About the civil war comment I made... To clarify, you start in the underground city of Yliakum, which is a large, underground region which you can read much more about on the main website, under the settings page.
anyways.. when it boils down to it.. its an idea... and in my experience of game design its always best to start off with \"delusions of grandeur.\" as no matter what the starting point of the design it will always loose a lot in the devlopment.. (i back up this comment with 3 years of study into a degree in computer game devlopment and 2 years working for electronic arts)
Well, I suppose \"delusions of granduer\" can be of help, if in the beginning as a vision of what you want a game to be like...
as for politics... yes u could launch a lengthy campaign of convincing players to vote u in as the next mayor so that eventually once u r in power u can take all the gold out of the treasury and deposit it into your original town... but surely that is a lot more longwinded and far less fun than seiges
There are a few problems with that tactic... The main one being revolt. Nobody will like having the treasury drained for some campagin, unless they are bgin paid for it or gain from it in some way. Not many, at least. It is more longwinded, yes, but sieges, in medieval times, were long, hot, bloody, and very costly. An assault on a castle usually turned out to be a wait as to who\'s food supply would run out first. Disease becomes a \"big\" factor. Rats did too. These are just a few of the points that come up when launching a campaign, and there are surely much more. Such as Weather, Defection, Doctrine, and several more things. And spies could lie.
I am pretty sure there are posts floating around here on guild wars and politics, which I am too lazy to search for now.
if you want that, you might as well bring in balista\'s those giant wanna-be crossbows that launches enormous spears.
hmm... they will be verry strong, easilly penetratable for walls and armor, but because it projectile is very heavy and wont be able to get long range, it will have to get real close, like within 30 meters or so of its target, making it easy to spot and dodge.
Spears are lighter than stones, and yet catapults, for examples, or trebuchets, laucnch their projectiles from a very long distance. Also, a ballista would have a strong amount of force released, and would thusly be able to launch a spear fromfar away. Also, if a ballista had close range, it would NOT be cost effective. Battering rams would be more effectinve at knocking down walls, and longbows for piercing armor. Plus longbow arrows may or may not be faster than ballisa bolts. Crossbows are effective for piercing armor as well, I think. Magic, too.
Basically, what I am trying to say is the ballista needs a longer range. Otherwise, it would be useless. Send in a group of swift-footed cavalry from behind, and the ballista is dead.
