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Too much peace too much for Dwilight

Started by Chenier, June 03, 2011, 07:09:33 AM

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Shenron

Quote from: Jens Namtrah on June 05, 2011, 05:25:43 AM
depends on what sort of Lord you are. You're not starving - what do you care if peasants are starving? they breed like rabbits anyway, don't they? they lose a few children, they'll just make some more. you still take your taxes first, whether or not they have anything left over afterwards...

obviously you don't HAVE to play that, but I think it's a bit closer to the SMA than kind-hearted Lords running about like the Queen's surveymen in the British Raj. I can't picture a nobleman saying, "Gee, I'd like to suit up and go fight a battle, but who will feed these poor peasants? I think I'd better pass"

Starvation is going to negatively affect the region stats  and eventually become quite a burden. The noble is not necessarily caring for the peasants themselves. He's just protecting his own power.
My language: (Apologies for any confusion this results in.)
Awesome = Ossim
Tom = Tarm

Jens Namtrah

sure, but he's not going to skip going to war over it. if stats lower and he needs more gold, he'll just raise taxes. Long-term, he can deal with it properly.

Yes, it is realistic to say that many nobles spent a lot of time administrating their fiefs.  but you are wandering off the real topic here - do ALL of your nobles need to spend so much time managing the Duke's regions for food production that they can't possibly send a few men off to fight some monsters? We're not  playing Farmville.

Shenron

Quote from: Jens Namtrah on June 05, 2011, 12:08:53 PM
sure, but he's not going to skip going to war over it. if stats lower and he needs more gold, he'll just raise taxes. Long-term, he can deal with it properly.

Yes, it is realistic to say that many nobles spent a lot of time administrating their fiefs.  but you are wandering off the real topic here - do ALL of your nobles need to spend so much time managing the Duke's regions for food production that they can't possibly send a few men off to fight some monsters? We're not  playing Farmville.

Usually a realm can afford war (for example my current Dwi realm: Fissoa) but if they honestly cannot handle a war and are having massive food problems then I think they need some sort of exemption from too much peace.
My language: (Apologies for any confusion this results in.)
Awesome = Ossim
Tom = Tarm

Jens Namtrah

Quote from: Shane "Shenron" O'neil on June 05, 2011, 01:16:47 PM
Usually a realm can afford war (for example my current Dwi realm: Fissoa) but if they honestly cannot handle a war and are having massive food problems then I think they need some sort of exemption from too much peace.

well, define "honestly" and we'll have a starting point.

food is just a matter of making some trade agreements and setting up automatic caravans, or a trader. Add a couple of buros or leave region lords at home if you are worried about stats. Even from Chenier, that's most of what he talked about.

I don't really see how that concerns the majority of nobles, or keeps them from patrolling the border regions for monsters or joining in a war if the realms politics call for it.

Gustav Kuriga

The main source that D'Hara could get food, Morek, has already pledged ALL its surplus to Astrum. I can't think of any other realm that can provide food without exacerbating any food problems that realm has.

Chenier

Quote from: Indirik on June 05, 2011, 02:48:40 AM
So, quick fix for any realm that is facing TMP: Move all your food around so some regions are starving. Presto! No more TMP penalties.

As small battles aren't enough to ward off TMP, small starvation doesn't need to be either. If thousands of peasants die and production is crushed back down to zero, then you are getting hit worse by the starvation code than you were by the TMP code. It'd be like cutting your hand off to remove a splinter on your finger.

And it doesn't need to have anything to do with training. The two current effects could be handled separately. A realm without any problems could get "There is too much peace, and the soldiers are getting out of shape while the peasants are wondering what on earth their taxes are being used for", while a realm with food problems only would only get the first part of this.
Quote from: Jens Namtrah on June 05, 2011, 05:18:11 AM
I don't quite follow. What is your army doing?

More importantly, what are your non-Lord players doing?

The point of this code is to ensure that Lords and Councilmen don't get all tied up in their personal games and message channels, and keep the game fun for everyone. It may seem to be most directly concerned with inter-Realm warfare, and to a degree, it is, but it serves mainly as a constant reminder to those players in power that they shouldn't shut themselves off from the common, new nobles of their realm who also want to play and have fun. Those players generally get involved through warfare; it's what brought them to the game.

All I'm hearing from you is how tied up you are with starvation in "your city".

So, you're a Duke dealing with your personal problems. What are your common nobles doing all day, every day? Sitting around, maintaining your regions for you?

Why don't you post some of the numbers I keep asking you for, so we can actually tell if there is a problem or not. Because from the info you've given so far, you sound EXACTLY like the the people this code was written to counteract.

First off, my city actually had the time to build up to make enough income to actually feed itself via imports (barely). The realm's two other cities, with !@#$ production, are the ones constantly starving.

Secondly, I don't know what the knights are doing. I'm a priest, and have limited access to military data. Furthermore, I have made it very clear that I fully delegate all of the military concerns to the general, which last I heard was all the fad. As long as we aren't being occupied and obviously utterly failing, it's not my job to intervene and dictate what the military job, that is other people's jobs. As far as I know, some are trading, others are doing maintenance work to keep everything running smooth, and the rest are patrolling the borders to make sure no monster comes to eat all our food reserves we desperatly need and that are mostly produced on our frontiers.

You are missing the very clear point I did that *not a single person, in the history of the realm, has ever asked to go to war*. Stop assuming people are bored out of their minds, and that I am actively thwarting their attempts to have something happen. Things were slightly different under the monarchy, but even then we weren't really a repressive regime. Now, there's absolutely nothing to even suggest repression, there simply isn't any conflict or discontent showing up. And of all our "new nobles" (say, less than 250 days in realm, because the rest are mostly at 600 days or 900 days, oldest being myself at 992 days), only 1 of the four joined after 2008, he joined in January 2011, with his first character being in D'Hara. Most of these 4 "new nobles" never really spoke much, though, so the one who did get himself a lordship. And seriously, I wouldn't consider any of them as being "new nobles", you are just making yourself a vision of what the realm is without any knowledge of it.

Quote from: Jens Namtrah on June 05, 2011, 05:25:43 AM
depends on what sort of Lord you are. You're not starving - what do you care if peasants are starving? they breed like rabbits anyway, don't they? they lose a few children, they'll just make some more. you still take your taxes first, whether or not they have anything left over afterwards...

obviously you don't HAVE to play that, but I think it's a bit closer to the SMA than kind-hearted Lords running about like the Queen's surveymen in the British Raj. I can't picture a nobleman saying, "Gee, I'd like to suit up and go fight a battle, but who will feed these poor peasants? I think I'd better pass"

How can you even say that? Starvation drops your production to 0% extremely fast (as soon as people start dying, I believe), and one that beginds revolt is not too far away. I honestly can't picture a lord *not* saying this, because without his serfs, he's nothing. Feudalism isn't slavery, it's reciprocal rights and obligations, one of them being the protection of those you tax.

Quote from: Jens Namtrah on June 05, 2011, 12:08:53 PM
sure, but he's not going to skip going to war over it. if stats lower and he needs more gold, he'll just raise taxes. Long-term, he can deal with it properly.

Yes, it is realistic to say that many nobles spent a lot of time administrating their fiefs.  but you are wandering off the real topic here - do ALL of your nobles need to spend so much time managing the Duke's regions for food production that they can't possibly send a few men off to fight some monsters? We're not  playing Farmville.

Clearly you don't understand starvation. When you face starvation, you have no choice but to *lower* taxes, otherwise your region will revolt. Starvation can easily put you in a vicious cycle where you no longer produce the gold/food you need to feed yourself, therefore being stuck at 0% production until you die (or someone from outside helps).

Also, you seem to overestimate the number of knights we have. In my huge city, I only have 2, meaning no support for production. Most of our regions don't have any. We have just as many lords as non-lords, so I think we have more people with titles than people without.

Quote from: Jens Namtrah on June 05, 2011, 01:21:57 PM
well, define "honestly" and we'll have a starting point.

food is just a matter of making some trade agreements and setting up automatic caravans, or a trader. Add a couple of buros or leave region lords at home if you are worried about stats. Even from Chenier, that's most of what he talked about.

I don't really see how that concerns the majority of nobles, or keeps them from patrolling the border regions for monsters or joining in a war if the realms politics call for it.

The border regions are either civilized, or far away. These sea routes between ports are rather long, and as soon as they pass Nebel they are left without walls. The roaming monsters are often huge, and more than any scouting party can handle without walls. Going far out is simply suicide, and nobody enjoys just suiciding their troops. Also, though one of our traders just got promoted to lordship, the both of em used to just be knights. And without them, especially without the one who just got promoted, D'Hara would be in really crappy shape right now. Automatic caravans have limited range, and you can only import so much from the realms within range. We heavily rely on eastern realms with big surpluses to keep ourselves fed, and for that we need traders.

Don't forget that in D'Hara, the "majority of nobles" are actually lords. And such a lord-heavy population considerably reduces our ability to go fight far-away, especially since not all of these non-lords are pure warriors or warrior/heroes either.

Keep in mind that my request has somewhat changed since I first wrote. I'm not asking for freebies, here, and really I don't care that our troops lose training, it's only fair. I just want the tax tolerance to take starvations into consideration, whether it be by the damages caused by it recently or simply by checking what the food supply ratio is (peasants will know if 80% of their food supply is imported).
Dit donc camarade soleil / Ne trouves-tu ça pas plutôt con / De donner une journée pareil / À un patron

Shizzle

Quote from: Gustav Kuriga on June 05, 2011, 04:53:31 PM
The main source that D'Hara could get food, Morek, has already pledged ALL its surplus to Astrum. I can't think of any other realm that can provide food without exacerbating any food problems that realm has.

Fissoa has surplus to sell. My character contacted Duke Francis Adams Kinsey today. I think we even realise a surplus in winter ;)

Chenier

Quote from: Shizzle on June 05, 2011, 05:29:27 PM
Fissoa has surplus to sell. My character contacted Duke Francis Adams Kinsey today. I think we even realise a surplus in winter ;)

Fissoa is already our main supplier, as far as I know, and most of my efforts are geared towards diversifying our sources as Fissoa alone isn't enough.
Dit donc camarade soleil / Ne trouves-tu ça pas plutôt con / De donner une journée pareil / À un patron

Sacha

And that flow will stop if the Lurians ever finds the need to crush Fissoa under their boot heels :)

De-Legro

Quote from: Chénier on June 05, 2011, 05:20:12 PM
As small battles aren't enough to ward off TMP, small starvation doesn't need to be either. If thousands of peasants die and production is crushed back down to zero, then you are getting hit worse by the starvation code than you were by the TMP code. It'd be like cutting your hand off to remove a splinter on your finger.

And it doesn't need to have anything to do with training. The two current effects could be handled separately. A realm without any problems could get "There is too much peace, and the soldiers are getting out of shape while the peasants are wondering what on earth their taxes are being used for", while a realm with food problems only would only get the first part of this.
First off, my city actually had the time to build up to make enough income to actually feed itself via imports (barely). The realm's two other cities, with !@#$ production, are the ones constantly starving.

Secondly, I don't know what the knights are doing. I'm a priest, and have limited access to military data. Furthermore, I have made it very clear that I fully delegate all of the military concerns to the general, which last I heard was all the fad. As long as we aren't being occupied and obviously utterly failing, it's not my job to intervene and dictate what the military job, that is other people's jobs. As far as I know, some are trading, others are doing maintenance work to keep everything running smooth, and the rest are patrolling the borders to make sure no monster comes to eat all our food reserves we desperatly need and that are mostly produced on our frontiers.

You are missing the very clear point I did that *not a single person, in the history of the realm, has ever asked to go to war*. Stop assuming people are bored out of their minds, and that I am actively thwarting their attempts to have something happen. Things were slightly different under the monarchy, but even then we weren't really a repressive regime. Now, there's absolutely nothing to even suggest repression, there simply isn't any conflict or discontent showing up. And of all our "new nobles" (say, less than 250 days in realm, because the rest are mostly at 600 days or 900 days, oldest being myself at 992 days), only 1 of the four joined after 2008, he joined in January 2011, with his first character being in D'Hara. Most of these 4 "new nobles" never really spoke much, though, so the one who did get himself a lordship. And seriously, I wouldn't consider any of them as being "new nobles", you are just making yourself a vision of what the realm is without any knowledge of it.

How can you even say that? Starvation drops your production to 0% extremely fast (as soon as people start dying, I believe), and one that beginds revolt is not too far away. I honestly can't picture a lord *not* saying this, because without his serfs, he's nothing. Feudalism isn't slavery, it's reciprocal rights and obligations, one of them being the protection of those you tax.

Clearly you don't understand starvation. When you face starvation, you have no choice but to *lower* taxes, otherwise your region will revolt. Starvation can easily put you in a vicious cycle where you no longer produce the gold/food you need to feed yourself, therefore being stuck at 0% production until you die (or someone from outside helps).

Also, you seem to overestimate the number of knights we have. In my huge city, I only have 2, meaning no support for production. Most of our regions don't have any. We have just as many lords as non-lords, so I think we have more people with titles than people without.

The border regions are either civilized, or far away. These sea routes between ports are rather long, and as soon as they pass Nebel they are left without walls. The roaming monsters are often huge, and more than any scouting party can handle without walls. Going far out is simply suicide, and nobody enjoys just suiciding their troops. Also, though one of our traders just got promoted to lordship, the both of em used to just be knights. And without them, especially without the one who just got promoted, D'Hara would be in really crappy shape right now. Automatic caravans have limited range, and you can only import so much from the realms within range. We heavily rely on eastern realms with big surpluses to keep ourselves fed, and for that we need traders.

Don't forget that in D'Hara, the "majority of nobles" are actually lords. And such a lord-heavy population considerably reduces our ability to go fight far-away, especially since not all of these non-lords are pure warriors or warrior/heroes either.

Keep in mind that my request has somewhat changed since I first wrote. I'm not asking for freebies, here, and really I don't care that our troops lose training, it's only fair. I just want the tax tolerance to take starvations into consideration, whether it be by the damages caused by it recently or simply by checking what the food supply ratio is (peasants will know if 80% of their food supply is imported).

Actually back in the days of the Dragon Queen I asked to go to war, quite a bit. Since for some unfathomable reason we were all scared that SA was going to attack, I suggested and was prepared to strike pre-emptively. Sure we probably would have lost, but better that then to have a bunch of "nobles" living in fear of a possible enemy. There was also a considerable period of time were we pushing for a war against Terran.
Previously of the De-Legro Family
Now of representation unknown.

Vellos

Quote from: De-Legro on June 06, 2011, 01:04:12 AM
There was also a considerable period of time were we pushing for a war against Terran.

Really? Wow. I've been in Terran from almost Day 1 and never heard of hostilities from D'Hara.

On the original topic, however, I do suspect that D'Hara's situation is unique. Most Dwilight realms I think have little problem with TMP, except maybe Libero, and Summerdale may be the next to have that issue.

But D'Hara has the double-punch of few border regions to have a monster influx and a massive endogenous trade imbalance. The only real way they can stave off TMP is to be involved in a war across sea-routes that can be easily defended and, specifically, sea-routes that are non-overlapping with import pathways.
"A neutral humanism is either a pedantic artifice or a prologue to the inhuman." - George Steiner

De-Legro

Quote from: Vellos on June 06, 2011, 02:50:32 AM
Really? Wow. I've been in Terran from almost Day 1 and never heard of hostilities from D'Hara.

On the original topic, however, I do suspect that D'Hara's situation is unique. Most Dwilight realms I think have little problem with TMP, except maybe Libero, and Summerdale may be the next to have that issue.

But D'Hara has the double-punch of few border regions to have a monster influx and a massive endogenous trade imbalance. The only real way they can stave off TMP is to be involved in a war across sea-routes that can be easily defended and, specifically, sea-routes that are non-overlapping with import pathways.

Terran claimed lands that D'Hara planned to expand to, north of Paisly. We figured it would be easier to beat you down and then claim those lands, then to try to defend them after we claimed them. Of course reality got in the way, as it did to most of the early grand plans in D'Hara.
Previously of the De-Legro Family
Now of representation unknown.

Chenier

Quote from: De-Legro on June 06, 2011, 01:04:12 AM
Actually back in the days of the Dragon Queen I asked to go to war, quite a bit. Since for some unfathomable reason we were all scared that SA was going to attack, I suggested and was prepared to strike pre-emptively. Sure we probably would have lost, but better that then to have a bunch of "nobles" living in fear of a possible enemy. There was also a considerable period of time were we pushing for a war against Terran.

I don't really remember that. Who would we have striked? Everyone's way too far away, and our military never was that impressive.

Though I vaguely remember about Terran. Seemed like a threatening SA bastion for a while, but I never considered any of these talks to be all too serious, more like brainstorming than a call to arms.

And that was at a time where the monarchs had to get some talks going to distract the people of how oligarchic and repressive they were. Perhaps time did make me forget a few calls by some people, but from what you say, it wasn't because you were bored out of your mind, but rather as part of a strategy (or rather, because of pride). For some reason, war seemed more feasible back then too. Maybe we had more nobles?

They say one should never say never, and indeed I shouldn't have. Let's replace that with "since the monarchy became inactive", to be on the safe side.
Dit donc camarade soleil / Ne trouves-tu ça pas plutôt con / De donner une journée pareil / À un patron

De-Legro

Quote from: Chénier on June 06, 2011, 04:56:14 AM
I don't really remember that. Who would we have striked? Everyone's way too far away, and our military never was that impressive.

Though I vaguely remember about Terran. Seemed like a threatening SA bastion for a while, but I never considered any of these talks to be all too serious, more like brainstorming than a call to arms.

And that was at a time where the monarchs had to get some talks going to distract the people of how oligarchic and repressive they were. Perhaps time did make me forget a few calls by some people, but from what you say, it wasn't because you were bored out of your mind, but rather as part of a strategy (or rather, because of pride). For some reason, war seemed more feasible back then too. Maybe we had more nobles?

They say one should never say never, and indeed I shouldn't have. Let's replace that with "since the monarchy became inactive", to be on the safe side.

I know little of D'Hara since the reign of the Dragon Queen, but given how many nobles left at that time, I could well believe that war wasn't really practicable. But then if that is the case, perhaps the realm should pass on?
Previously of the De-Legro Family
Now of representation unknown.

Chenier

Quote from: De-Legro on June 06, 2011, 05:06:43 AM
I know little of D'Hara since the reign of the Dragon Queen, but given how many nobles left at that time, I could well believe that war wasn't really practicable. But then if that is the case, perhaps the realm should pass on?

If D'Hara should pass on, then a great many others should as well. D'Hara isn't shrinking, it's just stagnation that looms for as long as we don't get fresh blood (as all of the next regions to acquire are net food producers that will greatly help out).
Dit donc camarade soleil / Ne trouves-tu ça pas plutôt con / De donner une journée pareil / À un patron