Hello MagistrateMondra! It depends what exact information you're looking for but it's unlikely we'll have all the details on the contract system, how laws will be drafted, etc. prior to Domain/Settlement Selection unfortunately that stuff is likely to be more hammered out in Pre-Alpha, Alpha, and Beta which are in general not slated to happen prior to selection.

My suggestion for you if you're concerned with who your superior will be as Count, Duke, etc. and you're not seeing the information you like come closer to Selection time look for NPC overlords. Your King at least will be a player but a Count and Duke liege lord for some "cushion" is likely not impossible at selection time.

Of course also bear in mind NPCs can be poor rulers too, they'll come with a variety of personalities and likely some enterprising player will aim to be Count of your County eventually (maybe you? :D) but maybe that will give you more time to get set up.

Even if your liege is bad does he really have the power to compel you to comply just like that? However, no matter who you end up with you're going to have to go through a process of constant negotiation with them, and don't expect that process to ever really end whether they are good or bad.

Legal systems take centuries to fully develop, and most of the people involved in the process aren't even aware of what their contribution will mean in the future. People didn't think the Magna Carta would apply to anyone but King John, but then there it is again and again being brought up by everyone and their dogs until it gained an almost sacred status.

Well, point being, you can't guarantee that your liege's policies will pander to yourself interest, be balanced, or be aimed at aggrandizing himself. There's simply too much information required to answer those questions, and even if that information was provided there's no telling how things might change over time. Bottom line, you're just going to have to roll the dice.

There's also an element of working with people.

As a mayor, your count will need to tax you. There are genuine purposes for doing so - such as maintaining county infrastructure (the roads going to your town), and paying taxes to the duke (to cover the cost of defence).

Your count or duke could raise taxes even further. But they also have a game of politics to play - if they alienate all of their vassals, they run the risk of losing their title.

It's all a matter of politics, and communication.

A few things to consider,

laws and taxes are contracts, as such they need characters to create them.

We can assume there will be pre-existing contracts when we enter exposition, either by the default system of the management UI or a set of generated laws and taxes inherited from world generation.

From there any change will require an actual scribe to work. From what little tidbits we gathered so far, the higher tier the domain and the more complex the contract the higher skill level is required from the scribe and probably the rarer the ink and paper.

It is then probable that things wont change soon or fast at exposition.

An other point is that no one really know what are the values of things. What will be the level of productions, of trade and things, those are the base you need to know to be able to calculate what you can tax, and those will need time to be known.

So unless your noble is a fool, you should have some time before things start to change. By then either you'd know that lord is not on the same line as you are and you take actions.

Last point is, all we said above is also true for "benevolent rulers" any ruler, mayor, count, duke or king, that talk now about taxes is A LIAR or/and a fool. We know taxes will be flat amount, no %, so all those talking about % are not to be trusted, and all those that already provide an amount of incoming taxes are also talking empty promises.

Only acceptable things at this point would be, no taxes (but even that is assuming they can set the level of tax to 0) and fair (which is vague enough to be whatever they will want).Even things like we'll tax people from outside the domain more are assumption, the only tangible things we heard so far is that guilds/organizations, settlements and parcels of land can have specific taxes applied to them, because those will sign specific contracts with their nobles.

The Problem you describe is more a player based Problem then a Problem with the Contract System. We already know that the Contract system will provide a broad range of options for us. Maybe some really specific, pre-planned laws will not work in-game, but we may still replace it with a similar law. The Problem you have is a potential trust issue. The relationship between a Feudal Lord and his vassals are trust-based: He is protecting you, you pay Taxes for it. While the Feudal Lord is de jure the ruler of the vassal, he can't just do what he wants. If he is constantly making decisions, which makes his vassals upset, they can remove him.

If you got specific planes you want to realize, there are two options at the moment: Either you wait for the Land Selection to go to the kingdom who got everything you need, but with the risk that the Community is not what you want, or you try to search for a community already and got the opportunity to negotiate with them about everything. A lot of communities may don't have any laws yet, but the idea's how they want to realize their systems. But this comes with the risk that the Land selection will ruin a part of your plane. Both cases still don't protect you from a bad Feudal Lord who ignores it afterwards.

Posted By MagistrateMondra at

Hey all,

I just thought about the Settlement selection and get a bit scary.

In my case as a Mayor i won't join any kingdom or sth else without the exact informations. But I'm not sure if we get all before SettSel.

e.g. I join Kingdom A Duke A and Baron A and we talk about taxes and laws... but in the end he Change things... then I am in a bad Position. I Need to find a new one... i'm marked as unloyal...my idea probably can't be fulfilled in other kingdoms or im just to late to get e nice spot.... so my question:

Can we expect a detailed System with informations, Settings, laws, contracts before SettSel ? (maybe there should be a contract System before Launch.... so you can test it - we can try it - and we can be "safe")

I wouldn't be too worried about being marked as unloyal. Almost everyone with a title has jumped ship at least once. In the end its all about finding the right community and being among people you actually want to play with. Heck, it took me almost a year before I finally found my home in Elyria.

The only way I see that may get you into the problems you fear, is when you claim a random town just because you the tribe you want to play is there. Get to know the community and join the ones that make you feel at home the most. Do not jump ship to often or you may get to be known as unreliable. There is nothing wrong with joining multiple communities, as long as you are honest about it.

Posted By MagistrateMondra at

Hey all,

I just thought about the Settlement selection and get a bit scary.

In my case as a Mayor i won't join any kingdom or sth else without the exact informations. But I'm not sure if we get all before SettSel.

e.g. I join Kingdom A Duke A and Baron A and we talk about taxes and laws... but in the end he Change things... then I am in a bad Position. I Need to find a new one... i'm marked as unloyal...my idea probably can't be fulfilled in other kingdoms or im just to late to get e nice spot.... so my question:

Can we expect a detailed System with informations, Settings, laws, contracts before SettSel ? (maybe there should be a contract System before Launch.... so you can test it - we can try it - and we can be "safe")

You can't really promise low taxes if you don't even know anything about your kingdom. And low taxes may not even be a good thing.
You need taxes in order to prevent grievers and outlaws in your kingdom.
I'd rather pay a bit more taxes and have my kingdom be safe, than to pay low taxes but have the kingdom be invested by grievers.

Posted By zimmah at 12:59 PM - Tue May 15 2018

Posted By MagistrateMondra at

Hey all,

I just thought about the Settlement selection and get a bit scary.

In my case as a Mayor i won't join any kingdom or sth else without the exact informations. But I'm not sure if we get all before SettSel.

e.g. I join Kingdom A Duke A and Baron A and we talk about taxes and laws... but in the end he Change things... then I am in a bad Position. I Need to find a new one... i'm marked as unloyal...my idea probably can't be fulfilled in other kingdoms or im just to late to get e nice spot.... so my question:

Can we expect a detailed System with informations, Settings, laws, contracts before SettSel ? (maybe there should be a contract System before Launch.... so you can test it - we can try it - and we can be "safe")

You can't really promise low taxes if you don't even know anything about your kingdom. And low taxes may not even be a good thing.
You need taxes in order to prevent grievers and outlaws in your kingdom.
I'd rather pay a bit more taxes and have my kingdom be safe, than to pay low taxes but have the kingdom be invested by grievers.

High taxes are frowned upon by the NPC, grieving is frowned upon by the NPC. It will be hard to find a middle way in this. Don't believe any promises made. The real worry is if you can pay or not.

With respect to taxes, one of the things we unlocked as part of the Kickstarterversary is a "market report" for our home locations. It's not clear when this report will be available (albeit it makes sense at domain selection so it can factor into decision making), but I presume that this will disclose the potentially taxable activity at that location prior to launch - amount and type of goods produced, imported/exported, bought/sold, etc - and this might then give you a better context to judge just how much tax you think you can reasonably bear.

Posted By Hieronymus at 07:47 AM - Tue May 15 2018

With respect to taxes, one of the things we unlocked as part of the Kickstarterversary is a "market report" for our home locations. It's not clear when this report will be available (albeit it makes sense at domain selection so it can factor into decision making), but I presume that this will disclose the potentially taxable activity at that location prior to launch - amount and type of goods produced, imported/exported, bought/sold, etc - and this might then give you a better context to judge just how much tax you think you can reasonably bear.

Merchant's Packs upgrade gets the market report, so it will probably be in game

Posted By Hieronymus at 07:47 AM - Tue May 15 2018

With respect to taxes, one of the things we unlocked as part of the Kickstarterversary is a "market report" for our home locations. It's not clear when this report will be available (albeit it makes sense at domain selection so it can factor into decision making), but I presume that this will disclose the potentially taxable activity at that location prior to launch - amount and type of goods produced, imported/exported, bought/sold, etc - and this might then give you a better context to judge just how much tax you think you can reasonably bear.

Just don't treat taxes as a static set and forget kind of thing. You're going to need to pay attention to economic trends to set a level that covers your needs and does not impact growth too adversely. As long as everyone is making a reasonable profit for their work and the county/duchy needs are met then you have found a happy medium.

Posted By MagistrateMondra at

Hey all,

I just thought about the Settlement selection and get a bit scary.

In my case as a Mayor i won't join any kingdom or sth else without the exact informations. But I'm not sure if we get all before SettSel.

e.g. I join Kingdom A Duke A and Baron A and we talk about taxes and laws... but in the end he Change things... then I am in a bad Position. I Need to find a new one... i'm marked as unloyal...my idea probably can't be fulfilled in other kingdoms or im just to late to get e nice spot.... so my question:

Can we expect a detailed System with informations, Settings, laws, contracts before SettSel ? (maybe there should be a contract System before Launch.... so you can test it - we can try it - and we can be "safe")

There are still many Mayors/Barons and even Counts who have not selected a Kingdom yet because we want to be part of a specific tribe. In my case I want to play To'Resk so I have not selected a Kingdom for my settlement. Likewise, I have a count friend who is in the same position. I wouldn't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities after kingdom selection.

Given that there is less than a week between the lowest counts and highest mayors - this is a very short amount of time for them to determine a complete taxation and legal system so you are unlikely to have at settlement selection a full list of laws and taxes for every level above you.

Also taxes and laws are not set in stone, they are flexible and mutable things that can change weekly or even daily depending on the needs of those in power. You are never going to be totally 'safe' as you put it from a rise in taxes unless you can personally negotiate it with your ruler, and hold him to his promises.

This need for personal relationships in feudalism is one of the reasons the dance has started so early as nobility and aristocracy seek to build relationships with their social betters.

By choosing to wait until settlement selection you do get a chance to see what lands are available and select the choicest settlements and resources - but you lose out on the relationship building stages of the game.

Hail Odin