Shops in hamlets.

[Dargoth_Draconia]

Will the shops in the hamlets ever be open, specifically before 2.0? One thing I was thinking of is to tie them to the upcoming hamlet defense, so that when a hamlet defense is victorious (or after having a string of victories in succession) the shops will open, selling discounted materials (compared to the main cities).

Thoughts?

They could be tied to hamlet defense but I hope they have actual uses outside of that mainly. They need to make them similar to towns like Selbina where they have quests, npc/shops that actually are useful. Also I would like to see them have branches of the crafters guilds in places like Wineport and Aleport. Where you can do the same things as the ones in town.

[Lauro]

Some pretty cool ideas being brainstormed here! While I don't have new details to share regarding Hamlet Defense, I can let you know that, while it's still at the discussion level, the team is brainstorming things in relation to shops within the Hamlets. Keep your suggestions coming!

please keep brainstorming or else they might end up like Moogle weapons -_-...

[Altanas]

It would be disappointing if Hamlets (specifically Hamlet Defence) falls by the way side like Chocobo Escort. It will be a lot of wasted potential and a waste of development resources/time.

While not directly related to the OP, it would have some bearing: More incentive to do Hamlet Defence would be nice, e.g.

1. Tie in Hamlet Defence to some form of LONG TERM system, for example "City Building"


a) if a Hamlet is ignored it becomes a ruin,


b) if it is defended (and Chocobo Escort is successful a lot) then more services become available


c) when those services are utilised (i.e. Hamlet leves are processed there) then every time a quota is fulfilled each Hamlet gets its own unique addition
- e.g. 100 carpenter leves are done in Hamlet X and then that hamlet gets a Chocobo Stable; whereas if 100 carpenter leves are done in Hamlet Y you get a Ferry Dock? An Airship Dock, Or Aetheryte Crystal


d) Allow Hamlets to eventually be built up to the size of small towns. Places like Owls Nest have quite a large area, but most of the space is barren. There could easily be 10 or 20 more buildings inside the patch of land. This would help the world feel more "full" although I am sure the world map rejig will sort this out.


e) This is turn opens up Hamlets to be unique.
- Certain Hamlets may have shops that are in no other parts of the world. If a Hamlet is well protected, then friendly NPCs like Goblins will decide to set up merchant stalls and peddle their wares and services. If the Hamlet becomes too risky for them they pack up and go elsewhere.
- Certain unique quests or leves may become available (i.e. unique Faction Nms) or Fields of Valor type quests/benefits – this will be attractive for DOW/DOM.
- Certain unique facilities become available that are not available currently (i.e. master+ support) – this will be attractive for DOH. Perhaps the Guilds in Hamlets can be more Specialist than the City Guilds. For example, a Goldsmith Guild in a Hamlet may enable you to learn “Forbidden Goldsmithing Recipes”.


f) This will also give Hamlets an opportunity to become a Hub of their own. It would be more immersive if Camps and Hamlets were merged. It seems a bit silly there is an Open Camp in the middle of nowhere unprotected. Aethryte should be the centre points of the Hamlets. It would also feel more old school RPG like where you stopped in at an Inn somewhere before going out to grind a bit or going on to the next major castle or town. The prime example of a successful “Hamlet” in FF11 is Selbina, it caters as hub for parties before they leave to xp, it caters to guilds, it has its own ferry dock to move you quickly to another part of the world, it has its own normal shop, it has a home point, and from an RP perspective there was always a friendly white mage sitting around waiting to Raise fellow inexperienced adventurers


g) Perhaps also add long term questlines per each Hamlet similar to how Faction leves progress. Perhaps Weaponskill / Ability quests or Trial of the Magians type quests which are only available if the Hamlet is built up and protected. That gives incentive to DOW/DOM to defend the Hamlet, and incentive to DOH/DOL to upgrade it.


h) As an aside, Hamlet Defence should be fun. If I go as one person I should be able to fight an enemy without getting killed in 2 hits. Also, I remember in Besieged particularly, the NPC Generals were held in high regard by players. There are no NPCs held in such a regard in 14. Hamlet Defence is an opportunity for SE to do this. There was an update on the Grand Company webpages listing different factions within each State, will we see those factions?


I) Hamlet Defence Points, exchange for Gear? or will you get Company Seals? Will there be Grand Company competition where e.g. Uldahn's must protect their Hamlets? Will this in turn (when 2.0 comes along...) allow for Uldahn's to attack other nation Hamlets?


j) There needs to be a balance between Hamlet Defence/Attacks and Downtime to actually relax and enjoy the services. Campaign was too often for such, Besieged a bit slow between events.


k) There need to be warnings in System Log saying “Enemy Faction X has appeared at So and So location” so players can have the option to make pre emptive strikes or await at Hamlets


l) Hamlet Defence battles need to feel and go on like Battles. I remember Besieged used to go on for an hour or so constantly fighting and fighting. We need to get XP/Spiritbond for it too! XP needs to be given per kill and not at the end.

[Tman]

not sure if this has been posted already but I'd like to see a twist on DoL in the hamlets. Instead of the typical "go gather this for whatever reason" what if a miner used his pickaxe to clear debris? or a botanist could hack at ruined wooden supports to clear up the damage?

[Tempestmoon]

I would just like to chime in and say this is the most constructive and mature forum thread I have seen since this forum was created, Awesome job community!

All these idea's are great and I think they can all have a place in the final product. I really like the idea of repairing buildings after a battle, but I think there should be some heat of the moment repairs as well such as repairing a wall to prevent it from falling. Maintaining a defense tower and such. this could also be an opportunity for a new Crafter such as Architect that can construct these walls and towers.

[Veltaine]

This idea and the branches coming off of it have been some of the most entertaining ideas I've read in a while


now my two cents and a very brief input:

how about moving the chocobo caravan missions over to the hamlet instead,
and having them deliver supplies from the hamlets to the smaller camps, so that whatever is made around that area, can be sold at the town and the outlying areas, like specialty shops.

I personally think the npcs selling things around the world are way too similar to each other, it really cries out "corporate markets" and thats just soooo boring.

[Tetsaru]

It would be disappointing if Hamlets (specifically Hamlet Defence) falls by the way side like Chocobo Escort. It will be a lot of wasted potential and a waste of development resources/time.

While not directly related to the OP, it would have some bearing: More incentive to do Hamlet Defence would be nice, e.g.

1. Tie in Hamlet Defence to some form of LONG TERM system, for example "City Building"


a) if a Hamlet is ignored it becomes a ruin,


b) if it is defended (and Chocobo Escort is successful a lot) then more services become available


c) when those services are utilised (i.e. Hamlet leves are processed there) then every time a quota is fulfilled each Hamlet gets its own unique addition
- e.g. 100 carpenter leves are done in Hamlet X and then that hamlet gets a Chocobo Stable; whereas if 100 carpenter leves are done in Hamlet Y you get a Ferry Dock? An Airship Dock, Or Aetheryte Crystal


d) Allow Hamlets to eventually be built up to the size of small towns. Places like Owls Nest have quite a large area, but most of the space is barren. There could easily be 10 or 20 more buildings inside the patch of land. This would help the world feel more "full" although I am sure the world map rejig will sort this out.


e) This is turn opens up Hamlets to be unique.
- Certain Hamlets may have shops that are in no other parts of the world. If a Hamlet is well protected, then friendly NPCs like Goblins will decide to set up merchant stalls and peddle their wares and services. If the Hamlet becomes too risky for them they pack up and go elsewhere.
- Certain unique quests or leves may become available (i.e. unique Faction Nms) or Fields of Valor type quests/benefits – this will be attractive for DOW/DOM.
- Certain unique facilities become available that are not available currently (i.e. master+ support) – this will be attractive for DOH. Perhaps the Guilds in Hamlets can be more Specialist than the City Guilds. For example, a Goldsmith Guild in a Hamlet may enable you to learn “Forbidden Goldsmithing Recipes”.


f) This will also give Hamlets an opportunity to become a Hub of their own. It would be more immersive if Camps and Hamlets were merged. It seems a bit silly there is an Open Camp in the middle of nowhere unprotected. Aethryte should be the centre points of the Hamlets. It would also feel more old school RPG like where you stopped in at an Inn somewhere before going out to grind a bit or going on to the next major castle or town. The prime example of a successful “Hamlet” in FF11 is Selbina, it caters as hub for parties before they leave to xp, it caters to guilds, it has its own ferry dock to move you quickly to another part of the world, it has its own normal shop, it has a home point, and from an RP perspective there was always a friendly white mage sitting around waiting to Raise fellow inexperienced adventurers


g) Perhaps also add long term questlines per each Hamlet similar to how Faction leves progress. Perhaps Weaponskill / Ability quests or Trial of the Magians type quests which are only available if the Hamlet is built up and protected. That gives incentive to DOW/DOM to defend the Hamlet, and incentive to DOH/DOL to upgrade it.


h) As an aside, Hamlet Defence should be fun. If I go as one person I should be able to fight an enemy without getting killed in 2 hits. Also, I remember in Besieged particularly, the NPC Generals were held in high regard by players. There are no NPCs held in such a regard in 14. Hamlet Defence is an opportunity for SE to do this. There was an update on the Grand Company webpages listing different factions within each State, will we see those factions?


I) Hamlet Defence Points, exchange for Gear? or will you get Company Seals? Will there be Grand Company competition where e.g. Uldahn's must protect their Hamlets? Will this in turn (when 2.0 comes along...) allow for Uldahn's to attack other nation Hamlets?


j) There needs to be a balance between Hamlet Defence/Attacks and Downtime to actually relax and enjoy the services. Campaign was too often for such, Besieged a bit slow between events.


k) There need to be warnings in System Log saying “Enemy Faction X has appeared at So and So location” so players can have the option to make pre emptive strikes or await at Hamlets


l) Hamlet Defence battles need to feel and go on like Battles. I remember Besieged used to go on for an hour or so constantly fighting and fighting. We need to get XP/Spiritbond for it too! XP needs to be given per kill and not at the end.

I wish I could like this post more than once, lol - awesome ideas. SE, listen to this guy!

Now that I think about it, Disciples of the Hand and Land would be a lot more fun if we could actually supply materials to these hamlets and then use them towards building various things. One of the guards could be like, "We need 1,000 Oak Logs and 500 Iron Ore to build a Guild Hall," or "The troops and I are hungry! It'd be nice if we had about 50 servings of Dodo Omelettes and Apple Juice." Players would then be encouraged to go out, find and/or make these materials, and then deliver them to help the hamlet thrive and prosper on top of any exp, Gil, or other rewards. Just imagaine: instead of people shouting for Lancers for the Ifrit fight, people could actually shout for Miners and Carpenters to assist in building the community. Heck, SE could probably even incorporate personal player housing into the hamlets too... but you'd have to be able to defend them on a regular basis! And if it survives long enough against multiple attacks, you could even have former enemies such as the Amal'jaa or even defected members of the Garlean Empire join and provide unique services that you could never gain access to otherwise, such as perhaps being able to socket multiple materia onto an item without a chance of failure, or putting materia onto a Unique/Untradable or Dated item, etc. It'd be like having our very own user-made town, and user-made content in video games is always cool in my opinion.

[Imagene]

holding hamlets should be beneficial to the communities. preferably tie hamlets with grand companies.

the chocobo escorts to hamlets and vice versa will be useful to create focal points of activity.

what id like to suggest is for hamlets to give a boost to the zone they're in. could give a 10 to 20% exp boost. maybe over the different teirs we boost different attributes for each individual area (exp, damage, regen/refresh rates). western thanalan, eastern thanalan.

and holding all 3 hamlets. makes the boost zone wide whole thanalan.

so highbies can hold hamlets to help out the lowbie LS mates. and get GC points to exchange for special gear?

[AmyRae]

The idea has merit but I think ultimately it depends on a number of factors.

How often does the Hamlet Defenses occur? Once or twice a day, no problem. Once or twice an hour (24 to 48 a day!), no way. An unpopular hamlet would always have its buildings in a perpetual state of disrepair which would drive people away from it and to the more popular hamlet.

Something else that would influence this is how much damage could a building sustain during an successful/unsuccessful Hamlet defense? Could it go from 100% to 1% in just one battle or over the course of a week's worth of battles? So, are you constantly and endlessly repairing buildings with little gain or is it something that needs a bit of player input every once and a while?

One way around this is the "If you build it, they will come," model.

That is, an unpopular, ignored hamlet doesn't get attacked as much, if at all, so it doesn't end up a constant, lost cause.

But the more a hamlet that gets its defenses raised (in whatever activities players can better prepare it for battle), the more it gets seen as a threat, and it's attacked by greater and more dangerous forces. And of course, the rewards for victory are all the sweeter, too, so this escalation is encouraged.

But if two or three people want to be heroes in a neglected hamlet, they could still raise its defenses and thwart a small invasion they can handle.

[normalforce]

One way around this is the "If you build it, they will come," model.

That is, an unpopular, ignored hamlet doesn't get attacked as much, if at all, so it doesn't end up a constant, lost cause.

But the more a hamlet that gets its defenses raised (in whatever activities players can better prepare it for battle), the more it gets seen as a threat, and it's attacked by greater and more dangerous forces. And of course, the rewards for victory are all the sweeter, too, so this escalation is encouraged.

But if two or three people want to be heroes in a neglected hamlet, they could still raise its defenses and thwart a small invasion they can handle.

This is genius! It never occurred to me that the more built up a Hamlet becomes, the more enticing of a target it could be. The more furnished Hamlet's have more to lose and thus offer greater rewards when successfully defended.

Here's hoping that SE can take some of the wonderful ideas from this thread and turn this Hamlet Defense into a wonderful, in-depth mini game of its own.