Re: Old players in safe havens

John Morrow (morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu)
Thu, 8 Sep 94 13:50:33 EDT

>> Make Imperial City less attractive for older players.

>Sounds reasonable.

Good :-)

>Shutting of PCT4G, recruit, etc. is a bit icky because 1) those are
>a lot of little fires to stamp out -- what a mess, and 2) new players
>like to try for these things too. "You mean I have to go out into
>the wild to try for that stuff?"

Objection (1) is certainly valid. If it is difficult to implement, an
alternative should be sought. But this is really no more of a kludge
than the "you can't build buildings in a safe haven" rule. Objection
(2) is a non-issue with respect to the current status of the game
because I doubt any of those resources are getting down to the new
players for them to try it out, anyway. Of course (2) is a valid
objective to keep in mind with respect to any reforms.

>> Leave everything on and every time new players are added, add them to
>> the TOP of Imperial City where they will have "first shot" at the
>> resources.

>This seems elegant on first glance, but there are too many tricks
>to get bumped to the end of the location list. Rather, I'd suggest
>simply making executing order for top-level nobles in safe havens
>be random instead of by list order.

I'm not sure any of the "tricks" will be a real problem. Can you be
more specific as to where you see the problems? I pretty much only
see "features".

The main problem I can see is that some people may feel obliged to
move around -- especially to get the PCT4G money -- near the end of
the month and this will add lines to IC turn reports. But this should
hardly be any worse than someone issuing a SELL order for every item
in existance to see the item's weight... :-)
(that was done this turn, Rich, BTW -- look at a few turn reports)

I'm a little wary of doing things randomly since it kills all the
dynamics of list order in any safe haven but it is a possible
solution. It certainly gives everyone a fair shake which addresses
your second point above. Given enough time, any player will have a
shot at getting a peasant or other resource which could be a good
thing.

In any event, I think the current system is not working as well as
any of these alternatives.

John Morrow


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