Too much peace too much for Dwilight

[Chenier]

We haven't had a single horde spawn in any LN region that I know of. Not even in newly taken ones or ones where advies report extreme levels of monster/undead activity.

I'm always fighting rogues that spawn in Enweil lands. :P

[Gustav Kuriga]

Thank you for mentioning a situation on a seperate continent. Please feel free to be ignored in this instance.

[Chenier]

Thank you for mentioning a situation on a seperate continent. Please feel free to be ignored in this instance.

Enweil lands = claimed lands. If these claimed lands spawn rogues, so do others. TOs therefore don't equate in no rogues appearing.

I admit to very few spawns in D'Hara, though. But D'Hara has mostly good stats, which were earned though years of hard work. I don't expect the Balance colony ever to get there, so rogues will spawn as they once did in D'Hara or as they do in Barca and Enweil.

[Bedwyr]

Dominic, even with !@#$ stats the spawns are still greatly reduced.  I've seen it in border regions on Dwilight over the course of months with crap stats that are just barely holding on that have effectively no spawns.

Spawning code on Dwilight is not the same as spawning code on other islands.

[Vellos]

Generally the only monster spawns we see inside Terran are in our large food producing regions like Vashgew or Gretchew, and then usually only when they neglect to distribute their stockpiles of food elsewhere and they build up in the warehouses.

This. I have only ever seen monsters spawn in claimed Dwilight regions if they have significant stockpiles of food. Which is extremely annoying if you have a rural lord who isn't on the ball distributing food, then monsters pop up and destroy what his incompetence kept sequestered. But it's a fun dynamic as well.

[fodder]

funny how monsters spawn in any and all regions bar madna city/gardens in madina (year or more ago)

[Anaris]

Dominic, even with !@#$ stats the spawns are still greatly reduced.  I've seen it in border regions on Dwilight over the course of months with crap stats that are just barely holding on that have effectively no spawns.

Spawning code on Dwilight is not the same as spawning code on other islands.

Nitpick:

Code is the same, but there are some knobs we can turn to adjust the way spawning works per-continent.  IIRC, Dwilight is heavily skewed toward monsters, and toward spawning in rogue regions.

[Sacha]

Discriminating against undead, eh!

[egamma]

Discriminating against undead, eh!

Undead aren't very SMA.
Neither are the Zuma, for that matter.

[Anaris]

Undead aren't very SMA.
Neither are the Zuma, for that matter.

SMA says nothing about the situations in which our characters can be put by the game.

What it prescribes is how our characters should react to those situations.

In other words, being attacked by an army of rotting corpses is not at all against SMA.

Responding to this attack by quoting zombie movies is.

[fodder]

that's like saying being attacked by an ufo is not against sma but then saying it's an ufo is.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

No, whatever the heck you want to call it, as long as it makes sense for someone with the period's vocabulary to use is fine.

UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) is perfectly within boundaries of the Medieval person's vocabulary, though perhaps slightly advanced vocabulary. Trying to call Agents Scully and Mulder to investigate over a telephone is not SMA though (For two separate reasons. Can you spot them?)

[vonGenf]

that's like saying being attacked by an ufo is not against sma but then saying it's an ufo is.

If Richard Lionheart was attacked by a UFO, what would he do?

Hint: He would probably cower in fear and pray.

2nd hint: He would not believe a machine could fly. That's just plain crazy. Clearly, these must be angels, or dragons.

[Chenier]

To get back on topic...

I was running 16% taxes just fine before TMP kicked in. Then, even 8% was "insane and stupid". By the time I got the taxes down to tolerable levels, production was killed, the city had 100% sympathy but like 10% morale and control was dangerously low. With the lowered taxes, morale and control was regained, but production remains !@#$. As such, my income is null. Therefore, my trade balance of 550 gold was more than my tax collection. My city basically went bankrupt. This morning, I get:

Recruitment Center Damage   (15 hours, 49 minutes ago)
Due to unpaid maintenance costs, your recruitment centers have all suffered approximately 100% damage. In addition, the following centers have suffered so much damage they were forced to close down permanently:

    Javelin Throwers
    Halfmen longbows
    Verdis Elementum Hoplites
    Paisly Phalanx


Workshop Damage   (15 hours, 49 minutes ago)
Due to unpaid maintenance costs, your workshops have all suffered approximately 100% damage. In addition, the following workshops have suffered so much damage they were forced to close down permanently:

    1 of your Healers, leaving you with none.
    1 of your Banners, leaving you with none.
    1 of your Caravans, leaving you with none.
    1 of your repair, leaving you with none.
    1 of your trade, leaving you with none.
    1 of your games, leaving you with none.


Militia Disbanded   (15 hours, 49 minutes ago)
The following militia unit left in disgust after not being paid what they were owed:

    Stormguard
    Wolverines
    Ducal Spearmen

All this, despite the messages saying that since it's winter they aren't as mad? All this damage was done instantly. The Verdis Elementum Hoplites, notably, were an elite 90/100/90 SF centre I believe (or pretty damn close).

As I repeatedly said, these taxes are paying for their food. And their food is paid for before everything else. It is completely unreasonable that such damage can happen so ridiculously rapidly to a realm. The tax tolerance is *way* too low during TMP, the winter exception doesn't seem to work, and it should *not* apply to realms with a ridiculous food supply. This is not going to make *any* such realms go to war, as by the time the warning comes it's too late.

I am extremely upset that because a few units failed to go kill one or two monsters abroad, everything in the capital is lost. Not all realms are large enough to have rogues spawn internally to stave off TMP. This tax mechanic is therefore way more hurtful to small realms than large realms, which is not something we should be encouraging.

And seriously, *everything* shutting down because taxes don't balance for one given week? I could have *easily* paid for all that maintenance with my pocket money. That's a completely different code than TMP, but I find it quite unreasonably unforgiving as well. Damage should be gradual, with an option to invest pocket money for repairs. Honestly, maintenance is less than 50 gold per week. All that infrastructure that was destroyed is worth thousands of gold. I have about 700 on hand, too. One week of negative balances should *not* result in this.

[Sacha]

That's what you get for not fighting, and relying too much on foreign food.

Honestly, TMP has been around for a long time, and you have plenty of opportunities to send some armies out to go kick monster ass. You have rogue lands on one end of your realm, and your other border has rogue regions very nearby. You have two allies on your doorstep who are likely enduring non-stop rogue incursions. How hard can it be to get some battle and avoid TMP altogether?