Leadership Roles
I'm stealing this from someone during the 700+ messages in Discord I skimmed through after watching Michigan beat Florida (Hail to the victors!) and asking how leadership roles in civilizations will be handled to start the game. NPC held? Will players be able to run? What sort of organizations will be in place?
Vote for Starmourn! Don't hurt Poffy.
3
Comments
Because of the descriptions of the orgs, I don't think it would happen, but this could still be "npc run" in that ultimate power in an organisation is invested in an rpg ICly but functionally the player council is actually in charge.
(I think MKO did this, i.e Aglaranna the elf queen was in charge of Elvandar but the councillors were really running things)
Scatterhome has been noted as not having this, but it's a selling point for IRE games so I doubt it'd be absent, but also I believe it's been mentioned on the forums that we won't have guild equivalents just clans that we can build.
The question for me is, if Scatterhome won't have leaders how will they manage the aspects of an org that typically require them? The big ones being ministry appointments and expansions.
For ministries:
For expansions, the councils can make requests for new stuff for the orgs they run. New rooms, special progs (I've seen teleports and objects that can do room echoes for people with permission), artifact type stuff, customisations of some stuff.
It's just... a lot of potential stuff to do without if it's just not there and it's stuff that I wouldn't expect the admin to step in and take care of.
With the status quo in IRE, just subtracting a ruling council would typically mean the org has just lost:
It's an interesting proposition because it goes against how organisations have really functioned in IRE for over a decade now.
But also, the people wanting to play there probably don't want it to just be that there's no council and that's it.
Also, whatever the solution is would need to account for player alliances (i.e the slumlord clan might not be able to kick you out but if numbers equal power over Scatterhome they could build up to a point where they just control things)
I feel the question here is what you mean by doled out to NPCs?
It seems like it's either asking for automation to be built for Scatterhome or for the Admin to take on the day to day management of the org.
Scatterhome could function like MKO's Krondor, with NPC King and Prince ruling the city but Barons and the ministries overseeing the daily tasks.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.
----
Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.
----
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
At a guess... Shop renting (auctions + auto repossessions), arenas (queues), comm shops (possibly some automatic raising and lowering of prices based on supply/demand), and guard placements (static, respawning if there's enough money) could be automated.
And then yeah, nothing changes could then mean Scatterhome is otherwise static unless the admins decide to make some changes.
That's the standard for IRE leadership really, it's just whether or not there's a power above the council and what exactly they are. And the type of leadership it seems Scatterhome is hoping to avoid.
The idea that's been kicking around in my head with Scatterhome is like... a clan battleground. Some sort of mechanic where clans can align themselves with Scatterhome and then fight over control of different aspects it which could correlate with the different typical ministries.
How exactly they might do that is a question. Fighting, throwing marks around, something like a revolt from lusternia. Maybe even something different for each section. But once they've seized control of that part of Scatterhome they could appoint one of their clan members to run it.
They wouldn't be able to kick people out, might be a regular thing that forces them to fight for control of their territory. Potentially some limiters built in that prevent any clan from owning too much territory.
It's not without power over other players, but ideally the power would be limited and if you don't like a group you could build up your own clan to take your own part of the org, perhaps even steal away part of their territory.
(I see Scatterhome less as a single organization and more as a confederacy or weak confederation. Rather than having a central government that rules with different departments there would a loose alliance of different states (meteors or meteor clusters) that would band together against an outside force but would still have inner conflict and a multitude of cultures and ideas contained inside. While there might be a central government, it would only be for core reasons like defense, trading agreements, and currency.
While I could be wrong, this could be one way it could grow. So rather than having Ministers that rule over all of Scatterhome, you'd have a few top officals (War, Trade) and the rest would be left into individual councils or groups that would rule)
Like security is run by the private firm on Marle, there are notes on the cutthroat politics between the family clans on Bodean.
Instead of a direct link between ministry and claim in the "clan war". Also thought maybe it gives control over different sections of the city, so their shops, homes, other features, responsibility for organising guards.
Could enable people to build their "brighter future for Scatterhome" type clans and compete with the "Gimmie yo marks" gangs