Capital Policies and Proposed Amendments

[Hypotemabus]

Hello all!

I have been toying around ideas for Capital Policies. One current policy which has been causing a little bit of Dark Oak and Spruce related frustration is the Arbour Day policy in which a continent can safeguard its wood types. Such a policy does feel weighted far more in favour of the North Continent because Spruce and Dark Oak are the most popular types of wood. The west and the South don't really have an equivalent lock down on their resources as Jungle and Acacia wood in the south and Birch in the west really aint in the same demand. I propose an amendment to the policy. Perhaps the policy should instead allow a town to pick one of its continent specific resources it would like to lock down. Both the south and the west do have resources that rival spruce and dark oak in their demand but that is unfortunately not our stake in the wood market.

 

[EastBowmen]

I 100% support this idea. No one wants jungle wood for building so there's practically no reason to choose the arbor policy on the south continent. They should be able to choose a valuable item or resource that is only acquired instead of wood, melons for example.

 

[Cryptite]

I'd say you get to choose three resources for the policy.

 

[MasterAegon]

I'd say you get to choose three resources for the policy.

We can call it the Embargo Act.

 

[Ajaxan]

I tend to agree with this. There was some talk earlier about increasing the ability that players had to limit other people's availability to resources on other continents.

Although I'm not sure if the way its implemented would be correct. If implemented as Crypt suggested, I can't imagine any town not picking this policy. It has a much more vast amount of impact on the game than any other policy just from what I've seen through Arbor day. Can you imagine how powerful this would be if you could stop people from collecting up to any 3 items?

So instead, split it up a bit. Have three policies, Embargo 1, 2 and , 3. They all block one single item from being collected. It ends up at the same point but prevents a Capital from being able to pick any other policies.

 

[Cryptite]

I can't imagine any town not picking this policy

As mentioned before, the idea would be that we actually made the other 5 policies equally attractive. Yes, most towns would pick this, and I think they should, but the other 5 should be just as attractive. If we only change this one, sure, everybody'll pick it.

Additionally, it's not choosing any 3 items, it's choosing 3 items that your continent is known for. Melons/Jungle Trees/Acacia Logs for example could be choices for Garama. They couldn't choose, like, Diamonds, Grass, and Sand or something.

 

[Ajaxan]

They couldn't choose, like, Diamonds, Grass, and Sand or something.

Oh ok, I thought you meant anything. Imagine peoples surprise when diamonds, iron, and gold can no longer be mined in the North, haha. In hindsight that would be hard to make work given that it'd have to drop an alternate block for whatever the player picked.

But yeah I guess if you made the other policies just as attractive it'd work just fine. What thought have you given towards making the other policies more interesting?

 

[Cryptite]

What thought have you given towards making the other policies more interesting?

We've gotten as far as "make them more interesting" so far. Preliminary thoughs I've thought of include:

• Make Hell on Loka better somehow? I dunno.
• Allow Continental Guards to be placed in your town wherever you want maybe.
• Tax rate probably seems fine as is but I suppose we could make it 15% up from 10%.
• Not sure how to make the Nether Portal better; it may be fine as is.
• I still need to like implement the Airship.

Any ideas? Could be better versions or even new/additional policies.

 

[Lazuli73]

Maybe make the nether mobs spawn 50% more frequently then overworld mobs and give them more attacking strength. Or make it so they are passive to the Capitol and their alliance members.

 

[MasterAegon]

Maybe make the nether mobs spawn 50% more frequently then overworld mobs and give them more attacking strength. Or make it so they are passive to the Capitol and their alliance members.

This and/or the pigmen that spawn are always aggressive too.

 

[Ajaxan]

• Greater Taxation - All capitals tax their continents foreign towns at 5% of their daily generator cost. Selecting this policy will increase the tax rate to 10%.

• Hell on Loka - Nether mobs now have a chance to spawn on your continent.

• Arbor Day - You institute an effective lockdown on Trees specific to your continent. If you select this policy, only players in your Alliance will receive the usual tree blocks drops when Logs/Leaves are broken. Every other player will receive Oak Logs and Oak Leaves instead of, for example, Spruce/Dark Oak in Kalros.

• Continental Guard - Capital-faction aggressive mobs will now randomly spawn throughout your continent and will attack players not in your Alliance. These will be Human NPC's (like the Horseman, for example). They'll be harder than your average mob but aren't 'boss-mobs' by any means.

• Capital Airline - An Airship has moored near the Capital Halls (coming soon) and functions much like the current Boats do. You can now warp in an industry-like building that is an Airship Dock. Any player in your Alliance can take the Airship to and from Spawn to the Capital.

• Nether Access - Nether Portals built in towns allied to the Capital will now take you to the Nether Island directly. This is a one-way trip, however, so you'll still need to take boat back to spawn.

Just for easy access these are all the current policies.

So here are some changes I'd recommend:

Greater Taxation: Definitely increase the taxation policy effect. The most important part of this though is that there needs to be messages that remind players of the taxation. Until you mentioned it I'd all but forgotten this was a thing. I just assumed that whatever points we lost were normal. I'd say a large part of this policy is a mental nag at the towns knowing that the capital is taking their hard earned shards. And for the Capital knowing they have the power over the others is important.

Arbor day: This would become something like Embargo Act as discussed above.

Continental Guard: Being able to post a few of these guys around the town would be awesome but for a lot of towns that have mobs off they wont do much. Perhaps allow the capital to have the guards follow them and fight for them? The idea would be that every certain amount of time you could summon two guards to follow and guard you until killed or dismissed.

Capital Airline: This one is just cool. I want to see this one in action. I wouldn't say it needs any buffs yet.

And finally, I feel that the other two policies should be merged. The idea would be something like a policy containing all advantages over the nether the Capital gets. So Nether Tamers could be the policy name. Nether mobs, not hostile to the Capital would spawn. The players would get access to nether portals, and I'd also say they should be able to grow netherwart in their town. (I've always assumed netherwart can only be grown in the nether, just like all other crops are limited to biomes. If this isn't the case disregard that last point).

My last point would mean another policy has to be created but I don't think that'll be too hard. Just gotta brain storm for a bit.

 

[Cryptite]

there needs to be messages that remind players of the taxation

Taxes are collected every night at 8pm server time and all towns taxed do get a message informing them how much in taxes were collected.

Continental Guard

I think it was actually talked about that maybe this becomes an automatic-policy that all capitals just get for free. Adding a sort of following guard mob is a little too complex to make it a new part of the policy. Maybe we just give this to all capitals or change how it works in some way and replace it.

the other two policies should be merged

This seems like a pretty sensible change. I like that idea.

 

[Ajaxan]

Taxes are collected every night at 8pm server time and all towns taxed do get a message informing them how much in taxes were collected.

Perhaps have part of the login motd, be about this? Something like "Taxes will be collected at 8pm tonight, have them ready. Your current tax to the Capital is XXX"

Its my own fault for never being on when taxes are collected but like many other they probably have times they just don't normally end up playing.

 

[Wolfegger]

I still don't see anybody desperate for the unique southern resources. The unique value of northern spruce and dark oak is built into the game. Last month, the North didn't even put wood on the market (maybe a stack or two). Now some are asking three diamonds for a stack. I have enough for what I want to do for now, so I'm not worried for myself. It sucks for other builders, likely. Maybe there should be a way to temporarily circumvent a continental policy--a certain number of t-gen victories over towns in that continent in a day? Some other way?

Food for the people!

 

[Cryptite]

Maybe there should be a way to temporarily circumvent a continental policy

Unseat the power in the North and make sure you place a different one that shares your views...

 

[Iwasnotthere]

To go along with what Wolf said, many of my builds that I will be building require spruce, and it is relatively a pain to have to go mining for the diamonds that you want to use for armor, but in reality, you must waste them on overpriced building materials for your town. I feel that making this policy be abolished would be quite beneficial to the whole lokan community.

 

[Wolfegger]

Unseat the power in the North and make sure you place a different one that shares your views...

Not sure that is feasible. The North seems relatively inactive, except for Opyc (and this new town, Solitude).
Still, one would have to wait a month for a chance at that, and I'm not sure new towns could pull it off. We'll see and monitor how it goes (especially checking how new players react to the limitations).

 

[Wolfegger]

Or maybe you could give privilege to world capital, so it is not bound by continental policies. That might be good motivation to take world capital.

 

[EastBowmen]

To go along with what Wolf said, many of my builds that I will be building require spruce, and it is relatively a pain to have to go mining for the diamonds that you want to use for armor, but in reality, you must waste them on overpriced building materials for your town. I feel that making this policy be abolished would be quite beneficial to the whole lokan community.

Deal with it or do something about it. You don't always get what you want in life.

 

[Hypotemabus]

What about a ceasefire policy? Continent capitals can invoke a 48 hour ceasefire on their continent. Meaning they cannot be attacked or launch attacks of their own for the duration.

Another one could be a policy to increase the number of hostile mob spawns continent wide.

Maybe the choice between perpetual darkness or perpetual light policies? Perpetual Night increases mob spawns and makes them passive to the town or alliance which has capital and also beefs up their stats. Perpetual light could give Pvp buffs while on the home continent.