End the Passive Hex Gain in the Galactic Nomads Mandate

[Scherezade deWinter]

Major Factions get mandates which they can change every two months. After a few previous discussion (example), it appears that the vast majority of the community is against passive hex gain for those who play the Map Game.

However, the current Galactic Nomads mandate states the following:

Galactic Nomads
Strength: Once a month, this Major Faction may abandon their current Influence Cloud & Capital Planet and relocate elsewhere on the map as if they were a creating a new Major Faction.
Weakness: The Major Faction may not use this Mandate's strength if the Major Faction is currently engaged in an incomplete Invasion, Rebellion, or Dominion.

The highlighted part has been explained to me that this means Major Factions who have this mandate can move to a new location and have three hexes (capital + 2 more hexes).

This very much leaves the mandate open to easy abuse - since Major Factions begin with three hexes, all hexes they gain or lose thereafter are the results of dominions and invasions (there were other options in the past). But a Major Faction that has only their last hex, or two hexes remaining, can easily use this Mandate to gain 1-2 hexes without putting in the work that everybody else does for their new hexes, be it a Dominion or an Invasion.

So my suggestion?

Let Major Factions with this Mandate move - with their existing number of hexes*.

Now, while there are some bigger factions out there, and none of us want to wake up one morning and see 40 hexes in the Unknown Regions suddenly belonging to a Nomadded Major Faction in the middle of the core, I would recommend that the number of hexes be limited - not to 3 as it currently stands, but *up to 7 (a pretty cluster). And leave the rest of the weakness for this Mandate as is.

No passive hex gain. Work for every hex you've got aside for the ones you started with.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

Agreed 100%. As it currently stands, this mandate is a quick and cheaty way for a faction to regain lost territory after an invasion, without having to work for it.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Metus, you look different. Like, way hotter.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Darth Tacitus"] I'm gonna nitpick - I think the Mandate can be used to do awesome things story-telling wise, but at the same time that it's at the same time also open to cheap abuse.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

[member="Scherezade deWinter"] Certainly. But a major faction that changes location, should not be granted any more hexes than it already has.

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

It hasn't been since mandates started. No reason to put the energy in now to change it.

 

[Adron Malvern]

For the most part I agree with this, however I think it would work a bit better if the rule is, "You cannot gain hexes in a move, yet if you have a surplus of Hexes during a move then you will be brought down to the standard of 3.

So basically, if you have two hexes when you move you'd have two hexes but if you had twelve, when you move you could only keep 3.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The timing on this suggestion LOOKS atrocious.

Side note, It has the detriment of possibly costing a Faction dozens of Hexes, the rare chance of gaining two is hardly a cheaty thing. Just because It MAY happen, doesn't mean there is anything wrong with that. Let Staff decide if its too suspicious on a case by case basis.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

The timing on this suggestion LOOKS atrocious.

You must be new.

 

[Arage Bao]

So, I was going to stay out of this, until I realized that my suggestion thread was used to back up the points being made here.

After a few previous discussion (example), it appears that the vast majority of the community is against passive hex gain for those who play the Map Game.

I am unsure how you made that conclusion from my suggestion thread. Even with a generous vote count, I come up with this:

13 Y
8 N

So, no, the vast majority of the community is not against passive hex gains. The only conclusion I have come to when re-reading my thread, is that a certain sub-set of the community is far more vocal and firm about their opposition, than supporters are to the contrary. That is it.

I agree with [member="Laira Darkhold"] when it comes to this suggestion. Two hexes is barely a blip on the map game radar.

 

[H3xle]

I feel like this isn't as simple as that. Letting factions move with the same number of hexes they currently have means that a faction like The Sith Empire could flip sides of the galaxy and already own the entire southern border of The Outer Rim Coalition. All of those hexes would be gained without any story put towards them, and it gives a significant strategic advantage to factions who want to put the screws on another faction or force their expansion into certain areas/out of certain areas.

Starting over as a new major faction gives them 3 hexes, no matter if they previously had 1 or 20 hexes. A new major gains these because it is presumed that its influence is significant in its home hex and a couple of neighboring hexes. If a fleeing major jumps sides of the galaxy doing this, I see no reason they shouldn't have the same effect that a brand new major would in the same area of the galaxy.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Daro Tarsi"] A lot was said in your suggestion thread. I didn't count yes/no vs all that was included in it, just the general part about passive hex gain. Either way, there were a few more examples in the last half a year, but I was too lazy to go fish for them. Certain subsets of the community are always vocal about [insert topic of discussion] though, so I don't see how that's any different.

[member="Daro Tarsi"] & [member="Laira Darkhold"] two hexes is indeed a blip on the map game. Except for when the two hexes were lost in the previous round because of work that others put forth in invasions, which is presently the only way to lose the hexes to begin with. I'm guessing MF's can voluntarily let go of hexes too but that's yet to happen at all.

[member="Araya"] Which is why I also added to limit the number of hexes in case there are more than X; my example changed the upper limit to 7, but that bit can be debated. Less is fine as well. Using the Nomads mandate is moving a MF on the map, not resetting the MF. If an MF goes minor, puts in the work to go MF again, and re-starts with 3 hexes, I doubt anyone is going to bat an eyelash. However, this is not the same as an MF losing all their hexes down to 1 and then moving just to gain 2 new ones for free.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

[member="Laira Darkhold"] The way it is currently implemented, a moving faction already loses those dozens of hexes.

 

[Darth Bellum]

Couldn't we all agree that Galactic Nomads is a pretty bad mandate to begin with for any faction that isn't a pirate one or one that makes sense moving around? I'd much rather hear suggestions of a mandate that could just replace it entirely.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

Just trying to throw subtlety out the window.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

We get it, you just participated in an Invasion your faction won, and you don't want TJE to be able to regain Hexes quickly because as it stands TJE could choose that Mandate, pick Mobus as their new Capital with the two recently invaded hexes as their other two. That is the basis for this suggestion.

If not, you picked the worst time to decide to bring it up.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

I usually like to let suggestion threads marinate for a while to get a sense of what the community thinks before I do anything further.

However, I will step in here and say that this is a no from us. I do not see any good reason to change.

The timing of this thread also doesn't look good, even if your intentions are noble.