First off, quick question:
To keep a claim active, do you just need to log in and touch the claim? Or, do you just need to log in anywhere?
Or, have a character (or soon NPC, it sounds like) logged in sleeping in the claim?
On Time a Claim is uncapturable:
Two weeks for me is the right max claim duration for a solo player who has been inactive (not logged into the game). Especially, if all I have to do is log in once and suddently my timer resets for another two weeks.
For me, during periods of inactivity, I can't imagine a two week period where I wouldn't be able to log in for 5 minutes and refresh my timer. If I can't, then I NEED to lose land, especially in a game whose major crux is persistent land claiming. I've rarely taken two week holidays in my entire life (I'm 47). If the game eventually provides an additional mechanic of feeding and paying an NPC to hold claims longer in those rare times I might, I really have a hard time arguing that I need more time. At that point, it should be on me to hand the claim to a trusted active neighbor who could hand it back when I returned. Or, to join a Company.
Three days as a bottom end for a company with multiple claims ALSO feels right to me, especially if all they need to do is have SOMEONE touch the claim. It literally takes about an hour to build a small stone hut (even with new stone costs) and place a bed in it that anyone in your company can teleport to. Seriously, how hard is it to pop over to remote claims you wish to hold? If you can't be bothered, then you are an asshole greedy landholder and you SHOULD lose your territory in a game that has a serious real estate problem.
On time to capture a claim:
4 hours seems like a really long time. I've captured a PvE claim that took 9 hours already. Of me actively standing around in the claim. It was 6 hours, and then people kept touching the claim borders and adding 20-30 minutes back every time they crossed the claim. They weren't intending to contest the claim, they just wandered through. I really wish that Contesting a claim had some kind of confirmation with it, so passers by couldn't accidentally complicate your efforts.
That said - I would hate for it to be much shorter. I've spent days building structures on my land, and I would hate accidentally losing a claim because I didn't realize how short our claim timers had become.
All of this exploration seems to be steps in the correct direction. Honestly, I think the biggest design philosophy here should be basically this: If you are generally active in the game and don't hold a disproportionately large amount of land, and no one comes to forcibly take it from you (PvP), then it shouldn't be hard to hold on to. 1-2 claims per active individual in a company should be fairly easy to hold without aggressive actions.
If you and your buddy claimed 30 areas because you got out of the Freeport before the rest of us on launch day, and you still haven't made it available to others-- your reckoning is coming, and it is deserved.
