Suggestion: Licenses

[verðandi]

Licenses have been brought up on and off on discord. I've given them a good thought and want to make a suggestion.

Intention:
Evening the playing field between people who play a lot and a little (the cost & effect would stay the same for most active characters)
Making it supportive for people who play sporadically (licenses can't completely run out while you're offline)

I propose to make them run on played hours with a couple of additions.


Expire rate (examples):

Sellsword, Cleric, Arcane, Economical = 80 h​

Nationality = 160 h​

Tick time:

Max tick / day while online = 8 h ​

Max tick time / week while online = 40 h (half of sellsword time)​

Ticked time / week while offline = snail's pace, like 4 h, but only down to 10h remaining time which can only tick while online​

Players would need to play several days of the week for several hours to get the full amount drawn per week. 8h is a working day and 40h a full working week in a lot of places meaning that keeping licenses on 80 & 160 h for nationality would keep the previous bi-weekly & 28-day license feeling. The Nationality Writ is for housing could be updated to "need previous X renewals" rather than 3 real-life months.

Meanwhile, an offline tick time of 4 h would mean that a newly refreshed sellsword license of 80h would have to run for at least three and a half months before reaching the point where it stops ticking while offline. This enables people to come and go more forgivingly.


The idea is that active characters will hardly notice a difference, meanwhile sporadic characters would, and especially those who are in the catch 22 of running out of license time while being broke = unable to renew would no longer have this problem.


Why I suggest the rates and hours above:

People who have very little play time each week don't have to worry about their licenses.
People who are only available for example during the two days over the weekend would hit the roof of 8 h drawn from their licenses per day, so 16 h, and their licenses would last significantly (2,5 times) longer than people who play the full 40h+ over 5+ days.
People who play more than 40h per week will likewise be protected in that the licenses will run on the same speed as before.
Most people will end up in the middle and get to enjoy the game without being punished for being offline.

Numbers can be adjusted of course. I was toying with 10 h as a max tick per day but thought it was a bit too much and landed on suggesting 8.

In conclusion, I'd like to say I support licenses being a continuous money sink, but that people who play a lot, a little or have narrow play times shouldn't get the short end of the stick. I'd also suggest a free renewal of licenses across the board if you put something like this in. That might bring some people back.


(Edited with a minor update to include + limit offline ticks)

 

[Roman53]

With being restricted to how many hours I could play, I found that I could not keep up adequately with licenses. Then they finally elapsed an my character had not enough silver to renew, so that put an end to his adventures. If there were means for such as suggested, then it'd be a lot more worthwhile to look for ways back into adventuring.

Thanks.

 

[Beekeeper]

Laws, especially those governing licenses, are only as strong as those enforcing them, ie. the player guards. There's nothing stopping your character from adventuring without them, there are ways in game enabling it and helping you avoid their scrutiny - obviously at the cost of some inconvenience.
Moreover, the server has changed and continues to change. The monster stats were adjusted, the ways of earning money (loot, bounties) have been expanded and right now, the cost of licenses can be easily covered by a single dungeon run lasting less than two IRL hours, with a competent party. If you find yourself playing during the low-population hours, it is still possible to find another character willing to help you fight some of the easier content. A minor bounty is worth five coins, which means you only need twenty to pay for your sellsword license, arguably the most important one.
Keep in mind that the staff is currently hard at work dealing with the core part of the server, which is PVE content. I doubt that the license system is going to be changed any time soon.

 

[vantamasque]

I’m fully in support of licenses being based on played time rather than real time that’s always ticking away. Don’t have much input on the rest of the ideas presented, but that change alone would be a great start, IMO.

 

[duck?]

I think a lot of people approach this from the perspective of a single character, without considering the limitations placed on trying to play alts - admittedly, it can take only a few hours to make the necessary coin - but it does become a more arduous task across multiples of characters. I like variety, I enjoy being able to play alts and I am sticking through it, but I can definitely see why some are deterred by the prospect of 'grinding' across multiple characters as well as adhering to the separate expiry periods.

At the very least, we'd see more variety in classes and prospective characters if it was more lenient.

Edit: Ironically, I didn't even consider the perspective of a civilian either—as it stands, they make about 50SP when working four real hours—I know some places are salaried a bit better, but it is a bit of a miserable state of affairs that the player behind that screen is locked in a building pending arrivals; I can see it killing motivation, especially with licenses included. I imagine they don't need as many, but all the same.