Development: House Ghallanda

[Sephi]

House Ghallanda is one of the Noble Houses of Erebus unlocked by the Noble Houses Gameoption. As with all Noble Houses, gaining it's Support gives powerful tools, but neglecting their needs/demands can result in civil war and some cities splitting up and reforming under the rule of the House Patriach.

Pedia Entry

Spoiler :

House Ghallanda is best known for running the Hostelers Guild, which maintains rigorous standards for inns and restaurants throughout Erebus. This includes both those businesses run by the house as well as independently contracted businesses who wish to earn the Ghallanda seal of excellence.

More than 3.000 years ago the nomadic tribes of the Talenta Plains started to develop magical abilities to provide shelter and food even in the most hostile climate in Erebus. They congregated together and eventually took the name Ghallanda, meaning "helpful hounds".

Moving from oasis to outpost across eastern Erebus, the Ghallandas offered food and shelter to any fellow travelers, and they were instrumental in quelling feuds, monster depredations, and other local concerns at each stop.

When Arendel Phaedra explored the Talenta Plains, the other Noble Houses discovered the Ghallandas. After countless hours at the bargaining table, the other noble houses recognized the Ghallandas as a full fledged house, and House Ghallanda started spreading across Erebus, first establishing inns and taverns and then constructing enclaves.

Unique Units:

• Innkeeper of House Ghallanda:
  National Limit 5
  cost 60
  requires Low (or higher) Support of House Ghallanda
  Can Spread House Ghallanda
  Second Ability?
  
• The Wandering Inn of House Ghallanda
  National Limit 1
  cost 200
  requires High Support of House Ghallanda
  Can Establish House Ghallanda Trade Mission

Unique Buildings:

• Enclave of House Ghallanda
  Requires 4 Inns
  requires Medium (or higher) Support of House Ghallanda
  Provides a Random Luxury Bonus (those Bonuses linked House Ghallanda)

Unique Abilities:

• Spread House Ghallanda
  requires Low (or higher) Support of House Ghallanda
  makes House Ghallanda present in the city
  % Chance to create an Inn or (if already present) a Tavern in the city (% depends on the Support of House Ghallanda)
• Can Establish House Ghallanda Trade Mission
  requires High Support of House Ghallanda
  Gives Random amount of Gold. Higher Support of House Ghallanda increases this.
  The Headquarter of House Ghallanda has a chance to permanently provide one of the Bonuses present in the City the Trade Mission is established.

Unique Events:
?

Actions that trigger the Support from House Ghallanda:

• Researching Trade: House Ghallanda will only offer Support, if it doesn't support three Nations already. In this case House Ghallanda will only offer Support if the Nation doesn't receive Support from another House already.
• Doing a Trade Mission with a great Merchant in a City House Ghallanda is already present
• ?

Actions that Change Support from House Ghallanda:

Support operates on a scale of 0 to 10000
Every Turn Support from House Ghallanda is decreased by a fixed amount
Support Modifier modifies the Support gained with an action. With an Support Modifier of 30 an action that gives 200 points base will give 260.

Leader Traits:

• Trader (+20 to Support Modifier)
• Raider (-20 to Support Modifier)
• ?

Buildings Build

• Building an Inn (+200)
• Building a Tavern (+200)
• Building the Nexus (-1000, -30 to Support Modifier)
• ?

Units Created

• Great Merchant (+500, +5 to Support Modifier)
• Adventurer (+200, +2 to Support Modifier)
• ?

Promotions Selected:

• ?

Techs Acquired

• Currency(+1000, +20 to Support Modifier)
• ?

Spells Cast/Abilities used

• ?

Civics Adopted

• Foreign Trade (+2000, +30 to Support Modifier)
• Mercantilism (-2000, -30 to Support Modifier)
• Consumption (+1000, +10 to Support Modifier)
• Conquest (-1000, -10 to Support Modifier)
• Military State (-1000, -10 to Support Modifier)
• ?

Other Actions:

• Starting a War with a Nation that is supported by House Ghallanda
• pillaging a Road (-100)
• Signing an open borders Agreement (200, 3 Support Modifier)
• Cancelling an open borders Agreement (-200, -3 Support Modifier)

Effects of the Support of House Ghallanda:

• Most abilities require a level of Support from House Ghallanda
• Higher Support increases the Side effects of Spreading House Ghallanda
• Higher Support increases the effects of Establishing a House Ghallanda Trade Mission
• Low Support can cause the Leader of House Ghallanda to start a Revolution / Civil War

 

[Sephi]

reserved

 

[Sephi]

I could use lots of ideas on the things marked with ?

 

[Jabie]

Given that this House seems to be the Innkeeper's Union I imagine that building roads (coaching inns) ought to be popular whereas building Gates and The Nexus would be frowned upon.

You might want to think about the Rum Distiller unit from Colonisation as a model for your innkeepers.

 

[Kalina]

Eberron's Ghallanda is, according to Dragonmarked sourcebook, acting like eyes and ears network, but probably not something you want to include
I'm not sure I understand how Trade Mission works - let's say you establish mission in other civ's city (and let's assume this city have only horses and horses are one of house's favored resources). Now headquater have chance to provide horses, right ? Is it their unique mechanic or one all houses share ?
And for second ability of Innkeeper - I think it should be something small, like some extra happines, ability to cast haste (as good inns with fresh horses allow units to travel faster) or faster healing (like medic promotion).

 

[Doug Piranha]

+support for opening borders with another civ
-support for closing borders with another civ

Events:
1) Choice of:
+1 happy for inn/tavern (costs 200 gold)
+1 commerce for inn/tavern
+1 relations boost with another supported civ

2) Force peace between two warring civs

3) Pay off marauding monsters (pay 100 gold, monsters within 3 tiles of city are eliminated)

 

[Sephi]

Given that this House seems to be the Innkeeper's Union I imagine that building roads (coaching inns) ought to be popular whereas building Gates and The Nexus would be frowned upon.

added a penalty for pillaging Inns or Building the Nexus

You might want to think about the Rum Distiller unit from Colonisation as a model for your innkeepers.

is that uploaded somewhere? I'll probably have to take a look at the graphics database anyway.

 

[Sephi]

Eberron's Ghallanda is, according to Dragonmarked sourcebook, acting like eyes and ears network, but probably not something you want to include
I'm not sure I understand how Trade Mission works - let's say you establish mission in other civ's city (and let's assume this city have only horses and horses are one of house's favored resources). Now headquater have chance to provide horses, right ? Is it their unique mechanic or one all houses share ?
And for second ability of Innkeeper - I think it should be something small, like some extra happines, ability to cast haste (as good inns with fresh horses allow units to travel faster) or faster healing (like medic promotion).

The Trade Mission ability is unique to House Ghallanda. If you for example need Iron and you establish a Trade Mission in a City outside your land that has access to Iron there is a % chance that the Headquarter of House Ghallanda inside your borders will provide Iron in the Future.

 

[Sephi]

+support for opening borders with another civ
-support for closing borders with another civ

added, updated First post.

 

[Neomega]

They would probably prefer consumption and aristocracy (high class restaurants), and frown upon agrarianism, conquest, military state, theocracy.

They may also have some likes/dislikes of leader traits. For example like trader, financial, dislike barbarian or greedy, (bounty hunters can make the roads dangerous?)

Also, wouldn't Ghallanda like Kilmorph, but perhaps shun all the others, especially Esus and Order? Another idea would make a higher crime rate count against ghallanda.

Are you using a 10,000 point scale?

Umm.. I am just not seeing enough negatives at the moment. So I would hope you can find some more. Also, I think the house system could use a more mathematical, rock/paper/scissors approach to it's structure, than a lore approach. By that I mean, the houses should be based more on balancing each other out first, then add the lore to fit, so that each house has at least 1 competitor, and each one has distinct advantages and disadvantages, and distinct rivals/synergies.

Plus, BTS had 2 food corporations, whilst wildmana, as far as I can tell, really only has 1.

I suppose the last thing would suggest is definitely make some nobles less powerful than others. Pharlaen and Ghallanda have a power of 1 or 2, while the magic one (name escapes me) and Guild of Nine with some dudes that could hold their own if caught by bandits.

Finally.... (sorry), perhaps you could include some monastic orders. Right now, there don't seem to be many, but in D&D games, there are always quite a few, so maybe some monastic orders could balance out the "corporate" type houses. They would not be named "houses", but they could act in the same way, and probably would be better suited to give bonuses for mana types, esp body, spirit, nature, law, force, mind, and life... and would be a great well of counter-balances to the more trade/corporate type of houses. I mean monks certainly are for meeting different objectives than traders, and both usually find eachother's lifestyles distasteful.

 

[Sephi]

They would probably prefer consumption and aristocracy (high class restaurants), and frown upon agrarianism, conquest, military state, theocracy.

They may also have some likes/dislikes of leader traits. For example like trader, financial, dislike barbarian or greedy, (bounty hunters can make the roads dangerous?)

updated first post with some additions.

Also, wouldn't Ghallanda like Kilmorph, but perhaps shun all the others, especially Esus and Order? Another idea would make a higher crime rate count against ghallanda.

I'll try to keep most Houses indepented of Religion so you can freely choose which Houses Support you want and which not.
The Merchant House for example will have a positive relation to Kilmorph

Are you using a 10,000 point scale?

yes

Umm.. I am just not seeing enough negatives at the moment. So I would hope you can find some more.

It will need some playtesting anyway. But the support decreases every turn by a small amount so positive values are more important.

Also, I think the house system could use a more mathematical, rock/paper/scissors approach to it's structure, than a lore approach. By that I mean, the houses should be based more on balancing each other out first, then add the lore to fit, so that each house has at least 1 competitor, and each one has distinct advantages and disadvantages, and distinct rivals/synergies.

The Houses in general do not compete with each other. However it will be quite impossible to gain all their support since they have very different agendas.

House Ghallanda: Trade (Resources)
House Phiarlan: Entertainment (Culture War)
House Lyrandar: Saving the World from Armageddon (Abilities to Fight the effects of Armageddon)
House Cannith: Magic (Probably Unique Spells)
House Tharashk: Bodyguards, War Veterans (Unique Tier4 Units)
House Thuranni: More ways to bring the World to Armageddon
House Vadalis: Nature/Hunter Guild (more uses for captured Animals, maybe even ability to hire Animals)
Guild of the Nine: Mercenaries (probably a lot more unique mercenaries, so Ljosalfar could hire dwarven siege units for example)
House Kundarak: Finances (not many ideas yet)

Plus, BTS had 2 food corporations, whilst wildmana, as far as I can tell, really only has 1.

I suppose the last thing would suggest is definitely make some nobles less powerful than others. Pharlaen and Ghallanda have a power of 1 or 2, while the magic one (name escapes me) and Guild of Nine with some dudes that could hold their own if caught by bandits.

Finally.... (sorry), perhaps you could include some monastic orders. Right now, there don't seem to be many, but in D&D games, there are always quite a few, so maybe some monastic orders could balance out the "corporate" type houses. They would not be named "houses", but they could act in the same way, and probably would be better suited to give bonuses for mana types, esp body, spirit, nature, law, force, mind, and life... and would be a great well of counter-balances to the more trade/corporate type of houses. I mean monks certainly are for meeting different objectives than traders, and both usually find eachother's lifestyles distasteful.

I think a fishing guild could be added later. Not sure about the Monks, since that currenctly unique to the Elohim.

 

[arstal]

For Cannith, maybe instead of unique spells, have unique combo units, like healers (would be great if you went Esus), mounted mages, magical catapults (there's Kohan Maelstrom engine art for that)
Or even an assassin-mage.

 

[Breez]

new to wildmana mod, is this the 1st house you are implementing?

Looks very neat

 

[Neomega]

I'll try to keep most Houses indepented of Religion so you can freely choose which Houses Support you want and which not.
The Merchant House for example will have a positive relation to Kilmorph

OK, I can respect that, (disagree... ), but still, especially with the revolutionary nature of the houses you are implementing, I still think this could be a great opportunity to make crime more meaningful, as the houses seem to be in many ways, a subterfuge of imperial authority.

Any way you implement them, I love where you are going with this, especially the revolutionary tack.

(darn school is severely hindering my playtime... )

 

[Goodgimp]

new to wildmana mod, is this the 1st house you are implementing?

Looks very neat

Technically they're all in the game (or at least were in previous 7.x versions, haven't double checked in 7.20), but this is first one Sephi's fleshed out.

 

[apenpaap]

I was playing as Mahon the Butcher, and got these guys's support. However, when I revolted to Military State and Conquest, the bastards revolted and took my capital, and I can't declare war on them, even though Mahon doesn't look like a guy who would let some hotel managers steal his capital.

 

[apenpaap]

Ah, never mind. I accidentally ticked Permanent War or Peace when I started the game.

 

[Doug Piranha]

Is there a way to see the level of support in-game? It seems like Somnium has replaced the corporation advisor...