Shattered Kingdoms

Since we’re all in brainstorming season, I’ve come up with this idea - inspired by Achernar’s suggestion for the RP XP Modifier - to perhaps liven up the faction warfare.

This idea is directed mostly over Tribunals and how they interact with each other, but Cabals could have a similar system or could be affected by this system (outlined below). So, to begin with this horridly long post:

Part I. Outposts, Forts and Castles.

SK has a rather expansive map. Without counting the unclaimed wilderness areas there are six fleshed out kingdoms, with lands, settlements and borders. Also, these kingdoms (barring Uxmaln) frequently go to war against each other, represented by their tribunals. What would make more sense, if not the ability to switch lands over to a conqueror? Before you flame, or troll, please read the rest of the suggestion.

First, we take the map for each kingdom and split it in “provinces”. Each province covers the area around each settlement (? on the map). And I mean Settlement. For our example, Exile, Everclear, Craetfillin, Chibunei, Elisair, Menegroth, Krychire are all examples of “Settlements”. Fecket’s and the Travelling Legion are not. In general a location that has some civilization and falls within the borders of a kingdom is a settlement of that kingdom.

Now, each province is centered around a settlement, and based on the size of that settlement the importance of the province is determined. The importances can be split into “Outpost”, “Fort” and “Castle”. Outposts are remote locations, usually far away from a Kingdom’s capitol where you would expect to find only a barracks, a watchtower and a handful of guards, with a Captain keeping the Law.

Forts are more important locations, usually for their natural resources or higher population count, where you’d expect to find some sort of defensive works (walls), barracks, armory, stables, numerous watchtowers, etc...

Castles are only found in national capitals, so Castles would be in Exile, Sith’A’Niel, Kol’s Moot, Nerina and Menegroth. I’m leaving Uxmaln out intentionally.

What can Outposts, Forts and Castles do?

First, any area with an Outpost, Fort of Castle, is a law-zone. Since there is presence of the military and/or guard, the laws are being upheld.
Second, any area with an Outpost, Fort, or Castle, can generate a sort of taxation for their ruling body.
Third, each area designated as an Outpost, Fort or Castle can swear fealty to a single Tribunal and a single Cabal, thus making it important for Cabals and Tribunals that share loyalty in a settlement to work together.
Fourth, any area with an Outpost or Fort can be -claimed- by an enemy Tribunal or Cabal. Castles, being the capitals of each nation, would require a very large plot, as claiming one would essentially mean you’re taking over that kingdom.

Part II. Taxation

To explain this part of the idea, and this is where I was most heavily influenced by Achernar’s idea, a new “factional currency” should be introduced. Let’s call it Influence. Each faction - Cabals and Tribunals - will wish for Influence Points to bolster their ranks and power.

At the turn of each year, the ruling Tribunal of each settlement receives a number of Influence points based on the Settlement’s size and the time that it has been under its control. Eg:

Outposts: 2 point, 1 if it has been in their control for less than half a year.
Forts: 4 points, 2 if it has been in their cotrol for less than half a year.
Castles: 5 points. Castles generally don’t “change owners” easily.

These points can be tapped to:

- Better outfit their guards, with better armor and weapons (within reasonable limits. No adamantite guards running around wielding diamond great axes...)
- Better train their guards, increasing their effective level (again, within reasonable limits)
- Hire even stronger (GM) mercenary guards that will wait at the barracks and fight for them as guard NPCs for the duration of their contract

By “tapping” I mean a recurring cost. if I, as a Tribunal, have an income of 20 Influence points every year, then:

- 5 are instantly spent so that my guards have Tanso weapons
- Another 5 are instantly spent so that my guards are also Mentor level
- Finally, 10 are given as Payment to Bron the Mercenary that owns faces and as long as he gets paid, lives in my Castle and follows my commands.

Additionally, these points can be spent to build more facilities. For example, with the above income:

- 15 Influence points might be spent to add a room (custom room, desc, etc) in a Castle, Fort or Outpost. Limits on number of rooms should be based on the size of the place. E.g. Maximum 8 rooms for an outpost, 15 for a Fort, 30 for a Castle. Again, these are just examples.
- 5 Influence points to have the heralds shout out a specific announcement throughout the year

etc.

Part III. Conflict!

And now the good part. Each settlement, with the exception of Castles, should be possible to be conquered by any Tribunal at war with the current, leading Tribunal!

For the sake of this, each Outpost, Fort or Castle is an (new) area -inside- the settlement. Essentially, an invading party enters the settlement, makes its way to the “government facility”, breaks it, then claims it as their own. This can be a mini-CRS type of thing, with the following:

- Every Outpost, Fort or Castle has a specific Room where the “capture” takes place. To own it, an attacker would have to be in that room and “set up his Standard” i.e. perform an action that takes a number of ticks to complete, during which he must not move away but may defend him/herself.
- Additionally, in this same room, a Cabal representative can “spread their philosophy”, thus branding the settlement for his Cabal at the same time, following a similar process as for a Tribunal.
- Each Outpost is a three room area (can be upgraded to 8 through influence), where a War Party of some strength safeguards the capture point (e.g. The war parties that spawn when outer guardians die)
- Each Fort is a 5 room area (can be upgraded to 15 through influence), where War parties continuously spawn (like Cabal HQs) and its capture room is further protected by a Champion (equal to power to an outer guardian)
- Each Castle is a 15 room area (can be upgraded to 30 through influence), where War Parties continuously spawn, checkpoints are protected by Champions and the nation’s High General resides at the capture point (equal in power to, I don’t know... Pick a Boss NPC. GGI. Something TOUGH to kill)

Warring forces fight to take over settlements and they’d best do the fight early in the year, because if they want the full taxation at the end of the year, they must hold it for at least half the year and a little more.

Finally, war parties fight to break into Castles and beat the General because if they do, they “plunder” a number of Influence from the defender’s coffers, adding them to their own.

Uxmaln, being lawless and without a Tribunal, is obviously a perfect spot for continuous and general conflict as its settlements will always be up for the taking.

Other "civilized" areas that do not belong to nations could be challenged by Tribunals alone. For example: Ch'Zzrym, D'Astae, Village of the Lost, etc. Remote areas, in the wilderness, where the "civilized people" do not really wander but the "mystical" Cabals certainly try to sway to their favor by setting up small outposts.

Finally, for the sake of avoiding twinking, only locations on the same plane of existence can be claimed. So... No Iron Citadel raiding to claim it in the name of the Emperor (and have an endless, practically infinite, supply of influence, because hey... Who can raid the Iron Citadel easily nowadays?)

Part IV. Diplomacy

- Cabals that share a settlement with an allied Tribunal receive the same number of Influence as the Tribunal.
- Cabals that share a settlement with a Tribunal in Truce, split the Influence of the settlement between them and the Tribunal with the tie-breaker (Castles) going to the Tribunal.
- Cabals that exist in a Settlement without any Tribunal controlling it, receive the full Influence of that settlement.
- If a settlement is owned by a Tribunal and a Cabal at war, then nobody claims the Influence income until hostilities are somehow resolved.
- Allied forces (of any kind, regardless of settlements owned) provide a 10% bonus to the Influence of each other as long as their alliance has lasted for more than half a year. For example, if the Peacekeepers have a total influence of 20 and the Talons a total influence of 10 and are allied then the Peacekeepers get a total influence of 21 (20 + 10% of the Talon’s 10) while the Talons get a total Influence of 12 (10 + the Peacekeeper’s 10% of 20).


Yes, it’s a huge undertaking. Yes, it will require lots and lots and lots of coding. Yes, it may never be implemented purely due to the size of the whole thing. But...

What do you people think?

TL;DR: There is NO tl;dr. Please read my post. Thank you!

The main reasons I do not like this, player numbers and timezones. The way this would play out is X player shows up at low pop time takes over town/castle etc. There is nothing the defenders can do to defend because they are not around. So next day Y player takes the city back. It really just becomes a book keeping thing. Also as extensive as the map is there really just arnt enough split points to have a good give and take in the war. It is more of an all or nothing. As players move too quickly between sections. What would happen if it played out as everyone online at the same time Side X would kill side Y and then cap all their towns. Given the winning side gets more stuff this would snowball into a collapse system. I honestly can see no workable solution around the two mains problems these being people want to be on the winning side and people have to log off. Also it does not work with alliances as only one party would get the bonus for attacking.

First off, thanks for the constructive feedback!



This is rather easy to tackle. Beef up the costs (by a factor of 10 or 50) and make the system accumulate "points" for every RL hour that a place is held. That way, you get points either way and yeah, while the problem of players and timezones will always be there, at least it will give Tribs something to do on a daily basis.

Alternatively, set a "contention week" where points switch hands all the time, followed by a "consolidation week" where no point can switch hands and remains to the conqueror that had the most "captures" (so as to avoid last minute caps). That way, you ensure that you get some points safely during the consolidation week and you do not spend all of your time capping.



By my initial, and draft count, there are at least 3-4 points per kingdoms. Add to that the various unclaimed "Cabal Only" outposts that I outline above, there should be enough capt points to keep everyone busy.



I don't get that. Why would it not work? If two factions hold a point (Cabal + Tribunal) they both get the points. Plus, each faction would contribute a passive alliance bonus to their allies just for being that. Allies. Giving incentive to people to not only build alliances, but also honor them.

Anyway, thanks again for the comments!

Though I think the idea might need some tweaking here and there, the idea of actually getting something out of the war between two kingdoms/tribunals is definitely one that I like. I was actually wondering about this very thing, whether the map was static or fluid based on current events. I feared that it was completely static so now I see there is at least a hope of making it more fluid.

At the moment, the map is completely static and any change on the global landscape requires some serious involvement from the Imms that handle that kingdom. Add to that that there is no clear or regulation on "when" a nation wins or loses something, it makes changes to the global landscape a rarity.

Which, of course, is why I suggested the above system. I consider it a good sign that it has received 9 votes so far (not counting mine) and none of those is in the negative options

I like it but it is too big of an idea.
Also, it is a bit unrealistic to add extra rooms to every area for this to take place.
Finally, the time required to create this idea will not be compensated by gameplay spent on it, as it could easily become a boring cycle.

But I like the idea and here is a few tweaks that could make it better:

First, make each tribunal to have a standard number of areas in its control, in compare to their location. IE, Morean Caves should belong to Peacekeepers (Taslamaran Kingdom). These areas, should always have a modifier when someone else attempts to conquer them (I will explain it later).

Second, change the way of conquering. Instead I propose a kill count (PKs) between tribunals. At the end of the month, according to the kill count, conquering points will be awarded. Or tribunals could get a conquering point per kill, instantly.

Then, the tribunals will be able to spend these conquering points to get a hold of a specific area. This can either happen with standard points needed for an area or through an auction system. Areas not normally in Kingdom influence, will need extra points (% based) to conquer. So for example, Morean Caves will need, let's say 50 points for Peacekeepers while everyone else will need (for example) 10% more; 55 points.

Once a tribunal gets a hold of an area, it keeps it till it is conquered by someone else. As long as it keeps it, this area generates the influence points for which Tojishiro already spoke of.

Tagging on Revenger's idea - on the kill count. Perhaps that kill count can be scaled so lower level characters worth less, higher worth more, and also, bonus points for killing the leader. I would say some minor points for killing citizens also. Because you don't want to give away leadership/membership necessarily, there should also be a way those points are not instantly visible, and saying that, only visible to leaders perhaps to know if they have enough to spend on something.

The flip side of this, is in not wanting the game to become a freeforallPKfest. As much as 'we're at war and I'm invading anytime I want' makes realistic sense, I could see the negative affect this could have on newer players. If there were a way faction leaders could coordinate times/efforts (with toggles, free of needing immstaff) that could maybe work. Essentially both factions agreeing that 'this day is a day of battle' sort of thing. Would also make an increased movement for more leaders/more active leaders, and require a degree of RP to initiate.

A good counter for the above, would be to set fixed, or semi-fixed periods for the various diplomatic states. For example, declaring war may comprise of:

Day #1: No Pk points awarded. Preparation for both sides (Remember, this is an official War declaration, by kingdom to kingdom and it takes time for armies to mobilize. The aggressor will have the advantage of having a force ready at this point, thus leaving little time for the defender to react)
Days #2 to #6: War. Full PK points awarded as described by Revenger's idea.
Day #7: Consolidation. 1/2 PK points awarded while leaders resolve their difference and switch to a non warring state. If they do not, Day #8 continues the cycle from Day #2 above.

When a war is over, points are tallied and added to each faction's total. Then, follows a period (a week?) between these two factions consolidate their power, rebuild their strength and cannot declare war to each other

I was speaking for Tribunals, which are ALREADY in such a mode anyway. At least this is my experience in my tribunal character.

In a short description, just imagine the following: Once I log in, I literally have to rush prepare, because there will be an incoming attack at about 5 minutes (like 90% of the time). I had major issues finishing my training and mastering my skills; I managed this due to the Greek timezone in fact, where fewer people are around. I have had major issues doing a large scale rp and I had to stop it to rush defend. I ALWAYS appear to defend and in the one or two cases that I was delayed because I was far away with a group, I got a lot of cabal messages, I got tell from a lot of different people plus the offender, even says from my group; When I got there eventually, I have been accused that I did not go alone. Recently, I even saw people condemning oocly another tribunal member for not showing up.

It is really that intense, so rest assured that the PK fest is always on for tribunals already. At least for the Peacekeepers. You want lots of PK? Join the Peacekeepers.

So, my bottom line, is that I do not think that keeping a score for tribunal PKs will make things at all worse.