Sovereign's Throne (for random events)

I like this idea too!   so, here are kitty for you!

In addition, or as an alternative, you could allow passive bonuses. Maybe more prestige around the country, or an army buff (so that your military is not penalized by removing what may be one of their better soldiers). But again, i like the idea.

I think the army would be more buffed by having their Soverign in the army with them anyway; the presence of a heroic champion tends to inspire mortal soldiers to great deeds.

An interesting idea about the throne, lets you decide between 'ruling' your kingdom/empire or leading armies in the field.

Thanks for the replies!  And cool, I get a kitty!     It's not a completely thought out idea, but just something I just thought to throw out there in case someone can use it to come up with a better one.

I was thinking of a kind of trade off because, as you two have said, you'd be losing one of the better soldiers, so the penalty to Conquest can perhaps be made up for in the other areas?  Civilization and Diplomacy are two that immediately come to mind.

Really great ideas, ArcElement2002! Champions with enchanted swords is always fun, but this idea would really help improve the enjoyability of running your cities and other, more mundane activities. But personally, I don't think we should limit it to just the sovereign. I would propose that any city being governed by a hero is eligible for uncovering "civic quests" (though the best quests go only to the sovereign). In fact, I see your idea as a great way to level up those heroes who don't go out and fight, but merely manage cities.

Reading your ideas made me think about what kind of quests we'd be looking at. I came up with a couple ideas. Were these the kind of quests you were considering?

"Milord, a legal dispute has arisen between a banker and a war hero over an investment gone bad. They have appealed to your benevolent wisdom to resolve the case. [You must decide which citizen wins the case. Choosing the banker temporarily increases accrued funds to the city, but recruitment time is temporarily halved, and vice versa for the war hero. Or, for a cost, you can resolve the case by paying for the bad investment yourself, which earns you the benefit of one of the citizens without the penalty of the other.]"

"Your highness, Athanasius the Scholar has emerged after disappearing during the Cataclysm. He says that he is willing to teach his greatest secrets to the people that prove themselves worthy. The first faction to construct four universities in four different cities will earn Athanasius' loyalty, and his secrets. [This is a global quest, so every "governor sovereign" gains access to it at the same time. You have to race against the other factions to win this quest. Winning means that all schools/universities/etc. in the four cities gain extra knowledge production capabilities.]"

"Governor, our archeologists have recently uncovered an ancient artifact buried underneath the foundations of the city. Our most learned mages claim it is a mystical tome that will grant eternal blessings to the city. But the mages warn that using the tome may have a cost... [After the quest initiates, the tome must be transported to the capital. The carrier of the tome is safe while he is in the city, but once he steps out, he will be attacked every turn by spawned monsters. Successfully making it to the capital earns your city a free enchantment.]"

"My lord, I trust you remember the recent negotiations we held with the empire of Resoln. The trade agreement we established has greatly benefitted this mighty city and its most productive citizens. However, murmurings within the empire of Resoln are dwindling their faith in our wares. Your advisors feel that a trip through Resoln lands would improve their faith in our product. [The quest is triggered by a recently-signed trade agreement pact and a governor in a city benefitting from the trade. The quest requires the governor to visit four trade-partner cities and return to his own city, earning his city an extra trade route and a temporary boost to trade income. However, the quest always triggers for one governor from each nation, so you're racing against your trade partner to finish the quest first.]"

"Your majesty, our war with Altar has taken an interesting turn for the better. An Altarian who sympathizes with our cause has defected to us, and lies within the city walls. He promises to reveal information about Altar's battle plans to us, if we provide him safe transport back to our capital. Unfortunately, the informant was wounded as he fled to our lands, and so the travel will be difficult. [Quest triggered in a city bordering a nation with whom you are at war. The enemy will be notified of the defection, and presumably put a high priority on keeping the defector from reaching the capital. Successfully getting the informant to the capital will temporarily let you see the enemy nation's Line of Sight. Alternatively, you can decline the mission as a matter of honor, which will temporarily cut the closest enemy city's recruitment production in half]."

Wow, IronKaiser, yeah, those kinds of quests sound fun, I would certainly like to see quests like that in the game!  Really creative    And yeah, I forgot about other heroes, but I wonder if it "scales" well?  There might need to be a big gap between the benefits you get when your Sovereign is "on his throne", so to speak, than if governors were making the decisions?  For example, it might have to be an adequate trade off to have your Sovereign making the decisions instead of a hero because otherwise you could get the best of both worlds by having your Sovereign on the battlefield and your governors benefiting your cities?

Hope that makes sense, but great ideas, I especially like your quest ideas 

I, for one, really hope these events are more than time-triggered quests that were in the beta. Although it would be a welcome change to have the quests forced upon you, instead of being able to choose. That would move the quests from "would you like to spawn this dragon? Y/N?" to "This guy is going to tear your city apart and now you got to do something".

I think a sovereign throne as a specific building would be conceptually redundant. It should really be a palace that does that stuff. If it's more like "here are some things that can happen when your sovereign is stationed in the city with the palace" then that would be a better implementation, I think.

Thanks for your replies, Heavenfall and Cruxador.  I agree, events that happen to you and force you to make a decision would make the game more interesting, and perhaps lead to a more dynamic world, with potential consequences for your previous actions.

And that's a very good point, I only chose to add a "throne" building on top of the palace because we already have a palace, although if the current palace could be changed with this new idea, that would work fine too 

A better way to address the palace issue is to have a smaller palace like structure that can be built elsewhere (think Forbidden City in Civ 4). Such were actually pretty common back in the day as kings often traveled and travel took a long time and said king wanted his own place. Summer palaces, etc, make sense.

As an alternative approach you could have a palace that rules a city of a certain size that give a bonus when any member of the royal family is in town (combine it with some of the changes to dynasty that have been suggested), but leave a 'grand palace' or the like that is the same, but better (a la this thread) for the capital city.

 kitty goes "moar!"

Absolutely.  I'd like to see more empire involved in a game that seems to be about creating an empire.  I like the idea of a throne room, maybe you could appoint a subordinate to serve as your second while out questing.  Would kind of boost the rp part of the game, I always enjoyed those kind of things in Galactic civ.