KotR cataclysmic event discussion thread

[TinCow]

Yes, that would be preferable. Also note that I will even be posting situation reports for Lothar himself. He will be no more safe than anyone else and it will be good for other people to see what he is doing as well. Maybe I'll have my wife roll the die or something.

Actually... maybe we can just say there's no Chancellor for the entire period. Perhaps the Diet (or the Kaiser?) declares a state of emergency and every House, province, and Elector has to fend for themselves. Then I wouldn't even have to worry about the Chancellor thing. Resources and reinforcements will become available to you based on your own actions, rather than politicing.

Keep in mind that even when this is all done with, there will still be a massive rebuilding effort required. The game doesn't just go back to it's old state of HRE world dominance after 10 turns, so there will still be a massive struggle for resources as soon as the crisis is over. That is for the Diet to work on as a group, though.

[StoneCold]

How about during this period, the only resources, aka florins available to each city are those profits the cities make for themselves? To simulate to breakdown of order over the entire Reich?

Also how about letting every assigned avatar and their armies moved by their player and TC not using up the said avatar's movement point? That I think may slow down the game somewhat, but could allow for more individualistic play, i.e. for people who wants their avatar to survive rather than to help out the situations on the whole?

[TinCow]

How about during this period, the only resources, aka florins available to each city are those profits the cities make for themselves? To simulate to breakdown of order over the entire Reich?

Resources (for construction/repair of buildings, recruitment of new units, hiring of mercenaries, and repair of units) will only be given when I want them to be. This is to ensure that the crisis remains challenging. If it's based exclusively on profit, Bavaria will an easy time of it, while Swabia will get wrecked. I don't want that to happen. It should be hard, and fair, for all.

In general, resources will be rare and mainly given out for significant achievements. Similarly, the situation will deteriorate for players who fail or get unlucky.

Also how about letting every assigned avatar and their armies moved by their player and TC not using up the said avatar's movement point? That I think may slow down the game somewhat, but could allow for more individualistic play, i.e. for people who wants their avatar to survive rather than to help out the situations on the whole?

Interesting, but too slow and it won't let me do what I want. First, it would require that every player download and play the save every turn, which would take absolutely forever. Second, I may not want a person to be able to move anywhere they wish. I may want them to get ambushed along the way or get lost and move in the wrong direction. I can't do those things if the players are moving themselves.

[Privateerkev]

Building off of what TC said, it might be simpler if there is no Chancellor. Make it where at the end of Siegfried's Chancellorship, the cataclysm starts and there is no IC Chancellor at all. Just have TC as a strictly OOC Chancellor. This would allow TC the ability to just wear "one hat" and not worry about confusing us or himself. This would also open up the chance for Lothar to become a real Chancellor some day later and TC would be able to play the role for real.

What does everyone else think about that?

[Kagemusha]

Im against it. I think we should just simply take the role playing effort to the next level. Currently the Diet is acting like we would be acting in real game. In another words we are playing to win, not for the personal ambitions of our characters. There should be lot more radical ideas within character and hostility between houses, ofcourse this can be only done if people can clearly see whats inside character and whats outside.

[Privateerkev]

I think part of the fun of this will be the suspense. I don't want to know much OOC. I want to discover things IC and maybe know a little extra OOC to help with my own planning.

Unless people want a totally separate "spoilers" thread for this during the 10 year reign of terror but I won't read it until after its all done.

[Kagemusha]

Maybe we should just add the power of Kaiser and Dukes significantly. Also maybe give Kaiser the power to remove Dukes from office. In order for this to be interesting, i think there should be more internal strife. By that i dont mean only arguing in Diet, but increased role of houses, so much that if a member of rival house would be elected as Chancellor,that would mean trouble for your house immediately. Damned if we just could have civil wars in this game.

[TinCow]

In order for this to be interesting, i think there should be more internal strife.

That's a very good point. In order to implement this, I will include options such as:

(X) The nearby Franconian castle of X is not currently governed. You can use your authority as a Swabian Count to enlist some of their regiments into your own army. They will join you, greatly increasing your strength, but making the Franconian castle vulnerable.

Again, my 'option' list will not be definitive. If you want to do something (like stabbing a neighbouring House in the back) that I have not listed, simply tell me and I will implement it.

[Kagemusha]

That's a very good point. In order to implement this, I will include options such as:

(X) The nearby Franconian castle of X is not currently governed. You can use your authority as a Swabian Count to enlist some of their regiments into your own army. They will join you, greatly increasing your strength, but making the Franconian castle vulnerable.

Again, my 'option' list will not be definitive. If you want to do something (like stabbing a neighbouring House in the back) that I have not listed, simply tell me and I will implement it.

How about an idea which would make this possible permanently. Lets call it Imperial reform. Currently we have Dukes and houses that are determined by the family tree. How about if we would free the characters to join any house? Also maybe there could be Imperial counts. Il try make some sense how this would work. Basically the reform could return all the current settlements back to Kaiser, except maybe the Ducal capitals and Jerusalem, which would be left to the Dukes and King of Outremer. Then based on their contributions towards the Kaiser, Dukes could get settlements from Kaiser and offer them to any characters thus gaining supporters. Kaiser could also give settlements to his trusted men straight, thus creating Imperial counts that would be ofcourse in dept to Kaiser and should follow his policies. Both Kaiser and Dukes should have the power to take the countship away. This could create a situation where the Houses and Kaisers party would be based on same politics, rather then family tree. I think this could turn the political aspect of the game pretty much. Also it would strengthen the Kaiser´s role very much. The houses would turn unbalanced in their power,based on the politics of the Duke´s, also Kaiser could basicly decide how much power he would give to Dukes, which depending on his politics, could turn certain Dukes to Kaiser´s lapdogs or even more powerful then him.
What do you guys think about that kind of idea?

EDIT: Also to continue the idea. We could start electing the Kaiser like it was done many times in HRE. This would no doubt give boost to the internal struggle also.