Title: Region-specific commodities (RSCs)
à la Bloodmoon fruit for Asylon
Summary: Endow regions with their own natural resources/commodities. They wouldn't be
vital to the regions the way food and gold are, but they'd add some colour to the game and might offer some marginal benefits. They could be incorporated into the local culture (e.g. bloodmoon fruit in Asylon) and traded with other regions or realms. Different commodities might vary in their uniqueness, e.g. some might be available in several regions, while some might be specific to 1 or 2 regions, like how real champagne can only come from the Champagne region but Coca-Cola is everywhere, and diamonds are in a handful of regions (
you don't need to parse this analogy, it's just an example!). Shrewd realms might use their commodities to gain diplomatic leverage, or as a pretext for war.
Details: First, let me say that I know this is complex and will take a lot of time and discussion to conceptualize and implement. It's very ambitious,
I know. BattleMaster was also an ambitious plan that only existed in Tom's head, so I see no reason not to dream big. It should not be such a big part of the game that it takes away from the existing game. So trading RSCs should not be vital for survival, but they should offer enough tangible benefit to make them
desirable. Some possible scenarios:
- Astrum wants Snake Oil from Farronite for some religious purpose, and Farronite decides to stop selling to Astrum, so Astrum starts a holy war against Farronite.
- Asylon wants 5000 units of Fertilizer from Terran to increase crop production, and Terran wants 1000 Bearskin Jackets from Asylon to keep their soldiers warm while fighting Niselur in the freezing tundra, so they barter an exchange.
- Luria Nova buys Nitrogen from Zuma and Manure from Realm B, and uses it to make Fertilizer, which Luria then sells to Realm D.
- Darka wants Precious Metal from Lyonesse to marginally (~2%) increase their Weapons/Armour (as I said, the benefits should be marginal yet tangible) so Lyonesse sells it to them for a good price, because Darka could just take it if they wanted to.
- England buys Spices from India and Wine from New Zealand to increase morale (yeah I ran out of names
)
Benefits:
You can't always be at war, and peace is boring, so it's good to have something else to keep the game interesting.
There's potentially something in this for everyone, including the non-warrior classes, i.e. priests, traders, diplomats, courtiers, maybe even infiltrators (although they have enough fun already!). The RP possibilities are endless.
Possible exploits: Tons.
