[Discuss] Creating Guilds (now sidetracked onto power to the simple knights)

[psymann]

Alex wrote:
> Stijn Van Hove wrote:
>> Haven't seen that idea before. But I like it. Any ideas already of 
>> options
>> that could qualify as such?
> http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.battlemaster.org+%22power+to+the+simple+knights%22+psymann&hl=en&rls=DVFC,DVFC:1970--2,DVFC:en&start=0&sa=N 

If you'd like a summary of what Alex has linked to without having to 
faff about with the links:

Back in November 2007, I had been playing for a fair while.  I had two 
knights, an adventurer and a bureaucrat.  And I'd got bored.  There was 
too little for them to do to keep me interested, which I felt was a 
shame, since the game is great, and I enjoyed the fairly unusual 
combination of roleplay and strategy.

So I suggested some new ideas.  These were all based on the idea that 
"Simple Knights" - ie those without any sort of position - needed more 
to do.  I would include, in this, bureaucrats, cavaliers and heroes, all 
of whom have very little to get involved with.  (Not sure about 
infiltrators or traders since I've never had one).

In quick summary, the ideas were:

1) Home Army.  Being able to recruit and train men from your own region. 
  Like your own personal recruitment centre located on your estate.  You 
put in time and money, and you get troops without having to recruit them 
from the capital.
http://news.battlemaster.org/archives/discuss/2007-November/028247.html

2) Battle options.  Four new options for you to choose for battle.  And 
crucially, each one dependent on your own personal troops' statistics. 
This means only you can know what the best settings are.  No General or 
Marshal can just write down the best settings for every troop in the 
realm, as they'll vary considerably based on your own troops' 
morale/training/cohesion/etc.  And add to that a default setting that's 
always passably good so newbies don't suffer.
http://news.battlemaster.org/archives/discuss/2007-November/028248.html

3) Hunt Goblins.  A sort of cross between hunting undead like an 
adventurer, and looting.  You can either hunt goblins (getting gold but 
maybe causing region damage and angry-peasant-mob-style goblins if you 
overdo it), or work with the goblins (and have them help your region stats).
http://news.battlemaster.org/archives/discuss/2007-November/028249.html

4) Managing Estate.  Having the option of investing gold in your estate 
in order to get the potential for some return on your investment. 
Invest wisely, and make a profit.  Invest poorly, and waste your gold.
http://news.battlemaster.org/archives/discuss/2007-November/028250.html

5) Advanced Bureaucracy.  Having options to assist with fortification 
repairs initiated by the local lord.  And having options to organise a 
carnival to boost region population.
http://news.battlemaster.org/archives/discuss/2007-November/028251.html

The Home Army and Managing Estate would give you more of a tie to your 
region, and give simple knights the same issue lords have - when to go 
to the frontlines, and when to stay behind and deal with the estate.

The Battle Options would add a level of tactics to all battles, rather 
than these all being decided and ordered by your marshal.  Hunting 
Goblins and Advanced Bureaucracy would give you something to do with 
your men during peace time, or time when all region stats are already 
perfect.

My own personal favourite is the Battle Options, since battles are 
frequent in many realms, and it would be good for tactics and for 
roleplay to be able to affect the performance of your unit in battle. 
But I think the Goblins has potential to be very interesting, as it 
would allow more than just randomised undead attacks during peacetime. 
In heavy wars, no-one would have time to hunt or work with goblins, so 
they would take a back seat. In peace-time, you can start causing them 
trouble - maybe even having some way that by dealing with your goblins, 
they might affect neighbouring enemy regions (like you piss them off and 
they go and loot your neighbour in annoyance, or pay them to piss off 
your neighbour and pretend it was an accident).

Anyway, there's plenty of further detail and discussion in the links 
above, which link to the initial post of those threads (there was one 
thread for each idea).  You can ignore the preamble part if you like 
(it's the same for each of the five), and I recommend you ignore the 
first reply from James, who replied to each one within minutes and 
completely missed the point every time.

I'm sure there are more, and better, ideas out there.  Those five were 
meant to get the ball rolling, but instead the ball seemed to get a 
puncture and deflate.  Perhaps we can repair it and get it rolling 
again.  Four months on, I might have some more ideas myself by now.  If 
I do, I'll post them.

psymann