DezNutz wrote:
Workers would not be defensive units. Any defensive ability they have would be minimal. Workers are to work the plantation not defend or attack it. A player would have to build and deploy an army to defend a plantation. Then provide resource and have guard shack to maintaining the army in defense. Armies don't need to be millions strong, thus transporting by ships would be more feasible.
No,this can not be the way to do this. I have spent since the start of plantations building and investing in plantations. hundreds of million gold bars in just 1 plantation. Billions of gold bars overall. Now you want to add a feature that would allow someone to come along and destroy it with no equal effort, investment, or risk??
To your point with hideouts. I have 21 plantations. I need to train and transport 21 armies to defend if you use Hideouts. Someone who wants to raid only needs to train 1 army. EXTREME advantage to the raider. Lets say from the start someone decides to raid one of my plantations. They raise, train, and transport an army to one of my 21 plantations. From the start I do the same. I need to split my army amongst 21 ports. I have already lost. No, the armies for defending a plantation must be raised in or from the plantation. Raiding armies can be raised and trained in Hideouts, but not defending.
I have 1 plantation 50,000 acres, maxed stars across the board. It is the only "Huge" plantation on the board Any idea how much that cost in GBs? your guess better be in the millions to be close.
Now lets say someone like Lola gets a bug up her skirt and wants to raid it? From day 1 she builds and trains an army to do it.From day 1 i train an army to defend. so we are equal with army strength. She raids and by the roll of the dice she wins.
How is that fair?
She has not risked anything. She has not made an investment even fractionally close to mine. She has not invested the time. She walks away with her plunder or whatever and I am left to rebuild.
A few point.
1. investment into raid has to be proportional to investment into the building. Otherwise this is just an open season on large plantation owners.
2. The risk to the raider must be proportional to the risk of the defender. Even in ship raids, if the defender wins, he gets the booty.
3. Raider must have some interest in the port of the plantation they are raiding. The plantation owner has spent millions in Permits, Operating permissions and rent. the raider should be required to have done the same.
That is just the start. I have a list of over 100 different things that would need to be addressed, but before those can even be discussed, the basic mechanics and requirements need to be decided on.
1. I see options to add new ships for this. Military Transports. Armies need supplies.
2.Armies need weapons. I see new buildings and Technology research. Forge in your hideout. Blacksmithing tech.
3. Defensive buildings for plantations. Guardhouses, Watchtowers, Ramparts.
4. What role do the nations play. You can not expect to be able to conduct a raid on a foreign port without a nation being a little pissed.
No sorry, the investment someone has made into plantations to date has to play a role in defense otherwise this will be the end.