making use of island nations

[clear]

oh shit it's this guy again

so i've been doing some reading on world history and an idea struck me, which i think people might like. 

villages aren't allowed to really threaten each other for several reasons. firstly, it's a logistics nightmare; secondly, a foreign occupation of another village runs the risk of subverting real choice between factions and having one nation eventually conquer the world.

alright, so none of that: regardless of anything else, the core villages remain eternal, intact, impregnable. all good.

so we can't harm each other. but maybe, just maybe, we can still have some form of [[OPTIONAL]] geopolitical competition.

enter the island nations: almost never utilized, but with immense potential here. small, ostensibly not very militarily powerful, but with resources worth harvesting. stroking their long pointy beards, the daimyos of [[whichever nations want to]] decide that [[insert island]] is a tantalizing prospect, and so mobilize their ninja villages with the order of colonizing it.

the idea here is not necessarily to promote bloody conflict. actually, i think it would be cool if islands were given Lists of mostly Crafting and RP-Based Objectives, more of a race than a battle, e.g the one below:

[ ] Build 1 Castle-Sized Stronghold on the Island
[ ] Complete at least 5 C-Rank "Colonial" Missions on the Island
[ ] Shinobi from the Village must complete a combined total of 50 non-mission, non-training posts on the island

obviously those are just hypotheticals. the requirements could be individualized per island. perhaps they could involve events, and the potential for IMs is obvious. once a specific nation (or coalition of nations, if they chose to cooperate) completed a certain list of requirements, the island could be declared as belonging to that nation. the actual consequences of this are minimal, obviously. if it wasn't too much effort, perhaps the geography thread for island nations could include an owned by section. obviously hands wouldn't change all that much.

if desired, rival nations could perhaps instigate IMs to render the island 'for the taking' once again, or something. iunno. i think if that were to be allowed you'd have to put term limits on it, like such missions can only be instigated once every 6 months or smthn.

if desired, some islands could obviously be left spookily impregnable for the sake of neutral territory for things like CEs.

in summation, this initiative has the potential to:

- increase participation on otherwise unused islands
- make craftsmen more valuable to their villages
- give those who want to participate in a concerted campaign on behalf of their chosen faction the opportunity to do so
- drastically increase the opportunity for Interactive Missions to take place
- introduce an optional element of geopolitics to the universe

without:

- punishing non-participants
- endangering people who do not wish to be endangered
- all that much organizational effort; can be made to merely build off existing systems

i tried to come up with who would take the L in this situation, but i couldn't think of anyone.

whaddaya reckon, folks?

[The Bearer of Bad News]

i will admit, i was skeptical when this was initially proposed to me, but reading it, it seems like something that could be legitimately arranged without even implementing anything official, though perhaps not as easily as with an official go-ahead. so...i actually kinda support this.


here's how i see it - yes, we can do BASICALLY all of these things as it is, but as it stands we would need to basically negotiate new terms for every mission. which is part of the reason getting out IMs is kinda hard. with this, theres a ready made template of activities that everyone and anyone can choose to involve themselves in or not. i particularly like the idea of variable objectives, and think that they should rotate into new objectives every conquest cycle.

it even makes sense as like a background lore thing - obviously the feudal lords want to control more territory, that makes sense as it's something that was always going on in that era. manifest destiny and shit. so these struggles could have been happening the whole time, but nations backed by ninja villages are too BAMF to effectively take over. so now they start eyeing the smaller zones.

but while the conquest objectives carry their own rewards as normal (eg: missions pay out ryo), EVENTUALLY an area would be considered under control, no? So then, what advantages would the ninja villages and independent contractors choosing to ally with a given nation receive when that nation controls an area? after all, having an incentive to do this instead of something else makes it easier to draw attention and participation to the conquests.

[clear]

having a shiny sticker somewhere on the island saying 'u guys did it, well done' would be enough for me to want to participate. any other rewards to be implemented thenceforth, staff can decide upon, i'm sure.

[👺 Usiel]

Villages are not meant to be taking over lands man. They are just a mercenary force hired by other lords. Going to an island and putting up a castle there is going to piss off the inhabitants of that land and you'll have Lords there going "Get the fuck off my land" and raise their own military forces against you. I'm not fond of taking lands or establishing landmarks even if it is just for bragging.

[clear]

as it says in the initial post though,
what if the daimyos of one land asked them to take over another?

history tells us that empires tend not to mind if the people they want to take over aren't happy about it. if anything that would only open up more RP opportunity - quashing rebellion.

[j]

I think this is a great idea even if it's just done unofficially. Building landmarks and strongholds in the islands would be awesome as missions, and could encourage a little competition between villages that's not necessarily violent. If the npc's that are already inhabiting the islands don't like what's being done, couldn't that become another aspect of the rp? Like "go to this part of the island and complete such and such task. Meanwhile (insert class level) inhabitants will be trying to kill you".

[The Bearer of Bad News]

raising "get the fuck off this land" forces to try and remove the invaders was already part of the plan:

as-written, the castle thing was just one example of an objective we could complete. the crux is that the villages aren't actually taking anything over - they're assisting in an already ongoing takeover effort. or, once a location has been subjugated, assisting in maintaining a foothold with the other lords (and the local one) trying to oust the one youre working with. the ninjas and non-ninjas are just mercenaries contracted to tip the scales one way or another.

realistically, this is for the most part nothing we can't already do. however it would be difficult to the point of being unlikely to be executed at all, let alone consistently without some sort of permanent template everyone - that is to say, the Kages - can agree on being erected.

[Deleted]

Seems dope. I like this.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

It is already kind of already started. Loki of the Leaf has her witches havens, Shiki of the Cloud was trying to influence areas with dojos. So castles are not the only kind of stronghold. And Sets I know eventually I was gonna have Spectre expand with under ground tomb guard locations.

[👺 Usiel]

You know what, this is something I've seen just not needed to have it written. Kages will just have to pay for stuff. I honestly don't want a bunch of castles but I don't mind small safe houses, buildings here and there. Just don't go overboard or try to use them to influence power, because then I'm going to have to stop you.

[clear]

in order to prevent what...

[👺 Usiel]

To stop people thinking they can take control of countries, or have any actual order other than the city that they are overseeing.

[The Bearer of Bad News]

but...thats the exact opposite of what the proposal states? the way i read it, we the players aren't taking control of anything officially, and certainly not ruling the place. just acting as mercenary support in the conflict. And perhaps benefiting in some tangible way from success (perhaps a slight bump to training in the country, or extra money from missions done in the country or something?)

[clear]

[👺 Usiel]

I understand that but that does not mean that it wont lead to that. I see actions happening where people start treating it like the game Risk where more people gain more power by having large quantities of threads. I had to talk to Loki about that pertaining to her Organization. It started to look like a force of influence, and like it or not that is how these will be perceived. You may think they will not but I've seen enough of them before in past RPs to see how it will play out if enough comes along. So, take it or leave it I guess.

[Deleted]

Well. A for effort Kaizu. I thought it was cool.

[clear]

[👺 Usiel]

Still applicable, just not to the extent that you may want. Apologies.