Shattered Kingdoms

I was stuck in my car for six hours yesterday and got to thinking about how I, if I were able, would address the myriad of complaints I've heard since I started playing here. Of course, I'm not Dulrik so I can't actually make these changes but I am curious about other people's thoughts on them if only because I view designing game systems as a puzzle where the goal is to make something fun and exciting. I encourage you to view these ideas a cohesive whole instead of individual elements which is why I am making one long post instead of multiple smaller ones. That said, these are the problems I'm trying to address:

The rampant PKing interferes with the RP of those who are not interested.
PK doesn't amount to anything because nothing is ever gained or lost. We are left with perpetual, pointless war that only maintains the status quo.
Sometimes people just like to hide when attacked or run as soon as defenders show up.
Tribunals do not having anything that really competes with cabals.
Jail sucks.

I think a few things can change.

Cities

A tier system for cities (including towns, villages, outposts, etc.) is established where a particular city is a certain tier based on population and importance.
The tier determines the strength of the guards that may spawn within the city, the amount of coin the city produces for the resident tribunal, the amount of coin seized from a successful raid, and how difficult it is to capture the city.
All NPCs within a city are no longer gate/rift targets.
Cities (depending on tier?) may not be open to gate/rifts at all. Cities might instead have a designated and fortified portal room with a suitable gate/rift target. Otherwise, you can walk from the nearest portal stone. This forces invaders to hit the gates which are fortified as the first line of defense against raiders and lock if the city is besieged.
Recall no longer works inside cities or simply make recall no longer brewable. This forces attackers to commit to the fight.

Guards

Guards are on a tier system that matches the city one with higher tiers being increasingly deadly.
Increasingly higher tier guards spawn up to the highest tier available within the city as an individual commits more crimes.
Guards aggro on criminals and enemy combatants during raids.
Guards aggro on enemy soldiers during sieges.
Guards either auto-sell or store in the vault the belongings they seize.

As you can see, this makes cities significantly more difficult to assault which, if you think about it, makes sense. If you assault someone then a normal beat cop comes to arrest you. If you start resisting arrest and racking up mass murder charges, you show up on America's Most Waned, the FBI is looking for you, and when they find you they bring a couple SWAT units and a helicopter. The capital city, being the highest tier, has the strongest guards and it should because it is the seat of power. It has the most resources devoted to it which also means it has the best payoff if you successfully attack it but we'll get to that shortly. This also means that people who do not want to PK can journey to the cities where they have a reasonable expectation of being safe. The PKers will be busy attacking worthwhile targets elsewhere unless it is time for the grand finale. Which brings us to...

Raids

Cities have a vault/lockbox which contains a portion of the tax money to be paid to the tribunal.
The local government leader (mayor, judge, chieftain, etc.) has the key to this vault/lockbox and surrenders it on death.
The local government leader can not be ordered.
The local government leader is always grouped with a retinue of the highest tier guards available.
Raids require no prior warning or coordination. Simply rush the gates and fight your way to the leader.
The gates do not lock during a raid.

Sieges

Tribunals may declare a siege against a city.
Sieges have a 24-72+ hour delay in 24-hour increments from the time the siege is declared and the starting time is public knowledge. ICly, this is time the attackers spend marching troops to the city, setting up an encampment, and constructing siege engines. OOCly, it gives attackers and defenders time to pull their players together for a good fight.
Declaring a siege creates a military encampment outside of the city. This encampment costs money but you may create multiple encampments. Some cities require multiple encampments.
The gates lock during a siege but lawful individuals may ask to enter and the guards on the other side will open a small door and usher them through.
At the start of the siege, the attackers are using their siege engines to break down the gates and the defenders are using their siege from the walls to destroy the attackers' siege.
Once the gates break, the attackers' goal is then to kill the local government leader and seize control of the city.
To break the siege, the defenders' goal is need to defeat the general (like a judge with his own retinue) at the attackers' encampment and rout the invading army.
Guards/soldiers aggro on each other, not on PCs, whenever possible thereby forcing the PCs to fight each other instead of just the NPCs.
Guards/soldiers push towards the enemy control location.
Guards/soldiers still cost money so it is possible to win a war through attrition if the PCs refuse to ride out and meet the enemy.
If a city is conquered, there is a period of revolt by the public before the city starts spawning the guards of its new owners and paying taxes.
The length of the revolt depends on the morale of the public.
It is possible to win back the city during this time by destroying the encampments before the soldiers are able to pacify the public and establish the new bureaucracy.

So, yes, cities are more difficult to assault but there is a payoff now. Raid a lightly defended lower tier city and make off with a portion of the treasury for your trouble. Dare to strike at a higher-tier city and, if you are successful, make off with a bigger portion of the treasury. Start border wars by trying to seize outlying towns or expand your kingdom's reach by seizing outposts and the like in the unclaimed wastes. "City" can be replaced with any number of other things that represent locations a kingdom would reasonably own and operate, such as mines. Then, when you want to go for the killing blow, try to conquer the capital.

There are a few changes to tribunals that would facilitate this, of course.

Headquarters

Tribunals have headquarters which are of the highest tier available, maybe even higher than the capital.
Tribunal headquarters have an armory where reasonable (better than normal store bought but not as good as what you go out and get yourself) gear is available since a war increases the chance of gear being destroyed. Gear may be bought with personal coin or is maybe issued out at cost to the tribunal.
Tribunal headquarters hold the national treasury and a treasurer holds the key.
Tribunal headquarters house the kingdom leader who is always behind a locked and guarded door and grouped with a retinue.
The target of a siege on the tribunal headquarter is the death of the kingdom leader and dissolution of the government.
Any remaining cities now purchase guards from their own treasuries instead of drawing from the national one.
The tribunal without any cities is now in a "rebellion" status and may place encampments of rebel soldiers for free in order to try and win back a city.

Law

Banishment is "on pain of death" so an individual who returns to a kingdom he or she has been banished in is killed and looted, the equipment either sold or placed in the nearest vault for possible retrieval, not merely escorted outside of the kingdom.
Members of organizations the resident tribunal is at war with are automatically banished.
Members of organizations the resident tribunal is at war with are enemy combatants, not criminals, and do not accrue charges. They are merely killed and looted as above.

Leadership

All tribunal guards obey all orders from tribunal members. Tribunals are military organizations, not democracies, and PCs are the officer corps. Your lieutenant may be a boot but you still obey orders.
Leadership skill grants a passive bonus to PCs in a group lead by the tribunal member.
Leadership skill grants a passive bonus to all tribunal guards in the same room as a visible (not invisible or hidden) PC. This creates an incentive for PCs to fight alongside their guards which prevents them from hiding if they don't want them mowed down in a siege by enemy soldiers who are actively led.

Siegecraft

Siegecraft is used during sieges by the attackers trying to destroy the gates and the defenders trying to destroy enemy siege.
The skill is, essentially, unchanged. It just has an actual use now.

Economy

Tribunals receive yearly taxes from all cities under their control. This is paid by NPCs and is independent of the sales tax.
This money finances the more intense war effort and creates an incentive for capturing, holding, and defending territory.
A portion of this money is the prize for a successful raid on a well-defended city.

Morale

Public morale is a measure of how satisfied the public is with the kingdom.
High taxes drop morale.
Ongoing war drops morale through war weariness.
Raids or sieges lower or drop morale based on failure or success.
Going bankrupt devastates morale.
Death of a kingdom leader devastates morale.
A low morale means your people may stop paying taxes.
A low morale also makes your cities easier to conquer as the people revolt less.

It is a lot but I really am trying to think of the best way I would address the complaints I've heard.

Problem: The rampant PKing interferes with the RP of those who are not interested.
Solution: Cities are now various levels of reasonably safe so that noncombatants can RP without being constantly under attack. Bigger cities are more safe which makes sense. Also, you can have conquerable locations in the unclaimed wastes or other lawless places for kingdoms to expand their reach and people to fight over without always fighting in the major cities.

Problem: PK doesn't amount to anything because nothing is ever gained or lost. We are left with perpetual, pointless war that only maintains the status quo.
Solution: A raid on a city has a definite winner or loser as a successful attack results in running off with a portion of the treasury. A successful defense means the attackers are all dead and hurting from the item loss, which you sold to recoup your losses. A successful siege means you just claimed new territory or lost territory, depending on what side you are on. A failed siege means the attacker just wasted a lot of money while the defender makes some from the spoils of the ruined camps. War also requires balancing the economy and the public's morale so you can't have endless war unless you are good at it.

Problem: Sometimes people just like to hide when attacked or run as soon as defenders show up.
Solution: People can still hide when attacked but if they do that during a siege, which they knew about beforehand, they risk losing that entire city since their troops are tied up with enemy troops and the local leader is counting on PCs for the defense. Attackers can no longer simply skirmish with cities but must commit to a serious attack even if it is a raid. Of course, out in the wilds and lawless places, you still have the free-for-all environment you have now.

Problem: Tribunals do not having anything that really competes with cabals.
Solution: Tribunals are the only organization capable of declaring sieges which has world-altering potential and gives wars a heavy RP consequence. They also make a good base for active PKers because they offer a safe home, reasonable gear for sale to partially offset your losses, and something worth fighting about beyond "I kill you and take your phat lewt." Leadership becomes a valuable skill even without troops but is that much more important with troops around. Siegecraft finally has a purpose.

Problem: Jail sucks.
Solution: Enemy combatants (people you are at war with) no longer to go to jail but are instead killed. Criminals are still criminals.

Obviously, this would all require extensive testing, tweaking, and balancing but you have to start somewhere. And these are all just ideas. Like I said at the start of this rather long post, I find contemplating game systems to be a fun puzzle-like exercise and am curious about your ideas.

tl;dr.

But I have a feeling you think that PK is not RP. Believe it or not, player killing has to be sponsored by RP. You cannot have it without the other. Even the gank, loot corpse, and spit should still create some rp. I understand that some players do not like pk as much as others, but that is not was this mud has been built upon. It has always been a rp mud where player killing is permissable with proper rp. Don't shun it.

You missed your mark, Trag. This wasn't another RPless PK whine thread. It has some interesting ideas in it. You might give it a read, even though it is really long. I doubt anything will come of it because in order to implement the ideas and then balance them properly, a huge amount of work would have to be done. Still, I can imagine how some version of these ideas being implemented properly would enhance both RP and PK in SK.

I read the first part and only want to say, if you don't like PK find another mud.

You should try reading the rest of the post.

These are really neat ideas, but there's an underlying problem with the vast majority of them.

They're too complicated.


I'm not saying Dulrik couldn't code it; but he won't, and shouldn't. It's way too much work to put into one element of the game just to satisfy the fact that PKing in cities is both too easy in some cases and also too difficult in others. There are feasible ways to change the PvP style of city warfare to be more sensible without requiring 40 hours of coding.


What I would suggest, and while I realize this isn't perfect it's honestly my opinion, is that capital cities should be made completely summon-proof and gate-proof, and all entrances to any major city should have 1-2 rooms of unorderable guards in every exitable direction that only respawn at most every 30 minutes and yell when they're attacked and/or killed. Perhaps also include a locked door at every exit to avoid abuse of <CABUNAL SPELL REDACTED> to bypass it. The guards themselves should be dangerous, in that a solo player would have trouble killing them but a few players could do so with relative ease (a little more powerful than the groups of Nerinan guards for example), and they should only attack warring trib members as they do now. They should track, but be chained to the city. Remove bounty NPCs completely, perhaps replacing them with the wizinvis scouting NPC idea that everyone keeps suggesting, and make the detractors of city coin be these guard NPCs and judges.

The problem is that right now the best way to attack a city is to gate into it, which honestly, is kind of dumb. Why do they even bother putting guards at the actual gates? They need to put a contingent of guards at Ardonia, and Kaiyle, and Jemm, or at Gusgil. That's where people keep freaking coming in at.

Anyway, if you want to make inns a place where people can rest and have any modicum of safety when enemies are online, then that's the change that needs to be made. Right now since you can only regen in the one inn room it's practically a deathtrap for anyone who decides to take advantage of it because now you have absolutely no buffer space in between you and the outlawed individual who wants to kill you. Of course, probably what would end up happening is that people would just all roll harlies.

That is definitely an option for making cities act like cities.

I also want wars and PK to mean something though which is why I suggest being able to raid the treasury and siege cities. What do you suggest towards that end?

*shrugs* If you want PK and wars to mean something, then give people full loots. That makes them mean something.

This is actually pretty similar to the old system on Act of War and Legends of Warcraft, which were pretty great PK muds. I'd totally support something like this (whole post, not just my quote). I also think if you do this you remove tribunal's ability to take NPCs out of their homezones, and I think on top of that you make sure that all tribunals except maybe MC have a full complement of buffing/gating/resing/etc NPCs so that everyone's equal on that front. If, over time, that makes "elite" players gravitate to cabals for extra powers and newer/lazier players gravitate to tribunals for easy access to buffs, I don't think that's a bad thing.

I was aiming more for players who want special skills/spells for their characters go to cabals while players who want to be involved in serious PK with the potential to make sweeping changes to the world joining tribunals.