I truly appreciate the discussion around this topic. I'm not sure that some kind of welfare system would be helpful IC, as that just reinforces the crappy lot of the new knight. I'd also like to second the comment made above that truly new players have no idea that 10% is a crappy oath - you have to dig pretty deep (for a new character especially) to figure out how much that will actually make you. And, if all of the offers you receive are low-balls, you would naturally assume that that's the way things are.
One suggestion might be to let ruler's set an oath % floor for their realm. Obviously, it should probably be done in a way so that the different types of regions can each be adjusted to have a different floor, otherwise the gold-rich cities would make it unwise for even the most benevolent rulers to get involved if it was a blanket adjust. Done properly though, this could be an effective way to advertise for realms, and let rulers make a statement about their realm's treatment of knights. Any thoughts?
