Re: OLY: breaking Beastmastery

From: cisco@src.honeywell.com (Cisco Lopez-Fresquet)

Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

>>>>> "PHP" == Pierre H Pero <pepper@smead.ecn.purdue.edu> writes:

PHP> My 2 cents.
PHP> I belive noble points were an attempt to limit exponential growth.
PHP> They mostly succeded in that. But beastmastery left a loophole that
PHP> a truck has been drive through. Therefore any "fix" that does not
PHP> address the exponential growth aspect of beastmaster will probably not
PHP> work. If you break only dragons. Some other creature will be the beast
PHP> of choice.  If you only slow their exponential growth. It will only delay
PHP> when the battle stacks appear. So some ideas to stop exponetial growth.

PHP> Some creatures wont breed if over crowded.
PHP>   Only the 1st N creatures of a type in an area breed     or
PHP>   if there are over N creatures of a type in an area none of them will breed.

PHP> Some creatures breed only in the right enviroment.
PHP>   give creatures terrain types and they breed only in those terrains.

PHP> These two put together could yeild
PHP> Dragons can be breed if there are only 2 dragons in a mountain area.
PHP> Rats can be breed only if there are less than 100,000 rats in any terrain.

So, I put two dragons on the mountain with a beast breeder, and use an NPC
or two with horses to shuttle the baby dragons down off the hill to their
immediate army induction.  What has this solved?

PHP> Another reason beastmaster has exponetial growth is that there is no
PHP> upkeep.  It seems odd that it costs nothing to keep 100 dragons around.
PHP> If nothing else it seems they  would eat most everything in an area and
PHP> reduce its tax base.

If this is done properly, it could solve several problems:  Most long-term
factions that built castles have lots of extra gold anyway.  Charging
upkeep for beasts (with a tiered scale - rats and such costing 1, dragons
at 50?) would make garrisons a strategic target, as it would be possible to
attempt to bankrupt one's enemies.  Huge castle defenses subsisting off the
income of their home province would no longer be possible.

- cisco

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
cisco@src.honeywell.com            lope0019@maroon.tc.umn.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------
An employer?  Oh yeah - I do have one of those.  I guess that
means I have to use this space for a disclaimer.    *sigh*
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

References

OLY: breaking Beastmastery
pepper@smead.ecn.purdue.edu (Pierre H Pero)
Tue, 19 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000