Tentative and updating feature specification of the Intermediate Version
(to be fully playable by the end of the current Ultima project end 2015)

1. Character

1.1. PC

1.1.1. Attributes

1.1.1.1. Definition

Character attributes are properties which increase the player bonding to the character, and/or enable customization to create a character that gets a head start towards a certain play style. A points system will be used for customization to ensure variety and fair start for non-depositing players. The price of points will rise exponentially to allow rich players to get good start but make it expensive. (This is fair because they are anyway able to spend their money to give them advantages, so the price will just be balanced with the other opportunities.)

Attributes are largely unchangeable during the lifetime of the character.

1.1.1.2. General

Age
Can be 15-50. It is somewhat difficult to balance this because older characters have realistically earned their Masters, and are therefore capable to earn much money immediately, which is a call to character farmers who spawn free characters and earn 2 XMR per week with 10 minutes' work until they die in 3 weeks, and start over. This is not desired. Perhaps allow more than 30 years age only for depositors, or make higher age a kind of slow play where the character does not have much skills, but also starts with much better health than the age peers many of whom are dead already.

Sex
I don't know what to make of it. 95% of players are and will be men. Perhaps an unrealistic choice of completely disregarding the effects of gender on everything?

1.1.1.3. Traits

Height
As a measure of physical status and wellbeing, this also affects the quota of eating and drinking (while not affecting the size of the health challenge). Taller characters can eat and drink more, resulting in better alleviation for the same money, or savings of money for the same result.

Looks
On the outset, largely a vanity item, but tends to indirectly affect everything in life

Intelligence
Higher Intelligence gives a bonus in acquiring skills, particularly Scientific ones.

Dexterity
Bonus in trades that require hand skills, smaller one in mind skills.

Agility
Very good bonus in acquiring certain physical skills such as Horseback (riding) and related to outdoor life and military, thus contributing to health as well in an indirect way as healthy activities are more interesting with the bonuses.

Health
Affects the starting health directly.

1.1.1.4 Discussion

What we need to make is a system that is easy enough to use when a Visitor turns to Stranger (this would happen after 30 minutes of wandering around, chatting, receiving gifted MEAD and reading tutorial messages). It needs to be balanced both between choices, and how the traits affect the game. The number of traits needs to be correct, I believe 5-9 is the sweet spot. Another thing is what is the resolution of them. Possibilities include:
- A trait is a 1/0 bonus, which you have or don't. No "negative values".
- 3-tier system where you can pick good ones at the cost of bad ones (with perhaps 1 good for free), others being "average"
- 4-tier system with "bonuses only" (no trait, trait, most trait, very trait), but this does not parse well with some of them
- 4-tier system without centerpoint, making it impossible to be "average"
- 5-tier system aiming to get a realistic distribution of traits among characters, with good extreme being costly and bad extreme giving bad value for the points thus saved
- slider system, which requires the effect bonuses to be in a sliding scale as well (allows traits to change during the game, unintuitive for first-timers)

1.1.2. Skills

1.1.2.1. General

Acquiring Skills can be likened to advancing in the tech tree - rewarding as such, and each skill unlocks bonuses to all fields in the game. Skills once gained cannot be lost, but since they are personal, they cannot be sold either.

It is intended that Skills system is a key feature that interests players.

Skills are implemented as a variable of 0...N skill points, where certain thresholds unlock the "Skill level 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5". Once maximum is reached, the excess is allocated automatically to another skill which is related. It is intended that reaching the level 5 should not happen without lifetime determination, and it is also rewarded with a L7-L9 promotion.

When the system takes shape, a collaborative googlesheet will be opened for the exact specification of effects and bonuses. Assuming 40 skills, this means 200 rows of data to be balanced.

1.1.2.2. Personal Skills

Do not cause promotions.

Family
Spending time with family. Annual cost for the first 20 years from Family 3: Marriage, provides culture and happiness (reduced health challenge) all the time, relative to the time spent.

Social
Spending time in chat (no AP cost!), peer awards, etc. Reduced health challenge.

Conduct
Script awards for prudent and worthy play, admin awards. Bonus in culture, will be used as a qualifier for promotions and the like, plus is a prerequisite for certain advances.

Meditation
Consuming time, cigars, green herbs and mushrooms. Reduced health challenge, bonus in acquiring the highest level of skills.

1.1.2.3. Labor Skills

Beginner(L3)-Novice(L4)-Expert(L5)-Master(L6)-Wizard(L7).

Farmer
Experience. Bonus in Farm labor.

Stonemason
Experience. Bonus in Building labor, better levels unlock more advanced labor such as dome construction. (medium learning curve)

Quarrier
Experience. Bonus in Quarry labor. (quick learning curve, easy to earn money quickly)

Butler
Experience. Bonus in service labor. Butler "tree" extends as Emissary, therefore butler levels are gained quicker and do not cause promotions as per normal schedule. (medium learning curve)

Cook
Experience. Bonus in kitchen labor. (medium learning curve)

Chef
Experience. Bonus in kitchen labor and restaurant management, better levels unlock better tasting food. (slow learning curve makes the first levels earn less and latter levels more)

Tailor
Experience. Bonus in wool craft, better levels unlock more advanced labor such as gold/silver embedding. (slow learning curve makes the first levels earn less and latter levels more)

Carpenter
Experience. Bonus in making wood items and panels, better levels unlock more advanced labor such as most elaborate. (medium learning curve)

Goldsmith
Experience. Bonus in making CKG / CKS items, better levels unlock more advanced labor such as most elaborate. (slow learning curve makes the first levels earn less and latter levels more)

Blacksmith
Experience. Bonus in making/repairing metal items, better levels unlock more advanced labor such as most elaborate. (medium learning curve)

Driver
Experience. Bonus in Driver labor. (quick learning curve, easy to earn money quickly)

Scribe
Study, experience. Bonus in clerk labor.

Assistant
Experience. Bonus in clerk labor and management labor.

Gardening
Experience. Bonus in growing your own, in garden labor, in farm labor.

1.1.2.4. Scientific Skills

Basics(L3)-Bachelor(L5)-Master(L6)-Doctor(L8)-Wizard(L9).

Engineer
Study, experience. Bonus in engineering labor and in science output.

Mathematics
Study. Unlocks higher levels in other sciences and provides bonuses.

Architect
Study, experience (admin awarded for merit). Bonus in culture and science output.

Al/chemist
Practice. Bonus in science output.

Astronomer
Study. Bonus in science output.

Mystic
Practice. Gives random bonuses towards skills.

Geologist
Study, experience. Bonus in geologist labor and in science.

Archaeologist
Study, quests. Bonus in science and in quests.

Theology
Tbd with the Church.

Development
Study, experience (admin awarded for merit). Bonus in culture and science output.

1.1.2.5. Cultural Skills

Music
Practice, study, experience. Bonus in musical work, increases culture output.

Arts
Practice, study, experience. Bonus in all high level crafts.

1.1.2.6. Management Skills

Farm management
Experience and study. Bonus in Estate management and Farm management.

Foremanship
Experience and other advances. Bonus in foreman positions (lower-middle management of labor-intensive businesses)

Management
Study and experience. Bonus in management positions (high-middle management of corps and businesses)

Emissary
Experience and training. Bonus in several kinds of work where a senior spotless guy is needed, culture bonus.

Businessman
Script-generated based on business activity. Will be used eg. when distribution of some items is needed.

1.1.2.7. Military Skills

Military Science
Study in Dept of MilSci. Bonus in officer qualities.

Field Combat
Battle or jousting experience, training. Bonus in battle value and officer qualities.

Archery
Training. Bonus in battle value.

Swordsmanship
Training. Bonus in battle value.

Endurance
Several outdoor activities. Bonus in battle value and quests.

1.1.2.8. Victory Skills

Wisdom
Acquiring skills, consuming CAN/CIG/MUS/AYA. Victory skill.

Culture
Many items and buildings. Victory skill.

1.1.3. Levels

1.1.3.1. List of levels

Royal
20 King
19 Archduke

Dukes
18 Grand Duke
17 Duke

Landed nobles
16 Prince
15 Marquess
14 Earl

Lesser nobles
13 Baron
12 Baronet
11 Knight
10 Jungherr

Commoners
9 Grand Wizard
8 Doctor
7 Wizard
6 Master
5 Expert
4 Novice
3 Beginner
2 Stranger

Uncreated characters
1 Visitor

1.1.3.2. Explanations

With a rapid expansion of the game ahead of us, the levels system needs updating. The new system retains the hierarchy but in practice the categories overlap somewhat (as previously).

- Commoner levels will be promoted upon reaching certain level of mastery in a labor or artisan trade. If the trade is not in the system (eg. speculator), other criteria will be used as well.

- Previous Wizard level is split into 3, where
* Wizard is now reachable for characters in every trade in the end of their career, providing much bonuses for the most intricate work and therefore increasing income greatly at the time when health challenges also become more pressing, prolonging the lifespan
* Doctor requires academic concentration but is attainable by 30 if upkeep is not an issue
* Grand Wizard will be given to the most skilled commoners regardless of field.

- Jungherr and Knight are separated, now
* Jungherr is strictly every noble who is minor (14-20), upon age 21 they are promoted to the earned level
* Knight will be promoted from commoners based on special merit

- A new rank, Baronet, is added. Like its historical equivalent, it is strictly a purchased rank, so can be had by sweetening the King's coffers.

- Baron remains the main level to which industrious commoners in Master and higher are promoted.

- Earl, Marquess and Prince belong to the same category, by having counties but not duchies. Culture ("victory points") is the key criterion in promotion inside the category, though gameplay affects as well. To become an Earl, you need to show keen interest to the game and nurturing of other players, because that is needed as Earl. This can be shown the easiest by enlisting to an existing Earl to be a Viscount (practically managing the county for your master - many Earls are busy, and/or have several counties).

- Duke is an administrative position with work consisting of interaction with other humans (the Earls in your duchy). They have considerable income as a reward from this. A way to contemplate the scope of work is to think of what I have been doing the first year in the game. They will be promoted based on need, and leap-promotions will be seen unlike before. A Marquess or even an Earl may become Duke now if it seems the right thing. Grand Duke is the primus inter pares of the Dukes.

- The mess in the previous L14 level is cleared with the nomination of 1 or more Archdukes, who are designated Royal and concentrate on the strategic management of the game, and of the Royal House with its vast possessions, and participate in the succession of the throne as well.

1.1.4. Decorations

1.1.4.1. Definition

Decorations are signs of achievement, and can be added to your full title. They often include the token as well, which is separate from the decoration. The decoration may not be transferred and dies with the character (though some are hereditary and passed in practice with the player, and others can be recreated when the previous holder dies.

1.1.4.2. Badges

Badges are signs of achievements, and range from easy (which will be awarded to everyone in their first year) to very hard (of which only a few exist in the Kingdom). They are always accompanied with copper tokens with badge type, minting year and no other parameters, so will become an interesting thing to collect (both the decorations, and the tokens) because of cheap price and large selection.

Existing "set of 6" badges that are currently unique items, will be converted to the new format, and the COT copper tokens that physically look like badges, as well.

1.1.4.3. Medals

Medals differ physically from badges in that they are larger (copper: 50 g as opposed to 15 g), or made of precious metals, and are often minted to commemorate a certain event and can only be gained by participating in that event. Some medals include a decoration, others don't. MG-5 is a coveted medal that has the "MG-5" or "Medal of the Game, 5th class" decoration, but physically it is 50 grams of bronze. Some other medal might be 50 gram of gold but has no meaning in the decoration sense. "King's Hero Medal" is 50 gram of gold, and a decoration awarded to only 4 characters in the whole game.

Medals will be opened so that not only they can be minted by anyone against a fee, the "decoration part" giving authority will be given to Earls and certain institutions (Church, University), to be used wisely.

1.1.4.4. Titles

No changes. Titles do not usually include a token.

1.1.4.5. Honors

No changes.

1.1.4.6. Orders

No changes. These will be rejuvenated, with not much practical meaning but they add status to whom it is due.

1.2. NPC

It is possible that the current NPC will need a reorganization once again, so that they will supply the bulk of the labor to the market during the time the PC are insufficient. The "owners" will get the money.

1.3. Corp

No changes.

2. Land

2.1. General

2.2. Urban land

2.2.1. Subdivision

No changes.

2.3. Rural land

Rural land is held as a fief from the King, so the nominal owner is the (corporation) County of county_name, which is managed by the Earl (or his subordinate, Viscount). Possibly the country map will be left uncovered, not because it is technically hard to do it, but because changing it is difficult and we do not yet have enough information how best to make it. The Counties do not exist in definite physical locations, rather their parameters are general, including distance to CryptoTown and whether road exists. Economy will be simplified at this stage, but food production will largely move there, and building in the county center is possible.

3. Buildings

3.1. Structures

We will start to have important previously vaguely implemented concepts such as rural roads. They will be mapped.

3.2. Buildings with floor area

3.2.1. Preface

3.2.2. Datatype

3.2.3. Wood buildings

3.2.4. Modular Stone Buildings

3.2.5. Custom Stone Buildings


4. Game concepts

4.1. Labor

4.1.1. General

The economy takes Labor as an indispensable input in every quite many transformation process (eg. making vegetables from a field, or hunting deer, or keeping a large palace tidy). Labor is converted from time, and sold to the market where business owners buy it, or spent in your own businesses as is the case of small farms.

There are many types of labor, and when time is converted to a certain type, all bonuses are applied. Therefore, labor units are fungible despite the infinite number of different skill sets the characters have.

4.1.2. Types of Labor

We seek to have approximately the same number of labors as there are skills, but they don't map exactly. Several skills may boost the same type of labor effectiveness, and some skills are not labor skills. Further, certain skills when practiced to perfection, enable a higher detail skill as a bonus in higher levels. The possessor of this can choose to do the high detail work if it is available, but still has the lower skill as well as a backup.

Hi,

This might be a right place to ask about the speedy reinstating of the automatic King's Coinshop. It definitely adds a great amount of liquidity when open.

It works as follows:
- 100 CKG gold bars are used as a standard item
- The character owns ~200,000 CKG, and all of it is listed for sale in an exponential ladder starting from 700,000 and reaching 50,000,000.
- Also all of the 25,000,000,000 m is listed in bids, reaching from 650,000 to 1, and covering all the CKG that exists.
- Each time one ask is executed, a bid is added to the next higher bid level (a fixed number of levels will remain empty to be the "spread" which allows others to set up walls etc., otherwise the bids and asks use the same price points, resulting in that the percentage spread stays constant)
- If a bid is executed, the ask ladder similarly creeps down.

Someone can tell what methods allow this script?

The "Intermediate version" would focus much more than previously to the character development.

The clearest differences to "Final version" are:

- Lack of realism: large areas that will be there to produce grinding opportunities, are handled with click of a button, and both money and resource handling will have sweeping generalizations (while being much more detailed than in a typical similar game)

- Lack of localization: items exist in a county, meaning that all current items exist in the same space so a whole set of things to consider drops away

- Little animals, no energy.

What will be there that currently are not:

- Time/AP and Sustenance.

- Some Factories with their economic subgames. If we consider how the money is spent (20% food, 20% drink, 20% clothes, 20% house, 20% items), having the following subgames captures much of the value:

Farm (produces food and wool) 15%
Resta (sells food and drinks) 15%
Merchant (sells drinks, clothes, luxuries and items) 25%
Tailor (makes clothes) 10%
Quarry (makes stone) 5%
Builder (builds) 10%
Drink imports 10%
Item imports 10%

These allow skills to be built around them, which can be supplemented with more specialized skills (book printer) later. Also there are professions that are not catering to commoner sustenance, for instance administration, and export jobs (currently imports are not paid with m but the special IC).

I am opening this to general discussion, because I want to find the compact and expandable way to integrate skills to the game. So far the idea is that (for ease, although not optimal for every skill) every Labor, Scientific and Personal skill (might add Cultural, Military, ..) is divided to 5 levels which each are different skills and might have unique names, but will be referred by just "Carpentry II".

The skills are Beginner-Novice-Expert-Master-Wizard (aha!) and gaining a labor skill (which are slow to acquire as a byproduct of working) would cause a promotion. In the Scientific side, the same 5-classification would be Basics-Bachelor-Master-Doctor-Wizard. They are reasonably quick to acquire, because it can be done full time (if you can afford it of course). Here the speed to learn stuff is greatly affected by items, other stuff you know, etc. A "doctor" actually gets you a Doctor level, so it happens much earlier than gaining Wizard from carving stones. Most doctors end up in nobility.

I want to make the character more personal by adding stuff to the initial customization tool. To retain the clearcut ways, the character might for instance be:

Intelligence: Stupid - Slow - Average - Smart - Genius
Height: Very Short - Short - Average - Tall - Very Tall
Looks: Ugly - Unpleasant - Average - Pleasant - Beautiful/Handsome
Strength: Very Weak - Weak - Average - Strong - Very Strong
+ certain 1st level skills might be on offer as well, and choosing an older character gets more points to allocate, to make up for the skills that the others get to acquire by starting young.

A number of points need to be allocated and since it is such a tough game before the game even starts, more points can be bought by sending XMR to the QR-code displayed and if there is excess, it will become your starting balance. The character traits chosen affect the game, intelligence gives a bonus in Scientific subjects, and Strength lets you quarry more stone and get more money as a result.

The design of the Health Challenge

This was originally intended to be secret, but due to the opening of the development side with new guys etc., it is not possible any more and would just create a situation where some people pay more due to less information, so it will be published here.

There is only one "type" of health challenge, it includes everything, food, drinks, living conditions, age, sicknesses, happiness factors   
Health challenge is generated to player characters in year_change and evaluated in the next one, giving them a year to Alleviate it.   
   
Implementation requirements:   

New field in item table: healthiness (encrypted field, or another way to give some items this property and me to edit it)   
New variable in Char table: frequencyBonus   
New variable in Char table: remainingHealthChallenge (int)   
2 new variables in Char table: eat_left and drink_left (or script)   
2 global variables: A, B (initially both 0)   
script: item_consumed_already (per char per item per year) gives yes/no   
script every hour: each char with frequencyBonus < 40; frequencyBonus += 2 (part of coming Hourly script)   
   
Determination of the initial value of remainingHealthChallenge   

1000 + A + randbetween(200; min(age; 90)*30 + B)   
   
Rules in the HealthChallenge from player side   

When the HealthChallenge is determined, the only way to combat it is eating and drinking.   
Eating (consuming edibles, quota = 200 instances)   
Drinking (consuming drinkables, quota = 200 instances)   
First time to consume a certain item this year, there is a bonus, making it reasonable to consume   
different items, and make the first act of consuming each with a sizable quantity (up to 50)   
   
New command: HEALTH (parameters ignored)   

print: "You may still eat eat_left units and drink drink_left units this year. Your    
remaining health challenge is remainingHealthChallenge_text. Your overall health   
is Health_text."   
   
Alleviation of HealthChallenge upon Consuming items   

syntax: CONSUME item_id quantity   
check if quantity exceeds quota, if so, print: "You may only eat/drink eat_left/drink_left units any more this    
year. Your remaining health challenge is remainingHealthChallenge_text."   
(in the above case, no items are consumed)   
if quantity >= frequencyBonus;    
   Bonus = frequencyBonus
   frequencyBonus = 0
else   
   frequencyBonus -= quantity
   Bonus = quantity
if item_consumed_already=FALSE   
   find variety_multiplier in Variety_lookup_table for the corresponding quantity
else   
   variety_multiplier = quantity
effect = floor(effect_multiplier * (bonus + variety_multiplier * item_id:healthiness) ; 0)   
remainingHealthChallenge -= effect (cannot go below 0)   
update eat_left or drink_left   
print "The eating/drinking felt effect_text. I feel the remaining health challenge to   
be remainingHealthChallenge_text. I could still eat eat_left and drink drink_left this year."

Variety Lookup Table (the other tables are secret)

New thread opened for game strategy and design

This one will continue to be used for announcements and gameplay related things for the time being.

Technical development and testing has its own thread as well.

The Ultima Engine

Originally meant a compact and fundamental classification of implemented objects and their relations, with a complete resource-based economy where money is used for trading. About like this:

Living things - people (PC/NPC), animals - have sustenance needs, and produce Time(in PC, called Action Points=AP) that can be spent to generate Labor. The Labor types available are unlocked with Skills. Some Items (etc.) increase Labor/AP. Time can directly be spent on some activities, Labor can be sold in the market for money or spent in your own Factories.

Factories - collection of resources (Items, buildings) to facilitate the conversion of Labor to Changes (in the status of the game). Again, the terminology is clumsy but well-defined. Factories are everything that can create items or repair them (including those where existing items are consumed in the process). Depending on the Change in question, a Factory might not require any tools nor skill (common gardens exist for growing veggies in between boroughs) or a load of both (Printing Press is both a capital and skill intensive business with high initial and fixed operating costs). All the economic subgames we have enjoyed in the past, will be implemented Factories, with widely different requirements for player skill and micromanagement/playtime, and investment/risk/reward characteristics.

Logistics. Every item is localized, which means that it exists in a space - if it is important that the location is a certain voxel or even a side of it (smallest possible resolution for a flat object is 1x1 m side of a voxel, for space object 1x1x1 m voxel, but it can also be inside a Container), it can be this exact, but there might also be 1,000 DEER of whom we only know that they roam around in the County of Naoned, this being their location until someone goes to hunt for them and they will localize to rural boroughs and even to voxels (voxel at zero-elevation is also called pixel in 2D). The current locations of living things change according to their desires, the others need to be moved, for which methods are available.

Heating energy is not implemented (assumed to be there) but Mechanical energy is needed in some Factories, and can be provided by wind- and watermills, animals etc. It is also used in Logistics.

Items have a variety of uses, generally financial items are a way to bet on the game's success. Collectible items are a hobby for many but may rise in value. Personal items add flavor to your character and many categories of them are needed for decent gameplay, with extra adding to status. Cultural and Scientific items give bonuses to skills generation, labor conversion, and increase the Character CUL/SCI output. Weapons will be all the more needed. The complete chain of food and drinks generation from tilling of the ground to uncorking the bottle is there. The sustenance requirements drive the necessity of obtaining the basics: Food, Drinks, Clothes, Buildings. The higher-advanced players have the chance enjoy the higher pursuits (which we already have seen in the first year.

END.

The engine is really that simple. (Well I am aware that hundreds of conversion formulas especially for factories need to be created and balanced, which in the beginning is a lonely task but later on other guys will get the experience needed to make those as well, and they can be tweaked at the instant exploits seem to stand out. And the UI for many of them, with a CLI with a library of hundreds of commands.)

Now the challenge is that to have it work beautifully as specified, there needs to be thousands of active players. We are talking minimum 100 times the current number. Wisdom is needed in the timing as well as the direction. Crypto Kingdom was started with little appeal to masses, because we wanted to get affluent, strategic, investing/management oriented people in the game, and sure enough, every other approach, with not having the robust playerbase, would have lead to closing the shop already due to the difficulties we have had.

I don't believe moving to the above system before getting a much larger number of players is the right way to go. This game is not intending to compete with existing games, lacking their strengths and diluting ours in the process. Instead, my thinking is that we now move to the 2nd year with a clear focus of gaining new commoners with a game that is fun, yet in a way that clearly targets above-average intelligent people, those prone to optimization, continues to appeal to adults, to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and to the people that our current players might find in their friends circle.

2nd year Goals (this section is especially a primer for discussion)

- Increase the playerbase to 10,000 PC or more
- Retain the social coherence with having both play-for-free players, depositors and investors, in the functional proportions
- Develop the software and increase our development output
=> Unlock the possibility to move to 3rd phase with Ultima engine and even more open world

2nd year Means (this section is especially a primer for discussion)

- Enable effortless New Player registration with several modes (visitor, later prompted to become character; advanced start with customization of character at start and deposit option to boost you with new skills, even promotions).
- Keep it social - Tribes and Guilds as explained in game thread.
- World (town) full of things - wandering around lets you meet people and lots are full of features which give you bonuses and opportunities.
- Leverage the Agora Marketplace to the full. Trading is just fun.
- Cleverly designed sustenance system keeps players checking back regularly, and caters to desired target audience, enabling but not requiring micromanagement (can be done in 5 minutes per week in one go, but doing it "optimal" by spending 10 minutes every day saves about 50% of the money with same result - for nobles whose life is not depending on 2 XMR per week, this is not a chore, but many of the commoners cannot allocate even 1 XMR for sustenance, and also enjoy playing nimbly).
- Get the word out.
- Tune down the importance of buildings. The Ancient Era was all about buildings, initially it was not intended to have any economy happening before moving to Online, and start this part there (remember: the DB originally intended to be scope of the Online version was done by PJ in the first 2 weeks, it is this economy that takes time). Now the spending of a commoner is only 20% buildings, and that of a noble not really higher (other expenses: food, drinks, suits, horse&carriage, items, also scale up significantly for nobles and for each rank of them). Buildings represent less than 10% of the game value also. It is possible that fast-building will be enabled with formulas creating the resource and work requirements as a direct result of typing in the expected effects of the building, without the need for floorplans or facades, which can be created later when it is more clear how they will be visualized, saving a lot of work that currently cannot be seen and is unsure if it can be used. Instead, the new Building datatype will have a few fields, most importantly the clear listing of bonuses how living there profits you, and pool shares which will be updated with a system script occasionally.

Hello!

Crypto Kingdom has grown so big that the main thread is difficult to follow as it contains so many different topics, including gameplay and player announcements.

Development thread is for those interested in the technical development (coding) of the game and implementing modules via API and other ways.

This thread is aimed for strategic discussion about the game and its design, and of the core features and modules. It is moderated to keep it on topic, which means purging away CK content not related to the design, and of course all other content and non-content as well.

In the past, acts condemned as "terrorism" by the then government, we now consider steps towards liberty and progress.

Today, think for yourself.

(Most terrorism, more than 90%, is false flagging though. So filter the honest 10% before thinking if just cause exists or not.)

Needless to say, acts of upholding your personal liberties without harming anyone, are not terrorism and any government claiming otherwise is a joker.

CONsol round has ended.


The long term plan of the Town is to get these widely owned, but this round the technical constraints prevent too wide allocation. (These are very prime investment items so definitely will be available in Agora soon!)

Roopatra, Syksy, HH of NF and Prince Ric get what they wanted and the rest 305 units will be allocated to the King and his shadow bidders.

10 mil sounds like a plan. This gives the Town 5,000 mil towards the dev milestone, recorded as soon as the DB is open again.

CONSOL emission 1610

The Most Ancient Town is emitting CON perpetual bonds for circulation. It is decided that Town will have a reasonably-sized debt load to provide the economic information about interest rates in the market. The CON pays 0.1 mil per week to the holder, making it very easy to calculate the rate from the CON price.

This time we are seeking buyer for ~500 CON. The previous auction cleared at 8.8 mil/unit. This time the game DB is not open so it is demanding to arrange a full blown auction. I have buyers for the whole amount at 9.5 mil, including myself, so in no case will it go unsubscribed. Throw in better bids and I will close the round when enough buyers have shown up. I will not guarantee normal auction rules, but all accepted bids will have the same price.

The beauty of CON is that the new ones are identical to the old ones - even gold does not have perfect fungibility because it has age, form, etc. characteristics. We are seeking to raise CON to be the third pillar in the diversified portfolio, along with CKG, and unquarried chapelries in the outskirts of the Town.

That something is priced in something else is a factor in the valuation of the former, but in the world of nearly-frictionless conversion of liquid assets, it is a nearly-negligible factor all things equal.

(but if all things are not equal and it is the case that XMR happens to be valued mostly by people whose home currency factually is BTC, what is the problem then?)

Tried playing Forge of Empires.

Their tutorial did not allow a single choice, or clicking anything else except what was pointed with an animated arrow. Despite that the game claims to have received 1 million players in 8 weeks, I decided that 5 minutes was enough. Now it can boast of 1,000,001 players 

Crypto Kingdom will aim in the totally opposite end in the scripting. This is designed for people who want to decide themselves what they do, even if it might require some effort to decide.

Character Management

We have played enough Monopoly now - it's the time to move on to Civilization (city management == commoner character development, technology tree == skills system, Civ buildings == items). Intriguing mechanisms are being designed concerning how the player spends the steady stream of action points (1 AP comes every 8 hours, some can be held at storage).

The new players find themselves immediately in the middle of choices. Meeting girls costs both time and money, but will hopefully lead to marriage with many bonuses (though with continued time sink as well). Gardening, hunting and distilling your own mead increase self-sufficiency, but might it still be better to work part-time in a hard (but well-paid, considering no experience) job in a quarry, and learn to read in the spare time and become a town clerk instead.

Many items bring bonuses to your life, as do the various Personal, Academic, and Artesan skills in their several levels (in total, hundreds of skills will be there to be explored). Unbalanced gameplay brings health challenges. Going social and walking around the map, on the other hand, leads you to interesting buildings where bonuses to the skills-in-progress can be had without paying AP cost!

So there is the element of making the most of your "life" in the way of AP, and this is a bonanza for those who enjoy micromanagement as well.

But your success can be boosted directly by spending real playtime in exploring the environment, because that brings you upon both straight-on bonuses and interesting opportunities (+ play time yields you gold).

Indirectly you can boost your character by depositing, because while money cannot buy everything, it is very hard to say what exactly it cannot buy, indirectly at least... Having enough money quickly frees up your time from the requirements of making a living, so both the AP and the playtime can be fully spent on interesting activities! Being young and having enough money to do what you want: Yii-haa!  

Simulations are going on to determine the optimal conversion rate of "basic character economy" to RL monetary value. The concept of free-to-play + withdraw the gains, is quite difficult to balance. If the ingame money is too valuable, it turns the difficulty level up even more since there will be many farmers just hacking the game to withdraw a RL salary for themselves, and getting casual players will dry up: no matter deposit or not, they cannot even stay alive in the competitive world, and stay away. If the money is too unvaluable, even small deposits can make you a big lord and then the game is full of big lords playing from mom's basements, which makes the administration of the characters who are really-big-lords too tedious for the adults to do, and we lose the most valuable players. The AP earnings from a commoner, start=15yo, character in his lifetime are ~50 XMR, which is determined to be the sweet spot. In the lifetime simulations, about 40% goes to food and drink, 40% to clothes and rent, leaving some for discretionary spending. Here, micro-deposits of 1-5 XMR make a difference in the day-to-day challenges, and 25-50 XMR are already a sum to cause a social rise.

Tribe and Guild

Many have wondered what is the real meaning of landed nobility; what does the countryside mean when it comes, and how can it function in practice with possibly millions (or even thousands) of players moving there to find better living conditions from the cramped CryptoTown. The answer will be: feudalism. The Dukes and higher will govern a duchy, which is composed of many counties. The levels Earl-Prince have one or more counties. Below this is the Manor, and then Farm.

Now comes the interesting part: We start from the county. It is up to the Earls (and higher, since also Dukes have counties) to gain the people to his county. Counties have their own economic pools, which means that they are shielded from the CryptoTown finances, and therefore sandboxes for all kinds of ideas how to make them function. While I admire my own capability in steering CryptoTown and the whole game as aside, I am again more than happy if someone does it better and gets more people and bigger buildings in their own city.

Since only nobles are direct subjects of the King, commoners can voluntarily submit themselves to feudal lords in return of favors and protection. Free land is something that the Earls have - each county can have one central city consisting of as many boroughs as needed + thousands of boroughs of rural land ready to be turned to farms! There might become quite a competition to get the best settlers, and they will be your subjects afterwards so you can tax them. But if famine, pestilence or enemy hits, they are also dependent on you. The organization of a county includes the possibility to appoint a Viscount (manager), although not a level rank, he is generally regarded as next to Earl himself in prestige. Earls have many ways to benefit their subjects.

Guild is a similar allegiance system where city-dwelling industrialists can enrol players (characters) to his businesses and ensure the development of appropriate skills for his business plans. The skills system is very wide, and reaching the top in even one skill corresponds to Wizard level. Clearly some help is needed, and setting up academies etc. helps the members gain skills (and levels) more quickly.

I just picked 2 of the modules that are coming In the near term we see the release of API, and of course the game is back to play. But then many of the UI/visualization stuff will be given to contractors, allowing the core to proceed concurrently, so progress will soon be made in many fronts!

The possibility to steam on with the design is of course provided by the new testing coordinator Sir Noms, Naturalist Mooo, HE saddam and perhaps others. Thank you all!

Things that can be reasonably called "gardening", are included in such. If stone is used, add the stone.

Things that are counted as luxuries, are included there.

Bending the rules concerning available building technology, cost extra.

For instance the only way in our Kingdom to make a roof in your diameter 16 m room from 40x40x5 cm slabs of natural stone (resource "stone"), is a dome. Wooden beam constructions are not supported by the game. (Both cases would result in minimum about 6 m additional height also.) A smaller bending of the rules would be to use low-arch 5, still not officially supported. You may use la-5 without immediate penalty though...

Storytelling wise - unless it is beer you are fountaining, we have considered water in all forms to be not so good since it became smelly and unhealthy.


TL;DR: feel free to make detail in your building, when it fits the other parameters. If in doubt, just pay extra to SSP. We cannot anyway guarantee how the details will be parsed to be viewable and when, so you can as well have them

The cold autumn day sets over the Royal Palace and surroundings. It is as if the whole center of the town were emptied to give the King quality time with family - not only the King's Park is empty and windy, but even the Central Square is less crowded than usual, busy, but quiet.

But in the new boroughs, in the research and development departments, work is continuing unabated, if not intensified. Rumors about great developments are circulated.

Happy real-anniversary

I don't know about worse, but drugs are for regaining consciousness and weapons for keeping the powers in check, serving the people.

...so many of these meant-for-common-truths are actually false. Next is: "who would pay for the school and doctors"? (both are unneeded)

Average and median age of players is close to 35. The weathiest nobles tend to be 40-60 mostly.

Afaik, most of cryptos are also owned by older guys, not those in <30s.

Queen comes to visit the Town

This has not happened ever in the history of the Kingdom. The Queen has lived with family in a faraway city and King has occasionally visited them. Now as we are in the new platform, characters such as the Prince of Soul have access to personally interact with the others, and the Queen has also expressed interest, other than being sad that husband spends his most productive 200 years in a remote and primitive place with mostly guys.

In the short term, this visit will mean that the King takes time for family, including James Daniel, 8. The visit will take 2-3 years.

The following arrangements have been made:

1. HH of NF (djjacket) has been given the unchanged password list, so he will be the last choice if your "transfer agent" has not done the job.

2. HH of NF has been nominated Mayor. As such, he is responsible for all Town actions and storytelling.

3. Marquess of White Cross (noms) is the Development Coordinator, and in this role ensures that already specified features come online, and coordinates their testing and prioritization.

It was not a light decision, for the reason of communication: There is no way to get the word out to people. Going back from having the Items masterdata displayed, does not of course really cause the testing to go up, but more likely causes a collapse in testing, in organization, general interest, etc.

After dedicated the last 2 weeks of my life to be 24/7 CK camp, this time slot is now ending. I will be able to allocate only about 2 hours daily. That is not much considering how many things I am involved with in game. I have distributed the work to others, then later on will again be time slots with full steam. The already contracted Ultima project is <50% done, and the game is just one year old, cf. 25 years of Civilization.

The decision to do the migration when important components were not functioning perfectly, was mine. The goal was to get more actual playing activity to the game, and those could iron out both the bugs and the UI, and get several important features out that could relieve the communication bottleneck (me).

I don't usually fall victim to democracy, this game is kind of designed to avoid it Now you all (including Syksy, PJ, and the councillors) have your chance to prove that the designation of "testing environment" causes the testing and development to retain their high levels, and all the various kinds of players retain their rekindled interest. I had predicted collapse in many of the above, this did not prevent the vote going against me in the Town Council. (The alternative I had proposed to retain player interest, keep the game playable, have the markets going on, detect (and repair) bugs quicker, not lose confidence which would happen if rollback,  would have been to fix the results of erroneous trades, and fix the algorithms that produce them.)

My communication goes offline now. If I write something, they are long and far-reaching plans about the future, or very short announcements that you have to be able to understand.

Hello all!

After a multi-hour meeting, Town Council decided to designate this is now Test environment. See more from thread.