work/recruit and balance

Rich Skrenta (skrenta@usl.com)
Fri, 24 Jul 92 14:01:14 EDT

Here is the latest stab at game balance, and something of a return to sanity.
The GM has been smoking too many crazy ideas in blekko.olympia. :-)

o WORK returns a flat 1 gold/day/man.

o RECRUIT takes approximately 6 man-days of effort per man to hire
a new follower, and requires a minimum 200 gold hiring bonus.
Larger hiring bonuses may attract men in shorter time.

I have not decided whether or not recruit should be limited.
Two possible limits are:

10% of a region's population per month
n + 10% of a faction's size per turn

o Maintenance costs become linear for men, and lose the
more bizarre components.

15 gp/man + some amount for skills

The fifteen gold is to feed and clothe a man for a month.

I haven't decided whether or not a skilled unit should cost
more to maintain. Probably. Something like 1 gp for every
skill point.

Example: a two man unit with combat 6, forestry 1 would cost:

2 * (15 + 6 + 1)

I haven't decided whether a unit should also pay a per-unit
fixed cost, for unit overhead.

C + 2 * (15 + 6 + 1)

The above rules make a simple WORK/RECRUIT cycle return about 7.5%.

o FORM's dynamics should be similar to a one-man recruit.
For simplicity, FORM will take seven days.

I am unsure about this rule, since it will hit the
beginning player the most. It's not clear that it's
useful, either, but FORM does seem a bit quick when
compared against other commands.

I'm surprised at the cool reception my "five free FORM's"
got with all the yak about "faction construction points".
Free FORM's could give newbies non-confiscatable wealth.

Perhaps newbies should also get a quicker FORM, to speed
faction development.

-- 
Rich Skrenta <skrenta@usl.com>


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