Social Standards (soldiers, slaves, citizens)

[Zombiesbum]

Just recently started playing this game and I am quite intrigued by it and the possibilities.

One of the main issues though with town building/running is the feeling of it from a realistic point of view. At the first you start off with a few "guys with swords and stuff" going off to start a life somewhere, you will most likely start off with a little farm until it has grown and you have gathered more squad/faction members.

Citizen
I see the squad members more of a militant person rather than a slave or citizen. You don't usually have fully armored people with a pair of katanas doing manual labor or researching a new technology, while at first this will be unavoidable, but there should be mechanics in place to lure players away from this method.

My suggestion is to lower any laboring, engineering or scientific skill when that person is wearing armor and weapons. Also allowing a person to equip tools/work cloths should increase their skill. (I'm guessing that the tools in the shop are what they are for in the future)


Slaves
My next point is the ability to buy/sell/capture slaves, these can be assigned to a squad member like a piece of equipment, that squad member can then assign tasks from them. The squad member could have a Slaver attribute that allows more slaves the higher it is. Slaves will have restrictions on the Slaver, like carrying a heavy load. The slave will have to be shackled, thus they would run slower and fight like a child, if the slaver gets knocked out with no nearby faction members, then the slaves will try to run away. They might take a key from the body to unshackle themselves, or just try to lob their way across the desert.
Also note, you should be able to force enemies into slavery. slaves could also have their own "Slave skill" which the longer they have been a slave, the higher the skill. A higher skill would make the slave more obedient, work harder and be less willing to run away.


Master of one or Jack of all trades, master of none.
Also talking about skills, what I really would like to see is more of a realistic discipline mechanic, instead of just mastering everything. For example, if you have one guy who fights and trains a lot, then his skill in that area will be high, while others will be low, if you start putting in other skills, his fighting will decrease, as with all in real life skills, if you stop practicing you will get rusty.

Well those are my suggestions for this particular subject. Keep up the good work.

[windows 98]

Specialization is pretty much the death of any Society, even our own. its better to have a society That everyone can do everything, at least that's what anthropology class taught me :3

I dont see the problem with everyone learning everything, it takes time and paticne to get everyone up to a certain skill level. not to mention with 20 people being max squad cap you could barely have any kind of production , Given the fact have the guys need to be laborers for building materials, and to work fields, and cook and, make booze. etc.

i would suggest for your , issue with jack of all trades, is that there be a master level a guy can attain, and he can attain it in one area, of your choice.

[Rob]

I like the idea. The game tells you to get a squad and have them work, do some science, fight and do everything. Even the developer say in his interview that he doesn't like when a game tells you what to do.
I really like the idea that I might have my own citizens, not even focusing on fighting because they know they are guarded and then they can fully focus on their work, instead of mastering all skills (which right now - is way to easy).

And even hiring guards from other factions to guard you would be a nice thing then. Perhaps you don't want to fight at all, just focus on your trading?

Selling/Buying slaves could then also be implemented. You'd buy slaves when you need them, perhaps even set them free if you want. And instead of being bound to every squad member, you could easily just sell them again.