Topic: Of Buildings
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:00 pm
Compiling/suggesting ideas for new buildings rules.
Idea for more buildings to be unique; one per player. A shipyard, a muster field, a holy place, or a sacred grove. While each is associated with a class, there doesn't seem to be any particular reason to restrict ownership by class. They already are limited in level by the local holding of the appropriate type. If each player can only have one of these buildings, they're unlikely to choose one that strays far from their character concept.
Shipyards to allow shipbuilding (and naval research?), muster fields more advanced units (and army research), holy places boost their faith's rank or unlock its abilities, and sacred groves give free leylines. Ideally, this would make all these buildings prime targets for enemies of the same class!
Multi-class characters could be restricted to owning one of these four at a time, with no potential to transfer them except to an heir; but none of these buildings provide exclusive benefits, they just make life easier for a regent of the right specialty. A sufficiently powerful regent could rely on a high-level province to build ships or conduct research instead, or devote more resources to magical matters. So they don't need to be class-locked.
(If a player can only have one of these four buildings at a time, this might also make transferring or conquering them--along with holdings supporting them--reasonable. But not necessary. There could be many ways to upgrade them aside from building them up to the province level, with diminishing returns, as a way for rich players to sink money into a prestigious capital.)
Production buildings... if siege workshops, mines, academies, and laboratories also follow this pattern, but can only be operated by a character of the right class (rather than built or owned by one), this could allow any regent to produce potions, train lieutenants, or create unique units or items requiring special skills or resources, but each would only be able to specialize in one building type, so there'd be an incentive to team up. A regent might have to hire a lieutenant to manage a production building that doesn't match their own class, which could discourage straying.
Service buildings... Schools, hospitals, libraries, and granaries are available to any player, and any player might want more than one of them. So those don't need to change. There could be more synergy if holy places and sacred groves are also used for magical research, just as muster fields and shipyards are for military research. It still makes sense for these service buildings to be most useful in high-level provinces.
Palaces could just remain separate buildings, since there's no reason to combine them with other building types. Not everyone would need a court size that's matched by the size of their research facilities, or vice-versa.
The rest of the buildings could be considered 'defensive', so they could be useful for anyone anywhere... though they usually aren't. Giving these (and perhaps all other buildings) maintenance costs would help make sure they're only put where they're needed. Giving roads and bridges maintenance costs would be especially helpful for moderating the momentum of play.
Idea for more buildings to be unique; one per player. A shipyard, a muster field, a holy place, or a sacred grove. While each is associated with a class, there doesn't seem to be any particular reason to restrict ownership by class. They already are limited in level by the local holding of the appropriate type. If each player can only have one of these buildings, they're unlikely to choose one that strays far from their character concept.
Shipyards to allow shipbuilding (and naval research?), muster fields more advanced units (and army research), holy places boost their faith's rank or unlock its abilities, and sacred groves give free leylines. Ideally, this would make all these buildings prime targets for enemies of the same class!
Multi-class characters could be restricted to owning one of these four at a time, with no potential to transfer them except to an heir; but none of these buildings provide exclusive benefits, they just make life easier for a regent of the right specialty. A sufficiently powerful regent could rely on a high-level province to build ships or conduct research instead, or devote more resources to magical matters. So they don't need to be class-locked.
(If a player can only have one of these four buildings at a time, this might also make transferring or conquering them--along with holdings supporting them--reasonable. But not necessary. There could be many ways to upgrade them aside from building them up to the province level, with diminishing returns, as a way for rich players to sink money into a prestigious capital.)
Production buildings... if siege workshops, mines, academies, and laboratories also follow this pattern, but can only be operated by a character of the right class (rather than built or owned by one), this could allow any regent to produce potions, train lieutenants, or create unique units or items requiring special skills or resources, but each would only be able to specialize in one building type, so there'd be an incentive to team up. A regent might have to hire a lieutenant to manage a production building that doesn't match their own class, which could discourage straying.
Service buildings... Schools, hospitals, libraries, and granaries are available to any player, and any player might want more than one of them. So those don't need to change. There could be more synergy if holy places and sacred groves are also used for magical research, just as muster fields and shipyards are for military research. It still makes sense for these service buildings to be most useful in high-level provinces.
Palaces could just remain separate buildings, since there's no reason to combine them with other building types. Not everyone would need a court size that's matched by the size of their research facilities, or vice-versa.
The rest of the buildings could be considered 'defensive', so they could be useful for anyone anywhere... though they usually aren't. Giving these (and perhaps all other buildings) maintenance costs would help make sure they're only put where they're needed. Giving roads and bridges maintenance costs would be especially helpful for moderating the momentum of play.