Nation Management, Open Land And Dynamic Borders

[Danny 2232]

Howdy folks,

 

Today we’re going to be giving you the lowdown on the new way that we’re working nations on the Lord of the Craft. Yup - this isn't us planning to do something, this is us actually doing something - and it's already begun. This new system of nation management is being introduced in order:

• to make the Realm of Anthos dynamic - previously, how many players a nation had, didn’t actually influence the world much at all. They still had huge amounts of land, much of it unoccupied, and it really didn’t work. Now, things are different. It’s a step forward (much like my proposal for side-story events in the Your View forum), which makes it so the playerbase’s actions actually does have a direct impact on the world.
• to aid Nation growth - this system encourages Nation Leaders - and members of the Nations - to improve their nation, and to make their nation appealing, and in turn to allow it to grow.
• to improve roleplay - the new system allows us to ensure that every nation remains unique, exciting and diverse from the other nations. It also means that we can ensure that the roleplay in these nations is at the highest level possible.
• to open up land for the regular player - this acts as both a nation management system, and a land-use management system. Our promises of free land back when developing Anthos are coming true.

 

So, what actually does this system do?

The new system introduces a new ‘population = land size’ system. If a nation has - as an example - 50 players, then it will have less regioned and controlled land than one with 250 players. This is only common sense, however is something we’ve failed to actually introduce in the past. It doesn’t make sense for a tiny nation to be able to control as much land as a giant one - they wouldn’t have the men, power or resources to do so. So, what we’re doing - and what we’ve actually already done with two nations - is, if a nation has a small number of players, the amount of land they have control over is reduced. We’ll of course do this to reasonable levels. It is possible that we may actually begin work on a plugin to deal with this, as was previously planned - but that’s not definite yet.

 

The land that they no longer have control over, then does two things:

becomes free-build

remains regioned, without that nation having control

 

The way in which the nation then regains control of that land, is via increasing it’s population. How does it do this? It makes itself more appealing - it runs events, it makes forum threads, forum posts about events that were RP’d in-game - it makes itself look like the best nation to join. If they don’t do that, then they obviously can’t control the land they lost control of. However, if they do do that, then the land will be returned to their control - however, it will not be regioned again. Of course, we aren’t going to force people to take control of land again - if they chose to not control it, then it will remain uncontrolled, or another nation could obtain it via diplomacy or war.

 

In instances where land was at one point regioned, but was unregioned due to a nation not being able to control it, the land does remain unregioned, however, the nation is in ‘rp-control’ of it. This means that they have the authority to dictate who resides there, who settles there, what happens on it. So whilst, yes, you can still go and build yourself a house in the orcish deserts - if they regain control of that land, they have the power to decide whether you’ll stay there or not.

 

But, how exactly does this benefit the general playerbase?

• It resolves the issues that we’ve previously faced, with almost all the land being regioned. 
• It means we have a systematic method through which we can ensure everyone has available land to build on, but to also ensure that nations remain vitally important, and that the essential areas are protected.
• It provides much more depth to the roleplay you’ll be able to see in nations. If you previously didn’t visit a nation much, maybe you’ll end up doing so now, as they could be running a festival, having a carnival or simply having a little party. The arrival of more events, run by nations, means that you won't be relying on the antagonist (which is still being introduced) for all of your savoury events - instead, you’ll be able to enjoy some peaceful and joyful events.

 

In addition to this new system, we’re also attaching a Lore Master and a GM to each Nation Leader to provide a vital communication link between them and the staff, which we previously lacked. Do remember, these GMs and LMs are not for the nation. They aren’t pocket staff - they aren’t the go-to-guys for your regioning, or chest/door unlocking in that nation - you still make ModReqs for that. They’re there to provide a link between the Nation Leader and their respective staff teams, just that. They still will work on the usual GM work, of course.

 

You may recall the ‘Nations’ plugin that we had some small work done on back in Asulon. This takes some of the same aspects from that. The nations plugin aimed to ensure that nations only had power appropriate to their playerbase - this is essentially that, however, done manually to allow us to be less restrictive and firm on it, but instead to tailor the system to fit each nation.

 

Many of you will also recall the promises we made around a month ago, here. This is how we’re fulfilling two of those promises:

• the unregioning of Anthos - in a slightly less major way than we had originally planned
• the focusing of roleplay on capitals - this system will mean that Nation Leaders will make their capitals exciting, and be running events in them, spreading the RP away from the current locations to where it should be.

 

We’ve already applied this system to two nations - the orcs, and the elves. The orcs were the very first to go ahead with it and it went absolutely brilliantly. Of course, we’re not splitting up nations like we did with the orcs, only the land aspects of it. The Elves also allowed for this system to be introduced onto themselves - with Malinor become a city state, and surrendering some of it’s land to Oren - obviously, as Oren is the most populated nation - however, Oren will be making much of that land unregioned anyway, but still having control over it. Both Malinor and the Orcs are able to gain control over that land again as they grow their population. Expect to see much more exciting and entertaining events and roleplay within these nations!

 

That’s about all for now. Keep an eye out for our second year anniversary on the 21st of June, and also the newsletter to be released within the first few days of June. 

 

I’ll be around to answer questions after about an hour of this being posted - I’ve got an exam tomorrow, so need to get some revision and practice papers done! Until then, feel free to ask any questions you may have below.

 

Have a great day, and make sure you join with your nations to make the server filled with much more enjoyable, and exciting roleplay!

 

 

[Redbaron™ 690]

I like

[Bashar al-Assad 120]

I like the concept but shouldn't be more based around the strength of the administration vs. just the population size. Since larger population but poor administration would just lead to an even more unorganized society in that nation. 

[Lord of the Nublets 92]

Mesa thumbs up

[IrishPerson 693]

Ugh, not pushed on this.

[Rhia 936]

Im so excited :3

[Johnny_Steele 9]

I like the concept but shouldn't be more based around the strength of the administration vs. just the population size. Since larger population but poor administration would just lead to an even more unorganized society in that nation. 

 

 

I agree with this, however, how do you figure the number of players in a given nation? My character is a human, but is not affiliated with the Oren nation, so he obviously should not count towards their numbers despite his race.

[argonian 14254]

I'm excited about this. It makes sense for people to physically be able to build their house in a nation's land, but if the nation finds it, they can just destroy it.

[Aelu / Rel (Combustionary) 1540]

My main concern is this - How are smaller nations going to 'bounce back'? 

 

The current system provides rewards to the larger nations, and in doing so, takes them from the smaller nations. I'm all for giving people benefits for being powerful, but this could do more harm than good. A nation having a lot of land to use attracts more players, more players bring more power, which brings more land. It's a self-fulfilling loop, and the opposite is true for the smaller nations. Nation loses land, players move to places or are annexed into the larger nation, and the smaller nation loses power and so on and so forth.

 

What will be done to prevent one nation from gaining dominance?

[Danny 2232]

I agree with this, however, how do you figure the number of players in a given nation? My character is a human, but is not affiliated with the Oren nation, so he obviously should not count towards their numbers despite his race.

 

It's not based on the amount of players of the race, it's based on those who actually live, work for, or reside in a nation. So, you wouldn't count towards Oren's figures.

 

 

I like the concept but shouldn't be more based around the strength of the administration vs. just the population size. Since larger population but poor administration would just lead to an even more unorganized society in that nation. 

 

Larger population would inevitably lead to more land being obtained / used, however, the failure in administration could quite easily result in that land being lost due to it possibly pushing individuals away from that nation. We aren't taking the strength of the administration into account, as that's not something that's particularly simple to judge, nor does it reflect the amount of land that nation would have the ability to spread it's influence over, whereas population is the most appropriate thing to judge that on.

 

Let's take a look at what's happened with the orcs - it's gone just about perfectly for them. That's exactly why we trialled this before introducing it -  we now know that it works, so we know that we're able to introduce it to other nations.

 

My main concern is this - How are smaller nations going to 'bounce back'? 

 

The current system provides rewards to the larger nations, and in doing so, takes them from the smaller nations. I'm all for giving people benefits for being powerful, but this could do more harm than good. A nation having a lot of land to use attracts more players, more players bring more power, which brings more land. It's a self-fulfilling loop, and the opposite is true for the smaller nations. Nation loses land, players move to places or are annexed into the larger nation, and the smaller nation loses power and so on and so forth.

 

What will be done to prevent one nation from gaining dominance?

 

The system encourages smaller nations to encourage players to come to them. The nation having a lot of land, and a lot of players, results in it's RP being spread widely and not being as vivid. A nation with smaller land, is able to attract players as it's RP is close together and it's also pushed to make it's RP exciting and to run exciting events.

 

No nation can really gain dominance via this. The influence can't extend over the entire map - it gets kept at a reasonable distance from their capital.

[Dilara(lotteje13) 227]

intresting hope it wont turn into aegis 2.0

[bungo 3965]

I personally feel like it's not going 'perfectly' with the orcs considering there's people 'Crusading' them and gobbling up land.

[VonEbs 1224]

I would not exactly say this has been successful in either case. Malinor has experienced a serious drop in players, and Krugmar has just been invaded by humans who are taking advantage of the unregioning. I am not impressed.

[Jay Lenos 384]

Im so excited :3

[Sorsby 123]

No harsh moaning necessary here, keep in mind that changes may have to be considered in order to fine tune additions in accordance to what players want, gotta be willing to test and then adapt on the feedback. Keep up the constructive changes dudes   .