Hi guys :)
My name is François, I am the lead designer for Herezh and today i decided to talk to you about one of the features i am most excited about: the clans!
Clans in Herezh are groups of player and non-player characters that creates a settlement together a bit like guilds in mmorpg.
Players can have various ranks like Penn, Drouiz, Haroz or Marc'heg giving them different rights in the clan.
The Penn is the leader of the clan, making most of the decisions and giving out the ranks, he can also start polls to know what the rest of the clan think about very important decisions.
The Drouiz decides which god the clan is following and is the keeper of it's blessing (more about the pantheon and blessings in a future post) .
A Haroz can give orders to NPCs and take them to battle.
Finally a Marc'heg is a member with no special right.
NPCs don't have special rights but will be fighting, collecting resources and crafting simple items for the clan reducing the grind at higher level.
Saving NPCs from monsters and convincing them to join your clan will be very important in Herezh as they will be useful in a number of ways, from protecting your settlement and collecting resources to finding the right partner to have offspring with.
Each clan will have a customized banner that will be reproduced on guards shields and armors and on some vanity items for buildings creating a sense of uniformity in the settlement.
Clans will also have a treasury composed of taxes taken from players and non-players characters that the Penn will be able to use to fund high difficulty crafting or purchases.
On a server basis, clans will be able to wage war on each others or become allied, they will also be able to commerce together linking their auction houses so that players from both clans can buy what's for sell in them.
Players will be able to enter in allied or neutral settlements and purchase goods directly from NPCs as in any rpg town. Of course, clansmen will probably get a discount!
As you can see we want the interactions between player and players/NPCs to be more interesting than just seek and destroy and be assured that you will need all the allies you can get to survive the land of Herezh and make your clan into a true empire.
Until next time!
François
PS: I didn't have visuals to go with that update so i used some gameplay screenshots, i hope you'll like them ;)