Town Shop Demolition

[Hugh Longshanks]

Here's a thought: What if the ruling clan in a town could degrade (rather than upgrade) the shop in said town? It would cost money (perhaps half the price of upgrading? Or the same price) and would simply remove certain items from the shop.

I can hear the horrified screams already: WHY?

Answer: Chaos. What better way to cause trouble with another clan than to take their shop (perhaps in a midnight raid) and wipe it clean before fleeing to some far-off location.
Perhaps you don't feel like pissing off a powerful, well-equipped clan like Silver Legion or the White Tower? PErhaps instead you want to cement a monopoly on a certain item (like, say, Heron Mark Blades, or a couple high-level weaves) in order to prevent your opponents from gaining an edge on your character - just delete that item from all the shops you can get your hands on.

Any comments/suggestions?

[alSeen]

theres only one problem with this, clans like Malkieri had like 5000 wins in a town like the first week. its hard to top that just to destroy a few items. can anyone think of an easier way to do it? oh and i like this idea, gotta love monopolies

[Crom Cruach]

The idea is intriguing, but I think that raids are a prerequisite to that. As it is now, town conquests are meant to be on a permanent basis rather than raids. But raids are cool, so why not implementing them?
Besides, raids could help balancing the town upgrade system, which now allows only an undisputed advancement. I mean: it would be more realistic if towns could also be made worse and not only better, and it would add to the gameplay.

An idea for raids could be to allow clans to conquer towns temporarily by scoring a high number of wins in a certain time (like 300 wins in a day??), even though they don't actually overtake the current ruling clan. They'd gain full control for a while (like 12 hrs??). Then (if in the meanwhile they haven't yet consolidated their leadership by having the top wins) the town goes back to the previous ruler, who'd have to cope with any change made to the town (including Hugh's evil degrades ) during the raid.

[Tim]

The issue with this is that the ruling clan isn't the only one who effects the shop. Any clan with more than 100 wins can open a shop in a town and sell goods, which then show up in the one town shop. So if the ruling clan can 'destroy' goods, then whose shop gets destoryed? It could also be abused by any clan not raiding but just happens to own a town and doesn't want any competition from other clans, so they destroy everything the other clan is offering.

[Crom Cruach]

I'm not sure that the ruling clan could have real interest in destroying other shops in their town, because the 20% of every sale goes to them, so the other shops aren't in competition to them but they increase their profit.

Anyway, a way to get around this issue could be allowing raids only in case a clan gains temporary control of a town (see my post), and restricting the damage they can do only to the current ruling clan's shops.

[Hugh Longshanks]

Well, now that I think more deeply about it (Tim, you KILLED my idea ) I realize this would only work if you gave the ruling clan unlimited control over other clans' shops in a town they control.
I wouldn't object to it - it might actually give private shops more of a chance, given the right circumstances (can anyone say "black market"?) - but it would also theoretically badly damage minor clans' abilities to make money.

One question, does anybody know roughly how much money clans are making off of shop sales these days?

[Crom Cruach]

Maybe there is another way to carry out your idea. No, I'm not just stubbornly insisting on that for the sake of it, but I really got a divine reveleation that might lead to other interesting ideas

I thought of WEEVILS
Yeah, I mean food spoilage and all the other nasty actions a true Darkfriend would undertake. There could be a counter-action to every in-game activity, like a horde of trollocs trampling down your farm's harvest, or weevils spoiling the food in the local inn, or a fire destroying the shops weapon stock, or bandits stealing your goods while you're trading.

Obviously you could make these events randomly set by the system, but a more interesting solution would be allowing players to create these events on purpose.
What a player would need is just some sort of skill, like infiltration, or something of that sort, depending on the nature of his evil deed, and perhaps some coin may be required in certain cases.
But the main consequence for the player chosing to cause any sort of wrack would be to be publicly reckognizable as Darkfriend. This would actually create that conflict good/evil that GoS in my opinion is still missing.

And, in case you're worrying about Darkfriends getting too powerful and monopolyzing the game, there are loads of ways to balance their power, like for instance a new sort of player-created quest to hunt down a Darkfriend player, which might cause the Darkfriend to loose money, goods, or even exp. levels.

That would entail a number of new skills (like a Darkfriend skill to conceal their true nature, or a thief-catching skill to unveil them), new darkf. classes, and possibly more PvP interaction.

[alSeen]

crom...you're a bloody genuis! love that idea. cant wait to be unvieled as a darkfriend

[michael]

Love all the thoughts that would make it more like the books.

[fearless]

i like the idea of having to consistently have to defend to town... it would make the clan members have to stay home to defend the town.... however, under to current duel system, a high ranker can come in and pwn everyone under them ( usually ). perhaps if you wanted to wreak havoc on a town you could only attack up ? ( this would make the perishable goods at the inn/tavern/wisewomen much more in demand )

[michael]

I like to see the Markets have a bigger role in the towns once again to, maybe one of our five characters or how ever many u have .has to have more of a direct role in a town ,we see all kinds of characters in the books roaming the streets, maybe one of your characters would have to be a gaurdsman at the gates another maybe your local butcher something like that but that would then again fall under jobs. its an idea