Req, you said in IRC that one upkeep idea you had was to make troops cost more per army you've already got.
I'd like to improve on that, since that idea alone would cause rich people to just delete their basic troops and never look back.

Instead, base upkeep on troop production points the player has in play (in his working, deployed armies - no points unpaid for in barracks would count).

For example, each PP you have out there costs money to support each round - you could have, say, a free first 2000 points. Then, after growing your army over 2000 PPs, every point after that costs 1 gold per turn. every point after 3000 costs 2 gold per turn... after 4000, 3 gold... etc...
these numbers could, and probably should change, but there's the basic idea. if you have a 2000 point army already, and want another spear, you'll just have to live with 50 less gold every turn.

This will keep the big boys in check, and make markets useful, creating meaningful choices for all - rather than a way to double your "snowball" effect if you are already winning and just crush the heck out of everybody.

Last Edited : Saturday, 25 October 2008 - 21:04

also, it might be interesting to have tribute used as upkeep for expert troops - I.E. you've got to pay your generals a lot more than the rable below, so perhaps:

even if you haven't reached 2000 PP's yet, any Expert troop stack deployed costs you 5 tribute per turn to maintain. (could lower the gold cost a tad to compensate, but not much, really).


Edit:

for a simple look at the math involved in the main suggestion above - a 2000 PP army would be free to support, sombody with exactly 1.5 times the army power, or 3000 PPs, would pay 1000 gold per turn to keep it. somebody with exactly twice that free power, or 4000 PPs, would pay 3000 gold per turn to keep it.

an army 3 times as big as a free army, or 3x the killing power of a starting army would be 6000 pps, which would cost 10k gold per turn to support! wow!

and this isn't unreasonable, considering you can trade tribute for gold - this will keep the rampant tribute (and gold, and troop) advantage of larger kingdoms in check. they will have to spend more to protect there advantage, or if they don't, risk losing it.

Last Edited : Saturday, 25 October 2008 - 21:06