Hunts and a noble hunting skill

[pcw27]

In my experience, being the region lord of a rural, woodlands, or badlands region can get a little boring. You can't hold a tournament, you can't build fortifications and no one ever wants to come around for a visit. So I propose the following:

First, create a hunting skill for nobles. In combat this skill can effect things like mounting an ambush and hunting retreated enemies.

Second, create a new building type which can only be built in rural, woodland or badlands regions. The building is called "Game Warden's Office" it has two functions. First it can function sort of like an academy, nobles can visit the game master and practice their hunting skills and find out just how good they are at it. Second, the region lord can hold a "Hunt", a social event for nobles to hunt wild beasts. Mechanically it could work out a lot like a tournament. The hunt is announced and nobles in the area can pay to participate. They then have until the announced day to visit the region the hunt is happening in. The game automatically does calculations based on hunting skills to determine who catches the most game. The winner then receives prestige and gold and a message announces that the other participants feast on (insert animal he caught).

I think this would be a fun feature, plus hunting big game was a beloved pastime for medieval nobility.

[JPierreD]

With some tweaks it could be an interesting idea...

[Shizzle]

I'd rather see "Hunting Lodge" or something than "Game Warden's Office", though. The latter sounds too bureaucratic

[fodder]

...what ambush. fighting is still 1D

anyway.. hunting is like... you nobs sit on horses, then you get a billion peasants to flush out the animals and you shoot them. not exactly like fighting a battle.

[Velax]

I actually really like this idea.

[Draco Tanos]

I do like the concept.  And it's a form of "tournament" that all noble classes could participate in.

[pcw27]

...what ambush. fighting is still 1D

anyway.. hunting is like... you nobs sit on horses, then you get a billion peasants to flush out the animals and you shoot them. not exactly like fighting a battle.

I seem to recall an ambush option that causes you to come in behind the enemy instead of in front. History has many different hunting sports typically they were a little more complicated then standing there and shooting.

I can see two ways a hunt could be designed (and they could potentially both be options). One is there's a single large beast, say a captured monster and all the nobles have at it trying to kill it. In the end only one can kill it and claim the prize, although everyone gets to eat it after. The other has several smaller animals, possibly deer, and there can be first, second even third place prizes for who gets the most.

I'd rather see "Hunting Lodge" or something than "Game Warden's Office", though. The latter sounds too bureaucratic

I definitely like lodge better. Maybe "Game Keeper's Lodge".

[De-Legro]

I seem to recall an ambush option that causes you to come in behind the enemy instead of in front. History has many different hunting sports typically they were a little more complicated then standing there and shooting.

I can see two ways a hunt could be designed (and they could potentially both be options). One is there's a single large beast, say a captured monster and all the nobles have at it trying to kill it. In the end only one can kill it and claim the prize, although everyone gets to eat it after. The other has several smaller animals, possibly deer, and there can be first, second even third place prizes for who gets the most.

I definitely like lodge better. Maybe "Game Keeper's Lodge".

German Boar hunting was done with a spear if I recall correctly, and presented a significant danger to the nobles that took place.

[pcw27]

Modern day hog hunting is pretty dangerous as well. Maybe in single beast hunts it can be possible for players to get wounded if they do really poorly on their skill check.

[Indirik]

The idea of lords hosting hunts in their estates is something that has gotten a lot of traction over the years. I seem to recall there are some ideas on the old wiki Wish List page that were about this.

But as with all new feature requests these days, don't hold your breath. There are too many more important core code features that need converted before anything new like this could be worked on.

[fodder]

I seem to recall an ambush option that causes you to come in behind the enemy instead of in front. History has many different hunting sports typically they were a little more complicated then standing there and shooting.

not sure it was ever really implemented. it certainly was talking about in d-list all them years back. the difficulty would be.. what the heck happens when you are ambushed? the enemy being put on defence? jumble their lines? your men appear behind theirs and sandwich them?

sure, hunting might be a bit more complicated than standing around and shooting, but it still isn't exactly a battle.. and it would better off as part of reworking battles (if ever... how ever)

as just a social thing that doesn't do anything else (aside from fame/prestige, etc).. why not. doesn't even need new stat. leadership will do.

[Duvaille]

Yeah, the idea has been around. This would be one of those things a noble can do during peace time, but nothing too exciting to prevent a war. It could be open for all within range, with a chance of being wounded. A skill could be made for it, but I am not sure if it would need to be visible in any numerical way, nor even trainable in the academy. There would need to be some sort of a reward for the winner, though I suspect a realm wide message stating that "Sir Kepler hosted a hunt in Glorious Estate, Keplerville. Sir Random managed to hunt down a large beast, while Sir Badluck was slightly wounded".

Though I suppose it could influence some stat as well, slightly. It would mostly be about some recognition, which would be important for the new nobility. And to have something to talk about when there is a lull.

A successful hunt might give a bonus to region stats too. The valiant nobles caught a big beast that has been pestering the neighborhood, which improves morale. Or they make quite a catch, and throw some leftovers over to the villagers, or there is a celebration where the villagers can join in in some meager way. A slight boost, but nothing fancy. If it's successful. So good hunters would be appreciated.

Perhaps hosting a hunt where nobody turns up would have some sort of a small penalty too. It would happen.

(fodder: yeah, leadership would work too, very nicely actually)

[pcw27]

Yeah, the idea has been around. This would be one of those things a noble can do during peace time, but nothing too exciting to prevent a war. It could be open for all within range, with a chance of being wounded. A skill could be made for it, but I am not sure if it would need to be visible in any numerical way, nor even trainable in the academy. There would need to be some sort of a reward for the winner, though I suspect a realm wide message stating that "Sir Kepler hosted a hunt in Glorious Estate, Keplerville. Sir Random managed to hunt down a large beast, while Sir Badluck was slightly wounded".

Though I suppose it could influence some stat as well, slightly. It would mostly be about some recognition, which would be important for the new nobility. And to have something to talk about when there is a lull.

A successful hunt might give a bonus to region stats too. The valiant nobles caught a big beast that has been pestering the neighborhood, which improves morale. Or they make quite a catch, and throw some leftovers over to the villagers, or there is a celebration where the villagers can join in in some meager way. A slight boost, but nothing fancy. If it's successful. So good hunters would be appreciated.

Perhaps hosting a hunt where nobody turns up would have some sort of a small penalty too. It would happen.

(fodder: yeah, leadership would work too, very nicely actually)

This sounds too much like the type of hunting adventurers would do, which nobles would avoid at all costs.

Why would leadership be the relevant skill? You wouldn't be using your unit in the hunt, in medieval times it was forbidden for commoners to hunt large game specifically because Nobles wanted to be able to hunt for sport.

Also there's no reason not to have a monetary reward, it would encourage participation. People could alternatively make private bets on who will win, but if it got complicated enough (people trying to assign odds, someone trying to play as the house ect) people might not want to bother.

[pcw27]

The idea of lords hosting hunts in their estates is something that has gotten a lot of traction over the years. I seem to recall there are some ideas on the old wiki Wish List page that were about this.

But as with all new feature requests these days, don't hold your breath. There are too many more important core code features that need converted before anything new like this could be worked on.

But once the new code is in effect they system will be simpler and easier to add to right?

[Indirik]

Perhaps. But there is a LOT of code to convert.