So, yesterday, Ardas, Sky and I got together in the chat to talk about what we'd do with YaK. I invited people to join - no one else came. Timezones are a bitch. One of the things we all agreed on was that a lot of things in YaK 2 were poorly thought, notably the map, but also the game world. For example, the fact that borders between nations aren't touching (something that would NEVER happen in a real world) means there are barely any wars, and the fact that nearly all nations have only one city means that it's very easy to become a superpower (just by taking Polca, Ligoria became what's probably the third strongest faction of the SC) and that wars generally end in one battle - the siege of the capital. There are multiple things like that that we believe could be improved if we worked more on a new map.
Besides, there's the fact that what has been the main YaK storyline for months - aka Laythe's return home - is over. There are not many options left for us, except expansion à la Elbreth; however, since all nations are small city-states, that will probably be an easy cruise till we anger Galam or something - and even then, with a few more cities like Mileth and Lechem, we could probably beat them. The game doesn't have much challenges left. Interest is at an all-time low, and honestly even I don't know what I could do to start a new storyline - GM induced story arcs have a tendency to include much and more bitching, I noticed, and the players are rarely satisfied by those. I think we can all agree that story arcs created by players are much better, mainly because you can't really blame the dice for doing what it did.
This leads me to my main point. Ardas, Sky and I were wondering if we could start a third YaK, done without the mistakes of this one. This third YaK would include, probably, the following things:
-Bigger, stronger nations with more than one city.
-No more unclaimed territories between nations.
-Multiple cultures and religions to make the setting more interesting, and hopefully add international tensions.
-Forcing the players to start the game in a player nation - since we plan to make those bigger, it won't be too limiting, hopefully.
There are also a lot of points that we can discuss here together. For example, Ardas and I suggested the following things yesterday:
-A more numerous and realistic NPC nobility, designed to reward good kings (by giving them their support, their troops, accepting to pay more taxes) and to be the bane of bad ones (by threatening rebellion, refusing to pay taxes/raise their levies).
-A context encouraging a lot of wars between nations (For example, the old Fallen Empire context I suggested a few months ago, where nations are remnants left behind after the fall of an Empire. Some nations might want to unite the empire again, some might want to keep things as they are. This is only an example - there could be many other things, like barbarian invasions, religious wars, etc.)
-Different cultures, eras or ruling systems for the player nations (we thought about making a big map with many different cultures, religions and political systems, and then letting the players choose, in a vote, what we would be playing as - perhaps YaK 3 would be more exotic, or perhaps we would do the opposite and return to standard feudal western culture of YaK 1)
-More important religions, that really have a part in the game - like they did in the old days. This could add another dimension for politics, were players could seek the favor of the People, the Nobility or the Church, and earn rewards that way)
So. I wanted to ask you people: who would be in favor of continuing YaK 2? Who would be in favor of starting anew in YaK 3, this time without making as many mistakes, hopefully?
My vote goes to YaK 3. However, if YaK 2 wins, I will of course stay with you people and try to get this game going once again.
Also: if there was a YaK 3, what would be your suggestions for it?
If YaK 2 keeps on going, how can we make it better?