POINT 1: If skill-based economic opportunities are limited, they should at
least be more profitable than basic work.
We haven't seen for sure how all skills stack up, gold-wise, but it seems
that the addition of competition for limited resources (entertainment,
mining, etc) makes the basic levels worth less than "work". As a test:
If I have a unit of 50 unskilled workers, and I volunteer to have them
ASSIST a mining or shipbuilding unit for, say, "work+1" wages, would that
be a good deal for the unit being ASSISTed? Surely player ASSISTs should
be worth more than basic rat-catching, or we're not promoting player
cooperation and use of the skills system. Is a test like this being used?
POINT 2: Borders should be defensible, especially with competitive economies.
With a small entertainment unit being able to "play out" a town in a week,
my Jaybards could descend on a poor unsuspecting town with resident
entertainers, do a "juggling blitz", steal the NEA money, and leave within
the month. The same with any competitive skill...how does a town stabilize
an economy for its long-term residents?
Even worse, natch, is the fact that key strategic regions (i.e. Summerbridge)
can't be controlled to "enemy" traffic passing through. I'm sure something
like this has been proposed, but:
WAIT ARRIVAL FROM [faction-list] (if faction can be observed)
WAIT ARRIVAL NOT FROM [faction-list] (same)
WAIT ARRIVAL (anyone new that you can see)
WAIT ARRIVAL WEAKER (anyone w/fewer total men, the highwayman's dream)
WAIT ARRIVAL STRONGER (anyone w/more men, for those chihuahua types)
WAIT ARRIVAL DECLARED [attitude-list] (wait 4 hostiles, coops, etc)
WAIT ARRIVAL FROM [region] (can stop traffic from one direction)
[ATTACK|STACK|...] ARRIVAL (to act on who you recently identified)
Note that for WAIT ARRIVAL FROM, if an ensuing attack causes the new
arrival to FLEE, the arrival should be forced to FLEE back to the original
region (otherwise, to pass thru, just SET FLEE 0 and enter, with a % chance
of getting thru if attacked).
I wont try to address OR's and AND's in the WAIT ARRIVAL because that's
really a more general issue, i.e. WAIT MEN 10 OR GOLD 1000...& besides
which I've already probably proposed a man-year of work for Rich...
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Larry Morris | "But it's in all the news, they got a cure for your blues, AT&T Tridom | You just hitch up your heart to your dreams; Atlanta | Keep a feel for the real, and don't forget your ideals, No Opinions, | You'll be rich, if your conscience is clean!" Just the Facts. | - Dick Siegel, "Snap!" -----------------------------------------------------------------------------