Making politics independent of cabals: Thoughts on Aabahranian politics

So the question lately since the IMP thread is deceptively simple: Outside of cabal warfare changes, what does the political landscape of Aabahran need?

My answer is simple - separation from cabals.

I don't mean to say eliminate cabal warfare, rather, have it so that cabal politics are different from Aabahran politics.

In this idea, cabals war with each other, and build bastions and garrisons on the land, but the do not own the land itself. The current model of cabal warfare should fit well into it, and I don't see many ways that an update would conflict with it. The idea of nations in Aabahran is largely left untouched, usually with cities and city-states filling as much of the void as they can. What is left is cabals - organizations (important distinction!) that have formed to advance themselves and the world at large through their set of ideals. It is an important distinction because we should remember that cabals are not nations. Logistically and logically speaking, they just couldn't function like that. Only the current notion that cabals own the land, rather than have a presence there, ties them into that void left by not having nations.

This is where players come in.

There was, for a short time, a plot between The Caomahorimainksliqgoiglksgnh and the drow, where two larger nations were forming outside the Empire, leaving us with 3 nations (I call the Empire a nation, because it is important to note that the Tribunal is not the Empire, rather only a part of it). A fourth had been forming in the east, but that plotline died down. The Caomalalgiori filled this role as a faction, and the drow filled it via RP and a series of logs and notes. But perhaps what caused that plot to slow down was the lack of anything concrete with which to represent their nations. As was mentioned in the poll, there isn't much incentive for players to get involved with politics that does not exist and/or is used more easily for short RP plots and what has now become a "point grind".   

So how do we encourage players to delve into politics?

Give them a reason to do it. Professor brought up some really wonderful ideas, and some of this is built upon those. Using RP to purchase faction rewards is a solid idea, although I suggest a different approach to faction currency: faction points. Faction points can be awarded by Imms when they see characters RPing their faction sides, i.e. the Caomaharakiogoagpjghsoirhn holding a meeting of the League of Nations. Factions also gain a passive gain, similar to earning cps and a character, based on what land they control, receiving a bonus for each city. This gain should obviously only happen while a member of the faction is online, and again obviously should increase exponentially based on how many are present, as well the ranks of the members, granting more gain for having leadership on.

Once faction points are accumulated, they can be spent on a number of things.

First, land claiming should cost faction points. The more land a faction owns, the more faction points they receive. There should be a cap to this, however that cap should exclude the faction points gained by controlling cities.

Second, they should be able to purchase a faction mob in whatever city they declare their capital. If they do not yet own a city, they obviously cannot purchase this. The faction mob can be used as a shopkeeper for the faction, selling items and services to the faction members.

Third, they should be able to spend faction points to create faction items. Again to use the Caomagoioishgomi as an example, the teal banner. However unlike how its been done so far, these faction items should not just be renamed items, however, items of their own. The faction leader would choose one equipment slot, and 2 items would be made (one for casters, one for melees), with strength equivalent of a nonrare item, available for levels 40+

Fourth, they should be able to upgrade these items progressively, albeit for an extreme amount of faction points. As the item upgrades, each new upgrade will be available in the faction shop. At the end of the upgrade cycle, it should be slightly better than a decent rare (banner of ilisidar, for example).

Fifth, they should be able to purchase faction skills. Each faction should have five skill slots, and these skills should be largely RP tools rather than PK tools. The Faction leader would discuss, then, with the imms, what they have in mind, and a balanced version would be hammered out and added to the faction. Members should get 2 skills, Elders 2 skills, and Leaders 1 skill.

Sixth, they should be able to purchase what are, effectively, faction edges. These can be anything from bonus to claim speed, bonus to city FP gains, bonus to guard and raider strength. All things to improve the effectiveness of the Faction, but not grant a significant PK edge or step on the toes of cabals.

Finally, they should be able to spend FPs to draft contracts with cabals. These contracts allow cabals to carry out their business in Faction territory with the blessing of the Faction, granting a bonus to cabal army strength in that area. In addition, these contracts allow cabals to influence Faction activities by "providing aid" in a Faction conflict at the cost of CPs. To do this, the cabal member simply goes to the area, finds a room with the warring factions (like when the Tribunal Guards fought the Caomaoignori Guards at the gates of Val Miran) and sending their troops to that room. The troops would work like they do now for attacking bastions/garrisons/patrols, and be expended along with a penalty to CPs (50-100-150), increasing in such a manner for each additional troop sent to any battle in that area). The area control would be escalated towards the beneficiary Faction proportionate to both the number of armies sent and the strength of said armies.

Part 2 incoming, will use a reply to post it, as it will delve into how the mechanics of this all would play out.

Claiming Land:

Claiming land is done by entering an area, going to the room you want to make the "central base" for your faction in that area, and using the command "Claim" (or something to that affect). Claiming land that is unclaimed should be faster, however, it will require you to construct an outpost for your faction. Anyone that has done PvP in WoW or some similar MMO might picture this process as claiming an objective in a battleground. By staying in that area for long enough, you will construct your faction's outpost, and the outpost will begin to act on it's own, spawning guards that move towards the borders of the zone. Once the borders of the zone each have at least one guard, the zone will become claimed by that faction. No more than 3 guards can exist in any one room. Once 3 guards are posted at each entrance, the faction can use FP (I would have included this above, but I just thought it up) to purchase a General at the outpost (another command, like "inspire leadership" or something). After a few days in game-time, the general will spawn in the outpost room, with 3 guards accompanying them. While the general lives, all guards receive a bonus to damage, health, armor, and saves. New guards should also spawn faster with a general present.

Like in cabal warfare, a faction can only claim land adjacent to land they already own.

To claim land already owned by another faction, the faction must assault the outpost of that land, and kill all the guards and the general. Similar again to cabals, the faction should receive an alert when they come under attack. A note should be generated when land is taken from them, to include who took it. To actually take the land, it is simply constructing your own outpost, like above. However, it should take twice as long to construct the outpost, as the inhabitants of that area still support the faction that had ruled prior (or because of guerilla tactics or whatever other reason you want to use - its just meant as a way to slow the pace down to be more consistent with how real nations would fight wars and expand borders)

Claiming cities will be discussed later.

Maintaining Land:

Once land is claimed, it must be maintained. The more land your faction owns, the more you have to pay to maintain it. This maintenance cost is designed as the counterbalance to having one faction become too dominant by owning too much land. It is not an active payment, rather similar to having a mana upkeep. If you are paying more in maintenance costs than you are making in territory gains, then your faction is collapsing economically. If your faction reaches a certain threshold of FP (determined by the size of the faction's land claim and member count), it begins to lose land. The furthest area away from your capital begins to lose faction influence (that imaginary bar mentioned in the first bit about claiming - come to think of it, might be nice to add a visual representation of that bar for each outpost, as a part of its description ((like cabal army hit points)). Once this decay happens, it will continue to happen for that area even if the faction members online at the time log out. Once all influence is lost, the guards and general abandon post, and the outpost dissipates, leaving the land open for claim once more.

**Capital City: **

A faction may declare any one city in the game, that it owns, its capital. Capitals cost nothing to maintain, and provide double the bonus to FP gains that normal cities. Declaring a city the faction's capital costs a substantial amount of FP. Should that capital be taken from them, they can declare a different city their capital, though it will cost more FP than before. Alternatively, they can choose to move their capital, however it will remove the capital bonus for several months of in-game time, and any faction mobs purchased at the previous capital must then be repurchased.

Faction Mobs:

Aside from just the quartermaster, the faction leader can spend FP on various other mobs for their capital city, as well as weaker versions for other cities in their control. They can purchase additional guards, consumable vendors (basic consumables only!), armor/weaponsmiths, and my personal favorite: spies.

Guards: Similar to city-state guards already in place. Guards can be purchased in any land owned by the faction, and are limited in number to 10 purchased guards per area, 30 purchased guards maximum per city owned.

Consumable vendors: bless, armor, detect invis, frenzy, stoneskin... you know, the basics. Cheaper here then other places in the game, but only sell to the faction members. Capital vendors also sell black leaves.

Smiths: sell basic armor found in the game, as well as the faction equipment listed above. Only sell to, and buy from, faction members. Only smiths in the capital sell faction equipment.

Spies: can only be purchased in the capital. Faction Elders and Leaders can order spies to watch the activities of any one area. They can be positioned offensively (spying on other factions) or defensively (placed in your own territory as counter-intelligence). After a period of 3 months of game-time to establish their identities, positioned spies become active. Once active, spies will alert through faction chat any time the area they are spying on updates for a faction action (like having an outpost built, a vendor purchased, an item upgraded, a power purchased). They cannot, however, broadcast when a spy is purchased or deployed in that area. There can only be one spy per faction positioned in an area at any time. Spies increase the maintenance cost of the faction. Every month of game time, there is a chance for defensive spies to capture any offensive spies in their area. After a 3 month period of interrogation, the captured spy can be slain or released, at the discretion of the capturing faction. At that time, a note is generated for the capturing faction detailing the results (they will know which faction the captured spy belonged to). At the same time, the faction who sent the spy will receive a note that they have lost contact with their spy. Offensive spies cannot find, capture, or kill defensive spies.

Rebellion:

If a new faction is created, and land is not available for claim, they can instead choose to incite a rebellion. To succeed in the rebellion, they must kill all the guards and the general, and raise the influence of the area entirely into their favor, similar to capturing land. However, they cannot incite a rebellion inside a faction capital. If the rebellion fails, they receive a penalty to FP, and cannot attempt to incite a rebellion against the same faction for another year of in-game time.

Alliances, Treaties, and War:

Factions may go to war with each other as they please, make alliances as they please, and sign treaties as they please. Only leaders may declare any of these actions, however members and elders can elect to have skirmishes with any they choose. The difference, is that the faction guards will attack any members of warring factions on sight. Alliances provide a bonus to FP gain, but require mutual warring for both sides. Treaties can be used to end wars or escalations by functioning similar to how bartering works. One faction approaches another and offers an exchange of some sort in return for peace. Payments and trades can include land trades, land seizures, FP seizures, and FP gain tolls (Faction A pays Faction B a portion of their FP gains every in-game day).

this is EXACTLY the sort of thing I wanted to come from my post. 

I LOVE all the points you made and find the concepts really exciting. what I think is exceptional? we've crossed that divide between PK & RP. if a player prefers a more 'action packed' experience they can go to war with warring cabals... while the more rp oriented players can focus on creating their own faction or joining one that already has a foothold. if they want both, then they can join a cabal and a faction!

the only 'issue' I'm having with the idea is how it blurs the line between Nobility/Royalty. (concepts that I really like in FL and don't want to lose, but they really need a rework) a lot of the ideas you've proposed fall under the heading of Noble/Royal status. (I could swear J.Twendrist and I discussed several points you've made, but for Nobles and Royals)

I remember the ol' Royal cabal that was eventually swallowed up by the Tribunal for a sub-cabal... maybe political factions could be created in regards to specific cities/towns/holds and through that they work toward claiming land, gaining Noble/Royal status, etc...? also, some factions might not be so politically heavy... somethin' like the Breakers?

really, I just want to know how you would fit Royal and Noble into this idea. an idea that I really like. 

(some people might not understand that addressing an issue with a concept/idea can be done while not arguing against it, but actually supporting it! I know you get me, Enethier! )

Nobility could function as Elders, and Royalty could function as Leaders, in this regard.

In chat, F0xx brought up another interesting avenue, in that perhaps the "faction powers" thing is a little too similar to cabals. Perhaps instead of faction powers and items being separate, they should be bundled as "faction perks" with a limit to how many perks can be bought in total, as well as in their groupings (like no more than 5 powers).

I brought more than that.

My main issue with the suggestion is that we already have ALL of that. This suggestion simply wraps it all a bit differently, but essentially keeps everything the same, while creating a ton of work for our coders.

My personal opinion is that a low of these are excellent, but I don't see why they can't be added in to existing canals. Certainly cabals are warlike, but all organizations interested in accruing power are drawn to armed conflict. It's part of the system. If we change cabals to give them more political clout, opening avenues than there isn't reason why a cabal can't have a number of fighters and politicians.

I rember before being immed, Zhokril let me in to Savant despite an abysmal PK record because I had a skill he wanted - writing tomes. This sort of thinking would be integral in future cabal interactions if we adjusted how they work. In that fashion I don't think iy's necessary to separate the worlds in to two spheres when we can effectively join them.

Well, and large parts of that, Volg will already come in with the Herald changes so...

I think in my mind what separates cabals from actual nations is that cabals don't do much in terms of governance. It seems they are always more inclined to just take land and kill members of enemy cabals. Part of that might be because their politics are so dry. The cabals are used as PK boosts, and politics are generally slighted towards how that will help the characters involved with their PK game. That is what makes me feel like Aabahran's politics don't mesh well with cabals. Even in RP, there aren't really many ways for most of the cabals to fill the roles of nations, outside of Knight and Tribunal to an extent.

I think in my mind what separates cabals from actual nations is that cabals don't do much in terms of governance.

That's true because:

1. They don't have the tools needed.

2. They are run by immortals.

Fix those two venues and they will become what you want them to be.

Since there are already resource nodes out there in the wild for the newly revamped Bards, why not take it to the next step?

Assign areas certain resources (ore, wood, food, gems, souls, whatever) and have it so the factions REQUIRE THEM TO WAGE WARFARE AND USE THEIR ABILITIES.

Unharmable (to Players) mobs would then have to physically go to the node after taking an area, harvest the resource, then get it back to the Cabal HQ. There is code in the game now for when someone dies a ghost spawns and walks back to their temple so I'm guessing it's possible. The army movement system seems to work similar to what I am proposing.

This would also make TRADE way more viable as a diplomatic option, and EMBARGO would always be fun to threaten people with.

Different areas could have different resources, and control of those resources could dictate a lot, yes...