[CF List] castles and guilds

[Todd Mitchell]

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      > I think this is a good idea, not so much for taking
     
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      > money out of the game as for building community. [...]
     
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      > I would like to see [...] homey kind of perks to obtain
     
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      > like display cases and servants and extra levels (perhaps
     
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      > even a random dungeon below?) and portals. I can invision
     
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      > a variety of houses from a small keep to a large castle
     
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      > with creators for things like servants and guards, display
     
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      > cases, additional levels, guardian beasts (for show), portals
     
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      > and other permanent furniture.
     
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      All of these ideas are very nice. I'm not sure how
     
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      exactly you envision to realize them, but I think you
     
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      could create much of that without the need for real
     
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      game/code-changes.
     
     
Actually ALL of these design ideas I can currently do with the CFJavaEditor.
I have a four level keep (six maps counting the grounds and the roof) and
just have to find time to add in the guards, servants, a few more perks here
and there and set the altars and test it out.  I started it before the
guilds were introduced, as a club house for my players (the Royal Order of
Kameria) but incorporated/expanded a lot of what I saw on the guild maps -
but with a different focus.
The only need for code changes for castles would be to automate placing the
castles and changing the keys and exits to work.  Since this can be gotten
around by running the maps files through a find and replace and dropping a
bunch around the world maps for the meanwhile - castles can be done pretty
fast. - this was my point.   No need to wait/hope for a in game editor.  I
could have something polished up in a week or so.  Biggest pain is setting
the prices for things (how much for castle, for each extra floor, for a
guard, for a fancy doodad...should make some things quest items instead of
cash...)

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      You could extend the existing guild houses, or add new ones.
     
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      Raise the prices, add new rooms, always charging a good fee
     
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      of course. Even the guardian beast idea could be realized
     
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      with a few teleporters and stuff.
     
     
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      The big advantage about this is you could do it right away.
     
     
 Exactly.

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      Fees for guilds could really work out fine.
     
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      Unfortunately, it is very difficult to implement IMO,
     
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      and the real impact on the CF economy is probably small.
     
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      So, the main problem might just be motivating
     
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      somone to code this fee system... ;-)
     
     
Ya but I think there is something in python that has been done which could
be extended for this.  I am going to look at the stuff Joris Bontje has done
since it sounds promising- but my coding abilities are sparse still.  It can
wait a bit - better not to rush things- still a lot of conversation to do on
this.  It would be a lot easier to do this than to build an in game editor
however and the posts were flying around already about taxes and banks and
scroll to build castles and stuff.  Anyway this message was more a
philosophical one about creating differences between guilds and castles.  I
was won over about the pain for gain arguments and personal taxes and dont'
like the idea anymore, but do think that there are some things shouldn't be
sold outright (like a guild) - but which should come with an ongoing burden
of upkeep.  It won't fix the economy but it would provide some community
atmosphere and add some goals if you go for that sort of thing.

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      Maybe just having many "expanding-features" for sale
     
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      inside the guild houses would do well enough?
     
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      The price can be insane high, so that players really
     
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      have to work a while in order to afford it.
     
     
Yes, this will certainly suffice for now.  I can see jacking up the price
for guilds as a good first start.  (I have one player who has footed the
bill for an entire guild - roping in two others just to stand on the
platforms - and solved almost all the addon features already and only took
him a couple weeks of playing.  This illustrates the problem I think.

-tm