Need Help Brainstorming: Make chosing a govenor and fortcommander more interesting

[Levis]

So as far as I can tell if you set a officer to be the governor of the town, the skills of the governor don't matter at all, the same goes for a fort commander.
I would suggest some small tweaks which might make it more interesting.
For some context, at the moment depending on the tax level the morale of the town will go up or down and this will affect the prices in the store and shipyard. but that's all.

I would suggest the following small changes:

- Have the sum of the leadership skill of the fortcommander and governor also affect the morale. For example if the sum of their leadership is 10 and the tax level is normal then the moral should stay about even. But if the sum is like 5 and the tax level is normal the morale should drop while if the sum is 15 and the tax is normal the moral should raise.
- Add a defense budget for the town. You can set this to 5 stages or so too.
- The amount you get from a town is depended on the defense budget and the tax. it's possible to actually have a colony which costs money.
- Have the governors commerce skill influence the amount of tax and defense cost you get by a little (because of their better commerce skills they have less expenses so they have more income).
- Change the random events which can happen to towns to exclude towns of personal nation and instead have some of the event happen depending on the defense budget. So a pirate attack is more likely to happen and will cost you gold etc.
- Have some of the attack events also be depended on the defense skills of your fortcommander
- If you can't pay the colony money when you need to for two (or three) months in a row you will get a message that the governor and fortcommander where killed and the town has become a pirate nation.
- You can visit you colony and talk to the governor to abandon the colony. That will get you back the fortcommander and governor and make the town a pirate nation.
- Have the govenor and fortcommander get a little bit of experience while they are in office so slowly their skills should increase.

Most of these things will be fairly easy to implement and I think they would add a bit of depth to the game.
Also another suggestion I have would be:

Add a perk which allows you to actually assign a governor and fortcommander. I mean having another captain is hard already but you can still keep an eye on them. But if you want to have the trust that somebody is going to run a colony for you it requires more charisma and stuff imo, so I would think that to be able to assign them you would need this perk. It would also instantly communicate to new players that this is a possibility because they will see it in their perklist.

Any idea's about this?

 

[Grey Roger]

Why would the fort commander's "Leadership" skill have any effect on the town's morale? What it would affect, combined with his "Gunnery" and possibly "Accuracy" skills, is the town's ability to resist attack.

Not all random events are anything to do with defence. Personal towns should be no more or less liable than anyone else's towns to earthquakes, malaria or other such randomness; and their miners, who are nothing to do with the army, should be no more or less likely to find unexpected gold or silver. But having events such as pirate attack, Indian attack or slave revolt could depend on different skills of the fort commander or governor, e.g. fort commander's "Gunnery" affects pirate attack, governor's "Leadership" affects slave revolt.

If you tell the governor to abandon the colony, it should not automatically go to the pirates. You should have the option of which nation gets it, same as if you capture the colony. You could also have the option to keep it for yourself and assign new officers as governor and fort commander.

There is no need for a perk to assign governor and fort commander. You've just blasted the fort and stormed the town. Assigning an officer as governor or fort commander is no different to assigning an officer as commander of a ship, except that at present you have no way to get them back - it's just a matter of telling the officer "You're in charge here now". As for trusting the officer, perhaps compare the new governor's reputation to yours. A governor who is "Horror of the High Seas" while you're "Hero" is more likely to stir up a revolt of his own, and that will turn the town Pirate. Conversely, a governor who is "Hero" while you're "Horror of the High Seas" might revolt and then switch allegiance to some non-pirate nation. As with ships, make sure you assign a governor whose views on life, the universe and everything are similar to yours!

 

[Levis]

my reasoning was that the fort commander is also the one in charge of policing the town as far as I understood how colonies worked in that time. And therefore the leadership of the commander would affect the moral of the town.

I like the idea of the reputation check, that could work really well too.

And you are right about the events, its also what I wanted but I think I didn't express it right.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

this will affect the prices in the store and shipyard.

Huh? It does??
That's news to me...

it's possible to actually have a colony which costs money.

Oooh.... cons to the pros?
You've got my interest!

Change the random events which can happen to towns to exclude towns of personal nation and instead have some of the event happen depending on the defense budget. So a pirate attack is more likely to happen and will cost you gold etc.

Cool idea.

Have the govenor and fortcommander get a little bit of experience while they are in office so slowly their skills should increase.

Also cool!

But having events such as pirate attack, Indian attack or slave revolt could depend on different skills of the fort commander or governor, e.g. fort commander's "Gunnery" affects pirate attack, governor's "Leadership" affects slave revolt.

Actually, that might be able to apply safely to ALL towns; even non-player ones.

In fact, it would be pretty cool if you could tell from the frequency of trouble in certain towns which ones might be "easy pickin'" for you to attack yourself.

This gets better still if you can somehow disrupt things from outside to "soften 'em up".

If you tell the governor to abandon the colony, it should not automatically go to the pirates. You should have the option of which nation gets it, same as if you capture the colony.

That's fair enough.

You could also have the option to keep it for yourself and assign new officers as governor and fort commander.

You should be able to do that already through the "Manage" button in the Colonies menu.
Not sure if it is fully operational; but the feature should be there.

Add a perk which allows you to actually assign a governor and fortcommander. I mean having another captain is hard already but you can still keep an eye on them. But if you want to have the trust that somebody is going to run a colony for you it requires more charisma and stuff imo, so I would think that to be able to assign them you would need this perk. It would also instantly communicate to new players that this is a possibility because they will see it in their perklist.

Communication to new players is always a plus.

Other than that, suddenly I'm reminded of ideas about Fame and Reputation.
What if high Fame could make your own colonies more stable or something?

As for trusting the officer, perhaps compare the new governor's reputation to yours. A governor who is "Horror of the High Seas" while you're "Hero" is more likely to stir up a revolt of his own, and that will turn the town Pirate. Conversely, a governor who is "Hero" while you're "Horror of the High Seas" might revolt and then switch allegiance to some non-pirate nation. As with ships, make sure you assign a governor whose views on life, the universe and everything are similar to yours!

That makes sense. In a "42" sort of way.

But really, having similar systems show up in multiple aspects of the game helps a lot in making things clear and understandable for players.

 

[Grey Roger]

Another thought:

- Have the govenor and fortcommander get a little bit of experience while they are in office so slowly their skills should increase.

If they gain that experience as a result of events, it could work. But not during the daily update. There's already a significant pause at midnight each day, so we probably want to simplify the daily background stuff, not add to it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If they gain that experience as a result of events, it could work.

Actually... that's not a bad idea at all!
I like it.

Makes me think also... if ALL town leaders gain experience throughout the game, the longer you wait with attacking towns, the harder it might become.
Might be a bit of an interesting trade-off there between the ease of the operation; and how quick the player is actually ready for it.

 

[Levis]

Actually... that's not a bad idea at all!
I like it.

Makes me think also... if ALL town leaders gain experience throughout the game, the longer you wait with attacking towns, the harder it might become.
Might be a bit of an interesting trade-off there between the ease of the operation; and how quick the player is actually ready for it.

We could very well add an event where an governor and/or fort commander was replaced randomly. That way you wont have to much power creep. If you want to attack a weaker place you could see where they recently appointed a new fort commander, while at other places they will have a very experienced one which will blow you straight to davy jones' locker

 

[Grey Roger]

Then this needs to be preventable in storylines. If Bridgetown fort commander randomly becomes that experienced, it breaks "Tales of a Sea Hawk".

 

[Levis]

Then this needs to be preventable in storylines. If Bridgetown fort commander randomly becomes that experienced, it breaks "Tales of a Sea Hawk".

I actually don't know how much the skills of the fort commander now influence the battle agains a fort. Anyone has experienced this and/or knows how it works by the code?

 

[Grey Roger]

Presumably the same as any other captain, since the fort is basically a ship which doesn't move. My guess is that "Cannons" and "Accuracy" will do the same as they do for anyone else, and so will any gunnery perks which he may receive when he levels up.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Then this needs to be preventable in storylines. If Bridgetown fort commander randomly becomes that experienced, it breaks "Tales of a Sea Hawk".

Maybe use the 'enable town capture' check that already exists?

On the other hand, don't fort commanders already gain experience throughout the game?
From firing upon whatever random ships pass by?
So there's no saying what level that Bridgetown one has by the time you get to that in the storyline.

Presumably the same as any other captain, since the fort is basically a ship which doesn't move. My guess is that "Cannons" and "Accuracy" will do the same as they do for anyone else, and so will any gunnery perks which he may receive when he levels up.

That's what I believe too.