Settlements and a Kingdom

[Lorhayden]

We've grown into a pretty large organization and maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but I wanted to see what people thoughts were on player Kingdoms.

This maybe something we can't talk about until we actually start the game and the other companies get more fleshed out. However I wanted to gauge peoples thoughts, are there any other companies or settlements that we would want to invite initially to join us? Are there ones who we wouldn't want to join us either because we have opposing viewpoints or its obvious they will be making their own kingdoms.

[Erian El'ranelen]

I'll be compiling a comparative list of the other orgs to get a sense of compatibility. My initial goal was for diplomatic efforts, but I can definitely add data regarding kingdom/settlement compatibility as well. At present, our largest competitors look to be compatible with our views already (Pax, TEO) or at least not harmful (T7V). We'll likley have to compete with them to attract smaller groups to our territory (which ties back to our tax discussions).

[hark]

All of the current leaders in terms of size of the organization all look to be very compatible with us. From our perspective that is a very good thing as we are a peaceful non-aggressive group. That could however be a serious drawback as the larger groups could siphon off those that might be attracted to us, or simply subsume us into their structure.

Before we start thinking about forming a nation we need to seriously consider what distinguishes us from everybody else such that we can maintain our own identity within a greater unified national identity.

[Gintigael Gemweaver]

If resources are regional, and distance is an issue then our identity, while not based on those things, will be strongly influenced by them. I hope distance has a meaning so we can create specialties based on our resources, ways of war and magic and crafted items that may be in demand in other regions. If every settlement has access to the same resources then it will make each settlement the same, and make it harder to distinguish ourselves within a Kingdom.

[hark]

Ideally, I think a centrally located position would be ideal. Being something of a crossroads between places would be greatly to our advantage not only economically but it would allow us to better serve as something of a peaceful neutral ground in times of conflict.

[Lorhayden]

@gin - They were saying that hexes will have different resources which will mean settlements will need to trade with each other to get get probably second tier material.

[hark]

They also said resources will run out and respawn at random. Specialization is really only a temporary thing. Unless we are dealing in lumber or fish I don't really see long term specialization being terribly viable.

[Gintigael Gemweaver]

If there's no specialization, then there's no reason for trade. If every settlement can make anything because all resources spawn in every hex (which I doubt is their intention) then we won't need to talk to or trade with any other settlements unless we want to expand into their territory.

[hark]

I think the intention is to create specializations that regularly change. We can't gave mitheril mines that last forever and make us a mitheril nation. Eventually the mitheril will run out and spawn somewhere else, but that's ok because rare magic orchids are now spawning in our area and we can specialize in that. The problem is all of our infrastructure was built around processing mitheril.

[Dario Tashavan]

I rather got the vibe that the nature of a hex would be slow to change, but once you've run out a mithril mine (or whatever your resource is) another would pop up somewhere else in the hex?

[hark]

That would kind of defeat the point of resource rushes that they seem excited about. I would like for steady supplies of rare resources, but that kind of kills the whole exploring for resources thing once people have found out what resources each hex has. It would by necessity have to change after a pocket ran out.

Not that I like the proposed system, just that I understand it, it is basically the kind of thing SWG had going.