Hotseat Rules Innovations and Discussion Thread

[JadliSite Owner]

The purpose of this thread is to serve as a place where can be created and improved new hotseat rules and styles. Do you have an idea for a new hotseat? Bring it here!
This thread is also the place you should visit for ideas before starting a new hotseat.

You can also find here a list of basic rules and bugs recommended byHotseat Staff (but not enforced upon anyone)

A - The list of basic rules and bugs recommended by Gaming Staff of the main section

I - List of known bugs

1) The naval fort bug: No using ships to bypass a fort's or a settlement's Zone of Control.

2) Spam siege bug: Besieging a fort/settlement with a force far superior in it, in order to either prevent that army from reinforcing or in order to cut down settlements income is not allowed. Same goes for blockading ports with ships.

3) Ambush fort bug: No luring men in ambush position into ZoC of forts\settlement's as such robbing them of their movement points.

4) Siege reinforcement bug: when the army is adjacent to a fort or a settlements that has been put under siege it cannot reinforce armies adjacent to him which he should have been able to reinforce on normal occasions. Attacking an army which the siege reinforcements bug applies to is not allowed
Navy inside ports attacked bug: no using this bug to attack ships which are inside ports.

5) Yoyo armies\forts bug: no attacking an army which the bug has been used on multiple times. You can see when this bug occurs, as the enemy army enters the fort and then leaves it.

6) Attacking ships inside the port - Attacking ships that are inside ports is not allowed.

7) Recruitment pool fill up - Quing up units in the recruitment sloots to increase artifically units/agents maximum number you can recruit in one settlement.

8) Recruting mercenaries in forts with depleted movement points - Using forts to get illegal maximum movement points to mercenaries in a depleted army. 

9 ) Using ships to get more movement range - Using ships to give more movement range to armies on seas.

II - General rules

1) Time limits - Time limits for hotseats where each player controls only one faction should be 24 hours. If players control more factions or its team based HS, the time limit can be increased. Maximal extension should be 24 hours. If a player is late, admin should sub/skip right away instead of sending a reminder.

2) Exploits - Moves that are not actual bugs, but are considered as a break of fair play - Posting defeats, making walls of units on map to disallow enemy agents to move and stomping/killing agents with units, surrounding armies/navies to deny retreat, intentionally spreading a plague with agents/units, stepping on a merchant to remove him from a trade resource, exploiting AI factions ( for example demanding/accepting money or settlements from AI factions), and more.

3) Suiciding - Suiciding a faction you play is not allowed, and may result into a removal from all hotseats.

III - Military rules

1) Battles - a) All battles are auto-resolved. Screenshots must be posted with: odds and result screens, mouse over the odds bar to show the ratio, the armies involved with their banners visible on the campaign map, unit card of siege unit must be visible if used to directly assault settlement. 
b) Manual battles against AI allowed should be allowed in hotseats where are AI controlled factions.
c) Manual battles allowed against human players. This rule changes HS a lot so use carefully. 
d) Battles resolved by online battles.
2) Defeated armies - Armies that are defeated in a battle by a player that comes after them in the turn list may not move the following turn. This is to make it fair for people who are defeated by players that come before them in the turn list. Armies standing in fortifications (fort/settlement) when defeated are excluded from this rule.

3) Starting peace - You are not allowed to attack or enter enemy land of the opponent, if he has not played his first turn yet. This is to give all players same starting chance, as in some scenarios some armies start in enemy territory or are in range of enemy units.

4) Heroic victories - Heroic victories against players are not be allowed. However, occasionally it happens player cant get any other type of victory then heroic victory. In such cases heroic victories may be allowed, but only if the odds are higher for the attacker than 1:1.

5) Ports - Ships cannot leave blockaded port, they must defeat blockading navy first. If there is more blockading navies, you must defeat other blockading ships or return into the port. Ground units cannot stop ships from entering/leaving the ports even if the port is blockaded in game when you step with your units on the port. It's not allowed to keep units/agents protected by placing them in ships docked in a port. 

6) Forts - a) Building of forts is not allowed.
b) If building forts is allowed, then there should be a limit about how many forts can player build in a region. For example 2 forts per region per player. There should be also a minimal amount of units or men required per fort. Usually its 4 full units.

7) Watchtowers - Its highly recommended to not allow building watchtowers, as it might disallow players to build a fort in such places where are watchtowers.

8) Denying retreat of an enemy army into a settlement - You are not allowed to deny enemy retreat into a settlement/fort by putting it under siege. This is to prevent you from using the army outside to draw garrison into another battle.

9) Siege equipment - Usage of siege equipment should be either a) banned completely
b) or allowed with reasonable limitations 
- A unit of siege equipment can be used only once per turn. 
- 1st level siege equipment (usually ballistas) can assault wooden walls,
- 2nd level siege equipment (usually catapults) can assault also basic stone walls/castles,
- 3rd level siege siege equipment (usually trebuchets) can assault large stone walls/fortresses.
- Huge stone walls or citadels cannot be taken with any piece of siege equipment.

IV - Agent rules

1) Spies - a) Spies are not allowed to open gates.
b) If spies are allowed to open gates, then there should be certain limitations - Percentage an agent meeds to open a gate, garrison limit and possibly also number of spies required to open gates. For example - To open gates of a fort/settlement, spies need at least 60% to enter the city. If they were in the city in the beginning of the turn, they have to leave the city, and then enter it again. However, if garrison is higher than 720+ men, then the spies are not allowed to open gates anyway. Screenshots must be posted. 
Admin may also set up maximum amount of allowed spies per a player.

2) Assassins - a) Assassins are not allowed to kill any agent or character.
b) If assassins are allowed to assassinate, then it must be clearly stated whom can they assassinate and also the percentage they need to assassinate. For example - Assassins are allowed to assassinate spies/assassins, they need 60% to be allowed to assassinate. Screenshots must be posted.
Admin may also set up maximum amount of allowed assassins per a player.

3) Princesses - a) Princesses are not allowed to steal enemy general.
b) If they are allowed to steal enemy generals, it must be clearly stated how high percentage is needed ( usually 35%). It is not allowed to steal a general in order to lift a siege. Screenshots must be posted.

4) Merchants - Merchants are allowed to acquire other merchant´s assets only in your own regions, and regions that belong to a faction you have trade rights with. It must be stated how high the percentage should be to acquire other merchant´s assets (usually 60%). Screenshots must be posted.

V - Settlement rules

1) Destruction of buildings - a) destruction of buildings is not allowed. However, you can destroy temples of a different religion if they were not destroyed automatically when taking a settlement.
b) If destruction of buildings is allowed, then it must be clearly stated what kinds of buildings can be destroyed. There also should be a limitation stopping player from destroying buildings when a settlement is in danger of being taken. Usually it is: Players are not allowed to destroy buildings in a settlement if superior enemy force can reach it in one turn. For three turns after taking a settlement players are not allowed to destroy any buildings here.

2) Gifting settlements - Settlements cannot be gifted if they are in war zone. Gifted settlements must disband all spawned units except one that is can be kept to keep public order.

3) Extermination of settlements - Not allowed

B - List of the main hotseat styles:

I - (Westeros) RP HS

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II - Westeros Tournament point system

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III - Score Hotseat

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IV - Claim Hotseat

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V - Objective Hotseat

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[ArBo1 Staff Hotseat Victory]

Though it might be obvious, it could be useful to state that there are many more bugs than listed here, and that these are not allowed in hotseats either usually. Basically, anything that isn't composed of intended game mechanics isn't allowed unless stated otherwise.

Also, some of the moves listed in "bugs" belong more to the "exploit" classification as defined here.

[JadliSite Owner]

Yea, will look into that. Ventos said something similar long time ago, but I never truly got to it

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