Hey all, I've been playing strategy games since Lords of the Realm 1 and Civilization 1, with MoM being one of my favorite.  If it's one thing I've noticed though, it's that the classic Totalitarian resource management scheme is a bit worn out, in my opinion.  In this scheme, you have complete control over every element of production.  Rather than being the end all be all dictator that is able to meticulous guide commerce and raise soldiers wherever you'd like, why not employ a more indirect and historical approach?

I've been batting around the idea of a vassalage system in which you don't have direct control over every way in which towns or cities are built and production is directed, but instead they grow organically depending on their strategic location relative to other cities and resources.  Basically, cities would grow on their own, ship resources to other allied cities based on supply and demand, and generally the lords of the land would manage the cities themselves, with the player being the Great Lord or King at the top.  All of the resources, like iron, swords, crystals, etc. will go wherever your empire merchants want to make a buck and wherever the opportunity lies.  What's more, cities would spring up wherever the opportunity happens to be: a new resources or verdent farm or ranchland that has recently been freed of danger by the player's army, for example.  Cities can have various scores on how magical, armed, or wealthy they've become over time, as well as how many soldiers they can field in time of war or militia when the city is under attack.  Each city would still build numerous buildings, like in Master of Magic, but they would build them based on the needs of the people living there, the available wealth, and the resources that they are likely to exploit.

Most of the game, you would not have a massive, permanent standing army, too.  Each city would have a pool of available citizens who may arm themselves in the event that the city is attacked or war breaks out.  When it appears you will be going to war or war is declared upon you, you issue a call to arms and citizens arm themselves for war with whatever is available in the Empire's cities, after which the respective units appear in their city of origin and rally to where they are directed.  If you have captured a lot of military resources like iron or horses, you will see numerous horsemen and well armed swordsmen raising to fight for you.  If there are numerous fighter's guilds, they will be better trained.  If you have captured a lot of magical resources and subsidized mage guilds or alchemist guilds, a greater number of warmages and clerics will come to your service.  Smaller frontier towns with little wealth would raise less competent, poorly equipped soldiers.  Your larger, wealthier cities will more than likely raise stronger, better equipped soldiers with more specialists.  You could technically issue a call to arms whenever you'd like (for instance, if you want to be the aggresser in a war) but whenever a call to arms is in effect, it would produce a steep decline in the productivity of your empire.  There could even be varying degrees of Calls.  For instance, a casual call to arms to storm a menacing dragon's lair would bring your better armed retainers and professional soldiers to the field for you to command.  A desperate call to repel an arch rival empire from invading your lands would bring your vassals, as well as pitchfork armed peasants, to your service (which would create even more severe productivity deficiencies while they are away at war and, in the event your army is defeated, severely depopulate your empire.)  Any soldiers raised in this way are automatically equipped with whatever accessories or weapons are available.  Cities could have a soldiery score that represents how well armed citizens have become over time, which would be a function of available wealth and the availability of weapons in your empire.  The more weapon smiths you would have, for instance, the more soldiers would likely be equipped with swords when a call to arms would come.  Perhaps in an offensive war, soldiers that were called to arms to conquer foreign lands might bring back wealth with them to their home cities to add to the city's wealth.  Once a war is over or a large threat defeated, your soldiers would return to their families and bring productivity back to former levels.  The longer your citizens are called to arms, the more penalties accumulate, especially if you've called your peasants to fight for you.  This would organically make defensive wars much easier to fight than offensive wars, as peasants called to defend their country can quickly be dismissed back to their fields after the fighting is over.    

Now, I bet you are wondering, "So what is the player supposed to do in all of this??"

Well, the player acts as the sovereign that encourages growth or subsidizes certain activity as well as acts as general and adventurer.  For instance, let's say you kill a roving pack of hellhounds near some oppulent farmland and a crystal mine.  Over time, settlers will begin to arrive on their own accord from a neighboring Metropolis to colonize the region to exploit it's riches, but in your opinion, it just isn't happening quickly enough.  So you can inject tax money into the new town--- perhaps subsidize a merchant's guild or farmer's guild--- to get the growth going more quickly (the subsidy would be cheaper if there is an abundance of building materials in your empire).  Normally, the town would have eventually founded the guilds on their own, but at a much, much slower rate.  So the hamlet quickly grows into a town now that there is infrastructure--- but wait--- a feared orcish tribe lives nearby, and raids are likely possible once the settlement grows ever larger.  So you could invest tax money into the town watch, allowing them to purchase swords and armor from the rest of your empire to arm themselves or import them from a neighboring friendly empire.  You could even spend tax money to encourage the growth of a frontier fort town where none would spring up on their own, if you wanted to gain a foothold in a wild land. 

In larger cities, you could invest in fighter's guilds to have better trained soldiers rally to your cause in times of war or alchemist guilds or mage guilds to encourage a more magical society (all of which would produce tax revenue as well).  You could invest too in higher level infrastructure projects to improve population growth, commerce, or attract immigrants from neighboring empires to your own.  And of course, you could invest in your own personal assets (your mage tower, magical artifacts, and your own personal retinue, which I will mention next.)  The whole while, merchants and their guards travel in caravans from city to city, transporting whatever the market demand in a given town calls for.  Some cities might grow to be the Megapole and center of commerce in a region if the player invested in it properly.

Now, while the main bulk of your army would be field working vassals and not consistenly available, your soveriegn can have a personal retinue or professional standing army that you can raise with tax money and equip in a customizable fashion.  If there are numerous swords, armor, magic, and well trained soldiers in your empire due to the resources you have exploited and infrastructure you've encouraged, it's much cheaper to arm a capable force.  Perhaps if you have high loyalty, they require less maintanance from your treasury.  This standing army, albiet much smaller than a wartime army, can be used to plunge ancient ruins or tame wild beasts and reinforce frontier forts or towns that are underarmed in times of peace.  During war, they can supplement your wartime army (or just keep on adventuring).

Basically, this system would accomodate micro-managing and non-micromanaging play styles.  If you wanted to, you could simply invest your treasury heavily in your own personal retinue and magical assets and plunge dungeons and go to war and your cities would grow on their own accord (and would react and prosper as the riches and knowledge of your exlpoits reach your empire's markets!)  If you wanted to play an active hand in encouraging growth in your empire, however, you could spend time investing capital to encourage economic development tailored in the ways that are in accordance with your vision (for instance, investing in ranchland that will expidite the generation of wealth in the town of its origin as well as introduce more horses to your empire.) 

What's more, this system should be much easier on an AI opponent.  The AI won't need to chart a complex commercial structure as to where to ship goods, in what order, and to what cities.  Even if they behave relatively irrationally, it won't be game breaking because their cities will be growing organically in the same fashion that the player's is. 

But most importantly, this new system would give the player a feeling that the world is an autonomous, growing, and changing entity in its own right.  Rather than being something that you create entirely on your own, it will be a living, breathing organism that adjusts and adapts to the stimulus that you provide it.   

I know Elemental already has a basic system in place, but one can dream can't they?