0014831: Burlust Influence Mechanics: Fury and Influence (or respect) - DEV Arcen

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0014831	The Last Federation	Suggestion		Apr 30, 2014 10:00 pm	May 1, 2014 10:24 am

Reporter	Drak	Assigned To
Status	new	Resolution	open
Product Version	1.008 (Hotfix)

Summary	0014831: Burlust Influence Mechanics: Fury and Influence (or respect)
Description	The Burlust should give respect (or influence) for shows of strength, so basically most (if not all) HOSTILE acts INCREASE Burlust respect/influence. To balance this (since raiding Burlust for purely positive gains would be imbalanced) most (or all) hostile actions would ALSO increase Fury. As Fury increases, the Burlust become more and more agressive, both towards the player, and towards the other races. So building Fury unchecked makes creating a (non-strong) federation more and more difficult, and imposes additional inconveniences upon the player. Most (if not all) Friendly acts now reduce fury, instead of increasing influence/respect. Bulrust fury attacks (which have a greater chance of happening the higher the fury level is, any time the player is at a Bulrust planet, installation, or near one of their Armadas - just like assassination or AFA attacks), would also reduce fury a little (as the Fury is vented), though the tactical battle may build some of it back (through ship destruction, etc). Bribes could also potentially reduce Fury (if further options are needed for balancing). Relation increases (even with other races, so without any player intervention), should also help dissipate Fury a little (so generally stable system relations also helps to stabalize the Burlust). Etc. This would be a much better mechanical means of dealing with Burlust politics than the current system imo, as it gives the Burlust a more appropriate flavor. Now strength dictates your influence over the Burlust, but as you seek to control them, they seek to lash out more and more, so Bulrust politics become a balancing game of building Influence/Respect while managing Fury. OR you can ignore the Fury, and let it build, and the Burlust will become ever more warlike, which opens the possibilty of victory through a completely hostile (strong) federation - as you poke the Burlust to ever greater heights of Fury, and more frequnt wars. All the while gaining their respect and ultimately unlocking the ability to begin a (strong) Federation with them. (Basically a conquest Victory). Now for the "Duels"... So influence/respect gains should be based on current level of influence/respect, with decreasing gains as influence accumilates. <60 influence and most (possibly all) hostile actions, including destroying Burlust ships, give the "full" influence value, and the full Fury increase. But upon hitting 60, the influence gains have their value reduced (you've already proven your strength, they're not as impressed by the little things any more), but now the ability to Duel the Secondaries unlocks (you've proven yourself a worthy enough foe, Duelling the Prime is still locked at this point though) which give you the best means of gaining Influence/Respect at this point (or possibly through blackmailing them/assinating them/etc). Basically the focus shifts from random acts of violence to a contest of wits and/or combat prowess vs the secondaries. Though sheer persistence of hostility could still get you through this phase without ever duelng a secondary, it'll require alot more effort. At 90 influence the Prime's Duel option unlocks and influence gains from fighting the secondaries drops, while random hostility drops even further. Also note that even though the influence gains are dropping as you advance, Fury increases stay full value, so as you progress, you're having to spend more and more time managing fury, or fighting off enraged Burlust. Since hostile acts no longer decrease influence (but rather increase it) the Burlust never really "hate" the player (that's handled via Fury), if this proves to be unbalancing, influence can decrease over time, thus requiring the player to remind the Burlust who's boss from time to time. This may cause issues though, as the effort of building influence is lost during the time spent managing the Fury that came with the efforts to regain the influence/respect. Another option would be to allow losing battles to decrease Burlust respect, and possibly certain "cowardly" actions as well (though I can't really think of any examples at the moment, bio warfare might be a real world example, running away might be another example). So Burlust influence should become negative only under the strangest of circumstances, but High Fury has similar mechanical reprecussions. Also note: This system means that simply doing friendly acts won't win over the Burlust (or even increase your influence over them), they respect strength, not kindness, so you're going to have to show them you're stronger than they are and impress them. Friendly acts will help pacify them, but if you never challenge them, they'll just treat you like a child - helpful, but not impressive. Further note on starting as Burlust: Again, This system would mean never (rarely) having negative influence, so instead of starting with negative influence, you'd start with a huge Fury increase. Docking at the station would reduce this Fury significantly (similar to the influence mechanic), whereas destroying the ships would give increased influence/respect, but also even more fury.
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Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Apr 30, 2014 10:00 pm	Drak	New Issue
Apr 30, 2014 10:24 pm	Drak	Description Updated
Apr 30, 2014 10:27 pm	Drak	Description Updated
Apr 30, 2014 10:28 pm	Drak	Description Updated
May 1, 2014 9:30 am	Drak	Description Updated
May 1, 2014 10:13 am	Drak	Summary	Burlust Resentment and Influence (or respect) being two seperate stats => Burlust Influence Mechanics: Fury and Influence (or respect)
May 1, 2014 10:13 am	Drak	Description Updated
May 1, 2014 10:24 am	Drak	Description Updated