as it was insanely fun to build a town, host player events, and earn the perks of a highly populated town(stables, banker, provisoners, mage npcs, etc).

I also believe this system can be expanded to feature even more amazing things. It truly is the ultimate tool for a sandbox RPG. And a GREAT gold sink for the economy. Probably the best one I've ever seen. I gladly threw money at this thing. So fun!

Let me know your thoughts all. Especially @Chris (Bonus... I know the owner of AI, and all the code is done and on my computer if interested)

Townships

Guilds are able to purchase a township stone which will be placed along side their current guild stone. Township functionality includes the following aspects:

Purpose
The purpose of Townships is to vest player guilds with control of a long range goal. Townships will allow players of all play styles to design, create, control and protect their creations while creating a significant point of interest and interaction to the entire shard.

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Township Stone Overview
Player guilds will be allowed to purchase a Township deed which must be placed in the same structure as the guild stone. The Township stone (hued guild stone graphic) will provide the menus necessary to run the Township. Provided the following conditions are met, a dynamic zone of X number of tiles, in each direction from the stone, will be created.

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A Township stone may only be placed if a large majority (X%+) of houses within the to-be created dynamic zone is in the same guild as the Township stone placer. This will prevent guilds from trying to use Townships to force home owners out of an area.
A Township stone may not be placed if the to-be created dynamic zone would overlap with another Township or guard zone.

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Other Township Features and Rules:

Township houses may not be traded to non-Township guild players.
Township guild members, who have houses within the township, may not refresh their houses should they leave the guild.
All Township guild members can view the Township stone and add gold to the Township. The owner and co-owners of the house in which the Township stone is located may fully access the Township stone (township administrators -> Manage Township NPCs, adjust law levels, adjust travel restrictions, etc).
Any Township guild member may deposit gold with the Township (Double-click the Township stone and then click the Add gold button and target gold or checks), but gold can never be taken out of the Township stone it can only be used for Township expenses.
Township expense payments and purchases are tracked in an expense log which can be accessed through the township stone.
When a guild disbands, the Township associated with it disbands as well.
Township guild members will receive a warning if their Township will run out of funds within 7 days upon login.
Township and Guild stones may not be moved once a Township stone has been placed.
Township administrators may create an enemy of the Township master list by double clicking the township stone and selecting the option to create an enemy list. This will gather all the ban lists from all of the Township guild member houses within the Township zone and compile them into one master list for X gold.
Declared enemies of the township (those on the master list created in the feature above), may not use any Township NPCs and will be announced by Lookout NPCs (See Township NPC Overview below)
Once a Township has been established, no other non-Township/Guild player may place a house within the Township dynamic zone.

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Township NPC Overview:
Township guild administrators (those who own or co-own the house in which the Township stone is placed) may purchase Township NPCs by double clicking the Township stone and clicking on Buy NPC. The purchasing player is given a deed for the Township NPC. The Township NPC deed may then be used by any Township guild member within his or her public house to place the Township NPC. Township NPCs may be dismissed through the Township stone.

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The following features and rules apply to Township NPCs:
To access the functions of a Township NPC, players must be standing in the same house with the NPC or on the porch of that house.
Only the OWNER of the house in which the Township NPC resides may customize the clothing of such Township NPC.
When a Township is dissolved, all associated NPCs are disbanded.
The Township guild generates NO income from Township NPCs purchased through the Township system (i.e. standard profitability or lack thereof still applies to player vendors).
Township NPCs can only be placed in public houses. Only one Township NPC is allowed per house. Township NPCs may not be placed in the same house as player vendor NPCs.
Township NPCs can only be purchased once every X days (this number to be determined through testing, but is currently set to 7 days).
Township NPCs do not use context menus and must be spoken to in order to access their services.

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The following Township NPCs may be purchased (this list is subject to change):
Banker Provides access to a players bank.
Innkeeper Allows players to log out in the same building instantly and/or to purchase items sold by the innkeeper.
Stable hand Provides access to a stable.
Shopkeeper Provides access to a specific shop.
o Mage Shopkeeper
o Provisioner Shopkeeper
Trainers Provides training in specific areas.
Emissary Allows Township to be set to Grant of Authority (See Law Region Overview below).
Evocater Allows Township to set magic travel settings (Recall In/Out, Gate In/Out). It costs X gold to change one of the four settings and each setting can only be changed once every X minutes. The travel settings are set through double clicking the township stone.
Town Crier — Provides shard-wide news and increased the size of the dynamic zone by X number of tiles. A township can only have one town crier. By double clicking the Township stone, a message will indicate whether or not the Township can be expanded. If it can not be expanded, the guild will not be given an option to purchase this NPC.
Lookout This NPC will notify the Township guild, through guild chat, when it sees; an opposing kin, opposing chaos/order, a warring guild member, or an enemy of the township(see Township Stone Overview).

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Law Region Overview:
A Township may have three different Law Settings:
Standard normal murder count rules apply
Lawless no murder counts can be given to or received by anyone.
Grant of Authority (requires Emissary NPC) normal murder count rules apply with the exception that the Township Guild may not receive murder counts.

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Township Borders Overview:
Players should receive a notice when entering a Township area. The message generated should be based upon the Guilds name, Activity level of the Township and the law being applied. You have entered the <Activity Level based title> of the <Guild name>. <Applicable Law>.
Activity level based tittles
o Hamlet (Low Activity)
o Village (Medium Activity)
o Township (High Activity)
o City (High Activity)

Guild Name

Applicable Law
o The <Guild name> has received a grant of Authority by Lord British to enforce the law within this <Activity level based title>. (Grant of Authority Setting)
o Lord British enforces the laws within this <Activity level based title>.
o Beware! There are no laws being enforced within this <Activity level based title>!

Examples:
You have entered the village of the Perilous Adventurers Guild. The Perilous Adventurers Guild has received a grant of authority by Lord British to enforce the law within this village.
You have entered the hamlet of the Orcs. Beware! There are no laws being enforced within this hamlet!
You have entered the city of the Serpents Sword. Lord British enforces the laws within this city.

Lastly, when leaving a Township area a message should be displayed. You have left the <Activity Level> of the <guild>. Example: You have left the village of the Perilous Adventurers Guild.

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Township Expense Overview:
The amount of gold a Township requires to operate depends on several factors. The first is the activity level of the Township. The more active a Township becomes, the lower the associated costs. The reasoning behind this is that when a Township becomes active it creates a point of interaction on the shard which is valued by the players and the staff. It also discourages Townships of convenience where very wealthy players seek a Township for the sole purpose of having their very own Animal Trainer (stable). While such Townships of convenience will be possible by the wealthy, it will require a great deal of gold to upkeep. This will eventually draw gold out of the economy or require the Township guild to generate more gold (thus creating interaction -> hunting parties, pk targets, etc).

The second factor in determine expenses for the Township are the type and quantity of Township NPCs placed within the Township. The Township NPCs each have their own pay scale and will add to the weekly upkeep expense of the Township.

In short this system allows guilds to build truly functioning towns that can be tailored to how they desire to run their town.

It should be noted that this system is just the foundation upon which future enhancements will be made.


Daily Fees:

1)No Activity

2)Low Activity

3)Medium Activity

4)High Activity

5)Very High Activity

Base Fee

1) 125000

2) 50000

3) 37500

4) 25000

5) 18750

No Gate Out

1) 10000

2) 10000

3) 10000

4) 10000

5) 10000

No Gate In

1) 10000

2) 10000

3) 10000

4) 10000

5) 10000

No Recall Out

1) 10000

2) 10000

3) 10000

4) 10000

5) 10000

No Recall In

1) 10000

2) 10000

3) 10000

4) 10000

5) 10000

Lawlevel: Lawless

1) 200000

2) 100000

3) 50000

4) 20000

5) 10000

Lawlevel: Authority

1) 500000

2) 250000

3) 125000

4) 50000

5) 25000

Extended Size (towncrier)

1) 125000

2) 50000

3) 37500

4) 25000

5) 18750

NPC Type 1 # #: includes innkeeper, provisioner, trainers, lookout, crier, emissary, evocator

1) 100000

2) 60000

3) 30000

4) 15000

5) 10000

NPC Type 2 % %: includes mage shopkeeper, alchemist shopkeeper

1) 200000

2) 120000

3) 60000

4) 30000

5) 20000

NPC Type 3 ^ ^: includes banker, animal trainer

1) 500000

2) 300000

3) 150000

4) 75000

5) 50000



One-Time charges

Township deed - 2500000 (includes 1250K ‘initial deposit’ into fund)

Change lawlevel to Normal - 50000

Change lawlevel to Lawless - 5000000

Change lawlevel to Authority - 5000000

Change travel rule - 250000

Update Enemy list - 10000

(1)Emissary deed - 1000000
(1)Evocator deed - 1000000
(1)Alchemist deed - 1000000
Innkeeper deed - 1000000
(1)Mage deed - 1000000
Provisioner deed - 1000000
Arms Trainer deed - 1000000
Mage Trainer deed - 1000000
Rogue Trainer deed - 1000000
(2)Banker deed - 20000000
(2)Animal Trainer deed - 2000000


(1)Town Crier deed - 50000000

1: Activity level must be Medium before a township can purchase this deed.
2: Activity level must be High before a township can purchase this deed.

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In order to start the township... all the houses in the area need to be in the same guild. It can be adjusted however Chris sees fit(80% need to be in the guild, etc). Once the township is created, the boundaries are the guilds boundaries.. others couldn’t come in and place a house there unless they were guilded.

And yes, very ambitious. But the code is already done. The system is completely ready if wanted.

Sounds like it could be very interesting and create some dynamic areas of player activity. Several big concerns with it (99% of an area want in 1 doesn't, abuse of count free pk zones, townships over desireable areas such as GYs) but will be interesting see the conversation.

If one doesn't want in.. The guild would have to make him a REALLY good offer to buy his house. Like I said.. Guilds would need to come up with plans to settle an area where they COULD create one. If they are in a place and one guy just refuses to sell.. they'd need to come up with a plan(move elsewhere, etc.).

There wouldn't be any abusing free pk zones. If a township is created by a guild that wants to enforce their laws(Kill people at will)... they probably won't get many visitors.

Township boundaries are only in housing zones. You couldn't have boundaries that spill over into GYs, or other desirable areas. But sure.. a guild could buy up land NEAR desirable areas to have a fun area to create a city... But that's just the same as now as people buy homes near GYs for those purposes. Its just a bigger scale with this system with more opportunities to create events, activities, RPing, etc...

Makes sense and sounds good Talon. I am not sure of the mechanics of something only being a housing zone though with house on the very edge of GYs, but will wait and see! Thanks for the reply.

The township stone has to be placed in your grid boundaries. If the outer boundary overlaps with a GY zone, city zone, or anywhere where you can't place a house.. it won't let you place the township stone. You'd have to place the township stone so that the outer boundary would end right before the GY zone for it to work.

I used to play on Angel Island and I loved the township idea. It would work very well here with our population I've always thought. I hope this gains traction, but off the top of my head Telamon didn't seem too interested or has too much in the works to even worry about it right now. it would be a huge gold sink and awesome for guilds that have a "sphere of influence" sucha s P'S in the Skara Brae area.

The best part about this idea.. It's already fully coded/operational. Obviously, it would take a little extra code to add it into UOR I'm sure, but it's been added on other player servers instantly, so I can't imagine it would take much.

P'S owns the area around the Skara Brae cotton fields that I ran the township of Brimstone in AI. It was awesome!! We had some incredible events there. The bank invasion was by far the best event we ever did there. So much fun! And ZERO staff involvement needed after this system is implemented to create a ton of player run events.

This could be awesome. Could also help get some players their stables , ect. A staff member would not have to do anything since the option is available for the player in charge.

Towns like Occlo would probably get alot of less grief from players since NPC's can be put into more areas creating less foot traffic.

Tons of new event opportunities as well.

Hey nice initials! Thanks for the support.

Keep spreading the word everyone. The more people that chime in the better chance @Chris will take the time to at least consider it.

I remember the township near Despise.... recalling in / out was disabled so intruders had to come in through the mountain pass, and I remember massive back and forth battles in that little pass, it was awesome! I also liked how the town crier npc would tell you if you were in the guild that enemies of the town (banned people from houses) were invading!

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Exactly right. It created a TON of PvP because certain townships would create events and their towncrier would advise them when intruders entered their boundaries.

So many possibilities that we never were able to realize on AI because of such a small population.

However, this system on UOR would be beyond incredible with the number of people here. Faction hotspots anyone? I know people are dying to get that going... Here is an opportunity!

I'll play the neigh -sayer here: Paddy said it all. A dungeon entrance controlled by a township, recall disabled. I see a strong possiblity of several dungeons entrances being put in this position. A abuse of the system. Yes it is true that some PKers have placed houses near dungeons, etc. but they have to be present to know if anyone entered the dungeon. A entire guild occupying a township increases the chances of someone trying to hunt the dungeon, being spotted. Or. someone inside the dungeon trying to out run a pker, falling victim to the none recall issue. I see this problem could arise around many areas in game. Not just dungeons.

This server is not just a pvp server, it is geared for many play styles. Keeping that in mind, please remember that many players here do not enjoy pvp.
Seems this township concepts caters more to the pvp crowd than not.

Anyway, my take on what I read through this thread.

Thanks for posting it, interesting topic.



Marjo: Governess of Wispfelt Village

Westra on IRC

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Yes. You could just recall into a dungeon if some PvP guild was controlling the entrance.

And @newme, thanks for your thoughts.

I assure you this system was used mainly by PvE/RP guilds(at least on AI.. there are more PvE players here it seems like) who loved to put on events and build/create a city their way. PvP guilds definitely had fun with it too though!

Great idea
Would love to see it.

Yes, because they could only disable recalls in their township. But, I think that made it much more expensive and required more money and effort to maintain

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