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Role Expansion for Great Houses

DaevosDaevos
in Ideas
Currently, the primary mechanical benefit of establishing a Major Great House is that it is possible to earn a Council seat if you are able to raise your honour higher than any other city-aligned House. Also you can give a culture boost to your city/commune by becoming the Most Honourable House. Unfortunately, there isn't much conflict in those areas. The reason behind that lies in the fact that accumulating hundreds of thousands in honour is extremely time-consuming. In fact, one family has been at the top of the rankings for well over a real life year, and there have been little if any changes in which families hold the Council seats.

Now it's understandable that creating a family and raising it to prominence should be a long term project, but there is a lack of short term goals on the mechanical side. In addition to that, Houses are nothing more than glorified clans without many of the functions of being clans. So there are two separate perceived problems.

1. The race for honour is too drawn out and linear to truly inspire passion.
2, The ability to shape the identity and unique character of a House mechanically is more limited than a clan.

Even though these are two separate issues, I believe that it is possible to kill two birds with one stone. I want to offer two possibilities for exactly how that can be done, but let's start with a quick look at the differences between houses and clans.

QUICK SUMMARY OF CLAN POWERS

Can:
Write to the log
has a newsboard
has an aether channel

Can't:
Has no bank account
create orghelp files
delegate powers
create org structure
create project group
create org summary

This disparity between Houses and clans is one reason why most Houses have a family clan in addition to the actual House, but what if you didn't have to have a clan? What if you could purchase improvements for your family? Now imagine if the possibilities extended beyond just clan powers. For example, what if you could purchase a family emote? Or specific RP flavored family traits? Hell, what if you could purchase a bank account which would allow credit deposits for purchasing things like family Homesteads? It's in the cost where one solution can spread to cover two perceived issues.

I see two different possibilities in that area. On one hand, it could be simple and each upgrade or improvement would have a significant honour cost. That would add a minor strategic element to the honour race. Then on the other hand, the cost could have two components. The upfront cost would be in gold, but each purchase would make obscurity hits more likely and honour lost from them more significant.


Comments

  • DaraiusDaraius Shevat The juror's taco spot
    edited December 2013
    I'm a fan of any improvements to the family system. It's unlikely to happen for a while due to the combat overhaul in progress. I'd personally like to be able to do something with deeded manses. A way to officially link cartels to families would be swell too.
    I used to make cakes.

    Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
    edited December 2013
    Being able to purchase or otherwise unlock family upgrades or other cool things via honor would be great, as long as it's not that OR participation in the current e-peen contest of family honor. As is, you tend to feel bad for leaving your family, because they are mechanically punished by you marrying out, without any of the RL advantages marrying two families together historically had. 

    It would also be fantastic if the family system was updated and expanded in general, especially for great houses. The ability to not only have banner houses (A temporary alliance of sorts between two families) but also branch families (people with a different mechanical last name who count as part of the same house), or honorary/adoptive members who can't be born into the family or don't want to marry in would all be cool additions. 

    EDIT: Also, some of the weirdness could stand to be fixed, like family deeds (which do nothing), and not being able to recognize your parents if you're married.
  • MunsiaMunsia The Supreme Goddess
    edited December 2013
    Also for being able to unlock things with honor. 

    I also can't really understand the can/can't very well (which is which) but if I read it right, you're saying families have no bank account? They do, just only great houses do.
  • ZouviqilZouviqil Queen of Uberjerkiness
    Maybe have the honor system work like the beast trains? Using up a certain amount of trains, but still having that many trains total?

    What sort of things would you like to even unlock?
  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
    They do have a bank account, it just doesn't do anything for great houses. The largest bank account can ostensibly be used as a tiebreaker for houses that are otherwise tied in honor, but that only happens to lesser houses (all of them).
  • MunsiaMunsia The Supreme Goddess
    Enyalida said:
    They do have a bank account, it just doesn't do anything for great houses. The largest bank account can ostensibly be used as a tiebreaker for houses that are otherwise tied in honor, but that only happens to lesser houses (all of them).
    It works like a bank account for every person/org in the game. It shouldn't have to do anything else.
  • DaevosDaevos
    Alright, you do get a bank account at Great House, but it doesn't accept credits.
  • MunsiaMunsia The Supreme Goddess
    Actually I kind of wouldn't mind a sort of lesser % going into family accounts plus being able to deposit credits, but the way most families are I wouldn't count on that actually being put to any real use. It'd just be treated as year 1 credits where they kept them for themselves.
  • DaevosDaevos
    The main use I see for giving family a central location to contribute credits to is Homesteads.  Building a homestead is a way that a family leave their mark on the world. It also allows them to add another layer of identity to what their public identity and reinforces what they value. So if each member were able to contribute a little and easily see the numbers raise and raise, it could be the spark that sets ablaze a collective effort.
  • MunsiaMunsia The Supreme Goddess
    Yeah that's what we're using it for as well. We have two major gold dumps as a family, though. 
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    Are you saying you'd want to be able to buy things with honour like you would essence/gold, or that if you hit certain levels of honour, it unlocks things?
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • ZouviqilZouviqil Queen of Uberjerkiness
    Shaddus said:
    Are you saying you'd want to be able to buy things with honour like you would essence/gold, or that if you hit certain levels of honour, it unlocks things?
    Personally I'd prefer the latter.
  • MunsiaMunsia The Supreme Goddess
    Maybe either or. Simple utility things. Start tossing ideas for them I suppose. Maybe like 5% xp boost with family members in squads? I don't know.
  • ParuaParua
    Porque no Los dos?

    At certain honor thresholds you unlock perks, but you have to buy them with gold
    A whisper from the trees and a frosty presence tells you, secretly, "But you are strong, little 
    flower, and wise." The voice shifts and expands, becoming more real. "And everything you just said 
    in the ritual made me feel safer. You should, too."
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    I'd prefer the first, with a minor amount of the second.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • SaranSaran
    This is... well kinda what the players were asking for back in the day when we wanted great houses to be more than... I believe "nerfed clan" was the feeling at the time, especially when you considered that most families that had reached 50 members already had their own clan. 

    I believe one of the things that had been asked for was the family homestead or estate. 
    This was ideally going to be in their org, and would need to be designed room by room by the family, and I believe that some bonus structure was intended to be part of this. 

    This would have been a tie to an org for each family along with a more permanent impression of who they are. These rooms would not be easily modifiable so you would have needed a firm grasp of who your family are before you start designing things. 
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