FEI POWER RANKINGS

[Bedwyr]

3. Diplomatic Score: The most subjective stat. Will basically be an opinion based on the scorer taking the diplomatic situation of the realm and continent into consideration. Score on levels from 1-5.

If I may...All the rest are fairly hard numbers, but this one is much harder, and I would posit different numbers than you put.  I'd say Zonasa, Kindara, and Aenilia are all 4's, Cathay and Ohnar West are 3's, Arcaea is a 2, and C'thonia and Arcachon are 1's.  The first three have real alliances that actually work, the next two have paper alliances with each other and Arcaea that are much weaker, Arcaea has a reasonable one with OW and a terrible one with Cathay in addition to being the glaring target, and C'thonia and Arcachon have both been effectively isolated from all outside help.

Geography is also important, but I'd argue that it has to be correlated with diplomatic status.  I.e. to attack Zonasa without going through a good ally, you have to go through a city, a fortress, or some mountains.  Not fun at all.

[Morningstar]

Average Region Conditions should also be considered. Who's in a better position? A realm with 2 cities and 2 other regions that are all well maintained and well fed or a realm with 2 cities, a stronghold, 3+ other regions, and half are starving or about to go rogue?

[Bedwyr]

Depends.  OW's regions are in crap shape right now, but they're also not at war with anyone or likely to be at war with anyone who can take advantage of that.

Also, Heq, can you double-check?  It works fine on the dev server, and the guy who coded it confirms that it's supposed to work over sea routes.  I did notice when I was doing my checking that the button did not appear after you clicked the region to travel to, so you had to go to the Travel page again where it appeared and worked fine.

If it's still not working, then we have ourselves a gen-u-ine bug.

[Morningstar]

Depends.  OW's regions are in crap shape right now, but they're also not at war with anyone or likely to be at war with anyone who can take advantage of that.

That's the primary reason Aenilia pulled out of the war. Regions were crap and going rogue and everyone was starving. Easier to deal with when you're not fighting a war.

[Bedwyr]

Which is pretty much exactly what Jenred was hoping for.  Yes, taking more land would have been nice, but that would have been a bonus, and far outweighed by the gains in the factional politics of Kindara and Cathay by being eminently reasonable.

[Velax]

That's the primary reason Aenilia pulled out of the war. Regions were crap and going rogue and everyone was starving. Easier to deal with when you're not fighting a war.

Well, I'd say the primary reason was because you were having your asses handed to you constantly, your allies weren't strong enough to defend you anymore and were, in fact, threatening rather extreme measures if you didn't come to the peace table. If your regions were going rogue, it was because Arcaea was making them go rogue.

[Huntsmaster]

If your regions were going rogue, it was because Arcaea was making them go rogue.

Not a whole lotta Arcaean action in Iposez.

[Velax]

We captured the duchess, causing her to lose her position, and you for whatever reason failed to appoint another one. And our attacks likely prevented you from going to aid the region when it showed signs of going rogue. Not to mention we prevented you from retaking it until the peace was signed.

Seriously, though, let's not start this, "We totally could have kept fighting if not for our regions" bull!@#$. You want to say that IC, fine, but don't pull that crap OOC. You lost that war, badly, and it was not because your regions were independently going rogue. It's only because Jenred wanted to look reasonable, and because Ohnar is a terrible military ally, that you didn't lose the territory you should have.

[Heq]

Only One Dutchess?

Pshaw, Ohnar West lost, what, three Dukes and a Prime Minister and they still kept taking a beating like a champ.  I'll give the delay arrival feature on seaways a test-drive again, and I'll keep things posted.

It really isn't feature anyone else used, so I always assumed it was deliberately coded that way.  It may have just been acting wonky those two times, because I haven't checked it since.

[Huntsmaster]

We captured the duchess, causing her to lose her position, and you for whatever reason failed to appoint another one. And our attacks likely prevented you from going to aid the region when it showed signs of going rogue. Not to mention we prevented you from retaking it until the peace was signed.

Seriously, though, let's not start this, "We totally could have kept fighting if not for our regions" bull!@#$. You want to say that IC, fine, but don't pull that crap OOC. You lost that war, badly, and it was not because your regions were independently going rogue. It's only because Jenred wanted to look reasonable, and because Ohnar is a terrible military ally, that you didn't lose the territory you should have.

/shrug

I wasn't there for any of the last battles, as I paused my char there believing that the bug preventing me from playing all of my characters would be resolved quickly. It hasn't been, and so I'm still paused in Aenilia. That said, Iposez had nothing to do with you capturing anyone, and Arcaea at the time was engaged in a staring contest over Ornaz. It went rogue because King Guy took a week to appoint a new lord after he was "promoted". Anything after that I have no idea about, although if you want to compare military allies we could talk about Zonasa's "assault" on Talex.

Getting back on topic, I'd rate Arcaea's "diplomacy" score more highly as long as Jenred remains alive, as well as point out that the geography scores that Vellos proposed wouldn't really change anything in Perth's rankings.

[Nathan]

Getting back on topic, I'd rate Arcaea's "diplomacy" score more highly as long as Jenred remains alive

Agreed, Arcaea really need a risk modifier in there for Jenred. If he ever disappeared, it wouldn't surprise me if they fell into disarray for a while. The only person I can see replacing him (as an outsider) is Maurus Barek and even then he wouldn't have all the weight of Jenred.

[Morningstar]

We captured the duchess, causing her to lose her position, and you for whatever reason failed to appoint another one. And our attacks likely prevented you from going to aid the region when it showed signs of going rogue. Not to mention we prevented you from retaking it until the peace was signed.

Seriously, though, let's not start this, "We totally could have kept fighting if not for our regions" bull!@#$. You want to say that IC, fine, but don't pull that crap OOC. You lost that war, badly, and it was not because your regions were independently going rogue. It's only because Jenred wanted to look reasonable, and because Ohnar is a terrible military ally, that you didn't lose the territory you should have.

Nobody's making IC arguments, and nobody's claiming "we could have kept fighting".  Same can be said for your pushy arrogance on here- is that IC or OOC? Same comparison can be made for Zonasa as you made with Ohnar.  Had Zonasa (and Kindara, for that matter) moved decisively and together with us, and our own nobles actually cared enough to leave the capital, Talex and Larmebsi really were easy picking. Especially after Ohnar threw in the towel before we did, guaranteeing Cathay kept well away.  Ask Jenred how many conversations we had on the side- both threatening, postulating, and negotiating. I even contacted Brian in Cathay hoping to fend off any push they might be making.

Truth is, Aenilia pulled out because someone (read: me) stepped up and said fighting a war we can't win, expecting our allies to save us, ignoring our own regions, and having at best 5 active nobles fielding units at any given time was a horrible idea.  Its nobles (largely, anyway) are lazy and apathetic and the only time you hear them talk is if someone tells them to do something they don't want to do.  When I arrived, its council collectively said 1 thing IC for the first 3 weeks I was there.  Banker autopaused. Ruler quit. General finally just stepped down.  Guy du (former Duke of Ipsosez) hadn't been back to the stronghold in a few weeks (wartime got us there), then got elected as King and never appointed anyone to replace him or in Ornaz.  Both regions revolt on the same turn, Nahad is sacked, Arella protests against the entire world or something, and then things get settled on the diplomatic end.

I won't say we didn't get our asses handed to us. That was going on long before I came back and was still part of the realm's nature even at treaty time.  But don't tell me regions (outside of Ornaz) went rogue or were starving because of anything except piss poor management by the ruler/banker/regional lords. Go toot your own horn IC- it's acceptable there. 

[Bedwyr]

Bah, enough arguing about the war, already.  I love me some good posturing in-game, but here it's just annoying.

Regarding Jenred and diplomacy: Yes, he adds a fair bit to Arcaea's diplomacy score while at the same time being a major risk factor if anything happens to him.  That said, I could probably name one person in every other realm on the continent where if they disappeared the dynamics of the realm would change drastically.  If Jenred got taken out in the short term, there would be no difficulties.  Edara can serve as a figurehead for long enough for him to recover from whatever it is, and Velax is more than capable of keeping things running in the interim.

If you want to factor longer term power (read, next...Six months to a year) into account, of course, that's another story entirely, and Jenred's personal influence on the power rankings shoots way, way up.

[Velax]

Sorry, Bedwyr. I'm too easily annoyed to let things go.

But you're right about the duchess of Ipsosez, Morningstar. It was a different duchess that was captured. But my "pushy arrogance" tends to result from someone trying to pull a WWI Germany and make out as if their loss was due to anything but a complete and utter defeat by their enemy. Aside from Ornaz, you lost Ahael (which Cathay took because you were busy being attacked by us) and we damaged Erahol, Zolon and Nahad. Enough to drive them rogue? No. But we damaged them enough. It was our entire strategy to damage your regions and starve you. It worked. You having crappy leadership and inactive nobles doesn't lessen that fact.

And Velax will happily burn Zonasa to the ground first chance he gets, but they are the only reason Aenilia still exists. I'd show a bit more gratitude if I were you. How you can insult a realm that regularly (six, seven times? More?) sent their entire mobile force, 10,000 - 13,000 CS, to defend your lands baffles me. During the entire course of the war, no other ally, of anyone, was as steadfast and reliable as Zonasa. Without them propping you up, Idapur would have been flying an Arcaean flag within two months of the outbreak of war. If you're reflective of the general Aenilian attitude toward Zonasa, they should have left you to get obliterated.

[Heq]

Yeah, I don't know if tying in Jenred is really that big a "Arcaea" flaw.  While there are some realms (Zonasa and Kindara), which can just rotate with whomever, and some who just can't seem to work no matter what (Aenelia, C'thonia, Ohnar West), the "military" realms are all very reliant on their leadership and of those three realms, Arcaea is the most stable.  We've seen Cathay without Brian, Arcachon has two viable succesors, one of whom does want it as the player doesn't have the time, and the other has family feuds with with a whole mess of powerful people.

We all know who should be the successor in Arcaea and that's Sundar, because he is awesome.