Looting System Details

[Indirik]

There has been some confusion over the details of the new looting system. Here is a summary of the changes that were implemented last month.

- Replaced some of the existing looting options with more clearly targeted ones
- Added the "terror" mechanic to cause production to drop precipitously in the short term with enough systematic looting (peasants stay home in fear)
- Terror fades pretty quickly, and people go back to work
- Changed the effectiveness of looting to be based on population density and how many peasants a given group of soldiers can realistically (?) cover in the given amount of time
- Removed the "kill, rape, burn" option, and moved the possibility of rape to almost all looting options, with the "strict/normal/lenient" selector allowing you to either prevent it entirely (with "strict") or make it more likely (with "lenient")
- Changed stealing food and gold to often steal directly from peasants, not from the tax office or the granary. These thefts will not be reflected in the next tax or the ability of the region to feed its people, but will upset the peasants much more than when you steal from what's already been collected. (There are also safeguards in place to ensure that it doesn't become an infinite gold/food source.)
- Changed the spawning of peasant mobs so that (ideally) it is less common, no longer pointless, and, when it happens, much more threatening.
- The entirety of the Looting Overhaul is expected to need tweaking and balancing over time, as it is a complete ground-up rewrite, and there was no realistic way to thoroughly test it before sending it live.

Please provide any feedback you may have in the Helpline forum and report any bugs on the Bugtracker if bugs are confirmed.