My 2 pennies

Just some random thoughts I felt could be thrown out there:

1. Soldier needs- I understand the system, I understand why it's implemented, but I think there should be a sliding scale. It is really rough at first, even taking over level 3 settlements, it's a pain to get the system right. Not impossible, just a pain. So if a player is having a rough time with this system taking over settlements at lvl 3, imagine how much harder it is for people that build their settlements from the ground up.

2. Enslaved- I think their production value is too low. I kind of understand the mentality behind why, but at the same time, they would be coerced by your warriors and guards to produce more. Just read history.

These are my 2 pennies for now. If there is a way to improve these, great, if not, I'm still enjoying myself, so it's no big deal.

Rites said:

So if a player is having a rough time with this system taking over settlements at lvl 3, imagine how much harder it is for people that build their settlements from the ground up.

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It's actually easier to build both your vassals and outposts from the ground up.

The problem with even level 3 city plans isn't that they don't produce or share enough rations, it's that all the surplus food produced by city plans is used up/burned on level 3 residential plots.

This is why I always say if I conquered a CP, I'd burn it down like it was Rome. I'd at least scrap all the Residential plots and replace them with just beds. That alone would provide or free up, ball park, 30 or so food. That could feed 15 recruits. I'd rather feed my troops than keep the help in fancy houses,

A vassal can only share half of its surplus food production and all of its surplus rations. 20 recruits need 200 rations and 20 food. If this food comes from a vassal, that vassal needs to have an available food surplus of at least 40 food. If just 6 recruits, they need a vassal that produces 12 surplus food. That's one level 3 Ag plot in addition to any of the needs that the vassal itself has.

I don't know of any CP that produces that much excess food. Most are designed to break even on vanilla needs, right???

Rites said:

2. Enslaved- I think their production value is too low. I kind of understand the mentality behind why, but at the same time, they would be coerced by your warriors and guards to produce more. Just read history.

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Enslaved are no bueno. The problem with slaves is that they are in an outpost. Outpost food production from SS Ag plots (but not ration production/or vanilla crops) is halved because it's an outpost, Slaves and warriors produce exactly the same amount of food in an outpost and they produce same amount of rations.

You want captives: The ones you get at a POW plot. These can be sent to vassals where they can produce as much food and rations as civilians,

Plus, you bank 5 rations per captive. (They do, however, cost you in control.) Every two captives pays the rations for an extra recruit. Or, put another way, two captives cost the same ration-wise as one civilian.

During my last game I wanted to build a vassal with just captives. I never could because I was controlling my outposts so tightly that they never got defend missions and so never got a chance to catch any captives.

To get going at the beginning I take RR as HQ, I drop down 14 plots mixed between rec/commercial/industrial/martial. Everything needed to get W/R/E up, plus the CQ martial plots to get my raiders boosted. Beds are all non plots.
Depending on how many raiders I have (usually 15-20) after taking HQ I will take 5 raiders and vassalise Abernathy immediately. That's my gang fed and watered plus well on the way to getting W/R/E up.

Then I head off and do some quests, fuck around and scavenge all the booze and chems I can.
I don't know if you guys on console have Uituit's Blood moon raiders but if you do that has the Brew house plot which as you guessed produces booze. That plus the CQ chem yard will put out exactly what you need to spam the supply container on the CP desk to get happiness up.
Doesn't take long until I can start recruiting.

I don't actually drop down 14 plots at the start, I have this pre-made that I bring from save to save with me.
Pro tip: Notice all the space from in front of the garage door to the petrol pumps to give lots of room for quest scenes to playout.

Again, I said I understand the mechanics, and I do know how to work with it. I've never used captives, so I didn't know the difference between those and enslaved. But I still don't think it makes sense. Again I say read history, there's no way captives or slaves would be able to get away with producing less than what was expected of them (which in most cases was more than necessary).

But, the main reason for me posting the above isn't for the more dedicated players that are willing to break things down into the basic mathematical calculations that they are. My main reason for the post is actually for newcomers. I have chatted with many players/streamers on twitch and mixer that have said that they tried conqueror and would end up deleting the mod because the mechanics were a bit too complicated. A few have been willing to give it another go after I showed them the little knowledge I had and pointed them here, but the majority just think it's too daunting a task. Some have played with phase 1 mechanics only to be turned away when the phase 2 mechanics kicked in. Lol, and no, most don't know that they could turn it off in settings.

Yeah the captives/enslaved thing can be confusing. KG has thought about removing the ability to capture slaves in the wild until he comes up with a system to be able to actually assign them at your outposts/vassals. Also a happy person is far more productive than someone being coerced, so slaves should be less productive. The production value from slaves historically is debatable.
CQ is kind of difficult but with how much it brings to table it is bound to be.
There absolutely needs to be more information/guides out there for newer people, something I aim to partly remedy.

I guess we will agree to disagree on the slave bit.

I'm glad to see that more guides are on the way.

I agree with the whole idea of what CQ brings to the table makes it worthwhile, but not all players as are dedicated. So, and I know it's in the settings, it just needs to be more obvious for new players to see how to adjust the game to their comfort level. Apparently saying there's a settings holotape just isn't enough, lol

Phil_T_Casual said:

There absolutely needs to be more information/guides out there for newer people, something I aim to partly remedy.

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Yes. And for non raider gameplay, some level of tutorial or starter quest to get some info out.