Core

# Game Concepts

These are the principal concepts that will make this game unique and fun

* An army marches on its stomach
	+ The restrictions and tactics of a campaign are defined by the ability to gather supplies
	+ Only the battle is defined by troop compositions and size
* Empires must balance between
	+ The Sword of Damocles
		- The more power one has, the more people underneath who are vying to take their share
	+ The fat are slow
		- Richer more stable states will grow in corruption as individuals that are not a part of the state prosper
		- The bigger the province the more maintenance fees increase, the more areas get ignored and left to their own devices.
* Vae victus
	+ Woe to the conquered
		- What you can do to an enemy kingdom is defined by:
			* What you can enforce
			* What you can get them to agree to
	+ I do solemnly swear
		- You are only punished for broken promises by those you have scorned
		- There are no downsides to breaking a promise and winning

# Game Modes

It may be possible to have games inside of other games. Eg if multiple players are removed early on a horde event could be spawned where these players play a sub game of last one standing or even if a succession crisis spawns allow all killed players or hot join players to start a unification game in that kingdom.

* Standard
* Teams
	+ Each Team is given a culture and the only score that matters at the end of the game is the culture score (each scoring period measures the culture scores and not the territory scores)>
* Unification
	+ All players start as the same culture and the same religion. The game ends when 1 player rules all other territories.
	+ Allow the game master to choose the amount of foreign influence
	+ Allow for an Emperor/Shogun relationship
		- The Emperor is a  puppet
		- The Shogun is the one behind the emperor
		- The Shogun earns additional score and gets bonuses
			* Diplomatic bonuses
				+ Can take all of the actions that a king could take with low authority
	+ A unification mode can be started mid game
		- When a vassal puts a shogun onto the thrown.
* King of the hill
	+ There is one city that is the goal city.
	+ On top of the other events there will be a capture the hill event and a hill round over event
	+ Can be played as teams
	+ Each turn, for each part of the area a player controls they will earn a king of the hill value.
	+ When the period ends the score will be split amongst the players depending on their king of the hill value
	+ King of the hill can be triggered mid game
		- A pope can call for a crusade for the holy city
			* The holy city must be owned by another religion
			* This begins a king of the hill game in x turns from it's beginning.
			* This mode is composed of two teams of each religion (so long as they choose to compete)
		- Reconquista
			* If a culture goes for years without it's ancestral capital it can call a reconquista
				+ So long as they don't recognise the other cultures territory
			* This mode is composed of the reconquering culture and the defending culture
			* This ends when either the reconqueurers admit defeat and recognise the invaders territory
			* Or a time period after they reconquer all of their territory back
* Horde Invasion
	+ A rolling horde hellbent with dominating the continent invade your area
	+ The last kingdom to submit win
		- A player may start in the role of the horde
		- If a player is conquered by another player they are removed from the competition
		- If a player is conquered by the horde they are removed from the competition
		- A player who is conquered by another non horde player will always finish after their conqueror.
		- A kingdom conquered by the horde becomes a part of the horde
		- Conquered players can break free and become independent but their status within the game mode has already been set.
		- If horde mode is a stand alone game the horde are infinite and can't be conquered
		- Example rankings,
			* Player 1 is conquered by player 2
			* Player 3 is conquered by the horde
			* Player 4 is conquered by Player 5
			* Player 1 Gains independance from player 2
			* Player 1 is conquered by Player 3 (horde)
			* Player 6 is conquered by the horde
			* Results
				1. Player 5
				2. Player 4
				3. Player 6
				4. Player 2
				5. Player 1
				6. Player 3
	+ There will be kingdoms to the opposite direction of the horde and are essentially fodder
	+ If incorporated into a game that already exists
		- A player must play as the horde
		- Horde player gain score for each player they conquer
		- All players conquered by the horde lose points
		- The game mode ends when
			* The horde is conquered
			* The horde is pushed back out of territory they conquered (after a certain time period)
			* The horde conquer all of the other nations
			* The horde reform into a kingdom
				+ If a horde conquer territory but reach an equilibrium with the other states and aren't removed
				+ The horde should be forced to adapt into a kingdom otherwise they will stagnate and be pushed back
					- Their troop supply won't replenish as well as the other states
					- Their armour and weapons won't upgrade.
		- When the game mode ends all players receive score to their banks immediately
		- The score will be revealed
			* When the horde are beaten
			* When the horde win
			* After a certain milestone the horde reach after reforming
				+ Eg when they declare a war with a cassus belli or without the horde cassus belli
	+ Non standard game modes should not overwhelm scoring periods
		- eg if a player who unified the country had that during a scoring period it would score 1000 points
		- The unification score should be 200 points
		- Game modes shouldn't be easy to trigger eg the same kingdom can't be unified multiple times during a long time period
		- Only new popes can call crusades (which requires a player to die and for them to call a scoring period they can't compete in.
		- Hordes also require a player to die and may cost the player points to trigger depending on how large their score is.

## Reintroducing eliminated players

When you become an oathbreaker it is important that you are scared of being eliminated. This should be a real threat that hurts you.

* You lose a connection that you may have cultivated since the start of the game.
* Affects your score

### Options for reintroducing players

* Play as a Pope
* Play as a new religious entity
* Play as a horde
* Help simulate a succession crisis/Rebellion
* Allow the player to choose a kingdom to play as

# Game Events

Game events are things that affect the game world that are not within the players control.
These will be forewarned with a vague splash screen. Eg A comet appears, who knows how this will affect life here.
Types of game events

* Natural disaster
	+ Earthquake
	+ Famine
		- Drought
		- Extended winter
	+ Plague
	+ Volcano
* Scoring period is about to end
	+ There is a vote between players between the following options
	+ Add removed players back to the game
		- Players will be restricted to choose characters that are lower in score than half the average score of all players (or the bottom 10 characters if the average score is too low)
		- score is based on current score not total score
		- A player will have a handicap for nations they choose if their total score is too large
		- One per religion may also choose to be a pope or if no one chooses to be a pope they may choose to add a new heresy for that religion
		- One may choose to become a horde
	+ End the game
		- If the game ends all scores will be added together to form a total score
			* All cultural scores
			* Positioning in all scoring periods
			* Dynastic scores
			* Any other lineages they played will contribute to the total

## Player Map

At the outset players should not know where on the continent they are and the should never be able to figure out which player is associated with which character.
Obfuscating the Map

* Randomly assign a north to each player
* Allow Antarctica continents
	+ Allow continents to go over the north pole
	+ Allow the north pole to be traversable (to more of the continent on the other side)
* Have the edges of the map not be square
	+ Just because you can’t reach kazakhstan doesn’t mean you can’t reach saudi arabia
	+ Use foreign trade nodes as an indicator for the edge of the map
		- Eg if a player finds a foreign trade node they know nothing of interest is beyond it

## Obfuscating the Player

* Have all contact between players be typed.
	+ Make a delay between message sent and message received (location based)
* Use player names for all things game related
	+ Eg who the game is waiting on
* All game actions happen simultaneously and are updated to the server at the end of turn
	+ So they can’t associate one player making moves with a character taking to long
* Have proper nouns vary (doesn’t actually make things harder is just cool)
	+ Have cultures read certain chars differently
		- Eg Ville becomes polis
		- Have certain letters replaced with others eg v and w
		- Have certain phonemes dropped eg eille
		- Add vowels where they weren’t originally

## Money

Money is a way to sure up weaknesses. This means hiring mercernaries to help fight your wars, this means bribing your enemies to raid your rivals rather than you. Money should not be able to create something from nothing this means it should allow you to augment what you already have/gain access to resources that others around you have.

## Saving

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/serialization/examples-of-xml-serialization