Lord of the Octoroks, all hail!
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- Oct 8, 2012
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 The map is cool and awesome, etc. etc.
The idea as it developed in TLS, after contribution from both me and NTNP. I saved alot of that topic for posterity:
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General Rules:
1. A single turn is defined as a week within the game universe. 3. A player starts with five thousand (5000) coins, and nothing more. 2. There exist two types of buildings, villages and castles, and each serve specific purposes: a) Villages constantly generate a specific amount of money each turn. This is explained through taxes and other means of production. b) Castles have a levy attached to them. This means that each castle is able to field one army, but the moment the castle is captured then the associated army is lost. 3. There is a limit to one building per square, this is meant to encourage both expansion and strategy. 3. There must be armies garrisoned on the buildings for their defense, othwerwise they can be easily captured without a fight. 4. Your own character (generally the ruler of your realm) is defined as an "Overlord", and are able to aquire special abilities and powers. 5. Your generals and commanders are defined as "Lords", and you get to have one for each building built, acting as the local rulers or governors; they are allowed special abilities and powers, though not as powerful as those of the main character. 6. Mercenary Companies can be hired through a substantial amount at any moment, which will provide additional armies. 7. Movement is more heavily regulated, you only get to move a specific distance each turn. Roads will decrease movement time.
About Money I particularly find it easier as a player to deal with 'money' as a single absolute factor.
The fact that economy is often one of the most important reasons anyone ever has went to war should be represented somehow, and currency is the most obvious solution.
About Castles/Villages: Categorizing the buildings into either villages or castles serve various purposes:
1) In the lack of resource gathering, cities generate income and are vital to keep the economy going.
2) The concept of permanent levies from the castle make it easier to track where a player's armies come from, and how many armies is a player entitled to.
3) Giving the player the possibility to have a low-ranking commander (defined as 'Lord') in charge of each city/castle, which could have many different uses, including one of them taking charge of the whole army if the main character dies, and of course the storyetlling opportuinities with so many PoVs.
4) Increasing focus on the capture of castles/cities, instead of just the clashing of armies.
5) Increases immersion and storytelling, since it's assumed those villages/castles have people living inside their walls, and the effect the conflict has upon them.
About upgrades to castles/cities: 1) All the buildings' purpose is being defensive structures, with mostly defensive upgrades. To build or upgrade them you'd need to use gold, but the effects would be free and automatic.
About armies and army stats: 1) Each army is defined as unit, and each work on three main stats: a) Strike: This defines the offensive strenght of the unit, and so long as it's higher than a defending unit's Fortify then it will win. b) Fortify: This defines the defensive strenght of the unit, and so long it's equal or higher than an attacking unit's Strike then it will win. c) Movement: This defines how many squares can the unit move on the map in one turn. 2) At the moment a castle is built, a player can customize the unit it will provide however they wish. The only limitation is that there can be only four (4) points spread across it's three (3) stats, and none can be set below one (1). 3) Further castle upgrades will allow for units to be customized with more than four (4) points.
About the story: -The island nation of Isnor has collapsed completely in the wake of the Great Cataclysm, and now, the few survivors rise from the ashes with the intent to restore civilization.
However, everyone seeks to rebuild the world in their own image, all claiming to be the legitimate sucessors to the extingished line that used to rule the realm, and by right of conquest, the Overlords prepare to assert their claim...
Instead lf what you proposed I'd do it like this:
Castle:(Fortify: 2) Each castle automatically produces one commander, and cannot produce anymore unless that commander dies; this means the number of commanders will be equal to the number of Castles you've built. A possible advanced upgrade could make it so you get more powerful commanders ('heroes') per Castle...
You only need to look at your Castles to know how many leaders you've got available.
Fort: (Fortify: 2) Each fort automatically produces one unit, and cannot produce anymore unless that unit dies; this means your number of troops is limited only by the number of Forts you've built. A possible advanced upgrade could make it so you get two units per Fort...
You only need to look at your Forts to know how many units you've got available.
Village: (Fortify: 1) Each fort automatically produces one thousand gold each turn. A possible advanced upgrade could make it so you get more gold each turn.
Road: Roads in squares make units travel faster (+1 Movement).
This system provides certain balance, and strategy when deciding what kind of building you want to build next.
About Units I'm thinking there might be a solid number of units with different purposes beyond being merely different stats. The most important factors to consider would be the movement speed, the offensive ability, and the fortification capabilities.
In theory this gives us three basic units, perhaps something like this:
Scouts Unit: This unit can move two squares per turn, as opposed to one. They have little offensive ability or defensive capability, so they'll get captured when facing other kind of units. (Move: 2, Offensive: 1, Fortify: 1)
Army Unit: This unit moves one square per turn. They have offensive ability, which makes them able to capture buildings and defeat other units in combat. (Move: 1, Offensive: 2, Fortify: 1)
Guard Unit: This unit moves one square per turn. They have fortification capability, which makes them able to hold squares and help defend buildings. (Move: 1, Offensive: 1, Fortify: 2)
This makes for a nice balance and use of strategy: 1) buildings without a guard unit can get captured instantly, but with a guard unit in the same square, they get their normal defensive value plus the guard unit's ("A wall is only as strong as the men who defend it."- Ned Stark) 2) in the same way, since fort's and castle's fortify is 2, you'd need at least two army units to capture them. It makes sense and is logical.
There's an issue with this, though: there are no waiting times or sieges, all captures and battles are comparatively straight-forwards and instant; then again, sieges usually last years and are boring anyway...
I don't really like support bonuses. In fact, stacking too much units should cause disorganization maluses. But I'll skip this point for now.
Commander Bonus should exist, my idea is that putting a commander with a unit should enhance that unit's main purpose. For example, a Scout Unit gets +1 Movement and would be able to move three squares instead of two.
Terrain bonuses will exist as well. For example, a road will ptovide +1 Movement to all units, a swamp would provide -1 Movement, Forests and Mountains ould provide a +1 Fortify, etc.
Some more rules (many are the same as above as these are notes that haven't been properly organized):
1. One turn is the equivalent to six hours 2. The map now has a grid which serves many purposes. 2.1 Buildings (castles, villages), one per square. Decides if the square is yours. 2. 2 Movement is more heavily regulated, you only get to move certain lenght each turn (one square per turn at the beginning, two squares if you build roads). 3. Stuff on mountains, rivers, etc. will be harder to defeat, obviously 4. Your own character be it the King, Queen, Lord, etc. is defined as a "main character". This is a titular title, which refers to your first "general" unit. 4.1 You might have lower ranking "generals" which may become the "main character" in case yours dies, and hich lead the rest of the armies. All "general" units, including the "main character", gets to have each a special ability, which is defined as a single power with extremely hard and clear rules, but with room to be creative and powerful when used correctly. 5. Only some special items will be available, mainly those that work better in an war-between-armies context.
What do I think about adding a new NPC nations to our game? Are there going to be unclaimed lands in this game?
This depends enterily in the setting and the excuse plot. There's been two main situations in my mind, in which the wargame could be set in; both of them take place on a specific region of the world:
-The ancient kingdom that has existed for hundreds of years has collapsed completely (unspecified cataclysm), and there are several new factions rising from the ashes with the intent to rebuild everything... but each according to their own designs, their own vision of how the new kingdom should be with them as their king.... (Most everything would be wilderness here, and nothing of the previous kingdom except ruins would remain, and a couple of NPC factions each claiming to be the true successor to the kingdom-at the same time making them rivals that will not ally. Making towns, forts, castles can be justified being instant: just say that you found the ruins and used the money to restore them to their former glory. I like this idea better myself.)
-The ancient kingdom that has existed for hundreds of years is in a state of chaos, being slowly consumed bu civil war and corruption. This presents an unmatched opportunity for a series of conquerors from other faraway lands, who shall try to carve little kingdoms for themselves in this mess. (The players are the invaders here, and most of the land would be occupied by NPC factions already, but with still some patches of unclaimed lands here and there. Don't like this idea myself because it means much of the world would already be set in stone.)
About the nations: In the first proposal, for example, most of the land is unclaimed territory with very little NPCs (2-4), which allows the players to grow and expand until they become powerful kingdoms themselves. This is something I call "macro-worldbuilding-in-the-go" since the players themselves will build the political and economical situation).
I like the map you used and I was thinking we'd need to have the most amount of biomes possible for storytelling sandboxness, though the system was designed with a grid interface in mind instead of a region-based one. Edited by Madking, Jun 21 2012, 03:4
Actually, the map I ended up with looks certainly different. In total there's sixty regions/provinces, and I'll try to add the most important biomes.
I do have an idea for merceneries, basically they are recruitable from towns just as you suggested, however instead of being a distinct unit, they are an army formed by several different types of units. The longest you control the town, the biggest the recruitable mercenary armies are , but also they are more expensive.
The three basic units (scouts, soldiers, guards) appear only in forts. You are right that scouts shouldn't get captured automatically, but still their stats make them useless except for exploring (since that's what scouts do) until they are with another unit type.
Villages are important because they support your whole faction with their income. Forts only get one unit at first just because it's easier to count, and you know some people will use any excuse to not join or stop posting after awhile. Castles giving two units would give you way too many commanders to take care off, and considering the intention is making the commanders full characters in their own right (being for players possible PoV characters with their own stories, their own personalities, and storytelling potential, etc.), having too many would make them more difficult to administer; that's why I chose to just them make more powerful when upgraded.
The problem with sieges is that people will also get bored if they have to wait more than one turn to capture anything, for example, four turns means two real days. Will you really just stand there sieging a fort for two real days?
I like the idea of letting players decide between one extra point wherever when a commander is attached to a stack.
About the scenario, we could use the first idea for storytelling purposes, just add alot of NPC factions at the beginning that will basically exist to get conquered in the first fifteen turns or so. The warmod staff would need to consist of about three people though.
Also for people in the edge about joining and contributing to this, be aware that the wargame part is only half of the whole stuff. Sure we'll need a group of people with armies, but having normal characters and posting as if you were playing a normal RP is also allowed, the only difference is that factions that are usually controlled by the admin in normal RPs this time are controlled by other players, and they have to follow wargame rules so they aren't overpowered or anything. Think about the latest CoH, with the Red Wings, the Provisional government, the Fire General's army, etc. but all of those controlled by players too and with rules that prevent abuse.
I thought about some other things which should be changed, which I will post soon. Basically ammendments to the above, the one I have in mind is adding NPCs so the two or three players that join won't be all alone.
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