Explaining Beacons and Settlements post Release 211

[Nightstar]

Well hopefully the actual dev stepping in and explaining will help with that.

Some advice that was correct yesterday is no longer correct today.

[fuzzylkd]

Thank you for spelling this one out. Much appreciated and the new system and the debug UI is fantastic! Great work to you and the team.

[majorvex]

Ok…something I’ve kinda noticed. The beacon UI says the owner has no perms to collect the coin, but you still can…fine…

@lucadeltodecso @vdragon @rossstephens However, if the beacon is “controlled” by the guild, I am able to still receive footfall coin & collect it.

If the beacon is aligned, but not controlled, it doesn’t gain any footfall coin. If it’s suppose to work like this, it seems backwards to me

Aligned & controlled by the guild…I am still getting footfall over and over:

Aligned & not controlled…quit getting any footfall as soon as I aligned it:

[lucadeltodecso]

CAUTION - the following images might not reflect the exact state after Release 211.2, which changed the way roads are considered.

(Note: these images are from local version which has a slight refinement to the way the settlements “dilate” which stops them dilating into non-beaconed plots and stops guild-settlements from dilating into plots of different guilds, but functionally in terms of how the settlements get created nothing is different from live here)

:: Bordering road plots dont matter

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Here there are two beacons, both of which have bordering road plots, and yet a single settlement is formed because ignoring all the road plots, there is a contiguous region of plots which becomes a settlement, and each beacon is only in that single region which so neither of them “bridge multiple settlements”.

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:: Sometimes, if careful, “real” roads can allow neighbouring settlements not to merge even without guilds and without bridging multiple settlements

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Here the new beacon “is” adjacent to the settlement from before, but is seperated by road plots (a single road plot in this case). This means that when looking at non-road plots, there are two contiguous sections of plots, and the new beacon does not bridge multiple settlements, because all of its non-road-plots are in a single contiguous section, so here we get 2 settlements that touch together at the road but dont merge, and no beacons get removed due to bridging multiple settlements. This is a “delicate” balance, as any change to the neighbouring beacons could cause you to then merge again which is why guild settlements are a better solution!

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:: Roads that split a single beacon into two contigous plot regions produces the “bridges multiple settlements” state

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Here, the new beacon has joined up with the top of the previous settlement, but if you look, the beacon is actually split into two different pieces by roads, so that the bottom of the beacon “wants” to join the settlement from before, but the top part of the beacon also wants to become “its own” settlement… so whilst the bottom part does become (in terms of compass and places menu) part of the settlement below, the beacon itself will not be part of any settlement as it has “bridged” two diffferent settlements (one which then actually failed to materialize into a full settlement due to having no beacons in it and thus not hitting the prestige threshold)

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:: Bordering road plots can become quite large without problems

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Here this single beacon has a region of plots at the bottom that are “all” road plots, and it produces a settlement as there is 1 continugous set of plots without the beacon being split into two pieces, the settlement confines also do not reach all the way down the “long road”.

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:: A single beacon can still “bridge multiple settlements” without needing any other beacons involved

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Here that single beacon has been expanded with more plots at the bottom… but now produces 2 contiguous set of non-road plots which attempt to become 2 different settlements… the beacon is now inside 2 settlements and is discarded as “bridging multiple settlements”, and both settlements then fail to materialize due to not having any beacons in them.

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:: A beacon that is split into two pieces… can still be joined up by neighbouring beacons

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Here, that single beacon which “bridged multiple settlements” has been helped out by a neighbouring new beacon which provides a a path around the split in the beacon, so that here we have 1 contiguous set of non-road plots which both beacons got inserted into, so even though the beacon from before splits “itself” into two non-road pieces, it still ends up getting a settlement thanks to the neighbouring beacon. This is not a stable arrangement though, since changes to that neighbouring beacon could cause a split again, so it is always better to have your beacon on its own, be contiguous to begin with.

[Biv]

I guess I’m wrong. I misunderstood.

[Loco-Is-Back]

All was fine with all my walkways and beacon. Update came out and now I get the merging settlement issue.
I remember about 2 high and I did all that before update and all working good. Now it changed and I understand the logic behind it. So now I’m going to have to delete the walkways I created because I don’t have it 3 wide due to others building on each side of the walkway.

How I look at it: Waste of my time and REAL Money!
Might just take it all down! it is what it is

[majorvex]

@lucadeltodecso Question…where does the guild treasury get it’s coin from? Is it drawing the footfall from aligned beacons? I know part of it is from members donating, but there is more coin coming from somewhere else.

[Biv]

I feel so dumb right now because I don’t understand.

The first pic. The green is one beacon and the white another, right?

The green plots with the red hashes are roads “owned” by the green beacon. The white plots with the red hashes are roads “owned” by the white beacon…right?

Why are they roads? They don’t extend from the beacon at all.

[Nightstar]

Thanks my question was pretty much answered when you posted this earlier today. Tt was clear in the shots that I posted earlier that my single beacon is trying to resolve into 3-5 separate “settlements” based on my current plot density.

I’d like to borrow your sample image and request clarification on another point, regarding a statement that road status on a particular plot ‘isn’t important’.

In this sample image the beacon will report to the owner that they have a healthy 22 plot beacon of some prestige that’s generating footfall when people cross over it.

But IT seems that if there are shop stands at the yellow stars, a player can cross along any of the blue paths, entering and exiting the beacon two or more times, interact with both sets of shop stands, and generate zero footfall to the builder.

Is this interpretation correct, or do plots designated as ‘road’ still generate footfall to the beacon holder if they aren’t trying to “bridge”?

Will the footfall received ( or the per-user coin amount displayed by the beacon) reflect that prestige of the full 22 plots, or only the prestige of the 13 “settlement” plots?

[ceresward]

@Biv

Why are they roads? They don’t extend from the beacon at all.

It sounds like maybe plots can also be considered “roads” if they don’t have enough prestige:

@james

(if the chunk was part of a beacon that didn’t have sufficient prestige it would also be rejected.)

Looking at my own settlement, I’ve noticed the plots identified as roads tend to be buffer plots with nothing in them.

@james @lucadeltodecso would love to have some more specifics on this if possible, can you share the exact rules for identifying roads?

[majorvex]

@lucadeltodecso I don’t really want to receive other people’s beacon/footfall coin, just because they align their beacon to the guild.

They are already freely donating coin to the guild.

IMO beacons that are simply aligned & not controlled by the guild, should not have their footfall garnished. (If someone could check the history to see if this is happening…it would put my mind at ease)

[Ark]

As far as I can tell/have heard from others it has to do more with the 24hr timer. We should hopefully start seeing footfall tomorrow sometime (theoretically 24hr from patch release).

Edited for grammar.

[lucadeltodecso]

a plot(column) being a road is purely to do with number of plots, nothing to do with prestige.

A plot(column) is a “road” if the number of plots in it, and its 8 neighbours is less than 9.

A plot(column) is a “road” if the number of plots in it, and its 8 neighbours is less than 6.

[lucadeltodecso]

footfall has no relation to “road plots”, the game wont even track prestige per-plot but only for the entire beacon.

Footfall amount is based on settlement prestige (sum of prestige of beacons in it) and is only to do with the “main” settlements, not guild settlements (otherwise would end up with double prestige).

Footfall requires the beacon have 10K prestige as a threshold (<10K = 0 footfall)

Footfall is based on when the visitor last visited “any” beacon that you own within a given settlement, so if you have 3 beacons in one settlement, and someone walks through all 3 beacons, you only get footfall for the first beacon they enter.

Footfall is reduced when the visitor has already visited your beacon in the last N days (5 I believe is max before it resets to full amount again).

Footfall is reduced when many people have visited your beacon in a given 24hr period (part of the balance that lets beacons with less traffic generate more decent footfall without hubs getting ridiculously huge amounts).

Footfall will not be given for a visitor who has permissions on any of your beacons in the settlement.

[C0ND1T10NR3D]

I have not seen a single coin of footfall since the update went live. I usually get around 1-2k per day but nothing since the update. I’ve seen players come and go but still nothing.

Based on what you’re saying, I should be still getting something. I’m part of the Capitol Settlement with 1.3Mil Prestige.

[lucadeltodecso]

As per known-issues thread there was a bug fixed locally and will be in next hot fix release.

[C0ND1T10NR3D]

Sorry, I must’ve overlooked that. Thank you!

[Nightstar]

EDIT: as you can see from the dev posts being edited this rule has changed. Some of these descriptions are no longer accurate.

There’s only one rule now.

There have to be a total of 9 plots combined between the plot column in question as well as the eight contiguous plot columns.

A 3x3 in any plane/axis will generate 1 “Settlement” plot.

Like wise a 5x5 in a single plane generates 9 “Settlement” plots.

It gets harder when you’re not square but it’s still per plot so 9 plots in a vertical column should be able to form a settlement but ot 9 plots in a horizontal row cannot. . A 3x5 will generate 3 “Settlement” plots and 12 “road” plots.if it’s in x/y axes (flat) and 9 if they are stacked vertically.

Super simple lol.

Honestly the new system is simpler, in my opinion to deal with as it doesn’t involve the hard to identify chunks.

However the way things stack with the ruleset implemented in the new system the requirements are much harsher, being strictly 9 plots in 9 columns as opposed to before when it was ‘effectively’ 4 plots in 4 columns.

The use of the terms road and bridging in this does add a little to the confusion, but not as much as the whole new issue of settlement naming rights and guilds at the same time as the plot analyzer and the new ruleset.

I don’t know if the old ruleset was ever so explicitly stated people were apparently left to sort it out. I have some plots now so might do some plotting . I I’m understanding correctly then a 3-wide road will generate a 1-wide strip of settlement plots, but a 3-tall road will generate a solid 1 wide by 3 high string of settlement plots.

I’m not sure, without an answer to the question I posed with the image, whether or not they would generate the same footfall if the same blocks were placed along each road, or not.

I think you could build in an “L” profile and still get the one strip of plots designated as settlement plots. on a two-wide road.

I’m seeing that there is strong incentive to build vertically here.

Edit: Lucas posted while I was typing this up I’;m catching up now.

[lucadeltodecso]

To add, the footfall is based on settlements, but it is triggered by being inside a beacon so doesnt matter if you stand in a “road” section that is entirely outside the settlements extents, you will trigger a footfall update on the beacon, and the beacon links to the settlements regardless of you standing within its confines or not.

The only way you could interact with shop stands in a beacon and not trigger the footfall system is if the shop stand is close enough to the edge of the beacon that you can stand “outside” the beacon and interact with the shop stand within.

[Nightstar]

I’m sorry my question wasn’t involving the quantity or amount of footfall generated on a per-user basis.

The question presented in the sample image you provided is a binary.

If a valid, footfall generating user follows one of the blue lines across the given sample beacon, crossing the beacon one or more times but only touching plots designated as “road”, is footfall generated for the owner of the sample beacon, or not?

My current assumption based on what you’re saying is that in fact, zero footfall is generated as the player never “Enters a settlement” even though they have passed within a beacon that is reporting itself as a “member of a settlement”.

My follow on question regards whether or not the prestige of plots designated as ‘road’ is then counted into the settlement prestige.

I.E. in the specific, isolated settlement presented in your sample scenario, will the ‘settlement prestige’ be calculated using the 22 beaconed plots, or the 13 plots which have the “in current settlement” status?

I apologize again, if I’m somehow failing to make these questions clear, or you feel you have already answered them.