[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by RyanZA:
Why should Red Empire need to do any patrolling at all?

They don't. They have to set the taxes to 0% to allow the locals to recover from the havoc caused by the invasion and all the tax gathers with their enforcers. If however they want to keep taxing the poor buggers then yes they better do soem patrolling. As far as the locals are concerned the difference between side blue and red may well be no more than the colour of their uniforms.

The current system is plain broken imo, and abusing it is very very bad play.

I would like to strongly disagree with this sentiment. The taxing rules are an intergral part of the game and while not perfect have many strengths. The idea that it is "abuse" to raise taxes to 200% is very wrong IMO. It is playing the game as designed and as far as we know (the feature has been going since Dom1) accepted by the games designers. I think the critics are wrong and should try to establish their point a bit better before suggesting there is something unsporting in the way many of us have played Dom for years.

I have provided concrete examples of what raising taxes simulates based on history - scorched earth, pillaging during conquest, full on oppression - a cohesive counter arguement would be nice if people are going to go so far as suggest this is abusive play. I do it, I consider myself a very fair, deeply thematic gamer who really enjoys playing the game in character - I roleplay alot in PBEM. I don't appreciate the suggestion I am doing something dodgy.

It also really doesn't take long to get the unrest back to 0 at 0% tax rates - try it.

An area being regularily fought over, with the constant pillaging this entails, has its economy devestated - spot on. I really can't see how discouraging people from doing this improves the game - quite the opposite in my books. Why do we have to be nice to the people - oppress them if you feel like, send out the tax gatherers with their whips, their cronies and their implements of torture. Tis a brutal age being simulated - historically tax gatherers stooped to measures such as poring molten lead down unfortunates mouths to try and make their relatives cough up the hidden loot - for everyone in danger of being taxed hid their loot. When an army passed through an area forgaing would leave a trail of devestation across the countryside - and thats when its your own side doing it. Having an enemy army march through your province was often a really horrible event and dominions gives us that choice. If we wish to be nasty we can rasie the taxes to 200% - they will recover but there will be suffering. If you have lots of time you can pillage and really create a mess but it sis not generally a sensible option in my experiance. Removing 200% taxing would make warfare positively cuddly feely in its impact on the locals.

Lets be a bit cautious on saying a style of play is abusive please.

Cheers

Keir