User:Urman

Concept: Political Power in Wurm

1. Currently in Wurm, every settlement stands alone, beholden only to an off-mapboard kingdom. Confusingly, there are also “kings” on the wild server, who also belong to the off-mapboard kingdoms. These “kings” are able to assign titles, granting special abilities to a small number of players.

2. Since the kingdoms of Jenn-Kellon and Mol-Rehan have not installed any of their nobles as NPC governors, this proposes a system to allow the players to form sets of hierarchical relationship between deeded settlements. This system will include changes that may affect village chats, settlement exclusion areas, and the titles.

3. Settlement political characteristics. To measure and use political power, settlements will have a number of characteristics related to the political sphere. These would include:

a. Settlement Population Value (PV). This is simply the number of premium characters that belong to the settlement. Basic characters are excluded because we want one system that can be used for all servers; possibly even grouping J-K settlements in wild and home, for example. Including non-premium accounts would give significant political influence to J-K home and be open to alt abuse.

b. Settlement Political Score (PS). This is the sum of the settlement’s PV, guard bonuses, and all subordinate settlements’ PS. The guard bonus for a settlement with medium guards is +1; with heavy guards it is +2. A settlement with only basic members will not gain any guard bonus; its political score will always be 0.

c. Settlement Influence Value (IV). The influence value will set the maximum exclusion area around the settlement, where other settlements cannot be built. This value is 0, 1, or 2. The IV of a Homestead is normally 1, a Village’s influence is normal 2. A settlement with only basic accounts will have its influence decreased by 1 (this affects only settlements on J-K home), so a basic-held homestead on J-K home would have an IV of 0. A 0 IV settlement has a maximum exclusion area of 20 tiles, 1 IV has a 50 tile exclusion area, and 2 IV gives a full 100 tile exclusion.

4. Political relationships. Mayors or other members of a settlement with diplomacy permissions may establish political relationships.

a. In political relationships, the settlement with the higher political score at the time the relationship is made is always the senior member of the relationship, the other settlement is the subordinate member. Political relationships cannot be formed between settlements with equal political scores.

b. A settlement may have a large number of political relationships, but can be the subordinate member in only one. In all other relationships it must have a high enough political score to be the senior member.

c. A political relationship will last for 1 wurm-year (approximately 1.5 months real time). There should be an ability to reaffirm the relationship before it dissolves.

d. A political relationship will collapse if either member settlement disbands.

e. Any exchange of goods or services to cement a relationship is permitted. A diplomat may even betray his mayor and enter the village into a relationship for his personal gain.

5. Subordinate chats. If the senior member of a political relationship is a village, and both parties agree when the relationship is created, the subordinate settlement uses the senior village chat. This subordinated village chat can be canceled by either party, but if canceled cannot be reestablished until a new relationship is made.

6. Titles. Currently one player is assigned leadership of a kingdom, this player selects the persons to be granted titles. Under the political system, titles will be granted to the mayors of the settlements with the highest political scores, the mayors may select a person within that settlement or a subordinate settlement to hold the title. The distribution of the titles will be based on the relative political scores of the leading settlements. One settlement may gain all titles, or they may be distributed between a number of settlements.

Ship Comparison

Component	Weight	Imp	S. Cart	Rowboat	Sailboat	Corbita	Cog	Knarr	Caravel
Occupants				3	5	?	?	?	?
Cargo Volume				576	576	?	?	?	?
Keel section	60	yes	no	3	3	4	4	5	5
Stern	120	yes	no	1	1	1	1	1	1
Rudder	13	yes	no?			2	1	1	1
Ship helm	20	yes?	no?						1
Hull plank	8	no	no	50	50	200	300	400	400
Seat	20	yes	no	4	4
Deck board	4	no	yes			40	60	80	80
Oar	5	yes	yes?	2	2	2	2	10	10
Belaying pin	0.5	no	yes		4	10	10	10	10
Tenon	1	no	yes	50	50	200	200	200	300
Peg	0.1	no	yes	50	50	400	400	400	600
Rivets	0.2	no	yes					200
Tar	2	no	yes	10	10	50	50	100	150
Mooring rope	0.5	no	yes	1	1	4	4	4	8
Thick rope	5.5	no	yes		2	8	8	8	12
Triangular rig		no	no		1				1
Square rig		no	no			1			1
Spinnaker rig		no	no			1			1
Square yard rig		no	no					1
Large square rig		no	no				1
Tall square rig		no	no						1