Alright so heres the idea: (If some dev can come out and tell this is faaar out of what you have in mind, just let us know ;-)
In stead of having a completely open map where anyone can run where they want, I wanted to introduce the idea of controlling territory.. So I've stolen this idea from Panzer general..
That way owning a city or a fort would actually mean something else than a production house, being able to decide what factions have free access in their territory i.ex. Some forts would have much more value if they have a strategic position.. and others again might gain value only in combination with other forts, creating a wall. Of course, factionless armies and players would not suffer from these constraints.
It should of course also not stop movement completely, only cut movement speed in half or so.
Such a system also opens up a whole lot of other opportunities, such as telling an AI caravan what route to take to the target. Owning some forts in the center of the map would contain huge risks, but you would also be able to extort taxes and offer protection to factions wiling to pay :-D
One faction could try to wall off a part of the map, controlling the enemy's ability to strike deep inside their territory.. Such an effort would, however be very risky, since not many other factions would like such a thing to happen freely.
Also, the grid i made on the map obviously have to big "masks", and a city or fort should not control such a large area. Of course the villages/forts cities should be adjusted to fit such a grid as well, so it makes more sense.
Also, the whole game of strategus would become far far more complex, and not just a game of having many players and many friends. In addition to the whole economical aspect, the strategic aspect would be of major importance. A location would have value in itself. A small guild in a very good location with an easily defendable fort, could buy itself security, cash, weapons or other favours based on giving access alone..
Perhaps the whole map should be redesigned by some genius, and perhaps every reset should contain a new map for us..
Just an idea..
(Also the green line there is just there to show that you could block off movement in mountain ranges, rivers, ocean etc..)
version with smaller hexes
Map showing visibility and ZoC
List of ideas on how to use the hexes:1. Terrain types gives different movement bonuses and penalties.. Stacking with zone of control, thus a fort in a forest slows down an enemy much more
2. Terrain types can produce things.. Mountains can produce coal or minerals, wheat fields produce bread or cattle (food) Sea produce fish, like mentioned above..
3. You could give armies bonuses for surrounding an enemy.. Encirclement bonuses, give tactical advantage somehow. (Free tickets?)
4. Taxation of fiefs in your Zone of Control
5. Taxation of passing caravans
6. Programming advantages. ? (Dunno how it should be done, using the existing code to calculate what hex someone is in mathematically, or do a test against a matrix, what the hell, i dunno shit about programming :-D
7. Road building..
8. Contested Zones.. :-) Basically walking through no-mans land.. perhaps stuff that happens in no-mans land will not be recorded in any way by players, leading to my next point.
9. Information Gathering of passing players, armies and caravans.
10. Building of structures.
11. Pillaging of structures.
12. Visibility range. Let's say you build a spy-tower, giving you information about surrounding hexes and what players are doing there..
13. Easier coding of what terrain a player might expect if battling in a spesific hex. Next time a battle is there, the exact same terrain would appear, encouraging players to scout terrain and store information about it, so they can plan their next battle.. People could sell maps of areas to each other!
14. Fog of War. No-one will know how big, or how the world map looks like.. Everyone just know their little piece, making world-map and screenshot trading, faking of screenshots (!) etc it's own business! (Again encouraging spy-clans and spy-factions, delivering up-to date information about factions.. Bribing members etc etc.. hehe.
15.. Hidden movement. If you only travel with 1 soldier army, no-one can detect you..
16. Turn based movement: (Suggested by PhantomZero)
17. Taxable hexes (Suggested by Sir Henry)
18. "I just want old strategus back" (Suggested by TheDashingRogue)
19. Armys under 20 ppl shoud be hidden.(Suggested by Gingerpussy)
20. Tydeus suggested implementing a Morale bonus (+1!) consisting of boosting stats to players controlling surrounding hexes.
21. Artillery from PG would be cool somehow.. But how exactly could it work? How could adjacent hexes defend an adjacent hex? Or attack PAST another hex?
22. Electro suggested having squares within squared.. didnt quite understand but see here:
http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,7804.msg120581.html#msg12058123. Monsterbrum was contemplating economical aspects:
"I'm allready thinking abaut the cool economical aspects that could be added this way
-Every ticket would need an spesific amaunt of suplies.
-spesific hexes grow spesific "suplies", like: hexes in green (grassy) lands are the only hexes that would grow wheath.
-than an faction needs more food, the faction is realy strong it declears war with another faction, wich isnt strong but has good land for growing wheath, than when the defenders pull back they burn the fields, so the enemy starves. Think abaut the hunderd years war, the french did it, napoleons invasion in russia etc..
-an harvest fails, but an faction was so smart to smart to save a bunch of it and thusford has a lot of power cause of the saved suplies they have.
I like putting in an mixtiure of strategic things like defending passes and stuff connected to economical things."24. Building and destroying improvements. (Adding a cost of war.. and perhaps interesting strategies. Scorched Earth anyone? Perhaps a faction could self-destruct its own improvements if it doesn't feel it has a chance of getting it back in the near future. And perhaps armies in recently scorched hexes become more vulnerable to supply-lines)
25. Joseph suggested I become a dev. I'm sorry I'm almost never at irc, don't have the time etc.. But I do care about games. This game especially! But it soo much easier philosophizing loosely without having to actually develop anything, let alone balance it. This list is more of a pool of ideas, then the devs can choose and pick what they like. (Thats why you too should bring in ideas! You never know, because even a the crappiest idea can have some aspect that might be interesting in their minds.)
26.
SUPPLY LINES Oh how I would love to see it done.. It would create a very deep perspective to the gameplay..
27. The hex idea goes hand in hand with Noctivagants idea of sea battles. A hex would provide an actual area of sea worth controlling and fighting for. For fish, or for travel.
28. Noctis superb map of the last status in strategus, Hexadecimally done!:
