[OOC] Colliding Worlds: Europe 1200 AD

[SyrianHamster]

Hiatus, With Apologies

I have received several complaints over the last few days about various aspects of the mechanics in play here, some of these I find are down to the player missing the point, others I find are down to the players feeling they're entitled not to be eliminated, but there are some valid questions that need to be answered nonetheless. Having come home from work to get the next season going, and instead see all of the above, I'm now forced into a position where waving a white flag is my only strategical option here.

First of all, let me apologise immensely to you all. The mechanics were experimental, untested, with the exception of the combat system which was borrowed from a previous nation RP where only humans were involved. As you can imagine, this left a great deal of room for one giant fuck up. It was stupid of me to even start this RP without first hypothesising certain situations, or looking further into the systems in use. I can see now that there has been far too much centralisation of player stats and buffs, and that the recruitment/unit cap systems are fundamentally flawed and in urgent need of overhaul. Please believe me when I say "it looked good in my mind", because it did, but with so many races involved and so many variables to go with them, I was asking for trouble.

I have also sensed that the mechanics have turned this nation RP into almost a fully fledged tabletop war game, which was, believe it or not, not the objective. They were there to prevent players from breaking world logic, from God modding and from defying the laws of physics. The story of two worlds colliding, and the many epic sagas it was supposed to spin, was sunk in the water the moment I conceived the idea of tech trees, population levels and race characteristics - then combined them with a combat system.

I will now put this RP on indefinite hold, as I attempt to overhaul the entire thing without the need to wipe the slate completely. I cannot put an exact time limit on how long this should take, but you should expect my proposals to be laid forwards within 48 hours. If you feel that you would like to leave the RP because of this giant fuck up, then you can by all means do so, and I apologise to you for wasting your time. Those of you who wish to stay, I give my thanks, and again, my apologies.

What I will change, I do not yet know, however I can promise you that the combat system will likely remain - because it actually functions quite well, it's the other stuff that's as rickety as an old rope bridge that I'll need to axe, set on fire, disown or nuke.

Sorry again for this, as a GM this is the first time I've had to stop one of my RPs to go and do some thinking, and I fully believe that it's because I was far too ambitious, and far too hasty with its design.

Thanks for your understanding, if it is there to give.

[So Boerd]

While you are doing so, I think it makes more sense for modifers to be multiplicative, not additive.

[Eternal_Flame]

if you need a help, i can do the math thing, just give me a template for that.

[Titanic]

You could always do the thing you did in the fractured south, let battles be decided among players or if they choose to, have you roll a couple dice.

Also giving a little of NPC control to the players would ease up your load, let them decide some basic stuff like when they would meet the enemy army in the territory. It would let you decide battles better if you are asked to and ease the load of managing the RP.

[So Boerd]

Any ideas thus far, Hamster?

[SyrianHamster]

Several. Here are my proposals:

- Abolition of population levels and growth.

- Abolition of human militias; troop types in armies will be dictated by players, and moderated by common sense.

- Abolition of tech trees, since they will now be redundant without the population levels.

- Race stats to be revisited in light of changes.

- Army cap system = 10,000 per region owned. This includes the Vrael; IC will be explained by them requiring a kind of "minor Queen" to act as a transmitter between the big mamma and her drones. It would make sense that these so-called transmitters were based in each country, therefore being able to convey the signals over the large expanses of land. This would be non-negotiable but I hardly see how it would be 'race breaking'.

- Replenishment rate reworked. Armies will now fully replenish to full unit cap after a designated number of seasons (dependent on each race) from the moment casualties are first sustained. I.e 1201 Spring, you lose 3,000 men. Replenishment cue activated. 1201 Autumn all units lost during the replenishment period restored. This will dumb down the game's tactical element, but still leave something there for people to act on.

- Combat system "army size difference" modifiers reduced. This will mean smaller armies aren't so easily smashed. (In the current build, the handicap shot up too rapidly)

- Major NPC nations to be dissolved, and replaced with grey territories.

- GM cedes control of NPC nations to the players. Battles between NPCs and players can either be dice rolled by the GM upon request, or done through IC. Abuse of this free-form element will result in the GM stepping in to dice roll the suspect player's battles.

- Player battles to be resolved by GM, or by mutual player story-led coordination.

- IC Post will be made to accommodate these changes, and to explain the disappearance of population levels as a factor.

[So Boerd]

Thoughts on making bonuses multiplicative?

EG, roll casualties as normal. Say you roll 20% casualties. Rather than tacking on an arbitrary 10% from X race bonus, you would instead add 10% of 20% (2%). This would help alleviate the overly bloody battles.

[SyrianHamster]

So Boerd said
Thoughts on making bonuses multiplicative?EG, roll casualties as normal. Say you roll 20% casualties. Rather than tacking on an arbitrary 10% from X race bonus, you would instead add 10% of 20% (2%). This would help alleviate the overly bloody battles.

I found doing that didn't make the battles bloody enough. If people want a more attrition based game, rather than the quick and chaotic big engagements, then that'd be fine.

[So Boerd]

I actually didn't really mind the old system. I was going to lose in the long run but that didn't bother me. The fact that the Vrael, a totally new nation, stood a good chance of beating or crippling me, who had been building up for some time, proves that.

I would instead pose an alternate on the replenishment system. You replenish 10% of your army cap a turn. There ceased to be an incentive for Alexios to keep conquering for the entire rest of the RP as it was going to take 20+ seasons to fill his army cap. But, the system I propose prevents blitzkrieg still. It will take 8 turns for Romania to be profitable in terms of manpower spent/increased replenishment. So Alexios will have to take the defensive for quite a while to recoup his losses, while still having an incentive to continue conquering.