You and your clan might conquer land by force, but can you keep control of it through your leadership choices?
LO isn't specifically a 'political intrigue' type role playing game. Its a good old hack'n'slash Diku at its core, with the zone-claiming and governing games as mid to late game additional content. The government system lets you play with the political issues of maintaining a growing empire.
The game world is divided into zones that can be individually claimed by a player for their clan, typically by fighting and killing all of the aggressive monsters in the zone. Claimed zones generate tax revenue for the clan, and give a bonus to any clan members who fight there in the future. The goal of the game is for a clan to claim all of the zones, reclaim the Last Outpost, and hold on to it.
Holding on to a zone is where the political aspect comes into play. Each zone has four factions that could potentially topple your government and revoke your claim. The factions are the Guilds, the People, the Economy, and the Military. Each faction has an approval rating of your government that is based on how well you handle political choices that are presented to you when problems arise. You'll be presented with a problem and different ways to solve it, keeping in mind a solution that is beneficial to one faction may harm another. Your task is to govern fairly and balance the approvals. Keep a faction's approval rating high, and they will reward your clan. Let the approval rating of any faction get too far out of line, and they will revolt against you, ending your reign.
While you initially have to do the 'dirty work' of taking over a zone directly through combat with your own sword, holding on to the zone is a matter of balancing the factions by giving instructions to your NPC in-zone clan representative, the local zone governor, who actually carries out the order. Sometimes the problems the governor brings to your attention are mundane ("The local grain supply is tainted"), sometimes they are more nuanced ("We've uncovered an invasion plot!", "The people want to grow Farsight Weed"). Your choice of solution effects the approval ratings of the factions in different ways.
One of the benefits of keeping your zone's military faction high enough is the ability to send your militia out on attacks against neighboring zones, a bit like the combat in the classic board game 'Risk'. Having a strong economy gives you the ability to transfer militia from neighboring zones. Build your troops and move them around well enough, and you can add new zones to your empire without you personally setting foot in them.
Here's a quick run down on basic government gameplay.
Once you have claimed a few zones, you can check on the status of your empire with the govern list command.
|100h 100m 100v LstOtpst> gov list Zone Guil Peop Econ Mili Allies [Clan] By ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Northwestern Woods 53% 38% 47% 16% (1/6) [Holy] Rahjiii The Shroom Caves 51% 56% 61% 21% (1/3) [Holy] Rahjiii Tower Lake 37% 45% 26% 11% (1/3) [Holy] Rahjiii The Malak Highlands 38% 50% 48% 16% (3/5) [Holy] Testa ------------------------------------------------------------------ Approval over 4 zones 44% 47% 45% 16% |100h 100m 100v LstOtpst>
Each line gives you the name of the zone, the four approval ratings for each faction in the zone, an "Allies" count, and finally the name of the person who last claimed the zone for your clan.
The Allies column shows the fraction of neighboring zones that are claimed by your clan.
This listing shows that your clan (the Holy Defenders, in this case) holds four total zones. Your next step is to pick a zone to manage, go there, and find the governor.
Once you know which zone you are going to manage, and have arrived there, you'll need to track down the governor. The governor is usually, but not always, found near the Tax Box for the zone. You can find the name of the room where the governor is with the where command:
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> where Governor Giforja - In a clearing |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs>
Now that you know he is in a room named "In a clearing", you can head there to find him-- but another option is to shout for the governor and have him come to you! You'll need to use a special shout to call the governor, the govern shout command. If the governor can find a path to you, he'll let you know, and will start walking to where you shouted from.
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> gov shout Hey come here, I want to talk to you! You shout 'Hey come here, I want to talk to you!' |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> Governor Giforja tells you 'I'm coming to talk to you.' |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> Governor Giforja has arrived. |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> Governor Giforja says, 'Rahjiii! I'm so happy to see you!' |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> Governor Giforja says, 'The Wilderness Bank called.' Use "govern" to interact with Governor Giforja and learn more. |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs>
Once you've found the governor, you can interact with him to handle problems, move troops, launch raids, and claim zones. Typing govern in front of the governor will give you a menu of options that can choose from.
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> gov
Guild 21% - People 26% - Economy 46% - Militia 21%
Do you want to govern issue, border, war, or civic matters?
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> gov issue
The Wilderness Bank called. They suggest that you charge a special
assessment to increase the Economy. They are willing to structure the
deal on a percentage basis for you, and guarantee an increase in your
tax base. What should we do? You've got a half of a day to make a
decision.
Select your response:
--------------------------------------
[ 1] "That's a great suggestion!"
[ 2] "Tell the bank we don't need their advice."
[ 6] "It can wait."
Guild 51% - People 51% - Economy 66% - Militia 16%
Use 'govern report' for analysis, or 'govern ' to select a response.
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs>
The paragraph at the top describes a problem that is occurring in the zone that could benefit from your attention. The first two options are your possible responses to the issue. You should pick the option that you feel is the best response, but be aware that how you respond will change the approval rating of one or more of the factions.
You can get more guidance on the outcome of your choice with the govern issue report command.
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> gov issue report
Option Summary
--------------------------------------
[ 1] Small effect on People, Economy.
[ 2] Small effect on Guild, People.
[ 6] Don't bother anyone until the next zone reset.
Caution! You aren't strong enough to defend your claim.
Guild 51% - People 51% - Economy 66% - Militia 16%
Use 'govern [number]' to select a response.
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs>
This report tells you that taking option [1] "That's a great suggestion!" would change the approval rating of the People and Economy by a little bit. Taking option [2] "Tell the bank we don't need their advice." would change the approval of the Guild and People a little bit. Notice that the report tells you which factions would change and the magnitude of the change, but it is up to you to decide if a change would positively or negatively effect a faction.
For example, taking the first option would increase taxes and raise the economy, but people don't always like to pay more taxes. It is reasonable to assume that if you took the first option, your people's approval would go down, and your economy would go up. If you took the second option instead, the banking guild would likely be unhappy that you've snubbed their offer, but the people might feel good about not having a new tax. Your guild approval would drop, and the people's approval would rise.
Since most of your approval ratings are already pretty close to the center, either choice will work. You could make your choice based on your personal preference on the subject of taxation, or you could make a choice that tries to purposely influence your approval ratings. You might do that to increase an approval into the 'bonus range' and win favor with that faction, or you might try to decrease a stat to keep that faction under control. Bonuses typically come into play when a faction's approval rating is above 75%, but you'll lose control of the zone if a faction's approval goes over 100%. If you chose to implement the tax plan, here's what would happen:
|100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs> gov 1 You say 'That's a great suggestion!' The people might not like paying more, but the Economy must be kept running. Guild 51% - People 46% - Economy 71% - Militia 16% |100h 100m 100v ShrmCvs>
As predicted, the economy went up, and the people's approval went down. Since we kept all of the approval ratings above 0% and below 100%, our reign continues until the next crisis occurs!
At some point, you will want to tame more of the wild lands that surround your zone. Luckily, you have an army at your command, ready to further your goals of conquest! You can view a list of neighboring zones with the govern border command:
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov border Zone Guil Peop Econ Mili Allies [Clan] By ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Farmland - - - - (0/4) [----] - The Northern Woods 68% 60% 47% 40% (4/6) [Holy] Rahjiii The Southern Woods - - - - (1/6) [Hero] Meridoc The Treetops - - - - (0/2) [----] - The Mesa Cliff Face - - - - (1/3) [Warl] Janock The Low Mesa - - - - (1/5) [Warl] Goutsine |100h 100m 100v CntrlWds>
This report shows that there are six zones bordering the Central Woods, the zone in which we typed the command. Our clan [Holy] already owns The Northern Woods, so we get to see the approval of our factions there. The other zones are unclaimed, or claimed by other clans. How they are doing with control of their factions is not known to us.
The next step is to see what options we have available for our army. That information is available through the govern war command:
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov war
The Army of The Central Woods is struggling with defenses.
Select your response:
--------------------------------------
[ 5] "Conscript more soldiers from the guilds."
[ 6] "Place troops under guild's command."
[14] "Launch a raid against The Farmland."
[15] "Pay for mercenaries from The Northern Woods."
[16] "Launch a raid against The Southern Woods."
[17] "Launch a raid against The Treetops."
[18] "Launch a raid against The Mesa Cliff Face."
[19] "Launch a raid against The Low Mesa."
Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 30%
Use 'govern report' for analysis.
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds#
The report shows that our militia isn't very strong- it is 'struggling with defenses'. This is the message that other zones might see about the strength of our militia if they were to spy on us, or face us in battle. We know from the rest of the report that our militia is actually at 30%. That isn't great, but it is enough to launch an attack or two.
If we wanted to increase the strength of our militia, we could do so by commanding local guild members to join our army. The approval of the guild would suffer, but the approval of the army would go up. Conversely, we could reinforce the guild by sending troops back to them, lowering the approval of the military.
Another way to gain more military strength is to purchase mercenaries from a neighboring allied zone, The Northern Woods in this example. Doing so would lower the strength of our local economy, but increase the strength of our local military. At the same time, it would increase the economy of the Northern Woods while decreasing its military strength. Paying for mercenaries is a way to transfer faction resources between zones.
For this example, we'll go to war with the army that we have in place already. We can see from the report that there are five zones we could attack by launching a raid against them. The govern war report will give our general's assessment of the strength of those neighbors:
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov war report
War Option Summary
--------------------------------------
[ 5] Large effect on Militia, Guild.
[ 6] Large effect on Militia, Guild.
[14] Militia has 85% chance against The Farmland.
[15] Transfer Militia from The Northern Woods with a small effect on Economy.
[16] Militia has 33% chance against The Southern Woods.
[17] Militia has 20% chance against The Treetops.
[18] Militia has 16% chance against The Mesa Cliff Face.
[19] Militia has 14% chance against The Low Mesa.
Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 30%
Use 'govern ' to select a response.
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds>
Notice that each of the attackable neighbors has a percentage listed with it in the war report. The percentage tells you the likelihood of success that a raid would have against that target. Against the Southern Woods, our attack have a 33% chance of success. That means we would expect to win one out of every three attacks. The odds against the Treetops are much worse- with only 20% chance of success, we'd expect to lose four out of every five attempts.
Knowing the odds is critical, because every time we lose an attack, our Military approval drops by 10%, and we won't be able to use our army again until it can regroup from the defeat. If we win, then the attacked zone loses 10% approval, and our army can continue to attack. If we can eliminate the opposing army, we'll be able to claim the zone.
In this example, our odds of success against The Farmland look pretty good at 85%, so lets try to take them out. Combat looks like this:
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov 14 You say 'Launch a raid against The Farmland.' Our army won its battle against The Farmland! The Army of The Farmland is struggling with defenses. Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 30% |100h 100m 100v CntrlWds>
Great! We won that round. We know that The Farmland's army just lost 10%, and our generals feel that they are also 'struggling with defenses', which means they must have a military approval roughly the same our 30%. We are pretty close to defeating them, as long as we can keep attacking.
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov 14 You say 'Launch a raid against The Farmland.' Our army won its battle against The Farmland! The Army of The Farmland is battle weary and nearly defeated. Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 30% |100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov 14 You say 'Launch a raid against The Farmland.' Our army won its battle against The Farmland! The Army of The Farmland is in full retreat. Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 30% |100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov 14 You say 'Conquer The Farmland!' The army of The Central Woods has conquered The Farmland! The Farmland could generate up to 17640 coins per day. Be sure to collect your tax from the box regularly. Congratulations, Rahjiii! Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 50% |100h 100m 100v CntrlWds>
And there we go! We had to launch three additional attacks to completely conquer The Farmland and claim it for our clan. At end of our war with The Farmland, our Military approval went up by 20%, which is the reward for successfully taking over a zone.
Since our army is undefeated, we can keep attacking. Let's ride our wave of success, and try launching a raid against the Low Mesa. Be sure to check the war report first!
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov war rep
War Option Summary
--------------------------------------
[ 5] Large effect on Militia, Guild.
[ 6] Large effect on Militia, Guild.
[14] Transfer Militia from The Farmland with a small effect on Economy.
[15] Transfer Militia from The Northern Woods with a small effect on Economy.
[16] Militia has 33% chance against The Southern Woods.
[17] Militia has 20% chance against The Treetops.
[18] Militia has 16% chance against The Mesa Cliff Face.
[19] Militia has 14% chance against The Low Mesa.
Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 50%
Use 'govern ' to select a response.
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov 19
You say 'Launch a raid against The Low Mesa.'
The Low Mesa inflicted heavy casualties against us.
Our army will need time to regroup.
The Army of The Low Mesa is is ready and able to defend.
Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 40%
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds> gov war
The Army of The Central Woods is underfunded.
The army is regrouping after its recent defeat.
Select your response:
--------------------------------------
[ 5] "Conscript more soldiers from the guilds."
[ 6] "Place troops under guild's command."
[14] "Pay for mercenaries from The Farmland."
[15] "Pay for mercenaries from The Northern Woods."
Guild 42% - People 30% - Economy 57% - Militia 40%
Use 'govern report' for analysis.
|100h 100m 100v CntrlWds>
That went about as well as could be expected. We only had a 14% chance of beating the Low Mesa, and as fate would have it, we lost the battle. Our Military approval dropped from 50% to 40%, and our underfunded army needs time to recover before it can be used to attack again. Luckily, if a neighbor chooses to attack us in the mean time, our army will still be available for defense.
We did learn from the battle that the Army of The Low Mesa is 'ready and able to defend', which means that it probably has a fairly high Military strength. We'd need to beat it battle quite a few times before its military would be defeated. Keep in mind that while the Farmland was unclaimed territory, the Low Mesa was already claimed by the Warlord Clan. When we attacked, their Governor would have warned them about the battle over the clan channel. It is safe to assume that the Warlords know about our treachery, and may be coming for us! At this point, our only remaining war options are to reinforce our army with guild members or with mercenaries, weaken our army by sending troops to the guild, or we could do nothing but wait.
Since we kept all of the approval ratings above 0% and below 100%, our reign continues, but it looks like more battles are on the horizon.
Government of a zone is about more than managing conflict with enemy zones. There are times when you will need to manage the resources of friendly zones too. The govern civic command allows you adjust the balance of approvals between economy and people through taxation, and to shift the approval of the guild and the people across neighboring zones through settlement. Here is an example of how it works.
Let's look at the civic options for the Swamp.
|100h 100m 100v Swmp> gov civ Select your response: -------------------------------------- [ 3] "Increase the taxes." [ 4] "Give back to the People." [ 7] "Send settlers to The Northern Woods." [ 8] "Send settlers to The Overgrown Grasslands." [ 9] "Send settlers to The Shroom Caves." [13] "Send settlers to The Malak Highlands." Guild 14% - People 55% - Economy 85% - Militia 30% Use 'governreport' for analysis. |100h 100m 100v Swmp>
The Economy in the swamp is excellent, and the People seem ok. The Guild approval, however, is looking weak. It would be nice if we could do something to shore up our approval with the Guilds. Choosing to send settlers to the Malak Highlands would do the trick:
|100h 100m 100v Swmp> gov 13 The people of The Swamp will help settle The Malak Highlands! Guild 19% - People 45% - Economy 85% - Militia 30% |100h 100m 100v Swmp>
Our People's approval went down by 10% (no one likes being told to settle elsewhere) but the various Guilds (the shops, the banks, the trainers) benefit from the migration and their approval goes up by 5%. Its worth noting that In the Malak Highlands, the situation is reversed. The Guild approval there drops by 5%, but the approval of the People has improved by 10%.
We could also send some of our people over to the Northern Woods to further increase our Guild approval. After doing so, our civic report looks like this:
|100h 100m 100v Swmp> gov civ Select your response: -------------------------------------- [ 3] "Increase the taxes." [ 4] "Give back to the People." [ 7] "Send settlers to The Northern Woods." [ 8] "Send settlers to The Overgrown Grasslands." [ 9] "Send settlers to The Shroom Caves." [13] "Send settlers to The Malak Highlands." Guild 24% - People 35% - Economy 85% - Militia 30% Use 'governreport' for analysis. |100h 100m 100v Swmp>
The Guild approval is now much better, but it feels like we've lost too much of the people's approval. Since our Economy is already strong, lets reduce taxes and give some money back to the people to win back their affection:
|100h 100m 100v Swmp> gov 4 The People of The Swamp are pleased, but the Economy suffers. Guild 24% - People 45% - Economy 75% - Militia 30% |100h 100m 100v Swmp>
By taking a few civic actions, we've increased our Guild approval by 10%, and cooled the Economy and People by 10%. As a side effect, we've increased the People's approval by 10% in two neighboring zones, and cooled their Guild approvals slightly.
Since we kept all of the approval ratings above 0% and below 100%, our reign continues, and the approvals in the zone are more in balance, making our government more able to weather the next set of storms that appear!
Its up to you to develop your own strategy for governing your zones, and what works in a small empire might not work in a larger one. These are some important things to remember:
