[Add-on] Strategus Tool Belt (STB)

[pogosan]

[Butan]

It's good that someone who enjoys Strategus is now able to work on it, and this addon is cool and would definitely benefit to be already in by default. I would suggest that if you are able to make changes to Strategus at more than a UI level, that you try not to add any more mechanics unless you are sure they would be good, and instead maybe focus on simplifying or refining the ones already in the game with the end goal of creating more battles. Most people I know who quit Strategus over the versions did it because of the increasing level of tedium and need to be active on the map for low reward.

Any change is probably for the better at this point though so good luck with whatever is done.

The #1 goal is indeed make Strategus less unattractive. It will not be necessary to encourage battles pro-actively, it shall be a counter-effect of having to pump less time to produce said battles.
The first thing we did with our add-ons was aimed to decrease the time needed to process the most basic features: inventory transfer. Which had been tremendously increased at the introduction of item degradation back then.

The sky is the limit as long as we are backed by chadz & co, but we dont own Strategus so I'll be looking for input and authorization whenever we try to make important changes that doesnt fall into simplyfying category.

Does it mean strat 7 is a thing?

I do not know at all, but I hope that if and when round 6 is literally dead, all the things I'm going to do will not be wasted and a round 7 will see the day 

hire DRz as strategus advisors! 

#2 goal will be to ban UIF from strat, sry

(click to show/hide)

[pogosan]

[Rhekimos]

Some mechanic encouraging having smaller faction would be amazing. Like in Crusader Kings for example - the bigger your country the more debuff you get. Maybe more members/fiefs = higher upkeep/higher prices in fiefs/less trading bonus for members or anything like that.

Unfortunately it would be easy to organize big factions into exactly the best size of sub-factions to min-max around this.

[Vovka]

the biggest problem of strat - its game for nerds. As a single player, I can not join strat Friday night for 3-4 hours, and play for fun.

[pogosan]

[Rhekimos]

I'm just saying that blocks preventing mechanic would make everything better. The way to implement such a thing would  need a discussion of course.

I agree that it would make things more interesting. I'm not sure if it's possible to achieve without radically changing Strat though. As long as you don't outright ban co-operation any unblocking mechanic thrown on top of current Strat can be gamed, rendered inert or turned against new and less organized factions.

[Vovka]

I'm just saying that blocks preventing mechanic would make everything better. The way to implement such a thing would  need a discussion of course.

set_max_ merc=10
but not sure if some one will play in such strat 

[Butan]

set_max_ merc=10
but not sure if some one will play in such strat 

I dont even know if I will be allowed/can modify the "strategus battles" themselves. But lowering the max mercs per battle to a sweepoint between 1/ battles are still large enough to be interesting and 2/ dont need to suck up people to have a full roster is an idea in the making.


I am interested to hear everyone's opinion on modifying max_merc_per_battles, just in case. What would be the good value between 50 and 1 ?

[pogosan]

[Sparvico]

I dont even know if I will be allowed/can modify the "strategus battles" themselves. But lowering the max mercs per battle to a sweepoint between 1/ battles are still large enough to be interesting and 2/ dont need to suck up people to have a full roster is an idea in the making.


I am interested to hear everyone's opinion on modifying max_merc_per_battles, just in case. What would be the good value between 50 and 1 ?

I think a big issue here is that NA and EU have vastly different merc capabilities. If it is a global value then setting it any lower than 40 for EU would probably be bad, however NA could really benefit from a 30-35 maximum.

Of course the ideal merc maximum would be a dynamic value determined by how many people have logged on to their continents servers/moved there dot on the map within the last 5 days. With the value for NA and EU being different based on what each side of the map is actually doing. That way when population dips the merc maximum dips and when it spikes the merc maximum goes back up.

 For this to really make any difference though you also have to adjust the xp values. One of the major benefits of strat 4 was that strat battles, outside of a few at the very beginning of the round, always gave better XP than normal servers. Mostly this had to do with cheaper gear on strat and more mercs in battles. i.e. more people using better gear gives better xp than now where less people use worse gear.

Adjusting the price of gear in strat, and increasing the xp a bit could go a long way towards encouraging merc participation in battles.

[imisshotmail]

I dont even know if I will be allowed/can modify the "strategus battles" themselves. But lowering the max mercs per battle to a sweepoint between 1/ battles are still large enough to be interesting and 2/ dont need to suck up people to have a full roster is an idea in the making.


I am interested to hear everyone's opinion on modifying max_merc_per_battles, just in case. What would be the good value between 50 and 1 ?

How about a setting for each individual player, like night time except it sets the max amount of mercs per side in battles, with a minimum of say 30 because less than that is pretty bad. Battle merc count would be based on whichever player had the lower setting, not who is defending.

[Vovka]

I dont even know if I will be allowed/can modify the "strategus battles" themselves. But lowering the max mercs per battle to a sweepoint between 1/ battles are still large enough to be interesting and 2/ dont need to suck up people to have a full roster is an idea in the making.
I am interested to hear everyone's opinion on modifying max_merc_per_battles, just in case. What would be the good value between 50 and 1 ?

it was a joke)) reduce the roster and you lose half of the remaining players, with 10vs10 fights team Varadin and Habi will rape any army in any battle and after a dozen such fights second half will leave again.  third half (like oddy grandmom azap) will not even get into fights because of low skill and leave strat aswell

[pogosan]

[Butan]

it was a joke)) reduce the roster and you lose half of the remaining players, with 10vs10 fights team Varadin and Habi will rape any army in any battle and after a dozen such fights second half will leave again.  third half (like oddy grandmom azap) will not even get into fights because of low skill and leave strat aswell

10v10 is crazy, but not 30v30. There is no skill imbalance so bad in our current Strategus that would pose a problem with a minimal max merc decrease.

I think a big issue here is that NA and EU have vastly different merc capabilities. If it is a global value then setting it any lower than 40 for EU would probably be bad, however NA could really benefit from a 30-35 maximum.

I dont have any solid data but EU seems to be on a faster decline than NA, the two could meet in the end

But like imisshotmail said there might be some options that could give us the needed flexibility to engage NA and EU problems individually.
This not something to trifle with though, even if I can do something about it it will be with extremely large and silky gloves.