Fix economy and give RVR a purpose

[van Veen]

Two objectives, one solution:

1. Fix the economy system

2. Give RVR a purpose

Solution:

Give towns an economical value worth conquering. Give clans more possibility to drive the economy of their towns. Towns should be dynamic places that thrive, get plundered, burned down, destroyed, grow to wealth or ruin. Make plundering towns the most profitable and most risky activity. 

This is how to do it:

• Gold is a transportable item, it must be in hold of ships or stored in a building
• Give towns the following attributes
  • Number of citizens
  • Number of soldiers
• New buildings. Buildings can be public buildings (managed by town owning clan) or private (managed by individual players). 
  • Shallow port (public)
  • Deep water port (public)
  • Dock (private)
  • Fortifications (coastal fort, coastal tower) (public)
  • Barracks (public)
  • Small shipyard (public, private)
  • Medium shipyard (public, private)
  • Large shipyard (public, private)
  • Marketplace (public)
  • School (public)
  • Library (public)
  • Tavern (private)
  • Warehouse (public, private)
  • Office (private)
  • Forge (public, private)
  • Workshop (public, private)
  • Church (public)
  • Cathedral (private)
  • Bank (public)
  • Admiralty (public)
  • Production buildings for resources (level 1, 2, 3) (public, private)
  • Traders guild (public)
• All buildings are visible to everyone entering the town
• Expanded town management by owning clan. Changes made are updated during maintenance. 
  • Add/destroy buildings 
  • New coastal fortifications can be placed on the map
  • Grant permissions for buildings, i.e. who can build what type of buildings (your nation only, other nation members, your clan members, friendly clan members)
  • Grant permissions for entering port (your nation only, other nation members, your clan members, friendly clan members)
  • Assign cannons and soldiers to coastal fortifications
  • Some buildings require presence of other buildings, e.g. large shipyard requires medium shipyard, medium shipyard requires small shipyard, library requires 
  • Assign crafting priorities for public production buildings
  • Assign buy/sell priorities for public warehouse
• Rules for the economy
  • Citizen growth depends on the availability of food, building material in the town
  • Citizens require food, clothes and other daily goods for survival. Shortages will lead to shrinking population.
  • Wealth of town depends on tax income
  • Trade generates tax income (current system)
  • Citizens and buildings generate tax income
  • Tax income goes into the town wealth. 
  • Taverns generate new crew members
  • More educated people (hence school, church, library) require more exquisite products
  • Educational buildings increase wealth
  • Public warehouse is required to stockpile resources in town
  • Public production buildings (forge, workshop, shipyard) use resources and sell products on to the public
  • Marketplace allows players to sell goods and increases town wealth
  • Office is required to place sell/buy contracts
  • Soldiers and public buildings costs money
  • Dynamic product prices based on availability and demand. 
  • Bank allows players to pay money into the bank or withdraw money from the bank. 
  • Buildings costs maintenance. If the maintenance cannot be paid, the building is lost. 
• NPC traders keep the economy going
  • NPC traders make the same transactions as a players
  • NPC traders transport goods and money from A to B
  • Traders guilds spawn new traders (using ships on auction)
  • Trader ships need to be built by shipyards in order to spawn new traders
• Rules for RVR
  • Coastal fortifications in port battles according to specified location, assigned soldiers and cannons
  • If the port battle is won, the town needs to be conquered (port battle instance)
  • Conquering a town works like a boarding fight vs. the soldiers in town
  • When the town is contested
    • Random buildings (public and private) are destroyed immediately
    • Random ships docked in harbor are sunk immediately
    • Town wealth and number of citizens is reduced immediately
    • The town can be pillaged, but plundering takes time in harbor (watch the revenge fleet gathering)
    • Gold can be plundered
    • Resources from public and private warehouses can be plundered 
  • New type of port battle: the raid
    • When hostility is at 100% you have to chose between raid and port battle
    • Raids have shorter lead time than port battles
    • A successful raid does not shift ownership of town after contested status
  • Non-capturable ports cannot be captured, but can be raided.
  • Pre-defined buildings in non-capturable ports cannot be destroyed. 

 

More content for the game:

• Plundering and raiding towns is the most profitable and most risky activity. 
• Town and economy can be a main focus of a clan or individual players. A town without any buildings has no economic value, but can be built up. 
• Infrastructure, goods and money are always at risk. 
• Town defense costs money, therefore attaining a certain degree of wealth is imperative for the town owning clan.  
• Blockading can be very effective. Capturing NPC traders hurts the economy. 
• Spying out a city is essential before conquering. 

 

Any comments and ideas are highly appreciated. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by van Veen
changes highlighted

[Guest]

Gonna look at it more closely, but initial thought is that it would create a much needed dimension to the town management!

 

First the econ: Econ in tiers regulated by availability of specific building and townsppl is imo a good way to make clans invest in ports, and a needed economic reason for raiding/PBs. I don't think devs will be able to have tradelanes populated by AI that actually affects the economy through buying and selling products, the know-how to make the algorithms just isn't there. The player chests with reals/gold is something I kinda like, have it all on your person? - risk losing it in PvP, have it all in port? - risk losing it to a raid.. I do however believe most players will find one of two workarounds, either place it in freetowns or in the uncapturable ports and basically just move it from place to place.. like Jamaica, make a PB in KPR and every brit will move his stash to Port Morant, and can do so without risk due to the magical reinforcementzone..

I do like the idea of a growing and constricting economy. Basically - create a port that earns a lot, and risk it becoming a target for raids and conquest. Make a port that makes very little and it might be safe from attack, but not very profitable. 

Another thing is ressources - basic ressources where should they come from? Are we talking about miningtowns, farming towns, cities (with manufacturing assets)? Or are we building upon the current flawed system where kidds island and bermuda basically has all ressources needed for crafting, but most of the gulf region is berefth of any worthwhile ressources? (ok my question kinda shows my pov)..

Defence: I don't believe devs will allow players to add fortifications to the map, honestly I believe all forts and towers should be removed.. A skilled MB player can basically take down a fort in the matter of mins and it just ends up being free or easy points for the attacker.. the less fortified a port, the better defended and the more profitable.. This is ofc a problem that is more due to the MB than the forts, but the amount of fortifications in the carribean is already unrealistic.. basically the small islands of the carribean is sporting more guns than the Vauban fortifications on the borders of France..

 

Other than that I really believe that something like the OP suggestion would enrich gameplay aspects that atm is sorely needed.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Guest

[van Veen]

Thank you for your feedback. 

27 minutes ago, Lars Kjaer said:

most players will find one of two workarounds, either place it in freetowns or in the uncapturable ports and basically just move it from place to place

Non-capturable ports cannot be captured, but can be raided.

 

30 minutes ago, Lars Kjaer said:

I don't think devs will be able to have tradelanes populated by AI that actually affects the economy

Then we should make a suggestion to solve this issue. I am sure the community is willing to help. 

31 minutes ago, Lars Kjaer said:

basic ressources where should they come from?

Basic resource buildings remain as is. 

30 minutes ago, Lars Kjaer said:

I don't believe devs will allow players to add fortifications to the map

OK, I see the point that placing fortifications might be too much effort. However, the basic idea is that strong defensive infrastructure is expensive and disappears when destroyed. 

Edited January 30, 2019 by van Veen

[Marquis de la Fayette]

Hello Van Veen

If I can afford, great work in depth. Your proposals deserve to be studied.

Cordially. La Fayette

[Licinio Chiavari]

I always wondered why NA is missing a Patrician-like economy/management side.

It could be a great part added to the game, attracting more and more players with different playstyles (just yesterday I spoke with a relatively new player, who likes trading management and crafting... And indeed he is far richer than a lot of veteran PvPers: this).

[Marquis de la Luzerne]

hi, interresting propositions Van Veen.

[Slim McSauce]

Very good proposals would add much needed depth.

[Farrago]

When I bought the game I had hoped that it would someday become what you describe: the merging of incredible age of sail combat with strategic play as well — an Age of Sail Civilization.

i don’t even know if the Devs would do it if they could but it seems like a tall order for current staffing levels.

[Slim McSauce]

1 hour ago, Farrago said:

When I bought the game I had hoped that it would someday become what you describe: the merging of incredible age of sail combat with strategic play as well — an Age of Sail Civilization.

i don’t even know if the Devs would do it if they could but it seems like a tall order for current staffing levels.

A good goal to shoot for non-the-less.

[van Veen]

Thank you all for this very positive feedback. Wow! 😊

So, how do we get admin's attention and get the devs on board?

[Dalai Lama]

Hey van Veen, great ideas. I think more depth to economy and RvR is a brilliant idea and could open the game to a much bigger player base. Not sure though how keen the devs are on adding some proposals like yours to the game!?

[van Veen]

Any feedback from devs @admin?