Siege System
It is obvious that a developed siege system is needed with the PVP dynamic planned in Founders: Sons of Hyrmalion and yet it has been one of the most difficult things to conceive because the fast pace of the battle was essential to keep while offering the fundamental strategic aspect of an assault against a fortified town. Nevertheless we wanted the defenders to organize themselves to avoid losing their properties.
After lots of brainstorming we opted for as system with 3 essential points:
- An army
- A siege camp
- Supply lines
An army:
Is considered as an army every group of at least 5 people who chose a commander (a group chief), this one will choose where to install the siege camp, and who will finance it.
There cannot be several factions within the same army, which means a coalition should be constituted of several armies.
A siege camp:
The siege camp is the keystone of any assault because it is the place where reanimations and healing will happen. Just like an army, a siege camp will only contain a single faction, and only those members can use its facilities.
It will offer two major services:
- The siege machines
- The infirmary
The siege machines will be buildable anywhere, but the ones near a siege camp beneficing of a supply line won’t have any ammo limitations, which is almost mandatory to assault a citadel.
The infirmary is definitely the most important function of the siege camp, by allowing players who control it to be reanimated using appropriated supplies.
When you die on the battlefield, you can either be recovered by an ally who will make you reappear in the infirmary to be healed, in which case it won’t cost you anything but resources from your camp, or no one will recover you in time and you will need to pay a (small) amount of in game money to reappear in the infirmary, you will be teleported for free to the nearest town hospital of your faction. More, if you are reanimated too often in the infirmary, you will each time get less and less health back, and you will be more and more easily wounded. To remove those penalties you’ll have to wait or to visit a hospital.
Supply lines:
The supplying is an essential aspect of any army, without supplies it is impossible to feed, to heal, to repair or to besiege which is why the management of the supply lines is mandatory.
These lines are often roads from the army to the nearest friendly city, but can also be boats if the supplies need to cross a sea, or exceptionally pass through the air. If these conditions are met, the supplying is automatically put in place, and convoys will leave the city to reach the siege camp and deliver the much-needed products.
