Problem: Market Ban was too all-or-nothing and affected factions disproportionately depending on their need for market access. I argue Cultists were particularly hard hit. In order to address this, Amplitude allowed players the option of nullifying the market ban. Not only does this weaken the Roving Clans' signature move, it turns market ban into a simple Influence trade: RC pay some Influence to market ban someone, that someone pays a little more Influence to nullify the ban. Overall, it's become a boring mechanic. Additionally, the Market Ban has always been at odds with RC interests, who generate income and valuable units from the market, and who should be encouraging market use rather than discouraging it.



Solution: Replace the RC Market Ban with Predatory Tariffs. Instead of outright banning a player from the market, allow RC to institute an additional cost to use of the Market. Scale the cost of Influence with the amount of additional taxation applied by the RC player. Any extra cost incurred by market use will accrue to the RC player. Remove the option for Market Ban or Market Ban nullification.



Rationale: This eliminates the RC ability to completely deny market access. While, with enough influence, they can make market use prohibitively expensive, the player that has been affected by the Tariffs will still be able to acquire goods that are vital to their development-- it's just going to cost. At the same time, it provides Roving Clans with a valuable source of additional income. The size of this additional income is dependent on other players, creating a natural "tragedy of the commons" situation similar to that faced by players receiving advantageous trade offers from factions that are pursuing a diplomatic victory. Tragedies of the commons drive conflict in a very natural, emergent, and political manner in multiplayer games.

the market cut is too little anyways. banning is still good to deprive influence points. another way to make banning actually matter is if they make it mandatory for a few turns.

I think that would be a good idea, not only for the greater income of Dust, but also for the psychological effect. The point of Roving Clans is to annoy other people into going to war. A simple market ban is less of an annoyance than a price raise every few turns, despite being technically the greater obstacle. With this, the Clan can continue piling up the insults ("Oh, since I have spare Influence, let's make selling stuff even less effective for you"), until the opponent runs out of patience and attacks.

I like this idea a lot! Fits in very well with RC style and would definitely enrage me when playing against them...

Yes, please! As an RC player, I find that Influence is a scarce resource because of all the trading I do. It's really underwhelming to have my faction's war-power be reduced to tug of war on a resource that I'm already strapped for.

I really like this idea, if it were to be combined with enhancements to the market itself (like the addition of priced witch actually reflect supply and demand), it could prove to move the roving clans up in power level while simultaneously making economics more interesting.