The new regions problem

[Pico 22]

Peaceful game. The first region is a “large town”, the second a “medium village”. Not talking about bugs, etc. - they are the same everywhere.

The basic problem: the game treats the second (and the third, and so on) region as a totally separate territory. That is simply not right; if I, the Manor Lord, have successfully claimed a region it should become an enlargement of my core territory, with the same administration, duties and privileges. All the other problems spring from this one.

- Finances: you have to start anew.

- Knowledge: you have to start anew. This disappointed me far more than finances.

- I built a logging camp right at the border, next to a great forest, and I ordered the workers to exploit it. The game told me that “work area is empty”. It was not but the forest was on the other side of the border. The same with fields: bad luck if the border cuts across a fertile region.

All of this is completely wrong. What medieval lord would be as stupid as to deny his new territories the benefits and, crucially, the knowledge gained by the old one? And to enforce borders that no longer exist? On the contrary, if he had any brain at all he would try to develop them as quickly as possible. - Also, from the player's point of view this turns the game into even more of a grind.

[Incrediblejimmy]

Originally posted by Pico 22:

All of this is completely wrong. What medieval lord would be as stupid as to deny his new territories the benefits and, crucially, the knowledge gained by the old one? And to enforce borders that no longer exist? On the contrary, if he had any brain at all he would try to develop them as quickly as possible. - Also, from the player's point of view this turns the game into even more of a grind.

I do not think the development points can be seen as knowledge, but rather most of them seem close to rights a nobleman would be gruanted by a higher noble / king. And why should the borders no longer exist? If you are count of region x and somehow also gain the title margrave of region y or similar, the two regions don't suddenly form a unified entity, why would they. As you can see with stuff like the kings tax the intention of the game is not that you are someone conquering and settling in empty lands, but rather you are managing a tiny part of a bigger entity that is ultimately under a king and has some infighting- I would assume the HRE...

[Oddible]

Actually not wrong, only your understanding of what the game is calling "regional wealth" is wrong. You seem to be thinking that Regional Wealth is the manor lord's money, it isn't. Do you honestly think peasants from one region just took money from their own pockets and gave it freely to other regions' peasants? However to resolve this...

- Trading posts in each region trade valued goods. If you have a region that doesn't have anything to trade that's a different problem - at the very least plank trading or leather trading is easy to get set up and running

- Pack stations can move goods from one region to another. If your large town is producing some higher priced advanced goods you can use the pack station to move them to the medium village then sell them at your Trading Post to move wealth to that region. Again, this involves trading in things that have value - for instance my farm region in my current game is smaller so it is sending barley/malt/beer and bread to the larger region and the larger region is sending socks back. The smaller region is selling the socks for money.

Hope that helps.

[Jolie Rouge]

I see development like it was in Stronghold 2 (or close to it):
one region has a deep iron mine, another is specialized in berries, next one is delivering weapons and armor, one is a rich hunting ground,... etc.
And one is your main region with your militia, the largest retinue and consuming everything coming from the other regions, where your "castle" is, so to speak.

[Agony_Aunt]

While you're largely right that new regions are like starting from new, not exactly. You can setup a trade post early or the mule-based trade thingy and give your new region a kickstart by sending it stuff that it needs to get going.

Also, your secondary regions don't need to be as developed as your main region. For example, you need iron, so get a few families in focused on mining iron and send that to your main village while getting food or firewood or something in return.

[Pico 22]

Originally posted by Oddible:

... your understanding of what the game is calling "regional wealth" is wrong.

That's true; my only defense (not worth much but anyway) is that it's easy to forget about the difference between "regional wealth" and "treasury" in a peaceful game. Finances were never a real problem, though; as soon as I built a trade station I was off and after I finally understood how pack stations are supposed to work (and managed to get the mules) I was fine.

Development points are another matter. Most or all of them should be common knowledge; I don't think a king would bother to have any part in deciding whether your subjects may have an orchard or not. The trade tree might be the only exception, but as it stands now decisions might just as well be the product of your own cunning.

Borders between your regions should go; you are colonizing an empty space with the same people who colonized your first territory and not invading a settled province with a cultural tradition of its own. That might change but for now they are just a nuisance that can hinder your optimal development.