Proposed Realm/Village Change for the New World

[ThorleifCleaver]

Proposal: Shift some of the functions of the realm to the village; rethink some of the functions of the realm.

New Object: Village Idol

Once a village is established, the lawspeaker can build an idol, a physical object that must be placed within the borders of the village. In order to attain blessings, the village must offer sacrifices of goods to the idol.

Costs: The system, at the village level, should operate via a kind of potlatch logic, i.e., massive quantities of goods should be required for each monthly blessing. For example, if a village wanted the +1 growth speed for crops within their borders, the village would need to sacrifice 10k wheat seeds. It should be scalable, up to whatever cap seems fair--50k for 5, etc. This strikes me as both fair and sensible: this game often results in massive overproduction, for which there really should be some other, volume-based outlet.

What blessings should be on offer? Fuck if I know. I'm sure the community could make suggestions. I'd think most of the realm-based buffs having to do with agriculture and local industry should either be ported to the village idols or have a village variant. I'd think these should be pretty specific, though: increased growth speed for a crop singular, rather than crops plural; increased values for blacksmith works of a specific metal, etc.

This would free up the realm bonuses for something more meaningful, not to mention alleviating the irritation of the realm bonuses being turned off for whatever reason. What's more meaningful? Again, fuck if I know. I'd assume the various military bonuses should be at the realm level. I'd also assume some of the larger, blanket bonuses should be realm-based, too. But, ultimately, I think realm bonuses should be rethought and expanded. I mention military bonuses, but we really only seem to have two: Guarded Marches and Marriage of the Sea. Yes, the other industry-based bonuses have military implications, but as far as I know we only have two direct ones dealing with war flags and ship quality. Where are the bonuses for seige equipment? Archery towers? Arms? Armor? That's what I'd envision as the function of a realm.

Twist: The idols should be able to be stolen. Specifically, once a village is destroyed, the idol, decoupled from the claim to which it was tied, should be claimable by the victor. The victor could either reactivate the idol elsewhere (though a village should only have a single idol at a time), desecrate it to apply the inverse of all buffs permanently to the location (a kind of salt-the-earth mechanic), or just take the thing and make a nice display room. I can see that being quite appealing, especially if the idol recorded various stats as well, such as village members' names, numbers of specific items as a wealth estimate, etc. Fun.

Other Implications: This system implies a few other things that seem like good ideas, too. First, If the bonus system is split into levels, it makes sense to apply the levels to the full hearthling hierarchy: claim, village, and realm (and, perhaps, even province, via a similar sacred grove). The realm costs would remain what they are, but the personal claim costs (and benefits) would be much smaller, tied perhaps to a household god's altar.

Second, the "idol" term implies a pantheon of gods. That would be a larger task, inventing a pantheon with distinct perks, mythologies, etc., but ultimately villages could pick their favorite reskinned deity, complete with possible perks, and roleplay as the followers of the drunken trickster goat or the Lovecraftian murder snail. I'm sure adding a deity cool with blood sacrifice would appeal to some of the player base.

Third, the salt-the-earth mechanic takes on interesting implications if provincial sacred groves can be found/built. Perhaps the sacred grove offers up a record of the various questing benefits a province has gained, benefits that can be augmented with sacrifices/rituals. Or, conversely, similar sacrifices/rituals can inflict negative statuses upon a province for a specific time. That's likely a more complicated thought experiment, but it seems like a nice addition to make provinces more unique.

Thoughts? Suggestions? What bonuses should be at what level? What bonuses/curses would improve the quality of the gameplay experience?