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Revolt, After Revolt...

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:24 pm
by defekt
...after revolt, after revolt, after revolt, after revolt, after revolt (ad infinitum).

I've tried to give this game a jolly good crack of the whip but the interminable spiral of revolt following leader death following revolt is wearing me down. :(

Death spirals come about absolutely randomly. All it takes is one leader to die and another to die within a few years of that death to embed a string of loyalty penalties that feed directly into a revolt spiral. Be unlucky enough to have another death occur within 5-10 years of the second and pretty much you're done, through no fault of action or inaction on the part of the player. "Fair enough," you might say, "these things happened." And they did! But in this game they happen an awful lot!

I don't mind fighting myself more than any other nation if that's what the game is trying to achieve, but that particular struggle seems far too RNG-driven to be the main thrust of the game.

I must be doing something wrong, somewhere. :oops:

Re: Revolt, After Revolt...

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:23 pm
by Surt
What nation are you playing? Persia? some barbarians?

Try Carthage instead and avoid those darn Romans and their speaches "Carthago delente est" or something ...

Try reading viewtopic.php?f=563&t=98599 for some advice.

Re: Revolt, After Revolt...

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 10:00 am
by defekt
Surt,

Thanks for the reference. I've given it a read and there doesn't appear to be anything that I'm unfamiliar with in this regard.

The issue, I'd say, isn't that revolts happen in the first instance. As it happens, even tho this isn't among the most complicated of GSG games (that's not bad thing, BTW), I'd say that the various influencing factors are pretty well abstracted. Where things seems to be a bit off kilter are with regard to the chances of revolts recurring.

There are multifarious modifiers that feed into whether or not a revolt happens, most of which the player has an influence over, but the main trigger point, i.e., leader death, is completely random - the player is nought but a passenger when this happens. Now in the first instance this is fine; random events can trigger problems for unstable nations - all cool and reasonable. But here's the rub: a confluence of entirely random events turn a stable nation into a mess.

When a leader dies and regions rebel, surrounding regions are hit with a hefty 'nearby revolts' loyalty penalty (and reclaimed regions often carry further Loyalty hits). If the new leader dies within 5-10 turns the rebellion is highly likely to spread and the loyalty penalties spread even wider. If any of your new leaders come with a Loyalty penalty you're basically done for. _All_ of this happens entirely at random through no act or inaction by the player.

What I'm suggesting here is to somewhat re-balance the weight of influencing factors to reducing the chances of double(and triple)-dip revolts by adding some form of temporary Loyalty enforcing modifier: apply a positive loyalty modifier called 'Revolt Recently Put Down' for reclaimed regions. Also, the rest of the province could probably get something similar by way of an example being provided for what happens to those who revolt. Perhaps even a small national 'persuader' might be justified.

Re: Revolt, After Revolt...

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 8:01 am
by Pocus
Good suggestions about the modifier. There was also a discussion about having rebels split into more groups so they are not a cohesive lot. Double or triple ruler dying is also something I'll try to limit in the next patch.

Re: Revolt, After Revolt...

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:04 am
by defekt
Glad you're receptive to the suggestion.