Shizzle,
1) valor would not be gained with rogues
2) it would be an inalienable right to not check the box (and there would be no way of knowing who ticked it - except in a case of death/wound)
3) valor farming would have no benefits for the realm as a whole IF recruitment options were based on realm wide relative values. If only 50% of the nobles (the most valorous) could recruit cavalry, it would not help to have more of it. It would still be only 50% of the nobles, maybe just the different ones.
Further, ticking the box would really put the life of your character on the line. Would a realm risk losing a capable troop leader for a minor skirmish?
Another option could be that behaving more courageously would result in a higher chance in being quite severely wounded. A very much higher chance, so you would only really use it when the stakes are high. Perhaps that would be better, as the death is a rather final fun-stopper. Heroes could still be heroes, and tick the box with an even higher chance of death.
I know I would not tick the box unless it really was an important battle.
You miss the point. Say I know we are about to fight a battle with 3 to 1 odds. Chance of one of my nobles being wounded is at all is negligible so a group of us tick the box, hey presto suddenly the skirmish is "important".
Take it a step further, on all islands other then Dwilight we could just use that ubiquitous second character in the realm as the pin cushion. Use them to get as many battles as possible ranked as "important". Since they were likely to be quiet estate fillers anyway who cares if a bunch die? The player will just create another throw away character anyway
So to stop this we say for a battle to count, both (or all realms for alliance battles) have to hit the requisite number of check boxes. Now if a war is a bit lopsided we can punish the enemy realm by ensuring none of the battle generate valor
The take away message. If you could rely on players to be rational, honest and not game the system this would work. Reality is at least some of the player population will make this feature about reliable as a AI selection criteria in actually determining important battles.
