Hearthling Thieves

Suggestions
1

Hey everybody,

Quick little idea!

So I was re-watching one of the latest streams, which you can watch at the link below, highly recommend it, and someone had talked about the ability to exile a Hearthling or Hearthlings you didn’t like. This brought on a small conversation about having some Hearthlings in your town that were trouble-makers.

Stream 271 - Stonehearth Dev Stream 271: Hanging out with Richard and Malley

Now I’m not sure what that implies, or if that’s a for-sure thing, or it was just an idea off the top of someone’s head…

But! I was thinking, how about having crime in the game, for instance stealing gold from an iron chest, and having the ability for your footmen to arrest Hearthlings. This also would provide the player a reason to obviously build a prison / jail, and moreover, could give players a reason to have footmen standing guard in certain areas.

Additionally, it could also be another reason to keep your Hearthlings happy. If a Hearthling gets too sad or upset, they’ll commit a crime. Moreover, it could be any Hearthling of any job type… well, besides the footmen, that’d be insane…

For instance, your farmer, even though he produces most of the town’s food, his home isn’t large enough and his food isn’t cooked. He then resorts to crime, but gets arrested. Now the problem is that you’ve lost your farmer for ‘x’ amount of time and have to strategize around it.

Again, just a quick thought!

What do you guys think? Too much? Too little? Too… uhh… ‘medium’? Let me know!

-Surly

2

I do like the vibe it gives that Hearthlings can be troublemakers and having reasons to sometimes ‘banish’ them, though the problem is that the Town’s vibe is that everyone does their job and they all get a share of what they need (at-least for me that’s the vibe anyway)

I personally don’t like the jailing and stealing type since that brings way too many complications, but i would like somethink like a ‘Liar’ trait or a ‘Bad pranker’ trait where they’d have a conversation or interaction with another Hearthling and the subject will get a decrease in happiness and the liar/pranker will bet a increase in it
They’d also need a positive attribute to counteract they nagative effect of this, but i do think it’ll be a interesting interaction

2 Likes
3

@Hyrule_Symbol

Actually I agree. And yeah, I was seeing that a lot more.

Jailing seems to be a bit too expansive a feature, with too many branching possibilities… Then there’s the whole creating a jail element. I’m not really sure how that could be implemented. Plus as you said, this idea sort of throws off the vibe. Your idea however really did feel more Stonehearth-ish.

But still! Always enjoy shooting off a quick idea.

Thanks Hyrule!

-Surly

4

I agree with this as well, the ‘warm’ and ‘cozy’ vibe that the game produces would be lost introducing some sort of crime and punishment system.

With the art style and general vibe I feel more that the game gives the impression that all hearthlings still have that beautiful childhood innocence, in such, that none of them actually plot bad deeds or generally have any inclination to be disruptive at all if their needs are met. Any mischief would be more derived from pure naivete then any actual planned motive. Even if they are not getting their desires completely met.

Even combat in game is treated this way, the hearthlings don’t hate the goblins and undead, they just simply have to deal with them in order to maintain their safety and livelihood, none actually plan to go to war to end the goblin threat for good.

I would like to see that innocence preserved as much as possible. But along those lines, my thought would be that since hearthlings already get depressed if in a negative mood for too long, maybe those with the “hothead” trait would instead throw a temper tantrum instead of getting depressed and refuse to work except for feeding themselves and caring for their pets. Or perhaps they run through town and break some decorative piece of value as part of their tantrum.

Either way, even if a hearthling committed a crime worthy of being in jail for a time, I honestly don’t think I could bring myself to see them locked up and depressed for very long before it starts hitting me emotionally in a negative way.

5

@Ferran,

First off, love the name! My fire chief that’s been on the department for forty-two years just recently retired, and his last name was Ferran. Thought that was a nice little coincidence.

Anyway, agreeing with you and Hyrule, yeah, I think you’re in the right.

Moreover, I loved your ideas behind the “hothead” trait. That at the same time would also add more towards the cuteness factor rather than less.

-Surly

6

But what about the cultist trait? i mean right now it doesnt do anything but i mean cultists can never be a good thing right?

7

@AdriannaVentara,

Ooooooo! I forgot about that one.

Hmm… What would you like to see happen with that?

I imagine cloaks and ‘looney tune’ - type sneaking… : D

(Couldn’t find video of said ‘sneaking’ but I found this, and just went with it…)

-Surly

8

Well id imagine it would bring misfortune to your town… like having your crops all die at once or something due to cultists worshipping some evil being or something… thats usually how cultist stuff works… bad things happen.

9

@AdriannaVentara,

Hmmm… How mischievous.

On those same lines, I’d say it could increase your chances of having the undead attack your town, or as mentioned in one of the latest streams, even ghosts.

But yeah, cool idea! Almost forgot about that trait.

-Surly

10

Although in the flavour text it states that the cultists mention something about a sleeping bunny god, and with the random bunny monoliths all scattered about the maps I would try to play it more to those.

Happy bunny cultists result in a a rare random chance that your crops insta-mature to full ripeness, or maybe just your carrot crop.

Unhappy bunny cultists would summon a herd of wild rabbits that you can’t stop and they eat all of your crops, forcing you to have to replant and wait until more food is ready. This would have less impact if you had a store of food, but since your hearthlings are eating it all, and it takes a while to grow, you might have to miss a day or two of getting a new hearthling to join that you would have otherwise gotten.

EDIT: spelling

11

Well the bunnies are supposed to be an allied faction at some point…a friendly faction so who knows.

12

@Ferran,

Hmm, I didn’t know that about the cultists.

Love the ideas though!

-Surly

13

I’m not saying that’s what the cultists currently do, afaik, the trait doesn’t do anything. But I figured I would dump a couple ideas that could be associated with the cultist trait.

14

@Ferran,

Right, right!

I was just saying those were some cool ideas you had! Especially having an unhappy Hearthling cultist bringing in a hoard of hungry bunnies to eat all the carrots. Pretty good!

-Surly

15

I like how all these ideas come together, but current we still don’t have any form of authority ( tribesman,king,khan,tszaar, whatever ) who could decide over such stuff.

16

Hey @MaddyGrand!,

If I read your profile correctly, then welcome to the forums! If you have any questions about the game, or just looking for some tips or tricks, feel free to ask whenever!

With your idea, I think that would be getting more involved with it. I love it, but I left that section out because I felt it was perhaps too much detail… I guess… Ehh, maybe it isn’t… I don’t know.

But nonetheless, if there were crime in the game, I think that would be incredible if when a Hearthling was caught, they’d be brought to a King for trial. Now that would be awesome!

-Surly

17

I am not as new as you might perceive, nor inexperienced. Simply making a brief statement about the fact you need 1 higher ranked party to “prosecute” the other.

Cheers Surly

18

@MaddyGrand,

See, I knew you seemed familiar… But reading your profile card, it says you just joined. Maybe a glitch, maybe I can’t read, maybe something…

But yeah! Thanks for the idea!

-Surly

1 Like
19

If they were to make it so you could banish hearthlings then maybe they could add a thief trait.