Re: Crypto Kingdom - 1991 Retro Virtual World(Town)

[rpietila]

So if you want to get your hands on the testing of the Agora Market trading system (production data, so no rollback unless tech fails), please sign up to me! The latest info I have is that it should be working in 6 hours!

The time has passed but it is not working.

When the previous development team failed in totality, I swore that no making myself clown by continuously covering up the ungrateful devs' blunders, will ever happen any more. So I will now tell truthfully - the Wizard Developer estimate for getting the exchange system working was too optimistic. He has met and beaten his estimates repeatedly so many times that I came to expect this would be realistic as well. It wasn't.

Nothing else is broken except that since I am totally reliant of the estimates, if they don't hold, my actions such as writing to this thread and closing the google DB are out of place. After living through estimation errors of 8 months in a 1 month project, we can easily live with this. I am just frustrated and promised that this time I say it

We will review the situation first thing tomorrow morning. The Wizard Dev and me are in agreement that this estimation error was the first failure so far in the project. The current progress is visible in the game url, but there is no reason for anyone to test it now as we well know what the missing issues are at the moment.

 

And of course it was partly my fault as well....

[rpietila]

Don't be too hard on yourself, gentlemen.  

The past three weeks I have been spending all my time in and out of class learning how to be a developer (we are focusing on JS/MEAN stack).

One of the most important things I have learned is the value of taking a break when you are stuck.

Also, failure is not a bad thing, you sometimes have to fail hundreds of times before you get it right.

Accurate software estimation seems to be another science entirely, and you get better with experience.

I am looking forward to the new game era!

We are dealing with professionals now. This is the 6th comparable software project in which I have been the feature-specifying client. All from different companies or teams, based on 4 different countries, over 14 years, with the combined project length measured in years and intensity in man-years. In each case the software has been designed by me from the scratch, been the crucial and integral part of the startup's business without which no operations could profitably be conducted; mostly the startup's valuation has been over € 1 million at the time of ordering it, and I have had the position of CEO/president/whatever and a commanding stake. So yeah there may be more experienced guys in the world but not that many. Show me one who has completely specified this many different systems for his own direct use, and been the client team key person during the implementation, for starters!  

Allow me to vent a little (this is intended that you would receive benefit in learning how not to do, not to lay blame on any individual except myself who cannot always realize how important it is to make it clear to the counterparty that bullshitting with me is a short rope, and a completely stupid idea. I am not of course talking strongly about the Wizard, whose only mistake was to slip 2 features in this week's release, of which features he could not evaluate the coding time accurately, but based on the assessment, I spent hours closing the google DB (this involved massive work in merging the datatypes from 10s of tabs to 4 main types and their attribute_lookup_tables - our DB has about 7,000 lines in Character, Lot, Building and Item tables and each line consists of the data in 10s of fields.

If I take the decision to close the DB, it needs to be based on solid reality and timing, which is accurate to the hour, not to the day or to the week! May the day never come when I enter any business relation again with jokers who cannot estimate their own work with a useful accuracy! (A note to the newbs here - it is not difficult to be able to give an estimate of "1-3 hours in 90% probability" hey wtf if you do anything in your own work, you can probably estimate better, also if you do the household chores, even better). And we are talking about solid professionals here!

The decision that now failed, was the decision to think we can release the game with an exchange-type items trading system, in this week's release. Both the decision to schedule and promise the release to any future date when the system can be ready (and google DB used until that), or stick to the original feature specification of this week's release could have been better. Many people can code, and some can very well. Many can estimate, but even if you cannot, I can compensate because I know how long it should take to make something. But if you can code, and estimate, and suddenly fail on either (which is basically the same thing), problem is at hand.

Whoever thinks he can add to my spex, nice features without realistic estimates, and fail the release, is playing with fire!   The blame is not on me who proposes the features, it is on the one whose estimates fail reality! (Tinkering with the spex yourself without asking me, is beyond belief and whoever is guilty of it hopefully never thinks of it again with other clients - certainly not with me at least.)

Once again: The development process decisions, which I make several each day, depend on the estimates that the coders are providing. In Ultima, we have included features ahead-of-schedule based on the surprisingly fast deployment, and postponed others based on the estimate that they require days to complete. Hey - we don't have days for anything except features that we cannot live without. Items trade being one.

So I assess the degree of my culpability: In the first project team my assessment of their capability was so much off the reality that I continued to believe something could be accomplished in acceptable or even tolerable timeframes, despite none whatsoever proof (the total lack of delivery was indeed fooling me as I could not calibrate my assessment of their productivity nor my assessment of their capability to estimate). Now I was again lured by the tired developer (atypical for him) "yeah-yeah we can make all this by 9pm, let me just finish the office day first, go home, eat and chat with my gf", when I could easily see that the performance per hour had already suffered.

So we decided to have another rescheduling meeting today, after a good sleep, in a few minutes. We have them almost daily and when the deadline approaches, several per day. The decision will be to redefine the features included in the release, redefine the release date and time, and redefine how the game continues meanwhile. Will be posted soon!

I also want to commend HM and the Wizard Developer for persisting with further development on the trading system prior to release of the Ultima version. A fully functioning trading platform for in-game assets is worth waiting for, and I feel very relieved to know that HM prefers to achieve a quality outcome in this instance rather than meeting a previously announced launch target. A user friendly trading platform will catapult CK a lot further than deadline punctuality! A good decision!!

Most likely we press on with the decision, but that does not remove the importance of accurate estimation. What kindled my anger really, was the remembrance of the bunch of jokers whose inability to estimate, or deliver, caused a 4-month break in the game. For a long-time businessman like myself, the decision to temporarily close down all operations due to migration is one that is taken only after considerable planning and making of a strict and detailed execution plan. The damage to the game from our previous errors is incalculable, so it would feel good to get it right this time

[rpietila]

Also, failure is not a bad thing, you sometimes have to fail hundreds of times before you get it right.

If you truly do agile, you can fail in:

DEV:
a) your performance may be unsatisfactory
b) estimation of your performance may be inaccurate

CLIENT:
c) estimation of the precision of the other's estimation of his performance may be off
d) estimation of the accuracy (variance) in the other's estimation of his performance may be off.


Our failure of the week was of the d) type. The Wizard had been performing excellently (cross a) and estimated it well (cross b). I had not found problems with c) since such a low precision is anyway needed. This had lead me to think that d) accuracy was also good and less PM contingency was needed, but we had an outlier because of misunderstanding of the scope of one feature. Unluckily it was on the release date when the DB was already closed

[rpietila]

[rpietila]

Sir Riddick database row accidentally overwritten!

Get completely out of /CHAR db until I restore it from backup!!

[rpietila]

The following bids have been added to the 1604 coin auction:

CR1604E (5CKG)

2 @ 100 King
1 @ 20 Soul
1 @ 10 Soul
2 @ 8.2 King
1 @ 8 Tavastia
1 @ 8 Soul
2 @ 7.1 Syksy
1 @ 7 Soul
3 @ 6.3 King
2 @ 6.2 Tavastia
3 @ 6 Soul
3 @ 5.3 King
2 @ 5.2 Tavastia
5 @ 5 Soul
5 @ 4.5 Tavastia
2 @ 4.4 Thud
2 @ 4.3 nikke1
10 @ 4.2 noms
all @ 4.2 Soul

CR1604A (1CKG)

2 @ 100 King
1 @ 20 Soul
1 @ 10 Soul
1 @ 7 Soul
1 @ 5 Soul
3 @ 4.1 King
1 @ 4 Soul
1 @ 3.6 Sarajas
1 @ 3.5 Tavastia
1 @ 3.2 HS-S
2 @ 3 Soul
1 @ 2.2 SS
5 @ 2.1 King
3 @ 2 Soul
2 @ 2 Tavastia
3 @ 1.5 Soul
2 @ 1.3 Syksy
5 @ 1.2 Tavastia
2 @ 1.2 Thud
2 @ 1.1 nikke1
20 @ 1 noms
20 @ 1 Tavastia

CS1604E (5CKS)

2 @ 50 King
1 @ 20 Soul
1 @ 10 Soul
1 @ 7 Soul
1 @ 5 Soul
1 @ 4 Soul
1 @ 3.5 HS-S
1 @ 3.3 Sarajas
2 @ 3.1 King
2 @ 3 Soul
1 @ 2.5 HS-S
2 @ 2.2 Sarajas
2 @ 2.1 King
2 @ 2 Soul
1 @ 2 Dr. SS
2 @ 1.75 HS-S
3 @ 1.5 Soul
5 @ 1.2 Sarajas
2 @ 1.2 Thud
2 @ 1.2 Syksy
15 @ 1.1 Dr. SS
2 @ 1.1 nikke1
all @ 1 HS-S

[rpietila]

24 hours left
1604 Royal Mint Coin Auction Current Situation

Refer upthread for the new auction concept where half of the coins in each item are assigned to a Special Category, of which only 2 per char will be sold! Note: you still don't need to think about it if you don't want. This is an experiment, I will arrange the bids in correct categories!

CR1604E (5CKG) - Normal Category

2 @ 100 King
1 @ 20 Soul
1 @ 10 Soul
2 @ 8.2 King
1 @ 8 Tavastia
1 @ 8 Soul
1 @ 7 Soul
3 @ 6.3 King
2 @ 6.2 Tavastia
1 @ 6 Soul
----------------------------------------
15 will be sold at 6.0 mil

CR1604E (5CKG) - Special Category

2 @ 7.1 Syksy
2 @ 5.3 King
2 @ 4.5 Tavastia
2 @ 4.4 Thud
2 @ 4.3 nikke1
2 @ 4.2 noms
2 @ 4.2 Soul
1 @ 4.2 Roopatra
----------------------------------------
15 will be sold at 4.2 mil


CR1604A (1CKG) NORMAL CATEGORY

2 @ 100 King
1 @ 20 Soul
1 @ 10 Soul
1 @ 7 Soul
1 @ 5 Soul
3 @ 4.1 King
1 @ 4 Soul
1 @ 3.5 Tavastia
2 @ 3 Soul
3 @ 2.1 King
3 @ 2 Soul
2 @ 2 Tavastia
3 @ 1.5 Soul
4 @ 1.5 Roopatra
-------------------------------------------
28 will be sold at 1.5 mil

CR1604A (1CKG) SPECIAL CATEGORY

1 @ 3.6 Sarajas
1 @ 3.2 HS-S
1 @ 2.2 SS
2 @ 2.1 King
2 @ 1.5 Soul
2 @ 1.3 Syksy
2 @ 1.2 Thud
1 @ 1.2 Sarajas
1 @ 1.2 HS-S
1 @ 1.2 SS
2 @ 1.1 nikke1
2 @ 1 noms
2 @ 1 Tavastia
2 @ 1 Roopatra
-------------------------------------------
22 will be sold at 1.0 mil


CS1604E (5CKS) NORMAL CATEGORY

2 @ 50 King
1 @ 20 Soul
1 @ 10 Soul
1 @ 7 Soul
1 @ 5 Soul
1 @ 4 Soul
1 @ 3.5 HS-S
1 @ 3.3 Sarajas
2 @ 3.1 King
2 @ 3 Soul
1 @ 2.5 HS-S
2 @ 2.2 Sarajas
2 @ 2 Soul
1 @ 2 Dr. SS
2 @ 1.75 HS-S
1 @ 1.5 Soul
6 @ 1.5 Roopatra
-------------------------------------------
28 will be sold at 1.5 mil

CS1604E (5CKS) SPECIAL CATEGORY

2 @ 2.1 King
2 @ 2 Dr. SS
2 @ 1.75 HS-S
2 @ 1.5 Soul
2 @ 1.2 Sarajas
2 @ 1.2 Thud
2 @ 1.2 Syksy
2 @ 1.1 Dr. SS
2 @ 1.1 nikke1
2 @ 1 HS-S
2 @ 1 Roopatra
-------------------------------------------
22 will be sold at 1.0 mil

[rpietila]

Consol Auction - - largest issuance of debt ever in the Kingdom, and the first Perpetual

Closes at 5 p.m. - in 3.5 hours!

Current Situation

20 @ 10.9 Sarajas
40 @ 10.8 King
40 @ 10.6 King
40 @ 10.4 King
30 @ 10.3 Soul
40 @ 10.2 King
50 @ 10.1 dnaleor
40 @ 10.0 King
100 @ 10.0 Bank
50 @ 10.0 Crichton
50 @ 10.0 NF
100 @ 10.0 FS
100 @ 10.0 OZ
10 @ 9.9 Sarajas
40 @ 9.8 King
40 @ 9.6 King
5 @ 9.5 Bank
40 @ 9.4 King
40 @ 9.2 King
50 @ 9.1 Rome
40 @ 9.0 King
6 @ 9.0 Bank
10 @ 8.9 Sarajas
19 @ 8.8 King
-----------------------------------------
1,000*CON will be issued at 8.8 (1.12% APR)


21 @ 8.8 King
40 @ 8.6 King
7 @ 8.5 Bank
40 @ 8.4 King
10 @ 8.3 Dr. SS
40 @ 8.2 King
40 @ 8.0 King
7 @ 8.0 Bank
100 @ 8.0 dnaleor
10 @ 7.9 Sarajas
40 @ 7.8 King
40 @ 7.6 King
8 @ 7.5 Bank
40 @ 7.4 King
40 @ 7.2 King
40 @ 7.0 King
8 @ 7.0 Bank
40 @ 6.8 King
40 @ 6.8 Forte Spagnolo
60 @ 6.7 Forte Spagnolo
2 @ 6.7 Roopatra
40 @ 6.6 King
2 @ 6.5 Roopatra
40 @ 6.4 King
3 @ 6.3 Roopatra
40 @ 6.3 North Face
40 @ 6.3 Forte Spagnolo
40 @ 6.2 King
3 @ 6.1 Roopatra
40 @ 6.0 King

[rpietila]

This post will soon be enlarged to be a schedule concerning how the many different features and modules that already were in the latest Google version (the one in use from autumn 1600 to Ultima) now work, and when this working state is reached.

It is expected that everything works in 2 weeks and that this post will be finalized tomorrow.

[rpietila]

time

[rpietila]

Because of my flu that messed with the schedule, new health challenge will only happen in about 10 hours, after some sleep first

Everybody will be investigated and all consumption taken into account.

[rpietila]

The (mass) VEG has arrived, perhaps a few days later than usual (July 21) but also a little more plentiful than average (28/25).

A comprehensive report on the war front and the alliance front will come in about 12 days (real-hours). This means it will not come before that and the fate of half of our land and troops is uncertain until that.

So it is an excellent time to announce that STO will get double effectiveness on PRE this year, and the deadline to send it is the moment when the war report arrives. The PRE levels of 1623 will be evaluated then and the report given before the year end.

A quick recap on PRE:
- PRE points are administrative, military and engineering preparations to found a county seat, which means town. When 100*PRE is reached, the town can be formed with civil administration, land titles, etc. Lesser amounts of PRE grant other benefits.
- PRE is untransferable and stays in the county. If a county is lost or abandoned, the PRE accumulated starts to degrade. If the preparations are canceled but the county is kept, the PRE is unaffected.
- PRE is gained by:
1. Sending SCI to county, where admin spends it
2. Sending stone to county*, where admin spends it
3. Having MGR, ASS and OTH in the county (not spent but cost money - prerequisite for any PRE to be gained)
4. Having forces in the county
5. Other things such as S-BLD (minor effect, usually not spent)

*The stone is not really transported 100s of miles. It stays in the capital and OldDuchy pays the workers to use it for general improvements. The PRE benefit goes to the donator's county.

SCI update (to be amended to HH the SCI-Controller's post)

King and University paid 1,000 SCI (50/50) to obtain this information:

1. All SCI advances are 10,000 or more SCI face value. With Foreign Power aid (50%) it is theoretically possible to cash in the aid, and reach the advance by waiting 15 years for the time bonus and then throwing in 1,029 SCI (or any combo of less time and more SCI).

2. Slow researching gets a MGN discount - the formula for MGR(&ASS) points needed in the Research account is 1 MGN point per 100 SCI annual accumulation (both "own" and time bonus SCI are counted), with a maximum 10 points (previously fixed 10 regardless of speed).

3. On the other hand, a 20 mil admin fee is to be paid to SirJacket for setting up a new Research account. This covers the administration of the project to its conclusion.

4. Crispbread - 10,000 SCI. It is known that Sweden has it, and believed that others do not. The intended outcome is to gain competence to cultivate a new grain previously found in the north only. Bread can be made that would spoil only slowly (as do all other consumables except VEG and CAV). To make this a privately interesting project, royal monopoly can be granted for a time.

5. Medium Cannon - 10,000 SCI. It is believed that all powers have it (Rossiya not sure). The shot would be a standard 6 pound to allow enemy cannonballs to be used. This weapon is more powerful but less mobile than the 3-pounder. 3-pounder has a crew of 3 (making 3 cannons per section). If this could be handled with 3 men in the field, it would boost firepower greatly. Included comes all kinds of research about artillery use in the field.

6. Heavy Cannon - 10,000 SCI. It is believed that at least some continental powers have it. The shot would be 24 pounds, capable of demolishing stone walls etc. The weapon is largely roadbound. Indirect fire is possible. Included comes all kinds of research about artillery use in the siege.

7. RWWC is willing to start cannon research immediately at a medium pace. It is yet undecided, which one. Cannon research opens the way to further research.

8. Engineering - 10,000 SCI. We realized that engineering had fallen into neglect in our town with the number of NPC declining. This advance would unlock a plethora of others (to be researched), including road and countryside fortifications construction. The immediate benefit would be the organisation of engineering talent to the new ENG NPC-type, and also allow OTH to promote for better cost-effectiveness. Kingdom-wide joint effort is advisable for this important advance, which all except Rossiyans surely have and at least Sweden is using efficiently.

9. Seafaring - 20,000 SCI. Again, all except Rossiya has it. Will allow trade and troop movement vessels to be constructed and operated and open the way for new research. Funding arrangement unknown at the moment, perhaps we should sell "1st Lord of the Sea" titles...

10. Military Science - 10,000 SCI. This is so cheap because we have had the department for so long time already. Researching the advance would grant +10 points of Command to all units and quicker (higher) officer promotions as well. Plus perhaps other things. And unlock new important military research.

11. Confirmation about B-22. When this is completed, it allows all the 25 boroughs in CryptoTown to be utilised as we then have the knowledge to allocate enough but not excessively space for support functions.

[rpietila]

Jubilee is coming - Rarity of Coins - Hints for collectors


Rarity classes of gold, silver and copper coins, tokens

AAAA * Unique * 1 exists
AAA * Very Rare * 2-9 exist
AA * Most Rare * 10-17 exist
A * Rare * 18-25 exist
AB * Almost Rare * 26-50 exist
B * Almost Common * 51-100 exist
C * Common * 101-499 exist
D * Plentiful * 500 exist

The ones on blue background go under the blanket term "rare coins", to distinguish them from "common coins" in the other 4 classes.

Gold Collector Badge (GCB) - 100 gold coins (GOC)

AAAA * Unique * 0
AAA * Very Rare * 2
AA * Most Rare * 11
A * Rare * 48
AB * Almost Rare * 29
B * Almost Common * 27
C * Common * 37
D * Plentiful * 4
------------------------------------------
158 total gold coins, of which 61 rare

Silver Collector Badge (SCB) - 30 silver coins (SIC, only those containing CKS!)

AAAA * Unique * 0
AAA * Very Rare * 1
AA * Most Rare * 6
A * Rare * 6
AB * Almost Rare * 5
B * Almost Common * 6
C * Common * 22
D * Plentiful * 0
------------------------------------------
46 total silver coins, of which 13 rare

Copper Collector Badge (CCB) - 10 copper tokens (COT)

AAAA * Unique * 6
AAA * Very Rare * 24
AA * Most Rare * 17
A * Rare * 4
AB * Almost Rare * 6
B * Almost Common * 6
C * Common * 4
D * Plentiful * 1
------------------------------------------
68 total copper tokens, of which 51 rare

Mint your Coppers!

The Royal mint has a monopoly on coins, badges and the like. About 20 new gold coins are coming to the market per decade, also about 12 new silver coins and an irregular number, perhaps 10 new copper tokens. Most golds and silvers are according to the schedule, while coppers can be contracted from the Mint by anyone at the following pricing (you can decide the exact number to be made though):
20 mil : Up to 100
25 mil : Up to 700 (1*KMT gives this many tokens when smelted)
30 mil : Up to 1400
35 mil : Up to 3500
40 mil : Up to 7000
The runs for up to 1400 instances are Most Elaborate quality, quantities more than that: Elaborate. Mint will keep 5 instances (mint copies) for 10 years and is then free to do whatever with them. (2 go to King and are not coming back, the 1 is kept in the Mint, it is being considered that 1 would be sent to the CryptoMuseum.)

All new copper tokens go to the same collection series that already includes the following:
CT1454 - Construction of the Town Hall - 100 exist
CT1566 - Royal CryptoArmy Centenary - 100 exist
CT1600 - Bronze Reconstruction Medal - 150 exist
CT1613 - Token of Remembrance - 50 exist
CT1614 - In can we trust - 420 exist
CT1616 - HM 250th birthday - 200 exist
CT1619 - Cryptonic monero - 790 exist

The years 1621, 1622, 1623 and 1624 are now free! Grab yours by pinging me! Example of the info below
mintage=300
name=Castlebuilder Badge
desc=Bronze medallion about 15 gram
specialNote=Castlebuilder Badge is awarded to people who build great buildings - currently 400 sqm needed

Discussion

It may seem that it is a daunting task to collect 100 gold coins, and an easy one to collect 10 coppers. This is not correct, though. Gold has ~100 common coins available and ~50 rares of mintage=20. Because of so many rares, the prices of those, which are not especially historical, are actually very affordable and may be got only a tad higher than gold spot price. At present, the main obstacle for gold collecting is the tight deadline in getting the coveted GCB1625 (since these will only be awarded this one year): Only one year from this post (168 realhours). And the other challenge is of course related to firepower - 100 gold coins' collection is definitely a 500+ CKG undertaking.

With silver, the challenge is doable with some money - silver coins cost less than golds, are mostly not rare or even almost rare (in fact half of them being present in 100 or more instances). If a later date badge is acceptable, the whole silver set is probably obtainable by paying rather little premiums. Since silver does not have a generally accepted midprice, it is more difficult to determine "premium" though. TS162 conversion price is 0.11 mil/CKS.

With coppers, without existing set of 6 badges, it is actually very hard to collect 10 different, unless the owners of COTxxxx supply the market (even if they do, COT are from 1360-1450 era mostly, so not dirtcheap regardless, based on the age alone). The majority of coppers are not only most-very rare, but also were awarded one by one to characters, who regard them as heirlooms, and these characters are rich! So especially as the King also does not appreciate that the original holder sells the badges, each one coming to the market is a surprise so having blanket bids patiently waiting may be an option.

The King's Coinshop is currently busy updating the bids and asks (in CKS/token), this does not however prevent you from planning your strategy meanwhile!

RAF-1 Quartering

2 tickets were spoiled in this 25% trimming round. These belonged to SirJacket and Earl Mooo. 7 tickets remaining!

[rpietila]

Hi there, signing in again after some time. So how can I continue playing the game? I sent XMR to buy Investments, property, etc - now rpeitila is not answering any PM's

Hi, welcome back! Yes, it applies to you also that after you have decided to be unreachable for 6 months, please allow us 6 days to decide what to do!

[rpietila]

1. Labor has updated new asks for NPC!

2. MEAD, BEER, CAN, MUS have been produced!

3. Soon: Commoner salaries will be paid for 2 years that they have been delayed.

4. Soon: Deaths from last year will be recorded.

[rpietila]

Yes, it's very cool to finally get it done. Possibility to build anew will be enabled today or tomorrow. All the 11 pools are (re-)initialised to be ready to divide the dividends. In total, we have 16,000,000,000 m in the pools which is quite a nice addition to the annual payouts.

The pools that are readily selectable for every stone building are:

CUL pools
- Culture
- Residence
- Villa

SCI pools
- Science
- Headquarters

M pools

- Office
- Commercial
- Apartment

While it is possible to allocate any stone building to any of these uses, the pools have a internal formulas that give pool shares according to the suitability of the building for the specific use. Villa, for instance, does not derive much benefit for a busy location, and gets much benefit for large gardens, which Headquarters is exactly the opposite. The CUL/SCI pools give fixed payout per share, so it is always possible to get them. The M pools give 15% of the size of the pool each year, divided to the number of shares in the pool, so the M amount fluctuates. These ensure that the buildings module are a self-correcting entity: it does not cost anything at present to reallocate the building, so the most nimble players will check them out annually that they produce the best payouts. The ones with less time to tinker with their buildings will benefit from the adjustments of the nimble ones and their buildings also produce decently because of the self-correcting mechanism. It is likely that a number of buildings will remain the backbone of each pool due to their suitability, and there is also a number of buildings that flip to the most profitable pool, equalising their rewards.

There are also pools that are not selectable:
- Wood
- Factory
- Shopfront.

Wood will be implemented soon; it is the pool for commoners to live cheaply and build parts of their dwelling every year. When they get promoted to L6...L10, they will need to get rid of it and live in stone as the established citizens do. Wood building module incorporates things such as PIGs, which will cease to be items.

Factory requires a certain type of building and apparently produces nothing (in reality counts as a Factory in manually-administered subgames). Even if it were possible, do not switch to/from Factory.

Shopfront is a special pool that acts as a bonus pool for buildings that in addition to their main usage, have the lowest floor dedicated to commerce. If the location is good enough, this provides a nice bonus chunk of money from the Shopfront pool, and makes the building cashflow positive even if the main usage were CUL/SCI. The Shopfront pool is not selectable because it needs to be decided when the building is constructed. New buildings have the option of Shopfront.

When Buildings start their payouts, I have decided that the deferred dividends and taxes are not to be paid. Paying them in the beginning would profit only the wolves that adjust their payouts hourly (and not their rightful recipients - the historical building stock belonging to the ancient magnates: Crown, me, Soul, OZ and Roopatra, together owning 50% of the town). Also the repair and lux depreciation is not affected to them. Rather, we start with the regular 15% so that old and new buildings are in the same footing.

Only the extra taxes need to be paid and will be charged, as they are based on time passing and not of dividend. If you have extra taxed lots and want to get rid of them before the negative windfall, sell them or gift them to town. The charging of extra taxes will not happen in 48 hours, and will be announced as it has happened.

Lot trading is enabled.

[rpietila]

The guide is very useful,many thanks to his majesty,the King! On the other hand I want to point out a bug I found in the building editor. When I click "Preview building",the "Preview Payout" section gets too low on the screen and I am not able to scroll down.

i think there was also one with the windows - it seems if you select a window factor greater than something, it stops refreshing the payout change from the number of windows, unless you refresh the page.

I had the issue very recently, PJ says it is fixed meanwhile, please tell me whether it is or not!

[rpietila]

Quarry and Building Company resourcing formula


Quarry

It is possible to quarry chapelries which have their geology assigned (eg. "343" in /Map). If you zone a chapelry, the geology is annulled, and no quarrying is possible. Farming does not annul the possibility to later quarry a chapelry.

The quarriers need to manage their companies themselves, including annual creation of stone (STO1) extracted, and the corresponding reduction in the geology.

The formula requires WP (work points) conversion to removing of tranches of soil/stone.

WP is created as such:
- Count the workers (WOR-1, WOR-2, WOR-3, WOR-4), each does as much work as the id suggests.
- Managerial need is 1 MGR point per each (starting) 5 workers (not WP). In addition, 1*MGR-5 and 1*ASS-3 are required for general management.
- Assistant need is 1 ASS point per each (starting) 5 workers PLUS per each manager.
=====> The properly managed and assisted workers then do the work and create the WP.

Tranches of soil are removed as follows:
- 25% penalty to WP, first year when the team moves to a new place
- Each starting 70 WP removes one tranche of soil.
- There is no maximum, how many can be quarried per year.

Stone is got as follows:
- Each 70 WP gets 300,000*STO1 from soil tranches, or 1,200,000*STO1 from stone tranches.
- If the number of WP in the last tranche is a fraction of 70, the stone yield is reduced accordingly (the rest of the stone from the tranche is lost).

Example:

We want a force that can do 7 tranches in a year ("Q3 style"). So, 490*WP is needed.

Assume we have 150*WOR-2, so 190*WOR-1 are needed in addition.
340 workers require 68 MGN, and in addition the MGR-5 and ASS-3
This 68 points requirement can be fulfilled eg. by 2*MGR-4, 10*MGR-3, 10*MGR-2, 10*MGR-1
So we need 68 ASS-points to handle the workers and 32 points to handle the managers. This totals 100 points.
A possible resourcing is 20*ASS-3, 15*ASS-2, 10*ASS-1.

In total, 33 managers, 46 assistants and 340 workers, costing 458.5 mil per year.
The maximum stone produced is thus 7*1,200,000*STO1 and variable cost 55 m/STO1.
(Costs excluded in the calculation are eg. setup costs, capital costs, workforce replacements, slack from changing sites, other inefficiencies, and topsoil removal (220 m/STO1 in the example)).


Building Company

Number of WP is calculated as in the above, but treatment is simple. Each WP just creates 120*BLD, putting BLD cost at about 10,000 m.
S-BLD will be split to BLD so that BLD price becomes 10,000 m, from the latest S-BLD issue price.


King moratorium on buying workers and managers from the market

I have great needs for me and my companies to utilize the info above and some types of NPC may be in high demand. I won't be buying anything today, and will set the Labor sells so that others can act first.

[rpietila]

Once GM/HM approves of the above, I will create the loot for the participants.

RNG results approved.

[rpietila]

Monday 9th of May at about 19 UTC: County event solver real-time IRC session.

To announce your county plans and preparations, edit the announcements in Main Menu -> Counties -> Name_of_your_County

This was held, the time of course was January 19th, 1639 

The forces occupied Ironlock without issues and HH The Duke of North Face reinstated as Earl of Ironlock.

The problems ensued when his regiment was sent deep into Polonia in search and destroy mission against Prince Boguslaw. The increasing hostility of the local peasants did not stop the advance, but when we had already turned back, the large army sent all the way from the King of Polonia intercepted us and forced surrender. All the men, officers and CO Marquess of Grass were taken POW, losses were 7 troops. The weapons and horses were probably lost. This one is pending negotiations in the kingdom level. Despite having lived as neighbors for ever, we have not so far had diplomatic relations with the Crown of Polonia.

Also it was found out that to the south from Plath, a well organised county, lead by a Prince-Bishop, is found. Our forces turned back without provoking hostilities.

With Polonia first time showing some teeth, it is possible that our border there will soon find its natural course (barring war). With Sweden, there remains a host of open claims but they are not a pressing concern due to alliance. The border against Rossiya is only established in the OldDuchy, otherwise it remains much unclear. The borders of Grass and WhiteCross and what to find behind them, remain undiscovered.

Complete details on events, plus loot calculation, will be posted by Rak to the County Billboard ingame + summary here.