Joining a kingdom, as a merchant/advisor

[Furry Eskimo]

As I understand, joining a faction's military is one of the fastest, easiest ways to gain power in these games. Makes sense. It's risky, dangerous, and focuses on the military lifestyle of these people.

But how can merchant players gain power??

Well.. No one has time for a weak merchant, but what if players could join a kingdom, and volunteer themselves as a merchant? The gameplay wouldn't be too different really. The goal would be to trade a certain amount of goods, and the player would gain influence if they were able to earn a lot of money.

The player would compete with NPC traders for dominance. Whoever was the most profitable and reliable would gain influence. Competators may try to sabatouge their competition, so there's still incentive for players to keep a guard.
But, if there was a unit that couldn't fight, but carried extra items, players may try to command a huge fleet of slow units, with almost no defenses.

What do you think?
I'm hoping to deepen the experience for players wanting to trade, seeking power through more peaceful methods, recognizing the dangers of this choice,

[Darth Revan]

That would not work out in some aspects, you always need soldiers in this games, even if you are a trader because there are roaming groups of bandits and so on. When you get attacked by 40 or more bandits then you need more then just a few guards or they will smash and/or capture you regularly.

[E]

I'd absolutely love to play a civilian and gain non-military paths to victory. But sadly these games are oriented way too heavily towards combat and warfare (and horse-mounted warfare especially).

I dream of a game which has both civilian AND military aspects fleshed out really well, and offers multiple ways to win the same prize.

Kinda like Civ games, or games set in ancient Rome - be a powerful politician, a wealthy merchant, a popular general, a great religious orator or a scheming murderer and go any of those ways to become emperor.

Sadly M&B is not that game.

[IlluminaZero]

If Talesworld has any sense they will support infantry specialists with nice sexy infantry-only Polearms. You can actually get a disturbing kill count; even on field battles, with a good polearm. Especially once you reach 1 hit KO mode and are comfortable flanking enemy positions with your character...

The difference in kill rate between infantry and cavalry is obscene with good judgement and placement. Especially compared to lance combat due to the need for momentum and constant circling. I could feasibly kill over 10 dudes as infantry in the time it takes a Lancer to kill one.

[Callum]

Just my personal thoughts on this, but: Wouldn't it be much better to not attach yourself to a faction if you want to make the biggest profits while trading? In times of war, your productive enterprises and trade routes would be restricted, which would be bad for business.

My advice would be to use the deep economy of our sandbox to ensure your favourite faction is well supplied and prosperous without working for them in an official capacity.

Also, there are some missions that are focused more around trade, but to be clear, we see trade as more of a supporting feature of the game, with the combat and battles being the main attraction.

However, with that being said, I will pass on your suggestion about using trading as a viable path to power.

[^0D4rk^4Sylux]

Originally posted by Furry Eskimo:

As I understand, joining a faction's military is one of the fastest, easiest ways to gain power in these games. Makes sense. It's risky, dangerous, and focuses on the military lifestyle of these people.

But how can merchant players gain power??

Well.. No one has time for a weak merchant, but what if players could join a kingdom, and volunteer themselves as a merchant? The gameplay wouldn't be too different really. The goal would be to trade a certain amount of goods, and the player would gain influence if they were able to earn a lot of money.

The player would compete with NPC traders for dominance. Whoever was the most profitable and reliable would gain influence. Competators may try to sabatouge their competition, so there's still incentive for players to keep a guard.
But, if there was a unit that couldn't fight, but carried extra items, players may try to command a huge fleet of slow units, with almost no defenses.

What do you think?
I'm hoping to deepen the experience for players wanting to trade, seeking power through more peaceful methods, recognizing the dangers of this choice,

or dont get dedicated to a faction rather to cities themselves ... like in the game the guild 2 renaissance where your rivals are shadow families and you could work your ranks to a mayor / jailer whatever in that town may be even spread your influence from there