Kings/Queens/Leaders

I think it would be awesome if the towns we create have Kings/Queens/Leaders.

Not sure if this has already been discussed or a prospect, but I think this would be an awesome addition. They could either be elected by us, arrive with the initial villagers, be elected by the people in the game, ranked up through the levels.

What does everybody else think?
Should they have roles in the town?
Special Pre-Defined Outfits?
Coat-of-Arms?

This is the official view as of yesterday:

Taken from the Reddit AMA

  • Have you thought about having kings and queens as a stretch goal? I think that might make for some interesting gameplay.

“We’ve thought about it, but that’s a tough one because it implies a certain kind of city. If I’m the kind of player that’s building a monastery or a trade-city, then maybe I don’t want a king or queen, so that stretch goal has no appeal.”

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Thanks Geoffers. Do you know if Flags/Coat-of-Arms has been thought about/discussed?

I haven’t come across it, but it’s a pretty good idea, I know a couple of people have made some Flags/Coat-of-Arms in Qubicle, but I definitely think it would add a great personal/ customizable layer there. I mean, if you’re gonna be building castles, you need flags!

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My thought exactly!!

flags are awesome, you could build small towers all over the land with your flags to mark your ground hihi (Or maybe some capture the flag PVP content? mhh)

If there was a capture the flag PvP gameplay I’d like two variations

  1. Both teams have their base, try to capture the other teams flag.
  2. One team has a base and has to defend as long as they can before their flag is captured.

Or something to that effect

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Easy solution: We get to input what our leaders class is called, be it King, Emperor, Bishop, Mogul, Pirate-King, whatever.

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Edit: @Pendryn I’m really not happy with how I replied to you in the first instance - I’m blaming Essay deadline day. But anyway.

I think naming a leader in the way you suggest could be quite shallow - I mean potentially the unit will still be doing the same thing, still look the same and still have the same skills, just have a different name?

I’m all for having heroes, or certain ‘legendary’ units I suppose, but as for an overall city leader it’s quite a tricky one - unless of course there were a ton of options when choosing your leader, but then that’s gonna be so time consuming.

If there ever was a leader unit implemented I would personally not want to start with one, but as you progress in the game,nd as certain units distinguish themselves, and everyone grows to love them, then they could potentially be the settler’s ‘leader’.

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The big question on this is what are leaders going to be do, other than wear a shiny hat? Are they going to help manage citizen happiness, provide city wide-bonuses, act as an uber-crafter of some type, automate some of the tasks for the player, or something else entirely? Once we know that their role is it’s easier to figure out how, and if, to implement them.

But on Coat-of-Arms, I also really hope we can design and use our our own arms/colors/symbols for our city; something that shows that when we plant a flag somewhere this is OURS!

-Will

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Or one of us could put together a module that allows a “leader” type unit, but when you set it up you decide how the leader functions, like a merchant lord makes trading easier, or a forest ranger vastly improves trapping or whatever. Just a thought.

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So the leader has a “trait”? That could work well. If they have to rank up to that level through the tree. So a soldier would become a Leader with a fighting trait, a blacksmith with a build speed trait etc?

Seems what is needed more is a governance option, where you have a certain political atmosphere; so if you want a hierarchy you could have a unit that you can name a King, or if you are making a monastery, an Abbot. Otherwise you could go for a council system with one person from each profession gaining a small leadership bonus and increasing morale, with chances of lowering effectiveness in some areas if you put too many resources in to one, to show council agendas.

Have communist as the base society form, where there are no modifiers or leaders ;3

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:open_mouth: wh… what did you originally reply!? Was it harsh? Was it mean? Will I cry? I need to know!

Anyhoot, I dunno, that was jsut an easy solution.

I am all for a complicated, all out, heavy on the details, crafter your own customer ruler type situation where you get to set up how your entire city will run as will.

I’m with the whole “trait” idea, in which maybe the “king” or “leader” unit hightens the moral or those around it? Say near by workers or somthing maybe increase porduction speed?

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I second that. If leaders of some kind make it into the game, such a feature would be nice. I Would kinda work like the Pharao from Age of Mythology :stuck_out_tongue: He had the ability to buff Production-speed of selected buildings, build speed or if i remember correctly the speed which farmers gathered there food from farms.

With a King comes a Queen, and therefor the queen should buff more productive / harvest / build like stuff, while the king buffs things like attack (-speed) or defensive bonus of your units, as well as the (moral?).

It would work much like in real medieval times, the queen is for the people, while the king is protecting the lands.

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Ha, no it wasnt anything harsh, I just came across a bit ‘short’, but never mind!

I’m a bit surprised that no one has mentioned Dwarf Fortress in this thread yet. Or maybe you’re all actively avoiding it. :stuck_out_tongue:
I haven’t played it much, but from what I understand there is some kind of nobles there, that move to your settlement and are very picky about their living standards. I don’t know what pros and cons they give though.

One interesting version of leaders would be that since the player is the actual leader, the current leader character or characters will represent the player. If the people gets too unhappy and the leader don’t have enough respect and loyal soldiers then there might be a revloution and the people choose a new leader. This don’t have to mean that it’s game over (unless you’re playing that kind of game mode), you could just keep playing with the new leader, but there could be an online leader board with the most succesfull and longest ruling leaders. A greedy dictator is succesfull because of his personal wealth but might not last long. A democratic socialist might not get as rich but the equality makes the people happy.
In a monarchy the ruling would of course count as long as it stays in the family.
Involve money as a source of power and you can get social structures with rich and poor.
Conspire and assasinate to get rid of people that challange the the current ruler.

It wouldn’t be easy to implement, but it could get a feel quite close to Game of Thrones.

Ha, no we’re not avoiding DF, or at least if we are, I haven’t been informed.

I haven’t played DF in so so long, but if I remember correctly there were loads of different types of noble,each one allowing access to certain functions and abilities, but you’re right they require a bit more ‘looking after’ than your simple workers.

In regards to your idea about the leader, as far as I know, you don’t really play as the ‘leader’ as you don’t have a character, you’re essentially floating above issuing commands, you don’t have a presence … if that makes sense.

This is just my personal opinion, but I really don’t think that applying contemporary understandings of welfare, social order, political regimes etc, is fitting of the theme, or even necessary for SH, but as I said that’s my opinion. What you’ve talked about reminds me more of Tropico rather than DF.

Also I’m not really getting the GoT link, could you elaborate a bit more?

I would love to see Social Classes in this game too…

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