StarSurfer wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 9:25 pm We have quite a lot of self-sustaining settlements from no-longer active players. Some of them had terrific permanent installations. But as the business contracts expire, the empty slots leave the remainder of the settlement useless or nearly so. It's better than having all the settlements disappear, and allows players to return after an extended absence. But it would be even better if they could continue to function for the benefit of visiting players.
I suggest that for at least some contract types, the player could have it auto-renewed rather than expiring. Some obvious examples are CSTS, Ashar/Wesbec and Svens. This would benefit players who don't play regularly. Even more, it would be a big help for the entire community and keep the game looking more active and alive.
How to implement this:
Create a settlement business manager that could be purchased from CE store.
The owner could select which contracts would auto-renew; alternatively, there would be a few that the business manager always renews if present. I'd prefer to have it determined by the owner, since the fees could cause a settlement to fail because it took it over the line of self-sustainability.
Possibility: the owner's guild could purchase the settlement business manager for an inactive settlement of a guild member -- I'd like opinions on this.
I think this would be a powerful addition to CE that helps maintain an active game over the years.
I have pulled this post by Starsurfer out of the Suggestions thread as I feel it might need a little 'feed back' in general from players and didn't want to dilute the reason for the Suggestions thread.
We hover around 150 Settlements in game. Currently, we are at 272. Players create settlements for a myriad of reasons, some to be a base of personal operations, some as part of a Guild funded system to give certain offices at key locations. Some just for the kudos of owning 1 or two of them. Recently, some of you have been taken the chance to own three, lol.
From a purely Dev point of view, a player is responsible for the upkeep and offered promenade services. Players take on the responsibility of managing a settlement and keeping it 'whole'. We added mechanics to remove settlements where the owner is inactive and either the Finances dry up or the Morale drops to an unacceptable level.
These mechanics act to 'refresh Settlements' over long periods of time. Freeing up the slots for others to take on the challenge.
To be clear I'm not excatly agaisnt the idea of a Manager for a Settlement but ti would still have to fall within the current wrap up rules, whereby the settlement still needs a level of acceptable morale and finances.
I'd love to hear others thoughts on this before I consider it any further.
Good, bad or perhaps with modifiers...
Coops