Reworking Trade

[oblivian2003]

I have a character on Dwilight in one of the realms suffering what I believe is a major food shortage. I think that the food production for the Island should be returned to what it was. I understand that it was reduced to help remove some of the food as a way to increase its value and encourage trading. Below are 3 ideas that I have that could be used instead;

1.   Rework food Rot- Thought I agree with the idea of food rot, especially as a way to discourage food hording. I think it could do with a slight adjustment. For example food rot won't kick in till storage hits the 25% mark (This would be explained by rotating new food from the farms with that stored in the granary). Between 25-50% it would be at normal rates of rot, 50-75% 1.5 times normal rate of rot and at 75% or above it is at double the rot rate. To avoid abuse of this you could implement a varying cost of maintaining granaries, which would increase with every granary built(This would be reflected with the increase cost of pest control, caused by having so much food in one area)

2.   Realm to Realm trading- I think the current system of trading alone is rather good. It's to a point realistic for medieval style economy and reflects the difficulties of supplying large realms without penalising smaller realms. The problem can come from trying to trade between realms. Would it be worth bringing back caravans as a way to trade food between realms over a larger distance? They could be treated like small granaries on wheels, subject to food rot etc. For example anyone could buy them, once owned make buy or sell orders but only traders can complete the sale in the same way sales of food with regions is done.

3.   Food rebalancing on an Island level- There is 2 ways that I can think of that would help to rebalance an island's food supply. First off to prevent food hording on a Realm scale would be to create a new problem for if too many regions in the same realm horde food over a certain level for too long it attracts pests(Mice, Rats, Locusts etc) which will consume there food down to normal or acceptable levels. This will encourage people not to hold onto, too large of a stockpile of food. Without penalising everyone. For example if 2-4 regions in the same realm,  have 80% of their food storage full for longer than a week it would kick in the above event. Should food be distributed extremely well and everywhere has all the food it needs, all you would have to do is change the threshold at which the above event kicks in.

The other option is to link troop production to food consumption. So to train troops you would have to provide food as a resource (The training of troops is tiring work and an army marches on its stomach).  This could also be linked to other resources if or when added to the game. This would also have the effect of varying the price of troops depending on the resources consumed.

[Zakilevo]

I actually think the current food production should stay the same until we get rid of all the excessive food we have. You just need to pay a bit more and work a bit harder to find a trading partner.

[Gustav Kuriga]

lol, BS. The only region with any excess food in Kabrinskia is Knyazes. Morek has excessive food only because a bunch of rural region lords have been stockpiling all the food they have in their regions. And we all know Morek has an overabundance of rural regions anyways, so isn't very representative of other realms.

[D`Este]

LN is out of food, only one rural with large stockpile and the rest has almost nothing. Giask is starving and no food is available to be buy.

I really think the food situation should be reconsidered.

[fodder]

only reason that happened is that there's a prolonged winter (how many days was it? a week?)

[Gustav Kuriga]

only reason that happened is that there's a prolonged winter (how many days was it? a week?)

This was happening before the winter even extended past it's deadline. The lengthening of it only aggravated the problem.

[Foundation]

I've heard that some benefit when others starve.

[Gustav Kuriga]

I've heard that some benefit when others starve.

I've heard that a certain panda needs to eat something other than bamboo...

[Dante Silverfire]

Here's a thought: What's wrong with sustained food scarcity?

Dwilight was founded with a "frontier" mentality. There was also some rogue regions and it was hard work to take that next city. With forced scarcity of food, Dwilight will remain somewhat in that state.

I see nothing wrong with forces smart decisions in terms of what regions you can actually afford to support and placing a stronger emphasis on rural regions. Traditional BM doctrine says capture the largest city possible and win with superior funding, but what is wrong with having Dwilight be different? Make it important to have many rural regions to support strong cities. Make warfare that much more deadly by really having to protect your rural regions, instead of holing up in cities.

I think a Dwilight that produces a small net deficit in food each day, is a Dwilight that can prove very interesting going forward.

[Foundation]

Hey, hey, pandas need to survive in this changing world too, ya'know!

[Charles]

It would have been nice if winter actually just ended rather than the code for the count down getting fixed. 

[Foundation]

Would be nice if some food popped up for free to compensate the rather long winter too, wouldn't you say? 8)

I guess the world could be a lot nicer.

[JPierreD]

Would be nice if some food popped up for free to compensate the rather long winter too, wouldn't you say? 8)

I guess the world could be a lot nicer.

What if hunting monsters actually gave meat, and thus food? :P

[Charles]

But who would want to eat that?  Hunting deer or boar would be a different story.

[JPierreD]

But who would want to eat that?  Hunting deer or boar would be a different story.

Starving people? I was jk though.