Feedback and Suggestions

[Deng Wei]

Great sim so far. Thanks to all the staff who have made it possible.

Anyway, I have one suggestion which I think is feasible and potentially useful. There are many good questions being asked in the question thread, and my worry is that as more and more questions are asked, people will be unable to keep up and will ask the same questions again. Also, newcomers might find it difficult to read through all 40+ pages of questions which might easily balloon to a much larger number.

Hence, my suggestion is: add questions to their relevant chapters in the game rules as separate posts after the main post describing the rules. So, if we have good PT related questions, we might want to add the question and answer to the PT rules thread. Of course, those questions which merely require a repeat of already existing rules won't have to be added to this FAQ section that I'm suggesting, but I think there are a significant number of questions which clarify some gray areas in the rules.

The good thing about this is that this can be done incrementally as the game goes along, and at the end of it there will be a wealth of good relevant questions accompany the rule chapters.

Just my two cents worth.

[calistoknight]

I have a complaint I'd like to address. I feel like the bonus 4 points we get to have are rather wasted on the whole village/Town thing. Scenario:

I choose to put 4 points to get a town. This last turn I got 121 and 210 (10) troops as per my stats.

Now I could have put the 4 into an army, gotten myself 1600 (80) and come fully equipped with niffty armor and stuff. And taken a town the first turn.

Sure I have a bit more bond, but since it is omnistat dependent you can gain the bonus bond in about one turn, I can't gain 1600 troops in one turn, maybe 3, but then I have to train them, then I have to buy the money for them. During this time the person who takes the town will have all the bond plus more troops on top of that. So I don't see the balance issue. Plus I'm not even sure how much the bond and stuff helps since I don't know the chances of taking a city using the varity of different methods avalible. Is the bond worth going for, will I have 100% chance, does having a town increase my chance? Doesn't seem worth gaining and not getting more troops to fight off this potential threat.

[Galagros]

Your stats (low command and judgment) don't help you to be a good administrator.

The Provincial Influence boost with from 4 background points should allow you to gain a city before someone who took 4 points in a personal army. Also if someone takes a city with their personal army they will have to fight and lose troops, as well as the possibility of gaining some other things that someone who takes a city over via some of the new methods has a change of getting.

If you took the 4 background points with the intent to only rule a town and never take a city, then yes ... it doesn't work out very well for you.

[calistoknight]

To the best of my knowledge, anyone who tried to take a village/town and didn't run into another personal army, didn't lose any force. Which is part of my complaint. And yea, I know my stats arn't the best, but even with a good command your looking at maybe 2-3 turns of recruiting and then you have to drill, then you have to purchese the arms.

With bond aspect no one knows how successful or how much of an impact the bond has. So in my case I have to debate if I want to use (and potentially waste) an action to try and take a city or use it for something I know will be useful.

[Lurking Tyranny]

Personal armies who attempt to take a city by force will have troops to fight - towns and villages won't. So when those people who took the large force begin to utilize it to seize a city, while it will be more direct, they will have a challenge and will lose troops.

Provincial Influence and Provincial bond are very, very useful if you intend to take a city through one of the seven non-military options.

I will say this much - that, along with doing some research into your target, are far more important then your stats. Furthermore, those who do succeed in seizing a city through the use of provincial influence may get other bonuses depending on the method and how much influence and bond they have.

The towns and villages that were given out with the provincial influence are actually more of a bonus then anything else. Do not look at PI IV as being a town, but rather it is the high level of influence -- with a town as a bonus.

Also please not that the Personal Turn generator did not properly generate the troops for towns. The training for troops given by town is 30, not 10 and you should adjust accordingly.

[Stedfel]

I got to say that I do have a problem with the way that the PTs are being handled when it comes to results. That's not to say that I feel any one individual is doing something wrong or anything of the sort, but from a roleplayer's perspective, it seems like the staff is taking control of our characters away from us in order to roll some of these events.

For instance, my most recent result involved my character running away from a tiger, despite the fact that, ICly, my character would have charged the tiger and fought with it until one of them had died.

Now, I get the idea that these are just mechanical things, but why not have them post 'Patrol Failed' as opposed to them making up a situation where your character acts grossly out of their personality?

Likewise, I've seen the events where character's are basically forced into carrying on affairs with the local villagers. This is despite the fact that some of the characters are married, chaste, eunuchs, etc. It just doesn't seem right from a roleplay perspective. A situation where they encounter a willing local and get to decide whether to go for it or not (and then adding in the marriage/leaving town thing) would be much better for characters that want to maintain a strict character-type.

That's all I really got to say.

[RuffRydeR]

Well, I know I've mentioned this somewhere before, but time to make it more formal, I guess.

Why does Personal Army get beefed up as the game goes on while other sign up choices don't?

Like, why can't Wealth have a:

1: +25 gold per turn elapsed
2: +50 gold per turn elapsed
3: +100 gold per turn elapsed
4: +200 gold per turn elapsed

LIMITED AT <XXXX> gold, max.

Or Items not having something like:

1: +4 with a +1 per five turns elapsed. Limit of +4 on any item.
2: +6 with a +1 per four turns elapsed. Limit of +5 on any item.
3: +8 with a +1 per three turns elapsed. Limit of +6.
4: +10 with a +1 per two turns elapsed. Limit of +7.

Maxes out at +20 or something.

Or Provincial Influence not being.

1: +3 PI and +3 PB per turn. Free town instead, if available, once a year and a half have passed.
2: +5 PI and +5 PB per turn. Free town instead, if available, once a year has passed.
3: +7 PI and +7 PB per turn. Free town instead, if available, once half a year has passed.
4: +10 PI and +10 PB per turn. Free starting city instead, if available, once a year has passed.

Limit of 100 PI and 90 PB.

Or Followers not being:
1: +1 bonus point per game turn.
2: +2 bonus points per game turn
3: +3 bonus points per game turn
4: +5 bonus points per game turn

Bonus points may not exceed +100, total, if 2 characters, or +50, if one character.

Or Dedicated Study being:

1: +1 extra month of study in anything, per four game turns.
2: ditto, but per three
3: ditto, but per two
4: ditto, but per month.

The above's not really balanced and was thought up in a few minutes...but it shouldn't be that hard or confusing, should it? As it is...PA kinda gets big after a while, but everyone else is stuck with what they have.

[Dao Xia]

Stedfel: I agree with you that binding things like marriage are a little too far, but the roleplay is the only part of the PT that is fun and interesting, and I'd like to keep it. You can always come up with a reason for why you ran from a tiger. Say you were drunk. Or this was a freakishly large and rabid tiger. Whatever, be creative. Stuff happens.

RuffRydeR: I think they only put the growth on Personal Armies because it was totally useless after a few turns in last game. Armies lose value over time because kingdoms build bigger and better armies. Gold on the other hand, doesn't lose value. Nor do items. Followers don't get PTs, so they never get better, so there is no reason to improve them. You may have a point with dedicated study, but that seems to undercut the whole idea of growth. Giving away free cities also goes too far. Imagine how pissed you would be if you took time fighting off all those PAs in the start to create a tiny kingdom, and then have a guy join 12 turns later who rivals your strength. That just unfair.

[RuffRydeR]

Gold may LOOK like it never loses value, but the longer the game goes, the more of it starts floating around, just like any real economy. Same with items.

Inflation makes the gold amount you get not as useful midgame as it is early game, since more people have more cash. I know the market itself doesn't change value, but what about hiring mercenary bands or paying for crafted items or whatever? =3

It's not obvious, but gold does lose value and effect on the game, the longer it goes.

Actually, a guy taking a city 12 months in would be suicidal for said guy unless they also got like 10 OOC buddies to join with a personal army 4 EACH.

Never said anything about the guy actually having many troops to start with, really. It just makes them expansion target Alpha. =P

[Shadow]

I was looking at the captures rolls in the battle of Suiyang. I'm not totally in favor of the melee and support layer having the same formula for being captured. Most of the support layers at tactician and advisers who usually are at the rear. Their war will usually be quite low, but that's not really as important.

I feel since the support layer doesn't partake in the battle like the melee layer that it should have a greater chance to escape than those in the melee layer.