Character's in different kingdoms

[Kazami Kazuki]

I understand that a poll is going to posted on this issue, so i thought before it came up i would throw out a few ideas about how i see this issue. I will try and keep this short and too the point if i can. When the poll is posted perhaps this post can be moved into that thread.

The current problem as i see it is this. What we currently have is a system where a player can have four characters in a single kingdom but given the number of players that ends up with say 8 characters in one kingdom but only between 2 people. At which point having the ability to have a secret section of talk about plans isn't even that useful as their can't be much discussion since their is no large group of people to do that. Secondly even when a kingdom like say Wu has that number of people, its usually just one person coming up with the strategy that everyone else follows. The planning phase tends just to be a waste of time that slows everyone down. While at the same time limiting people to only one kingdom reduced the amount of normal none battle RP as people are less willing to do threads with characters from a different kingdom. It's pretty hard to do anything but fight with someone who you are at war with after all. Making it a whole lot less fun for those less interested in battles. Also if all you're characters are attached to a single kingdom and it is then destroyed, its much harder to keep wanting to role play than if you had people on the winning/other sides as well.

The alternative as i see it is this. Alternative 1 Have it so the leader of the kingdom or should they choose to delegate battle authority the forces strategist comes up with the overall plan on their own. Then gives the orders to each officer for what they should be doing.  This more realistic anyway. This way no one but him knows what the full plan is. Even if small parts are leaked it will only be "So and so is heading to this area". On top of this if someone is caught leaking Intel punish them with a battle ban. On top of that each officer is free to come up with little plans for their part of the battle field. These can still be TOTALLY SECRET.

For example: Kazami Yuuji is defending a fort and decided to let the enemy take it because he has rigged it to be set on fire as he retreats. So he sends a PM to the battle mod indicating this is his secret plan. It is then down to the battle mod to say if this plan is a success of not based on the RP that follows between Yuuji and his opponents in that battle. No one else knows not even his allies so their is no risk of it being leaked by metagaming unless he decided to tell everyone about it in the c-box.

The leader/strategist, can also use the same system to PM their battle plans to the battle mod and if the conditions for the plan are meet or not meet the battle mod decided the result accordingly.

Alternative 2 In the situation where a player has a character in two kingdoms that are about to battle. They are simply asked to choose what character will be in the battle and the other character won't be allowed to participate. Then lock them out of the battle camp where all the chat happens. I don't think this is good an option personally but it's the simplest option by far. That person then can't find out anything unless someone tells to tell them what the secret plans are and that can happen anyway even under the current system.

Either way i would strongly advise against the current system that locks people into 4 characters in a single kingdom, which does not seem to be working well so far. Hence the need for kingdom bans currently and why everyone keeps bringing it up it's nice for secret plans but those discussions don't even really happen much and i think we can still keep battle stuff competitive even with people having characters in different kingdoms.