Brainstorming session: Hearthling Theater!

I’m been trying to play around with the idea of Hearthlings performing in a front of an audience on stage, but I can’t think of any benefits that it could contribute… Which is why I thought it would be fun to see if anyone else had any ideas.

One of my ideas is you start off with a few performers wearing masks and eventually upgrading to shakespearean literature performed on a stage that you build and decorate. But that’s about it.

So guys, any other ideas?

EDIT: Thanks for the ideas everyone! I’m loving these great ideas!
EDIT 2: Seriously, thanks so much for contributing all these great ideas!

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maybe something with culture? i would love to see the heartlings do stuff like this :slight_smile: or playing instruments?

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Maybe some sort of benefit towards Morale, could be a play or other activity once the sun goes down : ). I think this would take a lot of animation work to sell it, maybe not all that much, would depend how nice you wanted it to be ; ). I really like the idea!

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Morale was also a big factor in one of my ideas. This, along with the instruments idea are pretty good ideas so far!

Love the thought of it. The hearthlings need more opportunities to act alive and not just be robots.
A theater should boost the morale, however, like @Fornjotr wrote, maybe something with culture as well.

The settlement could have a cultural score, that affects the net worth. Things like theater, music, poetry, storytelling, literature, art, dancing, sports (including gladiators) and festivals could contribute to the culture score. They wont be very important in the beginning, when the focus has to be on food, security and a roof over you head, but in the long run, a city without culture wouldn’t be very attractive.
Having a cultural score could give you a good, peaceful goal. It could give you more things to aim for if you play in peaceful mode or if you manage to end the fighting in normal or hard mode. Cultural activities could also take away the need for the game to throw enemies at you every day, since there can still be things happening that keeps it interesting.

So how should it work? Well one way to do it is that the heathlings do cultural activities on their spare time, either if they are idle or before they go to bed. If you want more culture you could have a setting for how much time off they should have at the end of the day. At first it could be simple things like storytelling, singing and poetry around the campfire. To upgrade it you craft instruments, masks, costumes, a stage, blank books to write in to build up a library and so on.
It could be that the most basic equipment work as the “job talismans” (or whatever they are called) so they don’t just use them temporarily but instead pick them up to “claim their hobby”. The hobby then works as a second job that they get better at over time. They might even reach a point when they can have it as a full time job.

There could be traveling entertainers that visit your settlement and perform for gold, giving your cultural score a temporary boost. Depending on the kind of entertainment the cost and boost varies.
If you have skilled cultural practitioners living in your town people can come visit to see the show, visit the library and museum, learn from the masters and things like that. There could also be challenges (quests) connected to different activities.

There is sooo many possibilities opening up if they add a system for cultural stuff. I do realize that a system like the one I suggested is advanced and would take a lot of work, so I don’t have any high hopes, but even the most basic version of cultural expression would give a whole lot more life to the hearthlings and your town.

Anyway, thanks for bringing it up. :smiley:

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wow you just picked that up and ran over the finnishline with it! awesome ideas Agon :slight_smile:

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This is the kind of discussion that I live for. Great Ideas!

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Those are great ideas and I think the game would be much more fun if our Hearthlings had things to do other than work. Maybe instead of a setting for deciding how much time off our Hearthlings have we could have a “dismiss for the day” command or button to let the little guys stop working and have some well-earned fun for a few hours. That way you could be a heartless taskmaster that never gives their subjects a break or a “slacker”-type leader who just wants an easy, breezy town atmosphere, with corresponding pluses/minuses to productivity versus morale.

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Sure, there could be a button like that, as an easy way to give them the rest of the day off without having to throw away the schedule. I do think you need a setting or schedule though, or you’re gonna have to keep track of time and press the button every day if you want them to do anything else than work and sleep. You can still be heartless or a slacker and it would be easier to be so consistently.

I’m not sure how detailed the schedule needs to be. One setting for all is too broad and one per hearthling sound too micro managing, though it might be necessary. It could be one setting per job or per hobby, but since every hearthling could have a unique combination of job and hobby it might not be a good idea to say that all the actors should have extra time to practice if one of them has a really important job with a deadline. On the other hand, if you have a quest to prepare a spectacular theatre show before some important visitor arrives or if the theatre crew is about to travels to another town to perform there on a specific date then they need all the time they can get to practice. The city’s reputation is on the line so who cares about that daytime job?!

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Thats an awesome idea : ).

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I like this idea. I’ve wanted hearthlings to perform some animation after being idle for 7+ seconds for example; when 2+ soldiers are idle and are in close proximity of each other, they will start sparring. Other hearthlings will go to each other and play/speak with each other instead of just standing around. Maybe they could interact with items too. It would make the world feel more alive.

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Could be a task for the carpenter to build a scene, add a new job, entertainer.
At night, instead of sitting around the fire, they can sit at the scene, so you need to get them some free time at night, to boost cultural level.

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