This was just being discussed idly on the IRC, and it seems like it would be nice in theory.

Village revolts are far too rare now (even the ones that belong to despotic governments.) When they do revolt they don't last longer than a couple of hours at best.

This is kind of pointless. Suggestion: revamp. Villages don't belong to anyone. They have a given amount of power and comms to tithe, and this is influenced away by influence skills in the neutral regions by whatever skills. So if I influence a furrikin farmer successfully, I steal basically 1% of the total fruit tithe (and some power) from the pool to go to Serenwilde. They could either reset in the normal way, or someone (from another organisation, to try and limit abuse from influencing the same mob a billion times for the experience) would have to influence them with paranoia and then influence them with their own skill to steal the tithe back. That way, influence is ongoing rather than burst (whoever has the most people in the one hour every week or whatever a village revolts wins), it has more of an effect and enables the people who prefer influence to combat to do something more helpful - unlike in the current system. Combat could probably use other outlets, but the influence system for villages is just kind of bad, so it could use a change like this to fix that problem.

Obviously government things would have to be changed too, but they're kind of static anyway.

Thoughts?

A very intriguing idea. I like it, mostly, there is only one thing I would question... if it is an ongoing thing, and there is no longer the option of putting guards/discretionary powers up in a village - then I suspect the Avenger is going to get a real workout.

I'm going to try and stop Magnagorans/Glommies influencing in Estelbar, and there's no reason those efforts wouldn't turn violent. If an organization has enough of a military force, and is quick and observant enough, they could dominate quite substantially.

Maybe, unless I'm not understanding right.

Thats the idea - you don't "own" a village, so you don't get to just enemy people you don't want in the village. It lets the little village quests (eg hemp farmers, furrikin farmer) be open to novices and means only those who are enemied to the village aren't covered by the avenger.

The whole point behind this idea is that you need to actively maintain the villages in order to keep them - so you won't end up (hopefully!) with one group owning the basin. They'd be spread too thin having to defend things as they can't rely on guards and distortion fields.

Avechna exists to cut back on the PK - you can /still/ use Debating to take out those who come in to do stuff.

Anyway. The whole point behind this is to promote low-level, ongoing conflict. Influence skill will suddenly matter. Planning will matter. Quick trips in when the other team isn't looking will matter. Politics will matter - negotiations on not trying to take a village will suddenly actually be doable and be much, much more fluid. It won't boil down to who is around when the damned village comes up for influencing and then the losing side(s) muttering about it not appearing for two months. It'd give people stuff to DO but not so much as to tire people out like village influencing used to... i hope.

Edit: it.

I'm working on the premise that villages would require an active city/commune to take the village and then keep the village. It would become increasingly more difficult to hold onto more villages as I dont believe any one organisation has the manpower to constantly monitor and defend more than half the villages in the basin.

The other premise is that it gives cities/communes something to plan for, something to work towards without the stupid timeframes and unpredictability that the current system gives. You could plan a raid in a week to take a village and try to hold it, but you might end up losing another village in the process. I think of it as a game of chess played in timeframes of days, rather than 2 months between frantic exchanges of moves (which is how village influencing happens now.)

I could be wrong, one organisation COULD do it. I'm expecting bloodshed to begin with until people start getting peaced by Avechna for killing influencers in villagers.

Really, this realm needs something to keep people interested as it really does feel stagnant. I don't feel that there'll be any big changes soon that are actually under our control - the majority is village politics and that really does boil down to when people are around and if you have enough influencers. I don't like it at all.

I dont like this idea i only think that village revols should be more often but dont take more then 3-5 hours to influence.

1-2 villages revolt per week would be good i think.

Yeah, but we tried that and people didn't like it, so when Morik came up with this one I thought it would be an alternate route, because it's just pointless right now.

One-two revolts a week, two-three hours an influence.

And wildnodes change time. So some people can actually play.

Dude, it's Sunday evening for you. 8 PM? You should be so able to play.

My parents are on at about that time. I get up 4 hours later.

Anyway, that's not the point here.

I actually really like this idea.

You get a certain % of the village commodities/power based on who you have influenced towards your city.

There'd be some new city influence skills to turn a target neutral, then when they've 'reset' after that influence period, you can go back and influence them to your city (Assuming someone doesn't get there first).

Influencers would suddenly be just as (If not, more) valuable than combatants.

The only thing I see with this is that it would have to remove the restriction on influencing other mining villages, if you hold Angkrag - because Angkrag (Already difficult to defend properly all the time) would become impossible to keep populated with miners.

However, it could still be more effective - the more people you have influenced in Acknor, for example, the more difficult it is for you to influence in Estelbar.

On the other hand, it would also allow for "friendly" villages. Delport and Dairuchi, for example, could be quite friendly - Dairuchi produces a lot of silk, whereas Delport produces plenty of food. Dairuchi likes to eat, and Delport likes to look purdy. The more you have influenced in one of those villages, the easier it is in the other. "The friends of our friends" and all that rot.

Implement!

Hmm.. it needs a few tweaks, I think, but I kind of like the idea. It also opens up the 'competition quests' like the furrikin farmers vs Acknor. It won't realy open up PK, thanks to Avechna (massive PKer jumps in and kills everyone once, suddenly they can wander around doing the quest without harm from them for 30 RL days), but it WILL open up conflict and provide ALOT of options to becoming powerful:

Influencing villagers to make the city loyal to you.

Doing anti-village quests (like stealing furrikins) from villages that are very loyal to a rival.

Flat out killing villagers to weaken the village (though it should make the village less loyal to your org, as well as enemying you to the village: only viable if you have NO plans on claiming the village).

and all this without spending 5 hours to plan out an all-crasy raid. Demesnes can help those nations that REALY want to claim a village for themselves (I can see Estelbar always forested, for example).

Also, if the village is suitibly loyal ot one group, there can be an extra benifit. Perhaps if it's VERY loyal then ALL power/comms go to that village, similar to how much is given now for owning a village. The trick is that you still can't put up guards/statues, thus allowing people to come in and influence the village away from you.

Gives the whole thing more 'flow' and de-emphisizes defense. I definatly like.

The PK stays with the PK village quests: eg miner raiding. By raiding for miners, you are enemied to the village. By being enemied to the village you're considered open PK in the village and thus Avechna no protect-y you.

If you don't like it: amnesty. Just like happens now, but it'd give you more of a reason to try and get properly unenemied to a place.

Bad idea. Bad idea. Old-school Faethorn, anybody?

I'm not crazy about the idea. Nothing like all 4 orgs fighting over all the villages at the same time. It would also have to be a constant thing: no one would be able to do anything but influence, otherwise you're not going to get anything for your city. Commodity quests would also be rather futile, unless we're going to start getting 10% of a commodity if you don't have all the villagers. Bumping up the rebellion rate would be nice. Maybe once every 10 days or so.

I absolutely abhor this idea. The entire reason I like village influencing so much is that it begins and it ends. Both of these events are clearly identified. It is a battle, not a 24/7 war/raid. All fights should have a set beginning, middle, and end, or they become monotonus and frustating.

Village revolts do not happen often enough, this is true. On average, two happen every OOC week. The reason it has been so long since the last revolt is that Serenwilde swayed most of the villages, and communes hold the villages the longest. That and the timing was just bad. There will be five revolts in a single week starting about a week from now because of the way the timing worked out. I actually want Celest to get some villages this time, since Celest's villages revolt nearly twice as fast as Serenwilde villages

Revolts should just happen a bit more often, or the revolts should last longer. Or both. I would love it if revolts happened three times a week on average, instead of twice a week, or if revolts lasted 4-5 hours instead 1-2 on average.

I first thought of that but I don't think it'll turn out that way:

Killing needs not be done in any of the villages and Avechna is watching the area. The result is that hyperguarding (The reason why Faethorn was so annoying) is useless: Once you kill a person, you can't kill them again unless you want to get vengeanced. Eventualy, even turning the demesne on is a dangerous situation, since all a victim needs to do is walk in, get hit, walk out and run to the Peak.

Add that to the fact that no one is deeply, DEEPLY fanatical about any of the villages like how Serenwilde was over the Fae, and you should have alot less defense put into a village. The best way to deal with an 'influence raid' is to either debate or to just counter-influence.

Add in the fact that there's so many villages and you have the impossibility of defending them all this way. Jeesh, Celest/Mag only have the Inner Sea/SoD to watch over AND the power of enemy status and STILL I can raid the enemy if I'm quick and lucky (I even brought a few novices over once without an incident. Imagine Glomdoring bringing novices into Faethorn).

At best it'll start out for a few weeks as a major fistfight, especialy over villages like Estelbar. After a while it should calm down and a novice will be able to go in and out without fearing too much. You may have a nation 'claiming' a village and going all Faethornish about it, but Avechna will tone it down and putting THAT much effort into a village with no autodefend against people not enemied to the land will mean you get 1 village owned and nothing else.

What makes 'Faethorn' type areas are areas that are easy to defend (1 archway in, PK open, one small area, ext), and hard to alter (took a ton of fae to convert and no one counterraiding you, all in enemy territory just to have a real affect). From how it looks, the cosmic plane is similar unless you have a fulcrux.

Look at the Sea battle for comparison. It's HARD to defend with all of the territory involved and the lack of Statues/guards, alot of the quest is done in your own territory, and it's darn well easy to change over (given how one month the Ship of the Dead could be sailing and next month Marly is singing to Old Celest). Note that the Sea battle has it's complaints but overall people are content with it (in comparison to old Faethorn especially)

So now take 9 villages (if I'm counting right) all in prime without guards/statues, all alterable by quick Influencing runs and comm quests without acquiring enemy status, and no passive messages to warn people that it's happening.

It'll work. ONLY problem I see is that it'll be a to code.

And that is why it'd be stupidly boring, and it would utterly remove what I personally see as the best and most unique part of Lusternia.

We don't need intricate solutions like this or villages becoming permanent warzones (because that is what will happen), just make them revolt more often.

Wait, first we were complaining that they revolted too much. Now we're complaining they revolt too little? Make up your minds!

I've never complained they revolted too much. I just don't think they should be in a state of permanent revolt - that would be dumb, in my eyes.