[Discuss] War Island Change

[gagnonm at ijet.com]

I think the system we're talking about changing to is just way too convoluted to really be "fun".  Yes, its chaotic, yes its unpredictable, and yes, I'm sure it would work, but that doesn't mean its really the answer.

The old KISS acronym (keep it simple stupid) really would apply here I think.

Lets break it down as simply as possible by answering a few questions:

Question 1 -  What is the point of the war island?
Answer 1 - (At least to me) To provide a place for players who really enjoy combat to go to really get involved in WAR and fight almost constantly.  People who want to learn, practice and use settings, strategy, etc come here so they can really get geared up and fight, and hopefully from a PLAYER standpoint, get some real experience to use on other islands with their other characters.  Obviously people who desire to rack up H/P will also come here - but the bottom line is, we want to always be fighting.

Question 2 - Is that what the war island IS NOW?
Answer 2 - No, it isn't.  No need to get to deep into this question since we all see the problem, but the war island has more, and slower moving diplomacy than any island in battlemaster.  Players are OBSESSED with "getting an agreement" with this realm, or "allying with THAT realm" against others.  People are ENTRENCHED in positions and are more concerned with holding onto their goodies than fighting.  They only want to fight when its guaranteed victory (in other words, gang ups).  Leaders tell their subjects, "patience - we have to build our forces and talk to the other realm.  We'll move on this sometime soon" and months go by with nothing happening.  ADDITIONALLY you get absolutely ABSURD character development, with a lot of TLs more sympathetic to other realms and making excuses for other rulers than they give to their own (because they are basically sucking up for an alliance).  It makes it not only quiet, unfun with no battle, but at the same time its unrealistic and the RP character development is beyond stupid.

Question 3 - What are the main things that need to be fixed to turn the island into what it should be?
Answer 3 - Simple.  1 - Too much diplomacy  2 - Not enough fighting  3 - A system that makes leaders consersavative rather than bold

Question 4 - How can we fix this?
Answer 4 - I propose we do it as simply as possible.  My initial recommendation stands in my opinion - simply remove any ability to communicate with rulers in game.  Yes, I KNOW they can go the IRC, email, phone or whatever route, but so what.  Where there is smoke there is fire my friends.  I think you simply make it understood to all players on the island that there is to be no formal or informal agreements - and that if there is (and please, like we can't tell when there is) all leaders get removed and your realm gets trampled by monsters, or some other punishment that is clever - who cares... point is you make it clear that even informal alliances will get you rolled over.  Don't tell me thats impossible to police - it would be easy.  Just allow all members of all realms the ability to report any suspicious activities to the titans or Tom or something, and bang, you're golden.  If two realms are somehow coordinating an assault on one realm, that's kind of obvious.  Ruler messages the realm and says "who should we ally with" BOOM report it (and yes, I would report my own ruler... honor system man).  It really shouldn't be hard to see who's allying with who.

Additionally, if a realm goes without fighting a battle for X amount of time, all leaders lose their title and whatever other punishment.  Very simple.  A major attack per week at least, or you're screwed.  This would also help kill diplomacy too, because it would FORCE engagements and make diplmoacy difficult/impossible to manage.

And to help encourage leaders to be bold rather than conservative, perhaps if your realm doesn't gain territories in a given 2 week or month period than your realm loyalty in your regions drops 50% or some other tool like that.  So, more or less, you expand or die/lose what you have.  Maybe its tied into battles and not region gains - that actually might be more fair.   Don't do it to the whole realm, but hit the Dukes hard, and any regions owned by council members and maybe cut taxes to the ruler or something.  

Actually that would be perfect - really hurt the Duke's regions and maybe to a lesser extent region lords stability, to the point of maybe even going rogue, and they'll take care of the leadership themselves (take out their ruler themselves).  This would remove the need to do montly reviews on rulers.

Doesn't matter WHAT you do, we're just talking about the philosophy here.

SO TO WRAP IT UP...

I think we need to make this as simple as possible.

1.  Remove any inter-realm communication, report people who go around that
2.  Punish a realm for not fighting any large battles over the course of a certain amount of time
3.  Severely hurt leaders who do not act by killing the stability that the leaders crave.  If you don't act, you lose what you have.

This would be so much better IMO.  Monthly reviews of rulers and more statistical "glory points' just sounds so unrealistic, convoluted and unnecessary.

Under this system, or something like it its the peasants and TLs that really do things.  This way, even a realm that is losing battles and what have you can keep a good ruler who is in place if they want, but if leaders are being too conservative their own people will take them out.

KISS my friends, KISS...


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