I really like that idea of controlling multiple people. I was just wondering how this would work in the Online part of the game. For instance, would everyone in the colony be able to control everyone else as well? Say i left an AI doing a job, then someone takes over that character after I leave and makes him do something different, ruining my plan because the AI is longer doing what I needed it to be doing? Or would this just have to be solved through communication or would there be a away to limit who could control what in the colony? If that makes sense at all
A longer time ago, when we were discussing another game type with tribes joining to form duchies and kingdoms, either voluntarily or by force, the idea was such that to keep things simple, you always controlled your people and no one else could. There would always be a hierarchy, and vassals lose say 20% of their workforce to landlord. People at higher hierarchical positions would be able to build some things that no ordinary tribe could, in order to motivate the tribes to form higher state forms.
I think a similar idea can be implemented here. To form an alliance would mean joining together existing lands of players, everyone paying taxes to a central authority that can use them to build stuff that would be otherwise unreachable. For example highways or high speed rails would be possible only for states of certain size.
Those 20% of workforce available to state could be reassigned to players to perform certain duties. I guess players will become specialized and could carry out specific tasks in addition to their normal duties in their original land.
Of course, this could grow arbitrarily complex once we start considering the ability to wage wars and occupying and seizing lands and such. But I'm wondering if the system is just right: if you voluntarily join a state, you give 20% of income, workforce etc to the state. If you lose to a force and are taken over, you retain your lands and everything (only your military could have been destroyed, but you represent the tribe/nation), and you lose 20% of income and people (there is always a percentage of people that would collaborate with usurpers normally) to the invader - exactly the same in both cases.
It may have some psychological effects, but it's upon you. Your land size roughly corresponds to your population, so if you start to care less and your income falls, you won't be able to keep the same amount of people and consequently start losing the land. Eventually you could revert back to the initial piece of land with the colony pod buried into earth, and it can be possible to move your pod into another place if you found yourself in a hostile country, though it has to have some advantages in comparison to just starting over with a new account.
