Coming Soon: Sovereignty - Brace For Impact

SOVEREIGNTY - BRACE FOR IMPACT

Hold your horses, though - it's not live yet!  But it will be, soon (tm).

The schedule is for a phased release.  Much of the pre-planning and pre-release changes have been made already, and you can read about the visible parts of these in the various Herald updates.  But we are talking completion in days from now, not weeks.  It's more important for us to get it all right than to rush it out if certain areas haven't been fully tested; and we think when you read the posts below you'll agree that it's all worth waiting for.

In the meantime, Sovereignty is a game-changer, and we know many of you are itching to find out what it all means so you can carefully start planning (using the World Map and a calculator) what Sovereign Squares you intend to claim, as well as the NAPs and Confederations you might suddenly wish to rescind 

We know it's a huge wall of text, but read it carefully and it should all make sense.  If you have comments or questions, stick them in this thread and we'll try to answer them.

So, without further ado, here's a guide to Sovereignty.

Regards,

GM Stormcrow

WHAT ARE THESE?
They are the meat between the resource-buns of the Sovereign sandwich.

They allow cities to specialise in different production and support roles.

When you have Sovereignty on a Square, you may build a Sovereign Structure on it, providing you have the required skill.

These Sovereign Structures may be levelled up, but only to the same level as the underlying Sovereignty you currently hold.  So you cannot build a Level V Structure on a square that you only hold Sovereignty Level IV at.

Once a Sovereign Structure is built, the serfs and peasants who live on the square set to work in the type of Sovereign Structure you built, providing additional benefits to the holding city.

You may only build one Sovereign Structure on a Sovereign Square, and if you wish to build a different type, you will have to tear town the current structure first and rebuild from scratch.

Sovereign Structures fall into 2 Main Categories:

• Resource Sovereign Structures, and
• Production Sovereign Structures
  

There are 5 Levels of each Sovereign Structure, indicated as I through V.

Taking them in turn:

These are:

RESOURCE STRUCTURE	BONUS TO
Logging Camp	Wood
Earthworks	Clay
Mineshaft	Iron
Gravel Pit	Stone
Farmstead	Food

Building one of these Structures provides %age bonuses to resource production in the holding city for the relevant basic resource type.


HOW MUCH BONUS DOES A RESOURCE SOVEREIGN STRUCTURE GIVE?
This depends on the resource distribution of the underlying terrain on which they are built.

The formula is:


So, building a Logging Camp I on a square that has 5 wood underlying it will give:


... to Wood Production in the holding city.

On the same square, a Logging Camp V will give +5% bonus to Wood production in the holding city.  Building a Logging Camp IV on a square with 7 wood will give +5.6% bonus.

Again, players will be informed of what bonus the Structure will provide before they build the Structure.

WHAT KIND OF BONUS WILL BUILDING A RESOURCE STRUCTURE ON AN NPC SQUARE GIVE?
These Squares have historically always been 0|0|0|0|0 squares (ie zero wood, zero clay etc).

They have been reseeded with semi-random permutations given 25 available 'plots' and you can see these permutations on the map now.

By semi-random, we mean that certain square types have had a propensity towards a certain resource abundance:

• Ancient Forests tend towards Wood
• Barrows tend towards Clay
• Abandoned Mineshafts tend towards Iron
• Standing Stones tend towards Stone
• Dolmens tend towards Food
• Ruined Towers have a random propensity
  

So one might find an NPC square with (eg) 20 Food on it, and building a Farming Community V here would provide:


These NPC squares remain unsettlable to new towns.

NPC Faction spawns (and NPC resource spawns) on these Sovereign-held NPC squares will continue as usual, and will co-exist peacefully. 

... At least, for the moment...


WHAT DO RESOURCE STRUCTURES COST TO UPKEEP?
Resource Structures do not cost any additional upkeep, beyond the cost of maintaining Sovereignty on the square (Gold and Research Points).


These are:

PRODUCTION STRUCTURE	BONUS TO
Cattle Rancher	Livestock
Bladesmith	Swords
Renderer	Leather Armour
Farrier	Horses
Bowyer	Bows
Poleturner	Spears
Bridlemaker	Saddles
Plate Forger	Plate Armour
Armourer	Chainmail Armour
Engineering Yard	Siege Blocks
Papermill	Books
Brewers' Yard	Beer
Finishing School	Diplomatic Units
Training Ground	Spearmen Units
Target Range	Ranged Units
Military Academy	Infantry Units
Jousting Yard	Cavalry Units
Assembly Yard	Siege Units

These Structures provide bonuses to the speed at which your city produces items and units.

The speed increase is an increase to the number of items produced per hour in that city, and it therefore slighty differs from upgrading the underlying building, although the nett effect (things get built faster) remains the same.

On the production menus for each building in your city you will be given additional information on "Items Produced Per Hour", and how Sovereign Structures are affecting this number.

Please note that we do not currently have Production Structures that increase either Mana, Gold or Research Points - although this may change in the future.


HOW MUCH BONUS DOES A PRODUCTION SOVEREIGN STRUCTURE GIVE?
Depending on the focus taken by the city, the Square Chosen, Sovereignty Level claimed and the Structure Level built... "a lot".

Cities can now specialise in production areas - both of secondary resources (Livestock, Swords etc) as well as unit types (Cavalry, Diplomats etc).

All Production Sovereign Structures give an increase to the hourly production speed of the Sovereign Holding town for the Structure's bonus type, according to the following formula:


Whilst you can build any Production Structure on any Sovereign Square, different Terrain Types give an additional 1%, 2% or 3% bonus to the per Structure Level figure.  So instead of the %age Bonus running from 5% to 25% (for Sovereignty Structure I through V), it can also run from 6% to 30%, 7% to 35%, or 8% to 40%.

These Terrain Types and Extra Bonuses are:

Terrain Type	Structure	Extra Bonus
Abundant crops	Brewer's Yard	3%
Sharp crags	Bladesmith	3%
Abundant Quarry	Plate Forger	3%
Craggy peaks	Armourer	3%
Wooded land	Poleturner	3%
Bountiful land	Cattle Rancher	3%
Rich Clay Seam	Papermill	3%
Thick Forest	Bowyer	3%
Clay seam	Renderer	3%
Rocky outcrop	Farrier	3%
Fertile pasture	Jousting Yard	2%
Bleak mountains	Finishing School	2%
Turned Clay	Bridlemaker	2%
Wooded Glade	Training Ground	2%
Rich quarry	Military Academy	2%
Treacherous mountains	Brewer's Yard	2%
Landslip	Assembly Yard	2%
Abundant Clay	Papermill	2%
Dense Forest	Target Range	2%
Wooded Quarry	Engineering Yard	1%
Stony ground	Armourer	1%
Forested hilltop	Bowyer	1%
Lonely peaks	Plate Forger	1%
Mountains	Bladesmith	1%
Fertile orchard	Brewer's Yard	1%
Exposed Clay	Renderer	1%
Heavy Clay Seam	Bridlemaker	1%
Fertile ground	Farrier	1%
Alluvial plain	Cattle Rancher	1%
Light woods	Poleturner	1%
Scrubland	Finishing School	1%
Open Plains	Jousting Yard	1%
Moor	Military Academy	1%
Clearing	Target Range	1%
Tundra	Training Ground	1%

For anyone interested, these bonuses have been allocated to square types based on what makes sense (ie Woods for Bows etc) as well as abundance/scarcity.  The higher the bonus, the more scarce the square.


WHAT DO PRODUCTION STRUCTURES COST TO UPKEEP?
Unlike Resource Structures, which simply cost whatever the Sovereignty Claim Cost is, Production Structures cost more.

You need to supply these Production Structures with materials from the Sovereignty-holding City to keep them assisting you in building the final product faster.

These resource upkeep costs are instantaneous: ie you don't need to ship them via caravan to the Sovereign Square, they're debited from your City's resource income automatically.

These additional resource costs for Production Structures are fixed rate by Structure Level, and do not vary by distance.

Production Structure Level I: 150 of each Wood, Clay, Iron & Stone per hour
Production Structure Level II: 300 of each Wood, Clay, Iron & Stone per hour
Production Structure Level III : 600 of each Wood, Clay, Iron & Stone per hour
Production Structure Level IV : 1,200 of each Wood, Clay, Iron & Stone per hour
Production Structure Level V: 2,400 of each Wood, Clay, Iron & Stone per hour


WHAT SKILLS DO I NEED TO BUILD A SOVEREIGN STRUCTURE?
There are new skills: lots of them.

I'm not listing them all here, but there are 5 skills per Structure - one for each Structure Level - and the city that wishes to build the Structure will need to have researched the appropriate skill for that Structure. 

These new skills will be underneath the appropriate research type and have the appropriate pre-requisite. 

As examples:

The 5 skills required to build a Logging Camp V will appear under Carpentry in the City research menu. 

The 5 skills required to build a Training Ground will appear under Spear Mastery in the Military research menu.


HOW DO I BUILD OR TEAR DOWN A SOVEREIGN STRUCTURE OF MY OWN?
Go to the Sovereignty submenu in the Holding City's Castle, and provided you have:

• The appropriate skills researched,
• Sufficient resources to build,
• The appropriate level of Sovereignty on the Square for the level of Structure you are constructing

... you will be able to start the building your Structure here.

Sovereign Structure construction does not appear in your building queue, nor does it take up a building queue slot - as the construction is being built elsewhere by your denizens on the Sovereign Square.  You can however see progress towards completion in the Sovereignty submenu.

The cost (and time) to build a Sovereign Structure at a particular level is given on the Sovereignty submenu in the Castle, but broadly follows the appropriate city building pairing (eg):

    * Logging Camp I - same as Lumberjack at Level 1
    * Logging Camp II - same as Lumberjack at Level 5
    * Logging Camp III - same as Lumberjack at Level 10
    * Logging Camp IV - same as Lumberjack at Level 15
    * Logging Camp V - same as Lumberjack at Level 20




Edited by GM Stormcrow - 10 Jul 2010 at 00:10

tl;dr version

• Sovereignty is cool
• Sovereignty allows you to specialise your city, and become monster at what you like doing
• Sovereignty also allows you to raid other people's squares and get moar thingz
• Sovereignty isn't out yet, but is coming soon
• er...
• that's it
  

Edited by GM Stormcrow - 08 Jul 2010 at 19:55

Sounds great, just have 1 question.  I see having sovereignty in a square gives deiging, blockading and occupying armies a slight defensive disadvantage.  Just wondering if they give or may in the future also give the owner of the square a defensive advantage?