Vol 13 Issue 17 - More Warcraft

Hi all,

This last week has been more of the same. Builders continue to work in the background on Laketown and other various systems. Our crafts list continues to grow on a daily basis and we're hashing out some issues with staff-run clans to make them easier for players to get involved with.

As usual, most of my time has been spent on the Warcraft system. We've got the bulk of complicated systems in place. Our operational systems right now include transfering of six different types of troops (Defenders, Scouts, Archers, Gatherers, Engineers and Medics) from an army's home base out to any of their existing remote strongholds. Transfers can be ordered back to the home base as well, in case you need to shift some troops around or you're sure you're going to lose the position no matter what. Take note that transfers are not instant, there is a delay of one hour for every troop that you move. For instance, if you order a transfer of 20 defenders and 4 Gatherers back home, these 24 troops will be in a transfer state and one per hour will report in at your home base. It works the same way when transfering from home out to the remote location. After 12 hours, half of your troops will have reported in and be available and 12 more will still be in the transfer queue.

I've done a complete re-write of how we're going to load mobiles for defense and acting as doorkeepers within the remote stronghold. The new system is much cleaner than the original and outfitting is done automatically rather than having to outfit each npc one at a time as they load. I'm also being forced to do away with the system to allow players to set clanning of these mobs as they see fit. I was basing this option off the fact that copying a mobile would also copy over their clanning, which, it seems, the system does not do. It's just as well. It makes the system more straight forward and takes away a rather confusing set of commands that players would have had to deal with when setting clanning.

The npc resource gathering system is fully functional now as well. Three cheers for Gatherers! In default areas a gatherer will be able to collect one log, a half piece of iron ore, food and water for three soldiers, a large rock and 10 feet of rope. What's more, we're allowing for areas of Central Mirkwood to hold more or less of the six resources. That means if you park your palisade on an iron-rich location that instead of the half piece of iron ore per gatherer, you may find your gatherers collecting one or two each day. On the flip side of this, that iron-rich area may not have as much wood, or food. I've finished the craft and associated craft prog to let you scout out the rooms of Central Mirkwood as well. This craft will allow you to determine how much can be gathered per day in these rooms and lists the outputs for all six resources (logs, iron, food, water, rocks, and rope).

The resource collection system also has a manual output that you can use to withdraw actual items from your palisade's stores if they are available. This will allow you to either use the resource to further strengthen your stronghold or use for other things, such as building seige engines, weapons, armor or whatnot.

NPC engineers are fully operational as well when it comes to the walls of your palisade. Should your engineers discover that your palisade walls have been damaged, each one will be dispatched each hour to execute repairs. How much is repaired is dependant on how many engineers you have in the position. Please note that an engineer making repairs to your walls will only add approximately 75% of the hit points that an actual player would add when running the repair craft, so it's in your best interests to do as many of these yourself as you can. Engineers will stop repairs as soon as the Maximum HP is reached. Player though, may extend a position's Max HP by executing the proper craft.

Movement of your palisade is also fully functional now as well. Travel in the four cardinal directions is possible as long as there is not another palisade in the room you are travelling to and it has been at least 24 hours since the position has moved and you are not currently being attacked by the enemy.

Attacking the palisade has been working for quite some time and now so too, is the loading of a breach object which allows direct access in to the position by the enemy. As soon as a position's hit point value drops below 10%, it is considered breached and the enemy may flood in. Be careful though! If you're breaching a position and you enter as soon as the breach appears it's possible that you may get cornered inside if the engineers in the position make enough repairs on the position to block the breach! Your best bet is to continue attacking the walls well after you've reached 10% and then enter.

Another thing I've gotten done this week is the absolute destruction of a position when it has been overrun. From the mirkwood room you may 'destroy stronghold', and if the position is empty it will set it ablaze and will no longer be available for the original owner to enter. They'll have to re-deploy a new position and start from scratch at their palisade starting position. Make note here as well, that if there are resources within the position and you confirm the destroy command, all of those resources will be gone. It will give you a warning that there are resources and if you wish, you can re-enter the position and pilfer all the gathered goods and haul back to your own position.

There are a few different ways to flee a fight as well when you're within, or right ouside a palisade. If you are an enemy standing within mirkwood you can use the regular flee command to get away. If you're trying to get in to the palisade, i.e. it's a friendly position and you're under attack you can flee towards the position. If you're actually standing at the walls of the position and want to flee indoors, you can do that as well. If you're an enemy standing at the walls of the position you can flee away.

Things I'll be working on this week:

Auto loading of defender NPCs when an enemy enters the breach. Mob progs to load more mobiles as they are defeated by the enemy, i.e. if five enemy soldiers enter the stronghold five mobiles will be loaded, and as each mobile is defeated it will load two more. This means that an enemy swarming a compromised position won't get ganked immediately upon entry, but that the fight will escalate as time goes on.

For our initial tests I will not be fully developing the recruit system for npc soldiers, but instead will slowly stream a number of available soldiers to each army each day. The initial starting numbers will be sufficient for each side to actually make war, but it will require some good plans and dedication to win.

Setting ambushes. Since each position sends out a resource gathering party each day, these soldiers will be available to be attacked by the enemy periodically. The ambush command will take in to account player's limited play times and rather than having to wait for hours on end for a resource patrol, if there's one scheduled within the next 24 hours they will be able to draw it out and engage with minimal delay. Be careful though... if you spring a trap on these soldiers it's pretty close to the palisade so they can call for help. If there are PC's within the position, they may come running out to help defend as well. It'll be a gamble for both sides, so be ready for some action.

I will be adding a function to allow the palisade owner to disable resource runs if they feel it's in their best interests. This would safeguard the troops, but would stop the flow of food, water and other basic resources. Be careful... if your npcs run out of food they won't fight as hard and may just decide to return to home base on their own to eat.

I'll also be working on the casualty system and mobile AI. Be aware that when you are battling npc mobiles that you most likely won't actually kill them, but if you wound them enough they will become a casualty and retreat back to their position on their own. If they are wounded they will be placed on the casualty list and be unavailable to take part in combat. Depending on the number of medics you have in your position that are active a wounded mobile may be healed and ready for action again within 4 hours all the way up to a few days. In time you'll be able to transfer your casualties back home if you like, and a local pc healer may be able to hasten their healing. (that bit won't be up and running for initial testing, but it's the plan.)

Taking prisoners is a huge part of warcraft and I'll be hashing out the basics of this sometime this week as well. It likely won't be part of our initial testing, but I'll have the basic framework in place prior to testing.

Thanks, as always, to our dedicated team of builders and admins. We couldn't do this without you and appreciate you all very much.

Believe,

Nim

Builder News:
09/25/2015 Updated all suede squares to have separate dyed versions to prevent variable monsters from eating my mental cords. Rishte
09/24/2015 Added several checks on warcraft, to check for resources and troops in a position before destroying it. Nimrod
09/24/2015 Added DESTROY STRONGHOLD prog that completely wipes the position off the map. May be initiated by anyone once the hit points have dropped to zero. (FYI - will not work if any players or npcs are inside, will have to remove or kill them all prior to final destruction.) -Nim Nimrod
09/24/2015 Working on scout resources craft for warcraft. Output will show resources gathered per day in Central Mirkwood. (This is per person). Nimrod
09/24/2015 Updated some output for staff when looking at a stronghold, added some echoes when engineers make repairs to the position. Nimrod
09/21/2015 Like writing? What about chalkboards? Language studying crafts with corresponding objects now live and available. Have fun! Rishte
09/21/2015 A... B... C... writing chalkboards now available for practicing your letters if you've the skill and money. Rishte
09/21/2015 Another education craft for repairing damaged study books. Rishte
09/20/2015 24 new study books available with 12 crafts to study said books. New craft available for making a cloth book, as well. Rishte