| kwiqsilver |
I'm playing in a Kingmaker game, where we've just started making contact with Varnhold, our neighbor to the East (NO SPOILERS!!!!). Because of that, I was thinking of setting up diplomatic and trade edicts (from the optional kingdom rules).
I did the math and these rules look completely broken. My analysis is below. Has anyone tried to use these yet? If so, are you just failing constantly, or did you change the rules dramatically?
Diplomatic Edicts:
DC = 10 + your kingdom's Infamy + the target kingdom's special Size modifier + your kingdom's special Size modifier + alignment difference modifier + relationship modifier + the target kingdom's attitude – your kingdom's Fame – BP you spend on bribes or gifts
A country like Brevoy would have a special size modifier of 100 or more, making the DC for two countries of that size over 200. Now, sure you could spend 200BP in bribes to pull the DC down to something manageable, but to recoup that cost from the benefits of the edict would take decades. The money would be much better spent on internal improvements (or simply on armies to conquer the other country).
Trade Edicts:
The formula is completely irrational.
The DC for the three kingdom rolls is
* DC = CDC + RM + LM + Corruption - Productivity
The Control DC (CDC) is
* CDC = 20 + size + grids
The Trade Route Length (TRL) is the length of the trade route weighted by terrain type. (This part makes lots of sense...until you see how they use it).
The Route Modifier (RM) is
* RM = TRL / 10
The Length Modifier (LM) is
* LM = max(0, size - TRL)
Substituting...
* DC = Size + Grids + TRL/10 + max(0, Size - TRL) + 20 + Corruption - Productivity
So (assuming the TRL doesn't exceed the size) we get
* DC = 2*Size + Grids - 0.9 * TRL + 20 + Corruption - Productivity
So it's really hard for a large kingdom to engage in trade. But the longer the trade route, the easier it is, because you can eliminate one of those size addends, by having a TRL >= 1.1*size.
We would have to get our kingdom bonuses up to around 80 to even have a chance to make these rolls. Brevoy, at around 400 hexes in my rough estimation, would need to have kingdom rolls around +800.
Restov and Varnhold (less than 10 hexes away each) are too close for us to trade with, but we would have no problem making the rolls to set up a route with any city 30 hexes or more away. We could take our trade goods through Varnhold, and through Restov, to New Stetven, but we'd be too incompetent to sell anything as we pass through those two cities.