Combat/Land Ownership Ideas

[Nimtike]

Now before I get into my ideas let me say that I know the developers are working on Salem and that they are not coming back to HnH for some time. Regardless, it is still fun to speculate.

My idea is to change combat permissions. Pretty much make it so that you can only attack/steal/vandalize groups that are the same size as you or smaller.

In other words if you are a hermit living in the middle of nowhere (or even a party of people for that matter) you can only raid and kill other individuals or parties of individuals.

Towns, on the other hand, have more permissions. They would have the ability to "wage war" with other towns and be able to destroy walls, buildings, and such.

Now since I myself am a hermit living in the middle of nowhere, I don't much about the mechanics of towns as they are right now. I do think this will allow for more open towns that were more prevalent during the earlier worlds, since you would have to have another town in order to attack it.

Later on when kingdoms (or whatever they are called) are put into affect, they too can have the benefit that individuals and individual towns cannot attack their property.

This does not mean you can't still kill whoever you want. I think having bandits that have been ravaging the countryside killing innocent peasants is kind of an awesome idea. But those raiders just wouldn't be able to destroy property.

Suggestions? Thoughts?

[Arcanist]

It pretty much is already that way. unless you're a hermit with 2601 strength. also how would you differentiate between hermits with many alts and villages? anyway this will never batch on. havengp a game where there's no restriction on what one can and cannot destroy other than your strength. loftr made a post somewhere about offencived actions. read that.

[TeckXKnight]

This would utterly destroy newly founded or blossoming groups but they're already utterly stomped out, so oh well. How would you even begin to implement a system like this though?

[ImAwesome]

sounds weird to me, why wouldn't a group of 5 strong people be able to destroy a group of 10 weaklings? what you're asking for is just a way to make the weak weaker and the strong stronger!

I see where you're coming from 1 or 2 people shouldn't be ale to destroy an entire city, but then again we don't actually have cities. think of guerilla warfare(I decided not to bring up terrorism even though thats the style of gameplay the raiders here use) and how 1 person strategically placed can take out a large chunk of a larger force(ie a sniper taking out several people while retreating, a guy hiding behind a bush with explosives, suicide bombers), its possible to take on a larger force and win, so why not allow it?

I can break your idea in a simple scenario:
12 noobs working together, they have horrible stats, and some low quality leather armor.
2-3 vets working together they have high stats and great equipment(high quality soldiers swords/B12s and steel plate).
they fight, the smaller group easilly wins, so why can't they raid the larger group's claim?

[Nimtike]

This would utterly destroy newly founded or blossoming groups but they're already utterly stomped out, so oh well. How would you even begin to implement a system like this though?

Maybe set up skills that require one to be apart of a town in order to get them.
Like the vandalism skill to be able to use things on people's claims, but another skill that you can only get when belonging to a village.

Thinking though, that last idea is pretty stupid. How about this.

So I sort of stated in the OP the idea of "waging war". What this could be is a status of a village A, requiring a certain amount of authority to start and maintain, that allows village A members to vandalize village B.

I can break your idea in a simple scenario:
12 noobs working together, they have horrible stats, and some low quality leather armor.
2-3 vets working together they have high stats and great equipment(high quality soldiers swords/B12s and steel plate).
they fight, the smaller group easilly wins, so why can't they raid the larger group's claim?

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EDIT Rereading your post, I realized what you thought I meant vs what I actually meant. I meant that any individual can attack any other individual OR any sized party. What would not be allowed was a non-affiliated party attacking a village. but still....
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You're right, scrap this whole idea! You should be able to kill and destroy anything you want.

BUT

Villages would still be able to "wage war" against other villages. This would allow characters without the prerequisite skills to vandalize and attack other players. Maybe a balance would be that they can't actually kill other players or deal HHP at all, but it would be an interesting mechanic. Having a sort of cannon fodder that is sent out in front of the main attack. And to make it harder to just spawn in more people to attack with, villages can't add any members while the town is at war.

A million ideas for this are raging through my head. Such as only allowing certain people have this ability. Those people having to be chosen akin to hirdsmen (or even by hirdsmen) and having a sort of rank and file system where the amount of people you can have under you is based off Charisma or something. (square root of CHA/50 for example)

I'll let people post their thoughts and then continue with my speculations...

[dagrimreefah]

Might as well just rename the game to 'World of Hearthcraft' with these nutty ideas you speak of.

Combat permissions? Wage war? Completely eliminating criminal acts is effectively what you're talking about. What kind of boring, carebear, watered-down Disneyland do you wish to see the hearthlands as?

[LadyV]

This would only make a much bloodier world. Villages already have the ability to wage war if I understand you desire. If your wanting more effective war bands then that's is the responsibility of a village to ensure their warriors are up to whatever challenge they face. Placing artificial benefits to make up for lack of unity, skill, equipment... does nothing to make the game easier or fair. Charisma already has benefits in combat and village life. Please read the wiki on it.

The only point I will agree with is their needs to be a organization level above village.

[Arcanist]

Perhaps an alliance option, where if you see a player from an allied village, it will show by an icon above their head.