Ashgan

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

No sweat, I had a majority of my orders written out already, there's just some things I had to clear with another player and it kind of dragged out for personal reasons.

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

I see! Thanks for pointing that out, I actually missed that as it turns out. Uhm, yeah, your mercenary group may land in Mortham, if they enjoy a reputation of being reliable and not a bunch of pillagers. The kingdom's people will most likely keep an eye of them, but they're permitted to stay for a while so long as they do not cause problems. They are also informed that for the time being, the lord of Almare has no interest in hiring them.

Sorry for not seeing this earlier Cale!

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

I'm here. Quite frankly, I haven't really felt like or had the time to be active here, so I kept postponing getting to stuff. Since the deadline for handing in orders is today (though I do not know which timezone's midnight we're aiming for), I'll be around for the time being and get around to whatever needest be done.

Cale Tucker said @Flooby, I'd like to wait for Ashgan's permission so I know they'd even be allowed to dock. I mean, an entire army is at his port...

What's that? I don't know about no fleet, didn't see mention of it in the IC either unless I missed it.

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

Oof, lots of stuff happened while I was asleep. Let's see here...

First, I had an edit earlier that's pretty easy to overlook. Here's what I asked then:

Ashgan said Are all towns connected via trade routes, no matter their distance? If there's no range limit, that would technically mean that a town gains tariffs from trading with every single other town on the continent? It feels pretty unreal, so I'm asking for clarification here. If there is a range limit, where do we draw the line? I looked at the positioning of all towns, and it turns out that pretty much none of my direct neighbors bothered to get any, so most towns are a huge distance from he, and I want to know how many I can access.

Shame the formatting got killed when you copy-pasted the sheet ;P

Flooby Badoop said It was always four, but someone went and said there were three seasons in the last OOC.

I think what can throw people off is that you also say that a season lasts for 4 months. 4 times 4 equals 16, which is longer than a year typically lasts, though maybe that's just the way this planet that Lundland is on works, given that it's not Earth.

The Nexerus said Does equipment upkeep still need to be paid if it isn't being used in raised levies?Also, completed Aaldorenfeald's military.

Flooby Badoop said Nope.

:O So all that shit I got in my armory doesn't cost me upkeep? For one, that's going to lower my upkeep costs somewhat significantly, and for the other, means I would have probably bought more of it since upkeep was my primary limiter. @____@ Oh well. At least I will save money in the long run, and can now purchase more buildings since I have to worry less about the dollars. Bullis.

Flooby Badoop said the cost to build a Great Wall around the whole island would be 3,064,000,000 bullis.

At first I read that as 3 million and thought that was quite the price. Boy was I wrong, lol. By the time 1600 years for the wooden palisade are over, we'll be flying over it with combat jets ;P

So Boerd said Werkin on a collab with Ashgan, sorry for any delay.

Indeed, I too apologize, though we do have a bit of time yet. The political actions can be summarized quite quickly, but I wanted to put some IC fluff out there to support it. That's why we're here after all, to roleplay.

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

Flooby Badoop said For whether certain things can inspire soldiers, there are a few things on the list that can fill what you're looking for, but only battle can be the test for your ideas.

I'm basically banking on the exalted Blindseer, which has been described as being an icon of inspiration for the army, to actually function as such during a battle, as not doing so would invalidate its purpose to an extent (I still will enjoy the loving hell out of writing her involvement IC even if it does nothing). Other than that, sounds reasonable, even if finding out during the battle that your tactics don't work is a bit of a late point of realization.

Concerning storehouses, I actually don't think a limit on them is that necessary. The numbers, as I've put them, sound pretty huge, and in perspective they are, but they don't really break the game I think. Peasant value aside, realistically, every store house still only gives you a direct benefit of 400 crops per annum added to your total. At 5 storehouses, you gain 2000 crops. Measure that up to my current crops surplus of 35.432 crops per annum, and it's not that huge, turning it into 37.432 crops per annum, ergo a 5,6% increase. This means each storehouse would give my personal economy only about 1.1% more crops per annum, and my food economy isn't even strong - it's functional. These percentages become even smaller for someone who produces more than I do. So, personally, I believe that if somebody wanted to build like 20 storehouses to give themselves roughly 20% or so more crops production without wanting to (or being able to) upgrade their fertilities, is perfectly reasonable, considering storehouses aren't free either.

Thanks for clearing the rest up, yo.

Edit: Are all towns connected via trade routes, no matter their distance? If there's no range limit, that would technically mean that a town gains tariffs from trading with every single other town on the continent? It feels pretty unreal, so I'm asking for clarification here. If there is a range limit, where do we draw the line? I looked at the positioning of all towns, and it turns out that pretty much none of my direct neighbors bothered to get any, so most towns are a huge distance from he, and I want to know how many I can access.

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

Glad to hear this. I got another question as I contemplate building choices: Is there overlap between the Watch Tower and the Town Guardhouse? Both seem to spot sneaky parties and guard trade routes. Is there a point in getting both?

Edit: I did some more math guys! Maybe you all realized this already, but in case you didn't, I feel this is some good information:

Storehouses. They're super efficient at low-fertility fiefdoms! So they can contain up to 100 people, preferably peasants, and make them not eat food. That's right, it turns them into machines who run on sheer determination alone. Remember what I said about wanting robots to operate my fields back when I talked about food? Well here we go.

So, for our food economy, this means the following: A peasant, who normally consumes 4 crops an annum, now doesn't. His production surplus, after personal consumption, on a scrubland fief, turns from a meagre 0.2 (4.2 - 4.0 = 0.2) into the full 4.2! Do you know how many peasants it takes to produce a surplus of 4.2 without this building? 21. In summary, this means that, figuratively speaking, the storehouse turns 1 peasant into 21 peasants. It can house 100 people per storehouse built (which I see no maximum limit of), so to find out how much peasant value (can we make this a term? abbreviate it PV or something) is created, you just multiply by 100, so on a scrubland, a storehouse full of peasants turns 100 of them into 2100. Scrublands start out with 3000 people, so you're technically creating roughly 70% more peasants. Or in other words, your PV is improved by 70%. That's so nuts!

It should be said that storehouses rapidly degrade in power. On an infertile fief, it only multiplies by 11, and on a fair fief, it multiplies by 7.66~. Then comes 6, 5, and it goes downhill from there (if there even are more fertility levels than that). So, all things considered, this is only an early game boost for your shit fiefdoms, as I would consider twice if I would want to build it even in a fair fiefdom, let alone higher ones. This also means that if you upgrade your fertility, you are actively devaluing your storehouses, so that's something to bear in mind, though this effect is also less dramatic at higher fertility levels.

Edit 2: Actually, some more questions, various subjects. We don't directly control our vassals' actions, like give orders for them, right? I read we can move their levies apparently, but we don't have to build up their infrastructure as well, and conduct trade missions on their behalf?

Next, can I trade with my vassals? Can I trade between my own towns, if I have 2 or more?

How are the costs of Manors, Walls and Town Fortifications handled? Are they additive, for example 10.000 for Basic Town Fort., plus 25.000 for Improved Town Fort., thus totalling 35.000 for the latter, or can I go from nothing to Improved for a straight 25.000 (meaning it costs only 15.000 to upgrade from the first tier)?

Edit 3: Yes, this is a long one. Does it take travel times for a letter to be sent from one lord to another, if both are sitting in their respective kingdoms, and are not at court (but may have a representative of course)? Logic dictates it does, but the rules are a bit ambiguous on this.

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

Build a Training Grounds – 10,000 bullis, 1 season to complete, requires Military Bailey.

A fenced-off area of the castle, filled with scarecrows with wooden weapons sewn on, targets for archery, enclosures for practice-combat, and a list for jousting, as well as other useful places and tools for martial training. This building allows any raised levies staying in the Manor where this building is located to benefit from training. This will increase their morale and discipline during battle. The effect of this training is increased for each season the raised levies are present in the Manor; a minimum of 1 season is required to see benefit from the training, while a maximum of 1 annum can be afforded to give the raised levies an elite training regime. The effect of this training tapers off for each season the raised levies are no longer raised.

All right, this begs the question how morale works. I understand you probably want to keep the numbers for your battle system hidden (somewhat sadly, as I have a great deal of interest in the game math behind it), but it's kind of hard to gauge the usefulness of something as vague as morale, and how to work with and against it. I suppose I also have a particular interest in the morale mechanic because, as you have garnered from my kingdom's description, they make a bit of a deal out of shattering enemy morale when possible, and this building essentially confirms that this is in fact an option (previous to this entry, I had actually assumed you did not take morale and expertise into account). Even disregarding this building, are inspiration (like through a great leader, a holy relic, a banner or similar) and scare tactics a viable way to improve one's chances in battle?

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP ]

Yo, good job getting stuff going. There are two things though that you may want to modify concerning my kingdom. For one, Almare's fiefs are incorrectly labelled, as I arranged them very specifically in my sheet (and distributed manor fortifications in accordance to that). The labels should be as follows:

53 Windermere
54 Mortham
55 Blackwood
56 Ashbourne
57 Wingston
58 Myrefall
59 Greypass

Then, and this is something I should have mentioned much earlier but I didn't really get to posting much at the time, is a small inconsistency in the description of house Rhiwallon. It says that the lady has a sister called Clemence, but this is most likely false as in the description for house Orrig, you stated that this house's lord is married to a certain Lady Eleanor, who is allegedly the sister of Lady Rhiwallon. Clemence, being that lord's previous wife, is dead and comes from elsewhere.

There was also some unfinished sentence in house Orrig's description, something about him pressuring me to ... something, as the sentence abruptly ended after that. But I can't find it anymore, so I'm guessing you already took care of that.

This should be all, thanks for your efforts.

The Prophecy

No dismissive remark? No disapproving frown? He even smiled at me! Why, I would almost think he found himself agreeing with what I have to say. How rare, she thought to herself, quietly gazing back at the necromancer as he nodded in her direction. With her hands on her hips, Jillian stood back a little and followed the exchange of words between the gathered people. So the person they were looking for was in Jevog Denûm? Of all the places! Who would live in such a desolate place and why? Either this person was not so much a person at all – possibly another dragon – or they really were an insane kind of hermit. She had mixed feelings about the prospect of going there; naturally it is a bit of an exotic locale that not many have the luxury of ever seeing up close, but on the other hand it is most likely a rather unpleasant place, and she would have preferred going somewhere more civilized to get herself back in order, and at the very least buy some clothing. Speaking of buying, where did she put…

Jillian’s heart skipped a beat when she realized that her improvised sack of possessions, which was quite literally the very last object she had left from her old life, was still in Anaxim, now probably burning to a crisp, if it hadn’t been looted by crusaders. As it contained all of her Rodlins, which was a reasonable sum to say the least, she was now essentially without money at all. She had nothing! Nothing but the rags on her body, a majority of them not even intended as clothing. Sticking with these people was not just a choice based on morale, conviction or other such intangible values. No, she was quite literally dependent on them to not die. Pelgaid was not far, sure, but what would she do there with nothing in hand? There weren’t many things a homeless and poor lady could do to stay afloat, and that was not what she envisioned her future to be like.

As she dubiously eyed her to-be-companions, she wondered if setting foot in Anaxim had been a wise decision or not. Ever since Vincent and she had gotten off the ferry, her life was thrown into a never-ending tumult, a maelstrom that mercilessly pulled her with it towards unknown depths. It all happened so fast, it was hard to fathom. It simultaneously felt so recent that she would want to think it were all a dream, a momentary phantasm, and so distant that she could nary remember the details of how it all came to be. Just last night she had been in a dingy little tavern not far from the banks of the Sloth, and now, hardly a day later, she was here amidst ancient dragons and more inexplicable beings. As if it had not been enough already, her allies were not planning on racing to the ashen wastes towards the east, to seek out Spirits-know-what, before blazing across Rodoria again in order to intercept Kevalorn before he can reach the safety of his keep. Sheer madness!

“I’m fine with that,” Gerald announced, almost as if in reply to her inner monologue, "Presuming that everyone is willing, of course."

Am I fine with that? As if I had much of a choice, huh?

A sharp wind picked up and howled past the perturbed witch, causing a scarlet veil to fall over her face, much to the woman’s annoyance. The brief evening gale carried the mute swordsman’s words like a heavenly messenger, conveying his willingness to fight on for these people that he did not know. Maybe he was like her, and also had nothing left. Strange, how fate brought together all those who faced the future with empty hands. Was it fate, or perhaps just a sign of the times?

After the wind calmed once again, and Jillian had hastily shoved those pesky hairs behind her shoulders once again, it was her turn to speak again.

“A small reprieve after all the ordeals I went through would have been lovely,” she admitted, having imagined that they would have been under less time pressure than they were, ”but I suppose that’s a luxury we can’t afford, yeah?” she rhetorically asked, shrugging, “I won’t be going anywhere else, so yes, I’m willing, I guess.”

To Lund ap Lunds [ Early Middle Ages NRP | IntChk and Sign-Ups ]

100.000 swords would cost 1.500.000 bullis (assuming longswords), which nobody has in income. As said, you are capped by how high your income is, but this starting equipment is simply not deducted from your treasury.