Concerning Treasury

I just came up with an idea that will make gameplay more interesting (to my idea).

I was reading A.T. Olmstead's "A history of the Persian Empire" on the bus, and when I read how Cyrus conquered Susa and with it it's treasury, I got an idea.

As we all know, most kingdoms and empires had their treasury stored in one single city. Pergamon for example, or cities as Persepolis, Susa, Ekbatana. When Megas Alexandros took the treasury of Persepolis, the doom of the Persian empire was complete. It was already certain at Gau Gemela when Darius lost there (forfeiting his "claim" to the Persian Empire), but the conquest of Persepolis completely confirmed it.

So I was thinking that perhaps you could place a building in the starting capitals of all of the factions (especially interesting with Makedonia, which would really have to hold on to Pella in the first turn if they didn't want to give Epeiros a really great advantage). It would work something like this;

You put a trigger in the EBBS script which would then account for the cities that hold a treasury, and can find out what faction has taken them (this already works as we know from EB1). Then the trigger starts to work and it will take a large portion from the faction that lost it and gives it to the conquerer (say about 35,000 mnai, perhaps. If there was a way to account how much money a faction owns it would be even better). Of course, there would always be the possibility to change the location of your treasury. Imagine your capital being under siege by a bunch of savage hordlings, why not speed your treasury away to a more secure location?

I wonder whether this would work, but it's just an idea from mine, and it would only require one building slot.

i like this idea, all the better reason to send deep raids =D

Good idea, gives you more motivation to hold onto your capital, or treasury base.

is it even doable though?

If so, I'm all for it.

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You put a trigger in the EBBS script which would then account for the cities that hold a treasury, and can find out what faction has taken them (this already works as we know from EB1). Then the trigger starts to work and it will take a large portion from the faction that lost it and gives it to the conquerer (say about 35,000 mnai, perhaps. If there was a way to account how much money a faction owns it would be even better). Of course, there would always be the possibility to change the location of your treasury. Imagine your capital being under siege by a bunch of savage hordlings, why not speed your treasury away to a more secure location?

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Yes. Very likely.

Sounds resource-heavy.

Not quite, methinks. There would only be a few triggers, one consisting out of finding out whether a province has been taken, checking whether the building is in there, if so, it transfers the money to that faction.

It's a nice idea, but I imagine it's too easy to exploit for the human player: he can sensibly relocate his treasury while the A.I. won't even realize what it's for. Also, the treasury of a large empire will be harder to move than that of a small one, but one cannot vary the price of a building.

Of course, if you have any ideas what could be done to decrease the exploitlevel of this idea, you're welcome to post here as well. It was mostly a suggestion, if anybody has an idea how to tweak this, I'd like to hear it.

Surely the simplest solution is to have this ONLY exist for the player (i.e. no AI treasuries) to avoid exploitation? Although that would get rid of most of what you are actually suggesting. Maybe have AI treasury buildings disappear at Hard and Very Hard mode as a compromise.

I Am Herenow

If it only existed for the player, and as the AI would have no idea what was going on, it would make the entire thing pointless to have. The player doesn't tend to lose his capital anyway.

Foot

I see what you mean - I suppose it could just exist as a potential punishment for the player, more than an incentive for the AI?

If not, then maybe to counterbalance just raiding an AI capital and taking (part of) their treasury, the AI would become super aggressive against whoever did that? I.e. they would use all their remaining resources to wipe you out, meaning that you shouldn't go behind enemy lines and sack the Seleukid capital, say, without carefully considering the consequences first.

Change relations of all factions allied with the AS to Abysmal, perhaps?

Well, even in EB1 there are many possibilites for exploits, y'know. It will serve pretty good for the roleplaying player, which most EB players are.

Why have all the trouble with triggers? Why not simply create a really, really expensive building in each of the starting faction's capitals that gives you a set amount of money when you tear it down? Then you could also create a building called "Treasury" that costs, say 50,000 mnai to build and then when you destroy the building you get all of the money back. This however, I am not sure about the latter option as I believe that the percentage of money you get back is hardcoded. Still, isn't the first option viable?

If we were to include a treasury building we would make its worth based on the relative wealth of the faction, not some set value. However, we have plans for money-sinks, which may or may not include a treasury building.

Foot

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Originally Posted by Foot

However, we have plans for money-sinks, which may or may not include a treasury building.

Foot

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What do you mean by a money-sink? I know it's something that will keep you from going absolutely bankrupt, but could you please elaborate on what it is in relation to EB II (such as what is it and how will it work)?

Actually, I think Foot means something that will use up a lot of money (as if you were pouring it down a sink).

Maybe it will be easier to do it via trait rather than via building. I mean, EB already has special traits like "Conqueror of Persepolis" etc. so you only need to add a script that would give the general who just conquered such a "capital/treasury" city the money boost and money penalty to the origainal owning faction. The trigger should be adapted to ensure that the whole event takes place only once.

Example: 1.- Antiocheia is the treasury city of Arche Seleukeia.
2.- Antiocheia is captured by the Ptolemies - Ptolemies get the reward, AS get the penalty
3.- Antiocheia is captured by AS - nothing happens (the treasury is already transferred to Alexndreia)

I am now not in the position to study the EDCT and EBBS files in detail, but generally it seems to me as comparatively easily doable (as a minimod to EB 1.1 - I still do not own M2TW). Buildings might prove little bit more trickier... :2cents:

Can anyone please elaborate on the "Conqueror of Persepolis" trait? I have never conquered Persepolis and I do not know what this trait does.

If you conquer Persepolis, it gives the conquering general a trait with a nice little description about Persepolis. That is all.

Foot