the game, they were in attending status which meant they could not attack or be attacked by other players. They could be deattended instantly by a player who was the local magistrate, or by completing a tutorial. The deattending command used by the local lord or magistrate was intended to be a tool to prevent griefers from abusing the protections of attending status. However, due to the extremely repetitive, redundant, and monotonous tutorial, player lords and magistrates were burdened with the duty of deattending thousands of players who preferred not to complete the tutorial. Guilds Guilds were player associations, or "clans" and formed the basis of much of the social structure in Roma Victor. Guilds in Roma Victor were exclusively made up of players—the numbers could be augmented by NPC members, which could be hired and assigned to various roles and tasks, such as protecting the guild's members, carrying out assignments, or simply acting as a merchant on behalf of the guild. Roman guild types included Auxiliary, Legion, Patron House and Patrician House. Barbarian guilds included Tribe and Warband, and there were also religious cult guilds which could contain both Roman and barbarian characters. Every player also had their own household. Household was the collective term applied to all the buildings and NPCs owned, employed, and/or run by an individual player. There could be many buildings and NPCs within a household and using the built-in household management interface a player could set entry fees or rent fees on their property, assign NPCs to act as merchants or guards, summon NPCs as an escort, hire and dismiss staff, etc. NPCs were known to cause lag throughout the entire history of Roma Victor, to include significant adverse effects on game performance in the starter towns. Skills and abilities There were no character levels in Roma Victor. However, there was a 'skill' tree which replaced this function. Character development in Roma Victor was designed to simulate real life. That is, if a player wished to improve a character's woodcutting skill, this could only be accomplished by cutting trees down. From those trees, the player could then extract sticks and turn them into handles to train the character's preparing skill. Those handles could then be used by a smith to make simple tools. Most craftable items could be made and used by anyone, butthere were certain items, like the lorica segmentata armour, that could