Our fourth Early Access roadmap article dives into how we’re taking player insights to heart when it comes to designing a faction stronghold storage system that is both easy to use for new recruits while at the same time protects the team’s assets from internal sabotage. Read on for an overview of the changes we’ve made based on community feedback plus what’s ahead.
SIMPLIFYING STORAGE
From our own adventures in Rend, we know that making sure contributing teammates have access to a faction’s resources and crafted equipment can be equally as important as being able to securely store them. Some of the most common feedback we received from Early Access players has been the frustration over losing valuable stockpiles to less upstanding faction members or malicious saboteurs from opposing factions. Towards this end, we’re introducing sweeping changes to how storage is handled in Faction War mode with the intent of separating armors, weapons, and raw materials into categorized, visually distinctive buildings that strike a balance between accessibility and anti-griefing.
CONTAINING CONTAINERS
To start, craftable storage containers can no longer be placed in the faction stronghold on Faction War servers. As many of them look identical, finding where a specific item was stored required either fastidious labeling habits or opening every box to relocate it. This ate a lot of gameplay time and introduced tedium into what should be a simple activity. We also found that newer players would often be confused about the lack of security the containers provided and used them to store valuables that would be easily plundered during a raid. These containers can still be placed in clan and personal bases.
Learn about Rend’s crafting system changes in our Crafting Reconstructed roadmap article!
Each player’s personal stash will still be housed in the faction stronghold and is inaccessible to other players. We’ll be increasing the number of stash slots to compensate for the loss of storage containers. Reputation-locked containers will be turning into clan storage chests so clans can better limit which groups can access them.
INTRODUCING FACTION FAVOR
Faction strongholds now features new Warehouse and Armory buildings which store raw resources and finished equipment that all faction members can access in a way that prevents deliberate same-team looting. These structures are pre-placed and can be upgraded for increased utility much like other stronghold buildings. However, unlike other buildings, these utilize a special currency called Favor which is earned through faction donations and redeemed for goods and items donated by other faction members.
Previously called Faction Use Score or Warehouse Credit on the PTR, Favor is earned by depositing resources or equipment you aren’t going to use into the Warehouse or Armory, respectively, making them available to other faction members. Earned Favor can then be spent to retrieve items directly from the Armory or indirectly from the Warehouse: the latter makes deposited materials available anywhere in the faction stronghold for crafting or upgrades. Prohibiting resources from being removed from a Warehouse directly prevents in-faction theft and minimizes ways for players to grief each other.
Catch up on all of the game changes introduced with Patch 6.2 and Patch 6.3!
Additionally, this “leave a penny, take a penny” approach is metered with limits on how much of any resource can be deposited. Favor is no longer granted for a particular crafting material when it reaches 50% of capacity. The Armory’s exchange system functions differently: every armor and weapon has a set Favor value, generally 33% of the total Favor value of materials used to craft it. This value is identical regardless of whether the item is being deposited or purchased and there is no limit to how many of a particular item type earn Favor.
We’re also introducing a new anti-snowball mechanic with this storage redesign: while the Warehouse can be destroyed by raiding factions like any other building, its contents will not be lootable by enemy players. It will revert to a frame and won’t accept new resource donations nor provide access to personal stashes until rebuilt. Faction members will be able to spend Favor to pull existing materials from a destroyed Warehouse to repair the faction stronghold. By comparison, the Armory drops the contents of its storage lockers when destroyed and it won’t be able to make standard-issue equipment until rebuilt.
TRY OUT THE WAREHOUSE EARLY ON PTR
Want to check out how the new Warehouse and Armory buildings look and feel in-game? Join us on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server where an advance version of Patch 7 is currently live and available to play right now! We’ve also added another level of interface polish to storage with more information-at-a-glance such as rarity-indicating item borders, improved icon legibility, and material availability indicators for recipes. Read all that’s coming in Patch 7 with our preliminary patch notes.
Be sure to read up on what’s coming next to Rend with our Early Access roadmap!
https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-roadmap-streamlined-storage