Neutral Faction and fief reports

[Tomas]

Two ideas for Strat

1)  Fief reports
- When in a fief you get a 4th "report" option alongside beg, craft and recruit
- When set to report you send info to a Fief Info page every hour
- Info displayed = good price, prosperity, goods type crafted, population, garrison, money, visiting fee and transaction tax
- Possibly the info could be staggered so that some of it takes 2 or more hours of reporting to appear
- The reports on your clans info page (other than your own reports) are only visible to rank 5 and above and say how many hours/days old they are.
- After 7 days the report disappears

Basic idea is to simplify faction organisation in a way that still requires activity.  It only sacrifices an hour of production and only costs the visiting fee to do.  It also ties in with the 2nd idea below

2) Create a proper Neutral Faction in Strat
- Everybody gets automatically assigned to the neutral faction when they enter Strat (no need to apply or be accepted)
- If you join a proper faction then obviously you leave the neutral faction
- Neutrals CANNOT see each other like other factions (perk of being in a proper faction)
- If a neutral gets attacked, their roster is auto managed by the AI in the same way as a neutral fief
- At any point however, the neutral player may take over their roster management by ticking a box
- Neutrals can also use the reports described above to identify good trade routes
- Neutrals DO NOT effect efficiency in fiefs so factions will welcome them and lots of neutrals in one place will not be a bad thing
- When applying for neutral rosters (inc neutral fief defenses) neutral players get a 10% bonus to their XP (perk of being neutral).  For instance, a neutral with 10m XP will be considered to have 11m XP and will therefore get in ahead of someone with 10.5m XP on a neutral roster
- If a neutral ever attacks anything they are branded an outlaw for 10 mins per troops in their army, starting from when the battle ends. So 60 troops = 10 hours
- Being branded an outlaw changes your faction name to "Outlaw" and your faction colour to Black
- Outlaws MUST manage their own rosters and do not get the perks of being a neutral
- Outlaws get slightly increased movement speed (10% - perk of being an outlaw)
- Once your outlaw time is up you get automatically re-added to the neutral faction

Basic idea is to collect neutrals and new players together into an unofficial faction so that it is easier for them to get into Strat

[Fluffy_Muffin]

Being an outlaw should have its own perks imo

[Mannhammer]

You have to add
- Neutrals cannot transfer Gold, Troops, Goods or Equipment to any player or fief.
Otherwise the neutral mechanic could be abused by factions working in tandem. IE One faction remains neutral then farms and feeds the fiefs of a proper faction.

Also:
What would happen to a neutrals resources when they join a proper faction?
What would stop people from turning themselves neutral to farm and then rejoining their proper faction to transfer the materials they harvested?

[Tomas]

You have to add
- Neutrals cannot transfer Gold, Troops, Goods or Equipment to any player or fief.
Otherwise the neutral mechanic could be abused by factions working in tandem. IE One faction remains neutral then farms and feeds the fiefs of a proper faction.

Also:
What would happen to a neutrals resources when they join a proper faction?
What would stop people from turning themselves neutral to farm and then rejoining their proper faction to transfer the materials they harvested?

Good points Mannhammer - perhaps scrap the not effecting efficiency bit then and think up a different way to encourage neutrals to use the reports and help each other out.

@Fluffy_Muffin - Outlaws could have increased movement speed to aid escaping after a raid.  As soon as their outlawry wears off and they return to neutral the speed bonus will go.

EDIT: updated the OP

[FRANK_THE_TANK]

On point 1) It should also state every player, the size of there force, the armed level of there force and what they are currently doing in the fief. And when anyone comes and goes.

On point 2. I don't know if it would have the effect of helping get people into strat.

What would is some videos explaining it... maybe.

I like some of the ideas like the bandit idea, but the speed boost would be op. None faction bandits would be every where and they would just PM each other on the forum to co-ordinate.

[Tomas]

On point 1) It should also state every player, the size of there force, the armed level of there force and what they are currently doing in the fief. And when anyone comes and goes.

perhaps if you report for 24 hours it could show all that and then constantly update it every hour you keep reporting, but for the intial report after just 1 hour it would be too much

On point 2. I don't know if it would have the effect of helping get people into strat.

What would is some videos explaining it... maybe.

Filling a roster is probably one of the hardest thing to do if you are attacked as a newbie.  This would solve that for you.  The videos would be good too though.

I like some of the ideas like the bandit idea, but the speed boost would be op. None faction bandits would be every where and they would just PM each other on the forum to co-ordinate.

The speed boost is only 10% or so so not that much, remember that after a raid a bandit will have goods slowing them down still.  As for groups of bandits - they still can't see each other or manage each other's rosters, so to work together you are still better off in a faction.