Website warriors vs actually c-rpg players

[CrazyCracka420]

I'd like to see how recruitment and making money works in strategus changed or reviewed.  As it stands you could potentially never play c-rpg but just be idling a website and making recruits and money for your "faction" (or just a friend who has you sign up on a website, or some association - looking at you goons).  You are slightly rewarded strategus money (it's really insignificant) for playing c-rpg.  I think it would make more sense that your recruiting numbers or gold making would increase the more you are actually playing c-rpg.  I don't think having 100s or 1000s of people who are willing to sign up on a website (or have multiple alternate accounts) should be rewarded over people who actually play c-rpg. 

I'm not saying it should be purely based off of how much you play c-rpg in game, but the system can easily be abused and highly favors numbers of people, over numbers of active people.

[Tears of Destiny]

This is an interesting point. just like how playing gives extra money, tie it into troops as well? Or perhaps make a toggle where you choose what your cRPG time gives to your Strat stuff.

[Elindor]

I agree, right now its kinda like a popularity contest....

+1 

Not sure the solution, but definitely agree there's a problem.

[SPQR]

I'd like to see how recruitment and making money works in strategus changed or reviewed.  As it stands you could potentially never play c-rpg but just be idling a website and making recruits and money for your "faction" (or just a friend who has you sign up on a website, or some association - looking at you goons).  You are slightly rewarded strategus money (it's really insignificant) for playing c-rpg.  I think it would make more sense that your recruiting numbers or gold making would increase the more you are actually playing c-rpg.  I don't think having 100s or 1000s of people who are willing to sign up on a website (or have multiple alternate accounts) should be rewarded over people who actually play c-rpg. 

I'm not saying it should be purely based off of how much you play c-rpg in game, but the system can easily be abused and highly favors numbers of people, over numbers of active people.

Ok I have to respond to this since this seems to be leveled at us.

Believe it or not, everyone in the LLJK strategus faction plays or has played crpg. Despite the perception that goons are some zerg-like hivemind in reality getting us to do anything is like herding cats. We're definitely not getting people to sign up for strategus just to funnel us troops. In fact posting on the somethingawful forums to try and goonrush a site for your own personal gain is a bannable offense. What we do have is recruitment drives for crpg where we encourage people to try out the game. This is a good thing. It brings many new players to the game. Not all of them stay, and not all of them stay with LLJK. There are goons in lots of different clans who like the game, but don't necessarily agree with LLJK philosophy.

So yes we do add a bunch of new accounts fairly often who sign up for strategus, play for a week, then disappear. We have no way of getting the troops from inactive players, so its not as overpowered as you think. 90% of LLJK troops and gold come from our veteran active players just like any other clan (we just have more of them than your standard clan).


However, that being said, I think the recruiting mechanics do need to be looked at for two simple reasons:
1) It takes forever to get enough troops to accomplish anything without a ton of people.
2) Its boring as hell.

[Elindor]

i dont think his post was as directed at LLJK as you think....moreso just the nature of the current strategus dynamic benefiting larger not necessarily active groups - dont think he said LLJK is one of those.  in fact he didnt mention LLJK at all!

[SPQR]

i dont think his post was as directed at LLJK as you think....moreso just the nature of the current strategus dynamic benefiting larger not necessarily active groups - dont think he said LLJK is one of those.  in fact he didnt mention LLJK at all!

Right here:

(or just a friend who has you sign up on a website, or some association - looking at you goons).

[Darkkarma]

Good post, SPQR.

[CrazyCracka420]

I was directing it partially at lljk (the goons comment) to use as an example, but was more talking about the system in general.  You could also have alternate accounts.

But I rethought it out and I think you would need a unique warband account and unique c-rpg account to sign up for strategus.  I'm not sure if the current system can be "gamed" by a bunch of randoms signing up, I think they would need warband, and c-rpg (and both would need to be unique).

Can anyone confirm/deny?

[Elindor]

Pretty sure someone would need a unique Warband and crpg account to sign up for Strategus. 

But, your point remains that you can have lots of inactives just camping in fiefs recruiting for you...some of this is natural and is gonna happen but I agree that I don't want Strategus to become a popularity game like a high school election

[Tears of Destiny]

You do need a unique key for a new strat account, and the devs track everyone who uses multiple keys. We had to obtain special permission for a few Fallen members to share for family members and such.

[SPQR]

But anyway, I think all clans have trouble keeping players active on strategus because for 90% of the playerbase their role boils down to "sit in a fief, hit transfer every once in a while".  Its dreadfully dull and I dont hold it against the people who just stop logging onto strategus cause its not interesting at all.

LLJK just copes with it better because if both LLJK and Random Clan have 25% inactive rate on strategus, if LLJK has twice as many players we'll still have enough active players to be effective.

That being said, I'm not sure the solution is to tie more strategus things into crpg. I know I for one like the strategic RISK aspect of strategus, I just wish there was more to do in it. In my opinion, having some sort of active interaction on the website to gain troops would be an improvement over the passive "wait and it'll come" system we have now. It would also encourage people to log on more.

Maybe some sort of system closer to native where recruitment doesn't happen automatically, you have to hit Recruit to get any troops.

Something like this:

Have a RECRUIT button inside fiefs. When you hit it, it charges you a fee (say, 25 gold). You then have a percent chance to receive a troop. The starting percentage chance is the same as it is now (based on the number of people in the fief) but each time you hit RECRUIT it goes down 5%.

So for instance, I'm inside Rushdigh. There is a 75% recruitment rate, I hit RECRUIT. I pay the fee (regardless if you successfully recruit or not) and have a 75% chance of getting a soldier. Now the recruitment rate will say 70/75%. I hit RECRUIT again, pay the fee, and have a 70% chance of recruiting and the rate will drop to 65/75%. Every time I hit it, the percent will go down 5% and I'll have to pay the fee. So recruiting more than a few soldiers at a time will be expensive and difficult. Then the percentage rate regenerates at say, 5% per hour. So you could log on, hit RECRUIT a few times, then wait and come back tomorrow to try again when the rates have regenerated. Maybe if your faction owns the fief the percentage regenerates faster or something.

This way, totally inactive players will not generate any troops, but players who are only partially active can still contribute. Furthermore, you'll actually have to play crpg (or work in a town) to recieve gold otherwise you wont be able to afford to recruit anyone.

Just some thoughts.

[Elindor]

Hmm, I like your ideas but I dont know about making Strategus even more of a 24/7 thing, because its already hard for some clans/individuals to keep up with since its not turn based...ie - purchasing gear at 4am etc....

I was actually wondering if it should give MORE control to clan leaders, so they can have permission to move their members around, transfer from them, etc.
This of course would have to be something the leaders were given access to by the member, some check box "let my clan leaders control my stategus actions" or something....i dont know....

But that might just make things worse....I dont know if there is a really great solution for this

[Matey]

There is some info available about the next version of strat... my understanding is things will be quite different, and for example.. there will be no gold.

[Teeth]

I find the extra gold gain you get by playing cRPG not insignificant at all. With the overpopulation in strategus nowadays town don't give much money. If I have time to play cRPG on a day I transfer a lot more at the end of the day.

Now it's indeed a popularity contest, but more advantages gained by playing cRPG would make it a grind contest.

Oh yes, nothing will ever be changed in this version except whats necesarry to keep it in a slightly playable form, wait for the new version for a better experience.

[Gumdrawp]

I thought you couldnt make an account/character without a cd key? Personally I doubt most goons are dedicated to the goon cause enough to spend $20(?) on a game just becuase theres a thread in the SA forums. I know it wasn't  why i started playing crpg. And that likely applies to just about anyone, i know i cant walk up to someone and go "Hey, you should spend money on this and give me shit even if you dont like the game".