Important Update


Starting from 1601.1 (about 2015-8-16), the time will start moving in this era of Reconstruction, at a speed of 1 year per 1 real-week. "Script hosting" will happen once per real-week. Gold will be paid dividends. All buildings will dip to the same pool, and will be assigned pool shares based on a rudimentary and uniform formula, whose result can be seen in /CHAR tab "Z". The pool consists of all the current economic subgame pools, which collectively contain about 15,000 million. 15% of this will be divided each week, making owning buildings a very profitable exercise going forward.

Everyone (admins at least) can speculate in the Char DB whether it might make sense to repair the buildings. Windowless buildings are at -50%, so you can double your payout by finding and assembling windows. The Royal Palace repairs recently cost perhaps 750 million if windows are counted to market value. It is a lot, but RP is on track of receiving a 147 million (!!) pool dividend next Sunday. The profitability just became quite interesting.

NPC's will not cost anything, nor be useful in anything. Sorry. At least they won't age/die. 

We are currently testing the V.4: Reconstruction playable online version, and also scrum-developing Version Ultima, which can either be directed to be a version with a larger feature-set than V.4 by Christmas, or "an online DB access with player accounts" (as V.2:Ancients was to be), in as little as 1-2 weeks.

Bouncing back up from the upper limit of the previous upward trending trading channel (@ about 225k) is quite bullish. If we do not visit this area again, we go up from here.

Breaking it means that the next support is the lower limit, @ about 205k. If this is broken, then the uptrend that started a month ago, is violated and it's possible to fall back to the support in about 180k.

To me, this sounds like many "ifs" and the max gain for successfully selling now if all those happen, is about 30%. Not worth even trying. Not yet done with the initial accumulation of Company X...

The Earl of Sarajas bids 1*35 mil (on the condition that all pay the same price, the lowest winning or highest losing bid)
Lord Thud bids 1*32 mil (same)
Jungherr Paul bids 1*30 mil (same)
Dr. SS bids 1*26 mil

The New Era is dawning in a more practical way as building is now enabled. "Reconstruction" will follow the previous eras, especially the Cultured (c. 1565-1599), the era of prosperity before the earthquake.

May the future be even better - thinks the King when commissioning an Obelisk to be built in a yet-undisclosed location in his Versailles borough - This is a fitting way to start a major Era

-*---*-

And then, laborers start to assemble in the 1-NW-U6, near the old University site, near the Two Springs and near Zenon's Castle:

The Wizard Developer P.J. has selected his homestead, from among all the fine lands gifted to him by the players, and he is building a castle there. The donator of this lot is HE The Prince of OZ.



(facade from South)

The castle is mostly 4 floors, with a tower, having a total of 609 sqm divided between a laboratory for wizard experiments (this has 5 m thick walls to protect the environment), main reception/living floor with a 211 sqm terrace, a mezzanine for servants and kitchen, a noble floor for high receptions with good views everywhere, and 2 private tower floors.

189 * WIAS Ancient Window @ 900,000 = 170,100,000
189 * window assembly work @ 60,000 = 11,340,000
1,012,500 * stone in Borough 1 @ 105 = 106,312,500
3,375 qum * labor @ 12,000 = 40,500,000
154 sqm * high-arching labor @ 80,000 = 12,320,000
405 cum terraforming @ 3,000 = 1,215,000
total luxuries (50-150%) = 103,700,000
609 sqm * height surcharge @ 50,000 = 30,450,000 0 <----until the end of year, 100% discount on this tax! (then, 75% discount)
1 * Royal Architect commission = 80,000,000
1 * Royal BI commission = 20,000,000
------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL COSTS 575,946,500 m 545,496,500 m

What we can deduce from the calculus is the inordinate cost of windows at present. But there is a limited quantity of WIAS (these were bought from NF) and no more will come. Another observation is the small share of building labor - only about 65 mil! In this project at least, the majority of the bill was items that are not consumed, but can be reused.

Building Calculator V.3.9

This calculator enables you to build buildings and repair collapsed buildings. It is in use for now.

Preface

Buildings reside in /BLDG and they are an optional property of a Lot. A Lot may have 0 or more Buildings. A Building is a functional, not a structural unit. Therefore it is possible for several identical structures in the same lot to be part of one Building, and one structural unit to be split in several different Buildings according to the features and usage.

Buildings consist of:
- a frame, which is saved as a pixel image with notes;
- stone, as much as is needed to build the frame;
- windows (different types), either to fill all of the windowholes or none of them (we are lacking windows);
- luxuries, according to the formula lux%*sqm;
- facades.

Soon also doors and staircases will be implemented, and after the complete Items management, all interior fixed and movable features.


The frame costs money to make, and this is a sunken cost. The frame deteriorates slowly (repair%) and needs renovation or risks collapse.

Stone can be recycled in 90%, regardless if you take it down or it collapses.

Windows don't age, but may get destroyed for other reasons such as the great white light.

Luxuries depreciate slowly.

Facades depreciate slowly.


The formula for building is as follows
You may never make more than one Building/Repair Project to one building during one year (a real-week).

1. Demolition:
- If you demolish stone, every qum (1x1x1 m) yields 270 stone (or 90% of the building total - check if current, in /BLDG#Total_stone - in case of total demolition), and costs 10 m/stone (2,700 m/qum) to retrieve. Same when you clear up collapsed buildings.
- Windows can be demolished at no cost and they come back to your inventory. Collapsed buildings don't have windows in any case.
- Luxury can be cleared at no cost and yields IC as follows: sqm * lux.

2. Repair or Luxury upgrade to an existing building:
- For 40,000 m/sqm, you can upgrade repair by 0.2 (0.8 max). For 60,000, upgrade to 0.8. For 120,000, to 1.15.
- Luxury costs 2,000 m/1%/1sqm, and can be added to the existing luxury to the maximums mentioned previously.

3. New building (materials):
- Calculate the number of qum of stone in your walls, ceilings and other structures, multiply by 300. You need this many stone.
- Calculate the sqm of windowholes. You need this many windows, (or you must leave them all unopened and repair earliest 1601).
- Doorholes dont' cost or require anything for now. The installation of proper doors later will cost you. Number of doorholes (sqm) will be recorded now.
- Same for wooden staircases.
- Also same for facades. You will soon be able to invest money to make a nice facade to your place.

4. New building (labor):
- One qum of stone requires 12,000 m labor
In addition, the surcharges for particularly skilled work:
- High arch with the longer span of 5-12 m (low arch can only span 4 anyway), or a dome max 14 m: 80,000 m/sqm
- Columns (any elements whose height>2.6*max(length,width)): 50,000 m/cum
- Massive Columns (any elements whose height>5.1*max(length,width)): 150,000 m/cum

5. Features:
- Paving needs 100 stone per sqm, and the work costs 2,400 m/sqm (the footprint + paved yards)
- Pedestal/terraform needs no materials, and the work costs 3,000 m/qum
- Park/Garden needs no materials, and the work costs 5,000 m/sqm

6. Additionals:
- There is a surcharge based on the height of the roofline (the ceiling of the highest floor that has at least 50% of the floor area of the floor area of the largest floor, or other BI-approved metric): buildings with max 15 m don't have surcharge; for each additional meter, the surcharge is 10,000 m per sqm.
Good news - this surcharge is waived completely in 1600 (this week); in 1601 (next week) you pay only 1/4, in 1602 only 1/2, in 1603 only 3/4 of the surcharge. This makes it really worthwhile to build the tall structures now, even just the frames, without windows and lux (earliest opportunity to update is after year changes).
- The Architect and Building Inspector will charge for their services.

All building costs (except materials purchased) will go to the same account, #37 Special Services Pool

The new building(s) needs to be recorded in /BLDG tab. There is no need to record them anywhere else, including the /LOT or the antiquated Building Registry.

Let it be clarified that the auction will run 48 hours from the timestamp of the post above. So about 30 more hours.

Earl noms is 440 for 2-C-B1 and 300 for 1-SE-V13.

How would you call different dwellings?

There is a well-defined order in different residential buildings. The definition goes like this:

House.

Anything can be called a house, when no acceptable more specific term is available, from the 20 sqm dwellings in 2-W to the Round Table House, which is rumored to be 5,000 sqm when ready. (Normally the small and very large buildings are called "house" and the midsize ones take the more specific name).

Apartment.

If there are other residences sharing the same quadrat (eg. different floors), it is not a house but an apartment.

Townhouse.

Denotes a 2-3 floor (very rarely 1 or 4) construction which must face a street 10 m wide. Typically 100-200 sqm in size.

Palace.

Palace must be 200 sqm at least, its lot must be 2 q at least, and have at least 20 m face to a street 10 m wide. The builder must be a noble and the lux minimum 100%.

Palaces are subdivided to:
- pocket palace (known for being a 2-3 q lot only) <- Tavastia Palace
- town palace (4 q in 2x2 formation) <- The Town Palace of New Liberty
- town palace 1st class (minimum 600 sqm and 6 q lot) <- The 1001 Nights Palace
- grand palace (minimum 1000 sqm and 9 q lot) <- Noble Palace

Larger palaces often have rooms or areas whose lux is 250-350%.

Castle

Castle typically has perimeter wall, some garden or space inside the wall, and often somewhat less lux than the similar sized palace. Lot is minimum 4 q.

Villa

Villa means a rural house, which in the game context means that the lot is large compared to the building, eg. Villa Rotonda.

Hall, Store, Hotel

If the main feature/usage of the building is a hall, store or hotel. Similar apply.

Tower.

Any building whose main body is higher than it is long and wide, usually both, may be called a tower.


We are soon ready to enable new building, including re-erecting collapsed buildings from the original blueprints if desired.

We have just promoted some characters in the Kingdom, and want to shed some light to the topic.

Levels L1-L7 are commoners and levels L8-L13 nobility. Level L14 can be royalty and L15 always is.


You start the game in L1, which will be promoted to L2 after an estimated 30 minutes of thought given to the game.

L3 is gained after doing any ingame decision, such as making a deposit, acquiring a non-trivial amount of gold, or any land.

From here, the advancement gets slower with the approximate rate through L4...L6 being one promotion per 10 real-weeks. You can make it faster by being active. All kinds of activity counts.
* L5 is difficult to get without a house, and L6 typically requires it
* It is OK to not have transportation, and buying a carriage is a sign that "please promote me to Baron"

While nearly all characters will reach L6 during their life, L7 is a special level not easily gained.


It is possible to born Jungherr (sockpuppets of the Earls+, costs money), or be promoted Knight from the outset if special credentials (Dame Roopatra's start), or ingame (many will be promoted Baron instead). All these are L8.

Baron L9 is a very common level consisting of old masters that have been ennobled in their late years, power players starting from this level (cost), high ranking players (The Prince of Soul started Baron) and businessmen that have been picked from lower levels and who might be trying to advance to higher levels.
* Barons should have a decent house to live in (a townhouse at minimum), and transportation helps.

Landed nobility L10-L13 is a tight funnel where advancing each level is difficult since only about 1/3 of the Earls ever make it to Marquess etc. The King is making all the decisions whom to promote and while excellence in one thing has been the way to raise up to this far, excellence in all things is demanded here. Or at least helps. Currently we are checking the transport situation of the nobles, and the living conditions will be the next in line.
* A house of an Earl historically is 200 sqm and 100% minimum lux, and in the Old Town. And we appreciate our history
* It is OK to ride a horse if you are an Earl but for promotion to Marquess, a carriage is a must.
* Charity is a most important consideration in the promotions. And administration of the game.
* We aim to promote everyone who has 10k CKG to Earl if they have the minimums met.
* The fiefs in the countryside will provide large tax incomes.

So may the last post today be a summary of the Items.

- Items may be created (mainly) by expending IC (Items credits). These can be got via Culture (not now) or luxuries (possible now).
- Items have a level K1-K10, which corresponds to the price K4=10, K5=20, K6=50, ... , K10=1000 (IC).
- There are many types of Items, which can easiest be browsed in /IC_SHOP or my earlier post today.
- IC does not have a market value yet. There is an auction going on and typically it will be cheap in the first auction, and then become much more expensive as everyone realizes its usefulness. Later the value will retreat to a reasonable level, higher than the first, yet lower than the second.

1. Personal Items such as hats, boots, trinkets, can be had for 10 IC or nice ones for more.

2. Refashioning your gold takes 1-4 IC per 100 CKG (this is cheap!).

3. For silver, it is also rather cheap, but silver itself is getting pricey - 1 IC == 2 CKS, and silver can only be obtained via IC

4. Bronze/brass/iron items are possible, including medals, so that 20 IC gets you 50 medals for commemorating important events. These medals are not restricted as gold and silver medals are.

5. Swords and personal protection gear are not urgently needed right now in the town setting, but the Countryside is starting soon.. Prices start from 10 IC but good stuff costs a lot more.

6. Wood items start at 5 IC!

7.-31. Read it for yourself Especially I'd like to recommend the carriages, especially to the ones who are so severely lacking that don't even have one!

This is very soon taking effect. We alter the rules somewhat and put the buildings in 3 categories, shown with breaks.

Once RWWC production starts, it will sell the windows at market price (lately: 500,000 / WIRS) in /F_OWN. The owners of these buildings may instead buy at the "normal price" of 140,000 / WIRS. First the first category will be enabled, and it will be announced when 2nd and 3rd categories can also use the offer. The offer expires when announced.

It is possible that next Sunday we move to 1601. It is rumored that it makes sense to repair the buildings before that, just in case...

The King takes the opportunity to offer windows in /F_OWN (maximum amounts are shown in the tab, please update the "remaining", note that the prices are below the previous offerers NF and Ramsey, buy as long as the supplies last, for use or for investment! ).

Horses are counted

We have 77 horses in the Town for human transport. They can be used either as Horse (1), 2-horse carriage or 4-horse carriage. Horses and the equipment are converted from IC as follows (prices in IC):

rough 20/50/100 (horse, 2-car, 4-car)
elaborate 50/100/200
most elaborate 100/200/500
very elaborate 200/500/1000.

HH of North Face owns the first carriage made and in use (1522). HE The Prince of OZ owns the most magnificent one (K10 overlaid with gold). HM The King owns the most carriages (3) and most horses total (11). The best horse belongs to HR (Her Rooness) Roopatra.

When the statistics are made, it strikingly becomes obvious who is relying on public transport and not taking the high rank seriously. Even though both the Noble Palace Club and the Town Hall Corp do charter, our Majesty considers it public decency for a Marquess to have a carriage, and all Earls shall definitely have a horse at minimum.

We don't know how you would get the IC necessary to "buy" the horses/carriages in case you need. The price should be around 300,000 m/IC, so an entry level vehicle would cost a modest 6 mil and the nicer things of life are in the range of 60-300 mil, if you manage to get enough AIC.
- We absolutely can keep our IC to ourselves, but will sell max 100 per char for the purpose of buying horse-related things at 400,000 m/IC

We repaired the Royal Palace at a cost of 547 mil, which is of course pretty steep for a building. But we remember it cost 900 mil to build, and have now some IC to be spent. The new lux is 250% (used to be 200%) except in the Throne Room 300% and some auxiliary spaces 0-50%.

The King gifts Mooo, as well as the Marquess of Rome, with a set of 2 CR gold coins p.o.

The King bids 280 mil for the lot 1-SE-V13 and 355 mil for the lot 2-C-V1, including their respective buildings as always and in this case the workforce as well.

The company can still cancel the auction by paying 635 mil to the King after a GM. If Sir Pablo has not reacted thus far, the GM is operative without him.

The auction will run 48 hours.

The Hypothecary Bank reopens

The Hypothecary Bank business model is to borrow from the Town, the money that the Town has been borrowing from the markets as part of the Long Bond scheme. This gives the Bank possibility to lend the money to the markets at privileged rates. "Hypothecary" means that the only possible collateral accepted is land and buildings. Land and buildings will be accepted at 50% of HBLP (for land), reconstruction value (for buildings). Since the valuation is low and 2x safety margin is used, these loans should be risk-free.

We initially give the rate around 0.30% per day, depending on the amount (sweet spot is around 500 mil, larger increases risk and smaller increases hassle) and duration (3-6 months is good, again longer is risk and shorter is hassle).

It is possible to make leveraged bets on gold (or anything) with the money, it is only that the collateral must be land.

We are waiting with great interest when somebody makes a margined trading platform for gold. The recent happenings in the markets have already shown that the market is quite liquid, with larger moves quickly returned to the norm. In these conditions, a leveraged bet can thrive (in too illiquid ones it will just get knocked out always).

HBLP

Hypothecary Bank Land Price is a floor valuation for the land in the Town of CryptoTown. As we know, CryptoTown has 5-9 boroughs depending what version you use and how you count. However, the mortgageable land is only in Boroughs 1 (Old Town), 2 (New City), 3 (University) and 5 (San Pietro).

We deem that full boroughs, regardless of the quarrying status, are worth 10 mil/q.

All land zoned in lots with realistic street access, is worth 20 mil/q.

If the lot is small, connected, and opens to the south, price is 30 mil/q. Same if the lot is in a well-developed chapelry. If both, 40 mil/q. In 2-C and 5-C the land is 50 mil/q. Very prime locations will be appraised to maximum 100 mil/q in other boroughs than Old Town.

All land in 1-C is appraised to a minimum 200 mil/q
All land in 1-N, 1-W and 1-E is appraised to minimum 100 mil/q
All land in 1-S, 1-NW and 1-NE is appraised to minimum 75 mil/q
All land in 1-SW and 1-SE is appraised to minimum 50 mil/q

The collateral appraisal may be higher if the lot is well located and connected.

NewCorp is starting the "sell your Land for Cash" service

NewCorp is serving the Hypothecary Bank by offering to purchase any land with buildings. The offer is extended to all the characters as well. If you want to sell any of your lots, ask for a quote. It costs only 5 mil and if you want to accept it directly, the sum is refunded. If not, you will get to know what we were willing to purchase your lot for, which is valuable information. The appraisal may be asked for somebody else's lot as well. It will be based on the same parameters. We do not divulge the information outside but keep a database of appraisals as well as the reported actual prices.

The owners of NewCorp are Tavastia, Soul, HM, Thud and HH of NF.

Recorded (it is worth approx 200-300 mil, since you asked.. ). The Marquess of Cryptoluna is gifted a collection of 10 gold coins (p.o.) by the King.

In the process we saw that there is an opportunity for profitable gold coin trades, since the Marquess has many unopened mint rolls of 20 coins, which might be worth something in the market.

Already 16 characters are attending my castle party (The Bicenterany of HM Reign). Since we only made 30 wine cups weighing 200 CKG (p.o.) each 100 years ago, only the first 30 ones will get such a cup. For the possible latecomers, a Gold Signet Ring (25 CKG, from 1549) will be given instead.

We are happy with the giving spirit of so many!

The first items selected to be raffled among the guests, are:

- 500 CKS large bowl
- 100 CKS small pitcher

The Great Quarry Era started in connection with the Trust in Economy in 1520, the year with the lowest CKG price in history, 10 realdays after the deadline of the V.2 Ancients had been blown the first time. The time was also changed to pass slower than before. The quarrying was enabled in the new Borough, "New City", which was only then opened.

The quarries had a "secret code" related to the geology of the site, and its deciphering was not provided. Many of the quarries had a challenging geology, or the owners had challenges to make them operate profitably. Huge losses mounted to many of the operators and investors. When the code was cracked, this resulted in huge overproduction. The stone market, Rome, was buying too high, yet the operators dumped and suffered. The Town still has ample reserves of stone as a result of the Great Quarry Era.

We are withholding the Royal supporting vote yet, to see what others are proposed.

The less fucks I give to the critics, the more fun I have, and everybody else around me. Let the others save the world with their preferred method, I am just happy! 

The wizard will have to thank you personally for such a profound gift (recorded)!

My humble recognition for you is:
- Promotion to L4: Novice
- A silver and copper coin from the year 1455, selected because of the rarity of the copper of that year (only 8 exist - and only 6 newer coppers than this exist in total)

As recognition of the benevolence of HH of North Face, we give the following choice items:

CR1442E a very rare (20) coin from the early most ancient era. We only had 2, which means that we are seeking to replace the coin from some source. (The CryptoMuseum, which the Duke is sponsoring, did not have one yet!)

CR1527E similarly a very rare (20) coin, not yet in the CryptoMuseum collection.

CR1543E a rare coin not yet in the CryptoMuseum collection.

CR1560E a very rare coin, with a float of 5 only currently (and not in CM).

AS1600E collectors' coin.

NI1600E collectors' coin with mintage of 50 only.

CA1600J a very rare collectors' coin with mintage/float of 25/12.

As a result of the addition of these 7 items to the CryptoMuseum collection, HH The Duke's collection matches the one by HE The Prince Ramsey (100 unique gold coins each).