Mercenary NPCs

Mercenary NPCs can be hired to participate in objective-based situations.

• Varying tiers of mercenary NPCs may be unlocked based on the investment made in their progression. Highest tier NPC mercenaries are referred to as heros.
  • Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.
  • Nodes can invest in upgrade paths that give a greater selection of roles and quality (gear level) of NPC mercenaries used for caravan defense.
  • NPC mercenaries can be hired to participate in castle sieges based on the allocation made by the governing castle and how successful they have been defending their castle nodes.
  • These mechanics are subject to change based on testing and priorities.
• Players can assign mercenary NPCs, but won't micromanage them, in a similar manner to pets.

There are mercenary NPCs that can be assigned to players. We've discussed about that before and those will follow generically... a kind of pet system even you know adopted majority of the pet system with the added bonus of kind of objective based points of interest that you can assign them to. But we don't want to inundate the field with these mercenaries they'll be kind of few and far between. They'll be assigned specifically like let's say for example you know as the mayor of a node during a siege you'll be able to assign these two specific players that are citizens within your node and then they'll have those they'll spawn during the during the node siege; or vice versa and the castle siege you know guild leaders can assign mercenaries that are available based on the progress of those subsidiary nodes around the castle siege whether or not you have those available to your defense or your attack. – Steven Sharif

Freehold security

A permissions system will enable an owner to grant access to specific parts of their housing.

• Ability to open the door and enter the home.
• Access to crops.
• Ability to deposit or withdraw items from storage containers.
• Permission to use furniture or crafting stations.

A property has a single owner.

• Marriage enables family size to increase by one so that housing access can be shared.
• Access lists can be used to mimic co-ownership.
• Payment of taxes may be via a "gentleman's agreement".
• Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

It'll be a single owner based system for those types of properties- for properties in general, but it doesn't prevent players obviously from you know collaborating and pooling resources in order to achieve certain achievements in the game. – Steven Sharif

Players cannot steal from a freehold under normal circumstances.

• Items stored in a Freehold may become lootable after a successful siege against their parent Node.

Players cannot PvP while inside (the footprint of) a freehold (except following a successful node siege).

• Duels may be initiated within a freehold or node as they are considered self-contained events that are opt-in by all parties, and do not fall under the player flagging system.

The freehold is intended to be a protected area unless there is a siege and the town gets destroyed. If the town gets destroyed, the freehold's up for grabs and it becomes a PvP area. – Steven Sharif

• NPC guards may be available for hire to defend freeholds after a successful node siege. NPC guards that permanently exist on a freehold are not a planned feature.

Q: We were discussing in chat earlier about freeholds and whether or not a person would be safe in their home or within the entirety of their freehold from getting player killed?

A: I think our initial testing is going to revolve around the footprint of their freehold and then we'll take into consideration the metrics gleaned from that testing. – Steven Sharif

Permission to decorate a freehold is restricted to the owner of the freehold.

• Previously it was stated that permission to decorate but not take anything from the house would be able to be assigned to other players.

See also

• NPC guards
• Sieges
• Freeholds
• Hired NPCs