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State of the World

Server Changelog

Client Updates

Wed 11th June 2008

Most of the major changes covered in our previous State of the World, such as Ballistics, PvP loot, autorent etc., are now up and running but we're particularly excited about some upcoming features that we've been rather quiet about and that are now nearing completion.

Changes due next:

Jobs and the Labour Exchange
Wondering what to do next? Need to earn some sesterces? Need some help finishing a project? This feature is for you! Players will soon be able to advertise parts of a project task that they'd like completed in return from some payment. Other players will be able to check the local job listings in-game and look through a 'global' labour exchange web page and instantly find tasks for which their skills and/or resources are best suited. If you see a job advertised for which you are qualified you can retrieve a waypoint to that project site and simply go and add components directly, without requiring the presence of the project owner, and you'll be automatically paid for each component successfully added without degrading the project quality.
Rumours
Whenever a new player completes an Attending task they'll be told a rumour. If a more advanced non-Attending player is standing nearby at the time then this rumour will be tailor-made for that player. This means that in return for helping new players complete Attending tasks veteran players can get something they themselves want. In many cases (such as the veteran player holding high combat skills) it will effectively amount to dynamic combat quest generation. A hostile NPC (or group of hostile NPC's) may be spawned nearby and directions hinted at. The most advanced combat players might get (via the Attending player) valuable information such as the location of hostile camps or even the nearest hostile online player! It's not just combat-orientated players that will benefit from these rumours either - even hunters and crafters will receive worthwhile rumours if they're near enough to an Attending player when he/she completes a task for the Master/Elder!
Villages
There has been some excellent discussion on the forums recently and it's really helped us finish off something we've been working on quietly for a while now. After Villages have been implemented, any member of a Tribe will be able to construct a hovel in wilderness boards that do not normally support construction. Any of their guildmates can subsequently construct a project in that same board so long as it is within a couple of hundred meters of the hovel. Players will also be limited to one structure/store/device in any particular wilderness board.
The really fun part comes in the effects of combat in these wilderness boards. Any Roman Citizen dying on the board before the hovel is completed will, regardless of the project's progress, automatically and fully complete the hovel project!
After the hovel is complete any deaths on the board will have consequences on its quality. Deaths of Roman Slaves and NPC's will cause increases (Citizens causing the biggest increases, then Slaves and then NPC's). Deaths of Barbarian players and NPC's (again, less so than players) will cause increases. If at any point the hovel's quality falls below zero then the oldest barbarian structure/device/store on the board (excluding the hovel) will be destroyed and the hovel's quality level reset. If no other structure exists then the hovel itself will be destroyed.
Additionally structures in the board (including the hovel itself) will be susceptible to 'manual' vandalism, where Roman players can use their weapons to attack and degrade the structure itself - although this process is usually much, much slower. Vandalism can only occur if there are no barbarian NPC's around and no enemy players online, outside and in the area.
Patrols
Whenever a Roman soldier leaves a wilderness board, that board will be checked. If there are no Barbarians, no Barbarian structures and no bandits remaining in the board then the board will be flagged as Roman, the soldier will be credited 50 sesterces, a corresponding news item will be posted and, almost in real-time, the online territory map will be updated to reflect the board's status. Simply exploring the map can now generate some modest income and claim territory for Rome! Of course if you encounter bandits or Barbarians on your patrols then you'll have to do more than just pass through to call your patrol successful and earn your pay! Note that every soldier taking part on the patrol will be paid so it's most efficient to patrol in groups - and note also that soldiers can only be paid once per game day per board patrolled.
Territorial conquest
As alluded to by the above two features, it's all about land! If you take a look at this map you'll see that some boards are considered Roman, some are considered Barbarian and, right now, most are considered 'contested'. Any wilderness board containing Barbarian-owned structures or Barbarian NPC's will be considered Barbarian. Any wilderness board that has recently seen a successful Patrol will be considered Roman. Control of other types of boards comes by the usual mechanism of guildhall construction and board category transitions. As soon as the first three features listed here are complete the above map will be properly linked up and will start to keep itself up-to-date.
Guildhall damage and destruction
Vandalism can be applied to breached guildhalls and eventually a sufficiently damaged guildhall will collapse, thereby returning the deed to the guildmaster of the guild in question, perhaps stripping them of their LLM power and doubtless having a substantial effect on local power struggles. Players will be able to protect their guildhalls from vandalism and destruction by ensuring that neighbouring boards are under their faction's control (see above).