Year Change 1622

NPC salaries and dividends were given. 3,205 CUL+IC was given and in addition 3,044 SCI. In all, NPC produce about equal value of production as buildings do, and also some NPC are valued at 100 mil each, to the same range as buildings.

Borough-22 Project has managed to produce 362 shares (out of 1,000) in 5 years. About 8-9 years thus remain. Since the Town has already redeemed the borough from the King, it must be paid! So the next conversion is cold, hard cash. The progression of share price is historically low, allowing large players to buy quite many shares! Money is to be deposited to SSP: GIVE M amount SSP [B-22].

16 mil => 1*S-B22
34 mil => 2*S-B22
54 mil => 3*S-B22
76 mil => 4*S-B22
100 mil => 5*S-B22
126 mil => 6*S-B22
154 mil => 7*S-B22
184 mil => 8*S-B22
216 mil => 9*S-B22
250 mil => 10*S-B22 <- 10 shares for 250 mil is the maximum this year!

The county race has started. As in any business, it is very unlikely that cashflow would be positive from day one, especially if you are doing it the first time. We have a subgame written for the brave, though. Not losing heart is quite important here. I just distributed 6,000*FOIE to the holders of S-FOI. For comparison, the counties in aggregate received 100*FOIE. But there remains the promise that all the FOIE will come from counties some day, even though at present only 1.6% does. Patience is the name of the game.

North Face and Plath have received their challenges. The King has agreed that the worthless trolls living in Plath are fit for destruction, but the masterplan needs of course to be devised. Also there might be good folks as well and it is important to spare them as much as possible. The situation in North Face is more challenging. Not much is known of Queen Louhi except her brilliant scheme of instilling awe in the oldest people in Crypto Kingdom, by giving some of the Artefact coins known to them since the times forgotten. The lore says that people in that corner of the world take pride in lying, so without this proof it would be sensible to dismiss the story of the queen altogether.

I am eager to receive instructions on what to do there and what kind of information to seek, whether to let people keep their valuables or demand them as tribute in the day or steal them in the night, etc. The new accumulation of PRE points are the allowance of "soft Action Points" and the grand total are the total preparation. All of this is quite familiar for the players of Quarry-1 more than a realyear ago The controls get better when more points are gathered, and also secret info and private question hours are arranged.

The economic boom in the Town side (as evidenced by the pressure to liquidate gold in the player side) has increased the gold dividends. As we finally have a functioning script, 1,000 m was paid from 1620, 1,000 m from 1621 and finally 3,000 m from 1622. So the total distributed is 5,000 mil to the owners of gold.

The Quasquibicentenary is approaching soon. Now there is no reason for all the characters not to have everything they need for decent life, including houses, suits, horses, carriages, useful and memorable items, etc. All these will be evaluated in the promotions and gift-givings of that glorious year, reminiscent of the Golden Jubilee 175 years before. (Golden Jubilee also started the era of preparation for Barbarian Invasion.)

ADD: Some BUT-3 have arrived to the town to prepare for the celebrations. One BUT-3 has only 0.15 mil net cost and produces 1*CUL, 1*IC. The real value of these is that they promote quite readily. a BUT-6 for instance, has a net cost of 1.0 mil and produces 12*CUL, 12*IC and still has 3 promotions left! All the previously-announced new NPC have also arrived (SPE-1, LT, PTE, OTH).


ADD: Commoners have received their salaries! The salary level of L6 is a little behind the norm (1.4 mil instead of 2.1), but on the other hand L2 was given 0.7 mil despite the norm saying they don't get anything at all! (Most of them will be abandoned, and other ways are planned to make them grind for their money)

HM gazes the Obelisk:

- Plath is facing its first winter. Crypto Kingdom is 221 years old. The latter is nearing profitability. The former is not.

And goes on to explain:

- Exactly 100 years ago, in 1522, the subgame Quarry (later renamed Quarry-1) was born. Six adventures were started with high hopes. It took 4 years to reach what was to be 25% of the final aggregate production, 6 years to reach 50%, 9 years to reach 75% and 11 years to reach the average of the following 2 decades. The first year production was only 1% of what it was to be. (source: /Q1 tab in google DB)

Some hit it big, others perished between the wage bill and unforgiving grey stone. Financial deals were forged, adventurous managers navigated between demands of owners, markets and geology. In the end, a huge pile of stone remained, which was only completely consummated in the early 1600s. The most lasting legacy were the various skilled workers who represent the bulk of MGR-4,5 and SPE-4,5 even to this day!

Dumb astonishment between seeing the 1st year costs and what little the first returning caravan brings back, might be new for you, Sir Crichton, but it certainly is not new for us. Go in peace, and take heed to the experiences of the Ancients before you.

Countryside is Opened in 1622

Flying banners and wagons of supplies have been rolling in the name of His Majesty The King of Crypto Kingdom to all the corners of the country.


TMA Duchy of North Face (14 PRE)

North Face is a large, barren, hostile and in a way - wicked - land. Despite the largish quantity of troops and workers sent, they felt like ants in a desert. Deciding on a proper scope of how much of this land to civilise, will become a priority soon.

Everyone here knows how to fight for himself. Towns do not exist (well - in lack of roads and not much people, we could not find our way anyhow), except one where some sort of tavern afforded us a few weeks' stay. A short but stately fellow in fur clothes and having apparent valuables all around him, and a retinue of a few soldiers, approached us and spoke in our tongue:
The "envoy" stares at 5 unimpressing, unshiny, yet somehow frighteningly sharp detailed small coins (CP1300E) in his hand and immediately deploys a fortified detachment to escort them to the Duke, as well as inform on the existence of this "queendom" and the mysteries it may contain.

Upon coming back and spilling the beans about the find to "everybody" (well it does not take long for "everybody" to know after half a loose word, since everybody had been waiting for news), a most strange thing happened: first it was the old prankster Sir James who showed up in the Monero House tavern to make a wager with the envoy that he can steal one of the coins. Since the coins had been delivered to HH the Duke already, the poor servant thought this to be a sure deal, but then Sir James actually did pull a coin from his pocket! With a few more similar happenings, everybody knew how the coins looked like, nobody was willing to wager concerning them, and it had become clear that unbeknownst of each other, the Bishop, NewLiberty, James, Ale, Zenon, PJ, Febo, Soul and smooth each had exactly one of exactly similar coins in possession, and has had since longer than he remembers. (The coin is an Artefact coin with no Anciety rating and is not officially old, just "thought to be".) King had to reveal the secret that he had had 3 all this time. It is probably a coincidence that only the 10 oldest characters had these coins, which have never been used as currency in CK.

County of Plath (12 PRE)


Uh, oh. You have deployed quite a force and consumed much wisdom and material preparation. The land surveyed is indeed ridden with charlatans and trolls. The trolls feel so secure that they even walk on the streets and join the scammers for drinks! Since this kind of evil is only fit for destruction as you also rightly understood, careful play is required. The trolls are mighty, but they don't know any organisation (some say there is a secret Guild of Sockpuppetry, which allows the members to play as if they had only one controller). New information is needed on how to handle the case. Luckily the land seems rich and some locals are throwing valuables at your men just for the fun of seeing them bow to pick them up!

TMA Principality of Forte Spagnolo (8 PRE)
TA Duchy of Ramsey (8 PRE)
The County of Stonehaven (6 PRE)
TA Marquessate of Grass (5 PRE)
The Marquessate of White Cross (4 PRE)
The County of Petrichor (3 PRE)

No information has yet arrived. (Limit=10 PRE)

General Information

- It has become apparent that VEG cannot be brought profitably from afar. TVA Duchy surrounding TMA CryptoTown is able to produce for all the town-dwellers.
- Even transporting MEAT from the very ends of the kingdom is difficult, due to the lack of roads.
- Geese have been found so FOIE will be able to be procured once the taxation arrangements are clear.
- No information on CAN is available yet (waiting for more counties to get info).
- MUS is rumored to be found easily in the north at least. The detachment brought back some.
- Amber (AMBNP) was often seen in many forms. Some of the peasants who were met, willingly gave theirs as a tribute.
- Tailors were not found yet (pending more organisation) but a few suits were obtained in fair dealings, especially orange ones that are held in high esteem.
- The logistics delay works such that the delay is effected on creation of the item, and therefore immediate transfer is possible. Only 2 counties have "returned troops" so others might have goodies in the pipeline.
- More information is coming as more PRE is generated.

225th Anniversary Raffle - Great Prizes!

The Almighty has given me the assurance that he does not want to see me until in 1625 the earliest. To make the most of this Great Celebration, occurring only in 25 years, We the King have decided to start a raffle, the kind of which has never been seen. It works as follows:

Each CUL will be given a dividend of 1*RAF-1 item. (The reason why CUL is used as a basis is to negate the requirement to pay IC for the prize Jade.)

After this, about 200,000 raffle tickets exist. I will further give of my own to all the characters to make this more fun for the people who don't have so much CUL.

Every day, SPOIL will eat up half of the tickets. When the number remaining meets certain thresholds, increasingly valuable items will be given as dividend (up to the maximum amount of the threshold). When 4 or less tickets are left, the SPOIL will be only 25% per day (to negate the possibility that all tickets are eaten at the same time - if that still happens, the die will be used to determine the last ticket). The last ticket will win the Grand Prize!

What's best, the tickets can be bought and sold in all the stages, and the SPOIL automatically clears the asks so that you don't accidentally sell too cheaply!

Prize Schedule
50,000 * CAN
20,000 * BEER
- - -
2,000 * FOIE
1,000 * JAD (1 kilo of unworked Jade, special gift from Ming merchants)
500 * W1608 (pre-Plague wine neatly at peak about 15/20)
200 * MIN-5 (immaculate Very Elaborate Ming China Plate 16cm)
100 * CS1625E (special edition 5 CKS only 100 minted)
50 * CLXII (since there are no restaurants qualified to participate in the auction, it will be raffled instead)
25 * WOS-E1 (Green Suit, gift of HH The Mayor)
- - -
10 * Baronet of CK (lowest numbers available starting from highest ranking winner incl promotion to L12)
1 * Second Prize: TRC4-19 Most Elab 4-Horse Carriage (to the 2nd last ticket; gift of M of White Cross)
1 * Grand Prize: Any Real Estate up to the value of 500,000,000 m (in the whole game, you pick, King pays   )

Total Value of Prizes: 3,000,000,000 m !!
(Nominal value of ticket at start: 15,000 m)

First halving Thursday 2014-1-14. Before that, the tickets will be arranged. Winner is known approx 1625!

Note on SPOIL

Yesterday, the SPOIL was applied on the suits and as a result, 28 WOS-xx items were destroyed. The precious metal content was refunded.

The SPOIL script will be run once every 2 years, so no spoils of any kind will happen before that.

Suits spoil at a rate of 1-10% per year (new working suits spoil more quickly than ancient collectible suits).

NPC death rate is 5% per year, and next time it will be applied is 1624 as well.

University Reorganisation

The history of University is one of the sadder chapters in our glorious town records. (Proof omitted.)

Currently the Chancellor, Duke of New Liberty, and the High Rector, Prince of Soul, are both temporarily in my wealth management so with actuarial punctuality, let us make the accounts of the University straight.

In 1600, there was a claims procedure for those who wanted the Main Building donations back after the building had collapsed in the earthquake. Due to NL being busy, this procedure was never completed. Notably the Prince of Soul who had donated 1,500 mil to the building, refused to claim any of it back. The King, on the other hand, wanted back his land that used to house the building in 1-NW.

For the others, we open a claims period lasting until next Thursday, and then I will decide what to do. Claims are "in kind" and only secondarily "in specie". They must be backed with evidence (thread post etc.) and sent by PM to not clutter the thread. Unless you have ceased to support the sciences, there is of course no need to claim anything back.

The new role of the University is to foster SCI production and since it is now located in rental premises in 3-C (PofC&S) it is giving 25% increase to all SCI facilities in the whole Borough!

University is a game Institution owned by the Town.

Once this matter is settled do we know the future financial situation better and may proceed from a clean table!

The Dept of Military Science is owned by the University so the new Lieutenants will come from there!

Rental Pool dividends given and land taxed

Totals:
Tax receipts 337 mil
Rental pool m payouts 1245 mil
CUL dividends 4508 CUL (value ?)
IC dividends 4508 IC (value 1127 mil at midprice)
SCI dividends 2443 SCI (value 513 mil at midprice)

Urban Land and Buildings Production value net of taxes: 2548 mil in the year 1622.

"We must soon make possible the Building subgame as especially the SCI production has fallen below the Cultured era (late-1500s) - the single advance of Cannon production uses up a 4-year production of SCI kingdomwide!!"

The outlook is positive. Rental dividend per share increased to 4244 m from 3333 m in the last years. This is expected to increase further with increased affluence (more income to Rental) and probably also because SCI and CUL weighting still pays better.

Accidentally 3x the amount of SCI was given as dividends and the mighty d20 decided (5/20) that it will be treated as a forward payment of 1623-1624 (instead of a bonus). This has a consequence as well that no SCI buildings may be reallocated to other uses until that  Sorry about that.

The gold stock in the Kingdom is worth 900,000 mil and the market value of CON existing is 65,000 mil. The total payouts from land during this troubled age of low yields, indicate that the urban land of the game might be worth 420,000 mil (if CON yield is applied as the discount factor - much less if a higher yield is required, much more if current CKG yield is used).

Update on certain Conversion periods and other important things

Please make all deployments to the County by Saturday 23:59 UTC. This is also the deadline for annual conversions such as S-B22.

Ming conversion has been a success and will last until Thursday 2016-1-14. The 1622 year IC will be distributed soon and will be the last IC available for these conversions.

RWWC gave a dividend of 3*WIRS per share lately. That was probably a mistake since RWWC now finds itself in financial need, the reason however is most compelling:

CANNON (CANN) production is starting

Against a modest spend of 10,000*SCI (yet to be gained and consumed), the mastery of Cannon production is introduced to the Kingdom. King has thought where to allocate this Royal Monopoly and RWWC seemed capable of handling it due to their 50+ years of service and good organisation and production facilities. One of the RWWC factory units in 2-W is rededicated to cannon production. It can produce 8 cannons per year. The costs are as follows:

50 mil annual workforce cost
40 mil amortisation of the 10,000*SCI spent at 2%
46 mil facility cost (lost revenue compared to the factory being a SCI facility)
50 mil monopoly profit
-----------------------------------------
186 mil, making the unit cost of CANN 23.25 mil

Therefore, RWWC sets the base price of CANN to be 20 mil. In the beginning, they will be sold to the highest bidder, however with half of the production allocated to the King at the same terms (every time an ask is placed, an equivalent number of units is sold to the King at the ask price).

A section can be dedicated to be a Cannon section with 9 troops capable of handling 3 cannons. Cannons are useful in large field battles and in sieges against enemy strongholds. They increase the BV of a company by approximately 10 per cannon. A proper allocation of cannons in field troops is 1 cannon section per 2-3 infantry sections. In siege troops even more cannons may be present (because the enemy has less infantry and is at a disadvantage when storming for the cannons). The peasants fear cannons very much despite their limited usefulness in guerrilla warfare. Deployment of cannons to the counties might increase tensions.

RWWC has liquidated some assets and will continue to do so:
100*WW1600C gold coin is offered at 2.79 mil apiece (0.93 mil/CKG)
33*TS156 trade silver coin at 2.50 mil apiece (0.21 mil/CKS)

In addition, 200*S-RW is offered at 3.00 mil each with King guaranteeing to buy the unsold units tomorrow.

King has arranged the Royal House in preparation for his eventual death

Massive commercial properties (Arco di Sergiu 1-S-N1, Old Department Store 1-W-K9, New Department Store 5-N-B6) have been gifted to Zechariah the Prince Royal. The Royal Palace, The Palace of Culture and Science, Villa Rotonda School of Economics and Summer Pavilion remain in King's possession.

The King's Will now says that when he dies, the assets will be divided between Crown (the character "1" will be renamed) and the successor (currently: Zechariah). Crown will become an institutional Corporation of the Kingdom, similar to the Counties. Coinshop will also become an institution with King being entitled to profits only and the assets forever remain allocated to provide the market making for CKG and CON. The dividend is set to 200 mil/year and its changes need to be based on the actual profitability of the Coinshop. The profitability is mainly dependent on the CKG dividends and the base level has yielded approximately 200 mil/year. The Coinshop also owns the Royal Mint. The m capital of Coinshop is reset to 10,000,000,000 moneretos, irrevocably gifted by the King to the institution and may never be withdrawn.

Some new information on County financials and troop orders

The very beginning of County race has been adhoc with troops rushing to the countryside without clear orders. Once a minimum preparatory level of 10*PRE is reached, the county will have been organized enough to allow Policies to be set concerning the administration. The Policies are tradeoffs between different approaches to the locals, trying to gain as large a land as possible or concentrate on developing a base, recruit new NPC with money or by force, loot the valuables of the locals or gift them more, etc.

The Counties have many expenses and likely not enough income for a long time to support the PRE generation. The School of Economics has been thinking of a suitable way to gain financing for these Institutions. Our answer is Perpetual Bond. This has the required characteristics that it does not bring voting rights, yet brings immediate spending money which only needs to be paid back slowly (or is not paid back at all, it is a frightening, perpetual commitment!) When 20*PRE is reached, the Earls may apply to the King for the right to issue C-countyname items, similar to Town consols but backed by nothing except the fortunes of the County, which may indeed go bankrupt. If such are issued, the Earl will have to buy a sizable chunk of them for himself to instil confidence. The aftermarket is easily able to price them in relation to the risk-free Town consol.

To clear the moral hazard, if a County embarks on a consol scheme, it will never be able to be indebted in any other way (CON="consolidated").

Peasant Uprising subgame, King's Death Roll

The all-powerful d20 has been positioned in front of the gamemaster. The King feels his health is sometimes good but othertimes not so. There have been rumors of official designation of Ailing but this is not the case yet (King's health is Weak). Annually, d20 is rolled and with a result of 1/2, the health drops. After 2 such results, the King is dead and the Will takes effect. The rolls will begin in 1625. The ancient nobles need not worry, this does not mean the same is meted for you. Yet. And the SWx might still help, remains to be seen.

Peasant Uprising is a gamemaster event that takes place if peasants in a certain region feel oppressed. If this happens, they will first send a Grievance to the Earl who is oppressing them. What happens afterwards, is based on the answer (or lack of it). Peasant Uprisings are heavily steered by d20, which includes both good and very bad results. The die roll(s) will be provided as part of the GM rulings concerning how things happen. CKG and urban land titles (the latter do not exist yet in Counties) are guaranteed, anything else is potentially at risk.

BRA auction is closed and price is 200,000 per bottle. The following winners therefore, each get 2,000*BRA and their m account is debited 400 mil.

Sir Crichton, the Earl of Plath
HRH The Prince Royal
HE The Prince of Forte Spagnolo
HH the Mayor
The Marquess of Naoned

One hour left. It may be challenging to realize the value of these items quickly but everybody is still invited to dethrone my lower bid and set the closing price for the whole auction. On behalf of the Town I hope you would do just that!

The Great Suit Rehaul 1622

To celebrate the 178th anniversary of introducing Suits into the game (1450 for the Golden Jubilee), we completely rehaul the Suit generation and items system.

A. Suits continue to be in the traditional colors and the colors have their traditional meanings.

Purple - Royal
Blue - Noble
Red - Merchant Commoner
Orange - Festive Commoner
White - Academic (Commoner, occasionally Noble)
Green - Artesan/Other Commoner
Grey - Servant/Military/Poor Commoner
Brown - Peasant/Starting Commoner

B. In addition, a Black Suit for assassins, thieves, pirates, rogues, etc. is introduced. Black Suits may be Cursed upon creation if the reason is explained and may become Cursed later as well. Do not even buy a black suit if your intentions are 100% on the right side.

C. Existing Suits (WOS-xxx) continue without changes, but the Great Moth will start to eat them very randomly (SPOIL script run with a low spoil%). There is nothing to do if the Great Moth has consumed your suit. CKG and excessive amounts of CKS will be credited if this happens, automatically.

D. The most needed suit types, historical colors without precious metals, plus grey and brown, will be introduced as fungible items. Occasionally (next time in 1635) the fashion will change, the new style of these items comes out, and the old ones continue as a bit more historical items. Grey and Brown do not change in style. As these are worn much more than the collectible unique suits, their spoilage is set to 5%-10% annually with higher colors lasting more (not that they last more but are just better kept). As usual, the item is either completely whole or completely destroyed.

WOS-A1 - blue 1621-1634
WOS-B1 - red 1621-1634
WOS-C1 - orange 1621-1634
WOS-D1 - white 1621-1634
WOS-E1 - green 1621-1634
WOS-F - grey (all years)
WOS-G - brown (all years)

E. A new strain of NPC will be introduced, Tailors (TAI1...TAI9). Tailors are found in the Countryside and enrolled by the Counties (given by admin, also Labor might sell them). Each tailor costs the usual salary and automatically produces as follows:

TAI-9: 20*CUL, 20*IC, 3*S-WOS
TAI-8: 10*CUL, 10*IC, 2*S-WOS
TAI-7: 5*CUL, 5*IC, 1*WOS-A1 (blue) every other year
TAI-6: 2*CUL, 2*IC, 1*WOS-B1 (red) every other year
TAI-5: 1*CUL, 1*IC, 1*WOS-C1 (orange) every other year
TAI-4: 1*WOS-D1 (white) every other year
TAI-3: 1*WOS-E1 (green)
TAI-2: 1*WOS-F (grey)
TAI-1: 1*WOS-G (brown)

The North Face Company retains their monopoly to make Royal Purple suits, Black suits, and all Custom-made suits, including all suits containing CKG and CKS. They can make these suits by using S-WOS. Nobody else can use S-WOS for anything, and also they spoil, so it is best to sell them to SirJacket or not even gain them.

Tailors promote somewhat quickly (same as BUT). If your Tailor has promoted but you would have wished it to stay in the previous level, you can ask an admin to depromote it. This might be useful to keep the tailors in TAI-3 and TAI-7 for instance since historically these are the most in demand and TAI-3 even produces twice as fast as most others.

F. GM convenes with North Face about the conversion rate of S-WOS and Bolts of cloth to unique suits (as you can see, no bolts of cloth are needed with TAI-x items usually.)

G. A penalty for not having proper clothing introduced. With these changes to make it easier for everyone to have proper clothes, it can no longer be tolerated that people walk around dressed in rags. Therefore, let the following misdemeanors be fined as follows:

Class 1 criminal: Peers [L14-L20]

If a Peer is found without a Noble Blue suit in his possession, let him be fined 10 mil and be scorned by his peers.

Class 2 criminal: Minor Nobles [L10-L13]

If a Minor Noble is found without a Noble Blue suit (unless he is a known academic who has always worn white, or a soldier who indicates this by not possessing other colors but grey), let him be fined 5 mil.
For a Noble to be completely without clothes, or only having Brown, it is an abomination: let him be fined 10 mil.

Class 3 criminal: Senior Commoners [L6-L9]

If a Senior Commoner does not have a Green, White, Orange or Red suit according to his trade, yet has something, let him be fined 1 mil.
If found without any clothes, fine is 5 mil.

Class 4 criminal: Junior Commoners [L1-L5]

If found without any clothes, fine is 1 mil.

It is not allowed to fine for the same offence more than once per year.

H. Clothes Market and gifts.

- New players bring their peasant clothes 1*WOS-G with them to the game and it is given to those char_id > 144.
- Otherwise we will have to wait until the first suits are made in 1622. Some tailors are for sale by Labor and let's see if the Countryside tailors get quickly enough. The next dividend round (1622) is the great one producing the "once in 2 years" items.
- SirJacket will readjust the pricing of the unique suits (WOS-xxx). These suits have the advantage compared to fungible suits that they last longer with smaller spoil%, and are often older historical style that many find prestigious.

I. Economic effects. It is planned that about 20% of the commoner income (~1 mil/year in the very start, ~5 mil when a mature Master) should go towards clothing. It is interesting to see whether this will be reached with WOS-G being available at <1 mil, and WOS-F & WOS-E1 also being very affordable.

In addition to the fines for gross suit offences, having enough number and quality of suits is a nice thing and will be noticed.

Current Situation (BRA auction)
(closes at midnight UTC in 7.5 hours)

Crichton 265,000
Zechariah 260,000
Forte Spagnolo 225,000
SirJacket 220,000
King 175,000
-------------------------
5*2000*BRA will be sold for 175,000/bottle incl tax

General information on Spirits

Spirits are expensive and good, but in practice useful mainly in tough health challenges. The spirits last for decades, an example is the VOH Spring Water of which half is still in existence, 20 years after creation.

After BRA is auctioned, we have 4 "staple" spirits in the town,
- VOD domestic vodka the only spirit that Town can re-produce (others are one-go batches)
- VOH the pre-earthquake Spring water, a very healthy spirit and mixer
- BRA entry-level brandy
- RON entry-level rum.

All these have a "currently exists" of more than 7,000 bottles. The rest of the spirits (10 different) have each had their run of at most 3,000, and even less exist now.

Spirits give their best bang for the buck when consumed a few bottles only. The varietyBonus for the first unit is 4.0x, making that first bottle of some spirit be easily 20 times more healthy than a liter of beer! While 20*4,000 m = 80,000 m is still less than the price of the spirit, sometimes to be able to pack the effect in 1:20 the quota is incalculably valuable.

As for the future, we have quite a nice range of spirits now and the intention is not to have too many at the same time. Also the prices of the current ones have been pressured in a broad range so investment spirits might be available at good price if the sale continues.

What is in the pipeline are:
- SW4 elixir, the latest edition of Zenon's unending search for the Medicine of Life (~100-500)
- TEQ tequila, based on the adventure similar to RME (~1,000-3,000)
- some whisky not as good as LAG but much cheaper, in the mid price range (~3,000)

A new spirit may only come once every 2 years. It may well be that new spirits will be even rarer. The total quantity or value of the spirits will not be increased too quickly to retain the value of the existing ones. At the same time I exhort to consume them as that is after all their purpose.

Current Situation (closes at midnight UTC in 26 hours)
King wm characters listed, have made their final bids

Zechariah 260,000
King 175,000
Soul 155,000
NewLiberty 145,000
TownHall 130,000
-------------------------
5*2000*BRA will be sold for 130,000/bottle incl tax

All Ming China and Silver Tableware items in the previous post are now newed. It took a whole day to do the background and think of these (plus implementing the 27 items in the system) so I hope everyone is happy with the alternatives. At least I had great fun

Eating and drinking are very important and there have historically been possibilities to convert/create tableware and cutlery from them. The main hindrance is the very high price of precious metals, making it impossible for all but a handful of characters to sport of a service of any size.

King commissioned the Royal Gold Service in 1500 when the Centenary of the Kingdom was celebrated and several characters ordered various gold items. The set is for 30 diners and contains 13 different items for each, one set totalling 2,270 CKG.

A similar set in silver is half the weight (due to silver being almost half the density and also harder than gold, but still 1,135 CKS (about 650 IC).

Now we seek that the Ming China is ordered in great amounts since it is very affordable now, with a simple but complete set for one, available as low as 4 IC! Unlike the historical gold and silver items, all Ming China is fungible, so it is very possible that it will invite bids and raise in price.

The utensils business goes on very slowly. The original "1500" gold opportunity was already in 2014. The "1600" AIC conversion (silver) was in March, 2015. Now the "1621" (Ming China) is happening and we are in 2016!

Porcelain production in Europe started only in the early 1700s, so it is likely that we cannot have domestic items until that (late 2017).  

The lesser alternative to Ming China will therefore be the pewter which is not at all classy, not healthy and (when implemented) probably not even cheaper than the limited edition Ming China.

Don't say you weren't warned that they will increase in value!

Oh yes, we want that all the items are ordered at least 1 so that the 1621 Ming Series of 22 Items is complete. If the conversion period ends with unordered items, 1 unit of each of such will be dutch-auctioned (currency: IC).

IMPORTANT re:AFTERMARKET:

To get your hands on the goods right away and not hassle with IC, you can buy them also directly from merchants in Agora! This burdens Mooo less as well!

For a limited, unspecified period of time: elaborate, most elaborate and very elaborate porcelain items are obtainable with IC conversion. The price of the items ranges from 1 to 500 IC (level K1-K9). The list of items follows:



I - Commoner Tableware
MIN-1, Ming China Teacup, Elaborate, K1, 1 IC
MIN-2, Ming China Plate 10 cm, Elaborate, K1, 1 IC
MIN-3, Ming China Soup bowl, Elaborate, K1, 1 IC
MIN-4, Ming China Ceramic spoon, Elaborate, K1, 1 IC

These affordable, Elaborate items fit every table.




II - Plates
MIN-5, Ming China Plate 16 cm, Most Elaborate, K2, 2 IC
MIN-6, Ming China Plate 22 cm, Most Elaborate, K3, 5 IC
MIN-7, Ming China Plate 28 cm, Most Elaborate, K3, 5 IC
MIN-8, Ming China Plate 34 cm, Most Elaborate, K4, 10 IC

These plates (bread, dessert, main and cover) form a beautiful symphony especially with silver cutlery.




III - Miscellaneous
MIN-9, Ming China Pitcher, 10 cm, Elaborate, K2, 2 IC
MIN-10, Ming China Wine cup, Most Elaborate, K3, 5 IC
MIN-11, Ming China Pitcher, 22 cm, Elaborate, K4, 10 IC
MIN-12, Ming China Punch bowl, 45 cm, Most Elaborate, K5, 20 IC
MIN-13, Ming China Plate 45 cm, Very Elaborate, K6, 50 IC

Practical items in every price point and elaboracy to complete your service.




IV - Pot
MIN-14, Ming China Pot, 40 cm, Elaborate, K4, 10 IC
MIN-15, Ming China Pot, 60 cm, Elaborate, K5, 20 IC

Ming Pots are large yet affordable.




V - Vase
MIN-16, Ming China Vase, 20 cm, Most Elaborate, K4, 10 IC
MIN-17, Ming China Vase, 40 cm, Most Elaborate, K5, 20 IC
MIN-18, Ming China Vase, 80 cm, Most Elaborate, K6, 50 IC
MIN-19, Ming China Vase, 160 cm, Most Elaborate, K8, 200 IC

The inspiring vases are Most Elaborate and come in every size fitting all budgets.



[SEE GOOGLE FOR IMAGES]
VI - Buddha
MIN-20, Ming China Buddha, 10 cm, Very Elaborate, K4, 10 IC
MIN-21, Ming China Buddha, 50 cm, Very Elaborate, K7, 100 IC
MIN-22, Ming China Buddha, 175 cm, Very Elaborate, K9, 500 IC

The flagship of the 1621 Ming Series, The Very Elaborate Buddha statues. The ultimate collectible, especially the big one.




ADD: VII - Silver Tableware
SIT-7, Silver Fork (50 CKS), Most Elaborate, K4, 30 IC
SIT-8, Silver Knife (60 CKS), Most Elaborate, K4, 35 IC
SIT-9, Silver Soup Spoon (60 CKS), Most Elaborate, K4, 35 IC
SIT-10, Silver Dessert Spoon (25 CKS), Most Elaborate, K3, 16 IC
SIT-11, Silver Small Spoon (10 CKS), Most Elaborate, K2, 8 IC

The most usual silver pieces can now be ordered as fungible items, boosting their resale liquidity. Complement your service by ordering a whole set of Silver only 124 IC per person!


PRACTICAL

There is a quantity discount: 6 identical items for the price of 5. (Does not apply to silver!)

When you consume IC to be converted to these items, use command CONSUME IC amount [item_id] eg. CONSUME IC 50 [MIN-16]. This will cause 6*MIN-16 to be created for you, because MIN-16 is 10 IC and you get quantity discount.

Historically, only gold and silver have been available to make tableware and cutlery. Silver cutlery is very stylish, but the high price of silver (let alone gold) has prevented the large scale use of these metals in plates. Large plates need to be thick.

If we take the 28 cm standard plate which is available in gold, silver and now Most Elaborate Ming China, the pricing is as follows:
- Ming China costs 5 IC == 0.9 mil.
- Silver costs (manufacturing only) 1.9 mil but is available in Elaborate quality for 1.0 mil. In addition comes the 325 CKS (total 16.5-17.4 mil).
- Gold costs (manufacturing only) just about 4 mil but the metal (650 CKG) raises the total to 550 mil.
- If you don't have any of these, it is considered that you have some unimplemented pewter items from which to eat, or in case of L1-L4, wood items. Pewter contains lead so Ming China is clearly a superior alternative.

The deposit/withdrawal is independent of the "game". Currently Saddam is offering depository services but others may want to start as well. I don't know current limits and how they are determined.

TL;DR:  FOC is for people who are not interesting in playing a online role-playing game (MMORPG).

We offer free-to-play, and since all our things have a monereto value, can be sold and withdrawn, it is obvious that the business model can not work on free players alone (it costs to maintain them and they gain money and withdraw it).

To compensate for this drain, we have hooks that try to get people hooked to deposit. Depositing is good for the character as instead of living on subsistence level for weeks-on-end, he can become a middle class, a noble, or a tycoon. Depositing is good for the game economy because it increases the quantity of currency in circulation (this is 100% backed by XMR in a publicly viewable treasury). The aggregate value of all the ingame items has been observed to be about 15-20x that of the circulating currency, so the wealth effect from increasing money supply is great.

The need of FOC is for people who lean more towards wealth management and do not care about character management (health, skills, social) etc. It allows an account whose value is solely determined by the assets owned by the account (such as an online exchange account, unlike a role-playing account). As 90-99% of all free-to-play accounts do not see play beyond the initial weeks, we need to sweep and erase them from the system, which happens so that the character dies, and then has a period before sweep and erase. FOC, on the other hand, is an investment account, does not die, and cannot be closed nor swept by the system.

To differentiate our game from various online services and ensure that the majority of our players are player characters, there is a 50 XMR upfront cost to open a FOC.

The 0.1 XMR/week that the CON item pays, comes from the Town, the ingame "game corporation" account of CK. The risk is solely related to the continuation of CK the Game. If the Town cannot pay, the default triggers liquidation and all the CKG becomes worthless in the process (currently valued at 820,000 XMR). This is because CON is Town debt liability and CKG is a share of its equity. At the moment about 5% of public income goes to servicing debt.

We will soon open the option of "FOC" Foreign Owned Corporation account. It is different from the Player Character account in the following ways (PC account in parentheses):

- Opening fee of 50 XMR (free)
- Never expires (character dies after 1-5 weeks of neglect, account swept 30 days after death)
- No weekly management (must do Health)
- No running costs (character has upkeep)

See the post above for practicalities.

WINES

The French Wines are international renown (and the Germanians are the runner-up). When wines comes to initial market, they are cheap, but Town will add 10,000 m tax at some point afterwards to the then-existing stock. This can only be done once, so every further conversion after the taxation will be tax-free. Conversion prices in the aftermarket go up. Currently available are the following post-plague wines (pre-plague cannot be had any more):

W1611  1/IC  (note: W1611)
W1612  3/IC  (note: W1612)
W1614  3/IC  (note: W1614)
W1615W  4/IC  (note: W1613W)
W1616  4/IC  (note: W1616)
W1620  12/IC  (note: W1620) <- untaxed!


SILVER

The basic premise of silver conversion is "you get fixed grams per IC". This has been as large as 32 grams in the very ancient times and now is 2 grams. When we are talking about imported items (wholly paid with IC), the price of silver has risen to be so large as to overshadow the manufacturing cost. So it is possible to simplify the things and use the following formulae for determining the IC price of silver items, whatever kind (assuming silver is the main raw material):

TS16x Silver Coins = no premium   (note: TS162)  <- note that since the coin is 12 CKS, the IC must be divisible by 6!!
Elaborate items = 1 IC/instance + 5%
Most Elaborate items = 2 IC/instance + 10%
Very Elaborate items = 4 IC/instance + 20%


SWORDS

The formula to calculate the level and price of a new sword is as follows:
- Define the parameters
- Add the points
- The number of points will determine your sword level and price
- For backdating (to 1600 the earliest), add 3% for each year to the cost

Parameters
1. Size of the Sword   (1=dagger, 2="dress sword", 3=longsword)
2. Imported   (1 always)
3. Elaborate   (Refers to appearance: 0=None, 1=Elaborate, 2=Most Elaborate, 3=Very Elaborate
4. Powerful   (Refers to all qualities forming the battle value) 0=No, 1=Powerful, 2=Most Powerful, 3=Very Powerful)
5. Base level/cost      (2 always)

Additional rules
1. A sword must be at least 1 point in either Elaborate or Powerful.
2. If a sword is Very Elaborate or Very Powerful, and simultaneously at least 1 point in the other attribute, get 1 point discount in price while the level stays the same.
3. If the character commissioning the sword has never owned a sword in the game, get 1 point discount in the price while the level stays the same. (This bonus may end without warning as the campaign ends.)

Swords can be up to K12 level.


ART

ART-items are in levels K7-K10 only and thus cost a minimum 100 IC + possible backdating.


NEW: Ming China

Now is the time to save your IC, for we will have a limited opportunity for conversion of Ming China. Many items will be available, all are the very finest porcelain the world has or will ever know! The exact items and details will be available soon!



Advance warning: Town will distribute 4,000 m/CKG as dividends for the years 1619-1621 (1k+1k+2k) once the script is functioning.

New Spirit: BRA - auctioned in the thread 48 hours

The year 1622 is dawning and a new Spirit is coming to town. Since the 3 Cognacs we have (CLXII, CXO and CVS) have been very successful, we now aim to the entry level brandy market with the new BRA (brandy).

The item BRA is not especially aged of otherwise wonderful, its production cost in France is 20,000 and the various middlemen (considering the war and all) take 20,000. The Town adds tax of 100,000 as it does to all spirits. 10,000 bottles have been imported and no more will come.

Now we are seeking for distributors. To ensure competition, the entire cache is divided to 5 lots of 2,000 bottles each. One character may bid only for 1 lot. It would be a shame if the lots go unsold so we are willing to offer a 10% discount and make the minimum bid 126,000 m/bottle only (252 mil/lot).

All lots are sold at the same price, the lowest winning bid. However, bonus items at the Town discretion will be given to those winning bidders who placed the bid early.

While no information on the taste or healthiness of this brandy is available until the auction ends, as a guideline we can think of the Cognacs we have that are graded at 15.5-19.0/20, higher than most other spirits. Their ask is also between 0.6-3.3 mil which makes this a prime opportunity.


Current Situation (48 hours left) King wm characters listed, have made their final bids

Zechariah 260,000
King 175,000
Soul 155,000
NewLiberty 145,000
TownHall 130,000


The item RUM has been merged with RME, so that the owners of the former have been given 1:1 of the latter. This rare action was taken because there was only 144 units of RUM, and the characteristics of the two items were very simila. Also the midprices coincided exactly (575k).