That's the worst part, at the start of every Strat almost all factions declare that they are starting with a clean slate and hold no grudges. Then they claim the same area, ally with the same people and declare war on the same people.
So damn interesting.
never did that once sofar and also proposed in strat 2 and 3 to get a random fief distribution right at the start which may counter such an approach of always being at same place and allying with same people.
@Harpag
I have a very clear way for factions joining the CFA, they need to prove themselves and work their way up to full membership and therefor being part of dessionce of war and overall diplomacy which when done wrong can fuck up too much. F.E. that someone would be considered getting a village they should have at least 5 people on the map. Now they can learn about fiefs how to handle them and what they can do there. Then they get tasks like boarder patrol which gives them knowledge about basics like movement requipping themselves, what to do with loot etc. When they want to and have like 5-10 guys they can take over trade carvans and with that gold equip their own armies. With 10-15 guys they get a second village. With 20-25 guys and proven to be active and reliable they would be considered for having a castle which then but alos comes with more responsibilities and with that comes Full Memmbership.
This may not be the best way to tutor new or small factions but it is the best i found sofar.
I don't pressure them to get to a next level, nor that they should make such and such much gold or provide so many troops each weak/month. Everyone everything in his own time. The only real efficent thing about this system is that those factions organize themselves mostly and i don't need to take care of the overall structure. They can do it their own way and CFA if got lucky like f.e. with the Bros, CtogS and others got very well organized and selfsuficient members over time.
We had many setbacks though, things everyone did wrong at some point often gets more often done wrong in this system, therefor i have very often repeated mantras to get some basic knowledge or advanced knowledge depending on task at hand or over all goal to those who actually listen ;)
So the way you offered now, as generous as it may seem, there is no real help included, you don't give fiefs so they could learn about the inner workings, you don't offer them real protection as you just point them into a direction where they can grind down an enemy of yours which then helps you.
I got spreadsheats ( You know me right
) for pretty much every region on the map with what you can buy in terms of loomed/discounted gear which is shared with the new factions and i don't really give a shit if they would give that information to enemies as anyone with a lit of effort can compile those, but who really does ^^
They do ask me as i offered over and over again, all kinds of questions or for help with this and that and i do my best to live up to the expectations i planted. Sure Vovka is right that this also to some extent gives security for my own Faction. With strat 3.0 we had been 70 in our own faction, 100 in steam group and i have had erm an erm secret scouting faction without clan tags and without actual strategus faction of around 25-30 players.
In the end that all was too much to handle and i haven't had that much fun with it so i decided after my clan fall and lost many members i wouldn't want to go that big again, but still in the need of security as you know all the big scary factions out there, alone you don't stand a chance i choose the way i do it now and i am happy with it. I don't say every one should do it that way now because this is morally superriour or shit, but through this strat and through the overall way the community developed or better said deminished i strongly advice that those old timers stop being too land hungry and start splitting/sharing. If you want another strat after this or a fairly attractive strat, you can't only look onto your own outcome anymore.
.....
To Basnak: I'm all for nerfing big factions, but how can you nerf them in an appropriate fashion? I'd like to see concrete suggestions, because to me it seems that the trust and friendship these factions share is very hard to nerf indeed.
but there are ways many indeed, i formulated out already a few times when i find a link to those put it in here.
but only as a small part of that. Introduce a Diplomatic System, give peopel carrots so they use it, give them the stick if they wouldnt. Carrot as STick can be addionaly functionabilities or missing of those, could be higher/lower taxes ... what ever variable is in this game could be influenced if or if not certain circumstances arise. If you at some point really have everyone using such a diplomatic system(fine tuned over all possibele treaties upto freely definable treaties and relations), then you can use that information to see who is working with whom. Balance you can do then by faction/alliance members/fiefs, currently available tickets and equipment for them. However you want to name it then, unrest/taxes/loss of productivity there are then many variables depending on the collected information you can use to trickle down the huge faction/alliances so a) it may not make too much sense to choose that path or b) even if choosen still would be fun and playable c) but smaller and medium sized faction would gain more importance to the overall game and more color and exiting turn of events could be expected.
