In the games of Civilization, there is something called "influence." The more really cool statues and temples and cultural things you build, the greater your culture looks to others and the further the reach of your culture extends. To the point that you can surround a foreign city with your own cities until they decide to join you of their own accord. No fighting necessary.
We will soon be entering a stage of BattleMaster's history when we will have "Hinterlands" or something like that, all part of a nation without having a lord. And they won't count against the noble limit so recently imposed. They will be easier to conquer and all that, but taking them will still be an act of war.
What if we had..."influence" poring out of every realm that would encourage non-aligned regions to join nearby realms as "hinterlands" on their own? No massive takeover armies needed. Oh...still useful and something that happens of course. But in addition to that. Every region keeps stats of what they think about nations. Maybe they gravitate towards joining the nations they like the most? Modified by distance and stuff like of course. They'd be less likely to join a nation that recently looted them for instance. And having courtiers do work in that area would stabilize their control so they wouldn't flip easily. But what would you think of an idea like that?
Every single building we build in a region could increase the cultural influence of that region. Granaries would show that we care about feeding people. Training centers would should we care about physical security. Temples and shrines would show we care about their spiritual security. Imagine every single building in a region added together to give it a cultural influence rating that could increase or decrease a nearby region's willingness to join or be part of a nation.
It would give nobles another reason to invest in their region.
And it would provide an interesting new dynamic to the game. Another way for players to compete with each other. Imagine the competition for capitals over who has the most influence over nearby areas. Another stat for empires to measure against others. A crowing point that would factor in everything built up in a nation.
Imagine if winning battles increased your cultural influence. Or losing battles reduced it. Maybe even something as simple as having adventurers wandering around and hunting monsters and undead could give that influence score a boost. People would talk about the rumors of battles in the distance, or the adventurer who walked out of the nearby capital to save little Suzie from that band of undead that used to be her family. Of course they'd also remember that some rich noble came by and stole all their gold and killed off that entire village over by the river crossing. They would remember the festival that took place a week ago. And the jousting and swordsmanship competition that brought nobles from across the continent a month ago. And EVERYBODY remembers the name of the noble who won that competition, and the realm he went home to.
Everything members of our realm did would increase or decrease the cultural influence of a nation. Everything we built would influence it. Distance would influence it. Who cares about the capital a thousand miles away? But everybody cares about the big city a hundred miles away full of market places, training centers, and home to the giant temple that little Suzie's mother and father got married in.
Now this may not be easy to code at all. But I put this out for discussion here to see what other players thought of the idea.
Would something like this be fun for you all to play with in this game?
I know I personally LOVED playing that game in Civilization. And I think it would make for a very cool competition between players that wouldn't include going out and trying to bash each other's virtual skulls in.
What do you think?
