Village Idol is ugly.

[burgingham]

An Inn could have special NPCs like Innkeeper or Bartender which function much like Vending stands (people pay coin for a drink or a bed). With the upside that they're killable and cost village authority to replace. Hell, add in NPC town guards (which cost authority to establish and maintain; and perhaps food or other resources dumped regularly into a special Barracks building as well) and suddenly you have a mechanism by which claims can bite back. Towns would have to organise equipment for their guards and could expend authority to level them up.

Please don't, as soon as I see the first NPC popping up in this game, I am out of here.
Other than that there are some nice suggestions, I like the idea of villages getting more options and influence by numbers. What strikes me though are the buildings you mention. Most of them do not really fit into the general setting of H&H. A cathedral? I think the devs are more looking for Pagan/Shamanic stuff. Senate? We are not in Rome you know, we are the guys who will defeat the Roman Empire. When I read you suggestions I had pictures of the "Anno" games popping in my mind. Don't know if you are familiar with Anno since it has been developed in Germany. This is what I had in mind for example and I don't like it for H&H:

[Bjørn]

Reducing the number of villagers required to 2 will make village griefing so much easier other than that yeah good ideas.

Well, as far as I'm aware village griefing falls into two categories:

#1. Lowering Animal level. This can be addressed by having Hamlet's not reduce animal level. Villages reduce animal level by a marginal amount for a small radius, towns a larger amount for a larger radius and cities fuck shit right up animal-wise. A Hamlet is really just a way for a small number of people to say "Hey, we've setup here" and provide some easier management than kin options.

#2. Claiming land just to piss off the original town. If a system of using authority to take-over a nearby village can be implemented, then this is just a matter of the original town building up auth and simply wandering over to the Hamlet that just popped up and nixing it (In other words, the more active and better organised town will win). An incident like the attempt to take-over the markets at Brodgar may have been resolved by NoFace simply walking over to it and expending some saved Brodgar authority to remove the claim (assuming it's within a certain radius of the Brodgar Idol; which increases based on town level and authority).

Similarly the Q82 clay spot could turn into an epic battle of "Which village can organise better and build-up authority before the other one?" Which might make for some interesting mechanics and battles, before someone wins (rather than leaving it as the clusterfuck it essentially is now).

The other option to add is increase the distance Villages need to be away from one another, so that villages really can't be built right on top of each other. At the moment, they can be built fairly close (ref: Q82 Clay spot). Increasing the radius you're allowed to found another village nearby would reduce griefing further. EG: Hamlets have to be at least 500 tiles away from any another Hamlet; 1,000 away from any Villages; 3,000 away from a Town or 10,000 from a City (or numbers to that affect).

Additional Brain Fart while I'm here: "Trading Town" specialisation. This halves the agility / travel weariness required to travel to the town in question via Crossroads, therefore making trade easier. Maybe the town can spend authority to reduce this even further or such towns are able to build special "Trading Post" buildings which reduce it even more (and double as providing a location for people to trade in). Added to this could be more town-specific buildings like General Stores, Inns and the like so weary travellers can pay a few coins for a bed for the night or grab a cup of ale and head-off.

An Inn could have special NPCs like Innkeeper or Bartender which function much like Vending stands (people pay coin for a drink or a bed). With the upside that they're killable and cost village authority to replace. Hell, add in NPC town guards (which cost authority to establish and maintain; and perhaps food or other resources dumped regularly into a special Barracks building as well) and suddenly you have a mechanism by which claims can bite back. Towns would have to organise equipment for their guards and could expend authority to level them up.

I think it does very much suck when it boils down to an authority battle. After all, these are the fucking (early?) middle ages. People get an axe and, well, axe each other to death.

[Jfloyd]

First thing that came to mind when you said "NPC's", was OH DEAR GOD WHAT DID YOU DO!

[Chakravanti]

Agreed burgingham. Monotheism is more than out of theme. Also about NPC's. Lackthereof makes H&H unique.

[jorb]

Agreed burgingham. Monotheism is more than out of theme. Also about NPC's. Lackthereof makes H&H unique.

NPCs were something that loftar and I had originally planned for, and talked quite a lot about. The bandits on the last map were an example. But we have, over time, come to this conclusion. We will not add NPCs to H&H.

[Potjeh]

Do guard dogs qualify as NPCs?

[jorb]

Do guard dogs qualify as NPCs?

NPCs as in hearthlings controlled by the computer. Guard dogs will probably make it in at some point. Together with the wolves would make sense.

[burgingham]

I would like to mention that I don't hate NPC's althogether. I just don't want to have that witty blacksmith standing around the corner handing out swords and sending me on a quest to kill those rats in his basement at the same time.

[Neruz]

How about multiple PC's?

[Chakravanti]

Pets would definitely be an epic addition. I see CHA having a combat relevance.