Olympia bits & pieces

Bill Viggers (Bill.Viggers@comp.vuw.ac.nz)
Mon, 20 Apr 1992 09:31:00 GMT

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 :->

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