Kurathene War System
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 parts 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.
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" pointing in one of the cardinal directions. Each sector is made up of areas, which is explained later in this document.) The image on the right 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 subsectors. Each of these subsectors is an actual area in-game. Distances between areas can be around 50 miles (though they area 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 has only three subsectors, with no specific alignment. So though a regular sector ONLY has three subsectors by three subsectors, 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. 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 Neutral ally without declaring war and a fief cannot attack enemy land from a neutral fief's territory.
- Friendly
- 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 spawn 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 have enough gold to setup supply lines (50,000gp)
If any of these conditions are not met, a claim can not be initiated. In-game, the claim is displayed as a flag with the name "Claim Flag." The flag can be destroyed, removing the attacker's claim from that subsector.
Hold the Subsector
Once the claim is made, a 24 hour timer begins. Whichever fief has the area claimed at the end of the timer takes control of the area. If no one has claimed the land, the area becomes neutral ground, which anyone can claim. During the timer, the land can by many different fiefs. 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.
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 lose some national morale, or influence. The amount of influence, support from its populace, is represented by a number known as Influence Rating (IR). Whenever a fief loses an area, it loses 2 IR and vice versa. Normally, fiefs will have an IR of between 0 and 50, but can sometimes go above, or even below, this range. IR affects the amount of gold earned and the cost of some items, such as soldiers. Income is gained every week at the rate of (IR) * (Subsectors owned) * (40gp). A full fief owns 39 subsectors at the beginning of the server and averages around 25 IR, so this fief will earn (25) * (39) * (40gp) = 36,000gp each week.
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
The fief members must place a spawnpoint for each of the four categories of soldier (fighter, rogue, cleric, mage). These spawnpoints are represented by the fief's flag and will be the location where that type of soldier spawns. More then one flag for each soldier can be placed in an area. Soldiers will disperse themselves around the spawnpoints, appropriately. For example, if an area will spawn four fighters and only one fighter spawnpoint, all four fighters will spawn at that one location. If the same area has two fighter spawnpoints, two of the four fighters will spawn at each point. If an odd number of soldiers will spawn, the first spawnpoint will receive the extra soldiers.
To create a soldier spawnpoint, a fief member uses the wand and targets a location. Note: The soldiers will spawn facing the angle between the PC and the spawnpoint, facing the same direction as the PC during the "use" animation. This will open a conversation. Choose "Change Soldier Spawning" then "Add a Spawnpoint," then choose the type of spawn point you want to add (fighter, rogue, cleric, mage). The spawnpoints can be deleted at any time and will remain through server restarts. Any spawnpoints placed in interior areas of a subsector are considered to be part of that subsector. If a PC places one fighter spawnpoint in a subsector and another inside the barracks of that subsector, two soldiers will spawn inside the barracks and two will spawn in the main area.
Deployment Levels
Deployment levels represent the amount or skill of soldiers deployed and are set per subsector. Deployment levels are setup by the fief lords based on the cost of each soldier type. In metagaming terms, this is the total amount of gold worth of soldiers a fief can have in an area. The actual cost per deployment level is listed in the Soldier Configuration part of the guide. Deployment levels range between 0 and 10, where 0 is no soldiers and 10 is 150,000gp worth of soldiers. The cost for the deployment of soldiers is automatically deducted from the coffer. Deployment level 1 might spawn in three level 8 Fighters, while deployment level 10 could spawn in four level 20 fighters, two level 20 rogues, 1 level 20 mage, and a level 20 cleric (soldier levels are capped at 20). Each of these configurations is unique per fief.
Deployment level is also changed by the fief wand and affects the entire subsector (including interior areas of that subsector). After using the wand and targetting anywhere in the area, choose "Change Soldier Spawning," then "Change Deployment Level," then choose the level of deployment.