The Strategic Map idea (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the War)

[Theori]

I proposed this in the Esshar versus Barsburg thread, but I like the idea enough I want to properly propose it. Maybe a waste of time? Lets see.

So, War in Eternia. Three won battles and you win the war, and wipe out a faction. There's not really room for a lot of complexity for that, and when the losing side gets a village and basically remains exactly the same just in a different location, its hardly very interesting, nor does it encourage future wars. So how do we encourage larger-scale conflict on a more regular basis, without ending up with twenty years of complacency? My answer to this is the Strategic Map Idea.

Setup

• Take (Make) a map of Esshar and split it into regions, like the one of Australia above. As many as you want, the more the better. Give each of these regions a hook. Doesn't need to be impressive, really. Maybe one region has '10 Alessa per year', or '12 Copper per year', or '1000 coins per year'. Maybe give a little blurb to explain why. On the 'ore per year', for example, the region could be called (to borrow a pre-existing one) 'Acheron', its blurb being 'This region is a hub of mining for low-value ores, with tonnes of copper and iron pulled from its earth every year. (10 Copper/Year)' This even has the bonus of fleshing out the peninsula a little bit! Now, how do players interact with this?
  
  
• Every region has a faction given to it. Osrona, Myllenoris, Theria, Nysea, hell even Barsburg or another NPC faction. While a faction controls a region, on a yearly basis it gets the bonus. Say Nysea controls Acheron. When 1752 becomes 1753, Nysea gets 10 Copper. When 1753 becomes 1754, it gets 10 Copper. This serves as a physical, mechanical bonus for holding this territory. The leadership is given the resources, to be used as they see fit. King not giving out the copper and hoarding it? Well, theres an inter-faction conflict for you!
  

War, Raids, and Politics

• But this isn't all. Say that Myllenoris has been wanting that Copper. They declare war for Acheron. On our proper, interactive map, Nysea and Myllenoris begin a War. They have two days to sign up, and then matchups are arranged. For the next week, the players fight those matchups, each victory giving +5. We used this for the last war of Spires, and most people favoured it that I've spoken to because it made it possible to contribute even if you couldn't be there for the 'big day', so to speak. At the end of the week, Myllenoris has 20 points more than Nysea! Myllenoris thus takes control of Acheron, and now on a yearly basis gets that delicious 10 copper. And so we get wars that have a motive to be fought, serve as a tug of war rather than a genocide, and encourage conflict!
  

• Now, how do we work raids into this? Simple: at the beginning of a year, an interested party can say 'We're going to raid Acheron's trading caravan, and if we win, take the copper'. In this, I propose something a bit different: partial wins. Say that the raid is...five v five, Theria vs Nysea with Theria as the raiders. At the end of the raid, the score is 3-2 in favour of Theria. The caravan has ten copper, so for each victory, Theria gets 2 copper. They win the raid, and get 6 copper all up, while the 4 that Nysea was able to defend goes to Nysea. This, again, encourages conflict.
  

• There's also potential on the Political side. Myllenoris wants an alliance with Theria, and Theria naturally wants to know what they get out of it. Myllenoris just recently took Acheron, and is worried Nysea is going to take it back, so it offers Theria half of the boon from Acheron in return for help defending it. Boom, politics that have proper benefits, and a real give-and-take to it!
  

Final Thoughts and Variant Options

• This idea would probably be complicated. I also think it would go a long way to helping encourage constant conflict, maintain a tug-of-war, but not result in the forever-war setup of Spires because not every war is about wiping out the other side. If it comes to it, I'm prepared to write a little blurb and a bonus for each region, and personally track who gets what. I'm looking for feedback for this, so please feel free to give it! Below is a couple of 'Variants'; ideas I think could be cool to add but don't want to put in the main ideas.
  

Variant: Guild Territory

• Factions can patronise guilds, and grant them territory. This gives the guild directly a portion of the boon; Nysea gives 'The East Nysea Guild' Acheron. 50% of Acheron's boon goes to the 'East Nysea Guild' automatically, for example, the ratio determined on a case-by-case basis. Then, maybe 'The West Nysea Guild' wants Acheron, so they begin to try and maneovure to get it through RP. There you get a bit of inter-faction conflict, and guilds can actually accrue influence within a settlement without it being based on their numbers! Additionally, let guilds take territory independently; a way for influential guilds to gain momentum without establishing their own settlement.
  

Variant: PVE (Or the Barsburg Solution)

• War with PCs boring? Instead, go and fight the NPC factions! In this context, PVE events could be help to take territory controlled by these NPCs, instead of the larger full-week basis of PVP wars. Make your intentions known a week or so in advance, couple of days for signups, then war on a set day: this is something a persistent DM team could work on.
  

[Simple]

Since I'm a huge fan of grand strategy games I actually really like this idea. Don't know how practical/interesting it'd be but yeah.

[BabyFatJesus]

Perhaps instead of relying on admin oversight to hand out territory rewards, it would probably be best to try to automate it.

For an example on how I see this working, look at the guild system.
You can currently 'contribute' resources to the guild be it through coin or outdated and no longer used resources such as wood/stone/food.

 


Re-purpose these outdated resources and change them to 'copper' or 'alessa' or 'coin' to be added yearly to the guild's bank which the guild leaders could then pull directly from it.. Maybe attach an inventory to it and have the yearly additions added into it? Might just be easier to attach numbers to whatever resource you have available and have the buttons already there spawn the resource item at their feet. I'm not sure how exactly it would work, but that would be how I would suggest setting up something like this. :)

[Teemo]

If it can be implemented properly, I'd love to see it.

[Lammy]

reminds me of a system of things on Naruto G.O.A.

x amount of people stay on a portion of a map, a big announcement about it. If a group from x settelement comes; its a war/skirmish. You die you get put out and the max number after 30 minutes win and claim that area. You get exp out of it to your next level.

Perhaps something similar, like the city gets crowns/arcanium/mythril/etc and some AP in partcipating. Instead of cap 1s its whoever gets beaten in a danger fight and w.e

it could be cool and gives people things to do

[BrahmsFrost]

Kind of weird that I had a similar idea. Or something along the lines of several 'territories' kind of like Guild Wars: Factions.

[Alex]

This could be a system that could fund guild banks as well.

[BrahmsFrost]

I also had an option for a resource called Influence. Where player characters go to npc villas to do one of multiple options. These change depending if the vassal 'villa' is allied or not. Such things like Spy/Demoralize/Insurrection would all be negative attacks that when the villa reaches 0 they rebel. It is well used in serveral games to know if Player control remains or is lost to piracy or other. Also has an utilization in the old game Kingdoms of Magic.