Interim report. Nobody got kidnapped, but all the family developed a hellish cough that does not go away with anything, and has almost completely disabled me from working and writing.

Well that has pros and cons. I never took flat earth seriously, but since discovering both holocause and moon landing to be lies, I have decided to give flat earth a chance as well. Now has been a good time to research. Here are some of the research questions:

- Can someone verify that North Star (Stella Polaris) is visible from 20° south?

- Why is the whole earth being destroyed by pollution, poison and chemtrails, but Antarctica is declared military area based on its "delicate nature" up to the point that it is illegal for anyone to even go there? Why is there not one unedited video showing "antarctic sun" (cf. Arctic sun I have seen with my own eyes) Why is circling the Antarctica forbidden?

- Why do the southern shipping routes not exist despite being so much shorter than the northern? Why does no aeroplane cross the south seas despite it being so much shorter? Why is there no evidence of anyone ever flying over Antarctica and coming back from the other side? Why is there no undoctored photo of Antarctica available from space?

And I am going offline for 3 days so that is not a proof of kidnapping  Trolls can feast on the thread meanwhile since there is no one to moderate it. 

I am just posting this here because I like to make noise and let the uninformed think I am nuts

I had a strange dream last night (I seldom have dreams), that I was being kidnapped (first dream of this topic ever).

I managed to escape briefly while still in my hometown, and hastily tried to alert people on my condition and call the police. The answer I got: "take it easy, there is a festival in town".

It reminds me of the first dream ever I saw about customs officers. Just a few days later a team of such confiscated all my valuable belongings and means of business. This happened 2008. Never before, nor after I have had a dream about customs.

In 2013 I told everyone who cared to listen how evil the USA is and I will never board a plane there. Being foolhardy though, I tried (the first time ever since getting this realization years before) and bought a ticket. What happened is rather public here in the forum - I was intercepted on the way to airport and detained for 6 weeks in an institution.

Now, since I am such a grandmaster in this game, I decided that if I post this to all the world, they don't dare to kidnap me or my loved ones. So I did. I am also aware that most dreams do not convey knowledge of future things, so the fact that me and my family continue to live happily over the holidays etc. does not prove anything so it is pure win-win for me.

Since if something happens, it's already the 3rd time, so you better start to believe in dreams and in me

"Paranoia" is "delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance" (Wikipedia)

"Wisdom" is "reading the adjectives in the above sentence and discerning if they actually hold true after so many years of proof to the contrary" (me)

Merry Christmas all! 

The Royal House trip to countryside

The King and sons HRH The Archduke Zechariah and Jungherr James Daniel Zechariah John are going to take a few months' holiday and come back before year change.

Admins know how to contact the Wizard PJ via Skype, Slack or IRC if the system breaks down.

All previous year change procedures have finally been executed. (Except a part of the Buildings monetary taxes and payouts, but this will be settled after the break)

Wines have been re-graded (/WINE tab). As the oldest wines we have are turning 20, their maturity, taste and health are refined. The price likewise goes up for patient speculator: W1600 was in conversion 12/IC and W1600M was 6/IC. Now their prices are 100,000++ even though W1600 has reached its peak long ago and W1600M has equally long to go before it reaches its peak. Even a commoner can make a killing by spotting a good wine in its initial conversion and selling at the top price perhaps quickly, perhaps after decades.

You can pay Resta 150 mil and get 5 shares. The excess will be returned if Mooo is nice

B.22 Conversion in 1619

AS the oldtimers know, the Town and King share the proceeds of land sales so that Town is required to pay 4.5 bil to King for each new Borough. This has actually happened re: B.2, B.3, B.5, B.6 and B.8. Old Town was property of the King but he gave most of it away for free directly, and the rest was sold by Town. B.4 is such poor land that the obligation was waived. In B.7 the King wanted to redeem the land for himself so actually needed to pay Town 4.5 bil to get the land that was his all the time. In B.9 the King probably forgot to collect but that is too old to find out..

But since B.22 needs to be redeemed, the conversion in 1619 is cold, hard cash. Please do as follows:

- Pay Resta (#76) however many shares you are interested in redeeming:

15 mil => 1 share
35 mil => 2 shares
60 mil => 3 shares
90 mil => 4 shares
125 mil => 5 shares
165 mil => 6 shares
210 mil => 7 shares
260 mil => 8 shares
315 mil => 9 shares
375 mil => 10 shares.

Note that 10 shares is the maximum allowed conversion.

We are moving to system where the conversions deadline is 24 hours before year change ie. Saturday 23:59 UTC.

James Daniel thanks for all the gifts and rejoices with the givers, as well as the recipients of Holiday Fund grants

Fibonacci rules as always. Target is 380, but the situation is so bullish I am not trading off chances. Just wait until we get the 6 consecutive weekly green candles and then try to time the top. 20% daily rise is pretty good sign, 30% (on top of the exponential rise) is a sure sign.

Follow the weekly Bitstamp chart. If it closes green for 6 times in a row, we are on bubble territory (currently 4 consecutive weekly greens). If we instead end this week in red, there is nothing to worry.

IF we get 6 greens, this means we can go on for a long time still but watch for a blowoff top and trade accordingly.

The methodology worked perfect in the latest 500 spike, and you can easily check a very good match with all previous bubbles as well.

How is bitcoin doing in this metric?

New Wines, Spirits and new IC conversion table

RON 10,000 exist -- Town has answered the pleas of the RUM-thirsty citizens. The last time rum came to town was in 1604 as a result of the endeavors of explorer groups led by HH SirJacket and (then) Marquess of Tavastia. Now as a result of skilled negotiation, this entry-level RON is available at a very affordable price as follows (tax paid):
* 5000 units will be sold in a manually operated Dutch auction in the following 72 hours starting at 200k and going no lower than 150k regardless of the possible lack of bids
* when the auction ends, all Town asks will be cleared and reset so that 1000 units will be offered at the approximate midprice of the units sold during the auction and 1000 units always at 10k higher so that all are put into the market in a ladder-like formation.

W1615P  Port Wine 10,000 exist -- Since it is unusual to get our hands on this sweet wine, it will be sold in the similar fashion as RON (tax paid):
* 8000 units will be sold in a manually operated Dutch auction in the following 72 hours starting at 120k and going no lower than 40k regardless of the possible lack of bids
* when the auction ends, all Town asks will be cleared and reset so that 1000 units will be offered at the approximate midprice of the units sold during the auction and 1000 units always at 10k higher so that all are put into the market in a ladder-like formation.
* Owners of COH will get 1*W1615P as a special gift since King said that Port Wine is the natural accompaniment with quality cigars.

W1618W  White Wine 6,000 exist -- Germanian growers have labored to bring about a quite voluminous yet moderate quality vintage that is given to the owners of S-WW.


IC conversions in 1619 (conversions will be in force for 6*24 hours starting from next midnight UTC)

IC consumes 100 and more at a time => ART (contact Syksy to have it new&created)

All IC divisible by 30 => TS161 as previously (last time this item is available - Mooo will create automatically)

Other sums of IC => 25*CIG per IC. NOTE: CIG will have import tax of 10,000 m/CIG which will be collected from all owners of CIG after the conversion period. To credit the tax to current owners, CIG has been given a dividend of 10,000 m - Mooo is responsible for conversion)


Other GM announcements

France is having problem with the wine, some fungus or something. We did not get anything to IC-convert and will tell when the situation changes.

List will be amended shortly.

Year Change in progress. Please do not consume IC for wine now. New consume table will be announced soon.

Health Challenge will reset 00:00 UTC, in about 8:20 hours from now.

I have no problem to use multiple tilesets. The final result needs to be 750x500 jpg/png file with old-fashioned graphics and informative notes on major buildings. We already have at least 2 different styles in use (B.1 has a more detailed one).

Uniform ID-space requirements

No id may clash with an existing id across the Uniform ID-space, case-independently.

Therefore,
- char_id's are all numbers, no other id may be all numbers
- lot id's start with a number, no other id may do it
- regardless of case, no id string may be identical to an existing one (eg. your char_shortname cannot be "dividend" cause "DIVIDEND" is a command)
- no id may be more than 12 characters long and may not contain spaces

Application: NEW (item) , new character registration (shortname). Validation required.


Following id's are part of Uniform ID-space:
- char_id
- char_shortname
- item_id
- item_type_id and all future similar id's
- lot_id
- command name
- embedded_resource_id (eg. CKG)

This can be done in 2 ways, so that it's possible to change it from the game, or so that it is the unchangeable fallback option that might give some security against compromized account.

The list of Favorite Items is selling adspace!

Many have hopefully noticed the customizable list of Favorite Items, where you can put items whose price you want to follow by clicking the star next to the item name. There are also sticky items definable by admin. If for whatever reason you want to raise the awareness of a certain item, by paying 10 mil to the Town, you will get it stickied for 1 week

New Player registration specification

- it is mentioned that email is not a mandatory field but warned that without it, there is currently no way to claim the account if password is lost
- character Full name is asked
- shortname must conform to Unified ID-space requirements and be 12 char max
- sex (M/F) is asked
- possibility for Advanced start as follows:
* pay 50 XMR => character starts as FOC (Foreign-Owned-Corporation) which is an ingame corporation with no ingame stockholders. In practice, speculators that don't want character management might want to use this option. FOC don't die.
* pay 100 XMR => character starts from level Baronet (just below Baron). Suitable for power players who want to skip commoner living totally.
* pay 50 XMR => character that is offspring to an Earl+, start from Jungherr
* upon application/recognition, there have been instant promotions to noble levels if the player has a high standing outside of the game. So far the following have been worthy of the honor:

HM The King (rpietila) started as King L20 (1400)
HG The Prince-Bishop (David Latapie) started as Earl L13 (1400)
HE The Prince of Forte Spagnolo (fluffypony) started as Earl (1420)
HH The Duke of NewLiberty and HE The Prince of Soul (Dr.Choo) started as Baron L12 (1418)
HE The Marquess Cryptoluna (smooth) was promoted Baron straight from Beginner (1428)
Roopatra (1418), eizh, tacotime, othe and NoodleDoodle (1600) started as Knight/Dame L11

Please add what is needed in the registration routine!

Zech's investment picks 1618

So much is happening with the game, and the progress is very gradual and contained. Town is in good financial shape; gamemaster, admins, and dev are committed and well-resourced. New players are trickling in with 14 new accounts opened in the last 2 weeks. And this is before we have made any attempt to market the game since the "last touches" are still ongoing.

CON is a clear winner as the confidence increases. It will pay fixed XMR dividends as long as the game exists, and this is looking very good now. Since it is denominated in XMR, you get the appreciation of XMR/other_currency fully to your pocket as well!

NPC are in the process of being phased out but they are powerhouses of especially CUL, IC and SCI for their owners until they die (5% individual chance per year). Their yield data is public in the thread and in the ancient google DB. Shrewd market makers can make a buck here.

Old Town land  Much is being owned by unclaimed characters (in contrast to rather little gold being owned by them - land was cheap or free when these guys were active). After claims deadline in 2016-1-17, this land will come to market and price might be pressured, presenting an opportunity.

Ancient items and tokens There have not yet been much markets for these, but it's somewhat evident to my trained mind that antiques will be a hit after a few thousand / 10k players, as there are so few available, so accumulation from estate sales will be rewarding.

New chapelries  I can't believe there are so many still for sale at 1,000 mil; it's as if people did not realize the next ring is double the distance from Old Town and resultantly worse in every way and costs the same??

B.22 On both sides of this one, land is very coveted, so it is just logical that this one is not. False By participating in the weekly challenges, approx 100 sqm of very fine land is yours (per share), and that can be got for the cost of the effort almost...

CAN So many visions of an epic future challenge related to CAN have been received that it is for sure that a steady accumulation will pay off. 10,000 CAN will come to market each day. Don't be left out when some day CAN costs its weight in gold (editor's note: situation in 2015).

CKG Especially for new players who don't yet have it: More than half of the value of the game is in CKG and for a good reason - it is indestructible, untamperable, shiny, fungible, pays dividends, gives voting rights and appreciates in value (historically). A healthy chunk of gold belongs to every portfolio.

It might feel that there is work for much longer time than "2 weeks". But we are talking about the last fixes here, most of the stuff has been on the pipeline for weeks if not months and only requires the irresistible final push to be live. Similar numbers of new features have been implemented all the time, with many of them being admin-only so the ordinary player does not see but the tip of the iceberg.

1900 CKG left in the Holiday Fund of James Daniel

This list is just to show what we are about to finalize before switching on the marketing

If you want to help in these or some other thing (and are not member of Town admin sheet) chime in to this thread!!


Related to: General Game Core
New Gold Creation by Proof-of-Play
Unified ID space
Admin Rights / Permissions
API features
API rights management
DB tables cleared of bogus data
Chapelry wallpapers installed
Ability to put a note for divs, tax, etc to know what it relates to
Building Enabled (will be after "release")

Related to: New Player registration and first contact

Tutorial, EXP-scripted events
check the register page works with and without email, and maybe send a confrmation mail
start page with some intro text, links to wiki, links to bct forum and irc until we get chat stuff working better

Related to: Playability

Agora market categories organized into sub categories
Transaction id's showing price/quantityof item in the individual page view
health challenge status at top of page
Individual notification/list of what changed when txes get cancelled - otherwise, it can be very confusing as you don't know what happened and still see your balance changed
Add basic info about wines tastiness to each wine's page - since they change, expiration etc
A voluntary confirmation button/popup that would confirm transactions from the command line, i.e. to prevent spurious line-break transactions or if somebody remembers a command syntax wrong. It would be turned off by default.
Daily quests with meager rewards (together obviously with a system to prevent abuse, or maybe only cosmetic rewards)
Fixes on the fields that do not currently update correctly: Land/Built on Character page, CKG amount on Admin Page
In the "View My Items" page there should be an option to not list items that the character currently owns 0 instances of

Related to: Ingame-"out-of-game" Communication

activity marker on the map, so people can find places where chat happens
Notifications (ie, message at page top when something happens we want players to know, like "oh, health challenge was just fixed"
The Terms/Agreements drafted by HM should be on the front page in character creation and also somehow in the login page
Chat (with private messaging)
Push messages / Announcements
An in-game forum to discuss and announce things

Related to: Document creation

Health Challenge guide
Wiki pages with useful content
Rulebook
FAQ

Related to: Security, Antifragility etc

Upgrade security in accounts and server side, perhaps an external evaluation or stress test (Injections, DDoS, etc). As more people will come, it will also attract more hoaxers, abusers, hackers, especially given that there is a potential monetary gain.
Daily backups
IRC-channel moderation

Related to: Other

Halls of Fame
need social media accounts setup with a person who will be managing them
CK theme song