Academy

I like it.

I like the Ideas of Academies to teach the Royalty about the affairs of the state. I like in Total War how generals/Governors have various stats (influence, popularity, management, command, Elitist vs Populist, loyalty, Piousness) and several of these stats were main stats which were displayed on the interface, while other stats (including ones I didn't mention, like security vs assasinations) were influenced by the above "main stats" and everything came together to effect how the city was run when the particular Royal family member was the governing voice (depended on which royal member present had the largest management value) ...

anyways, Acadamies would generally add certain random stats to a newly Come of Age family member, and would also slowly add new stats to a family member that remained in the Academy city.

I could see there could also be a military academy for heroes, and for the military-specific stats of the royal family as well. I've heard that having the sovereign "run" a city would greatly increase its effectiveness. Well I would also like the royal family to increase the effectiveness of the city based upon certain stats.

Its possible the Sovereign would have an authority stat (unless you just consider it to be a constant 100%, non improvable, and see no point in displaying it) and give all family members, heroes, and adventurers a loyalty stat. Then possibly depending on a follower's loyalty, and the measure of your authority, it costs a different amount of money to "bribe" a general to turn sides.

Of course, it should be far greater than a king's ransom to bribe even the most dis-loyal of generals, but It would be a neat mechanic. However say, if a king's ransom was 10-15 thousand gold, a completely dis-loyal general could perhaps be bribed (along with his army?) for about 10 thousand gold ... although if he has an army, you would basically have to bribe him for his army's weight in gold as well, which could be another 20-30 thousand gold pieces. (depending on size of army ect). If he only had 20 men with him, would only be an extra thousand or two, obviously. And you could choose between bribing just the general or bribing the general + army. If you bribe just the general, I think there should be a chance for the troops to ... go rebel, disband to the countryside, or run back to Sovereign telling what happened.

Nice idea, but needs some clarifications, if you ask me . For example: what about gaining abilities by units in the normal experience system? In other words, should such academy be the only way to gain new skills? Oh, and couldn't the heroes (sad we don't know anything on how should the heroes work) be the teachers?.

+1 nice idea.

Imo a system like this should come on top of the standard experience system and you should have to pay for the additional skills. For example for each student in your accademy you pay 10 gp/turn for education costs. Having heroes and familly members as teachers seams a good idea as it would imobilize precious troops. Like that you can choose to make a highly trained army but at a cost.

Also i like the idea put up by tasunke to have many abilities and not only war abilities but also management skills as in total war.

Clarification, nope these are SPECIAL ablities that are gained only by studying at he academy, there are regular (experience based) and special abilities, it should first begin by your sovereign training some heroes/experienced units, them learning abilities, so they can pass them on, as always, suggestions comments, anything is always appreciated

Tasunke, I really like that idea, the loyalty stat and the authority stat, maybe I should consider a teaching potential stat.....

So heroes should be divided into two parts: administration and fighters? Administration can govern school and cities (ie. add some bonuses), while fighters can be used as generals/super powerful single units? That would mean we should have either - as I already said - two types of heroes (adm. and fight.), or 4 types: teachers, governors, fighters and generals...

Not really ... as always there will be the royal family, and there will be heroes. A Family member can do ANYTHING they want, be a general, governor, or teacher. McArthur was a general during the pacific campaign, and then became a Governor for Japan (Primariliy in Tokyo I believe), and as I said earlier this was mainly for the Royalty.

A royal family member should be able to fight wars, govern cities, and teach in schools. Usually the royal prince/ess will be the general in the army, while the heroes/adventurers are merely fighters. I could see a hero/adventurer ALSO being a teacher at an academy for FIGHTING ... but I see governing armies and governing cities as the Divine right by the Royal Family.

and As I was saying, a Family member would have influence stat, Management Stat, Command Stat (general), and perhaps a Teaching stat ... along with lots of mini feats due to actions that affect things like popularity, morale on the battlefield, effectiveness in battle and so-on.

The family member with the highest command rating in an army is the general, with the highest management rating is the governor, and with the highest Teaching rating is the Teacher. A family member can be all 3 at once (even though general only matters when actual fighting starts) if they have the highest command, management, and Teaching skills. Influence would be tied into popularity, as it effects how happy the citizens of a city are when he/she is in a city. Influence basically covers speaking skills/public speaking/ and diplomacy. So if there was any sort of "diplomacy" type situation, a high influence can enable a Family Member to more easily get what they want.

as for heroes and adventurers, Other than their special fighting stats and special abilities, I suppose they could have teaching skill and a command skill, but never management or influence imo. However, allowing a hero to lead your army might be a loyalty risk, and it would not be pleasant to have your whole army bribed away. However, I suppose there could be special circumstances were you would be allowed to adopt a hero into the royal family, or marry him/her into the royal family. ( I would of totally adopted Patton and Mcarthur into my family, and I would of bribed Rommel to join if at all possible)

And it goes without saying a Sovereign would start with very high command/management/influence/teaching

"The family member with the highest command rating in an army is the general, with the highest management rating is the governor, and with the highest Teaching rating is the Teacher."

So what about the rest of the family, they would be useless?

"As I was saying, a Family member would have influence stat, Management Stat, Command Stat (general), and perhaps a Teaching stat (...)"

How would such stats be chosen? If he/she has taught for a long time, will he/she have their Teaching stat higher?

"And it goes without saying a Sovereign would start with very high command/management/influence/teaching"

I don't know if it's such a good idea to make a sovereign comparable to any member of royal family. Sovereign is a super special unit, and will mostly be used to cast spells & fight the enemies. I don't think anyone will keep their sovereign occupied with teaching students, than casting spells. What I mean is, sovereign should have different tasks than typical heroes (members of royal family). As it is now, he is merely a wondering hero, spreading his essence right and left, fighting occasional beast. I think, the devs should reconsider sovereigns role in the game, especially when the heroes will be implemented.

Lets assume that when we found the first city, we get the first hero. He is relatively weak, so we have to be careful what do we fight against. Sovereign should be allowed to fight wondering monsters (he is a super unit after all), but players should be aware that the death of sovereign = game over. In other words: better to leave sovereign at home, and make him wonder around the world when we want to: kill some strong foe (ie. we gamble the sovereign's life), raise a magic tower or found a city.

So what should such Sovereign do? I think there should be several task that he could choose from:

• Meditate
  In this state he would add some mana to our reserves (only of his color, or of all colors).
• Rest
  The regeneration rate would be increased.
• Develop
  Bonus to development.
  

What do ya think?

No. That would drastically diminish the strategic versatility of the sovereign. You should be able to choose one of many different paths for your Sovereign; you could turn him into an army-killing war machine, a terrifying spell-caster, or wring him of his power in order to empower some aspect/s of your empire.

The role of the sovereign right now, in beta 1B, is not at all how SD have envisioned it, but that is largely because none of the features related to the sovereign, besides founding cities, has been implemented yet.

I do really like this academy idea in general though. I like the OP's initial ideas and some of the subsequent ideas are great, too. It would be awesome to see some of this make its way into the game!

at red1939 ... if there are multiple family members in one army, then yes, only ONE can be the general (to give certain bonuses to the army) and the rest are merely units that will fight on the battlefield.

I envision most family members (at least while with the army/in combat) to be accompanied by an elite bodyguard de-facto, essentially becoming one of the most powerful units on the battlefield, not counting channelers or rare super monsters.

If there are multiple family members in one city, only one will be the governor. But if you actually scatter your family members into different armies, and different cities, then yes, they will all be useful. But you cannot have two governors for one city.

Yes, I know that it's beta, and awful lot of things hasn't been implemented yet. The point is, that I can hardly see a distinct use for the whole family thing. I mean, there are several areas where the special abilities of sovereign overlap with family members' roles. Sovereign can't be a super-powerful family member (in terms of doing exactly the same things as the family, but 10x better) - he has to be a ... GOD! I looking forward what unique place have our Stardock guys prepared for him.

@Tasunke: Thanks for clarifying.