[MUD-Dev] SOC DGN: AC like alligiance system

[Matthew Rick]

In Asheron's Call, there was an allegiance system where in vassals
contributed a small amount of experience to a lord.  Many players
found this system to be unbalanced in that there was an in game
mechanic whereby lords benefitted from having vassals, but no
similar system which gave vassals any concrete in-game benefits.

One of the cool parts about the structure was that the number of
vassals under a person contributed to (or maybe determined, not
sure) the person's "rank" which was a factor in whether or not
certain powerful magical artifacts worked for the character.

My idea was to make the system a two way street, giving "prestige"
points to the lord for each vassal he has, and giving each vassal a
small prestige bonus, based on the prestige of the vassal's
lord. The player level would also supplement prestige, so your
prestige would be determined by an equation like the following:

  prestige = level + a*vassals'_prestige + b*lord's_prestige

Prestige would be used for such things as who can hold titles to
land, to who can run for public office, to how much npc merchants
charge you for wares (higher prestige characters will get a
discount).

Obviously, (I assume at least, with proper balancing of a's and b's
from the above equation), it would be in the lord's best interests
to have high prestige vassals, hopefully leading to the lord making
an active effort to help his vassals, while vassals likewise receive
a tangible in-game bonus for having a prestigous lord.

Some quick notes about things I thought of that would be
abusable and my ideas for solving them:

  Problem:

    If you have a large number of vassals, it doesn't matter how low
    prestige they are.

  Solution:

    Impose a limit on the number of vassals a character may have.

  Problem:

    This would lead to twinking.

  Solution:

    Powerful items will / may have either a level or prestige
    requirement, so low level characters won't be able to use, say
    Excalibur.

  Problem:

    This will lead to an old-bies game (no one but veteran players
    may run for office / vote / get involved in politics).

  Solution:

    A)The prestige requirements are customizable by locality.

    B) This is intentional.

  Problem:

    Vassals could end up being more prestigous than their lord.

  Solution:

    I don't view this as a problem (although I suppose it could be).

At any rate, if anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to let
me hear them.

~Matthew Rick
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