Gladius War System 1.0

So we have reached a point in our site where due to the time skip, the villages have found themselves with a lot of money to spend. This means the villages have finally started using NPCs aggressively and we might have serious combats soon. A few points of concern have been raised, which are:

1. A single A-rank squad can defeat multiple B-rank squads regardless of how many they are. This is currently true for every rank.
   
   
2. The cost of NPCs is currently so low that villages and organizations don't bother using anything below A-rank (which makes no sense considering the bulk of armies in canon are C and B-ranked ninjas at most).
   
   
3. A village can simply spawn A-ranked NPCs whenever it wants as long as they can pay the cost. This is problematic because an army of that level should have maintenance costs and not simply be a one-time payment. An elite army has costs.
   
   
4. Villages aren't really encouraged to invest in improving their trade routes and guarding them.
   
   
5. Currently wars between villages imply mostly an attack on the village itself, and it's impossible to indirectly affect an enemy's economy.
   
   

So here's the NPC revamp I propose to try and solve these issues:

War on Gladius is waged between villages, organizations and sometimes entire nations. War involves not only the physical location of a village and its military force but also its Resources, either from the mainland or from conquered lands.


The agents that wage war can be PC (Player Characters) or NPC (Non-Player Characters). It's important to note that while both of these agents play a role in a war, PC's are the most important and capable out of the two. So if you're a leader of an organization or a village, do keep in mind that Player Characters are and will always be your most important pieces.

Resources, on the other hand, can be anything from fishing villages to lumber camps or even the village itself.

NPCs
NPC's are one of the most useful agents of war. They are the bulk of a village's army and while they may not be as strong as PCs or have a hard time fighting them, NPCs have the advantage of having a broad reach and being capable of advancing on several targets (if you decide to use several squads). NPCs are perfect to draw the attention of PCs or to scout the Lands without risking the lives of your precious Player Characters.

Here are the several classes of NPCs and their maintenance prices:

• Counter-Espionage
  “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
  ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
  
  The NPCs dedicated specifically to finding and killing scouts. They will kill any scout group of lower class on a 1 on 1 squad battle and, when facing Scouts of equal Class, will leave one survivor that can report to the enemy. Counter-Espionage is unable to provide the information that Scouts can, but they are able to protect Lands from enemy Scouts. These groups only report in once per month, however, so if one is killed, it may be some time until you are notified. As the top stealth unit, Counter-Espionage cannot be detected by any NPC Role.
  E-Class: 5,000 Ryo per month
  D-Class: 10,000 Ryo per month
  C-Class: 15,000 Ryo per month
  B-Class: 20,000 Ryo per month
  A-Class: 25,000 Ryo per month
  HOW TO USE: You register these NPCs in the updates section and assign them to a spot. If you see Scout posts in that place, you may make a simple post stating that your scout is countering those. There's no need to rp the battle.
  
  
• Scouts
  “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
  ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
  
  These NPCs go into a designated Land as a group and report any activity that happens there. A general status report is given at the start of each month, containing such information as any factions still holding a presence in that Land, along with basic activity monitoring. Pertinent information is delivered as soon as it is noticed, such as when a new faction moves in or other key details, like attacks and Counter-Espionage. As stealth units, Scouts cannot be located by any of the other NPC Roles save only Counter Espionage, who are specifically trained for just that task. Scouts are also able to, over the span of a month, locate any structures, buildings, and bases that are not beyond their level to detect (determined by the Secrecy Defense). They can give detailed information provided they can surpass the defenses, even going so far as infiltrating an enemy village if the Walls and Guards of that Village are lower Rank/Class than the Scouting Group.
  E-Class: 5,000 Ryo per month
  D-Class: 10,000 Ryo per month
  C-Class: 15,000 Ryo per month
  B-Class: 20,000 Ryo per month
  A-Class: 25,000 Ryo per month
  HOW TO USE: You register these NPCs in the updates section and assign them to a land section. You then post in that land saying the scouts are doing their job there. There's no need to make a complicate post. But you may want to be "creative" or specify how exactly they are doing their job. This is up to you.
  
  
  
• Assault
  “Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.”
  ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
  
  These NPCs are sent out in a single wave to attack and destroy any target desired. Typically, they are sent after structures and other stationary targets, but may also be organized as hunter-nin to track down and combat a Player Character. Hunter-nin are only as good as their rank, though, and may find difficulty in fighting similarly ranked PCs, but are ineffective against PCs that out-class them. Unlike the other roles, Assault Groups have a one time cost per target.
  E-Class: 6,000 Ryo per month
  D-Class: 12,000 Ryo per month
  C-Class: 18,000 Ryo per month
  B-Class: 24,000 Ryo per month
  A-Class: 30,000 Ryo per month
  HOW TO USE: You register these NPCs in the updates section and send them somewhere to assault. Obviously you need to know about this place you're assaulting, and you need to post there with your assault team.
  
  
• Guards
  “There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.”
  ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
  
  These are the NPCs assigned to protect key areas of your base, and are generally the last line of defense. These can be assigned to the walls, gates, specific areas, or buildings. A single Guard group can cover: a wall, several gates, a complex, a resource collection site, a resource center, a single building, or patrol the roads of a Land. Every village is assigned one free group of A-Class Guards to protect the location where the village's exclusive technique scrolls are. There is no limit to how many guards you can assign, but please, don't get crazy with it. This group is specifically designed to protect areas from infiltrating Scouts and Assault Groups, and will kill any that are lower Class -equal Class means that both groups die. Guards are better at guarding when their ranks are higher and are better able to handle Assault Groups, infiltrating Scouts, and PCs at higher levels.
  E-Class: 3,000 Ryo per month
  D-Class: 6,000 Ryo per month
  C-Class: 9,000 Ryo per month
  B-Class: 12,000 Ryo per month
  A-Class: 15,000 Ryo per month
  HOW TO USE: You register these NPCs in the updates section and assign them to a guarding place. You are required to post in these spots saying (at least) they are guarded. If an NPC assault guard or PC arrives at an unguarded place the conflict will be resolved instantly so keep that in mind .
  
  

You may use these PCs as you see fit. But do keep in mind that these NPCs interact with each other in a very specific way:

Counter Esp:
Assault (-)
Scouts (+)
Guards (=)

Scouts:
Assault (+)
Guards (=)
Counter Esp (-)

Assault:
Guards (=)
Counter Esp (+)
Scouts (-)

Guards:
Assault (=)
Counter Esp (=)
Scouts (=)

When defending against Assault teams in home territory, Scouts and Counter-Espionage squads are given a + in this chart. This is because they know the field better and generally use guerrilla tactics effetively.

Upon clashing with another squad of NPCs, you may calculate your army's vs your opponent's army's "Battle Value". This is done by checking the following chart:
X-rank (only used when S-ranked squads are playing with an advantage): 13
S-rank: 11
A-rank: 6
B-rank: 4
C-rank: 3
D-rank: 2

If a squad is clashing with another squad and has an advantage over it, it counts as 1 rank higher in this chart.
Victory is achieved by having a higher Battle Value than your opponent. The defender always chooses the match set up (which of its units face the attacker's) unless the land has been scouted before and its guards haven't changed since then. If no Land is being defended and it's a battle on neutral ground, the first poster will decide this.
It's important to note that these clashes and battles do not happen instantly. They are the result of prolonged battles between seasoned shinobis which can take several hours or even days. In order to account for this, each battle value point turned into play becomes 2 hours (OOC hours) during which the clash is happening.  This is called the Battle Timer. To simplify things, this system does not account for numeric advantage unless you double over your opponent's battle points. If you double your opponent's points, it becomes 1 hour per point only.

A few examples:

• Between a clash of 2 A-ranked squads, 12 points would be coming into play (6 from each squad). This means the conflict would take 12 (points) * 2 (hour per point) = 24 full hours for an NPC conflict to be resolved.
  
  
• Between 1 A-class and 1 B-class vs 1 A class you'd be having 12 points coming into play still.
  6 From each A-rank. The B-rank points do not count because the total (A+B) is only 10. Since 10 isn't double the opponent's points, you calculate the Battle Timer regularly.
  
  
• Finally, 2 A-ranks vs 1 A-rank. Here you have the A vs A, 12 points. However, the first team has another squad. The 2 squads from the first team come together to a total of 12 points, while the second team's squad only has 6. 12 is double of 6, and as such the conflict will only last 1 hour per battle point placed. This means the conflict will last 12 hours (A-rank vs A-rank).
  
  

A PC may interrupt a conflict at any time during the Conflict Hour, but keep in mind that per each 2 hours that pass, NPC squads will lose 2 Battle points. This means that even if you intervene to prevent your army from being destroyed, if you arrive too late a good portion of it might already be gone. Keep in mind that this interruption scenario will be heavily watched by staff to ensure it happens within reason. This is to prevent common cases of metagaming. As with all interruptions, you need to have a valid reason to be interrupt.

A PC will always prevail over squads of lower rank.
A PC cannot detect Stealth units above it's *base* Perception Rank.

A Village/Organization (henceforth designated as Entities) may decide to acquire NPCs in order to play this War Game. An entity may only acquire NPCs of C-rank or below.
The values for acquiring NPCs are the following, and these are single payments:

Guard:
D-Class: 15,000 Ryo
C-Class: 20,000 Ryo

Assault:
D-Class: 30,000 Ryo
C-Class: 40,000 Ryo

Scout/Counter Esp:
D-Class: 20,000 Ryo
C-Class: 30,000 Ryo

Training your NPCs

Your NPC squads can be trained at any time. But do keep in mind that higher ranked squads require a greater upkeep cost and in the long term this can cause a very large dent in your coffers. So if you're planning a big operation, do train these guys. Otherwise, it might be wiser to keep just a few at hand for emergencies and pay less upkeep.

C>>>B-rank requires 20,000 Ryo and a week.
B>>> A-rank requires 25,000 Ryo and two weeks.

You may train more than one squad at a time as long as you can afford it.


War Machinery

"When you have a fat friend there are no see-saws, only catapults."
-Demetri Martin

For as long as war has been around, weapons have been around. Most shinobi carry some sort of weapons with them to the battlefield- Kunais, shuriken, explosive tags...some even carry puppets or blades with complex enchantments.

Other ninjas, engineers, specialize in the construction of heavy war machinery which is mostly used to cause destruction without having to spend precious chakra. From basic Catapults to heavy Trebuchets, going through ships and other vessels, these devices can play a vital role in crippling an enemy's resource sites, protecting your own or even strengthening trade relations between villages. Regardless of their technological power, each village has access to the following machinery:


Siege Units:

NOTE: Movement factor is the speed at which a a machine or ships move. You take the time required to travel normally by foot, and you multiply it by the movement factor of a machine to see how long it takes for it to move.

• Catapult - Basic siege device.
  
  A simple yet effective siege instrument. It has a low range and can only hurl projectiles up to 50Kg, but it moves relatively fast which makes it great for lightning attacks.
  A catapult can not go over an ocean unless carried by a bought ship.
  Range: 100 meters
  Calliber: Projectiles up to 30Kg, each unit carries 20 30Kg boulders. Boulders move at C-rank speed
  Movement Factor: 1.25
  Price: 50,000 ryo
  Building time: 2 days (up to 5 at the same time)
  Maintenance: N/A
  
  
  
• Ballista
  
  The ballista is specifically designed to take down walls and ships. Most ships have these aboard in order to grapple and sink rival ships. They have a greater range than a catapult and are cheap to make, but they must be mounted on ships.
  Range: 250 meters
  Caliber: Projectiles up to 25Kg, must be shaped like arrows. Each unit carries 10 25Kg giant arrows. Arrows move at B-rank speed.
  Movement Factor: Depends on Ship.
  Price: 15,000 ryo
  Building time: 10 hours (up to 5 at the same time)
  Maintenance: 7,000 ryo per month.
  Ballistas can be built, fit and transfered from ship to ship at anytime as long as the ships are docked. Each ballista on a ship adds 0.5 Battle Value Points to that ship's total. Ships have a cap of ballistas lister under "Capacity".
  
  
• Trebuchet
  
  With a massive range and huge firepower, the Trebuchet is the queen of non-blackpowder siege weapons. It can hurl massive projectiles over large distances, but it is very slow moving. A Trebuchet can not go over an ocean unless carried by a bought ship.
  Range: 1000 meters
  Caliber: Projectiles up to 90Kg, carries 20 90Kg ammo boulders. Boulders move at B-rank speed.
  Movement Factor: 4.0
  Building time: 5 days (up to 2 at the same time)
  Price: 30,000 ryo
  Maintenance: 15,000 ryo per month
  
  
• 32lb Cannon
  
  These heavy siege instruments can either be fit on ships or carried through the land. They are incredibly expensive but really powerful.
  Range: 600 meters
  Caliber: Projectiles up to 15Kg, carries 200 15Kg ammo shots. Shots move at S-rank speed.
  Movement Factor: 3.0 (could be faster if set on ship)
  Building time: 7 days (up to 5 at the same time)
  Price: 50,000 ryo
  Maintenance: 30,000 ryo per month for maintaining the Cannon and its ammo. Each Black Powder unit costs 5,000 ryo.
  Each shot consumes 1 Black Powder. No Black Powder, no shots. Ships can fire at other ships or coastlines with no need to pay for Black Powder.
  
  

Ships and Naval Combat

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

All ships on the site must be powered by sails and sails alone. Ships are expensive to build, but fairly cheap to maintain. They're important to protect your trading and fishing fleets!If a cannon is fit on a ship, the cannon maintenance is included on the ship's maintenance value.(So you only pay the ship's maintenance value, even if its lower than the canon's).

• Tartane - The Fishing Ship
  
  A Tartane is a small ship used both as a fishing ship and for coastal trading. It has a single mast on which is rigged a large lateen sail, and with a bowsprit and fore-sail. When the wind is aft a square sail is generally hoisted like a cross jack.
  Weapons: None.
  Battle Value: 0.5
  Movement Factor: 0.3
  Building time: 10 days (up to 5 at the same time)
  Capacity: 2 PCs, no Ballistas.
  Price: 100,000 ryo
  Maintenance: 15,000 ryo per month
  Properties: A nation can have a fleet of Tartans to increase income in a Fishing Resource site. Each Tartan increases the income of the resource site by 25% of its base income (so a 100,000 ryo income will become 125,000 ryo income with 1 Tartane). There's a cap of 5 Tartane ships per Fishing Resource Site.
  
  
• Armed East Indiaman
  
  An armed trading vessel, with a large cargo hold and several cannons. This ship's purpose is trading, but it can hold its own in a battle. It is slower than most ships because it usually carries a lot of valuable goods.
  Weapons: 12 32lb canons
  Battle Value: 4 + 12 (1 per each canon) = 16
  Movement Factor: 1.2
  Building time: 10 days (up to 2 at the same time)
  Price: 700,000 ryo (Cannons included)
  Capacity: 6 PCs, 6 Ballistas.
  Maintenance: 40,000 ryo per month
  Properties: An armed Trading Galleon can be used to boost a Trade Route's base income by 150%. (THIS INCREASE IS ONLY FOR THE VILLAGE TO WHOM THE SHIP BELONGS).
  So a trade route worth 100,000 ryo will now be worth 250,000 ryo. With maintenance, this adds up to a net gain of 110,000 ryo.
  A cap of 5 Armed Traders can be used on each Trade Route. With 5 Armed Traders, a trade route worth 100,000 ryo per month will now be worth 850,000 ryo per month. It's really profitable, but also a serious risk if your ships are sunk.
  Sinking an Armed Trader will grant the sinker a flat 200,000 ryo. A PC must sink the ship, for this prize to be claimed.
  
  
• Sloop-of-War
  
  A sloop (from Dutch sloep, in turn from French chaloupe) is a sailing boat with a single mast and a fore-and-aft rig. It's the cheapest of War ships, but also the weakest one.
  Weapons: 6 32lb Cannons (3 on each broadside),
  Battle Value: 2 + 6 (1 per each canon) = 8
  Movement Factor: 0.3
  Building time: 12 days (up to 4 at the same time)
  Price: 300,000 ryo (Cannons included)
  Capacity: 3 PCs, 3 Ballistas
  Maintenance: 10,000 ryo per month
  Properties: N/A, essentially a battleship.
  
  
• Corvette
  
  A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or "rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war. The modern types of ship below a corvette are coastal patrol craft and fast attack craft.
  Weapons: 10 32lb Cannons (5 on each broadside)
  Battle Value: 6 + 10 (1 per each canon) = 16
  Movement Factor: 0.5
  Building time: 15 days (up to 3 at the same time)
  Price: 600,000 ryo (Cannons included)
  Capacity: 5 PCs, 5 Ballistas
  Maintenance: 30,000 ryo per month
  Properties:Blockade. Can be used to Blockade a nation.
  
  
• Frigate
  
  In the 17th century, a frigate was any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built". These could be warships carrying their principal batteries of carriage-mounted guns on a single deck or on two decks (with further smaller carriage-mounted guns usually carried on the forecastle and quarterdeck of the vessel).
  Weapons: 20 32lb Cannons (10 on each broadside)
  Battle Value: 10 + 20 (1 per each canon) = 30
  Movement Factor: 0.4
  Building time: 16 days (up to 3 at the same time)
  Price: 1,000,000 ryo (Cannons included)
  Capacity: 12 PCs, 10 Ballistas.
  Maintenance: 40,000 ryo per month
  Properties: Blockade. Can be used to Blockade a nation.
  
  
• Ship of the line 2nd Rate
  
  Large, bulky, slow and extremely powerful. The 2nd Rates are expensive but are the second best type of warship. They're manned by crews of hundreds, and are capable of taking hits that even stone fortresses could not. But they're incredibly slow, and most ships can outmaneuver and outrun these monsters. Which means that they're not really great for intercepting Trade Routes or sinking fishing vessels.
  Weapons: 34 32lb Cannons (17 on each broadside)
  Battle Value: 20 + 34 (1 per each canon) = 54
  Movement Factor: 3
  Building time: 20 days (up to 2 at the same time)
  Price: 1,800,000 ryo (Cannons included)
  Capacity: 12 PCs, 15 Ballistas.
  Maintenance: 60,000 ryo per month
  Properties: Blockade. Can be used to Blockade a nation.
  
  
• Man-o'-War, 1st Rate Ship of the Line
  
  The Queens of the Sea. The 1st Rate ship of the lines are generally the most powerful ships to cross the seas. They're even slower than 2nd Rates but they're far more powerful. There are no better options to guard your resource sites or trade routes. Manned, at times, by thousands these ships are authentic floating fortresses and only a well disciplined fleet can bring one down (and never without casualties).
  Weapons: 64 32lb Cannons (32 on each broadside)
  Battle Value: 44 + 64 (1 per each canon) = 108
  Movement Factor: 4.5
  Building time: 25 days (up to 2 at the same time)
  Price: 4,100,000 ryo (Cannons included)
  Capacity: 12 PCs, 20 Ballistas.
  Maintenance: 80,000 ryo per month
  Properties: Blockade. Can be used to Blockade a nation.
  
  

Naval Combat

Naval Combat is really simple.
If PCs are involved, a thread is made and the fight proceeds normally (most PCs can sink ships easily).

Otherwise, you add up the battle values of fleets and see which one is higher, and then subtract both. For example:
Kiri has a fleet with 30 Battle Value points guarding a fishing site.
Konoha attacks with a fleet of 40BVP.

Konoha immediately wins with 10BVP left.
This means some Konoha ships sunk, while Kiri lost all of its fleet. Konoha's ships sunk until they make the 30BVP, starting with the lowest valued BVP ships. And they're left with a fleet worth 10BVP.

Being an Admiral:
If a PC character is leading a fleet against a fleet of NPC ships, the fleet led by the PC will have its BVPs multiplied by 1.x
where x depends on the PC's base Intelligence stat:
E -> x = 0
D -> x = 0,5
C -> x = 1
B -> x = 3
A -> x = 5
S -> x = 7
This is to establish the importance of PCs as the most valuable pieces of war.
If two PCs are leading opposing fleets, a thread is made.


Repairs:
If your ship still has BVP left after a battle, it's still floating and it can return to port where it can be repaired.
1 BVP point costs 1000 ryo to be repaired. So, for example, if a 1st Rate has 10BVP left, it'll require 70,000 ryo to repair the 70 points he lost and be up to 80. Repairs can be done once per month, per ship.

Blockading:
With a BVP of at least 250, you can have a fleet blockade a Nation's main continent ports. All Naval Trade routes income will be diverted to you, and that Nation's general income will be reduced by 30%. If a nation is completely blockaded for more than 2 months, its general income will be reduced by 50%. 6 months, 80% and it caps here.
Blockading a Major Nation requires at least 250 BVP.
Blockading colonized or conquered minor nations requires 80 BVP per minor nation.


Regarding the costs of Ships and Budget Options
Looking at the prices of ships, one may find them to be rather expensive. For example, a 1st Rate Ship of the Line fully fitted costs 4,100,000 ryo to build, which is more than it costs to buy a minor nation.
As such, I will now be explaining how the ship costs are calculated.

First of all, a Ship's cost is based on the number of canons it has. A regular 32lb canon costs 50,000 ryo. A 1st Rate SotL has 64 canons, so just with canons alone, it costs:
50,000 * 64 = 3,200,000 Ryo in canons alone.
Keep in mind that canons fire projectiles at S-rank speed and Ships don't need to pay Black Powder costs to fire canons.
A 1st Rate can shoot a wall of 32 projectiles at S-rank speed, with no Black Powder cost.
To the 3,200,000 Ryo of the cannons, I added a cost of building and crew to make it a total of 4,100,00 million.
Is it expensive? Yes, but a ship is a very valuable asset.

Keep in mind that you may build a ship with fewer cannons and as such with a reduced price. But that ship will only have the BVP correspondent to its base points plus the number of cannons it has. So, in theory, you could buy a 1st Rate with no cannons at all for 900,000 Ryo, but it would only have the base value of 16 BVP + 0 from canons. You could then build more cannons individually and fit the ship with them, but it'd be a much slower process.

Let's now look at a few examples which might help you understand better the ship prices.
Keep in mind that ships are investments.

Example 1,
Armed East Indiaman:
Price: 700,000 ryo (Cannons included).
This ship costs only 100,000 Ryo with no Cannons, but it'll be much more vulnerable to attacks. Up to you how you want to set them ships up.
This ship can raise a trade route's income by 150%.
At the time this was written, Kirigakure had a Trade Route with Konoha which grants them 200,000 Ryo per month.
This means a single one of these ships will net 200,000 Ryo + 300,000 Ryo(150%) per month, minus 40k maintenance a single one of these ships allows a net gain of 460,000 Ryo per month.
This is a considerable increase and in just 2 months the ship will have paid for itself and become very profitable in the next months, IF YOU PURCHASE ALL CANNONS.
Of course, protecting these ships is of the utmost importance. And if you're at war, you might consider having them retreat to a safe port.

-----------

Example 2,
"A fully fitted 1st Rate is 4,100,000 Ryo and has 108BVP.
2 fully fitted 2nd Rates are 3,600,000 and have also a combined value of 108BVP.
Wouldn't I be better off buying two 2nd rates instead?"
Yes, and no.
First of all, maintenance of the two 2nd Rates is 120k, while a 1st Rate is 80k.

Secondly, what you're paying for with a better ship is above all, DURABILITY.

Let's say you're facing off against a fleet of with 70BVP.

If you send two 2nd rates, you'll win...but one of them will sink and the other will return with a few BVP left. To get your fleet back to full power you'd need to repair your surviving ship and build a new one. Building ships is very expensive.
You'd have a cost of 1,800,000 for a new 2nd Rate PLUS repairs of the surviving one.

But if you send a single 1st Rate against a fleet of 70 BVP, you win and your ship doesn't sink. Your 1st Rate survives with some damage, 38BVP left and you only need to pay 70,000 Ryo to get your fleet back to 80BVP.

70k vs 1.8M difference. This is why 1st Rates are more expensive than twice the cost of 2nd rates. They're an investment for long-standing fleets.
----------------------------

It should be noted that Nations aren't expected to have many Ships of the Line, if any at all. Historically, these ships were extremely expensive to build, and losing one was a harsh blown to a Nation's military.

We expect most Naval Combat on this site to be done with Frigates, Sloops, and Corvettes, very much like in real life.


Village Machinery Bonuses
:
[/b]

• Konohagakure:
  All war machinery in Konoha is made with superior wood from the Land of Fire's forests. Konoha can field any siege machinery containing wood 50% faster.
  Konoha ships count have +1 points in Battle value due to their superior durability, and they cost 10% less to field.
  
  
• Kumogakure:
  The Hidden Cloud has master engineers who can predict and use the wind in their favor. All projectiles shot by Kumogakure have 50% more range. Because of the superior quality of their projectiles, they are lighter and thus easier to carry. Kumoagkure siege weapons maintenance reduced by 40%. Additionally, due to their rough terrain, enemy siege weapons moving through the land of lightning have their travel time increased in 40% unless guided by a native.
  
  
• Kirigakure:
  With a long-standing Naval Tradition and discipline, no nation can boast the quality of Kirigakure no sato's sailors. They'll work more, and better for a lower salary and their Admirals are outstanding. Kirigakure ships have +2 points in Battle Value, and their maintenance costs are reduced by 20%. They can also choose to give up a Fishing Site's income for a month in order to build ships 10% faster that month (stacks with each fishing site).
  
  
  

Buildings and Tactical Targets

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Winning a war does not mean killing every single one of the enemy's soldiers. Over the centuries, mankind has lost more lives to hunger and famine than to blades. That is true in the real world, and this is also true in the ninja world. The best way to cripple a nation isn't by crippling its soldiers, it is by crippling its economic system and letting nature do the rest.

“There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Having established that one of the most basic principles of war is to cripple your opponent's economic ability, it should be noted that conflicts between NPCs are almost always loud and damaging. Depending on where this occurs, you can be certain the battlefield will be damaged to an extent. Best try to prevent that battlefield from being your own important sites, eh?
Resource sites take damage and suffer a 25% loss of income that month if an NPC battle occurs there. You must pay 25% of the structure's total value to repair it. An NPC battle is defined by a conflict that has begun and ended. If a second conflict begins there, damage will accumulate (unless repaired) another 25% each time until your resources suffer a loss of 75% income and you need to pay 50% their total cost to bring them up to full speed again. (Damage on income caps at 75% and repair value at 50%).
Resource sites that are completely destroyed stop giving income, but can be repaired for 50% their value. Repairs take 2 weeks to complete, 1 week if a PC engineer is leading repairs.

Villages, village shops and factories suffer an income reduction equal to the percentage of resource sites destroyed, rounding up. If your village has 75% of its resources destroyed, its shops, factories and the village itself will suffer a 75% income reduction.


“Always remember to pillage BEFORE you burn!"
- Unknown

• Pillage: A successful pillaging attack on a foreign country's resource will grant the winning side a flat 40,000 ryo, and damage a resource site by  50%. This is resolved instantly if there are no NPCs or PCs guarding these sites.
  
  
• Take-over: You have the option of having NPCs OR PCs taking over a resource site without necessarily pillaging it. At the end of the month, you will gain income depending on the number of days you had the resource site under your control.
  
  For example: a fishing site which nets 100,000 ryo per month.
  You had an NPC Assault Squad controlling it for 10 days before they were pushed out.
  
  100,000 ryo per month is 3,333 ryo per day.
  You had it for 10 days.
  So you get 10 x 3,333 = 33,330 ryo.
  
  Important: Any Squad of NPCs can do this. But the moment they're assigned this task, they lose their special traits (f.e. a Counter-espionage doing this will lose its "undetectable by other npcs" special trait).
  
  Keep in mind that you need NPC/PC presence in the resource site location for this to work.
  In order to get a resource site to channel its income to you directly, an IC agreement needs to be made with the resource site's owner. This can happen, for example, in negotiations in a sue for peace.
  
  
• Destruction: Self-explanatory. Razes a resource site completely and nets 60,000 ryo. Destroying a resource site takes 3 days.
  Remember: Resource sites that are completely destroyed stop giving income, but can be repaired for 50% their value. Repairs take 2 weeks to complete, 1 week if a PC engineer is leading repair works.
  A destroyed and repaired resource site will not grant any Ryo for being pillage or razed again within 2 months.
  

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So, now that we have a proposal here's the list of problems we had.~

1. A single A-rank squad can defeat multiple B-rank squads regardless of how many they are. This is currently true for every rank.
   This is no longer true with the Battle Value I proposed.
   
   
2. The cost of NPCs is currently so low that villages and organizations don't bother using anything below A-rank (which makes no sense considering the bulk of armies in canon are C and B-ranked ninjas at most).
   An A-ranked NPC cost now from 55k to 75k to acquire/train a single time. Plus maintenance values ranging from 15k to 30k a month. This makes them expensive to obtain, but not too expensive to keep. I am obviously open to changing these values, I just think it makes more sense to pay more for acquiring/training than for maintaining.
   This also emphasizes the idea that NPCs aren't expendable because it costs a lot more to train than to maintain. Our current system has us throwing NPCs at lions because they're...expendable o.o
   They're no longer expendable because of training costs, but now their lower maintenance cost (compared to training) doesn't make a village go broke if it wants to have guards constantly on their resource sites.
   
   
3. A village can simply spawn A-ranked NPCs whenever it wants as long as they can pay the cost. This is problematic because an army of that level should have maintenance costs and not simply be a one-time payment. An elite army has costs.
   If a village find itself in need of A-ranked NPCs, either it pays the maintenance cost every month (which may increase) or needs to train C-ranked NPCs for three weeks. Sudden elite army spawn is no longer a problem.
   
   
   
4. Villages aren't really encouraged to invest in improving their trade routes and guarding them. Investing in ships to improve trade routes is now very profitable as well as attacking these ships can be if they're not guarded.
   
   
   
5. Currently wars between villages imply mostly an attack on the village itself, and it's impossible to indirectly affect an enemy's economy. It is now possible to economically suffocate a village into surrender, or sue for peace. Which means wars don't have to necessarily mean the complete destruction of a village.