Olympia bits & pieces From: Bill.Viggers@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Bill Viggers) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1992 09:31:00 +0000 There have been two or three different threads floating about, and I would like to try to tie them together, or at least put a new angle on the process. Point the first: Economy. I really like the idea of developing the economy more, but not at the expense of other areas of the game. This is after all a FRPBMG (Fantasy Role Play(ing) by mail game) not a market simulation, lets not forget that. Still I think a lot more could be added. One of the ideas I liked the most was of building farms and producing food. And its the idea of food that I want to tie this post together with. More on food later, I have a related point about fishing. You don't need a boat to fish, you should be able to fish with a line. Fishing should be best in a coastal province, and better still by boat, but it should be usable almost anywhere. Point the second: Upkeep. It was pointed out that the people we hire do it for the princely sum of 5 gold a month, an ammount able to be generated in two or three days of decent labouring, so why do they work for us? Well I can think of a number of reasons. 1: We can find work for them, when they can't find it themselves. It seems a little unlikely, but its possible. Kind of like a union... Actually on this point Perhaps I should add that I think the WORK should pay in inverse proportions to the ammount of people about. The larger the availble work force, the less people are willing to pay. 2: They do it for the prestige of working for a 'somebody'. Kind of like hanging around with someone hopeing their glory will rub off on you. 3: Something else. How about we feed them? If Food becomes a comodity, then perhaps units will have to buy food to eat (1 unit/person/month). This would then add a nice element of calculation to things. It would also mean you had to pay an upkeep cost for yourself. Point the third: Combat. This point in particular addresses the idea of seiges. While a structure under seige, it should be impossible to either stack, or unstack from it. This means that vital supplies (such as food) might run out, leaving the very real option of starving your oponents from the castle. As for whether combat is too bloody. Well I've been in two combats, one one sided, and one where it was reasonably even. I think combat is pretty bloody, but thats what you expect when people start waving swords at each other. Some impovements I'd like to see are: 1: Differentiting trained combatants (combat 0 and higher) from untrained. Perahps untrained people only get to use their weapons at half value. That doesn't sound too unreasonable. It still makes large hords dangerous, but not as much as they were. 2: Making Combat skill more useful. Currently there is a LARGE bias towards the larger group (not even taking into account the largers groups ability to withstand more damage). I think a small group of well armed,armered & well trained soldiers should be able to to give a *very* good account of themselves when facing a large mob. 3: Make archery useful. Currently archery is a joke. How about a free attack at the start of a combat with missile weapons? If nothing else it would mean people would start carrying them around as a real weapon rather than just basking people over the heads with their bows. It means a group armed with missiles gets to cut down at least some of their oponents before they close. After they are at close range, then missile fire is pretty hap hazzard anyway. I favour the idea of a missile round at the start of combat for the simplicity factor too. Well, that is my sum total of ideas for this week :-> >< M >< [537] Referenced By Up