[Lara]

First, implement the new High Seas ships for players in game.  Understand how they are crafted and what they can do.

Ship Transport
Provide a way for coin masters to build ships.  Three levels, transport only, armed, and war galley.  The armed ship gives +1 bonus to the army it carries, and the war galley gives +2.  The ships cost 1, 2 and 3 gold at end of month respectively.  First at court level 4 and second at court level 8.

Once the ships are built, and we don't know how long they will take tooo build, they can be used automatically by an army when it tries to cross over/into water.  Using the same muster pass, once you try to cross into water it should force you to choose which ship you want to have carry the army into the water. Movement is the same 7 hexes, and combat is based on the army on the ship and any bonus provided by the type of ship.

Idea: If the ships will take weeks to build, is there something players can do in game to speed up the construction? Such as providing materials?

[Lara]

This is for the proposal of both militia and mercenaries, both on land and sea.  This first post will discuss some proposed differences.

READ BELOW FIRST

Militia/Flotilla
From a realistic perspective a militia is formed out of local and loyal soldiers of their country. The goal of militia and a sea flotilla is to act as "land mines" to slow down an incoming army.  Our initial thought is that they would cost 1-2 gold to form, and then if an incoming army hit them, it would stop the army and destroy one of the armies units but would destroy the militia.  This might be too powerful, maybe instead of destroying a unit it causes it to function at a -1 for a turn (or two).  Either way the militia is destroyed and would need to be reformed at a new cost. Also, it would be good for the spymaster to be able to cause a distraction that would render the militia ineffective for a turn or two.

What distance from ones own hexes can a militia be formed? Inside only? One hex out? Two hexes out? More cost for father out? How close to someone elses hexes can a militia be formed?  Can a land be occupied by another team if a militia is in it?

Mercenaries/Privateers
Where as mercenaries are paid guns and can be hired anywhere to do just about anything. One of the problems with the current implementation of RPCSS is that moving armies across the map really slows down some of the urgency of game play. It would be nice to be able to hire mercenaries (almost) anywhere on the map and then send them off to cause trouble.  They should certainly be more expensive then armies, and there should probably be some limitations on where they can be recruited from, and how far they can move.  Torolf?

[Lara]

Okay .... New Design!

We are going to actually go back and bring in a design that we've had sitting around:

We are going to implement a pause before attack.  Right now, you can march and auto attack if you hit another army, but if you want to support or defend, you have to march and then the following week support or defend. (In planning group attacks this gets confusing) We feel like it would be good for the RP and planning, if marching did not include an auto attack, but instead if two armies might encounter each other, they will stop, and then the following week orders to attack, defend or support would be given.

We do loose some of the "surprise" of attacking from seven hexes away ... but that functionality also eliminates our ability to role-play with potential conflict.  It makes it hard to have a "two generals meet on the field before battle", or "preparing for a seige" for example.  These kinds of RP opportunities would be good to have, and the only way to have them now, is if one player feels like giving up their advantage by telling the other player its about to happen, and most of us are not willing to do that, especially when our allies think we are crazy.  By forcing/redesigning the system to require a pause before attack, we open up a lot more options for RP and in game color by seers.