Do you have a log of how long everyone has been logged on for? I'd say divide people up based on that so we have roughly equal factions
Players listed by rank of time logged on to server. I don't know what this kind of distribution is called but it seems fair.
- Faction A -
1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16.
- Faction B -
2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15.
. The two players who are on the most often can be the faction leaders and pick a name. Leaders can always be changed by vote or treason.
Do we need the faction mod? It could restrict a lot of things. I don't know the ins and outs of it though so maybe it has its benefits.
-- More Ideas --
Feel free to say if I'm over-thinking this but I've had some ideas that might be fun.
* Instead of weekends explicitly being battles this should also be a chance for diplomacy, voting, espionage, feasts and tournaments. We could even have special conditions for different phases, here's a few ideas:
** During a feast no one but the town guard is allowed to carry iron/diamond swords or armour of any material, yet assassinations are permitted. (No more than 1 guard + 1 for every 4 citizens.)
** During a diplomatic meeting there is to be no violence under any circumstances.
** Deaths during building phase have no consequence.
** Deaths during the non-building phases have a consequence: if a leader dies they become a peasant with no power or wealth and the faction must choose a new leader (best agreed beforehand). [Battles have special rules which I'll go into later.]
-- Battle Ideas --
* Winning battles earns more land to build on.
* Battles can be fought on open ground, or siege, as the best of three rounds of combat. A round ends once all players on one side have been killed.
* The winning side in a battle captures the opponent's leader: The captors can demand a ransom for his release. If the faction of the captive King, now under temporary rule, cannot (or choose not to) pay the ransom they will suffer a penalty in the next battle [I haven't decided the details yet.]
** If the captors choose to kill the captured leader, whether or not they demanded a ransom, he will return to his faction as a peasant, and they will require a new leader. However, there is a penalty for killing leaders [any ideas? Maybe the losers pick the site of the next battle?]
** While captured, a leader can either play as a peasant in their own faction or be imprisoned in the enemies base, and can freely switch between the roles. [Possibility for the leader to be rescued?]
* Both factions should have distinct colours. (Maybe a flag or coat of arms if you're artistic.) At least one item of armour worn by each player during battle must be their respective faction colour.
* Different classes are restricted to certain weapons and armour, eg archers can only wear leather chestplates and wield stone swords and bows. Knights cannot carry bows.
