Prisoner management skill and the price of slaves

[leo]

Wouldn't it be nice if more prisoner management meant more money per slave? It would certainly make sense within the context of the game, if more prisoner management were interpreted to include better haggling abilities when selling slaves.

Perhaps something along the lines of this would be excellent, I think...:

P= skill in prisoner management skill
Sp= Slave price

10 + 3P = Sp

So at 1 skill, that would mean 13 denars, and at 10 skill that would mean 40 denars.

Thoughts?

 

[yehrom]

Don't where is the sense here...
"Prisonners management" should stay as actualy in my mind.

 

[jknemesis]

When I first saw prisoner management, i was hoping that raising the skill would do something else. Along the lines of preventing their escape (that would make things interesting, if prisoners could escape. Calculate the ratio of the number of prisoners to the number of people holding them captive. If that ratio is really high, then the prisoners have a high chance of escaping. This chance increases if the prisoners are higher level and gets reduced depending on how high the player's prisoner managment skill is.)

I was also thinking that extremely high prisoner management would give players the ability to cause stockholm syndrome-like effects in lower level prisoners, converting them to their side if the prisoner stays in the party for a long time. That way, it seems worth taking the trouble to knock out dark knights and hold them prisoner for a long time.

 

[Skanky Burns]

Prisoner management already increases the number of slaves you can hold safely at one time which therefore increases the total money you can make each time you bring slaves back. Increasing the price as well would make prisoner management a "must-have" skill and therefore be rather unbalanced.

 

[Manitas]

Actually, as you are bringing more and more of them, their price should drop.

I'm a realism freak, ya know

 

[Mage246]

How would it make it a "must-have" skill? Having more money doesn't necessarily make you a better fighter, and also I imagine that there could be penalties imposed for having a low prisoner management skill, which reduces the early incentive to take alot of prisoners. It would be similar to the merchant skill right now, which is hardly a "must-have", even though it is very useful for those who want to pursue a merchant's life.

 

[NikkTheTrick]

Prisoner management already increases the number of slaves you can hold safely at one time which therefore increases the total money you can make each time you bring slaves back. Increasing the price as well would make prisoner management a "must-have" skill and therefore be rather unbalanced.

Right now it sucks soooooooo much that a few denars would not unbalance it. By the time you get armies of slaves, and have skillpoints to spend on the skill, the player is a rich biatch. The given formula would lead to 60 denars/slave at the highest level. IMHO, it would still not be worth wasting the skillpoints even then, but at least would provide some reason to get the skill up.

Convivcing prisoners to join the party at high levels would be a good idea.

Perhaps, it should also allow player to get higher ransoms for captured knights - their families will be willing to pay much more than an owner of a galley!

ALso, there should be a possibility of prisoners running away - decreaced at higher skill levels.

 

[Sir Prince]

I think that the prisoner managment cshould have an affect, and the suggestion of differenty prices for different troops is a good one and already suggested.

 

[Laurence of Arabia]

Nah, we should just get more money for a prisoner as it is. If anything affetced it, it would be trade.

 

[dolfanar]

One thing i simply do not understand is why I need the Prisoner management skill to capture any prisoners at all. I have a war band of 30 men, and because I don't have any Prisoner management I can't take a SINGLE guy prisoner???!?!? But if I have Prisoner managent 5 I can suddenly single-handedly capture and handle 25 guy's???

Suggestion: Prisoner Slots should = Number of Party Memebers/3 * (Prisoner Management+1)

If your prisoner slots drop due to Troop attrition, then some of your prisoners escape (enough to get you down to your maximum).

Example:

I have 30 troops, and no PM. That means I can have 10 prisoners(30/3*(0+1). I encounter some bandits, and they kill two of my guy's. That leaves me with 28 troops, and a maximum of 9 Prisoners, therefore one of my prisoners escapes.

Example 2.

I am alone, but I have a PM of 2. I can handle ONE prisoner (Me/3*(2+1))

To me this is FAR more realistic.

 

[thesneakster]

When I first saw prisoner management, i was hoping that raising the skill would do something else. Along the lines of preventing their escape (that would make things interesting, if prisoners could escape. Calculate the ratio of the number of prisoners to the number of people holding them captive. If that ratio is really high, then the prisoners have a high chance of escaping. This chance increases if the prisoners are higher level and gets reduced depending on how high the player's prisoner managment skill is.)

I was also thinking that extremely high prisoner management would give players the ability to cause stockholm syndrome-like effects in lower level prisoners, converting them to their side if the prisoner stays in the party for a long time. That way, it seems worth taking the trouble to knock out dark knights and hold them prisoner for a long time.

Wow, i like that idea. Of course sometimes you'd get prisioners who'd never convert, but i'd still be good.

 

[Sabin Stargem]

It might be an way to add other things to the whole prisoner portion of the game.  For example, what method would you use to imprison prisoners?  What are the advantages or disadvantages?

EXAMPLE:  A player has low prison management skill, and wants to capture a huge amount of prisoners.  He has about 10 or so soldiers, but he also has a cage-on-wheels for keeping prisoners in, along with steel manacles.  Capturing a bunch of peasants, they are stuffed into that cage, manacled, and the player sets off to Zendar to sell them at the fixed-rate slave market.  Along the way, a group of bandits attacks the party, in hopes of capturing goods - specifically, the prisoners for the same reasons the player did. The fight begins, and the cage is on a nearby road.  The player decides to have his troops to advance towards the enemy, in hope of preventing the prisoners becoming pincushions, curtesy of arrow barrages.  The prisoners are still in the cage, and can't escape unless the cage is broken.  They could still be hurt by arrows and other things, though.  If the prisoners are manacled, they can't move around in the cage.

EXAMPLE 2:  A player has a choice concerning the slaves - to feed decently, or not to feed?  The benefit is that the slaves might sell better at slave auctions, in which the quality of the slave is important since the price isn't fixed.  However, to feed the slaves cost money and provisions, potentially sucking up food and money that could go to the player's troops.

EXAMPLE 3:  The various ways of imprisoning prisoners takes many forms, ranging from wheeled cages to chain-gangs with chain & ball setups.  This could affect the player's speed on the world map, and how exposed prisoners are during combat, and how much of a chance for escape there is.

 

[Ingolifs]

Hey that'd be nice. In the party screen, you have three options.

'feed prisoners'
'don't feed prisoners'
'eat prisoners'

 

[PIL313]

that would be funny if you could eat the prisonsers

 

[Dynamite_cow]

'Make the prisoners eat each other' too, that would remove one prisoner selected at random and would have the half benefits of feeding them with actual food.