Life is Feudal Official Forum

[Strategos]

And idea hath entered my mind!
Considering that I am now the Duke of a miniscule Duchy (but growing daily!), and have noticed similarly small-but-focused states floating around, I suddenly was hit with a way to increase our unified protection. That is, a Coalition: no one's a vassal, no one has to be, but pledged to protection of all members. Think about it: friendly land massively increased as in a Kingdom, but smaller city-states with less of an out-of-game backing still retain their independence (and their tax money )

The following Regulations are thus being proposed:
1. All Realms in the Coalition are prohibited from attacking one another.
2. When one member of the Coalition is attacked, ALL members of the Coalition declare war on the attacker.
3. Each guild-head (whomever he/she may be and however they've gotten their position) receives one vote in the Coalition Senate. Bills are passed by simple majority and amendments to the Coalition Charter (that is, this document) must pass unanimously (though until open early access is possible and land/more members can be acquired, these rules aren't really much of an affect and we can work out any changes by contacting me/posting here).
Amendment: Republics that do not have a stated leader of some sort may elect a delegate/ambassador to represent them in the Senate.
4. There Shall Be free and open trade and Open Borders between all member guilds
(comments on this welcome: some might see this as a bit intrusive but I personally believe it will seal the Coalition together via economics- by defending each-other, you are defending each-other's access to international resources).
Join/express interesting in joining on this forum. Suggestions about the Charter are welcome. The link to the Coalition Steam group is below:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/lifcoalition

Signatures:
The Duchy of Camorr
The Tindremic Empire
The Otaku Nation

Pending:
Heidens
Army of the King

[LordWiese]

Preformed alliances/treaties tend not to work in these settings. Reason? This is a world that has to be built organically, and the nature of politics will also be shaped in the same manner. I can hope to defend those with the same values as myself, but lets say, if between myself and those people with common values are people with valuable resources who I can't quit conquer, what then? Naturally I have to do what is best by my own people, and if we can't function as a clan without access to these resources, then I will have to come to some sort of agreement with these players. Now, if the terms of this agreement is that I also have to defend them from those people who are across from them, who also happen to be those same people I share common values with, then then?

Honestly, I side with the people who offer my faction access to their resources, why? Because resources make me stronger, not ideas.

Now, I know this rule will not apply with clans who are split up into different kingdoms and the like, but when it comes to general strangers, it does.


Also, I'll enjoy the challenge of fighting coalitions like this, that actually form up.

[Krevente]

The great thing about LiF is that it will organically support organizations like this much more than other sandbox games before it.

It would be cool to see something like this pop up and this is similar to the way Silver Sun Republic has built confederacies of guilds before following the largely successful Kingdom of Hyperion, which was a kingdom of 2400+ players.

SSR and MilitaryGamers.com are already set up with several 'Houses' and other Realms in our Republic structure complete with a full Constitution, Senate and Code of Common Laws. We split the military along ADCON/OPCON according to geographic/provincial commands as well.

I tend to agree with Lord Wiese on his points though, unless you can generate a cultural identity somehow. We can get away with it because SSR and our clans have played together for years. It took many years for the core guilds of Hyperion to come together and the planning really took off even 3 years before the game launched.

[Strategos]

So far, speculating about resources isn't going to do much since the game isn't playable yet (unless you're an alpha tester, in which case you know more about good in-game land than I do). Unfortunately, I do get your point about unwillingness to be dragged into war unless the country being attacked somehow runs parallel with you're interests. The idea of a Coalition, however, would be to foster the idea that if ONE member of the alliance is attacked, ALL are attacked. The idea though is to present a United front in foreign policy: think about it: a collection of smaller states all bundled in the same area would naturally have to learn to at least tolerate each other, or else they'd destroy each other.

The idea of forming a Coalition pre-game would be to work out land claims BEFORE WE START SETTLING. Therefore, the Coalition would be bundled together in a tight-nit alliance. In the case of working out an agreement with those resource-rich people you can't quite conquer: why not invite them to the Coalition Senate and see if they'd like to become a member? I'm assuming they're attacking this far-off "ally-with-slight-cultural-differences" of yours because they want resources. As a member of the Coalition, it would be far easier for them to work out a deal with THEIR object of conquest. After all: in that case, not only would you be able to trade with them, but they'd have a much easier time trading with the REST of the Coalition.

Alternatively, if this particular faction is indifferent to you (and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't LIKE you since you tried unsuccessfully to conquer them) and they have designs on a neighbor alliance member, it would be, in the case of a diplomatic breakdown, rather more easy to convince the REST of the Coalition, or that poor ally that's stranded on the other side of that unconquerable faction, to attack said faction in UNISON. In that case, conquest would assuredly be MUCH easier and, as an incentive (there might at that point be some opposition in the sense of "oh, I don't want to fight you're war"), other members of the Coalition would be able to loot the crap out of that faction you attacked, and you and the ally they antagonized could divide their land our work out something with trade.


Open borders, free trade, protection from bandits, etc. would go a long way to cement friendship, but yes, Krevente, I do see the point that a larger, Kingdom-sized but still Democratically-oriented guild would be far more unified than this relatively loose alliance. Still, the if Unity is a problem, then neighboring alliance members would only have to think that: if one openly-allied member is being attacked a mere Half a Kilometer away (since realm-sized claims are about 1km square, one end of the Alliance to the other couldn't realistically be more than 1-2km), it's more than possible that the large, imperialistic Guild invading them would have designs on their neighbors. Wouldn't it then be more advantageous to fight said guild all at once and defend you're allies/trade partners rather than get gobbled up when the invaders finally get around to you?
Anyway: that's my logic, though I must say it could be difficult implementing this without any in-game mechanics for it. Still, as long as those members that join before the game is released can settle on land claims to set up shop, adding new late-coming members and defending everyone shouldn't be much of a political problem.

[Azerath]

I suggest editing the above post and breaking it down into paragraphs. I'm not trying to be a offensive or a grammar nazi, but I am having difficulty reading it. The lines seem to blur together.

[LordWiese]

I wish you luck, and yes I am a Alpha tester, but I can't say that gives me a whole lot of insight thus far, the world is still very primitive and undeveloped.

The main problem with this idea is the same problem that limits my understanding of the game world so far, primitivity. We don't yet know how the lack of infrastructure early on is going to effect a guild's ability to aid allies, or even respond to local threats. It could be that even a slight attack from a local rival clan could result in total collapse of that guilds progress in that area, and could force them to move on to find new holdings. Flexibility is the name of the game at this point, don't limit yourself to pesky noble ideas that will hinder you from even getting a good start.

[Azerath]

The Chinese believe in befriending distant states while attacking your neighbors.

[LordWiese]

The key word there is "states" we're talking about early feuding clans, not organized economic, militarian, and political entities. What I'm saying is, let politics form organically, be flexible.

[Azerath]

The key word there is "states" we're talking about early feuding clans, not organized economic, militarian, and political entities. What I'm saying is, let politics form organically, be flexible.

Well, I can say with complete honesty, I hope there are a lot of guilds who follow this advice.

[Strategos]

HMMMM...
Recruitment is slow....
HOWEVER: I must say that, no matter the governmental structure of a "clan"/"state"/"whatever the hell one calls oneself", any group "clans" willing to fight as a whole would stand a lot better chance than those that are picked off one-by-one. Desire to survive would keep the Coalition together...
ANYWAY...
The main problem here seems to be one of location. Since none of us (Alpha Testers excepted but there isn't much in the way of kingdoms yet I don't think) really have access to the land we're planning to carve up, we're all currently forming alliances without concern for geography. Of COURSE I'd never get into a military (unless it was some sort of naval thing) agreement with a country on the other side of the world, but the point of forming a "Coalition" before launch is to have all these little clan state things that were either just starting up in this game or out-advertised in the forums settle rather close by and thus make free trade, open borders and common defense/bans on international crimes feasible...
And for all those whose eyes have a tendency to cross looking upon computer screens I apologize for my use of Extremely Long Paragraphs.

[Strategos]

HUZZAH! SOMEONE ELSE HAS JOINED!!!!!

[Strategos]

UPDATE!

A new member has joined the Coalition, welcome to the Nation of Otaku!