Frequently Asked Questions

Plot

You often talk about the “plot”. What is a plot exactly?

Good question! A plot is a portion of land that belongs to a character and that you can “claim” in the areas open for building. This portion of land is circular and vast enough to build a house of reasonable size and a couple of smaller structures. When you’re placing a plot, you’ll be able to pick the plot location in the Heartlands pretty freely and will see a preview of exactly what the area you’re getting is like.

Do I absolutely need a plot to build a house?

Building only happens on plots, but the plots have a permission system that allows them to be shared between players. So yes, you will need a plot to build, but this doesn’t necessarily mean it is your plot. If you have a group of friends and form a clan together, you can have multiple shared houses in multiple locations and work on those together.

Can I build a house on someone else’s plot?

Yes, if they’ve given you permission to do this.

Can I block access to my plot? To everyone? To part of my clan?

You cannot restrict access to your plot per se, but you can restrict who can access anything you build on the plot.

Can people come to my plot and steal what’s in my house? Can they destroy it?

Only the players you’ve given permission to access your constructions on your plot can access your things. And yes, they can destroy it but also help you build more.

How do sharing permissions play out?

We don’t want to talk about this level of detail right now - we’re aiming to make the system flexible so you can do pretty much anything you want with the permissions.

If I link my plot to the plots of my clan and we build a huge castle, what happens if someone decides to leave? Is a part of the castle lost?

We’re well aware of this and we want to develop mechanisms that allow you to retain that plot of land for the clan.

Can I decide to move my plot at any point? In that case: what happens to the building/props already on it?

Right now, you can move the plot at any time but would need to move all the things on the plot by carrying them from one place to another. We intend to offer tools to make this a bit easier but don’t have an ETA for this.

What if someone claims a plot in the area we started to populate with my clan - to block us - and doesn’t want to move? Is there any way we can push them out or prevent this from happening?

There is no game mechanism at this point to force someone to move; you’d have to talk to the person and convince them to move. Note that the game very much favors cooperation, so there’s very little in the game itself that would motivate someone to do this - someone who dedicates their plot to blocking a clan instead of working with them will have a hard time playing the game.

How long does a player have to stay idle to lose their buildings, or what has to happen?

We want the game shards to always feel alive, and to ensure this, it doesn’t make sense to keep inactive plots forever. Once a player stops playing the game, we’d therefore want to free the plot (or plots) of land the player has been maintaining, so that other players can occupy the space.

We’re thinking about setting up a grace period to make sure people don’t lose their house by accident, along with ways to allow a returning player to easily rebuild a plot so they don’t have to start from scratch. We haven’t made final decisions around this yet, and are looking forward to experimenting on this during the Alpha test.

Can I take resources from abandoned players’ structures?

Yes, if they are truly abandoned.

When we go to build on our plots, how forgiving is the building system if we want to change our minds and start over completely, or if we mess up? Can we recoup supplies equally, or are they lost once placed?

We’re still debating exactly how much you’ll recoup when tearing down the houses. But we do want the system to be fairly forgiving.

How much can I build on a plot?

We haven't yet determined how large the plots are, so it's impossible to answer this precisely. The balance we're looking for could be described as "You can build quite a lot on your plot, but you will also want to work with your clan to use the combined land in your clan's plots as smartly as possible."

Are there access controls in the plots?

We have an access control system that's being integrated into the items, and it will give you reasonably granular control over who can access things in your plot. We don't have a feature to restrict people from walking on your land, but you can build walls, so theoretically, your clan could wall up the village - as people did in the Middle Ages.

Can I build on other players' plots?

Yes - depending on who allows you to do so. We're expecting most clans will set up their plots so all clan members can build on all clan plots.

What if a griefer builds a plot next to mine or my clan's plots?

We understand that players may encounter issues with plot placement, and we want to ensure that our players can resolve these conflicts. Our team has extensive experience working on multiple MMOs, and we are well-versed in the challenges that players can face.

Can I modify the ground in the plot?

We don't support this feature, but you can build the foundations to flatten the land.