Please rethink towns

[Potjeh]

I'm gonna go with the unpopular opinion here and say that towns do indeed need rethinking. The current towns are analogous to other MMOs' guilds rather than RL towns. IRL you don't know all the people in your town, let alone trust them. I think there's a niche for a RL town analogue in Salem. Sure, it'd be pointless right now, but with the upcoming changes to transportation that will necessitate living closer together they'd be a welcome addition.

[TotalyMeow]

It's easy to say that towns need rethinking. But what would you put in place of the mechanic we have now? I, for one, wouldn't mind a different setup, but I have no idea what a completely new town mechanic should look like. I know rustles made a stab at it, but he clearly didn't understand the current mechanics when he did. I've seen complaints about town mechanics before but I don't believe I have every seen a good, well thought out alternative.

[trungdle]

Uh, uh i know! Let's get rid of the OP walls and have better looking, more natural towns !

[Rubberduckbandit]

Uh, uh i know! Let's get rid of the OP walls and have better looking, more natural towns !

Pls explain op walls, it takes me 10-20mins on an alt to break most of the standard bases, standard being stone-hedge, with like 10-20 brazier coverage. Unless you're talking about brick, which even then i can break, if i really feel the l3wt is worth it.

[Potjeh]

The towns we have now can stay, except renamed to guild claim or something more appropriate to Salem (plantation claim?). A new town claim could revolve around the light / darkness mechanics, gaining energy from all sorts of activities within it's area and using it to raise civilization rating, strongest at the center and dropping off towards the edges. High civilization rating should give various benefits like reducing chance of mold on board piles or improving gardening RNG etc. More interestingly, certain high-end buildings (cannon foundry, sawmill, etc.) could require a minimum civilization level to allow placing the foundations, or even to operate.

To avoid competing with the guild (plantation?) claim, town claim shouldn't do anything defense-wise. One possible exception could be market claims, which could be built only on town claim and would give everyone (regardless of town membership) the same access rights they have in Providence, except instead of being physically incapable of doing disallowed things you'd just get shot by braziers instead.

The civilization angle is just one way to make towns relevant, I'm sure we could come up with more if we really put our heads to it. In the end it doesn't really matter how it does it, the only thing that's important is what it does: encouraging large numbers of unaffiliated people to settle in close proximity to each other, setting the stage for tons of delicious drama.

[ShadowTani]

I also think Towns need to be made more attractive; not necessarily entirely rethinked though, more like expanded upon - what I mean is, from my impression it doesn't seem like the town concept have changed much in the last three years and it could definitively need some more love by now. It probably won't change my feeling about staying a semi-lone-wolf though, I've tried joining and living in a town last time I played, and I found it a rather poor experience myself, particularly because I'm both more industrious and efficient than the average player so it just ended up holding me back. I care too much I guess, so I end up babysitting everyone. I dunno, I did like OP's idea about having a portion of the p-claims within t-claims get paid to the town though, don't see what's unreasonable with that, though obviously a fair tax to our good King is to be expected.

[Dallane]

I also think Towns need to be made more attractive; not necessarily entirely rethinked though, more like expanded upon - what I mean is, from my impression it doesn't seem like the town concept have changed much in the last three years and it could definitively need some more love by now. It probably won't change my feeling about staying a semi-lone-wolf though, I've tried joining and living in a town last time I played, and I found it a rather poor experience myself, particularly because I'm both more industrious and efficient than the average player so it just ended up holding me back. I care too much I guess, so I end up babysitting everyone. I dunno, I did like OP's idea about having a portion of the p-claims within t-claims get paid to the town though, don't see what's unreasonable with that, though obviously a fair tax to our good King is to be expected.

Sounds like you joined a bad town. You should give it another try and be more selective.

[ShadowTani]

Sounds like you joined a bad town. You should give it another try and be more selective.

That is more than likely, though I've grown too fond of my current "Academy" base (for wiki research!) to let go of it. xD I'll have to raise alts to check skill unlocks etc. for the wiki anyway down the road though, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to join a town with one of those if that idea end up intriguing me enough (shouldn't hurt the town as I'll be industrious on that alt too), though it should be said that additional town features and concepts would definitively make that idea more appealing than it is now.