Passed Rumors of War

[DeletedUser]

Proposal: Rumors of War.

The seas and islands of Grepolis often seem quiet, but that is only because word of the bloody battles of foreign cities never reach our shores.

Whether the battles include our closest allies, nearest neighbors, or our most hated enemies... or cities we care little about... the whispered rumors of war should spread from island to island, as the bored peasant population of the cities and villages gossip of the great battles of distant armies and navies... and speak in awe of the possibility of war coming to their own shores.

Reason:
To make the Grepolis world environment more active and entertaining... and to allow opportunistic players a chance to take advantage of current events. This is a tool to create action and reaction. Allowing all players to get a better feel for the islands near by and for more aggressive players to leap upon moments when a foe may (or may NOT) be in a weakened state... these reactions may of course spawn more reactions from other players.

Plus its cool to log on and see who's been kicking whom's butt... =)


Details: The system would work like this:

This would be a passive system:

1. After any battle or conquest attempt has been completed, rumors may spread (through a new type of report - which a player may disable if they don't want to hear about it) as follows:

Battle occurs on island: 80% chance of a city hearing of the battle.

Then for off island rumors, the chance of hearing of the battle will lower by 10% per hour of distance (based on the same time/distance "delivery time" table used by the Market place).

There is a chance that the rumor will be wrong... any or ALL of these mistakes could happen within a single rumor report:

1. chance that the winner/loser will be reversed in the report: 20%
2. chance that the attacking city will be displayed as the attacked city: 15%
3. chance that a city not involved in the battle will be named: 5%

Rumors do not spread beyond the 6 hour mark, this is a "local seas" thing... gossip whispered ear to ear by the peasants, fishermen and traders.

2. The only details spread by Rumors of War will be: who fought the battle and who won. No troop counts or anything like that. This is a rumor, not a spy report.

3. Rumors do NOT spread instantly, as I stated above, these are whispered stories spread ear to ear... in the evening at taverns... on the docks at dawn... or around the camp fire deep into the night.

The time until a city hears of a battle through the rumor system would be 200% of the market place "delivery time" chart AFTER the completion of the battle or conquest attempt.


Visual Aids:
none. This is just a report.

Balance:
none that I can think of, as this effects low and high level players equally and is meant for the local island group only.

Abuse Prevention:
it may allow opportunistic players to take advantage of cities that may be down at the moment... but is that abuse or game excitement?

Summary:
We all love gossip and rumors... especially of other people's glory and misery. Hence the love of nightly news shows, professional sports and soap operas.

Rumors of War will add background color to the world... indirect action... glory for the winners of these battles.... shame for the losers.... as well as possible info for smart players.

- The Rooster

 

[DeletedUser]

This may adversaly effect aggressive players, as they can no longer count on attacking other cities in anonymity.

Currently the first time non-allied players on an island hear of an attack is after a conquest... with Rumors of War they may hear of the *war-monger* much sooner... and if they see a pattern of attack... they may realize *THEY* are next and agree to gang up on the attacker... making temporary alliances for self preservation and to drive back the invader.

Or else they may try to ally themselves with the attacker.... and *GIT* their neighbor... whom they have always disliked... because his city is filthy and the stench of rotting garbage and over-boiled cabbage keeps wafting over their shoddily built city wall and lingering in the air over my clean and pretty city.... ruining the nice day my population was having at the city park.

Curse you Don Juan Spartacus IV and your lousy lousy city sanitation department!

 

[DeletedUser]

pushing this one step further, we could have a rumor page (like the rankings page) that would show the battles of the day per ocean... or perhaps just the biggest battles of the day... month... year.

Like in the movie Troy... where Brad Pitticus joined the fight, because he knows the Trojan War will be the biggest - most CGI intensive- battle of all time... and he wanted to be part of the glory people will speak of for ages...

Or at least until "Troy II - Megahorse" comes out... this time the Greeks give the Trojans a huge wooden horse as a gift which... after dark.. transforms into a rocket launching robohorse that devastates the city.

 

[DeletedUser2795]

please do not triple post, you can just edit your first post, and I dislike this idea

 

[DeletedUser]

This idea confuses me, do you want an early warning system for when people are attacking people near you? What's the bit about brad Pitt meant to be?

 

[DeletedUser]

-1 I dislike this a lot and as carf said what are you going on about?

 

[DeletedUser]

Well, without triple or heaven forbid quadruple posting, and without ANY attempt at humor which seems ill received and misconstrued constantly on this forum for some reason...

I'm talking about an automated system of reports that will imitate a real world phenomenon... specifically gossip.... the way news travels and people talk.

In the game, the city right next to me may be owned by some guy on the otherside of the real world. His city may be attacked a dozen times and I would know NOTHING about it, unless he and I actually email.

If his city and mine were really on an island just a few miles apart, my government would hear about attacks on his land. Not right away, but over time... as peasants, fishermen and travellers interact.

My point with Brad Pitt and the movie Troy, failed attempt at humor aside, was that his character wanted to fight in Troy, because he knew people EVERYWHERE would hear of the war... and thus earn him wide spread glory. Even in the ancient world battles were not anonymous events... they were spoken of again and again from shore to shore.

Its great, from a player standpoint, to be able to raid city after city right next to each other, with no forwarning of attack, but the truth of the real world is rumors spread... and rumors of war spread fast and far, as fear energizes the rumors passing.

 

[DeletedUser]

I dig the idea. Something to break up the monotony of constantly farming cities that keep turning into ghost towns and then disappearing.

Any battles/conflicts that happen can then be "heard" of by way of rumours. So if another city on your island or an adjacent one is involved in a pitched battle, you can get some kind of story or headline about it. I like it. Kind of a reputation thing. 'Oooh, Ozzeus just ransacked three cities. He's badass.''

The robohorse scares me though.

 

[DeletedUser]

I like the ideas, however the chance of the people knowing should go down by 15% for every hour. That way, only someone up to 5 hours and 20 minutes should learn. Also, the farther away the rumors travel, the less accurate the information should be. However the right location should be given despite distance.

So if I'm 5 hours away, the troop numbers/losses will be less accurate than if I were on the same island.

 

[DeletedUser]

Ozzeus: Thanks! You described it better than I did! That's EXACTLY the effect I imagined.

And ya... I thought a wooden Trojan Horse Transformer was a pretty damn funny visual lol!

 

[DeletedUser]

Empirebuilder: I have no problem with the distance being lessened. The idea was to only hear about wars on local islands.

And to be honest, the idea of reporting the number of units was completely secondary. I imagined this functionality as rumors, not spy reports.

Just who fought... and who won... and if a conquest occurred.

Sometimes the game can feel very quiet and static.

Rumors of War is meant to help the players feel the action and movement occurring in the game around them... without revealing too much info. Although a smart player may strike a neighbor right after he's lost a battle... when he thinks he may be "down".

Like Ozzeus said, it will create a more dynamic and interactive environment, and let everyone know who the badasses are! =)

 

[DeletedUser]

But this can be a negative. I would hate it if someone knew by a Rumour that I was farming someone and they pulled a cheap move like spiking the city.

 

[DeletedUser]

Hi Myrmidon King,

Absolutely it can be negative.

That was what I was unsuccessfully trying to get at in posts two and three.

it can harm the aggressive players and we need to take that into account before deciding on this, it may unbalance (and punish) the most active (aggressive) players.

But Rumors of War is "real world-ish"

Wars and battles were never silent events, the people talked of them... word spread.

But remember, these rumors do NOT precede an attack, they will come to other cities AFTER the attack... quite some time after the attack if the rumor spreads off island (rumors spread at 1.5 times the trading resources time).

So it can't be used to make preemptive moves, but can be used to take actions after the fact.

-The Rooster

 

[DeletedUser]

As Mymidon King said, it can harm aggressive players. Therefore, as the probability decreases, the estimates of the troops should become less accurate. Therefore the system for troop numbers should be like this:

On the same island: correct troop numbers +/- 20%
1 hour away: correct troop numbers +/- 35%
2 hours away: correct troop numbers +/- 50%
3 hours away: random troop number information
4 hours away: random troop number information
4+ hours: not troop information, only the winner and if there was a conquest.

This ties in with the 15% probability reduction/hour that I described.

 

[DeletedUser]

You could just have a report where it says ' person A and person B joined battle at Grepolis village, There was a great slaughter.' This could be if say 1000 troops died etc. so you could have:
encounter
skirmish
minor battle
major engaement
slaughter
massacre.

And for naval battles only;
ships sighted
naval encounter
the sea was on fire.

Things liek this would hide the exact troop numbers that died.

 

[DeletedUser]

I like it Carf!

We could combine your idea and Empirebuilders...

using NO actual numbers, but textual descriptions of battles... the farther the distance the more likely the info will be inaccurate.

It would be fun having a creative writing contest, were we can all attempt to write short but cool descriptions of battles, with blank spaces for the name of the winner, loser and also the city where the event took place.

The mighty legions of _Shawn_ massacred the overwhelmed and exhausted forces of _Rooster Jones_ before the high walls of _Rooster City_.

LOL!

 

[DeletedUser]

Great idea. I can't wait for this to go into voting(mine is a YES!) Also look at this thread:

Alliance Warehouse

 

[DeletedUser6029]

ummm, Cant you find out who is warring and attacking and taking cities, and winning, and slaughtering by looking at http://www.grepostats.com

I personally find that I can find out anything I want about a player, world, alliance, or war on grepo. I am not a big fan of another "report" to my already busy report list with all my trading, spying, looting, attacking etc....

I vote this down.

 

[DeletedUser]

In Defenso of this Idea...

ummm, Cant you find out who is warring and attacking and taking cities, and winning, and slaughtering by looking at http://www.grepostats.com

I personally find that I can find out anything I want about a player, world, alliance, or war on grepo. I am not a big fan of another "report" to my already busy report list with all my trading, spying, looting, attacking etc....

I vote this down.

It would be better just to see what's happening from in-game, rather than having to go to another website. Furthermore, you won't get notifications from Grepostats, but have to observe trends. Having a system in-game will help you take advantage of current events would be better.

Grepostats is good, but mainly for looking at ranking, who's doing well in general. It isn't that great for seeing individual battles.

 

[DeletedUser]

Still don't like this idea as dominotx has said use grepo stats, your making the game more complicated and we don't need more things to confuse player's we are doing just fine as we are!