> I think (4) is a better focus of the tax system. By taxing other
> players, the game will naturally respond to good rulers and bad
> rulers by PCs either flocking towards to fleeing away from a place.
I do not like the idea of taxing other players. I feel that a
player's units are already paying taxes. I call it maintenance and taxes
are going up. :)
Taxes exist even if there is no PC there to collect them. I do think that
it would be appropriate for a ruler of a region to receive some percentage
of the maintenance money which is spent in their region. (one or two gold
per man) This has two positive effects: a ruler's men are less expensive
to maintain when they are 'home' and the ruler should be interested in
attracting other players to his region. I think this would provide better
opportunities to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' rulers. 'Good' rulers
protect the players in their region, provide additional services like
supplementing the market, etc. These things should make the region an
attractive place for a non-ruling faction to settle.
I also do not like the idea of taxing transactions at the market. The ability
to regulate a game feature should be balanced by the responsibility to
maintain it and the opportunity for others to compete against it. For a
player to control a market there are several other market features which I
think are essential. Markets must be able to decay and be enhanced. Decay
increases prices and reduces the products available for purchase. It should
also be possible to create a market and then develop it. Things like closing
a region's boards to travel or refusing to permit a merchant to sell a product
to a customer with cash in hand would cause the market to decay. We should
not introduce the ability for a ruler to receive revenue from a market
without providing balancing factors. I think these balancing factors for
market control are in addition to those for region control.
Market decay and enhancement may be a reasonable model for Pillaging markets.
Keep our markets free till I can make my own!!! :)
Kevin Valerien
krv@eng.tridom.com