Chapter 2.5 Inactivity, Destruction, and Decay
Why Decaying Constructions?
Decay is a necessary feature for two purposes. One is to open up world/land/resources for active players, the other is to maintain a visual historical context between active and inactive areas. This allows for ghost towns, decayed constructions, and ruins to form naturally. Which will give awe and respect to larger constructs, towns, and cities that remain standing. Decay only occurs during specific instances, such as player inactivity, not supplying adequate resources for growth, or for aesthetic purposes to make active areas look older or in ruins on purpose.
Decay
Claims slow down decay compared to constructing on unclaimed land. Each claim has a light source that serves as the claim's hub, this is usually a campfire, bonfire, oven, or something else fire/heat based. Players will need to feed the fire to maintain an active status. Players can burn tinder to do this, or burn resources (all resources will have a tinder worth indicated,) or feed their wildlife claim. (Wildlife claims can still accept tinder and burned resources.) Buildings in incomplete status will decay at a faster rate if no activity has occurred in some time.
What is Tinder
Tinder is logs, coal, and other burnable resources that are typically used to keep a fire stoked. However, all resources have a tinder worth, which is an accumulation of stats, traits, rarity, age, and sometimes other special factors. It considers time it took to learn the craft, and time it took to make the craft. Players can burn any resources they don't want, or craft them intentionally to use as tinder. This process is typically known as burning resources or crafts.
Tinder allows player’s in-game time, whether it is loot from combat, or crafts from crafting, to be used as a currency in the game for several applications, instead of using gold or other form of currency.
Spirit Relics will only ever use in-game items as a currency, and will never ask players for real life currency, (or any kind of separate purchase) in-game. In other words, players cannot purchase activity, convenience, or services with real life currency. Only time and experiences in-game can, but in-game supports like character skills, traits, crafts, strategy, community, and other means can assist players who are more casual or more involved. The game is designed in many ways to scale difficulty based on player actions.
Claim Maintenance
After inactivity for a period of time, claim hub's firelight goes out. This indicates that is is now decaying at a normal rate. The claim will remain until some time, to allow the player chances to return to the game. Players can build up resources, crafts, and strategies to auto feed their flame when they are offline. Players can also rely on communities for assistance. In single player mode, claims do not decay, as the decaying feature is merely to make room for active players in an ever-changing online community. Construction, tasks, and some quests will guide the player to unlocking these methods naturally.
Community, Friends, and Strangers can Assist
Players who can access your claim's hub can help stoke the fire. This mechanic is important because as players become inactive, it should be up to the active players if property starts being in the way or not. This allows for an indefinite amount of claim time if the community or strangers value it and want to provide that service. Players can also repair buildings and constructions/feed your wildlife claim freely if they have access to reach it. You can turn this option off at the claim's hub. However, towns and cities can set laws that allow them to expedite inactive housing and buildings to make room quicker. Consider this when determining a membership at an outpost. (More on Outposts in future chapters.)
Visual Decay Control
Players will also be able to change the visual themes from their hub intentionally, if they prefer cobwebs and more abandoned/creepy visuals while remaining active.
Interrupted Construction
As long as the workstation, or construction site is still there, you will not lose your building progress unless it gets damaged, for example, by monsters. If it gets damaged, the progress will lessen by the amount it has been damaged. If it gets too damaged, it might turn into ruins, or rubble, which will need some supplies to rebuild, to retry construction.
Consider the limitations to construction.