New Colony Stat For Raid Balancing: Colony Might

[Damien Hart]

It never really sat right with me that more wealth equaled more raiders per group. More people means smaller shares, right? So if you're only up against a half dozen people with a couple of turrets, why bring 100 men? To me, more wealth should bring more frequent raids; the more dangerous your colony is, the more men the enemy brings.

The might stat would be a summary of the threat your colony poses. It would be most heavily affected by the number of colonists; the number of turrets, gear and weapons would also be a factor, with equipped gear/weapons receiving a higher value. Finally, the number of raiders killed by the colony, and the overall number of raids you've repelled would also increase the stat. Routed enemies could possibly have a greatly reduced value, or none at all due to the fact that morale hits can come from other factors than just the colony.

Permanent injuries to colonists could also play a part in determining the stat value for an individual colonist (if you were a pirate, and you saw a colony of one armed one eyed survivors, would you really think they were dangerous? Or would you think they were at a major disadvantage, and therefore bring less men to increase your share of the loot?)

The might stat would allow for raid numbers to fluctuate somewhat with the strength of the colony, helping to mitigate the late game issue of attrition, slowly losing colonists one by one while the enemy numbers only ever increase, without ever stagnating/going backwards.

[BetaSpectre]

Honestly the more defenses a location has the less chance someone wants to attack it.
more wealth would attract more people yeilding both higher raiders and more frequent attacks.

Though I would want to see each faction acting differently.

Raiders attack based on wealth.
Mechanoids attack based on tech level.
Tribals attack based on defenses and hunting.

[Damien Hart]

Honestly the more defenses a location has the less chance someone wants to attack it.
more wealth would attract more people yeilding both higher raiders and more frequent attacks.

Though I would want to see each faction acting differently.

Raiders attack based on wealth.
Mechanoids attack based on tech level.
Tribals attack based on defenses and hunting.

There are two main reasons I disagree with the idea that more wealth = bigger raids. The first is good old fashioned greed. Like I mentioned earlier, more men equals smaller shares.

The second is risk vs reward. Sure, defenses are a deterrent - if you don't think you can overcome them. If you think you have the strength to overwhelm those defenses, then you'll go for the reward. The more men you bring, however, the less the reward becomes, which brings us back to greed. Nobody becomes a pirate for honour and glory; it's all about the loot.

I do like the idea of different motivations for attacking depending on faction type though.

[BetaSpectre]

Risk VS Reward means that they attack based on your wealth minus defenses.

Remember if you fail an attack you don't just lose the loot you lose your life. This is why not everyone goes Rambo but stays in a group. Group'ers live Rambos don't.

But instead of plain wealth Raiders should only choose a particular resource to count as wealth. Like silver, maybe metal, food, and items.

I don't think my 30,000 stock of wood is really valuable to a pirate. Wood is literally everywhere.