There is a lot to ubpack here.. But here's where OPC and AI gets into it-- if you get home every day at 1pm, you let your 'boss' know. Then they can have an AI be here around 1, and you're good. The AI only needs to do one thing-- alert PCs. Ring a bell or some shit. Easy peasy. New sword and bow? Why where you carrying an old one? You got one made while online, so why wouldn't you have picked it up then? And given that swords arent going ti be stat based (as in, your new sword won't have like.. +12 damaged, relative to current one..) There's no reason to go back, really, unless you're just horrible at your job xD

If you're a soldier for Duke Dudebro, odds are he has a means of contacting you irl. If he's about to march, he'll probably say as much, it's not like your gonna log on and be like "oh, shit I was unprepared for this to he goijg on" and you should definately be prepared for battle while at your post.

Has to be some shitty leadership if you are only putting one guard to watch for anything. Him being there or not, wouldn't be hard for an invading force to remove that one guy. Normally if a guard is watching some form of wall, you want him to be in line of sight of at least one other guard.

As Chloet said, be easier just working around with the leader or others. Sure each region has a peaktime. But everyone plays different hours. Shouldn't be so hard to let someone else take over when you get online. Be that NPC or someone else.

Higher chance I see, is any spot where a guard doesn't move much, would be filled by a NPC. With players just doing more patrols around the area.

For the soldier, depends on the person more than anything. Being a noble, I would like to just have some alt where I'm basically a ranger/scout. Roaming around with myself or others. Knowing if I get into trouble it doesn't really matter. If not at war time, I could see soldiers being the ones making sure the roads are safe, there aren't any packs of wild animals roaming around killing too much.

Also going to again have some shitty leader if he just ups and leaves his people behind. More so since for now OPC can't walk into new territory. Any kind of attacking is going to have so much planning involved. Not just some half ass zerging.

my aim was to give random example of random based events that will cause a chain of negative actions & events

i would avoid trying to nit pick the examples as this would truly bypass the meaning of the entire post which is make people aware of issues that could come up and that the guard role or solder position is not gonna be the cake walk they expecting it to be.

there is different set of issues for each level of guard or solder.

the issues of a boarder guard are much different to a royal guard or a city beat guard.

why i also agree that better to get npc guards for the more boring roles what happens if there is a shortage of NPC's for some reason>? (plague happened? war of attrition? large number of players in town? options are endless)

also the idea of Shift swaps is a good one but u cant always be sure u will be online same time as the person who could authrize the swaps also unexpected stuff happens suddenly u cant be on normal cant let people know u cant be on to do the shift swap.. (hit by car, Suddenly ill, arrested IRL, taken hostage in RL this shit happens....) the world has this natral habbit of not being predictable after all

the world as rarely perfectly enough for this sort of thing to always work so if we work on reality of there being limits and humans being humans we got to expect F ups...

never work off best case scenario or u fall flat on ur face.

prepare for the worst and be rewarded when the best happens instead.

also a shity leader who imedilty responds to a External Threat by marching on it if it feasble is not a shity leader but one with a time limit :)

shit happens if u dont react thats shity :)

To expand on what Gunnlang said, in peacetime, there's also the chance that you wouldn't guard every day. Maybe three days of the week you guard witb your opc, but the other 4 days you can be a sellsword/adventurer, honing survival skills or even just gaining fame (both of which would help you rise through the ranks as a soldier).

Ultimately, your superiors would probably work with you to ensure that the area is safe and you have an enjoyable play experience-- otherwise, you'll find someone who will.

Would not be that many guard/soldier guilds in other games if people did not find some enjoyment out of it. As long as they aren't stationed alone for long periods of time they find ways to entertain themselves, least the RP'ers and social folks do.

Are some terrible at their job - run off on their own somewhere every now and then, get easily distracted by some flirt worthy character and miss the bandits sneaking in behind his/her back - of course!

All are not that good at their job in real life either, cant expect perfection from humans. But perhaps the employers should take some time to check what sort of persons they hire before something of importance happens.

This is where OPCs come on you can program patrol routes, the opc will look for those breaking laws.

Posted By Zantonny at 05:58 AM - Tue Jun 27 2017

I think it depends.

An inner city guard are also the "Police" which I think could be fun. You'd be mingling with the populace, go around talking to various people, probably develop relationships with most the market holders and tradesman. Aswel as stopping petty crimes (Pickpockets, shoplifting etc.) I think I could enjoy that, as many of the other social people could enjoy too.

Guards for wall duty could always be enlisted from the NPC populace, which would probably be better. But even wall duty guards would likely be in pairs, so can still talk.

This is a good post.

Guards for personal business or government buildings could also enlist NPCs. Otherwise it be a very high paying job that would probably employ one of those OCD players since they would be the only ones to apply.

Most contracts for guards might only be for the guard's OPC to stand/patrol an area with online time being their time off from their job. Most people spend the majority of the day offline anyways. Yes that would make them not at their post at regular hours of activity for a server but at least it's a good deterrent to those that would abuse those regular play hours when people are the most vulnerable.

yep thats been kinda my point the entire time i just dont see many people willing to do the hard bits of jobs,

it would be nice if we could just leave it all to OPC but got a feeling its not gonna be like that all the time. i also agree humans being human and making mistakes is well Human hahaha so them not doing silly stuff would be actually surprising

but one thing i find kinda interesting if quite a few people are throwing the trouble to dealing with each individuals game play experience to be the job of there respective leader and that it is the leaders job to micromanage peoples shifts changes and special situations.

why i do agree those taking up leadership roles need to take care of there people and look after the interests of those under them and work out resolutions to these kindas of issues i feel that expecting them to spend most there times organising shift changes to benefit each individual to be kinda funy.

think about this if some one had to deal with 40-100 solders/guards each wanting shift changes and there own set time frames and such will wear any one out.

most likly fix would be more middle managers to spread the load... but then u start losing the important details and things become messy.

personally as a mayor my goal is to lookout for my people and provide them with jobs where i can.. i cant & wont micro manage my citzens and i cant see me spending all my time daily making shift changes for all the people i will employ.

sure i will try and work out a way to structure it to best benfit my people but sorry just not gonna be able to please every one every time

There is always someone willing to do the extra work if it means having even a little more authority over the others.

A fancy title or badge and permission to shout commands at others makes for good motivation for some.

They'll gladly keep an eye on who is available and for how long. They'll think of suitable punishments for those who fail to do their duty and depending on how commandable the OPC & NPC are, they'll make sure to direct them to suitable places. They'll even come up with online motivating structure and tempt new recruits to join up, as long as they get that slight stroking of e-peen in return.

I agree with the gist of the OP. How many players want to "work an job" in their leisure game time if they share their character's sense of tedium? Guard duty would be a concern--especially since there's something to guard.

If I were hiring guards, I'd be very nervous about hiring PCs. Reliability would cost more (be it pay or some other incentive like Fenrer suggested.)

The devs have stated that the in-game cycle of days and nights won't fall on the same times of the day in our real world. This is so everyone with set schedules gets a mix of day & night rather than some players getting stuck with in-game 'night hours.' This makes me think working shift exceptions around real-world hours would be difficult and tedious for an employer to do.

I can see doing it for a Captain of the Guards (or the chiefs on duty,) who're worth the trouble. Working a shift-trade board for everyone else like they have in fast food restaurants & elsewhere (which was always non-stop angst, drama, & high turnover everywhere I saw it)...I don't think that's likely.

Seriously, I bet over 90% of gamers could be diagnosed with ADD without trying very hard...and Elyria will be full of entertaining excuses to be 'late for work.'

The folks with real-world military or police experience probably don't want to play a game recreating the boredom of work. If anything, they want to be out where the action is. I wouldn't count on them signing up for guard duty either.

I would think guard duty needs to have as few PCs bringing real-person-unpredictability to the table as possible.

So, as a a mayor you really shouldn't be focused on the guard aspect so much. Make a garrison for the Dukes guards if you're a big town/city or a sherrif station if you're smaller. Then put someone in charge of that. You'll give them a basic idea of what you want (Macro managing, not micro) and they'll do it. (I.e. I want people protecting our borders/I want guards patrolling the city, etc).

The chain of command is very important, in real life and in this game. You can't have the top and the bottom work together without a few middle managers.

Stuff does happen irl, which wipp necessitate the moving of plans, but the absolute last resort is and will probably always be "I need you to stare at the screen and do nothing for a couple hours while I figure something out." That's not to say it won't happen, just that it will be literally the last resort.

A guard or soldier wont be someone that wants to do combat. Unless they give deviants more numbers or they end up having less punishment, a guards main job is most likely sitting at the tavern or hitting a wood object until something happens.

Judging from SBS tribe posts they aren't looking to build guard systems in their game either because they probably know the above wont work. Notice how almost every tribe says that they don't have a standing guard/military then mentions something about the people living in there. Implying that while it's not a guard, the people native to that land will fight as one.

of cause i am not just looking from my prospective but the overall picture.

people thinking this wont be a issue of some sort are dreaming so i just waking them up softly.

we can try as employers to make things interesting and organise a proper chain of command and look at ways to work around the issues involved.

but players going for theses roles MUST i repeat MUST understand that it wont all be fun and games the way they imagine.

we got alot of culture shocks in store with this game and i feel this will be one that most will overlook.

this of cause is not just a issue with guards and solders there are alot more trades that could be effected.

i mainly talking about these 2 as i see them being 2 jobs most action seeking players will go for.

like something as simple as guarding a caravan could force a player to stick with that caravan for 1 or 2 RL days depending on its route and how many stops.

quite a bit of cause would be done with the OPC but when they player comes and logs in its not like he can run off. but on the positive in this situation he should be able interact with the other people in the caravan and the absolutely high chance of being attacked :)

but this dose raise 1 other issue... Guarding a Caravan your OPC dies in a raid... you log back in spirt walk get ur body back... caravan is most likly moved on... unless they have some halt on attack OPC for leader of caravan... but then they are a sitting duck....

see the issues? so i would lay even money after waiting a reasonable time to respawn players they would move onward or backward depending on outcome of battle.

ether way it be a long walk in pretty damm bad shape.

Ideally combat would be so player skill based it wouldn't deadlock you into training combat meaning you could work on some profession that passes the time and still be great at combat because you the player are. Unfortunately a lot of games want to have skill based combat but their actual combat is far from. A lot of designers fail to show meaningful progression without buffing the player shitless.

So a guard would already be good at combat so he would do whatever his skills are in during that non-guarding time.