Village Idol is ugly.

[Jfloyd]

No offence to Jorbs artwork, but I find the current idol repulsive. I think that a law speaker should be able to select what type of village is built, with a decent list of types.
The current one could offer a lower civ increasing level, whereas a more civilized town might have that quality buff that the devs talked about.

TL;DR Idol is ugly, I want a new one. With different bonuses.

[jorb]

Why you little...!

[sabinati]

i do kind of like the idea of "village specialization".

[jorb]

Oh, so do I. Different forms of government would be the bee's knees.

[Jfloyd]

And I would like different idols to go with them.
Also, the communistic idol, would be a sickle and hammer of course.
This game HAS to have a communistic government.

[Lothaudus]

I'd suggest the current village be reduced to a requirement of 2 people to found it. That way groups of friends can have an easier time setting up a small village, which they can extend for community benefits rather than relying on personal claims (which don't really convey the same intent as a village claim).

When you hit enough auth, you can right-click and "upgrade" the Village Idol to the next level. This requires more people to be touching the idol at that time and provides other benefits. For example you could limit the number of authority objects able to be placed or the total amount of authority that can be accrued. Each level might increase the number of people that can be hirdported at a time or provide other benefits such as access to different structures and Governments (to the point where people are encouraged to join a town if they want the really good stuff).

The idea being larger towns would be exactly that, towns. While a village would be, well, a village. Just as a concept, something along the lines of:

• Hamlet; 2 founding fathers. Auth capped at 5k. Only allowed to build Banners to extend claim. Can't build anymore banners beyond 5k auth limit. "Chieftain" role only (perhaps called something else) but no hirdporting.
  
• Village; 5 people to upgrade from Hamlet. Auth capped at 10k. Now able to build Statues to the Chieftain; Village Bell; Church (Allows appointment of a Priest); Feasting Hall (think Beowulf). Lawspeaker and Chieftain roles with hirdporting.
  
• Town; 10 people to upgrade from Village. Auth capped at 25k. Able to build Town Fountains; Plaza; Town Hall; Clock Tower; Cathedral. Town Mayor (instead of Chieftain) and 3x Councillors. Can choose role of "Farming Town" which provides an additional seed per harvest or "Mining Town" which provides bonus to mining.
  
• City; 20 people to upgrade from Town. No auth cap. Able to build Granary's; Warehouses; Seaport; Senate Building. Able to appoint Governor (Lawspeaker), City Mayor, 5x Senators. Option to choose Government type "Democracy, Communism etc..." which provide pros and cons or alter the way citizens can interact with the village claim. EG: Under Communism no personal claims are allowed and anyone can take anything and that can't be changed, under Democracy there's a vote for the Governor every month or so and any villager can run (allows for internal politics).

Conceptually it means when you come across a village, it's a village. When you encounter a town, you know you've found somewhere big. The hermit life would still be possible of course but the benefits encourages people to join a town to experience a different way of life and the benefits that living with others provides.

Then you need to add in a whole territorial system. So that Cities right next to each other can merge or fight for territory a bit like in Civilization. The Town / City with the most Culture (in this case, Authority) can use that authority to take-over authority objects owned by the other town and move in on them (Go some way to redress the "2 villages on top of each other" problem and remove abandoned or less active villages).

/Brain fart

[Jfloyd]

Everything he just said

Want.

[Agarrett]

Especially the stuff he said like Seaport. I want a seaport for Haro Port.

[Avu]

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

[Lothaudus]

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.