Suggestion Township musings

[Alator]

So, townships. I feel like this is a trendy forum topic, but I'm going to go ahead with it anyway. So, it seems to be consensus (of the vocal minority, anyway) that townships are essentially nothing more than buying a large region. I'm going to expand on that and say they are identically-sized large regions. They serve no other purpose than block and loot protection, and turned into fancy-walled warehouses. Which is fine, there are many beautiful towns out there. But we can do more! Now, with the way Minecraft and the Heroes plugin, there's not really a whole lot we can do about that. However, we can make it so there is more leniency as to the shape of your fancy-walled warehouse, and also benefits of maintaining a higher player-base.

Caveat: I admit this will create a lot more work on the admin's part for setup and monitoring.

Ignoring costs, becasue I'm not the most knowladgeable about the HC economy, I'm proposing a new way to develop a community that allows for varied town design and citizen benefits.

So, let's look at the current system. You pick your center spot, and buy progressively larger boxes around the center point. What if, instead, you are able to buy chunks of land depending on how many citizens your town has, and once you get enough citizens to be able to upgrade to your next tier, you get a City Bonus?

For example, according the wiki, the current breakdown is as such:

• 10 members = hamlet - 100x100 area
• 10 members = town - 150x150 area
• 15 members = city - 200x200 area
• 25 members = capital 250x250 area

My idea would instead be to gain a region (for sake of argument, say 125x125) for starting with your 10-person group, then have the ability to obtain more 125x125 regions every 5 members to attach to what you already have. So instead of gaining larger boxes, you can grow your city in the shape or direction you want to. Want your town to be L-shaped around a lake? Go for it! Want it to run along a mountain range? Sounds great!

Also, towns would be given a bonus every time they 'tier up'. When you reach town, the next region you buy gets increased crop growth rate. When you reach city, the next region you buy gives players within it moderate health regen. When you reach capitol, your bankers can sell to DHX for a higher price. This encourages towns to try to recruit, instead of just getting their 5-10 players and sitting on a little fortress.

To pay for it, each chunk would be assigned a cost. 'Tiering up' would be assigned a cost. Taxes would be based off how many chunks you own, not your tier. This way, if a town feels like it can afford higher taxes but is not able to save money for the bonus regions, it could still expand to the full extent of its member count. It just wouldn't be able to become a capital/city for kingdoms.

I ignored Kingdoms because they work on a whole different system with pylons and whatnot.

This is kind of based off the old factions system that was thrown around a while back, and I know it would be a lot of work on the admins parts, but it could be a nice way to help shake things up a bit.

 

[Theazian]

I feel like this might support the whole "Rich get richer" theory with the town region buffs.

 

[Digger360]

Big city's are stronger because they have more active members. I don't see a reason to strengthen those who are already en strengthened. That'd be like buffing Dreadknights and nerfing bloodmages, doesn't make any logical sense.

If anything that would discourage PvP, and nearly halt raiding, even past to where it has already fallen.

 

[agentjwall]

Some great ideas Alator, I'd be game!
Although I'd like to see TnT or Outposts get added too.

 

[Alator]

I feel like this might support the whole "Rich get richer" theory with the town region buffs.

The gold thing can change, but do we have any capitals yet anyway? The idea of the increased sell price is to help them get that final push towards kingdom, which is something I would like to see. More kingdoms for me equals bigger construction projects.

Big city's are stronger because they have more active members. I don't see a reason to strengthen those who are already en strengthened. That'd be like buffing Dreadknights and nerfing bloodmages, doesn't make any logical sense.

If anything that would discourage PvP, and nearly halt raiding, even past to where it has already fallen.

How do strong cities discourage PvP? Are you saying that only wildlings and guilds fight? If anything, strong cities would encourage larger armies which would increase PvP.

Keep in mind, the primary thrust behind this is to create more varied towns with the regions adaptation. The region buffs are just a benefit for towns who want to pay for the extra little bonus.

 

[Acherous]

These ideas are great. The box shaped regions do limit creativity quite a bit. In my opinion the entire township system needs a revamp. They simply don't work efficiently for what they are meant for anymore.

 

[Kainzo]

We can use polygonal regioning even for cities - but the issues are;
1) we cannot limit the size / scope if allowing players to do it
2) we would have more administrative overhead

 

[Alator]

2) we would have more administrative overhead

I knew this would probably be a deal breaker, but I want to get a discussion going about it anyway, heh.

 

[agentjwall]

It's a shame we don't have more coders. We could automate all of this ^^,

 

[Digger360]

Also, towns would be given a bonus every time they 'tier up'. When you reach town, the next region you buy gets increased crop growth rate. When you reach city, the next region you buy gives players within it moderate health regen

Is what I was referring to.