Avonmora Population - New Nation Control Expansion

[ChaIbaud]

Nice changes. Didn't read any of them, but I guess when I actually want to I will.

[Stan Rogers]

The trick is to start with something simple that can be expanded upon. The installment of cannons into a port would be the first step. Of course there would have to be some defining guidelines that govern an event like this such as number of militia available in a port to man said cannons, thus limiting number of cannon available to population.

The hostility rating in a nation is given to specific players and auto fire of the militia would be tied to that so if Dirty Dingus with a hostility rating of ?? points tries to enter any port of that nation, the cannon auto-fire forcing him back out to sea. Maybe auto-fire on him at the top of hour or if he fires first, immediate return fire.

Port cannon fire should do much more damage than ship cannon fire. Port cannon are larger and have better range than ship cannon. A single port volley could severely damage a war fleet and even sink some stuff like cutters and sloops. Again, how much power should they have ?

This stuff would in no way choke off trade for anyone and it could be expandable to more exciting stuff especially with political maneuvering as types of control could be realized down the road.
First though we need to define some basic stuff that would involve putting cannon in ports.

[PhoenixKnight]

PhoenixKnight, could you give your thoughts on what 'realistic equation' is?

Simple

New population = old population + 0.02x old population x (random birth integer - random death integer)

[Slindur]

The trick is to start with something simple that can be expanded upon. The installment of cannons into a port would be the first step. Of course there would have to be some defining guidelines that govern an event like this such as number of militia available in a port to man said cannons, thus limiting number of cannon available to population.

The hostility rating in a nation is given to specific players and auto fire of the militia would be tied to that so if Dirty Dingus with a hostility rating of ?? points tries to enter any port of that nation, the cannon auto-fire forcing him back out to sea. Maybe auto-fire on him at the top of hour or if he fires first, immediate return fire.

Port cannon fire should do much more damage than ship cannon fire. Port cannon are larger and have better range than ship cannon. A single port volley could severely damage a war fleet and even sink some stuff like cutters and sloops. Again, how much power should they have ?

This stuff would in no way choke off trade for anyone and it could be expandable to more exciting stuff especially with political maneuvering as types of control could be realized down the road.
First though we need to define some basic stuff that would involve putting cannon in ports.

Good ideas Stan. I also like maha's idea about having to defeat the fleet's of the port before getting to the port. I think a very expensive legendary voodoo card could be made as a way to not engage a fleet before taking on the port.

[Maha]

I also like maha's idea about having to defeat the fleet's of the port before getting to the port. I think a very expensive legendary voodoo card could be made as a way to not engage a fleet before taking on the port.

Maha refers humbly to the "stealth of night" card that he hadn't thought about yet.

could the party cards be used influencers? getting 50% of the population drunk must have some effect on a battle; smoking kills while an 'all you can eat' party boost morale

[Bmw]

if it does boost moral it should have a side affect of sluggish troops for a few mins so they will fight harder overall but sluggish for a few mins till they start getting there blood pumping and im meaning a small side affect not a massive one that over tops the balance of this

[Mugiwara]

There are a lot of good suggestions in this topic. Currently influence(directly) or population doesnt effect port productions. Only hired crew amounts play role which is not offer that much strategy.

We should effect port production positively or negatively with our actions(im not counting fertile lands since its not obtainable anymore only current stocks can be usable). Our efforts should change profits of trades or popularity and income of ports. There are a lot of suggestion about port buildings lately so it might be good to bump this post aswell.

[Captain Jack]

Bump

[PFH]

I think we need to focus on other tactics to deal with the population. Honestly, this can be complicated, whereas adding new and simple functions may make this easier to understand. The NPC tax, In my opinion, is fine the way it is. I think the Natural disasters should be played into this, whilst adding nation structures. One of the structures is a hospital, which protect certain populations of the tax paying citizens. Maybe add voodoo cards that increase the chances of a natural disaster by 1% each cast?

This would add different tactics for nation control and would add balancing for population control. With nation pop boosts should come chances for more disasters or increase the damage of a disaster. This related suggestion was mentioned in the plague forum topic. Specifically Shadowood with his vaccine idea for the plague.

Populations can be dealt with in different ways. You don't have to just kill them all. You can add in functions that make them depend on food, medicine, and morality of the council's decisions (or something like that.) This could add different taxes and fees (such as 10% of food sales/vaccines profit sent to nation that controls port.)

With more voodoo ideas comes even more tactics and different strategies into PG, which is what this game is about. There are multiple ways to skin a rabbit. How you skin it depends on the options available. My point is that we should just add different functions to this game. I think people are looking for that, and would make this game way more interesting.

This was inspired by other forum topics and suggestions. Suggestions mostly from Shadowood and Stan Rogers.

This is a repost from the " Population Control proposed Fix" forum post.

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

There are a lot of good ideas being put out on this topic! Many different thoughts from different locations- no way to take the time to read over all of it. I offer the following based on my thinking after reading what I could...

Population growth occurs naturally in a healthy environment. I would assume port population growth would occur naturally at a certain small percentage in a neutral environment. What effects population growth from there in the real world? In a word, economy. The ability to support a family without killing yourself at work while producing a good income contributes to larger families. Things like trade and industry (plantations and perhaps other structures that can be built at ports) lead to jobs, which leads to economic growth and growing population from growing families and people attracted to the area.

Number of ships owned by the port's controlling nation members, number of dedicated trade routes connected to the port, number and size of healthy plantations located at the port- I would envision all of these things and other similar dynamics would bump up the nations growth rate. Cards that could be cast to increase the rate of growth could be related to abundant harvests, festivals or other such things. Perhaps merchants could have the option to invest food resources as a means of investing small bumps to population growth. Nation missions could be created around all of these things.

Requiring merchants to feed the population seems unrealistic. However, food supply could be important as a means of guarding against the occasional drought or famine- both of which could seriously hurt the population numbers if not dealt with. I would suggest granaries be built at ports which could be upgraded to hold more food based on financial investments of merchants. During times of drought food would be consumed from the granary, and once food ran out the port would enter into famine and population would decrease at a substantial rate- a rate that would increase the longer the famine lasted.

Voodoo cards could be cast by players to increase the possibility of drought. Also, cards of particular interest would be ones that targeted a ports food supply- Rats, Mold, and Pillage food supply (take a percentage of food and relocate it to another granary of players choice). Perhaps even ships could be used to attack the port to take food and/or other resources, thus reducing the food supply and negatively effecting population numbers. Ports prone to raid would develop a negative reputation for security, and population growth rates would be negatively effected. Of course ports would have to be allowed to put in place measures by which they could protect themselves from such raids.

Ports with good defense and large granaries would be seen as good places to settle down and raise a family, thus population growth percentages would get a bump the more a nation invested in these things.

Disease is also a factor in sustaining population numbers. The larger the population, the larger the possibility of an outbreak of disease. Unhealthy working environments (plantations with high mortality rates for instance), contribute to chances of disease outbreaks. Hospitals could be built at ports to help guard against and deal with disease outbreaks. Better facilities reduces the chance, duration, and severity of disease outbreaks, thus nation member's investments in hospital facilities would be key to protecting the population. Voodoo cards could be crated to effect these port dynamics as well.

Perhaps all of the above factors would contribute to at least two statistics: over-all life expectancy (which would contribute to increase in natural population growth), and an economic health rating (which would contribute to population growth due to migration into the area). Maybe a third statistic related to port security that would also bump up migration rates.

The governor's job would be to monitor all of these things and communicate the port's health and status to the nation's council, who would be responsible for mobilizing nation members to deal with the issues if the nation wants to maintain healthy ports and a stable tax base. The nation's council would therefore also be inclined to reward nation members who made significant investments in helping secure the health of the nation's ports.

As I stated elsewhere, I am in favor of getting rid of TI, BD, and any other cards that have a direct effect on population numbers. I feel instead there should be cards that could be cast to effect the factors that contribute to positive and negative population growth, the effects of which could be countered by the efforts of member nations should they be organized enough to do so. Nations that could not mobilize their members to respond to events would suffer the greatest harm to population numbers.

Just some thoughts, most of which has been inspired by other posts I have read on this issue.