Kurathene War System
Note: This pertains to the Avlis NWN iteration of the Kurathene; now defunct.
The Kurathene Empire represents a whole new approach to player interaction. Players now own entire nations and have the ability to attack each other, exchanging land. The system controlling the method and rules for how land exchanges hands is known as the Kurathene War System and the code and scripting behind it all is often referred to as the "war code." The following links will take you to the various sections of the Kurathene War Sytem. Of note: the "How to Capture" link briefly covers the basic rules and instructions to capturing a fief. Links to more detailed information are located throughout this document. For the basic reasoning behind the various systems, please follow the "Design Document" link.
Game Concepts
IR:
IR, or Influence Rating, is a catch-all term that refers to the overall 'health' of a fief. A fief with a high IR has a happy populace, good relations with neighbours, strong alliances and trade links, etc. Alternatively, a fief with low or negative IR is in a bad position, having poor relations, conflicts with other fiefs, famine, riots, or any combination thereof.
IR affects a number of areas. Primarily, it determines how much gold a fief earns each week. However, it also impacts on capture costs and the type of troops that can be deployed by a fief. A fief can have any value for IR, positive or negative, but a standard value will be somewhere between -40 and 40. The fiefs will not know exactly what their IR is at any given time. DMs will be able to modify IR to account for in-game happenings, such as the signing of a trade agreement between two fiefs, a heavy bandit raid on a fief, a poor harvest, or any other influence that they see fit. In adition, IR will automatically be adjusted when a fief gains or loses territory or changes relationships.
The Coffer:
Each fief has a coffer, which represents the funds that are availiable to that fief. Fief lords can deposit and withdraw money from the coffer, though withdrawing money takes several days to complete. Money from the coffer is then used for various purposes, including paying for troops and placing seige equipment.
As well as direct contributions from PCs, there are two other ways in which the coffer can be influenced. Each fief has a weekly income that is dependant on the number of areas they hold, and their IR. This represents profits/losses from taxation and the running of the fief. The formula for weekly income is:
100 * # of areas * IR
Also, many fiefs choose to charge players for the use of key services, such as shipping to other fiefs, the use of crafting placeables, and gathering of raw materials.
Fief Membership
There are two types of fief membership. Civillian members are counted as part of the fief, but have no access to a fief wand (and hence the military aspects of the warcode) and carry no rank. Nor will they be attacked by soldiers of fiefs with which they are at war. Members of a fief's military are able to perform various war-related activities depending on their rank, are able to access fief-restricted areas and storage, and will be engaged by enemy soldiers.
Rank
Each memeber of a fief's military has a rank. Ranks range from 1 (the fief Lord) to 5 (a common soldier), and affect the priviliges that each person has within the fief. The following table lists the rank required to perform each task. Civilian members of a fief have no rank.
| Action | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Promote to Fief Lord | x | ||||
| Transfer Sectors | x | ||||
| Withdraw Gold | x | x | |||
| Change Relations | x | x | |||
| Cancel Captures | x | x | |||
| Move Respawn Location | x | x | |||
| Change Deployment Levels | x | x | x | ||
| Create Seige Equipment | x | x | x | ||
| Add/Remove Fief members | x | x | x | ||
| Change Spawn Points | x | x | x | x | |
| Create barricades | x | x | x | x | |
| Request Active Duty Soldiers | x | x | x | x | |
| Claim an Area | x | x | x | x |
Layout
The original design of the Kurathene Empire required a systematic approach to give fief lords an equal footing from the beginning, give coders an easy way to program a capture system, and still make a map layout similar to the Kurathene map. The final result was a "cross" layout where each fief would have a main city bordered in each cardinal direction by a cluster of areas. Understanding the layout will help you navigate through the Empire and will allow you to understand how captures work.
The image on the left is a diagram of the actual sector layout for the fiefs (A sector is simply one of the "arms" of the "cross"). Each sector is made up of areas, which is explained later in this document. The lower of the two images is an actual map of the Kurathene Empire. If you compare the two, you will notice the sector version of the fiefs do not always line up as they do in the map. Additionally, the sector versions are certainly not shaped like the fiefs on the map. This is strictly an OOC contrivance. IC, fiefs are shaped the same as the map on the right. The fief names and borders in either of these maps may change during gameplay as areas are captured. Also, some of the fief names on the actual map are incorrect, please use the sector map as a correct reference. Kuras is not considered a typical fief and does not follow the guidelines described in this guide.
Sectors
Focusing down on a "full" fief (a fief with a full cross shape), one will see the make-up of each sector:
As the blow-up details, each sector is made of nine total in-game areas. Distances between areas can be around 50 miles (though they are sometimes contiguous), much like the Wilderness server. So a typical sector is considered to be rougly 300 by 300 miles.
In the middle of each fief lies a city sector, depicted with a vertical line fill in the sector diagrams. A city sector is made up of only 3 areas, with no specific alignment. So though a regular sector is ALWAYS made up of a 3x3 grid of areas, a city sector could have any arrangement (Two subsectors in the east, one in the west or even all subsectors lined up north to south).
The last sectors are "wild" areas or "wild" sectors. Most of these sectors will not be in game, at first. The wild areas depict uninhabited or dangerous areas that are not included in the capture system, though they may eventually be filled with "adventure areas."
Capturing An Area
Capturing an area is accomplished through four steps:
- Declare War
- Attack the area, killing all enemy soldiers
- Claim the area
- Hold the area for a certain amount of time
Note that only the fief holding the land at the end of the timer actually becomes the owner of the area.
Fief Relationships
The first step to capturing an area, declaring war, is part of the fief relationship system. A fief does not need to declare war on another fief for every area it tries to capture. For example, peace measures between Cytheria and Halstead begin to fail and Halstead wishes to expand its borders. Halstead declares war on Cytheria (automatically making Cytheria at war with Halstead) and captures an area in Cytheria. Until both sides officially declare peace, Halstead may continue to attack Cytheria.
A state of war is only one of the three different types of relationships in the Kurathene war system, which includes peace(neutral), allied (friendly), and war(hostile).
- Hostile
- When fiefs are hostile towards one another, they are considered to be at war, even if combat is not imminent. Soldiers spawned by either fief will automatically attack members of the opposed fief. This is the only relationship fiefs can have to capture territory.
- Neutral
- Neutrality is the most prevalent type of relationship amongst the fiefs. Neutrality, also known as peace or non-agression, allows other fiefs to travel, unhindered, through the other's territory. Soldiers will not attack each other unless provoked. A fief cannot attack a fief to which they are nuetral without declaring war and thus a fief cannot take land from a neutral fief's territory.
- Allied
- Friendly relationships, also known as alliances, offer many benefits. Soldiers will come to the aid of their allies and a fief can attack an enemy from his ally's lands. Additionally, allies can host soldiers in each other's territory.
In the example above, Cytheria and Halstead were orginally neutral, but Halstead eventually declared war so it could capture Cytherian territory. If Julaspium were allied with Cytheria, Julaspium could position soldiers in Cytherian territory to help defend against Halstead.
Claiming an Area
| The Fief Wand |
The Fief Wand controls everything in the Kurathene war system including:
|
In order to capture an enemy's land, the attacking fief must claim the land as his own. Claiming the land ICly means a fief has destroyed enemy forces and has begun to setup supply lines necessary to support the area. A fief member claims a subsector by using the fief wand. In order to claim an area, certain conditions must be met:
- The subsector must be cleared of enemy soldiers (including interior areas of the subsector)
- The attacker, or an ally of the attacker, must own land bordering this subsector
- Any claim flags in the subsector must be destroyed
- The attacking fief must spend gold to setup supply lines (50,000gp)
All of these conditions must be met before a claim can be initiated. In-game, the claim is displayed as a flag. At any time, the flag can be destroyed by the defending fief, or any other fief, removing the attacker's claim from that subsector.
Hold the Subsector
Once the claim is made, a 24 hour timer begins. Whichever fief has a claim flag placed in the area when the timer expires takes possession of the area. If no one has claimed the land, the area becomes neutral ground, which can be claimed by anyone. During the timer, the land can be attacked by as many different fiefs fulfil the capture creitera. In order to regain the land, the defender needs to destroy the attacker's claim and place his own claim. No matter how long each holds the area, only the fief holding the subsector at the end will control it. If no one has the area claimed at the end of the timer, the land becomes neutral: owned by no one. In order to reclaim the land, a fief must start the process over again by reclaiming the subsector.
Post-Capture
When a subsector is captured, the defending fief loses some gold due to the spoils of war the attacker takes. Additionally, a fief that loses control of an area will lose some national morale and the fief that takes control of the area will gain some national morale. National moral is represented by a number known as Influence Rating (IR).
Raids
As a fief controls a claimed sector, the amount of time held is recorded. When the area is finally captured, gold is taken from the defender and handed out to each fief that claimed the area based on how long each held it. For example, Halstead attacks Cytheria and claims an area. After 10 hours, Cytheria takes back the land and holds it until the timer runs out. Even though Cytheria would own the land, they would lose some gold due to Halstead's control (and the cost of re-claiming the area) of the sector for those 10 hours. If a fief controlled a claimed area from start to finish and it received 30,000gp, a fief controlling the same area for 10 hours would gain 10/24 of the 30,000gp or 12,5000gp. The amount of gold taken is dependent on how many areas the defender owns and how much gold is in the defender's coffer.
Influence Rating
In addition to losing gold, if the defender loses the area it will also suffer from a decrease in Influence Rating (IR). Whenever a fief loses an area, it loses 2 IR. Whenever a fief gains an area, its IR increases by 2.
Soldier Deployments
Each fief lord has customized his/her own soldiers and determined the organization of these soldiers on the field. The nuances and rules behind setting up the soldiers can be found under the Soldier Configuration section of this guide. It is then up to the PC fief members to setup where these soldiers form and which organization or deployment level will be used. This is all accomplished in-game through the fief wand.
Soldier Spawnpoints
In order to deploy soldiers, you must first setup spawn points. This is done using the fief wand - simply follow the prompts and select 'Add a Spawn Point'. You can add as many points as you wish.
After you add a spawn point, you will be asked to add soliders to it. You may select from your fief's entire inventory of NPC soldiers, with your limit being the gold in your coffers, and no more than 200,000gp worth of soliders in any single area.
Once your points and soldiers are setup, you can modify or delete them at any time, again by using the fief wand. When modifying or deleteing, the point you have selected will be marked by a yellow glow.
Warcode How-To
Join a Fief
To join a fief, you must first contact a senior member, either directly in-game of via the forums. Once you are accepted, you will have to meet a senior member of that fief in-game. That person will then use their fief wand to mark you as an accepted member. Once this is done, you must speak with an NPC soldier from the same fief to finalize the process. This will cause you to be added to the fief as a civillian. You will not carry any military rank until you are promoted, which can be done by any fief member who is two or more ranks higher than you.
Add/Remove Gold
Each fief has a coffer which contains the gold that is availiable for deploying troops, building siege equipment, funding invasions, and any other activities. In order to add gold to your fief's coffer, you must speak with a soldier from your fief. This can be done by any fief member at any time. To remove gold from the coffer, you can also speak with a soldier. However, this can only be done by high ranking members (see the rank chart for details) and there is a delay of one RL week between requesting a withdrawl, and the time that the money becomes availiable. Speak with a soldier again when the timer is up to collect the gold.
Assign Soldiers to Active Duty
Fief members of rank 4 and higher can assign soldiers to active duty. This means that instead of remaining in an area to defend, the soldier will follow you and fight at your side. To assign active duty soldiers, speak with any soldier that belongs to your fief. Note that the selections you have availiable are based on rank - higher ranks can assign better soldiers to active duty. Note also that if the soldier is killed while on duty, your fief will be charged an amount gold dependant on the quality of the soldier.
Obtain Fief Equipment
Each fief has access to an 'equipment locker', which can be created with the fief wand. If you are not sure where your fief's locker is, ask a senior member. To use the locker, simply insert an item of armor, a helmet, or a shield into the locker and close it. When you reopen it, your item will have been converted to a fief item with the same properties. Only insert one item at a time.
NOTE: Each fief has only one option for each armor type. For example, Medec's troops use Full Plate as heavy armor, so placing any heavy armor in the locker will convert into full plate. The same is true for shields - most fiefs use tower shields, so placing any shield into the locker will convert it into a fief tower shield.
Conduct Diplomacy
Ideally, diplomatic negotiations will be conducted IC between fief members in-game, or over the boards. The warcode components are mostly the finishing touches, to set things up mechanically.
Treaties
In order to improve your relations with another fief, (to go from war to peace, or peace to an alliance) you will both need to sign a treaty. The treaty is a note written with the ANS system, which details the terms of the treaty. Once you have written this note, you must use the fief wand on it to convert it into the appropriate treaty. It must then be given to a senior member of the other fief, who can use their wand on it to accept or reject the proposal.
Note that signing a treaty with another fief will increase both fiefs' IR.
Breaking Alliances/Declaring War
In order to disimprove relations, simply select the appropriate option from the fief wand. Note that breaking alliances or declaring war reduces the IR of both fiefs involved.