“Seek Tribute” is kinda silly

[SuicidalCivie]

“Print Money” basically, and worst of all, nobody loses. That doesn’t fit hell. I think resources should be tied to map control, more cantons more resources. This way resources are conquered and a zero sum game.
Then, in addition to the steal tribute spell and the diplomatic demands add the option to risk a praetorian’s live to rob someone’s vault or to hire pillagers (armies, but weaker that can cross borders).

[Medicus]

Steel tribute cost more than it gives.

[Azathoth]

You're using HALF of your available actions to "print money". Hardly free

[SuicidalCivie]

It’s free from external pressure/requirements. In most other games resources are either fought over or need to be defended. The whole boom beats turtle beats rush beats boom system of RTS.
Mostly, I just found it ironical that a game with that setting is mechanically a post-scarcity society, an utopia like Star Trek. But I also think it’s the reason why boom is meta in the game. You don’t have to expose yourself or challenge anyone, just choose the get rich button over any other action.

[We Burn]

Ursprungligen skrivet av SuicidalCivie:

“Print Money” basically, and worst of all, nobody loses. That doesn’t fit hell. I think resources should be tied to map control, more cantons more resources. This way resources are conquered and a zero sum game.
Then, in addition to the steal tribute spell and the diplomatic demands add the option to risk a praetorian’s live to rob someone’s vault or to hire pillagers (armies, but weaker that can cross borders).

I have seen a lot of informed opinions about cantons being too weak and seek tribute being too strong. I think there is a lot of truth to both statements. I think that introducing cantons (with roughly the same prevalence as PoPs) that produce a small amount of resources over time (with the periodic tributes that you get every 5 turns for example) is actually not a bad idea, encouraging earlier troop movements, border skirmishes, etc.

I think a lot of specifics would need to be hammered out (how many, how much, static generation or does it scale with something, can it be captured as easily as a regular canton, etc).

I do not really like the raiding idea and such. I think the game has a lot of avenues already built in for legitimate and interesting interaction, the balance just is not perfect for supporting those yet. If some cantons can produce resources, we give a little power to vendettas which are currently underutilized.

[=(FGR)=Sentinel]

Yeah, the big issue right now is there's only five ways to get more tribute coins:
1. Seek Tribute: trivial to do, in the early game it's basically mandatory to fill extra order slots and the best option if you don't know what to do.
2. Demands: risky, forces a war if it doesn't work, isn't guaranteed to get you anything worthwhile when it does
3. Stealing from other Archfiends via ritual: not entirely reliable, costs a fair bit, isn't guaranteed to break even on the investment.
4. Regular tribute offerings: happen every few turns, but provides limited tribute coins. Far less than the number you can get in a single turn of Seek Tribute.
5. Praetors: Some Praetors give additional, specific tokens every regular tribute cycle when in a PoP. Guaranteed type and value make it more reliable, but these praetors are rare and an expensive investment considering they aren't assisting an army.

Looking over all that seek tribute is really the only reliable and useful way to get a lot of resources, which hilariously encourages picking it as much as possible, then using the resources to buy up legions and other things to make it hard for anyone to attack you. Once you have the military to fight anyone off, just seek tribute constantly, get more order slots, and repeat until you need to start earning prestige to win.

[Trappist]

I think this is a pretty bad idea, to be honest. The game does not need to encourage more military play, it's weak in this game for good reason.

You should absolutely be able to win with no points whatsoever, as you currently can easily.

[Indestructibirb]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Medicus:

Steel tribute cost more than it gives.

I noticed this recently, it's basically a significantly less expensive version of "corrupt tribute", which is fine, but it rarely makes you money.

One exception to this is to try and steal from Beezy right after he kills something big. If you're lucky you'll get his converted coins. I did this twice to a Beezy who was way ahead of me once and he ragequit, lol.