[Brainstorming] Giving Kings Traits ? [OPEN]

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,

I recently noticed that Kings (and Church) do not have Traits.
(I had actually never noticed or thought about it before.)

So why did we give Traits to e.g. the Natives but not to the Kings?
(The King himself is more important to the player than a single Native Player normally is.)

----

But generally there is at least no technical reason for not giving Kings also Traits.
(Technically there is no big difference between a Royal Leader, a Colonial Leaders or a Native Leader.)

----

By giving Kings their own Traits, we could make the Nations even more varied and maybe also immersive.
But for gameplay it really should be Traits that actually matter for the Colonial Player.
(So it is not necessarily about Traits that matter for the King himself - because that would only matter once in WOI.)

King Traits influencing the colonies could e.g. be:

• Influence how often he asks for Tax increases or demands Gold
• Cause him to send troops from time to time
• Influence how often he offers Slaves / Criminals.
• Influence how strong his REF increases according to your liberty rate
• Influence how strong his REF increases according to your military build up
• Influence the migration from to the colonies (i.e. increase or decrease it)
• Influence his reaction if you lead war with Europeans (maybe even reward you)
• Infleunce his reaction if you lead war with Natives (maybe even reward you)
• Influence his reaction if you found missions or trade posts (maybe even reward you)
• Influence how happy he is when you bring Treasures to Europe (maybe even reward you)
• ...

All of this could be configured in a single trait that is not specifically named.
(Mouse over the King would then just show the modifiers.)

King Traits that affect the King himself once WOI starts could e.g. be:
(using functionality in Traits that already exists)

• Royal Ships might get a free Promotion
• Royal Artillery might get a free Promotion
• Royal Cavallery might get a free Promotion
• Royal Helebardiers might get a free Promotion
• Hessians might get a free Promotion
• King requires less tools for equipment
• Cities the King conquers get free Palisades
• ...

----

So generally each Nation could have a King that is kind of "unique" and reacts different than other Kings of other Nations.
e.g. One King could be more trusting, the other more generous, the other more militaristic, the next more pious.

Thus e.g. playing as France would offer an even more unique experience compared to e.g. Spain.

The Spanish King could e.g. want you to lead war against Natives and bring treasures to Europe.
The French King however might e.g. want to stay at peace with Natives and found Missions.
...

----

It is just first ideas and I have not thought this through ...

 

[raystuttgart]

Looking at the feedback I think this is not worth the effort / hassle.
Also I am not sure it would really make the game more fun.

I consider this "canceled" and will close this for now.
(If we have new ideas we may open it again in the future.)

 

[codiac]

I would like it if the relationships between kings wasn't just peace or war and how you interact with the other colonial powers was affected by that.

e.g. if your king was buddies with a king then if you declare war on them he'd be upset, but if he really didn't like a king and you kept attacking his ships then your king would be happy.

And of course being fickle that could change and you'd suddenly find yourself doing the wrong thing because you didn't check the diplomacy screen to see their relationship had changed because someone gave someone else a nice horse or a pair of fancy shoes.

Not major stuff, just a +/- here or there to reflect their changing relationship. Maybe a message about it to let you know you have done well ... or not so well.

I was playing new hope the other day and my king asked me to attack anothe country, then some time later he asked what was taking so longa nd offered me more help. I haven't seen that one before, I liked it. I guess this would be similar, but based on things you do wthout the king requesting it.

 

[raystuttgart]

Yeah, the basic idea of this concept is to let Kings have some kind of "personality".
They should react more to what the player is doing or not doing - according to that "personality".

-----

Meaning that there should be:

- player actions the King likes and reacts positively and player actions the King does not like and reacts negatively
- each King reacting kind of unique / differently (e.g. one being "capitalist", the other "militarist", the other "pious", ...)

------

Thus the "core strategy" of e.g. Spain or France or England or ... could be more focussed in gameplay.

Currently the king hardly really cares what you do in the Colonies as long as you do not prepare War of Independence.
Also every King feels completely the same, while the Native Leaders or Colonial leaders feel unique and a bit more immersive.

------

But I still lack a good concept for it ...
(Still I have set it to "open" again, maybe I will find an idea in the future.)

 

[Chentaur]

I do think by giving the King some traits, it will also offering the player some benefits to become loyalist.
What I imagine would be how the king would give tasks and quests. Just like the inland colonies and market quests.
I do think the traits would be like those of native leaders, but it could be randomized to give more mix and surprises into the gameplay.
For Example, there will be quests given by the king to do mission for example "Get certain numbers of converted native" for the pious King or "avoid going into war with other European powers" for pacifist leader. As long as the player able to maintain that, they will also get bonus relations from the King.

 

[uplink]

Would it be possible to have several leaders for Kings for every nation? The anonymous "Kings" could thus be historical characters with their own different traits, just like other leaders in the game. That way when playing let`s say as Spain, your interactions with your King could still feel and be a bit different depending who´s the king - Ferdinand or Philip II. Maybe they could each provide a few unique quests etc.

 

[Joij21]

Currently the king hardly really cares what you do in the Colonies as long as you do not prepare War of Independence.
Also every King feels completely the same, while the Native Leaders or Colonial leaders feel unique and a bit more immersive.

Personally I would love it if Kings could directly intervene not just in the context of a WOI. But foreign Kings for instance could send the imperial fleet to stop your pirates if you're preying too much on their colonies. Maybe the King as well as foreign Kings send in "royal treasure galleons" from time to time that are like goody huts which you can sink and steal treasure from. Maybe they have royal naval escorts or something to make them difficult to sink, cause whoever King it belonged to to get mad if you sink it. Perhaps there should be a smaller WOI that can occur mid game called a "punitive expedition", where a foreign King can send a small fraction of his expeditionary forces to "punish" and capture one or two cities from you before declaring peace by forcing you to pay tribute in gold (if you can pay or refuse he sends another small force and tries to capture two more cities and attempts to extort you for peace again rinse and repeat) or kill them all and gain auto peace that way while avoiding the loss of those cities.

I think I would also like the concept of loyalist colonies whereby some of your colonies automatically flip to under the Kings direct control at the outbreak of the WOI. Maybe some loyalist militias would spawn from time to time on the King's side even within your own territory.

Kings both foreign and domestic (yes your own king can betray you in this way) can put scalping bounties on your own colonists or other colonist factions. Basically the King gives a native tribe a bunch of guns and horses and then bribes them to declare war on a colonial faction he doesn't like. Your own King may do this to you if you refuse to pay him taxes, demand too many troops, or encroach to far into native territory against his wishes, declare war on rival colonial powers when he doesn't want you to, refuse his commands to go to war with another colony, or refuse his demands for peace with a colony. This in turn would provide an incentive to succeed from your king as soon as possible if relations have gone south.

 

[adriankowaty]

I think the Kings (both your own and those of other colonies) should give the player "missions" (visible in quest tab) with some rewards involved, related to their personality/their colonies style.
So for example King of France would want you to enstablish Catholic missions and French trade posts in nearby natives' capital town (if one has any) or one of the major (by count of population) towns, King of Spain would want you to attack (declare war on and siege towns) camps of tribe which he is at odds with, Dutch Statholder would want you to earn money from trade etc. etc.
Basically every AI King would've an agenda (even post WOI in case of non-player Kings) which would be optional to fullfill, but bring relations with such King and some other bonuses (lasting or not, like bonus specialized units, bonus production for buildings or promotions for specific units or flat out money divident - depending on quest in question).