Prison.

[Feone]

I'd like to propose adding a new mechanic to Salem, prisons.

Prison would be a fairly endgame mechanic, accessible to towns. Towns would be able to convert an area into a prison camp by extending a special claim over it. Possibly a new type of town claim marker.

Towns with a prison give a new option on KOed players. "Imprison" Upon activating this the unfortunate soul gets sent into the town prison. Doing this to characters KO-ed off town claim would leave a slavery scent. Summonable, but less severe than murder. Doing it to characters KOed on the town claim would not leave a scent.

Within the prison claim a new "Cell" marker would be placable. Each cell marker would function as a temporary homestead of the prisoner. Functioning as their respawn point if they KO in prison but not allowing them to teleport to boston from inside.

Imprisonment would spawn the victim within the prison area, possibly at a default location marker.
Once in the prison the KOed victim can be sentenced by a town member. Punishment would be in the form of performing work. Mining boulders, chipping stuff, chopping trees, etc. After sentencing is complete the victim would respawn at an unoccupied cell marker within the prison.
Completing the relevant actions within the prison claim would automatically count towards completing the sentence. Once the sentence is completed the victim gets to respawn at his homestead automatically.

The imprisoned state would apply the following effects:
1) Logging out would be prohibited. The character remains online untill it either gets killed, freed or completes it's sentence.
2) No teleportation to boston or homestead.
3) Allowed trespassing and larceny within the prison claim, in order to complete their tasks.
4) Able to commit waste on the town claim without needing a trial by fire. However, this would count as a criminal act and defenses should respond accordingly.
5) Automatic teleport to freedom upon completion of sentence.

Things that remain unaffected:
Imprisoned characters can be murdered, attacked, KOed like any other. Including by other prisoners.
Imprisoned characters can do anything they normally could, except for things listed above. Including attacking their captors.

Why?
Because tormenting victims is a great source of tears.

Additional notes:
Adding a type of wall segment that allows for transfering containers would be nice. Both the prisoners and their captors would be able to put containers in, or take them out. The wall segment would be weaker than other segments as a downside.

Prisoners should have a new interface window to see their remaining sentence.

The construction of prisons:
Building a prison in such a way that it's secure is entirely up to the town. The only assistance they get is the option to teleport their victims into it for sentencing and to teleport the sentenced victims onto jail markers. If the prison isn't secure, it's the towns problem.

The sentence doesn't neccesarily have to be completable within the prison. A KOed character is at the mercy of it's attackers regardless. If they are imprisoned with no way out it's no worse than death. It's up to the town to decide if they want to allow the victims to complete their tasks, or if they just want to make it into an inescapable petting zoo trap.

[Dallane]

There is already a thread with this idea.

[Thor]

Great idea! +1

[nonsonogiucas]

I like very much the idea!
Especially the part where the convict is asked to perform a labor.

Two things come to mind:

1) No need to have quite that much automation, given the appropriate mechanics make their way into the game the rest can be done by players.
2) If and when those mechanics are there you could use them for a lot of things other than prisons.

I have only a vague idea at the moment, but I'll try to list the minimum required mechanics to implement the prison-thing:

a - Ability to move a knocked out character to an area of your choosing (lift could do just fine), denying him respawn elsewhere. (this would need carefully planned constraints to prevent undesired behaviors)
b - Ability to create a special claim/area inside a town for the purpose of defining which actions are legal and which are not, including the restriction on travel (need to define the granularity)
c - Ability to set up a number of custom town member "roles" with permissions that are tied to the area/s in c (one of them would be "convict")
d - Some kind of way to "regulate" the movement of items between containers.

I don't see the need for automatic porting in or out of the prison area where specific conditions are met... if the purpose of the town is punishment I don't see why a prisoner should be able to free himself by playing all the night and fulfilling his work... he can wait a day for the guard to release him.

About item (d), I am not sure it is necessary to have a mean of transferring items in and out of a walled area, players acting as "guards" should be required to enter the prison area to manage the resources and processed items if they want the convicts to work.

However it could prove useful to have containers that can be set to be unmovable and/or input-only (in town), unless you have the key.

All of the above could be used for other purposes too.
You could set up a temporary area to allow new members to build (or destroy) something only in that area. Another area could be set up as training grounds, or fighting arena. Input only unmovable containers could be placed around the church to accept item offerings.

[Feone]

I think the automation is a good idea because it'd be far too much work coordinating & keeping track of the prisoner without it. A bunch of ore boulders wouldn't be worth the hassle etc.

Having the sentences fixed-ish within the game also doesn't require the town to constantly update each member about the prisoners and when to release them etc. It also gives the captive a goal to work towards knowing that they'll be free even if their captor isn't around.

Keeping dangerous characters captive should also, imo, be an option. Having to stand next to them to revive them in the prison would probably be too much risk for most. Especially if there are multiple prisoners. The teleports make jailing them a bit more convenient without having to limit the prisoners in their characters abilities.

Edit, as for the container transfer thing:

Getting the results of the labour / giving them food would be extremely dangerous. Especially if you've locked up a developped char. They would have a chance to murder you in the small prison space with each transfer. No item is worth that risk.
Making it too much of a hassle would prevent it being worthwhile.

[nonsonogiucas]

Getting the results of the labour / giving them food would be extremely dangerous. Especially if you've locked up a developped char. They would have a chance to murder you in the small prison space with each transfer. No item is worth that risk.
Making it too much of a hassle would prevent it being worthwhile.

Isn't it a tad op this way?
And how did you KO that char if you can't handle him by the way?

I don't think that a mechanic that allows for zerging and capturing of highly developed characters would be welcome. Isn't it a substitute for murder without murder-scents?

To prevent abuse you would have it all to be automatic.. you would have to set up the kind of labour ahead of time, provide the raw materials (accounting for wasted materials) and tools and then apprehend a character for that specific labour (given how most activities work in the game it would be a real hassle to code I promise)...

Also if every prisoner must have an automatic mean of escape, why bother leaving scents to track down to the prison? The scents would be needed for his friends to try and break him out of prison, which would take a lot more time than do the labour and be out automatically...

[Feone]

I agree it should not be entirely risk free. However, there is a big difference between KOing someone in the field and being in a small, enclosed space with them while carrying a container.

Regular item transfering impairs your ability to defend yourself. Thus doing it near enemies is a plain bad idea. Hence the idea for a trough-wall transfer option.

The automatic means of escape is also not required. You could just ask them to do something that's not possible in the space. However, if you do give them the option to work themselves free then I don't see why you should have to manually get near to release them. Having a concrete goal to work towards also motivates players to actually finish the sentence. Assuming they were given something worthwhile/doable.

If my character were captured and given a doable task then I wouldn't trust them to release me if I had to ask when it's done. I'd probably do the task if they weren't around at that moment and I knew it'd free me once its done though.

[Rifmaster]

-1 Because people would just log out in prison.
And as you say "you can't log out" Dude there's a big red X in the top right that u can click anytime to get out of the game.

[Zibens]

Newbies getting K/Oed and putted into Jails, and getting enslaved?

[Feone]

-1 Because people would just log out in prison.
And as you say "you can't log out" Dude there's a big red X in the top right that u can click anytime to get out of the game.

You sir, are an idiot.

Of course the client can be closed, however the character would very much stay in game.