Thanks everyone for responding in this thread. The original issue that I was concerned about when I started this thread has been mostly addressed in this Q&A by Prometheus here
I wanted to thank Dynamight and Prometheus for taking the time to honestly assess player feedback and concerns. Going to keep an eye on how all these plans will be implemented into the game and continue to give feedback!
I guess you are all pretty passionate about your opinions on MMOs lol. It's a debatable hot topic for sure but this thread wasn't started with the idea of trying to make a war of "group players vs solo players". I was merely stating that if Fractured was trying to find a middle ground between supporting solo players vs group players, then they should offer the community the tools to do so instead of trying to force any permissions settings. And it seems like so far they do have fair ideas about that, so I'm not as worried now
Please watch the Q&A if you haven't yet before any further replies here!
With these changes, exactly how much control would a governor be able to have over a territory, including residential areas? Are the residential areas pretty much "free" from any permissions control, except for a possible tax rate? Would a governor be able to allow or deny someone's claim to the residential area plot, just like a city personal plot?
The cities and personal plots being "safe spots from PvP." Will this also be the case on Tartaros, the full-loot PvP planet? Because that would be absolutely miserable. Keep in mind. I am not talking about Arboreus, or Syndesia, where sometimes people would want to pvp and sometimes they wouldn't. I am talking about Tartaros, a planet where everyone who chooses to play there is already wanting full loot PVP 24/7. Knowing the "competitive attitude" that will arise there, not being able to fight enemies in your own city would be a complete and utter nightmare. Can you imagine the toxicity that would go on in Local chat? Please tell us that Tartaros will have different rules, and if so, then what will it be like?
My Feedback:
Yes I understand there are solo players, and there are group players, and that MMOs will include both. That's not the argument here. I highly disagree with the city's crafting stations just being open to all to use. It needs to have permission settings that can be controlled by a governor. I've outlined a few examples of why in another thread, that I will just copy and paste here.
A city that chooses to be citizens-only needs to make sure that they continuously work on their city's upkeep in order to enjoy the benefits of ranking up. If they do not have the required amount of citizens (and people don't want to settle in their residential areas because they are unfriendly), then it is their own choice. They would have to recruit more players in order to rank up their city. But then they would also be able to feel more secure and accomplished in their city, because they are the ones directly benefitting from their own work/efforts. They know that they are responsible for the defending of their cities against siege/raids as well.
If a governor chooses to be an open city, then they can also choose to be welcoming to all and try to build up a good environment in their territory, so that "solo" players will want to settle near them and contribute to their territory. Since the outer residential areas aren't affected by city conquest, what incentive is there for an outside resident to help protect their nearby city? If the controlling governor is the one who sets whether the city is open or closed, then this would also lead to the "solo players" having an interest in helping to protect this territory, since it is a governor who supports the playstyle they want. If the governor changes the permissions on them, the residents should be able to leave and go elsewhere.
Right now with what we've been shown in the video, it looks like a hardworking group will take the time and effort to build up a city, and then others who don't want to put in the same time and effort can just join in on the benefits without any of the possible disadvantages like losing the city. Are we just not getting the full picture? Please explain what you plan to do to prevent leeching.
@Shivashanti Unfortunately that's not an option since the city is a "safe zone" and the personal plots even in the residential area will be "safe zones." There is NOTHING stopping someone from claiming a plot in the residential area and then just zip back and forth from the city to their personal plot in almost complete safety while leeching off of the work that the actual city owners have done. They wouldn't even need to worry/care about/contribute to the city sieges, because it wouldn't affect their residential plot at all.
Would be completely different if we could pvp within the city, and within the residential plots. Then it maybe could be solved by pure pvp.
@Shivashanti Are you also assuming that if the governors are able to decide for themselves whether cities are "open" or "citizens only" then nobody would decide to open their city?
Nowhere have I said that the option shouldn't exist. What I am saying is that by limiting it to only one out of two options then it cuts out a ton of the in-game interaction. Yes, having some open cities would be good for the longevity of the game. But also having some closed cities is needed as well. It should be up to the PLAYERS to decide, it should not be forced to be completely only one way or the other. Those who put in the work to build and rank up their city should gain benefits.
Yes, I understand that there will be solo players IN an MMO. However, there is still no reason why these permissions should not be left up to each city's governor instead of a mandated setting by the game.
Unless the worry would be that no governor would set their city to "Open." In that case, do you know why? It would be because it is NOT beneficial to the governor and actual citizens at all, so no governor would want it!
Hello, this is in response to the Winter Alpha 2021 Spotlight #2: City Overhaul
While I understand that changes were made to "make solo play more viable," in the end, Fractured is supposed to be a sandbox MMO. Group work and group effort should be rewarded.
Having the crafting stations for cities be open to use by anyone is too drastic of a change. It takes away the accomplishment of building up a city, because now when you build it up, then everyone around you benefits instead of only the people who actually worked on ranking up the city.
I suggest that Dynamight lets the governors decide whether their city will be "open" or "citizens-only" when they claim a city. This solves the issues in several ways.
A city that chooses to be citizens-only needs to make sure that they continuously work on their city's upkeep in order to enjoy the benefits of ranking up. If they do not have the required amount of citizens (and people don't want to settle in their residential areas because they are unfriendly), then it is their own choice. They would have to recruit more players in order to rank up their city. But then they would also be able to feel more secure and accomplished in their city, because they are the ones directly benefitting from their own work/efforts. They know that they are responsible for the defending of their cities against siege/raids as well.
If a governor chooses to be an open city, then they can also choose to be welcoming to all and try to build up a good environment in their territory, so that "solo" players will want to settle near them and contribute to their territory. Since the outer residential areas aren't affected by city conquest, what incentive is there for an outside resident to help protect their nearby city? If the controlling governor is the one who sets whether the city is open or closed, then this would also lead to the "solo players" having an interest in helping to protect this territory, since it is a governor who supports the playstyle they want. If the governor changes the permissions on them, the residents should be able to leave and go elsewhere.
This is something that should be up to the players, not something set by the devs. Please take this feedback into account. I have loved playing Fractured so far, and I feel that the decision to make the crafting stations like the Forge, etc, open to all without having an option to choose not to do so, would kill a huge part of interaction in the game.
Not sure if this was intended or not, but after toggling as "Aggressive", it keeps kicking me back to non-aggressive automatically when I ride through both claimed and unclaimed town territories. Then I need to manually toggle Aggressive again, and then it kicks me out again when I reach the next town. Very frustrating as a PVP player, I hope it's not intended!
Governor applied to claim a city and we signed up as supporters, but he canceled his claim to pick a different location. However all the supporters are stuck as "already supporting a different claim" and are unable to cancel our original one. Governor went back to the original location and applied to claim it again, but now that shows as 0 supporters and we are still stuck lol.
Hello, here's my feedback so far on some of the new features:
Alignment system
Basic implementation is great so far! Really glad we can toggle evil alignment now and start testing it.
Unsure of how evil alignment + militia works at this point. If you join a militia and are also evil alignment you can attack those in the same militia as well, but does that mean you do not get negative karma for attacking those in different militias?
Suggestion: Have alignment be tied to guild somehow just like militia. I think it may be problematic if all alignments can be in the same guild. Hoping that there are future plans to deal with this!
New Graphics:
The game looks great! Really enjoying the new graphics.
The Aggression "Toggle"- I understand that it was a bug to be unable to interact with the environment when it was on, but with that topic.... can we possibly get a separate "Combat Mode" toggle that makes us unable to interact with the environment?? It is a quality of life thing so we do not start picking branches while fighting treants or pick up mushrooms while in a pvp death battle.
Friendly-fire: I think it's a good idea to have friendly fire, but maybe more abilities should actually be impacted. For example, Ice Spikes is not considered a friendly-fire ability, when we can randomly cast it into a group without having to be concerned about positioning.
Certain spells being able to crit is also a great addition so far!
Thank you Dynamight Team for this surprise testing opportunity! Looking forward to the longer test in February!
Can we have another toggle key that DOES block interactions with world items, as a "Combat Mode" type of feature? So that we don't suddenly pick up a dandelion in the middle of battle xD
Not sure if this is the same issue, but it seems that there is sometimes an issue with heals not working on a character and then the only way to fix it is the character relogging. It may have to do with frenzy being used, as I have seen it with melee/archer characters only so far.
Hello, I am not sure if this is a bug or oversight since this is the first test with Metalworking. Right now there is an option in the forge and advanced forge to make metal arrowheads, however, after crafting them there is no option to make Metal arrows. There are only options for Bone arrows or Stone arrows. I checked the individual player crafting menu, the Fletching table menu, and the Forge menu, as well as the Woodworking Table just in case the option was somewhere other than the Fletching table. Still couldn't find the option for Metal Arrows.
@Kralith It is fixed, however after harvesting the clover you need to re-open the soil nutrition tab. Either click over to Crops tab and click back, or close the window and open it again. It is not like the other crops where the Soil Nutrition window changes instantly.
+1 to this suggestion. I don't mind loading the packs one by one going from the Storage to my cart, that's a little tedious but still fine, however having the menu default opening to the Crafting package tab instead of the Storage tab is quite frustrating, especially if I am already having to load a full cart of grain/protein packs individually.
If it somehow opened the other way around, opening default to the Storage tab and then you have to click the Crafting Package menu to craft packs, that would be quite a bit less frustrating. Or perhaps maybe if you click the part where the packs are visually stored then it opens the Storage tab, and clicking the actual Table opens the Crafting menu? If that is easier to implement it may also be a good solution in my opinion.