New Kingdom Model idea

[Grethor]

With the possibility of a revamp I had a some serious thought to kingdoms and what would make them a bit more dynamic and personally useful to the player, while still keeping them interesting and competitive:

1) Remove the land hardcap. I know this sounds bad, but hear me out. Set the softcap at .001% of the players Kingmanship skill. Additionally set a minimum size (I recommend 1 million acres) so new players can still have kingdoms that are at least somewhat productive. Players who spend a long time in game with their skills or invest in the game by buying skill boosting purchases with real money will be rewarded with the ability to make larger kingdoms.

2) Change the income and savings dynamic. Having floating peons that produce credits based on KMS was an interesting idea, but once you hit a certain point it becomes completely useless. Instead peons should primarily increase the rebirth rate of peons (Which should be based on current peon population, and max population should be based on KMS instead of a hard cap) and provide a small boost to overall production. Peons are trainable to become more productive members of the kingdom, and thus I also suggest making a third ability for each unit: Production. Additionally each trained unit has a primary focus ability (attack, defense or production), a non-focus beneficial ability, and a deficient ability. The focus ability is that units main role, while the deficient ability is the negative affect that having that unit has on your kingdom. The kingdoms overall production value determines the income of the kingdom. Peons, being untrained and unmotivated labor only give a tiny boost, say .01% each, to the overall production, have no focus. Other trained units (and I have some change suggestions here) have higher productions rates, or negative production rates, based on their roles. Finally for the population density, a player with a high KMS should be able to hold more peons/trained units per acre. In order to counteract the ridiculous population increases I would set the initial population density to 5 peons per acre, and have it increase by 1 peon per acre for every factor of 9 (i.e. 1x10^9, 1x10^18, 1x10^27, etc.).

3) Change the attack/defense dynamic. Kingmanship should have a much larger role in motivating and empowering the troops than just bumping them up a couple of HP once a certain threshold is reached. A player with a 6 triple-ot (1 Quintillion) skill shouldn't have the exact same affect as a player with a 9 or 12 triple-ot (Octillion and duodecillion respecively) skill. In fact the player with the six triple-ot should have a magnitude 1 quadrillion less effect than the player with a 12 triple-ot skill. But how to do this and keep the scores reasonable... Each "triple-ot" increases the focus ability (Attack, defense or production) by 1 (i.e. a factor of 3). The nice thing about this is it also allows the breakdown of abilities to hunderedths, meaning a person with 10 billion in a skill will still have a noticeable power difference to a person with only a 1 billion skill. So even an absolutely ridiculous number like a duodecillion only has a maximum effect of 12.00. For the non-focus beneficial ability I recommend a factor of .4 per "ot" and for the deficient ability a factor of .01. I'll give more examples on what I mean later. And yes this also means that with a high enough KMS you can turn a deficiency into a benefit.

4) Alter the land grab of a successful attack. While we all would like to try to keep things fair, often things aren't fair in warfare. Set the new dynamic during warfare to collect acreage based on how successful and attack was (I think this might already be mostly implemented). No caps (an attack with an overwhelming force should be able to completely decimate an opponent and take most all of their lands in one fell swoop). However to prevent power players from preying on new players or the inconsistent casual player, do set a limit on targeting (say minimum size is 75% of attacking players kingdom). Do not however set a Cap. If a tiny kingdom with a player with a high KMS wants to attack the titan kingdom of another player, they should be allowed. Their chance of success is slim, even taking KMS into account, but who knows, they might actually win and get some land out of it. As for the grab rate, say a person with a 1 billion (3 "triple-ot") KMS attacked with 2 million attackers. This would mean each attacker would have an attack value of 11, for a total attack power of 22 million. The defending player made the mistake of focusing on attackers and built 0 defenders, then used every attacker to attack another player. The 22 million attack power rampages in and grabs 22 million acres of land! (yes I know that the attacker can only have 1 million acres based on the numbers above) Since the attacker only has a 1 billion KMS, they can't hold all those acres and burn (raze, salt, whatever you want to call it) anything they can't keep.

5) Fix the income, or in other words change where it goes. With a hard cap on credits carried by the player, a kingdom can often outgrow the players pocket. This leads to immense amounts of credits just vaporizing, and extremely long periods of grinding just to make a single small advancement. Instead have the kingdom income deposit directly into the players bank. In order to slow down the insanity the current credit gains would cause, have kingdom income only occur once every hour or two.

Example Units:

Peon
Role: Population growth
Secondary Role: Drudgery
Deficiency: Useless

Peons are the pool of the unwashed, uneducated masses from which Soldiers, Footmen, Knights, Catapult Crews, Politicians, Quartermasters and Generals are trained. While their main role is to grow the population they can be put to use doing menial tasks for the educated units, giving a slight increase to production rates kingdom wide.

Soldier
Role: Attacker
Secondary Role: Production
Deficiency: Defense

The soldier is a generic but capable ground force meant to taking things that aren't yours, namely acres of land. The common soldier is simply and armed and slightly better trained peon. When not being used in war, they are land owners, shop keepers, millers, bakers, laborers, and other such people. Since they are the primary attack forces of a kingdom not much attention is put into their training for defense though, and when used in defense they commonly get in the footman's way. But with better training and more experienced leadership even a Soldier can benefit a kingdoms defense.

Base Stats:
Attack: 8
Defense: -4
Production: 5

Footman
Role: Defense
Secondary Role: Production
Deficiency: Attack

Like the generic soldier, the footman is a generally train peon who focuses on defense of the kingdom in which they live. Unlike the soldier they only have one other role in society beside defense; they are also the wardens and police officers of the kingdom. They are the first line of defense from invading countries, and from the every day criminal. Through their police work they keep society running smooth and allow people to feel safe in their kingdom, thus increasing the overall production of the kingdom. While able to be sent on the attack, they are uncomfortable outside of their cities and towns and often create more issues in the field than not. However an experienced leader can allay their fears and make them a beneficial member of any army.

Base Stats:
Attack: -4
Defense: 8
Production: 5

Knight
Role: Superior Attack
Secondary Role: Defense
Deficiency: Production

The knight is the epitome of attack power. A line of knights charging in on their war horses have been known to make even the bravest of men tremble in fear. Knights are the battle field elite, effective on both horseback, and on foot. Heavily armed and armored they are the juggernauts they can swing a battle to their lords favor. Being trained in every aspect of combat they can also shore up the defenses of a kingdom, or bring them crashing down. The only thing they cannot seem to do, is be productive members of society. Due to their focused training each knight often costs its kingdom a substantial amount of initial production for outfitting, training and living quarters. However over time as the knight becomes more skilled, and their leadership more sure of their abilities, a knight can actually be a boon to the local economy, acting as a moral boost to the local merchants and laborers.

Base Stats:
Attack: 8
Defense: 5
Production: -4

Catapult Crew
Role: Superior Defense
Secondary Role: Attack
Deficiency: Production

The catapult crew is more engineer than soldier, their additions to the fight cannot be understated. One of the few units capable of breaking up a rank of charging knights, or lay waste to a large group of soldiers, the catapult crew excels at destroying advancing forces. They are at their best when they don't have to move their large constructions, making them excellent defenders. However they are also great additions to attacking forces. Whether they have to move their large creations, or build them at the site of the battle, their creations can often tip a battle in favor of the attacker. All of this comes at a steep price though. Like the knight, catapult crews take a lot of training, and a large number of resources to create and maintain. Through crafty leadership a catapult crew can benefit their society though through innovation and new technologies which make the lives of the citizens of the kingdom easier and more productive.

Base Stats:
Attack: 5
Defense: 8
Production -4

Politician
Role: Production
Secondary Role: Defense
Deficiency: Attack

The first of three specialists, politicians primary concern is the survival and continuation of their kingdoms economy. Attacking another kingdom is out of the question for them, to the point they actively (but politely) will sabotage any attempt to attack a foreign kingdom. Kingdom-centrist economic activities, like building additional infrastructure or increasing the tariffs on imported goods, are their bread and butter. Ask any politician though and they will, reluctantly, tell you that in order to protect their economy a defensive military is needed. They willing to divert needed funds and supplies to the military in order to ensure the safety and continuation of their profitable economic practices. Politicians are also shrewd in that a skilled leader can often convince them of their need for expansion, and can grudgingly gain their support for expansionist activities.

Base Stats:
Attack: -6
Defense: 4
Production: 11

Quartermaster
Role: Defense
Secondary Role: Attack
Deficiency: Production

The second of three specialists the Quartermaster is focused on the well being of the fighting men and home kingdom. Often the person in charge of a cities defenses the Quartermaster is truly a master of their domain. Often ignoring the whining and sniveling of the general population and useless politicians Quartermasters give no thought to the cost of what they do, and only to getting the job done. Tough, hardy and intelligent the quartermaster knows the best ways to deploy the men under his command to utilize them in the most optimal way. However due to their focus on their home territories a quartermaster is at his biggest disadvantage in the field. Being intelligent though they know there isn't an endless supply of resources, and through the guidance of good leadership can be taught not only to spend more frugally, but also use his men to support or even boost the kingdoms production and economy.

Base Stats:
Attack: 3
Defense: 11
Production: -5

Generals
Role: Supreme Commander of attacking forces
Secondary Role: Defense of the Homeland
Deficiency: Production be Damned

The general. Confident in his knowledge and ability he is the ultimate commander of the forces under him. His strategies and commands win wars, and conquer new lands. Highly intelligent, often risen from the ranks of the fighting men he commands, he is the paramount fighting man. Focused on expanding the realm for his lord, the general also knows that all the expansion in the world means nothing if there is no homeland to come home to. He is so focused though, that his decisions often come at a huge financial loss to the kingdom, setting back a lot of advancements and reducing production greatly. However a good leader can mitigate his generals rash decisions, and even reverse the effects to benefit the economy and production of the kingdom.

Base Stats:
Attack: 12
Defense: 6
Production: -9

Of course everything is tweakable...