Topic: Crypto Kingdom - 1991 Retro Virtual World(City) - page 190. (Read 632699 times)

The concept of a Building
EDITED many times since posted * * Under implementation in Char DB /BLDG
See the intro from a few posts back
Feedback still accepted !

SUBGAMES

HOUSEHOLD - about the same as now, allowing breathing room for the changes in NPCs, and making them provide some benefit even when not assigned to any actual job; but the HOUSEHOLD requires a large palace from the owner, because the owner's own use (up to 1,000 sqm) is automatically added to the space usage

SPECIAL - apart from providing SCI, CUL as now, it will start to be able to produce IND (industry) points. Industry is regulated and requires Royal Permission (mercantilism, eh..), but these points will give the charter holders the way to expend resources that will be converted to windows and clothes for example. Also HHP (management) points will be able to be produced, to boost the Household/Business HQ management in cases where the primary dwelling lacks space. Industry will be the way to produce arms and other needed things in the future. Also similar mechanism will in the near future be used to convert the building laborer work to BLD points, which will replace the current monetary input of "labor" in the Building project.

RESTA - will continue quite like before but with more realistic rules determining the suitability of the location and the profitability, which will (like in the Most Ancient times) be heavily dependent on the players again, and other formulas that can now automatically adjust to changes and snuff micromanagement.

HOTEL - the suitability for a building to be a classy hotel will now be evaluated better, at the same time there will arise opportunities for insta conversion of an NPC hive to a guesthouse and back, based on the need in the location and proximity of similar places nearby. The staff will continue to be a major factor in the upscale market as well as other considerations evaluated automatically.

RENTAL - we aim to make this such that it automatically selects between Residential, Office and Commercial rental pools, always taking the one that gives the best return. It can also be that the owner needs to choose but automatic should be easier than customizable.

ARMY - the fighting rules will not be implemented just yet for actual fights at least - the time of V.4 will be for the armies to train and become more effective, and for the Countryside rules to mature and become more interesting. Also the Armies will have to be lodged in garrisons, and will gain payouts from the Guarding pool relative to their conditions of stay and their fighting strength.


So, back to the buildings! Those subgames are basically conversions of investments (NPC's, building area, tools) and money, to (hopefully) more money, and other desirable points and things. Previously the conversion formula has relied heavily on the NPCs, with some consideration on the location of the business and even less to the actual buildings and tools there. This is about to be changed, to make the Building (a functional subdivision of a Lot, coinciding to an actual building or a part thereof with distinct attributes) such that it gives a great boost if designed with its intended purpose (negating the usefulness to another), or, if designed to be a multipurpose one, to give average payout and more flexibility.

How to accomplish this is a classic game design challenge. The different attributes that the building must have, should be:
- relatively few, with useful abstractions ("lux%")
- coincide with the "mandatory" architect decisions (height, room sizes, windows, arrangement)
- balanced (should give actual choices for different options, not be a "finding-an-optimum")
- actionable by the subgame formulas to give interesting and fair results  
- realistic and logical to be understood easily
- fun.

BUILDING ATTRIBUTES AND PARAMETERS
(in my parlance, an attribute is something you cannot easily change once you have made the design decision, a parameter can be changed with less difficulty, the difference is somewhat blurred)

Bldg_id <- global id which at present is a number. Buildings are property of Lots, but since Lots may be sliced and diced, it is up to decision if we want the building id to be in the form of "1-C-F7-2" or "37". The former would be more useful in some contexts but would require changes more often than a static number.

Lot_id <- global id, used to assign the building to its owner Lot
Own_id <- global char id, mirrored from the Lot. (Buildings cannot be owned by characters, they are owned by lots, which in turn are owned by characters.

Bldg_name <- text

Build_yr <- first building year of this building. In the beginning, this is easy to determine. If you add material changes to the same building, this anciety will be lost. It is safer to make additions as separate Buildings with a new Build_yr.

Renovated_yr <- last renovation. For a renovation that adds to repair%, luxury%, etc, this year is reset. It is a good thing because some businesses benefit from the building been recent, in which case this counts. (Some may even benefit from it being both old and new, which are possible at the same time.)

Floor area <- same as before. The part of floor area that is required to get into different Buildings is not counted. If a hall is 1-2 wide, it is used up as a corridor. If it is 3 or more wide, a reduction of 1-2 m from the width is applied according to the traffic. U/C

Terrace area <- area of terraces. A terrace needs to be elevated from the ground (pedestal) and may be at any level, including balconies and roof terraces. Balconies do not (any more) require a stone railing. If you leave it without, a wood railing (no cost) will be used, or perhaps metal when we get the metalworking in full gear. Stone railing may continue to be used as an aesthetic element. Terrace area adds to the desirability of the buildings, especially of those that are used as a restaurant.

Lux% <- same as before; lux gives items as dividends occasionally and these items can be detached without affecting lux. For two areas having a different lux%, they must belong to different buildings.

Repair% <- result of the earthquake and (from now on) normal aging, can be "Renovated" to reach 100% again. The repair% being high is more important for luxurious and important buildings. For low-grade buildings, they are economical to renovate only when quite run-down, and then demolish is also an option.

Height <- area-weighted average height. If the building has minor differences in height (if the area with a different height is so small that it does not make the rounding differ from the height of the dominant area), it can be listed under the dominant area height. If the building is of very different heights so that the rounding result does not correspond to the height of the dominant area (eg. if 20%*3 m, 80%*6 m, average = 5.4 m = 5 m != 6 m), 2 buildings must be created.

AIC <- one time field for AIC dividends given in 1600. See below.

Culture <- current "esteemed building" concept. Some buildings create culture to their owner based on their existence (as well as NPCs). New points are given slowly based on popular vote.

Number of Apartments <- due to increases in living standards, 17% of the NPC's can now invest 165,000 m/year in housing, and for this money it's possible to rent a 53 sqm in Master's Village! Constructing as small as possible apartments is not a concern any more, but having more rooms in a compact apartment is prized. Otherwise there would not be so many of them because building walls is not only expensive but also reduces the area. The total sqm of the Building is divided by the number of Apartments. An Apartment is defined as the smallest functional area in the Building, which can be reached from outside using public areas.

Number of Rooms Corridors etc. do not count as rooms.

Windows <- gives comfort and status. This has been in use before but needs to be calculated again because we want a greater range of results, and also the views have changed. If the Building is residential type, consisting of distinct Apartments, average is used:

Window ratio
+1  more than 1:12
+2  more than 1:7
+3  more than 1:4
+4  more than 1:2
+5  more than 1:1
(apply -1  for each full 20% of the floor area being totally without windows, or more than 8 m distance from the nearest window, lesser areas are not penalized because it's good to have closets)

Sunlight
+1  unhindered sunlight from east, south, or west at least a few hours per day
+2  unhindered sunlight from at least 2/3 directions, most of the day
+3  windows to 3/3 directions and nothing is blocking the sun all day
(the proximity to the buildings and height of you and them determines the sunlight. For small apartments, each apartment cannot have sunlight in all of the directions so they are evaluated separately and average is used. Having windows to the north has never any benefit to Sunlight)

Views
+1  nearest building at least 10 m away in at least one direction, garden/paved area in between
+2  nearest building at least 10 m away in 2 or more window directions, garden/paved area in between
(add +1 if building is so high that you see above the roofs of the nearby buildings (need to have buildings nearby for this))
(note: Views does not give points if the area is not developed in the 10 m range, nor of course if you dont have a window. North does count for views.)

Sights
+1  at least one Beautiful building in sight
+2  at least one Cultured building in sight (Cultured buildings are automatically Beautiful)
+3  at least 3 Cultured buildings or 1 Most Cultured building in sight
+4  Several Most Cultured buildings in sight (ie. both the Royal Palace and the Old Obelisk)

Shopfront <- increases revenue in trafficked areas. This is just a simple ticker that requires the Building to have several doors and windows directly to the street. It is also a negative and heavy minus for a residential.

Access to public park/square <- gives comfort and status, esp. to residences. Direct floor area/park area ratio does not work because parks are not all the time used by the inhabitants, also they may use public parks, and the existence of parks brings benefit even when not in use.
+1  nearest public park 10 m or less away (if 100 sqm), 20 m or less away (if 400 sqm), 30 m or less (if 3000 sqm), measured from the edge of the lot
+2  nearest public park 0 m away (if 100 sqm), 10 m or less away (if 400 sqm), 20 m or less (if 3000 sqm)
+3  nearest public park 0 m away (if 400 sqm), 10 m or less away (if 3000 sqm)
+4  direct access to King's Park
(add +1 if the building is facing a recognized square)
(note: private park in own lot counts as well and is always 0 m away, but it must be at least 7 m wide (if 100 sqm) and 10 m wide (if 400 sqm))

Garden/area ratio <- Here only own gardens count, and if gardens are usable by many buildings of the lot, this should be divided accordingly. Higher ratio means more gardens.

Zen <- awards peace of mind bonuses to beautiful and stately buildings and room plans, punishes gaming the system via the design of ugly buildings with unrealistic and stupid room plans. It will be taken into use later.

Beautiful <- the first stage of a building to gain renown due to its architectural merits. Buildings that are judged beautiful based on their facade gain this point. All Cultured and Most Cultured buildings are automatically classified Beautiful.

the "S/" are suitability points for different uses based on the room plan, and they greatly affect the use. It is possible to use anything for anything but the output is best when using the buildings for their intended purposes.

S/Resta
+1  if the Building has a separate Kitchen with access to the restaurant, which is a reasonably connected area (may have cabinets)
+2  if the Building is designed/remodeled to be a restaurant ($$)

S/Apt
+1  if the Building consists of separate rooms or separate apartments designed with only the minimal public spaces such as lobbies and staircases and having no more than 2 m wide corridors (an entrance/front desk hall is ok, also some public space if the building is luxurious)

S/Resid
+1 The Building is designed to be a single dwelling in one lot (PC or high-ranking NPC). It actually has to be such to gain this point. (If it has separate parts that are designated Buildings, this does not matter, although only the main part gains the point.)

S/Hotel
+1  if the Building has balanced public areas (more than in S/Apt low lux case) with mostly rooms, rooms accessible inside and about right amount of public areas corresponding to lux (more lux = more public areas)
+2  if the Building has direct access to a major street, yet no rooms are in the street level, has different types of rooms with some being big or customizable, and the right size range of rooms and amount of public areas corresponding to lux (more lux = bigger rooms, more public areas)

S/Special
+1  the Building is made for the purpose of hosting a special institution or is suitable for being a public building (typically more halls than would fit in any other category, though might overlap with Hotel and some Palaces) <- for complete guide on overlapping see /BLDG
+2  specially made for a purpose that makes using it for anything else difficult (large hall, botanical gardens, factory)

S/Army
+3  the building has a parade ground of at least 20x30 m directly accessible, the building looks fearsome and is defensible, the floorplan is suited for a garrison (almost anything goes though), including rooms for materiel
-1 each missing thing from the list

In all these cases it's important to not over-compartmentalize the lots to too many Buildings. Eg. a special Music Hall requires all the lobbies for crowds to gather, it is not forbidden to have toilets and storage rooms, and also most businesses have management that consumes space and for their purposes the space may be reserved. If the management is much larger than the space available at the site, it may be rented.

This is a tradeoff between having only one Business in one Building (which we plan to do), having Buildings correspond to the natural concept of buildings, and having space with separate parameters as separate Buildings, to add realism and flavor to the game.


SCI <- this gains bonus when used by an institution producing SCIence, value costs ($$) and may be 1 or higher

CUL <- this gains a culture bonus ($$)

IND <- industry requires machinery and other costly things. value here indicates that the price is paid ($$), greatly boosting IND


The following parameters are relevant to the Businesses, and are customizable by making business choices not directly related to the Building.

RESTA business parameters
- Quality of Food <- formula from other inputs
- Quality of Service <- formula from other inputs
- Intimacy <- smaller is better
- Famous <- player vote
- Special <- gets point if owner does not have other restaurants
- Private <- quality points, but halves the revenue

HOTEL business parameters
- Service <- formula from other inputs
- Famous <- player vote
- Special <- gets point if owner does not have other hotels
- Private <- quality points, but halves the revenue

SPECIAL business parameters
- Output selector <- how to divide the output between CUL, SCI, IND and HHP


Registry fee. In connection with the implementation of the new Building Registry, a registry fee of 2 mil per building is levied by the town, payable to the admins doing the work. This will be collected automatically. If due to negligence of the Building owners, Architects, BI, etc (as registered in the City Map DB /Bldg Reg) the collection of the data takes longer than it should, additional fees may be levied on the problematic buildings. To be on the profiting side, please apply to help us in the work!

AIC. Ancient Items Credits have a deterministic formula that will be applied to the buildings when they are in the DB. The AIC are a spinoff that does not reduce the value of the buildings. They will be able to be changed for Ancient Items of their creation date (the building date) in the future versions, according to a "price list" that you can use to "buy" the items. The conversion will be restricted to the type of items actually in use in the "source building", but they do not change the owner automatically just because the building is later sold, before the conversion. Trading with AIC is not allowed for now, to reduce the complexity.

Earthquake. The Earthquake will reduce the repair% of the buildings, in many cases greatly. The worse condition the building is, the less its use value, and the more it costs to repair it. Stone is only destroyed to a very small degree, it can mostly be reused even if the building collapses totally. Buildings below the "line" in the old Registry do not suffer from the Earthquake.

Guarding. Every building is subject to pay the Guarding fee, which will be distributed to the Army units doing the guarding duty, as before (except that before the Army did not actually get the money, but soon will.)

City Walls. The things have pacified such that no new city walls has been built for some time. Enemies are far, and the guards and the King's judicial system have kept small crime in check. For now, the antiquated rules for building city walls have been lifted.

Land Taxes and Haws. The land tax will be instituted probably based on the sqm area of the buildings (similar as guarding). Buildings in haws are exempt of this tax. We will not grant any new haws now, as they are not needed (land is anyway either free or very affordable). In the nearest real-months, God willing, an unprecedented undertaking in the Borough Versailles will be started, and the King invites his choice Nobles to build palaces there next to his Royal Presence.

Excellent points!


This is about to come now, V.4.


Has been in the spexes, probably in the V.6-7


Currently anything made of wood, is not implemented, ie. must be imagined to be there, but does not affect play. Therefore toilets (which in those days resided outside) are not mostly visible. Grand Hotel uses different rooms for this, Noble Palace brings the bowls to whereever they are needed. Richer people have a back garden where the relief can be had, poor people do it where convenient.

We currently have about 60 sqm floor area per inhabitant, but it was not always so. Once the minimum wage NPC could only rent 3-5 sqm, so not even a full room. This is another reason why most of the apartments historically are one-room only.


Building companies employ lots of builders, and they produce BLD (building points). These points are daily assigned to projects, which makes small ones possible to be completed in 1 day (1 game-month), but larger ones take possibly a very long time, especially if they are used as "BLD overflow" projects, to be advanced only if the sales department has not been able to contract paying jobs.


There are many types of typically arbitrary regulations concerning building. "Zoning" for commerce vs. residential is not one of them, because I personally think it would add neither fun nor realism to the game, and the pool payout formulas quite naturally direct the central areas to be used for commerce.

One thing I think that is important is the ratio of building to garden on a property. This may already be covered by the comfort points, but I think if there was more emphasis put on the beautification aspect, people may be more inclined to spend money landscaping. I don't know how hard this is to change, but you could have different levels of landscaping. Level one may be grass, but level 5 could be a rose garden, for example. Providing direct benefits to people because of their landscaping would ultimately lead to a better looking town, and people wouldn't game the system for m^2 as much.

for realistic design of buildings, it also may also be a good idea to give more points for buildings that have toilets, cupboards, maid's quarters, etc. This may already be in the formulas though-I don't have full understanding of them.

Also regarding the conversation you had with the Bishop, would now be a good time to put in the REL points as well?

*edit*

Perhaps buildings shouldn't be immediately built either--instabuild is kind of a strange concept, but it *is* just a game. Just thought I'd mention it.

Also--zoning requirements. I'm not aware of any specific zoning requirements (e.g. this area is required to be commercial). if you had those, people could buy special permits to rezone an area (additional income for town) so they could build a palace in the middle of commercial areas. That could increase the value of the residential property because of proximity to shops as well...

Hi, I would really appreciate if I have missed some important attribute of the builded space! 

Eg. "should the terrace/balcony area be counted as anything towards the Restaurant use?"

I'm about to start making the data structure now, and it will be quite fixed from then on to eternity, because of the interlinkings to all the game formulas, and because making changes would require so large updates in the data (on average, we have 4 "buildings" per character!)

And any other feedback of course. Giving feedback does not delay the V.4 coming ready, but not giving might cause embarrassing omissions to important concepts 

The concept of a Building
Feedback required!


One of the largest design side changes when moving to V.4 is the implementation of Buildings. They have not been DB entities before, which has lead to uniform treatment of all space in a Lot. As we know, a Lot may have very different space, let's take the Royal Palace as an example: the different rooms are built on different years from 1432 to 1446, have different luxuries from 20% to 200%, different window&view conditions from depressing to astounding, different heights from 2 to 6 and possibly more differences. Treating these as averages would not achieve the objectives of enabling the space to be used better on its intended purpose.

The following subgames are going to continue:

HOUSEHOLD - about the same as now, allowing breathing room for the changes in NPCs, and making them provide some benefit even when not assigned to any actual job; but the HOUSEHOLD requires a large palace from the owner, because the owner's own use (up to 1,000 sqm) is automatically added to the space usage

SPECIAL - apart from providing SCI, CUL as now, it will start to be able to produce IND (industry) points. Industry is regulated and requires Royal Permission (mercantilism, eh..), but these points will give the charter holders the way to expend resources that will be converted to windows and clothes for example. Also HHP (management) points will be able to be produced, to boost the Household/Business HQ management in cases where the primary dwelling lacks space. Industry will be the way to produce arms and other needed things in the future. Also similar mechanism will in the near future be used to convert the building laborer work to BLD points, which will replace the current monetary input of "labor" in the Building project.

RESTA - will continue quite like before but with more realistic rules determining the suitability of the location and the profitability, which will (like in the Most Ancient times) be heavily dependent on the players again, and other formulas that can now automatically adjust to changes and snuff micromanagement.

HOTEL - the suitability for a building to be a classy hotel will now be evaluated better, at the same time there will arise opportunities for insta conversion of an NPC hive to a guesthouse and back, based on the need in the location and proximity of similar places nearby. The staff will continue to be a major factor in the upscale market as well as other considerations evaluated automatically.

RENTAL - we aim to make this such that it automatically selects between Residential, Office and Commercial rental pools, always taking the one that gives the best return. It can also be that the owner needs to choose but automatic should be easier than customizable.

ARMY - the fighting rules will not be implemented just yet for actual fights at least - the time of V.4 will be for the armies to train and become more effective, and for the Countryside rules to mature and become more interesting. Also the Armies will have to be lodged in garrisons, and will gain payouts from the Guarding pool relative to their conditions of stay and their fighting strength.

QUARRY - albeit only in V.5 and does not burden us now


So, back to the buildings! Those subgames are basically conversions of investments (NPC's, building area, tools) and money, to (hopefully) more money, and other desirable points and things. Previously the conversion formula has relied heavily on the NPCs, with some consideration on the location of the business and even less to the actual buildings and tools there. This is about to be changed, to make the Building (a functional subdivision of a Lot, coinciding to an actual building or a part thereof with distinct attributes) such that it gives a great boost if designed with its intended purpose (negating the usefulness to another), or, if designed to be a multipurpose one, to give average payout and more flexibility.

How to accomplish this is a classic game design challenge. The different attributes that the building must have, should be:
- relatively few, with useful abstractions ("lux%")
- coincide with the "mandatory" architect decisions (height, room sizes, windows, arrangement)
- balanced (should give actual choices for different options, not be a "finding-an-optimum")
- actionable by the subgame formulas to give interesting and fair results  
- realistic and logical to be understood easily
- fun.

The current set of attributes is roughly as follows:
Bldg_id <- global id
Lot_id <- global id
Own_id <- global char id
Bldg_name <- text
Build_yr <- first building year of this building
Renovated_yr <- last renovation
Floor area <- same as before
Lux% <- same as before; lux gives items as dividends occasionally and these items can be detached without affecting lux
Repair <- result of the earthquake and further aging, can be "Renovated"
Height <- area-weighted average height (too large a difference leads to a split in 2 buildings)
AIC <- one time field for AIC dividends
Culture <- current "esteemed building" concept

Apartment size <- smaller apt/rooms give better profitability for apt houses/hotels
Views and visibility <- gives comfort and status
Shopfront <- NEW increases revenue in trafficked areas
Access to garden/park/balcony <- gives comfort and status, esp. to residences
Single house in a Lot <- mandatory for Nobles, gives status to others
Zen <- awards peace of mind bonuses to beautiful and stately buildings and room plans, punishes gaming the system via the design of ugly buildings with unrealistic and stupid room plans.

Location <- at present is a one Lot-specific value, will be based on automatic formulas that calculate the living density and wealth, pedestrian density, land value, etc. to be tailored to each subgame according to relevance.

Suitability <- one field for each purpose, room configuration plays a role, plus monetary investment to this specific purpose (tools etc)
Kitchen <- a separate kitchen is quite an important deal in a restaurant


The following parameters are relevant to the Businesses, and are customizable by making business choices not directly related to the Building.

RESTA business parameters
- Quality of Food <- formula from other inputs
- Quality of Service <- formula from other inputs
- Intimacy <- smaller is better
- Famous <- player vote
- Special <- gets point if owner does not have other restaurants
- Private <- quality points, but halves the revenue

HOTEL business parameters
- Service <- formula from other inputs
- Famous <- player vote
- Special <- gets point if owner does not have other hotels
- Private <- quality points, but halves the revenue

SPECIAL business parameters
- Output selector <- how to divide the output between CUL, SCI, IND and HHP

Welcome back Lord Paulson. The deadline for TACCC coins is March 15th!

Have you tried giving each soldier variable settings? Let's say you have a major at 7 points total, but when he's created you can adjust his HP, Attack strength (AS), and moves per turn (MP). You'd have to have a 1 point base setting, but the additional points could be put wherever the player wants when creating the soldier.

Example:

Major 1.

HP: 1 + 1
AS: 1 + 0
MP: 1 + 3


Major 2:

HP: 1 + 2
AS: 1 + 2
MP: 1 + 0

Major 3:

HP: 1 + 0
AS: 1 + 4
MP: 1 + 0

Just logged in after a while, nice surprise on the gold price

So glad I invested here 

So when's the online version coming?

Played 3 games with my wife, first time with the actual Fog-of-War rules (pieces did not show their full status except to their owner).

Furthermore, for the purposes of making it an interesting experiment with variable operative goals, the following rules were used:

- Before the battle, each player got 8+1d6 points for purchasing the soldiers. They were appraised as such:
* MAJ 7 points
* MSG 6 points
* SGT, CAPT 5 points
* CPL, LT 3 points
* PTE 2 points
* REC 1 point

- The die roll, purchase and initial placement needed to be done in secret, writing in paper to be checked later

- The scoring formula was as follows: " -2 * Initial_purchase_points + 7 * Victory - Losses " so that the difference of the players was credited to the winner.

Despite my wife being an avid player of several types of games, raw military strategy is not her strong point. Regardless of the initial purchase points, I beat her quite easily 3 times in a row resulting in 49 points in my favor.

These rules lead to interesting 4-6 pieces per side mini-games, which can be played on a 6*6 field

x-post from the CKG ANN thread:

A few more test games behind, and rules clarifications:

- if both sides have a COL, and it is exposed by breaking the panic rule, both sides lose the bonus (otherwise neither would ever move)

- officers give the lower-ranking officers a boost as follows:
* COL makes all MAJ and lower act as if they were 1 rank higher (only during the battle)
* LTC does the same for CAPT and lower
* MAJ does it for LT (these bonuses are non-cumulative)

- battle map is 6 wide 6 deep if neither side has more than 9 pieces
- if the side with more pieces has 10-13, the battlefield is 8 wide, 6 deep
- for 14-17 or more pieces, it is 8 wide, 8 deep
- for 18-24, 10 wide, 8 deep

- max size of an army is 12/15/18/21/24 if commanded by a LT/CAPT/MAJ/LTC/COL, this includes the RECs, excess must be discarded.

- both players get the soldiers that originally went to battle. In addition, a random number of 0-5 REC are added to both sides to represent locals (this may alter the balance if one gets randomly 0, and the other 5, even though REC are pretty bad).
- MSG is such a great guy that he always brings a local with him (+1 REC)

- It is tentatively proven that the side with 1 LT + 3 PTE wins over 1 LT + 6 REC, but loses to 1 LT + 7 REC.

- It is tentatively proven that the subtle advantage that a COL has over an LTC by forcing the other player to always attack first, is a huge one. In a simulation with otherwise identical armies, the loser (with the LTC) suffered double casualties.

A test game 4 featuring peasant rebellion (again)

board used: 8 wide, 6 deep

Peasants:
2 * LT
1 * CPL
5 * PTE
8 * REC
(total: 25 hitpoints)

King:
1 * CAPT
1 * SGT
2 * CPL
2 * PTE
(total: 16 hitpoints)

Order of battle:
Peasants are furious that their "fighting for freedom" has not been successful, and they have adopted a 2-LT strategy, it being easier to gain horses and moderate leaders, than to train any veteran soldiers with this kind of battle results. The officers are in the back flanks, and the main thrust is in the centre, with the CPL sneaking in the back row to hunt the King's cavalry.

The King's forces used the same formation as last time, it being surprisingly effective against odds.

Course of battle:
The peasants had put their valor in the front centre, and inflicted 6 wounds in total to the cream of the King's troops. This would be almost a lethal blow in itself, but now the CAPT finds himself pinned down, unable to go around the formation, due to the "nearest enemy" rule. While the peasants move to gain positions, the King needs to make a brave effort by breaking his SGT free from the formation to kills the nearest enemy of the CAPT, enabling his move, which was proven to be effective in the previous battles. Snatching the REC succeeds, but the peasant CPL was positioned right in the same kind of situation as in the last battle, moving in between two King's soldiers, in the position to take one, or even both. This time again, "both" happened, and all NCOs lost, retreat is not a choice but a necessity.

Winner:
Peasants

Casualties:
King: 1 * SGT, 2 * CPL
Peasants: 3 * PTE, 1 * REC

Time elapsed:
5 minutes

A test game 3 featuring peasant rebellion (again)

board used: 8 wide, 6 deep

Peasants:
1 * LT
1 * CPL
4 * PTE
10 * REC
(total: 23 hitpoints)

King:
1 * CAPT
1 * SGT
2 * CPL
2 * PTE
(total: 16 hitpoints)

Order of battle:
Peasants had a large formation in the right side of the board, with good soldiers in the frontline protecting the LT, quite similar as the last game.

The King had the CPL, SGT, CPL in the frontline, with other troops in the backline, to allow for better movement of the CAPT if need be and to gain benefits from the frontline action with SGT giving bonuses to both sides, making all the soldiers 4 HP.

Course of battle:
The peasants moved first, and the initial clash proved to be a dismal failure for the King's troops, who got 4 wounds for 3 dead peasants. It did, however, destroy the peasant frontline in the left flank, and the CAPT got to use his mobile advantage to snatch two REC there without anyone having a chance to hit back. Meanwhile the peasants completed their hedgehog formation, and the field is starting to look similar to that in the last game. The King made a plan to attack with his best forces to the enemy's rear, which seemed vulnerable, and made a formation there including the CAPT, SGT and CPL.

The peasants went on a pre-emptive attack on the centre. After skillfully sacrificing a PTE and weakening the defences, the peasant CPL was moved straight into the killing zone between two King's pieces. Their wounds now revealed that the gambit could succeed - if both were down to their last HP (one because of 2 prior wounds, the other because a PTE was sacrificed to wound him), the CPL could kill them both. If not, he would hit the one with more wounds and could kill him regardless of rank, which would anyway be a major setback for the King. It turned out that they were both down to their last breath, and the peasant CPL is now standing, wounded but victorious, in the centre.

The board being so open that King judges the possibilities of a successful retreat being good, he goes on with the planned attack. With luck, the CAPT steams on, killing the two defenders between him and the LT, from a distance. A third one is moved to the gap, but that being a PTE, the CAPT suffers a wound. Now he can pretend to be at least a MAJ and move on, hitting the LT. But if the LT calls the bluff, hitting back, the King's side would lose. (The LT could as well advance, because in this case, the wounded CAPT should retreat, but then he would be against the whole expeditionary force with the only gain being forcing the officer to retreat.)

The standoff continues with both sides moving pieces to the straight, vertical frontline. The peasant side feels that now it's a good opportunity to retreat the wounded CPL, his sacrifice would probably not be the deciding factor in the battle anyway, and the time it gives comes in handy. While that is happening, the King advances his remaining PTE from the back left side to the center, sacrificing one wound to kill a REC there. It was to gain a position to take advantage of the SGT bonuses. The SGT moves to the battle, killing a PTE at a cost of 2 wounds and now everyone is to his last, and only bonuses could mean any further action. Now the King decides to panic his CAPT from the last row, giving him so much time to continue the standoff that the remaining few peasants can and will retreat peacefully.

Winner:
King

Casualties:
King: 1 * CPL, 1 * PTE
Peasants: 4 * PTE, 8 * REC

Time elapsed:
15 minutes

A test game 2 featuring peasant rebellion (again)

board used: 8 wide, 6 deep

Peasants:
1 * LT
4 * PTE
11 * REC
(total: 21 hitpoints)

King:
1 * CAPT
1 * SGT
2 * CPL
2 * PTE
(total: 16 hitpoints)

Order of battle:
Peasants had a large formation in the right side of the board, with all 4 PTEs at the center-frontline, to prevent what happened in the last game.

The King had a "fist" with a slightly different configuration in the left side.

Course of battle:
The peasants again held the board since they had taken the frontline, and King's troops were quickly surrounded. Wounds were traded when King needed to advance. Because of the thin peasant manning in the left, the King was inclined to destroy the troops there to gain breathing space, which happened, and the battle line turned about vertical, with peasants on the right. The frontline was in a 45° angle, making it especially deadly to advance, because even the weak troops get 2 hits on you if you do.

Since the field had opened in the left side after the obliteration of rebels there, CAPT started to move, but was forced to take the nearest target, which happened to be a PTE instead of REC. So the CAPT received a wound and was down to his last hitpoint. He stayed in the centre for a time, but decided to go panic when an enemy piece approached. If it had been a PTE (it was), the CAPT would have been killed and battle lost, however with possibly no other casualties. The CAPT kept on giving a +1 HP to the badly wounded SGT (down to his last one), which in turn was holding position for some brave guys making a long move along the left flank to the battle in the center-peasant side. Their advance gave the King much needed time, because needing to move the main battle line would have been a disaster due to the first-hit and losing the positions that gave some +HP. Also the CAPT was retreated to the last line.

The peasants now found themselves a little surrounded, and needed to start retreating their pieces to gain time. They had many, though. The King responded by panicking his PTE from the peasant last line and again moves were made with neither side willing to attack. The peasants finally needed to panic a frontline piece from deep in the King's side of the field. This gave the King opportunity for a chase which took him all the way to the peasant leader. If the chasing piece had been an unwounded CPL (though at this point none existed anyway, all being badly wounded), the game would have been over. Even faking this (moving to a losing battle hoping the enemy would panic instead) could have sufficed, but the King felt that he had the upper hand. He did, and slowly the enemy forces vanished in a controlled way with the King's forces holding ground. Neither side could have mustered an attack since every piece was down to their last hitpoint: the peasants never had more, the King's troops were so wounded. Only one of the King's soldiers had an extra HP when the battle ended, and one was actually down to 0, being kept alive only by the morale boost from the adjacent SGT.

Winner:
King

Casualties:
King: none
Peasants: 3 * PTE, 6 * REC

Time elapsed:
15 minutes

A test game featuring peasant rebellion

board used: 8 wide, 6 deep

Peasants:
1 * LT
2 * PTE
13 * REC
(total: 19 hitpoints)

King:
1 * CAPT
1 * SGT
2 * CPL
2 * PTE
(total: 16 hitpoints)

Order of battle:
Peasants had a frontline right at the border and backline in the back. The idea was to maintain tempo and inflict wounds.

The King had a "fist" consisting PTE, CPL, CAPT, CPL, PTE in the back line and SGT right in front of the CAPT for maximum bonuses.

Course of battle:
The peasants advanced and soon the King realized that he has to move to the battle as the retreat would be pointless (the peasants had all the board and many REC in the backline to advance and maintain the tempo). Both of the peasant PTE had been near the fist in the centre, and inflicted wounds and a casualty of a King CPL before they were finished. At this point the center was open due to peasant forces there being eliminated and the wings being advanced. The King felt it was time to checkmate the exposed peasant LT, which he could do with the CAPT acting alone. The mobility of the CAPT and LT is equal but CAPT may move&hit, whereas the LT could not. Since losing the officer would anyway mean a loss, the peasants decided to retreat the officer instead. At this stage all the peasant forces went to auto-panic but the King refused to chase and kill them, because that would mean less tax income in the future.

Winner:
King

Casualties:
King: 1 * CPL
Peasants: 2 * PTE, 3 * REC

Time elapsed:
10 minutes

In the actual battlefield, yes. The grand strategy as with all the military forces is to avoid battle by threatening to win it if it ensues.

If you go out to battle yourself, Captain (which will be possible), even your character will die if killed in the battle.

Losing a battle against peasants should not happen that often, since even the act of them taking arms against the King is rebellion. (The Army is Royal, even the units not in any actual command of the King).

And yes, the game can be played on the board without having any of the NPC pieces, or as a Joust so that the participants do not actually die (to preserve the strategic importance of saving your key troops even when defeating should be baked in to the scoring system).

When you try this at home, please stick to the very basic settings at first. The strategy will come later.

I suggest you take a board of only 6x6 squares, and keep the armies at 10 pieces max. Don't do archers or cannons, and have preferably only 1 LT officer per side (this is now like a chess king, not really participating in the action except as the last resort).

Basically the things you need to realize/train to get the fun out of the game, is:

- Importance of tempo. The pieces can only move towards battle, but if you do, the opponent gets the first hit. Pick your battles. If all of them look bad, consider which one would give you the tempo after playing it out to the sacrifice of your piece. If there is no such battle, you are fucked, and should consider panicking a piece just to get the opponent to move. (Tempo here is the opposite as it is in chess, where it means that you try to be the one who moves, here it's important to avoid it.)

- HP bonus management. MSG/SGT give a great bonus to troops near them, but managing the battle line in actual battle is difficult. Sometimes moving the MSG/SGT will kill your own piece who loses the bonus.

- Initial placement. The point is to give you as much breathing space as possible.

- Value of pieces. In some game conditions you get REC pieces that can't take any wounds. Learn how to play with them. They make be good panicking stock, or hold the frontline giving their one blow before they die. With 1-2 HP bonuses, even the lowliest pieces become deadly.

- Decision when to retreat. Tactical panics should happen as part of the battle constantly, but when things turn sour, try to manage your best pieces out, since otherwise you lose them permanently.

Looks like if it were a real battle - yes But there is opportunity to have "jousting" and "tournament" games where the NPCs do not die.

Sounds like fun! If we lose pieces in the game, do those NPCs die?

Proposal for the Rules of the Army subgame - fighting rules


In the beginning, it was easy to design the game elements because nobody took it seriously or had any financial commitment. Haphazard decisions such as the low/high arching rules or Quarry mechanics, have become enshrined and are now unquestioned.

Now it's different A Colonel was recently sold for 450 million (USD 300) and this obviously raises the bets for designing the subgame. On the one hand, it has to be worth the money, on the other, making it indestructible does not make it fun for the others either.

I have experimented with the following battle rules that could provide the possibility for Jousting games (nobody gets killed) and actual battles alike.

This is just one proposal, please feedback both if you like it and if not, and in both cases tell us why!

Board and rules

- The battle is fought in a 8x8 board. In the beginning, both sides place their pieces freely in their own side of the board.

- The identities of individual pieces are secret, though Officers are distinct for having horses, and CANnon is visible. Otherwise only the progress of the game reveals the valuable pieces who become the main targets.

- Players take turns, moving one piece at a time.

- Pieces can typically move only towards the battle (every move must result in that the "street network" (zigzag) distance of the piece to the nearest enemy is reduced. If this is not possible, that piece may not be moved. If several moves would accomplish this, the player can choose.

- If the piece is standing next to an enemy piece, it can "hit" instead. A hit results in one "wound" for the enemy piece. The hitpoints of the pieces vary, when the last one is taken, the piece is removed from the board.

- Pieces can panic. This is a player decision. Panicking pieces can only move directly backwards, can take hits, and give bonuses, but cannot hit the enemy themselves. Panic is a permanent decision and cannot be revoked.

- When panicking pieces retreat from the player edge of the board, they have successfully exited the battlefield. Exiting from the opponent's edge is not possible.

- Whoever controls the board is the winner. Losses do not matter when considering this.


Pieces

Officers

Officers are mounted soldiers who coordinate the battle and give orders. The officers are distinguishable in the battlefield but their rank is not known.

COL - 3 HP, move 2, can move&hit or hit twice, freely in all directions (no panic rule), gives 1 HP to soldiers in 8 directions
LTC - 3 HP, move 2, can move&hit or hit twice, gives 1 HP to soldiers in 8 directions
MAJ - 3 HP, move 2, can move&hit, gives 1 HP to soldiers in 4 directions
CAPT - 2 HP, move 2, can move&hit, gives 1 HP to a soldier directly in front
LT - 2 HP, move 2, cannot move&hit

The HP bonuses the officers give are not cumulative with each other, but are cumulative with the NCO bonuses, for the maximum HP bonus of +2 HP. Officers themselves never recieve the HP bonuses.

When the last officer the player commands is killed or exited the battle, all remaining pieces enter panic mode.

NCOs

NCOs are foot soldiers that have a higher fighting strength and/or provide morale benefits to fellow soldiers

MSG - 4 HP, move 1, gives 1 HP to soldiers in 8 directions
SGT - 4 HP, move 1, gives 1 HP to soldiers in 4 directions
CPL - 3 HP, move 1

NCOs receive the HP bonuses from officers (max 1 HP though). MSG/SGT cannot give bonuses to each other, but a CPL may get +1 HP from a SGT/MSG (max 1 HP). Therefore the maximum HP for a foot soldier is 5 HP.

Others

PTE - the mainstay of the forces, 2 HP, move 1, and nothing special, but with the right boost can be a war machine of 4 HP, (and easy to replace).
REC - recruits are pressed into duty for the battle from the peasants, 1 HP, move 1, receive the morale bonuses though. These do not stay from battle to battle as they are just defending their homes.
ARC - Archers equal to PTE in that they have 2 HP and move 1, and are eligible to bonuses, but they also have archery bonus: one time per battle, they may shoot and hit in a straight line (typically to the front) regardless of distance.

Weapons and items

All soldiers must be equipped with their respective weapons (in addition to paying their salaries). If a soldier is killed or captured, the weapons as well as the NPC are lost. Successfully retreated soldiers get to keep their weapons and stay alive (even the wounds are treated with 100% recovery rate, not entirely realistic though).

CAN - a cannon is an expensive weapon that is represented by a piece. It is immovable, and requires an operator (any soldier) behind or next to it. If both sides fulfill the criterion, neither can operate the cannon. It can fire in a straight line, hitting the enemy (not to the direction of the operator though). It can do this unlimited times. The cannon stays in the possession of the winner of the battle. It can also be destroyed by one hit since it has 1 HP.


Designer's notes

I think this fits the overall large-block architecture of the game nicely and provides a way to solve battles with a main consideration in the strength of the respective forces, but providing some opportunity for showing skill and tactical decisions (partial and full retreats, whether to chase wounded pieces, aim to kill NCOs/Officers, spare/sacrifice own troops). Implementation of a chess-style game in the Online is not happening now most likely, but is not a difficult one to do with its minimal graphics and simple rules. Also the system is fully expandable. With assigning values to the pieces or playing with identical sets, tournaments can be organized to determine the skill.

The easiest way to simulate these rules I found is with LEGO-blocks that can be stacked on top of each other (for showing the wounds etc.) and naturally conforming to the square grid. I am sure other play material can be used as well.