[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by licker:
[Historical details? What on earth do historical details have to do with this? Dominions may borrow from history/mythology,

Ever heard of Lord of the Rings? Y'know the fantasy series by that Tolkien dude? Yeah the expert in ancient Languages and history who created a believable world because he understood the structures of certain levels of human development, the way human thought and language changes with different social orders. Its not a coincidence that the Lord of The Rings is so widely aclaimed.

Dominions is, to my understanding, deeply rooted in our history and this is a big part of why it is so good.

Simply put the freedom to *raise* taxes, especially in provinces with existing unrest, to the maximum level makes no sense. Moreover, historically it simply wasn't possible,

Hang on you don't care about history? So what is your basis for saying something is odd then? As compared to what?

The ability to raise crippling taxes existed and was excercised. Whole populations were deported, slaughtered, had one hand chopped off, decimated and many other atrocities. So why can't we raise taxes to 200%? Is 20 unrest really such a big deal? It only takes one turn to recover at 0% taxes. Economic warfare was extremely commen in history - especially when hard to take strongholds abounded. On of the reasons you choise to fight a battle is to stop your crops being burnt.

The english tactic in the 100 years war, described previously, represents the exact form of warfare you object to so where is the problem in terms of history?

Now please tell me what would be wrong with my
original suggestion of capping the amount that taxes can be raised (over 100%)? Does it have a negative effect on the game overall?

Yes. As noted by others, the existing system allows people to choose to either conquer peacefully (lower taxes to 0%) or conquer brutally - raise taxes to 200% or somewhere in between. Its a good feature and I think your suggestion would be kill joy.

"Ooh no big bad tyrant you can't be a brutal conqueror, no you have to delay a turn in each province to pillage and thus cripple your campaign"

Sod that - instant taxes = booty from pillage during conquest. No problem.

And please, keep the history lessons in the books, they are not germain to this discussion of game mechanics. (though they are otherwise quite interesting )

Actually I think the history is very relevant and if you want to make a counter case what are you going base it on? Your own personal grasp of the logic of fantasy universes? Sorta leaves us lacking a commen ground. Sure magics and real gods changes things but this is how the peoples of ancient history percieved the world anyway so their perspective is very relevant. The way the ancients fought is also very relevant as they faced many of the same physical constraints.

Cheers

Keir

[ January 04, 2004, 01:07: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]