Re: Olympia: Production Values

Rich Skrenta (skrenta@blekko.rt.com)
Wed, 22 Jul 1992 21:56 EDT

Bill Viggers:
> Currently the way to counter this is maintance costs. They are
> calculated on a per unit basis, with increasing cost for increase
> in skills and cash on hand (and maybe earnings, but I'm not sure).
> Yet, this is one of the things your thinking of killing. Maybe
> an extra 'faction maintance cost', say C * 2^units would be a good
> way to limit faction growth. With C most probably < 1.

I proposed big maintenance costs for large factions, but it wasn't
real popular. :-)

> This is essentialy what we had at the start. You could
> only study certain things in certain places, and to
> certain levels.
>
> Drassa was magic 9, combat archer and shipbuilding each to
> about 5 so far as I remember...

Sort of. You could only study things in *one* place.

> Or even to advance to the next level, you must have used the
> skill. (ie been in combat, cast a spell etc). Even if only
> once, this will put a cap on most skills, fast.

That's a great idea, somewhat muddled by the subskill system. It would
have to be "use all of the subskills currently in your possession at
least once." :-)

Some of the subskills might be tricky, too. That "repair ship" level 1
could be completely unusable if there aren't any ships around.
A chicken-and-egg problem.

> It means
> things like jousts (for them fighters who need practical
> experience, but don't want to risk getting killed), may
> become common. (who remembers Rob's attempt to get a
> colussem going, wayda go Rob!)

Oh yes, I like that.

> While on the subject of loyalty, I think that units you pay
> for training for should have their loyalty increased slightly,
> not as much as persuade, but somewhat. This means they are
> 1: more difficult to persuade away (good thing)
> and
> 2: reflects that you are more loyal to someone who puts you
> through university and gives you a job, than someone who you
> collect the dead for and never does anything for you.

Not a bad idea.

--
Rich Skrenta <skrenta@rt.com>  N2QAV


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