Adding numbers is no community building, and if IP is awarded to people for who ever pledge to them, i also hope they'll lose IP for everyone leaving them.

The state of communities right now is already a dire one, with mass blind recruitment when not openly press-ganging and intimidation, rewarding for such behavior is bad, there are countless nobles and aristocrates that have recruited followers with promises they can not fulfill, either because of size and number or location.

I guess it all get to what is a community, if community is the raw number of accounts pledged to an other account, no matter what then sure, why not, but that is not what i call a community, i, but i'm sure i'm not the only one, have been spamed on discord for recruitment, one guy even sent me this message :

"Hello I see you are in the 10k CoE Channel. I was wondering if you are a Count that may be looking for a Duchy to call home."

Not even asking what server i may play on, or not even bothering searching anything about me here on the CoE website where my signature link to my domain post and state my affiliations, nothing, and that comes from the 10K channel where people are supposed to be more invested into the dance as it is the blood and marrow of us nobles, so imagine what it is like outside of that small sample....

Or community is something else, something meaningful that have repercussions in-game, where relations matter and as such are not raw number but quality.

I have faith that SBS will be able to sort both types and will only reward the later, but short discord statements make only poor ground for such matters and taken raw and out of context are source of questions and fear.

I agree with you regarding the community. Having a stable community should be of more value than shear numbers and therefore rewarded as such.

Posted By markof at 11:28 AM - Tue Feb 20 2018

I have faith that SBS will be able to sort both types and will only reward the later, but short discord statements make only poor ground for such matters and taken raw and out of context are source of questions and fear.

I am not sure how I could possibly have taken this "short discord statement" out of context. As it is literally everything they have given on this subject to which I have access to.

That is the reason for me asking questions on the subject to make things clear. Not out of fear, just to get knowledgeable with the next steps in the process.

@Nesla yes, sorry for the way that sentence sounded, i was not refering to you quoting Caspian out of context but rather, Caspian answer being out of SBS larger context on the subject,

when will that be done ? presumably before domain selection because IP will be of little use after, will there be limits or controls, what magnitude of ip are we talking about ?

If Caspian's statement was in the context of IP use to influence map and domain selection, then the questions make sense.

In my case, I'm Gentry loyal to a tribe (so to speak), so in terms of selection I want a continent that is good for my tribal biome, and a kingdom, duchy, county, and settlement that have expressed preference for my tribe and its biome. I am willing to declare fealty only if I am not committing myself to eventual play in an undesirable biome. If my fealty were valid only through domain selection, then I would have no problem. If my fealty is binding through my own personal EP allocations or at or after launch for any of my souls, then I have strong misgivings about declaring fealty.

It is up to SBS to clarify exactly when and how long fealty is binding,

It is also up to SBS to state whether fealty may be withdrawn, if so whether withdrawn fealty can be redeclared, and if so whether there are any constraints on the redeclaration (such as cannot redeclare to a lord from whom it was withdrawn).

Another wrinkle is whether mayors can declare fealty, or whether one must be a baron; I have read some posts that seem to suggest that mayors need not declare fealty to a count, whereas barons must. Will mayors be able to declare fealty? Will they be free to not declare fealty? Will commoners and gentry be able to declare fealty to a higher-level tier such as a county, or must they declare it to an immediately superior tier?

@Poldano Aristocrate, mayors, barons and all the other aristocratic pledges are all vassals to a Count, Baron is an in-game title that comes from a contract between a Duke and the aristocratic vassal of one of his Counts.

At domain selection every title holder will automatically become the vassal of the ruler of the domain he select. No one will be without a lord (King excepted), i agree that one of the first questions would be how binding are the bounds created before domain selection, for lord/vassal relations but also for organisations , if i say that my character will be part of the blacksmith guild, does it mean i'm bound to be a blacksmith, can i change my mind and decide to be an explorer or a sailor instead ?

Say a count swears fealty to me but with no vassals of his own so that gives me 100 ip for example but will I get more IP from him if he attracts 3 mayors after he swore fealty?

I'm happy to see that there are more people with questions and concerns regarding this subject. I also see that there are plenty of questions to be answered, so I hope SBS will make the subject clear before these things matter during persona's/land selection/etc..

Guys -

It doesn't matter what we think the rules should be governing IP. What matters is that you know what the rules are and can work to maximize your IP accordingly. Insofar as you can, anyway.

So if it's a raw numbers contest, focus on growing your numbers.

[Solved]

Posted By Hieronymus at 4:40 PM - Fri Feb 23 2018

Guys -

It doesn't matter what we think the rules should be governing IP. What matters is that you know what the rules are and can work to maximize your IP accordingly. Insofar as you can, anyway.

I don't believed that I have stated what the "rules should be". I have presented questions to get answers on what the "rules" will be regarding this subject: swearing fealty.

So if it's a raw numbers contest, focus on growing your numbers.

That is one scenario, but without actual confirmation from SBS, we don't actually know.

[Solved]

I don't think anything is solved yet. You haven't actually answered any of my questions in the opening post.

I may have stated what I think the rules should be. Nonetheless, I will accept them whatever they are. As Nesla said, we don't know in sufficient detail what the rules are.

I can frame it in terms of $$$. I am willing to spend more on a pledge upgrade or EP prior to domain selection, if I know that I will not be risking my investment if my fealty is given to an entity that does not end up with my preferred biome. If I cannot use my pledge EP anyplace but where I declare fealty, then I probably won't declare fealty until the domain selections are resolved. My potential IP thereby remains unused for domain selection.

The only thing I'm really curious in, so I swear fealty to the duchess I'm under at the moment. Does that mean I'm locked in now? Basically how the kings are to the server and if I want to leave I can't?

Which for myself there really isn't many problems, unless I have some bad luck and don't get a county spot. Which at least I know numbers entering into it, so can plan for randoms. Unlike mayors where they may not even be enough settlements, let alone randoms coming in.

So basically confused how that would work, their count gained more IP and yet they may not even get a spot.

Or is it just like the friend code. People can give it out once to anyone above them, who is within the same group/kingdom but once it's given it's gone.

If no one can or is allowed to answer these questions, is it possible to get at least an indication to when these questions will be cleared up?

The new term "persona" emerged on Discord a couple of days ago. Since that is about dance-of-dynasties type activities taking place on a website, with forum names masked, there may be some clarification to this thread's questions shortly thereafter.

I certainly feel somewhat restricted in playing any kind of role in that kind of activity while I don't really know whether the role is a throwaway or not.

Posted By Poldano at 07:19 AM - Sun Mar 04 2018

The new term "persona" emerged on Discord a couple of days ago. Since that is about dance-of-dynasties type activities taking place on a website, with forum names masked, there may be some clarification to this thread's questions shortly thereafter.

I do hope they will clarify it sooner rather than later.

Coming soon, the great IPyramid scheme! Hehe, and if tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on...