Crypto Kingdom - 1991 Retro Virtual World(City)

[saddambitcoin]

Pardon my absence, I have just realized I am *naked* - please can someone furnish a suit for me?  

A simple green artesan suit will suffice for 3,000,000 moneretos.

Welcome back!

Sorry to say that the tailors left 14 years ago, come back in 36 year and nobody ordered reserves...  

...except the King, and just a few (in Character/trade clothes tab). Hopefully you find a suitable one!

(no you are not naked, you are dressing in a grey servant or brown peasant suit, with the style they wore in the 1300s)

Whoops! Good to know I am not completely bare, haha.

Can I purchase one of His Majesty's green suits for 10,000,000 m please?

[Karl Hungus]

Extraordinary announcement of Noble Promotion outside the normal schedule A.D. 1462

Karl Hungus is promoted Baron. "Lord Karl has taken a role of an economic engine in our growing city, and we raise him to nobility to acknowledge his position."

Mr. Luigi Romano is promoted Baron. "Lord Luigi's stone dealership has greatly helped in the smooth development, furthermore he made a daring and expensive land grab in the most central area of the town, purchasing the land facing the Town Hall over the New Liberty Street for 750 million."

Both were already awarded "King's Favor" Badge last year. Now they receive 100 gold + are entitled to a haw as well as other Nobles.

Lord Marquess Joseph of New Liberty has been Knighted in the Ancient Order of the King (AOK-K). This honor is given only to the most outstanding pillars of the gameplay, and has been awarded only once before (The (now) Bishop in A.D. 1434). The chain weighs 100 gold.

I am humbled by the King's generosity

Thank you

[rpietila]

Pardon my absence, I have just realized I am *naked* - please can someone furnish a suit for me?  

A simple green artesan suit will suffice for 3,000,000 moneretos.

Welcome back!

Sorry to say that the tailors left 14 years ago, come back in 36 year and nobody ordered reserves...  

...except the King, and just a few (in Character/trade clothes tab). Hopefully you find a suitable one!

(no you are not naked, you are dressing in a grey servant or brown peasant suit, with the style they wore in the 1300s)

Whoops! Good to know I am not completely bare, haha.

Can I purchase one of His Majesty's green suits for 10,000,000 m please?

Definitely! Done

[rpietila]

More about Services payouts

I tried to have a loan auction to determine the going interest rate, but it happened that I set the XMR loan rate to 0.6% per year. (36% per real-month).

For fun, I checked how much the different establishments are making money currently, the results for the some are as follows. First is taken the services pool payout, costs subtracted, and then divided by the value of the building if built now. Values per year, so that daily is 2x as high.

Zechariah's Guesthouse = 2.68%
The Grand Hotel = 2.55% (ROE)
The North Gate (Roopatra's) Tavern = 2.37%
Leila's Guestroom = 2.02%
Monero House = 1.85%
Town Hall = 1.41%
The Hung, Drawn and Quartered = 1.23%
Behind the Wall (tavern) = 0.92%

It should be noted that
1) Zechariah's place is expressly designed to provide maximum cash flow.
2) The Grand Hotel is financed 50%+ with loan. The ROI is 1.53%.
5) Monero House is not even finished yet, and also was not designed to be a hotel at all!
6-7) Town Hall and HD&Q contain lots of rooms that are not in commercial use, which lowers the apparent ROI.
8 ) This tavern lost its appeal for a variety of reasons some time ago. It may come back when the east side of N L St. is developed.

Anyway, all make better than the loan rate, which should mean that taking some loan would boost the returns on equity.

[David Latapie]

At the latest meeting of the town council, d"Armagnac brought an imposing set of parchment - it had keep him busy for the previous weeks.

"Dear councillors, you know that I have some affinity with the art of building, maintaining and destroying castle, the art of poliorcetics. Since the construction of the citadel is closer to inception, I decided to share my knowledge in a practical way with you and His Majesty.

D'Armagnac points at the parchments.

"The incanubulum per se will be in royal hands and so will not be available for you to read. So are some other documents containing sensitive information. Still, here is a brief summary of the plan I humbly suggest for the citadel. Here for you perusal. His Majesty will decide if it even worth reading, let alone discussed."

Treatise of poliorcetics applied to Crypto-Kingdom

Dear council members,

This treatise was written by His Excellence the Right Honourable Earl David d'Armagnac in the year of our Lord 1462. This extensive volume is meant as a general guide to build and defend the capital of Crypto-Kingdom against invaders of any kind. It draws upon d'Armagnac's extensive knowledge of poliorcetics (the art of attacking and defending a castle) and is written in a deliberately pragmatic way. It is not a monograph or a general consideration on the building of castles, but a guide in building and defending this very citadel.

Below is a summary of the Treatise.

Terminology

• Donjon: the main building, reminiscent of ancient stronghold, not large enough for withstanding full-fledged, month-long sieges. Still symbolically, architecturally and defensively important, since it is impressive and testify for the power of the castle-owner, can host a lot of people and, by virtue of its height, allows one more line of defense to retaliate against the besiegers
• Castle: an extended fortification made of a donjon plus a court and building and surrounded by one or more walls/ To be considered a castle, a building must fulfill these requirements, (according to Schwabenspiegel.
  - a ditch deep enough that one cannot displace earth out of the ditch just  with a showel
  - a wooden or stone building of more than three storeys with wall ending with a parapet (the parapet doesn't not need to be crenelated)
  - a bailey surrounded by either by a curtain wall high enough to prevent a horseman to touch the top or by a curtain wall with a parapet (crenelated or not)
• Palace: a large building with no defensive purpose. A lot of castles became palaces with time.
• Citadel: a fortified city

The "citadel" of Crypto-Kingdom is not a citadel per se. Instead, it is a castle lying deep inside (although not geographically at the center) of the fortified city of Crypto-Kingdom, the actual citadel with city walls. Still, by virtue of its widespread use, the word "citadel" will be used for describing what is technically the castle of Crypto-Kingdom (the Royal Palace is not - and had never been - a castle).

Overview



The citadel doesn't benefit from any topographical advantage, such as a narrow entrance, a mountain on its back or water access. It thus follow the traditional motte-and-bailey architecture, the motte being a raised earth mound built with the earth extracted from the construction of the moat.

It is entirely made of stone and, with the exception of the donjon, all towers are horseshoe-shaped, so that the external side better protect against projectiles, which rip off the curvature of the towers, while the rectangular internal side gives more internal space and a better battling platform

The citadel is a concentric castle. That is, it uses an onion-like structure, with two layers of wall before reaching the donjon

Layers

• layer I: six-storeys pentagonal donjon, atop the motte. It has an elevated entrance[1] at the second floor, accessible though a wooden, easily destructible, staircase and is surrounded by a chemise, which makes it very difficult for a sensible amount of soldiers to attack at the same time (similar to Thermopyles). Place of last-resort defence, very thick walls, food reserve in the dungeon, small rooms. Behind and protected by the donjon is the palas, place of residency.
• layer II: inner bailey (higher court) with a well and premium dwellings
• layer III: inner curtain wall (2.50 meters thick, 12 meters high), with some posterns for sorties or escaping. The base of the internal curtain wall and the donjon may be built - this would not help the attackers much and would provide substantive incomes in times of peace.
• layer IV: outer bailey (base-court), with workshops, livestock stalls and stables; storage facilities such as barns, sheds and granaries, brewery, bakehouse, cistern as well as quarters for servants such as maids and farm workers. Should the besiegers arrive here, they would be in a killing zone, since defenders would attack from both the inner curtain wall and the hollowed outer curtain wall. Plus, reaching the entrance in the inner curtain wall require following a chemin de défilement meant to maximise exposure to defenders' attacks.
• layer V: outer curtain wall (6 meters thick because of inside corridors, 7 meters high, lower than the inner curtain wall, itself lower than the donjon so that the three structures can retaliate at the same time) with a gatehouse including an ankle breakers-equipped flooring on the drawbridge[2]. The base of the wall is free of any construction or noticeable vegetation, to ensure a clear view for the defenders and also given a stone skirt around its base to deter undermining. The walls are particularly thick because they are hollow: they host soldiers who can flank the besiegers should they enter the outer bailey (the arrow slits are only in the inside-facing wall). Like the inner curtain wall, the outer curtain wall as posterns, none of them giving access to the "wall tunnels".
• layer VI: water-filled moat[3], to prevent further undermining as well as to make it difficult for siege weapons to come close enough. The scarp and counterscarp (respectively inner and outer shore of the moat) are filled with semi-immerged trous de loup and caltrops to hinder enemies. Additionally, a tunnel runs below the counterscarp, allowing soldiers to shoot attaquants - only small doors communicate with the outer bailey, rendering an intrusion from the counterscarp particularly challenging and these tunnels are only used in time of war, since they are unpleasant and humid. Fish living in the moat are usually hardly edible, because of the poor quality of the water - the latrines empty here.
• layer VII: barbican[4], if deemed necessary. It could benefit from a bent entrance[5], a complex, chicaned entrance meant to hinder the progression of troops but it would be at the expense of some real estate and would only make sense it the citadel is not supposed to be used much in peace time, as the bent entrance makes daily traffic difficult.
• layer VIII: wooden stockade.
• layer IX: open-ended jousting area, making any besiegers an easy target. In peace time, the jousting area is used for jousting, celebration and as a marketplace.

Curtain walls
The tops of both curtain walls includes battlements with crenelated parapets (with mantlet-protected arbalestinas on 0,48 cm thick merlons), chemins de ronde (walkways) and full-lenght closed machicolations (other example and another) as well as gargoyles to evacuate the rain. The curtain wall ended up in a glacis, to make approaches and ladderscaling harder and to increase the lethality of stone thrown from machicolations) Corner towers (the castle is too small for flanking towers) have embrasures with cross-shaped arrowslits (arbalestinas) with oillets (a larger opening at the bottom to allow a better observation when not shooting) as well as a bartizans for reducing dead angles. Straight staircases large enough for two persons lead to every courtine (example)

Both curtain walls have a single entrance, a heavily guarded gatehouse with two projecting towers, one on each side of the entrance, to prevent blind spots. The entrance itself is a long corridor with a portcullis at each end; the corridor itself sports meurtrières – a pierced ceiling where defenders can throw stone and fire-heated sand - as well as arrowslit on the wall. Provision is made for accommodation of a rotating team of soldiers.

Projectiles
Out of arrows and particularly bolts (crossbows are better at defending a castle than bows and have a range of 150 m, source)), projectiles (from murderholes and machicolations) include stone, boiling water (rare, boiling oil being almost non existant); quicklime and even beehive (Blâmont, 1475).

Staircases
Every inside staircase is a counterclockwise spiral staircase. Spiral staircases are the most dense and being counterclockwise (from the point of view of someone going down), they make it difficult for right-handed attackers to fight

Here stops the summary of the Treatise. The full treatise goes into much further details and also address the topic of military tactics and sensitive information.

For the betterment of Crypto-Kingdom,
d'Armagnac

1. Examples of elevated entrances
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/1c/be/dc/way-in-up-the-stairs.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Warkworth_Castle's_keep,_2007.jpg
http://l-atelierdemaminette.blog50.com/images/medium_donjon_et_chemin_de_garde.JPG
http://gailingis.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Keep-details-full-page-at-Dover-castle-England.jpg
http://www.crdp-strasbourg.fr/data/lcr/chateaux/images/big-donjon1.jpg (show that the dunjon is located at ground floor, with the entrance of the donjon is at first floor)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Donjon.Chateau.Gaillard.png/440px-Donjon.Chateau.Gaillard.png (particularly high entrance)

2. Examples of drawbridges
http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/195460/108116621/stock-photo-drawbridge-at-an-medieval-italian-castle-108116621.jpg (small)
http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20110217/Castle-Drawbridge-1787698.jpg (large with swipe-beam)
http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/lookandlearn-preview/M/M815/M815849.jpg (how to raise a drawbridge)

3. Examples of water-filled moats
http://www.exploring-castles.com/image-files/beaumaris_castle_autumn.jpg
http://masonmyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/canstockphoto3921322.jpg

4. Examples of barbican
http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/castles/pics/carcpicchateau02.gif
http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images/arts-architecture/architecture/castle.jpg

5. Example of bent entrance
http://carneycastle.com/Dinefwr/model1.jpg

[rpietila]

Lifting his gaze from the parchment - he sighs. Now as the Grand Hotel is ready, it is again time to concentrate on the preparations.

The last piece of land from the Old Town Central Chapelry was sold: 4 quadrats for 500 million moneretos. After the Town took possession of this land, it was all sold. All. Immediately. But we have to acknowledge that the price was indeed better than what the King managed to extract via his auctions procedure. One page of history is finished. Another one is about to begin.

[saddambitcoin]

Saddam would like to purchase the remaining 6 quadrats of land in the SW area (L43-L51). Please accept my payment of 250,000 stone + 7 million moneretos.

[rpietila]

Announcement concerning the online interactive Versions 2: Ancients and 3: Sandbox

We have contracted a development team of:
- The King as the lead designer
- Earl Riccardo as consultant
- sXpher as project manager
- and currently 4 full-time developers

The specifications for Version 2: Ancients are ready, and the Database is also developed already. The remaining functionalities take 2 weeks, so, therefore we amend the schedule of the Ancient Era as follows:

A.D. 1502 (2014-11-30): Release of the online playable Version 2: Ancients
A.D. 1544 (2014-12-21): Release of the customizable Version 3: Sandbox
A.D. 1600 (2015-1-18): Release of the full functional Version 4: Economy (end of Ancient Era)

This sets the divide between Very Ancient, Most Ancient, Ancient and Modern as follows:

- Very Ancient in the 1300s or older
- Most Ancient in the 1400s
- Ancient in the 1500s
- Modern (or whatever name the era will gain) in the 1600s

Land

The University is in the process of being started. Some land in the NW chapelry is zoned for lots while most of it will be donated to the University if the good plans of the King succeed. After this, there will be no more land opened for about 20 years. We concentrate on fortifying the current lands and fending off the barbarian invasion.

Still during the Most Ancient era, the remaining land of the Old Town, in the East will be zoned and sold. We are in favor of the direct sale method, and hold it possible that the land would be sold to realtors in bigger parcels, and they in turn would list it for sale for the market price. Baron smooth is considering to be such a realtor, but competition is certainly good.
 
The concept of Haw will likely last for the whole of the Ancient era, but nothing is for sure. We strongly urge the nobles to applying theirs without unnecessary delay. The haws are exempted from the property tax in the later eras. Our army now has 5 companies (50 soldiers total) and at least 50 more is needed. By supplying 10 soldiers you gain a haw of 12 quadrats currently + promotion to L8. This is a good deal that will not last long, because the land is getting scarce.

The Land Grants are being phased out, and they will be replaced by subsidized small houses and later, apartments. The current and future characters are entitled to 1 land grant still during the Most Ancient era, after which they expire.

University

We have decided that the time has come for the dream of Lord smooth to be fulfilled. Near his original application, just behind the coming Noble Palace and Monero House, 88 quadrats of land have been reserved for the University and its campus and departments. The University Haw also includes the precious Two Springs, that now become under protection of the University.

The University will consist of several Departments, and they (the buildings) will be donated by the magnanimous benefactors in our great city. There will be Professors also, supported by patrons. The Chancellor of the University is in charge of the whole Corporation, and our intention is to offer the post to Lord smooth first, since this was his idea in the beginning.

The General Fund of the University accepts donations in the form of money, gold, stone etc.

The wise Dr. Choo and Zenon the Magus rejoice of the development and - I bet - eagerly await for someone to nominate them as professors.

Gold, and becoming a player

The gold auctions will continue during the whole 1400s. The HM Coinshop has recently increased the limits so that 1,000 gold can be bought or sold instantly just by taking the current price, no haggling necessary.

We had the idea to lower the character minimum gold limit, but decided against it. The minimum gold limit will stay in 1,000 gold during the whole of Most Ancient era (before the release of the V.2), and everyone who wants to be a Most Ancient character has to buy 1,000 gold. The coinshop's expansion makes the buying and entering the game very effortless, and also enables you to sell the gold at the instant when the online version is released if all you wanted was to get to play, not the gold itself.

Since there is the extra staking level of 200 first gold => 10 stone each (henceforth 201-2000 => 5 stone each, 2000+ => 2 stone each), we believe that every character does well to hold at least 200 gold during the whole of Ancient era, but that is not a requirement, just a sound piece of advice.

Promotion Requirements

The Most Ancient promotions are done personally by the King, with the help of the Town Council (concerning the commoners). The things will change later but now they are as follows. This overrides what has been said in Rulebook 1.1:

L3 Freeman
- Every character starts the game as L3.

L4 Novice
- Mandatory requirement: to have a L4 house (18+ sqm). The houses are readily buyable from the King and realtors starting at 8 mil.
- The required 1,000 gold holding lifts you to L4 after a maximum of 30 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled. Any kind of activity in the game makes this happen sooner.
- Once you gain 1,500 gold, you will be promoted L4 at the earliest opportunity.

L5 Expert
- Mandatory requirement: to have a L5 house (27+ sqm). The houses are readily buyable from the King and realtors starting at 11 mil.
- The minimum 1,000 gold holding lifts you to L5 after a maximum of 70 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- The constant holding of 1,500 gold lifts you to L5 after a maximum of 30 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- Once you gain 4,000 gold, you will be promoted L5 at the earliest opportunity.
- To speed up the promotion to L5 level, the following are considered:
  * participating in gameplay
  * having a large house
  * buying of game assets
  * donating to good causes

L6 Master
- Mandatory requirement: to have a L6 house (45+ sqm).
- The constant holding of 1,500 gold lifts you to L6 after a maximum of 70 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- The constant holding of 4,000 gold lifts you to L6 after a maximum of 30 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- Once you gain 10,000 gold, you will be promoted L6 at the earliest opportunity.
- To speed up the promotion to L6 level, the following are considered:
  * participating in gameplay
  * having a large house
  * buying of game assets
  * donating to good causes

L7 Wizard
- This level is a special level that is now reserved for the Magus alone, and later on, to the distinguished artesans and such that command special skill and are not the type to be promoted Nobles, or other special cases. Typically L6 promotes directly to L9.

L8 Knight/Jungherr
- To get promoted to this level, you need to start the game with special noble qualities (a Monero core team member for instance, or King's relative, or other).
- Another way is to get Knighted by the King, which happens for example by being appointed in the Orders of the King, including the Order of Defence that is open for all who support 10 soldiers for the Army.
- The levels overlap such that L3-L5 are normally promoted L8, whereas L6 is directly promoted L9. L7's are not typically promoted at all but if they are, they may gain any of the noble titles directly.
- The house must be there, as always.

L9 Baron
- About 5% of the characters are designed to be Nobles. We currently have 36 PC and 155 NPC (servants and military) in the town. Of the PC's, 13/36 are nobles, but taking the NPCs, women and children into account, we are quite there in the target.
- Mandatory requirement: to have a L9 house (100+ sqm with 60%+ luxury).
- Mandatory requirement: to have modern clothes.
- The constant holding of 4,000 gold lifts you to L9 after a maximum of 70 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- The constant holding of 10,000 gold lifts you to L9 after a maximum of 30 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- Once you gain 30,000 gold, you will be promoted L9 at the earliest opportunity.
- To speed up the promotion to L9 level, the following are considered:
  * participating in gameplay
  * having a large house
  * buying of game assets
  * donating to good causes
- Since promotion to nobility brings great privileges, we the King seek to promote such characters that are kind and noble and beneficial to the game. Just recently Mr. Luigi was promoted L9 Baron directly from L5, even though he did not even have much gold (1,000), because he showed such industriousness in the game. Later on, having 4,000 or more gold becomes very rare among characters, so the nobles will increasingly be promoted based on their ingame prowess.

L10 Earl
- Mandatory requirement: to have a L10 house (200+ sqm with 100%+ luxury).
- Mandatory requirement: to have modern Noble clothes.
- Mandatory requirement: to have a retinue of Servants (more = better).
- The constant holding of 10,000 gold lifts you to L10 after a maximum of 70 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- The constant holding of 30,000 gold lifts you to L10 after a maximum of 30 years if the mandatory req's are fulfilled.
- Once you gain 100,000 gold, you will be promoted L10 at the earliest opportunity.

- There will be about one L10 Earl per two L9 Barons (1:2) in the game. Because not all can be promoted, the selection will be made based on the following qualities, among others:
  * participating in gameplay
  * administering the game world
  * helping the ones in lower levels
  * ownership of game assets
  * donating to good causes

L11+ Higher Nobles
- There are gold limits that force promotion, but they are quite high. Normally, the promotion would happen by the pleasure of the King, using the same criteria as L10 (with heightened minimum requirements also, which must be fulfilled prior to the expected promotion).

- The ratio of L9:L10 is 2:1
- The ratio of L10:L11 is 4:1
- The ratio of L11:L12 is 5:1
- The ratio of L12:L13 is 10:1.

It follows that there will be one Grand Duke per approximately 400 Barons in the game.

[BitCoinPokerBro]

so where is the "click here to play" link?

[McHaggis]

This is speeding along at a breakneck pace at the moment with the old town being pretty much sold out now. To celebrate I will provide for 25 soldiers to defend our loverly city against pillaging.

[rpietila]

This is speeding along at a breakneck pace at the moment with the old town being pretty much sold out now. To celebrate I will provide for 25 soldiers to defend our loverly city against pillaging.

Our warmest gratitudes. Please confirm that your Lordship is satisfied with the 24 quadrat haw that We have reserved for you in gratitude of this act and of your other noble deeds (marked pink in the City Map/OVERVIEW)!

[McHaggis]

This is speeding along at a breakneck pace at the moment with the old town being pretty much sold out now. To celebrate I will provide for 25 soldiers to defend our loverly city against pillaging.

Our warmest gratitudes. Please confirm that your Lordship is satisfied with the 24 quadrat haw that We have reserved for you in gratitude of this act and of your other noble deeds (marked pink in the City Map/OVERVIEW)!

Indeed it is a most pleasing colour as well, I will take it to be my heraldry. I see the university has a military department as well, I think it needs a donation of 100k stone from me to get the ball rolling. I look forward to hosting a great tournament amongst the townsfolk of the city to find the strongest to aid in its defence.

[smooth]

Lord smooth accepts the nomination of University Chancellor. This task will be accomplished while Lord smooth is also operating his soon-to-open real estate office (details forthcoming). Since much of the early University business will involve land development and property management, having a Chancellor in the real estate business will greatly benefit the University.

Lord James your generous donation of 100k stone is warmly appreciated!

Likewise, HM The King has donated 1000 gold and Lord smooth has donated 900 gold!

The first order of business for the University will be to start development of the military college to support the defense of the city against the Barbarians!

This will be accomplished using the donations of the generous and forward-looking citizens as well as development and sale of a small portion of the University lands. Donations of gold are most especially appreciated since they stone produced will be most certainly needed for much building in the coming years!

[rpietila]

Things are happening in the Kingdom and the City. The databases are lagging behind the action. Now we need immediately the following:

- Scribe to take all my rulings in this thread and convert them to the Wikia format. The current Wikia is sadly almost useless, since the things there are 2+ weeks old, and the game progresses much faster. A great bounty + glory is awaiting!

- 1-2 Building Inspectors. smooth is about to be one, and 1-2 others are wanted. The building inspectors will become admins of the City Map & Buildings online database, and be able to add new buildings to the game. It is good if they also can design buildings but this is not a must. As a compensation, the Building Permit will be raised to 4,000,000 m (from the current 500,000 m). Hopefully this will be determined by free market in the future. Architects get 15-25% of the building's value, which means that 20,000,000 m/hour is possible to be gained after some practice.

Dutch Auction format Land Sale

The land in the C chapelry has made new records, as 1 q was sold for 120 million, and 4 q cost 500 million in another deal. These 120-125 million per quadrat valuations were unheard-of just some years ago when C chapelry land traded between 14-25 million per quadrat.

Now we have 23 lots for sale in the new NW chapelry, listed for 1 billion altogether. The per-quadrat prices are 20-60 million. The land is buyable directly by informing me. What makes it an auction is that every day the land is not sold, its asking price is lowered by 10% of the original price, so after 9 days the rest of the lots are very likely gone. Pick your favorite and wait until the price is right! If you dare...

All the proceeds from P and N series go to the development of the online version. U series goes undiluted to the University.

[David Latapie]

Things are happening in the Kingdom and the City. The databases are lagging behind the action. Now we need immediately the following:

- Scribe to take all my rulings in this thread and convert them to the Wikia format. The current Wikia is sadly almost useless, since the things there are 2+ weeks old, and the game progresses much faster. A great bounty + glory is awaiting!

I will put my copist monks on this task, if it pleases Your Majesty. I took the liberty to have them make some small changes to see of they can perform - obviously their rate will go much faster once they will be fully operationnal.

• Luxury
• Housing
• Rulebook (latest changes)
• Character levels and details on each one

[rpietila]

Royal Proclamation concerning the lot 1-C-A1, the proposed Noble Palace and King's Patience regarding its matters

We, rpietila, the King over all CryptoKingdom, Duke of the Very Ancient Duchy, Earl in more places than cares to be mentioned, Mayor of CryptoTown, CEO of the Most Ancient and Worshipful Town Hall Corporation and CEO of Grand Hotel Corporation, blessed with skills in business management and beaux arts, but hardly communication, etc.,

greet

The Marquess Joseph of New Liberty, Eldest of the Nobles, AOK-K, MG-5, GJB, FBB, TB, CB, etc.


We congratulate you for your kind and just heart in your dealings with fellow citizens, and as Mayor and on behalf of the Town, extend our most grateful thanks for the transfer of 1-S-N2 to the Public ownership - against a token 100 mil expression of gratitude from the Town part - for the construction of the Office annex of the Town Hall (the most ancient, esteemed). And for your concern of the defence, resulting in the provision of a whole company of soldiers.

Now, the Most Ancient Corporation of the Noble Palace Club has been established 12 years ago, yet is not chartered yet. Yes, we know that the Royal Palace took 12 years to build from breaking ground to the golden roof, the Town Hall was designed for 12 years before construction, and the Cathedral was locked for 12 years after it was finished, before the inauguration. Great building works take great time. Still: the invaluable land of 1-C-A1, granted for "building grand and beautiful commercial buildings" lays undeveloped. Our royal patience can not take much longer to see this land unused, therefore we speed up the construction with the following edict:

The Noble Palace Club has 10 years to submit the charter and shareholder registry for evaluation. The building to be constructed on A-1 also needs to be able to be built in 1476 the latest. It must feature the following:

- All the facilities for the Nobles to perform receptions and festivities

- It may be 20 m high on towertops, but in consideration that the Grand Hotel in the opposite side of the square, which despite of the relief of its facade (or because of it - the facade features 4 pilasters 2 m wide and 18 m high), is too cubic and monumental to really fit on our tender town square in its present form (I mean the form of the square, the form of the hotel will not be changed obv.), we require your architects to consider a roofline of 17-18 m at max. The Cathedral tower of 17 m limits the construction near it to 16 m or less (such as the Town Hall and the coming Realtor's Hotel in G12). Also please observe the lane that has come to the north, cutting your buildable area. The old city wall between your hotel and the jousting ground you may tear down if you wish. Its wartime value is pretty much negative by now; the unhindered views from the Noble Palace to the jousting ground are more important if actual street defence must be resorted to.

- I am sure we understand that 180-190% luxury level is adequate, for His Majesty has plans to build an even greater palace than Malla when new boroughs are opened - should it happen in the Ancient era of course - with up to 300% luxury. (Malla has felt small with its 1,300 sqm compared to the opulence of the Grand Hotel with its 1,600 sqm right next to my royal dwelling   .) When these plans come to fruition, the subjects of our rule are allowed and expected to glorify themselves more greatly as well.

- The Palace shall be in ownership of all the Nobility. Everyone is not equal, though. We fully appreciate that the early adopters who have carried the highest burden in design, can take the sweetest shares of the pie for themselves. But as for the perpetual ownership structure, please esteem our view that every member of landed nobility (Earl and higher) at minimum, preferably town nobles (Barons) also, even the junior nobles (Knight/Jungherr) if you wish, should be able to buy their share(s) of the Noble Palace Club, and its emission would therefore perpetually increase. This would allow for new buildings and activities also increase along with the membership.

We do not want to write too much in a way of micromanagement, but what we consider functional, is that once the founders have bought their share, every Baron would be given the chance to buy 1 unit, Earl 2 units, Marquess 4 units, and so on (calculate the size of unit according to your capital requirement). The unit would be the share and receive weekly dividends if the building has income and no expansion needs are deemed pressing.

If your noblenesses do not abhor being in debt, we the King can grant 200 millions for 0.6% (200->260 in 25 days). With these terms we also gave loan to the rock-solid Grand Hotel Corp. (who are using the loan to build subsidized dwellings for their employees in their haw, and for speculation with gold, hmm.. let's see). We are not indignant if the offer is rejected or undercut by the members of nobility, though.

Hopefully all is well with Asenath, as it is with the Jungherr also. He does not even visit the Royal Palace too often, preferring to sleep by his desk in his (honestly put) quite low 5-story guesthouse hive in the west. To give you one business tip, after this is completed and consummated, how about going to low-cost rental? The 36 characters are commanding 200++ servants that increasingly want to live in the town instead of countryside. The 12 sqm rooms that in PC layout (airy location, 20-30% lux, one occupant) provide 125% payout from the Services pool, will in NPC layout (crappy location, 10% lux, 2-3 occupants) provide 100%. I am not feasting on the needs of our servants - without whom the Kingdom would come to a halt in 3 hours - just pointing this business opportunity that the rents have come down such that the servants can consider living in the town, and if they do, we get more money back from their wages, so in effect get better service and not even lose money!

As a final exhortation, we will soon (~12 years) need one more Councillor in the Town Council. Bishop is supporting some commoner to be included for all-inclusiveness. Our problem is that we promote all good commoners to Nobility at the earliest opportunity... Please consider.

When greeting Lord smooth, forward my continuing gratitude for his becoming the Chancellor of the University. Earldom is not far away now.. We just need to have the architects/building inspectors educated to release even greater growth in the city, where he also offers his kind assistance.

Yours truly,

[rpietila]

A.D. 1466 - Foundation of the Royal CryptoArmy

The Barbarian invasion is in its advanced planning stages now, and may launch any year after 1470, as we already foresaw a decade ago. Fortunately, our army is quite prepared in numbers (and soon in materiel as well), and the time has come to officially organize it. Some changes to the previous arrangements have been made due to our experiences, and the following overrides everything decreed previously concerning the Army.

Organization

The army consists of independently-fighting Companies, which have a Commanding Officer, Lieu-tenant(s), message bearer(s), and 2 or more Squads consisting of 4 soldiers. Kitchen/support corps are not included in number, because this can easily be arranged in urban conditions. (In fact, in the Ancient era, eating is not mandatory, and drinking the soldiers like to do in the city taverns.)

Soldier Ranks and Pay Grades

The soldiers are all NPC. Their pay is equalized as follows, according to their rank. The soldiers advance in rank and fight better, the more veteran they are. It is advisable to have one Sergeant in each squad, if such prowess can be found among the soldiery. It would be good for the readiness and morale if the soldiers could be provided quarter. If this is not the case, they must be paid 50% extra for arranging their own.

Master Sergeant   170,000 m/yr
Sergeant    140,000 m/yr
Corporal    110,000 m/yr
Private 1st Class    90,000 m/yr
Private    70,000 m/yr

Officer Corps

The Company needs at least one officer, preferably 2 if the Commanding Officer is not actively involved or 3 if the Company is large and has many squads with high combat value. The pay grades of NPC officers are as follows. Again, if no suitable quarter is provided in the garrison, the pay is 50% higher to allow the officer to rent a place fitting for his status. Major is the highest rank an NPC officer can achieve.

Major   550,000 m/yr
Captain   380,000 m/yr
Lieutenant   280,000 m/yr

The Commanding Officer

The Commanding Officer (CO) of each Company must be a PC (player character). The same ranks apply, plus Colonel. The NPC's cannot advance in rank higher than the CO.

All CO's are promoted Knights in the game (if they not already are), and Knighted in the Most Ancient Order of the Defence, according to their rank in the officer corps.

Payment of the soldier wages and 50% increases

The wages for soldiers and officers are included in the Servant wages and deducted from the sponsor (typically: CO) of each Company. Because the King has promised to host the soldiers, the 50% increase is paid by him. In practice this duty will be transferred to the Army, which is a public non-profit corporation led and financed by the King.

Army headquarters

The headquarters of the Army will be located in the Citadel, hopefully soon. Meanwhile the Department of the Military Studies building is constructed in the University lands, and that might provide short-term help. At present the matters of the Army are administered in the Royal Palace.

Implementation

In a few hours, the army will appear in all its glory to the Characters/ARMY tab.

[NewLiberty]

Royal Proclamation concerning the lot 1-C-A1, the proposed Noble Palace and King's Patience regarding its matters

We, rpietila, the King over all CryptoKingdom, Duke of the Very Ancient Duchy, Earl in more places than cares to be mentioned, Mayor of CryptoTown, CEO of the Most Ancient and Worshipful Town Hall Corporation and CEO of Grand Hotel Corporation, blessed with skills in business management and beaux arts, but hardly communication, etc.,

greet

The Marquess Joseph of New Liberty, Eldest of the Nobles, AOK-K, MG-5, GJB, FBB, TB, CB, etc.

Your Majesty, your wisdom is well matched with your patience.
I am certain that Asenath would relish yet another redesign of the Noble Palace with all of these considerations, as she truly enjoys her efforts in this regard.

It will be done as you suggest.  The wall will be recycled, the Northern extent paved and the design will be reduced by one story to accommodate the height restrictions, but this will be more than recompensed by the additional opulence of the interiors, and the addition of joust viewing seating for the most discerning of spectators.

With these considerations, the opportunity to all nobles is reopened for those that that have not yet sought shareholding of this magnificent structure and member-ownership of the Noble Palace Club, which may include premier accommodations for themselves and those they may cherish visiting from foreign realms within its august walls.

Though there is no king as great as your majesty in all the lands, it may come to pass that foreign royalty may visit in order to pay tribute to his majesties glory and seek his favor, or to observe our mighty knights jousts and these shall need some comfortable places to take respite.  It is with regard to the tastes and perquisites of these visitors that great care is given, as well as to display such works of grand art as may be inspired within the hearts of His Majesties loyal subjects.

So also the call goes out to all artisans of repute to submit for review such works as may add to the luxuriousness of this abode to be displayed and curated within these galleries.


With respect to His Majesties business advisement, some great minds do think alike it seems as Asenath had already begun on a design for "The Flophouse" with many bunks available for servant accommodations.

[Quicken]

Your Majesty,
I built a fine house in the city in the year 1462. May I humbly request that the Character database be updated to reflect my Home Builder and (possibly) First Builder status.
Quentin Moon

[rpietila]

Hey! The Gold Auction is closing in 30 minutes, and the price is 0.10!

I am sure you can do better than that..