ArtCraft recently revealed some interesting news about the Eternal Kingdoms (or EK) by announcing their Parcel Builder Tool. For those unfamiliar, each player in Crowfall will serve as the monarch of their own personal EK. These zone-sized worlds serve as permanent and persistent home bases that can be customised, built and serve as social/economic hubs. Players may choose to build their own EK, reside on another player’s EK or ignore them entirely if they choose.
The Parcel Builder is the tool that players will use to customize their parcels (the Tetris-like pieces that make up the EK). Almost anything can be dropped on your parcel: buildings and strongholds, props (like a decapitated head-on-a-spike), resource spawners, NPC and even monster spawners. It’s helpful to review Crowfall’s Eternal Kingdoms FAQ for some basics if you would like to learn more.
On the subject of building one’s EK, I’ve noticed that there are some differing opinions on how the EK’s will work. At the high level, as we’ve already mentioned, the EK’s will serve as social and economic hubs while people either prepare for or return from a campaign. How exactly goods will flow from EK to campaign is still somewhat foggy since there are varying campaign import and export rules that haven’t been tested. At this point, nobody is exactly sure how important it will be to have a massive EK in order to be perceived as “successful”. There are plenty of theories and ideas, but until we see it implemented, we won’t know exactly how well this system will function. Once crafting and economy are implemented, we’ll have a much better idea.
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Eternal Kingdoms: What’s Your Approach?
The EK discussion has been a hot topic in the Crowfall community and there is no shortage of opinions on how they will work or how useful they’ll be. Much like my previous article on the different types of customers a Necromancer may deal with, I’ve noticed at least six different approaches that players will be utilizing. There will be varying degrees within these approaches, but the following paragraphs cover most of what I’ve noticed. Let’s start with the player that wants to rule it all.
1. The Grand Poobah
This is the EK owner that aims to have the largest and most populous Kingdom in the universe. They are looking for large population, set up community events such as trade bazaars and PvP arena events. I expect Grand Poobah’s to be guild leaders or those that intend to garner a large empire within the Crowfall world. They want to control the economic and social game in order to dominate in the campaigns and to ultimately prove their Poobah-ness.
2. The Loyal Resident
These players just want to belong and be part of the family. They aren’t interested in building their own Kingdom. They want to find their unique niche and enjoy all aspects of Crowfall within their community. These players aren’t looking for individual accolades as much as they’re looking to help their entire guild or community come out victorious.
3. The Wandering Merchant
This is the person who isn’t all that interested in building up their own EK, but are more interested in traveling from EK to EK searching for the best places to buy and sell. They have contacts that are consistently sourcing them with materials and are able to make high quality goods at a decent price. Why do they travel and not just stay in one EK? Let’s just say that this trader may have dealt in less-than-honest ways in the past, but you can totally trust them now! Yes, this swordsman vessel is totally worth 5000 gold. Honest!
4. The Loner
This is the person who plans on spending some alone time in their own EK. They enjoy the great outdoors and aren’t all that interested in building quickly. They will slowly over time build up their land, but enjoy the quiet seclusion without hundreds of other people stomping all over their Kingdom. They may even perhaps invite a small circle of friends to help them with some basic needs, but it’s not something they’re setting out to do. If they accidentally have a few more social friends stop in, so be it - as long as they don’t stay too long.
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5. Bob the Builder
Bob the Builder is in love with the Parcel Builder. These players love the idea of setting up their parcels with the perfect configuration! They know where they want to set up each and every piece and do so with precision. They’ll usually make YouTube videos explaining how their configuration is best suited for various situations and are happy to offer advice on the “right way” to do it. They’ll also point out people who are doing it totally wrong (not that there is an actual wrong way to set up your own EK). If you ask, Bob the Builders already have maps set up and already have a basic idea of how they want to make their EK look.
6. The “NOPE”
This is the player that feels that EK’s are the worst thing to ever happen to Crowfall (although it’s been in the design since it’s announcement and wasn’t just ‘added’). They want nothing to do with what they perceive as a care-bear filled, safe happy fun zone for a bunch of non-PvPers to sit around drinking tea and eating crumpets. They want to go from campaign to campaign to conjure up carnage and leave a bloody trail of misery and woe. They’ll stick to campaigns with low no imports allowed and fend for themselves and their guilds using whatever they gather, kill or steal to build up their armies. At the end of the campaign they could care less about how much loot they’ll take home - they just want to win or at least make life miserable for those that do win. Don’t even mention EK to these folks, they’ll just roll their eyes at you and tell you to go play Pirate 101.
As with many of Crowfall’s systems, it’s difficult to know exactly how it will play out since the EK’s aren’t in the current testing build, but it’s interesting to speculate how useful or unuseful the EK’s will ultimately be. That being said, I am looking forward to getting my hands on that parcel builder and begin building my empire!
