ConquestOfSkyrim
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The plans for V0.4
🕑 Added 2023-03-24 12:23:25 +0000 UTCGreetings Conquerors,
Now that V0.3.9 is out, V0.3 is right around where I want it to be for now. Therefore, it is time to discuss the plans for V0.4!
Where V0.2 focused primarily on the administrative aspects of ruling a faction and V0.3 focused more on the military aspects what does that leave for V0.4? Diplomacy!
Peaceful Conquest!
The main idea behind this update is to be able to conquer without all of the battles that you've gotten used to. This includes things such as uniting the citizens of a city behind you to overthrow a Jarl, political marriages that put you in a position to inherit the throne in case your spouse were to meet their unfortunate end, an espionage system that allows you to set up spy networks in cities to enact your nefarious deeds, offering existing Jarls the chance to join your faction peacefully, more diplomacy options with other factions such as alliances or joining the currently existing factions, and more!
Loyalty Reworked
This update will include a reworking of the Loyalty system.
When you don't rule a city, there will be two types of loyalty in that city: The citizen's loyalty towards the current Jarl and their loyalty towards you. If Loyalty towards the current Jarl is high while Loyalty towards you is low, your chances of uniting the people to help you acquire the throne is extremely low, and you'll need to have an alternative way of getting there. On the other hand, if their loyalty towards you is high while loyalty towards the current Jarl is low, you are in a very good position to stage a coup to attempt to take the Throne with the people standing at your back!
When you DO rule the city, the two types of loyalty will be almost the same. You will still need to worry about the citizens' loyalty towards you. However, instead of their loyalty towards the current Jarl, you will need to worry about the current Jarl's(that you appointed) loyalty towards you. This means that the Jarl you appoint will have an ever changing opinion on you depending on how you treat them. These two types of loyalties pave the way for my plans to bring back the Rebellion system.
Since there are two loyalties, there will be two types of Rebellions. If loyalty of the citizens is too low, you will have an angry mob on your hands. These are large but ill-equipped rebellions that only try to take the city they are in. On the other hand, if loyalty with your Jarl is too low, you will have a true Rebellion on your hands, which the Jarl you appointed will create a new faction and attempt to declare their independence from you taking their city with them. These are smaller but more-well equipped. This will start a war between your two factions and they will have the ability to attack your other holdings as well. However, if only the Jarl has low loyalty while the citizens remain high, then this rebellion will be small and easier to put down. If both loyalties are low, the true Rebellion that your Jarl starts will now have a lot more troops and will be much harder to put down.
I'll go more into depth about what you can do to affect these loyalties in a future post.
Faction Diplomacy
After you conquer that city peacefully, keep in mind you are still in the middle of a Civil War with two sides wanting every city they can get their hands on (and even if the war is over the winning side won't just let you take one of their cities just like that). Therefore, both Tullius and Ulfric (if they're alive) will send you messages offering you the chance to keep your throne in exchange for joining their faction. If you reject the faction that previously owned the city, they will declare war on you.
However, if you do join the faction there will be certain restrictions that you'll need to agree to including disbanding your army, being forced to declare war on the opposing faction and making an oath to the Emperor/Ulfric. These restrictions are negotiable. Additionally, if the Civil War is still going on, then the two factions will now make moves on each other and you'll have the opportunity to join battles fighting for the Imperials or Stormcloaks.
I'll go more into depth about all of this in a future post.
Espionage
One of the main features of this update is to include an espionage system. This comes in the form of recruiting a new government position known as the "Spymaster". With enough gold, the Spymaster can set up spy networks in any city, allowing you to get information on that city such as the loyalties of the citizens towards the Jarl and you. You can also use the spy network to affect those loyalties such as through the use of paying public speakers to give negative speeches about the Jarl or positive speeches about you. Additionally, you can use the spy network to start a coup in the city and attempt to take the city with the people at your back.
Causes (Idea from Simdrew)
What exactly are you fighting for? Why should people want to support your bid for the Jarl of a city or to become the new High King? That is where causes come into play. Upon starting your faction you will be prompted to give your stance on issues such as Talos worship, Skyrim independence, Fighting for a specific deity or race, and more. You can also have no opinion on any of these issues as well if politics aren't you characters thing.
Sponsors
One more feature this update will include is that of sponsors for your faction! Sponsors are citizens in Skyrim that have access to gold/resources that could potentially be provided to your faction, with some persuasion. Potential sponsors include rich citizens such as Olfrid Battle-Born or Torbjorn Shatter-Shield.
Now you may be asking: How do I persuade these sponsors to give me their gold or resources? Plenty of ways! You could offer them a political marriage/betrothal between you/your children and them or one of the members of their family. You could offer them a position in government such as making them the Jarl or simply a Thane of the city. Or they could quite simply just support your cause.
Once they've agreed to support you, your faction will then receive more gold or resources per day.
Anyway that's basically the gist of what V0.4 is going to be about. There are still more specific details to include but I wanted to let you all know the general idea behind it. Thank you all for supporting me for all this time!
Comments
Xen Cogdell
if you get to that point might wanna make it possible to join the non civil war factions too or to make a reputation system to get their troops and abilities
Reinfarcements
I have one request for this mod before you are done with it and that is some sort of "Endgame". Basically once I end the civil war and conquer everything, I think it would be super cool to still have the possibility of future wars happening. Examples are remnants of a defeated Civil War faction, bandit clans that united together, Undead armies, Thalmor invasion, Forsworn, etc. I don't know how you would go about adding these dynamic factions, maybe spawning them in the wilderness somewhere, and if they mange to take a city they could become a real proper faction. It would make diplomacy very interesting, imagine making allies with a faction of Necromancers that managed to take a hold, and together taking out the Empire. I have every confidence however you implement a feature like this, it will turn out awesome. The one thing I want to avoid with this mod is conquering everything and feeling no threat to my kingdom.
CarriedDroner
2 things on the current build. 1. When you use the cheat book to gain holdings, none of them seem to count towards “room” for your armies. The only 2 slots I have are two camps I took manually, and even when assigning armies away from those areas into towns, it doesn’t allow me to recruit another commander until I get another camp. (I have all the forts and cities) 2. When sitting on the throne I accidentally got up without saying anything to the steward, now when I sit, I get no options.
Liam Rudge
Hi I thought I would share a few things you could do with this mod: Replace the menu system with a custom UI. You've made the game ever changing, and it's given players a background to do something other than questing, which I really enjoy. With a custom user interface, you could expand on the ways players can make decisions outside of conversations with an NPC. Build out the Treasury system. As part of your loyalty rework, you could consider offering the option of funding other causes and conflicts that will weaken regions that players intend to conquer, giving players more strategy based options. A rival army to fight through the journey to conquer Skyrim. There could be someone else out there who views you as the tyrant. Simdrew's Causes idea might be the inspiration for this. In order to keep the game challenging, CoS could include a rival army that scales with players and provides a storyline that repeats, for instance. The rival kicks your arse, someone else becomes the high king, you are thrown into jail, you have to break out and then you become the next Ulfric, and the cycle continues. You could even bring about consequences for entering civilized and guarded areas again, making you feel like an exiled tyrant, until you've won over the hearts of the people. The creativity you've put into this mod really make it unique. Thanks for making such a great mod!
JoMama KidRiley
Any chance you will be adding Stalhrim to the list of armor we can choose to upgrade our troops too? I know you can just custom add it, but i like the weapon randomization of choosing to upgrade troops with certain armor! Just a small idea! I love this mod and will soon be donatin 100$ a month to ya! keep up the fantastic work
Galvatron530
Faction relations are certainly something I'm planning on too! And that'll play a big part in deciding who becomes High King if you're a Jarl that joined a particular faction.
Galvatron530
These are good ideas! It gives the player reason other than just roleplaying to make their decisions for their cause.
Ordinn
Great idea, I was tired of having to declare war to get my first city The best idea is still to join a faction, it would be nice to have relations with them and therefore advantages in exchange (Long live the emperor) (and why not to become high king if the emperor allows us? or if ulfric falls in a staircase and dies) off topic but it would be interesting to appoint a moderator on the discord, I suggest Simdrew who is very involved an idea, would be also that one of the camps grants us the title of jarl in exchange for the help during the civil war
Simdrew1993
Excellent work Galvatron! I'm super excited for this update more than any of them. And I thank you for including my cause idea. I've honestly had so many brainstorms and ideas I can't even keep track of them all anymore lol. These ideas are all fantastic though and I'm gonna be really excited to see them all in the next release. I will be so glad to see Rebellions come back, I've missed them terribly. These ideas all will add so much to gameplay, and story, and I live for that! Great work! Please do keep us updated on your progress every so often if you can, even small updates are nice. It's good to hear how it's progressing. All the best to you my friend. Oh and a member on the discord Alex Poland suggested that prisoners you hold should have leverage over negotiations with Empire or Stormcloaks. Makes sense, it's a brilliant idea. EDIT: Thank you so much for adding millions option for gold deposits, makes quick starting so much simpler, really appreciate it!
LordSpudTheMighty
You could expand it with deadeic princes. Who give stronger buffs but also give debuffs. Like if you picked molag you would have to turn your jarls into vampires and people would not negotiate with you. But towns you capture will be more loyal or troops would be stronger.
LordSpudTheMighty
I think the causes is a really cool idea and I hope that they have some sort of impact on your game. I think it should impact the game in 3 ways. I am going to use mara as an example First: impact loyalty. Riften has the temple of mara in their town so perhaps riften would be more loyal to you. Second: expansion. The deity you fight for gives you some "buff" (troop buff, negotiation, new unit. More gold, more resources etc. For example mara might give your toops some hp Regen or just more hp. Third. Player buff. Something small you are fighting to unify Skyrim under a deity so you think they would show some thanks. Think like the amulet buff.
