by Jason Cheek
The process went much quicker this time around since I didn’t get all the pop-up messages for the extra bonuses for being the First Settler or the First to create a Village. As soon as I finished, I pulled up my Character Menu and found the new Property Management Tab. Excitedly I began going through the available options. The Property Management area was immense. Sub-tabs for Land Management, NPC Populations, Player Populations, NPC Recruiter, Buildings, Available Upgrades, Quest Generator, Head Hunter List, Known Factions, Resources, Trade Agreements, Treaties, and Alliances. There was way too much stuff to go through everything right now, but I wanted to have an idea of what was available so I could start making plans for the future. There was no doubt in my mind that it was the Nightmare quest that had opened up all of these options for me.
The three areas I was most interested in were Buildings, Available Upgrades, and NPC Recruiter. The Building options I now had available were mind-boggling. The tech tree that popped up give me a list of the Basic Buildings available: Alchemy Shop, Barn, Chicken Shack, Docks, Enchanting Shop, Farm, Fishing Shack, Healing House, Herb Garden, House, Jewelry Shop, Kitchen, Library, Lumber Camp, Mining Camp, Rune Shop, Shrine, Smithy, Tailor Shop, Tavern, Training Camp, Tannery and Trading Post. Clicking on each building gave me a short description of what they helped to produce and brought me to the next level of the tech tree that was currently grayed out. Swearing for a second, I tried to think how I could save the information into a list when at my thought the interface brought up a virtual keyboard in front of me for taking notes. There was also an option to click a mic to make a recording, but I used the notepad since I wanted to sit down and think this through when I had a chance. How convenient. Tapping in the empty air before me, I started typing out my notes. My condensed list for the level of the Advance Buildings available for me to build looked like this: Apothecary, Armory, Barracks, Brickworks, Brewery, Cookhouse, Engineering Shop, Fishery, Granary, Gem House, Harbor, Hen House, Infirmary, Inn, Laboratory, Market, Metal Works, Mill, Mine, Plantation, Quarry, Ranch, Scholarly, Stables, Textile Mill, Winery, Workshop and Temple. These were the direct counterparts to the Basic Buildings. Although not every building was a straight connection and some, like the Smithy, had multiple add-ons.
Some of the Advanced Buildings had multiple pre-requisite Basic Buildings that had to be constructed first. Even more amazing to me was the realization that this wasn’t the only two tech levels. From every Advance Building, I could see there were additional tech trees lines running to even more Advance Buildings that weren’t yet visible, which made sense since nothing listed here brought me to the level of a castle. I could feel the excitement building inside of me as I went through the various menus. This opened up a whole new level of possibilities for the end game and made having your own land essential for any guild that wanted to truly experience The World in full glory.
In Strategy Games like Starcraft, Ages of Empires, Civilization 5 or Stellaris, winning was all about snatching up enough land to get the resources your empire needed. There was always a struggle between tech-up, increasing troop levels and expanding land acquisition for additional resources since during that initial phase each of your individual locations would be vulnerable until you built up enough forces to protect your investments.
My general strategy for these types of games had always been initially to extend out my borders as far as possible to get my hands on the core resources I needed, and then I’d develop my cities and troops to claim all of the land in-between. I couldn’t help rubbing my hands together excitedly as I chuckled. Already vague plans were beginning to form in my head as I looked out at the two longhouses and the surrounding lands with a new perspective. I loved Real-Time Strategy games.
Smiling like a fiend, I opened up the Upgrade Tab nodding to myself as soon as I saw that it was mostly based off of the Buildings Tab. The only other upgrade option was for Territory Development, which allowed a player to upgrade their land. Opening up the subtab I saw the upgrades I’d accomplished so far and what was needed for the next level: Requires one open house to upgrade from a camp to a village. Requires five basic structures to upgrade from a village to a town. I frowned thoughtfully. I’d have to plan this out carefully. I’m sure some buildings would offer more chances for meeting the base requirement for the next upgrade more easily than others. Obviously, there were much more options for upgrading, but first I had to have my Developed Territory be at a Town level before I could see what the next additional requirements would be.
The last subtab I popped open for a quick perusal was the NPC Recruiter. The two options available were Crafting NPC and Combat NPC. Clicking on the first option, Crafting NPC, I Immediately stopped at the scrolling list of NPCs that appeared before my eyes in a semi-translucent window. The basic levels available here were between 0 and 10 with the entire list of available NPCs going up to one-hundred. Each NPC came with a list of personality traits: Name, Level, Race, Skill, Sex, Disposition, Marital Status, Number of Family Members and Potential. There were a mixture of every skill and level needed to match the requirements for a village’s Basic Buildings: Alchemist, Bartender, Blacksmith, Cook, Enchanter, Farmer, Fisherman, Healer, Herbalist, Inn Keeper, Jeweler, Laborer, Leatherworker, Librarian, Miner, Priest, Scribe, Ship Builder, Tailor, Tanner, Trader and Waitress. There were even more, but again I only jotted down what first came to mind as to what I might need. Clicking on the Combat NPC tab was more of the same, but the classes were what you’d expect, aka Warriors of various types, Hunters, Rogues, Fire or Frost Mages, and Priests. I jotted down the average costs per NPC. The costs for both NPC types were the same ranging from 40 copper for a Level 0 to 140 copper for a Level 10.
There was a running countdown timer for the current list of available NPCs that ended on Sunday night at midnight, which unfortunately didn’t help me with my current dilemma with finishing up my Nightmare quest. It would have been cool to have hired my own mini-army to help drive out the invaders. I wondered if the developers had worked the seven-day option into the Nightmare start on purpose to stop players from being able to simply hire combat NPCs to assist them with completing their quest. Pushing the annoying thought away, I focused on understanding the purchasing process.
From what the tooltips explained, the purchasing process was pretty straightforward. Each NPC came with a cost. The higher level, the more money up front that was required to place a bid. Players could place bids in for the NPCs they wanted up until the deadline on Sunday. If no one else bid on their NPC, then the NPC would be delivered to the player’s highest upgraded location within their territory at seven o’clock on Monday morning. If one or more players selected the same NPC for purchase, an auction would commence on Monday morning at six o’clock to see who would win the bid. Once the winner was determined, the NPC would be delivered to the player’s highest upgraded location within their territory.
Overall it seemed like a pretty good system. I’d have to go through all of this information later on when I had time to sit down and really think. For now, though, I opened up my quest window to see the latest results. The ‘Rescuing House of Kayden and driving out the invaders (Evolving-Quest)!’ showed as completed with the side note of talking with Chiara Ithilwen to turn in the quest. Instead of heading out to find Chiara right away, I decided to go ahead and add in a few more defensive features to the construction with Talia’s design help. I needed my people to be safe.
I’d laid out the plan for the two completed longhouses in an interconnected L shape with thought to defense. Talia and I were able to improve upon this by using some of the extra logs to set up a hundred foot long fence to act like a wall which stopped at the edge of the small stream and another fifty-foot fence that ran along the bank of the stream.
At this point, the structure was a square. I added in a six foot opening in the middle fence that ran along the bank of the small stream. For access across the running water, we banded three split logs together with strips of rawhide with the
flat sides facing up to use as a bridge over the stream. This limited direct access to just one chokepoint that had a lightweight movable blockade that could, if necessary, be moved up into position by two people to block access from the bridge in a hurry. Also, we set up low defensive structures on the outer edges of the longhouses’ roofs to create small defensive platforms in case of attack, basically creating a dual-tiered defensible area all the way around the square.
We all stopped for a late lunch when Mariona called everyone over to eat. There were lots of excited comments from the NPCs as they expressed their gratitude for the defensive shelter. Sitting down next to Chiara with Talia and Jaena at my side, we continued discussing how best to complete the insides of each longhouse to have a little bit more privacy and comfort for everyone when a thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Chiara, I just realized I hadn’t seen Rayne anywhere. Do you know what happened to her?”
“Rayne was severely wounded during the battle against the Goblin Raiders.” Chiara sadly said as she finished her last bite of meat.
“Hasn’t she been eating? I would have thought she’d be mostly recovered by now.” Something about the look that crossed Chiara’s face at my words sent warning chills down my spine.
“My lord, when wounds are as severe as Rayne’s, simply eating and resting is not enough for the body to heal the injuries on its own without the aid of direct healing.” Chiara said, catching my eyes with her steady gaze.
“Please Chiara, can you show me to her?”
Excusing myself from the conversation with Talia and Jaena, I followed Chiara to the far side of the camp where a hide lean-to held a shivering Rayne lying under a pile of rags being nursed by a tear streaked Alanah. To my surprise, the small girl’s arm was still a bandaged stump and not a fully recovered arm. Squatting down next to the feverish Elf girl, I placed my hand on her forehead.
“She’s burning up!” I exclaimed looking up sharply at Chiara. Quickly I pulled back the rags to look over her wounds. The deep gashes were turning into festering abscesses.
“So cold…” Rayne’s pitiful moaning broke my heart as I quickly tucked the covers back around the poor girl. For a moment, Rayne’s feverish eyes cleared for a moment as she suddenly realized who was leaning over her. “Startum! Please Startum, find my friend Brenna. She got cut off with her mother during our escape from BrokenFang Hold.” Urgently she clutched at my arm. “My life is yours if you’ll only go back and rescue her. I beg of you-“ A coughing fit racked Rayne’s weakened body as she dropped back unconscious once again. Unbidden a quest window popped up before my eyes.
New Quest! Rescuing Brenna Talathiel of House of Kayden from the invaders of BrokenFang Hold or recovering her body.
Rayne Nessima has asked you to find her childhood friend Brenna Talathiel and to rescue her from the invaders of BrokenFang Hold. The last she saw of her best friend was when she was fighting the invaders with her mother, Aleia Talathiel before they were cut off from escape. She has asked that you save her friend from the invaders or recover her body.
Objective: Return Brenna Talathielf alive or dead.
Difficulty: Nightmare
Reward: Experience, Reputation with House of Kayden. Companionship of Rayne Nessima. Additional unknown rewards.
Accept: Yes / No
Without a second thought, I selected yes. Seeing the distraught look on my face, Chiara spoke softly looking pointedly at the tearful Alanah. “It’s the gut wound that’s causing the worst of the damage. She can’t hold down food or water, so she grows weaker with every passing day. Her body only has two or three days before it passes into the Dark.” I felt Chiara’s gnarled hand grip my shoulder to offer what little moral support she could. “Without our own healers, there is nothing we can do to stop the infection from spreading throughout her body.”
“Please Milord Ironwolf, I know I don’t have much to offer, but I’ll do anything … your laundry, clean your gear, cook, whatever Milord. Just save her … please!”
New Quest! Find a way to heal Rayne Nessima injuries.
The refugees of House of Kayden have no means to heal severe wounds. Alanah Valadhiel has asked that you find a way to save Rayne Nessima from dying.
Warning! This quest is timed! Three days remaining!
Objective: Find a way to heal Rayne Nessima’s injuries before she dies.
Difficulty: Normal
Reward: Experience and Reputation with House of Kayden.
Accept: Yes / No
I selected ‘Yes’ to the quest without a second thought as I carefully pulled the wounded girl into my arms. Wiping Alanah’s tears away, I spoke gently. “Alanah, I promise. I’ll do whatever I can to help Rayne.” Pushing her back, I looked into the girl’s eyes holding her out at arm’s-length before me. “Now have you been eating and taking care of yourself?” Seeing the girl’s hesitant headshake, I stood her up and give her a slight push towards the cook fires. “Go to Mariona, and she’ll get you something to eat and then you can come right back here to watch over Rayne.”
“Thank you, milord. I’ll be back in the blink of an eye.” Alanah promised before running off to get food. I watched her receding back for a long moment before turning to Chiara.
“How many others are going to die if they don’t receive direct healing?”
“Five, my lord,” Chiara answered immediately nodding to the nearby structures that held the injured NPCs.
“Tell me, Chiara.” I said, standing up to gaze out at the two longhouses and the trail of NPCs loading up the camp’s possessions into the new buildings. “Is it safe for me to be gone for a day or two? Will you be able to protect yourselves from any surprise attacks while I’m away?”
“Your concern is appreciated, my lord. Normally a leader needs to put the safety of his people ahead of an individual, but in this case, I believe we should be fine during your absence and this could greatly benefit our people in the long run.” Chiara said with a knowing smile.
“Then, I think it’s time I visited Delonshire.” The old Elf was something else. She obviously knew I was uncomfortable with the title, yet insisted that the protocol was necessary if I want to be the leader for House of Kayden. Looking down at her wrinkled face, I wanted to ask Chiara if our people were true blooded Elves or Half-elves, but I still didn’t feel like the topic was something she would approve of discussing directly. Maybe going to the Light Elf city would at the very least clear up my confusion on that basic point.
The rest of the NPC survivors were all physically fit, but they’d almost died at the hands of low-level Goblin Raiders because they were crafters. They should have been able to stand against raiders without a problem, except for maybe the Elite Goblin Leader. That green bastard was a named mob. Still, that was unacceptable. I couldn’t afford to lose any more of my people. I’d probably need all of them and more to drive out the invaders from BrokenFang Hold. While the crafters would be essential for later on, right now I needed more than just crafters. I needed warriors.
The idea that started forming in my mind made my lips curl into a nasty smile. I needed these NPCs to be more than their base programming. Hmmm, would the game’s mechanics let me do what I was thinking? How hard could it be to make my NPCs both warriors and crafters? If the game was set up to allow players to craft and fight, then why not NPCs too? The only reason you wouldn’t want to use NPC crafters for fighting would be because you wouldn’t want to lose their knowledge. That knowledge in the long term would more than pay for itself.
Even so, I was sure there would be times that I would need everyone to fight. I’d rather have a group of crafters that were able to defend themselves and make an attacker pay with their lives then have a group of crafters who just got cut down as soon as an invader breached the walls. Looking slyly at Chiara, I decided to see if my idea would work.
“Chiara, while I’m gone I want everyone training with Klaern and his men in weapons, focusing on swords, spears, and archery,” I said holdi
ng my breath waiting for the old woman’s response.
“My lord, every one of the survivors except the children and the guards are crafters. Do you want everyone to become warriors?” Chiara questioned as she considered my words.
“No, I want our crafters to remain crafters, but be able to fight and protect themselves and each other if needed. Something like a militia. Is there any reason why they can’t be crafters that are skilled at using a spear, sword, and bow?”
“That is not how it’s usually done, my lord,” Chiara replied slowly as if she were weighing my words carefully. It was almost as if the game’s software AI were evaluating a request it wasn’t pre-programmed with a ready-made response.
“This isn’t a usual situation. Unlike many people in this world, the people born to House of Kayden have a special innate ability called Military Conditioning. The only reason for all of our House to have this special ability would be because our people can be both crafters and warriors. I believe if the House of Kayden is to survive and prosper then this dual skill is something important that we need to focus on developing as a people. Newfars can be crafters, warriors, and even casters all at the same time. Why wouldn’t these same options be available to the people of this world?” I earnestly asked trying to sell my points to the decision-making software AI.
Like other MMORPGs I’d played in the past, it looked like the NPCs in The World were designed to be either crafters or fighters, not both. But, I figured as long as the AI was listening to my reasoning, I had a chance of pushing this alteration through. Besides, it did make a certain kind of sense especially with the Military Conditioning my people had listed as their innate ability.
“The only reason a crafter would be only a crafter was if their current situation allowed them the ability to focus solely on crafting. Right now, we had nearly nothing available for our people to craft and build. For now, the needs of our people dictate that they focus on defense and saving their home. Once that has been secured, our crafters could once again focus primarily on leveling up their professions, but only as long as they spend at least an hour of their time every day in leveling up their fighting skills.”
