NutraNESIV.6: The Dread Kings of Ekra

[nutranurse]

Stats are out! Here's a quick and dirty overview on the rule changes for this turn:

Manpower is no longer provided by castles/cities. Instead they are recruited ala most other NES'. To recruit it costs 5¤/500 troops; to maintain it costs 1¤/500 troops. Remember, this all may seem cheap, but substantial amounts of ¤ are needed to fund armies out on the field; roughly 10¤/500 troops, so full out "raise everyone, send them at the enemy" is unfeasible for all but the richest dread lords. This is not to limit war, but encourage players to band together, form alliances, and make coalition-hosts to wage war on each other. Other than that things should remain on a skirmish/raid level if only one player is doing all the antagonizing (and raiding should be done frequently, as it is lucrative, as hbar no doubt demonstrated).

Castles now provide "Realm Garrisons", which are free troops stationed throughout the player's realm, but are tied to specific castles. They act as a player's last line of defense and always rally when their home realm is invaded.

To reward builders/make the builder-style of play not hopelessly dumb in this NES I am introducing the idea of 'projects'. Projects encompass those infrastructure/trade actions that require more than one turn. If wants to do a project then they just need to ask me what the initial cost for it will be, the cost per turn, and how many turns until it is completed. Now, players are not forced to continuously fund their projects, only when they want their project to reach the next 'level' of development. Furthermore, if you spend your whole turn just focusing on your realm you may purchase an 'extra' level of no more than 1 project you are running. Players can have no more than 3 simultaneous projects.

I'll add these things to the rules tomorrow as well as tie up whatever odds and ends I can.

I am leaving for home tomorrow, however, and so I will have limited access to any computers. I can do pretty much anything that is text related, but map/graphical issues will have to wait till I return to school on 19 Monday, March.

edit: Feel free to dispute any of these new rules with me/question them in general. I am still refining them, so player input is invaluable.

 

[Seon]

To Clan Palinar
From Clan Undine

Regarding this...Grey Doorsmen...


So through the grapevines (though they don't grow so well in the west) I have heard about this new friends of yours, Lady Oshu... or is it Queen Oshu now? I must admit that I never really cared about the central parts of this realm. Such a bore, with everyone pretending to be nice to each other.

Why not be honest for a change, I always say.

So I've been here, sulking in my city, sipping tea, building a new harbor, and all that nice stuff when I suddenly hear about some silly men with some silly symbols in my neighbor's backyard! Hiding and stalking like some men who spy on you while you are bathing in the pool.

So what's going on here, Lady Oshu? You don't even belong in the western reaches, why the sudden interest in our ways of life now? Could it be that you are interested in how we westerners look beneath our clothing? Well, all you have to do is ask me and I could send you a few slaves over.

But in any case, some kind of explanation over the recent events will be nice, Lady. Otherwise, I'm afraid that us westerners may be harder to push around than some pansy neighbors of yours.

XOXO Lady Larina


To Vice-Lord Draasscan of Undotaure
From Lady Larina

It's not often that I see a man with an actual pair between his legs. Most of the people spend too much time being afraid of whomever's on top that they don't really see how much power they actually have. Just look at what happened to the Regent.

But I digress. They are just some dumb pricks of the heartlands and we are, well, us. Noroatures have always had our own ways of solving our problems, don't you agree?

It's truly good that you have agreed to that peace treaty. It's nice having some non-hostile faces in the world.

But why not be more friendly? Come over for tea sometimes.

I'm pretty certain that there are more deals that can be worked out. If nothing else, I wouldn't mind more company.

XOXO Lady Larina.

 

[erez87]

Ooc. The rules are ok. Thou the change is somewhat sudden, but it's good for me rich person so I'll handle it.
The stats are weird. It says in the update spryllo was peaceful and lost some honor from his factions, but he didn't. It said I partied with my factions and had the Malmirrin join me and nothing changed... And where is the fear I gained?

«+10¤ to Haeeae "Plunder"; +Tortan Settlement "Dolonde (Small City)"l +Tortan Faction "Malmirrin Remnants (2/3)"; +2 Fear to Tortan»

 

[nutranurse]

Ooc. The rules are ok. Thou the change is somewhat sudden, but it's good for me rich person so I'll handle it.
The stats are weird. It says in the update spryllo was peaceful and lost some honor from his factions, but he didn't. It said I partied with my factions and had the Malmirrin join me and nothing changed... And where is the fear I gained?

I added the fear you gained, and I subtracted the fear spryillo lost. As for the Malmirrin, I forgot to add that faction, and it will take a lot more than just partying with your factions to get them to like you more in most cases!

 

[Masada]

you need to check the heartlands fear, there's a few problems.

 

[erez87]

Shouldn't I lose 9 economy for my 4500 troops? You should probably recheck the upkeep costs for everyone on the basis of 1/500...

Unless that 5 isn't upkeep? I dunno anymore...

 

[hbar]

To Clan Palinar
From Clan Undine

Regarding this...Grey Doorsmen...


So through the grapevines (though they don't grow so well in the west) I have heard about this new friends of yours, Lady Oshu... or is it Queen Oshu now? I must admit that I never really cared about the central parts of this realm. Such a bore, with everyone pretending to be nice to each other.

Why not be honest for a change, I always say.

So I've been here, sulking in my city, sipping tea, building a new harbor, and all that nice stuff when I suddenly hear about some silly men with some silly symbols in my neighbor's backyard! Hiding and stalking like some men who spy on you while you are bathing in the pool.

So what's going on here, Lady Oshu? You don't even belong in the western reaches, why the sudden interest in our ways of life now? Could it be that you are interested in how we westerners look beneath our clothing? Well, all you have to do is ask me and I could send you a few slaves over.

But in any case, some kind of explanation over the recent events will be nice, Lady. Otherwise, I'm afraid that us westerners may be harder to push around than some pansy neighbors of yours.

XOXO Lady Larina

To Lady Larina of Undine
From Lady Oshu of Palinar

You're flattering yourself to think I care about the Westlands. Someday, perhaps, yr lands would be a fitting realm for my sons to rule, but not today. As for the Grey Doormen, they aren't mine to command. Those sots are mucking about in my businesses, and I don't intend to let them live long enough to spend their spoils. They are like a dockwalker with the pox, they need to be dispatched quick before they spread their itch.

I'd be open to an exchange of information on these Doormen. They don't seem like the usual scrabble band of cutthroats I have to deal with. I've a feeling this is just the fin of the whale we're seeing. What say you?

 

[Seon]

From Lady Larina
To Lady Oshu

Oh, why of course. I am certain that some group of lowborn criminals that have been such an annoyance to your great operations should be made the top priority of our nations.

Certainly your ragtag bunch of pirates and rabble rat cutthroats that you have been hiring will be a great help in finding this bunch of less rabble-like cutthroats. I can see how this relationship will work. Yeeeeees.

If we are done slinging insults veneered with civility to each other, I will get straight to the point and say that I'll welcome this certainly meager assistance to investigate the Doorsmen.

 

[hbar]

Oi! This ain't tea and crumpets, Lady, and we don't gotta kiss or hold hands. I don't think I'm the one veneering my insults with civility; it's not my style. After all, we're all cutthroats in the end, some of us are just more honest about it.

Yr the one what came to me for assistance, so don't insult me when I offer help.

 

[Seon]

Ah, but you see, you said that you have no idea. Either you are telling the truth or you just don't want to talk to me.

Either way, your value, you being far away, dropped significantly. You are not part of the criminal organization that spans the entire western extent down to the southern reaches. If I want to catch them, I would have better luck talking to the nearby undread lord, and I fed him poison that would cripple years ago for my amusement.

 

[nutranurse]

Shouldn't I lose 9 economy for my 4500 troops? You should probably recheck the upkeep costs for everyone on the basis of 1/500...

Unless that 5 isn't upkeep? I dunno anymore...

Ah, I forgot to add on the last bit of the equation. (Troops/500)/2. Rounded up.

you need to check the heartlands fear, there's a few problems.

It would help if you were more specific.

 

[nutranurse]

To Vice-Lord Draasscan of Undotaure
From Lady Larina

It's not often that I see a man with an actual pair between his legs. Most of the people spend too much time being afraid of whomever's on top that they don't really see how much power they actually have. Just look at what happened to the Regent.

But I digress. They are just some dumb pricks of the heartlands and we are, well, us. Noroatures have always had our own ways of solving our problems, don't you agree?

It's truly good that you have agreed to that peace treaty. It's nice having some non-hostile faces in the world.

But why not be more friendly? Come over for tea sometimes.

I'm pretty certain that there are more deals that can be worked out. If nothing else, I wouldn't mind more company.

XOXO Lady Larina.

Dread Lady Larina,

I do not quite understand your colorful imagery, though I can assure you that I am indeed male. As is my lord, regardless of whatever you or some other shadow-fiend did to him.

However, I digress. Do not mistake my rebuking of my dread lord as anything less than an act for the betterment of the realm. Shutting ourselves off entirely from the world would be foolish, but so too would allying myself with you. I am ever loyal to Locien and must request that you cease and desist with your missives.

Vice-Lord Draasscan of Undotaure

 

[theDright]

Stats are out! Here's a quick and dirty overview on the rule changes for this turn:

Manpower is no longer provided by castles/cities. Instead they are recruited ala most other NES'. To recruit it costs 5¤/500 troops; to maintain it costs 1¤/500 troops. Remember, this all may seem cheap, but substantial amounts of ¤ are needed to fund armies out on the field; roughly 10¤/500 troops, so full out "raise everyone, send them at the enemy" is unfeasible for all but the richest dread lords. This is not to limit war, but encourage players to band together, form alliances, and make coalition-hosts to wage war on each other. Other than that things should remain on a skirmish/raid level if only one player is doing all the antagonizing (and raiding should be done frequently, as it is lucrative, as hbar no doubt demonstrated).

Castles now provide "Realm Garrisons", which are free troops stationed throughout the player's realm, but are tied to specific castles. They act as a player's last line of defense and always rally when their home realm is invaded.

To reward builders/make the builder-style of play not hopelessly dumb in this NES I am introducing the idea of 'projects'. Projects encompass those infrastructure/trade actions that require more than one turn. If wants to do a project then they just need to ask me what the initial cost for it will be, the cost per turn, and how many turns until it is completed. Now, players are not forced to continuously fund their projects, only when they want their project to reach the next 'level' of development. Furthermore, if you spend your whole turn just focusing on your realm you may purchase an 'extra' level of no more than 1 project you are running. Players can have no more than 3 simultaneous projects.

I'll add these things to the rules tomorrow as well as tie up whatever odds and ends I can.

I am leaving for home tomorrow, however, and so I will have limited access to any computers. I can do pretty much anything that is text related, but map/graphical issues will have to wait till I return to school on 19 Monday, March.

edit: Feel free to dispute any of these new rules with me/question them in general. I am still refining them, so player input is invaluable.

To maintain it costs 1 income per 1000 manpower rounded up
To recruit it costs 5 income per 500 manpower (1 income per 100 manpower?)
To field an army it costs 10 income per 500 manpower (1 income per 50 manpower?)

Without any modification to the above formula, ranking the ability to maintain manpower goes as:

Large City > Large Castle > Small City > Small Castle, taking into account that a small castle has 500 in garrison, and a large castle has 1000 in garrison (for free?).

Ranking the ability to recruit manpower goes as:

Large City > Small City > Large Castle > Small Castle

Ranking the ability to field manpower goes as:

Large City > Small City > Large Castle > Small Castle

Note: Cities are better than or equal to Castles in all terms of military spending.

In order to even this out, I'd like to think that castles would generate free recruited manpower each turn, something along the lines of 500 per turn for small castles and 1000 per turn for large castles, which replenishes the garrison, with any extra being essentially free recruited units. The result of this would be that the recruiting manpower ranking would thus change be:

Large Castle > Large City > Small Castle > Small City

Combining the rankings, we'd have Large City > Large Castle > Small City > Small Castle, which along with the lack of garrison upkeep and better defenses, would make each Large type and Small type about equal in usefulness compared to the other. I like to think that each size is about the same, except for what each focuses upon.

I don't know how the militia raising process works, but given that it draws primarily on income, cities would outweigh castles even more.

..................................................

On a different, but related topic, I have not looked at all the stats, but for the eastern extent, I found some puzzling current standing manpower stats.

Looking at the previous turn, at least for my nearest neighbours' total manpower, Aeralithe had 11, Laedireth had 11, Toraalsel had 9, Minnamonno had 16, Pudish had 19, Endain had 19, and Brishnak had 14.

As far as I can tell, at the end of update 1:
The Aeralithe still had 11.
The Laedireth and Toraalsel combination has 11+9-2-1-3=14.
The Minnamonno had 16-2=14.
The Pudish still had 19.
The Endain had 19-2=17.
The Brishnak had 14-1-4=9.

After changing stat systems:
Aeralithe 11-> 3000+500 Garrison, about 300 new manpower per old manpower.
Laedireth and Toraalsel 14-> 2000+500, about 175 new manpower per old manpower.
Minnamonno 14-> 2000+1000, about 200 new manpower per old manpower.
Pudish 19-> 6000+1000 (Perhaps understandable because Proigan is so big), about 350 new manpower per old manpower.
Endain 17-> 4000+1000, about 300 new manpower per old manpower.
Brishnak 9-> 3500+500, about 400 new manpower per old manpower.

It perhaps isn't as bad as mismatched as I thought, but I know both Minnamonno and Toraalsel had substantial already recruited armies, while others (the Aeralithe maybe? the Pudish perhaps?) did not, meaning that to make up the differences in army size, one would have to spend significant amounts of income this coming update to recruit what they just had. Even if Minnamonno is being nerfed to balance out the drake's power, that's still a big difference, between the army last turn and this turn.

..................................................

@masada's heartland's fear problem

The only thing that I see is that the Vir should have 10 (6?) fear, 5 (I thought it was 1?) from update 0 and 5 from update 1.

..................................................
Random Questions

What kind of slaves do the Guagziir trade in? Just goblins or all types (orc, elf, and orelf).

How do the new manpower rules affect navies?

Can recruited and maintained, but not fielded troops still defend their lands?

 

[nutranurse]

You're a boon to this NES/NESing in general, Dright.

Guagziir trade in all kinds of slavery. Goblins is the mainstay, though they take on debtor Orc/Elf/Orelf slaves as well.

The manpower questions are a bit irrelevant as I am changing them (again), though I invite you/all the other players to pitch ideas. I'll answer them anyway:

I am considering separating the Manpower/Navy stats as it seems to be a point of confusion for players.

Recruited and maintained troops can definitely defend their lands.

@Players: I am going to have to rethink the manpower stat a bit, so expect future changes to the stats, again. I apologize for the inconceivable, but I want to try and hammer out NES mechanics that are both fair and fun. Please bear with me!

 

[erez87]

You're a boon to this NES/NESing in general, Dright.

Guagziir trade in all kinds of slavery. Goblins is the mainstay, though they take on debtor Orc/Elf/Orelf slaves as well.

The manpower questions are a bit irrelevant as I am changing them (again), though I invite you/all the other players to pitch ideas. I'll answer them anyway:

I am considering separating the Manpower/Navy stats as it seems to be a point of confusion for players.

Recruited and maintained troops can definitely defend their lands.

@Players: I am going to have to rethink the manpower stat a bit, so expect future changes to the stats, again. I apologize for the inconceivable, but I want to try and hammer out NES mechanics that are both fair and fun. Please bear with me!

Perhaps something in the middle between what was and what you plan to change it to.

Castles and cities give a certain amount of manpower that you do not need to pay for (or need to pay less for) and anything outside of that will need large sums of money to maintain ?

 

[Popcornlord]

From: Lord Horthir II of Clan Aeralithe
To: The vice-lords of Clan Aeralithe

It saddens me to see the death of the old Kingdom. Much fear was there, deep within the halls of Urst, halls now nothing more than ashes. But it is a time of growth and expansion for our nation. I therefore announce the foundation of the Kingdom of Aeralithe, and your promotion to proper lords of the new Kingdom. To Ekra, we will show our strength and our glory, and they shall know fear.


From: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To: Clan Minamonno

Your expansion into the lands of the Tathsume have been noticed, but as they were against the troublesome Toraalsel, they are seen as righteous in my eyes. I wish now for only peaceful relations with your clan. If you would accept a treaty of friendship and trade, more fear could be brought to the rest of Ekra. I would also like to inform you that my daughter, Lúthana, has taken quite a liking to your exploits, Lord Larenésas. Are you at all interested?


From: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To: Kingdom of [DREADNOUGHT, NAME THIS]

The events of the last decade worry us, especially what seems to be the betrayal of King Îdhar and the question of a proper successor. Although it seems as if things have settled, we will still watch this region carefully.


From: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To: Clan Endain

I am fascinated by the news of your expedition to Lawaiod. This island has intrigued my people as a potential port for our traders to stop in, but the customs of the old Kingdom have stalled our expansions. Pray tell, do you hold any claims to this land? And is there any more that you know of the island that would be shared for gold?

 

[thomas.berubeg]

From: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To: Clan Endain

I am fascinated by the news of your expedition to Lawaiod. This island has intrigued my people as a potential port for our traders to stop in, but the customs of the old Kingdom have stalled our expansions. Pray tell, do you hold any claims to this land? And is there any more that you know of the island that would be shared for gold?

From: From Vicelord Hrothgar Irdun, Vassal to Lord Endain
To: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe

Clan Endain has claimed the Island of Lawaiod as our own. However, we are willing, once a settlement has been established, to allow Aeralithe Merchants preferential Treatment, in the interest of Friendship.

Additionally, The Island has a number of statues, clearly carved by the Natives before their Disappearance. Their Aesthetically disturbing features augment the Sense of FEAR near them. As such, We will gladly sell them to the Cult of the Many and the Cult of the Goddess. If clan Aeralithe wishes to act as middleman, they may take a cut of the sellings.

 

[Dreadnought]

From: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To: Kingdom of [DREADNOUGHT, NAME THIS]

The events of the last decade worry us, especially what seems to be the betrayal of King Îdhar and the question of a proper successor. Although it seems as if things have settled, we will still watch this region carefully.

To Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
From The Kingdom of Mîrhabad

Events have surprised and saddened our kingdom. We are just beginning to stabilize. We hope, though, that your message was one of friendliness and not intimidation.

 

[spryllino]

OOC: I'm confused. I had pretty much manpower as Tortan last turn but now I have far less. Anyway, I shall not write any more diplomacy until I know what's what.

 

[Popcornlord]

From Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To The Kingdom of Mîrhabad

It was of neutral observation, but also of worry. Your father was an excellent man, and I hope you will follow in his footsteps. But only time will tell.


From: Lord Horthir II of the Kingdom of Aeralithe
To: Clan Endain

We will honor your claim, and will bring much trade to the island after the settlement has been started. The merchants of the Red Swan Company will gladly buy as many of these exotic statues as you are willing to sell, and they can find some of the greatest prices in all of Ekra.