2.5.2019#Exposition & Kingdoms of Elyria

Caspian: Whether or not people will enter into Expo at the same time or tiered is something that's being discussed and debated internally as well. I think the debate you're having is a result of the internal debate and the fact that I pointed out potential issues the other day when asked about it in Discord.

It comes to this: What's the goal of Exposition and which approach better actualizes the goal?

Well, as it turns out there's actually two goals. The first is world-building. This is best accomplished by allowing each tier - nobility, aristocracy, and gentry to enter into Expo in a tiered way. This ensures that each tier has time to do some of their most important world-building before the next tier enters into the world. For example, if you're a count, and your job is to ensure a fair distribution of resources throughout your county, having gentry come in with significant EP and claim the land all of the natural resources are on will make it more difficult to create contracts post-launch.

Similarly, gentry that come in at the same time as mayors can potentially start claiming the land around the settlement in order to force a mayor to have to purchase the land from the people around them, thus putting the settlement in a poorer financial state overall, while potentially making those that sell the land a bit better of. As you can see, there's clearly some exploitable mechanics here.

The second goal of Exposition, however, is to create dramatic story through the establishment of conflicts. As it turns out, both of the scenarios I just described provide for interesting conflicts. So it's not a clear black & white.
Caspian: If we tier the entry, we give the dukes, counts, and mayors a time-limited opportunity to claim as much as they can based on their EP in order to "get everything they wanted". If we don't tier the entry, then there's virtually no time for them to secure their domains and settlements and creates potentially too much conflict. So the team and I are playing out the various scenarios to determine which is ultimately more favorable and whether there is an alternate solution, such as simultaneous entry, but perhaps with other constraints, such as not allowing the claiming of valuable land for a period of time, or having dramatically higher prices for the land initially which gradually decline to make them more achievable.

At the end of the day, our goal isn't the individual fulfillment of each player, mind you. It's about creating a world that is believable and enjoyable for the people who come in post-launch. That is generally going to mean some degree of conflict, but settlements that have had enough time to use their EP that each feels unique and purposeful.

Caspian: @ Marovec V'ralt (Finn) Ⓥ RE: Kingdoms of Elyria. There's really three sides to it. One side we understand very well, the other side is still ephemeral.

First, KoE is about testing out the mechanics which are being introduced as part of Alpha 2. This includes kingdom, settlement, and land management, as well as sieging and battlefield combat. So at a high level, KoE is about giving people an opportunity to exercise those tools.

Second, KoE is about helping to shape and shake-up the political landscape a bit by giving players an additional opportunity for conflict and drama. Potentially even creating some new aristocracy (and unlikely nobility).

Third, KoE is about giving players something meaningful to do during the final stages of development by helping to write some of the recent history.
We understand very well what #1 is all about. We also understand the principle of #3 and what it means. It's #2 above that's problematic. We still have the same design in mind for #2, but in truth, KoE hasn't been a big focus for us, as the mechanics that are a part of #1 aren't in development right now.

Marovec V'ralt (Finn) Ⓥ: @ Caspian Is how that all ties into Expo the ephemeral part? In other words, from what we understand, our titles and settlements are supposed to be fairly sacrosanct up until the PvP restriction is lifted in Expo. We have until that point to gather our communties, spend our EP, and build up our defenses, so to speak.

From what you are describing, in terms of "KoE is about helping to shape and shake-up the political landscape a bit by giving players an additional opportunity for conflict and drama. Potentially even creating some new aristocracy (and unlikely nobility)" seems to run contrary to that belief.

Am I misunderstanding something?
Caspian: @ Marovec V'ralt (Finn) Ⓥ You are correct. That is the ephemeral part. Our goal is to give players the ability to change the landscape and history a bit, while simultaneously preserving what people have claimed during DSS.

Our most recent design I think captures that best, which is why we haven't delved into it further. Our current plan is something like Screeps. Players will enter into KoE and the aristocracy and nobility will take control of their domains and settlements. Then play will proceed with people able to invade, conquer, build, expand, etc.

Players will be rewarded with some kind of currency, for now assume EP, for building onto their land and maintaining it for a period of time. If a settlement or domain is invaded and someone is uprooted, they simply pick a new piece of land and start over again.

The person who invaded their settlement takes ownership, and now gains the same currency for holding onto the land, and more currency if they improve the land. So everyone is encouraged to build, not to destroy, but at the same time everyone is encouraged to expand and conquer.

Once KoE ends, ownership reverts back to the original owners, and changes made to the landscape would be semi-permanent with some of the stuff persisting into Exposition.

Again, this isn't a final design, but allows for both people to hold onto their settlements and domains, along with a degree of pseudo-randomness that accounts for the passage of time. Nothing here is final.

2.5.2019#Testing phases

Caspian: We have our path for testing. We have two phases of Alpha testing which are intended to be functional testing. The focus isn't on bugs, but on gameplay mechanics. It's an opportunity to validate the game is fun, and make changes as necessary to ensure the best possible design.

Alpha 1 Focuses on the adventurer tier. The mechanics in Alpha 1 will focus on survival, exploration, combat, and crafting. It's generally considered to be most of the features players would use as adventurers

Alpha 2 Focuses on the gentry, aristocracy, and nobility tiers with mechanics such as land management, housing and settlement building, as well as domain and kingdom management.

After Alpha is Beta. Beta is about finding bugs and ensuring as smooth of a launch as possible. It is again divided up into two phases.

Beta 1 is about finding bugs that are unrelated to stress or latency. The focus will be on UI/mechanical bugs that are not time-critical, such as crafting, settlement and domain management, survival, etc.
Beta 2 is about finding bugs that are related to stress or latency. The focus will be on combat and other high-action activities.

We chose to sell access to the various testing phases at various price points as a way to gate/meter how many people would be in each testing phase. As a result, there are, for example, just over 2,500 people with access to Alpha 1. The numbers then increase rapidly up to Beta 2/Stress Test.

2.23.2019#Skills system

Caspian: I'll go in depth in a DJ, but the short of it is, we imagined a hierarchy of skills mostly due to our previous experience with RPGs. But our diagetic approach to our user experiences requires things like techniques for combat.
Meanwhile crafting still has techniques but also has stations, patterns, etc.
But our tracking skills like ... tracking and forensics didn't fit the same mold nicely. Neither did many of the guile skills.
At the end of the day we realized that we actually had a few different set of user experiences which we had somewhat artificially forced to use the same base system. We've instead separated them into their own domains or areas, each with their own system of advancement, UX, and UIs.
We continue to iterate so that each system is intuitive, but separating them allows us to really tune each one to make it especially entertaining.
Caspian: For example, the screen you use to customize your personal martial style doesn't need to look anything like the recipe book you use for crafting, or the knowledge base or journal you use for tracking what your character knows.
Caspian: We now use your advancement in each of the systems to define a soft archetype for your soul, etc. So even though the UI/UX and advancement mechanics are different, we can still say that someone who has trained a lot in the martial system is a Champion, while someone who has trained exclusively in the crafting system is a Producer.
Forensics and tracking are planned to be observation based UI/UX. Tracking people about identifying the signs of travel, using your knowledge to pick out the tracks, etc.

Forensics is also a visual aid, but is more like two truths and a lie. The environment might provide information, and you must deduce from your character's knowledge which information is incorrect.

Epicface: Huh. That is fascinating. Makes a lot of sense, though. So for those skills would there still be different techniques, or is it more straight up based on the environment, type of tracks/clues, and character knowledge?

Caspian: @ Epicface the latter. There might be things from alchemy that you might use in your information gathering, but no techniques directly in that system.
Caspian: As an example.
It's about acquiring knowledge through different means and then using that knowledge to perform deductions. In case you hadn't noticed, we're taking a Sherlock Holmes approach to Forensics.
We are free to do it on a per system basis. There just needs to be some metric by which we measure competency.
We are still iterating on the new skill systems, their paths of progression, and their unique user experiences, but I suspect we'll be making significant progress on it over the next few weeks.

2.23.2019#Religion

Caspian: Religion is a mechanic. But it is a closely guarded set of secrets. But I'd say it's safe to assume we at least track and quantify religious devotion. Whether that has any effect will not likely be revealed.
Religion, devotion, and divinity are things we have intentionally kept quiet about for years now.

It is a specific, dedicated play style meant for those people who want to explore a more esoteric part of the game.
Religion is not cosmetic. It has mechanics associated with it, and clerics, Paladins, sages etc. of the different religions is a thing. Even if they may not know whether their deeds have meaning.
You gotta have faith faith faith...

Thanks, Raven.

Note to any mods who may be reading: It might help the perception of transparency to transcribe the contents of the Soul Chamber to the Forums. I understand what is in there is not final, but it would help to inform those of us who are not habitual Denizens of Discord to what of substance is happening behind the scenes.

I actually think a Soul Chamber echo section on the Forums is a reasonable idea, similar perhaps to the DJ section.

3.18.2019#Bees

Draguta: What is the search range of bees?
Snipehunter : It's a 3 parcel radius (more for Cardinal bees)

Draguta: How much honey can 1 hive produce in 1 Elyrian year in a good harvest yield? Snipehunter : Not sure yet Draguta, that's a balance thing we haven't had a chance to look at. But our starting position is "something close to what a hive can produce on Earth in the same timeframe."

Draguta: Does the 3 parcel range count diagonally? And does the parcel that the hive sits on count as one of the parcels in that range?
Snipehunter : That 3 parcel radius is a 64*3 meter radius, so not three parcels diagonally, exactly. Oh also: with a range radius of 3 parcels, a bee has a search area of ≈30171.86 meters. Most likely they would range within a cube that is 6 parcels wide, 6 parcels tall, and 6 parcels long. (6x6x6 parcel cube)

3.31.2019#Legendary Taverns - "The Free Mann"

Caspian :cloud:: The Free Mann is in the North(west) duchy of the grasslands along a pilgrimage route. It is not along the border. It's more centrally located in the duchy.
Caspian :cloud:: In case anyone missed it... The Free Mann vanished from the store today 45 seconds after being enabled on Angelica.

B⍲sherToday: how much was it?
Caspian :cloud:: Like the Last Oasis, the Free Mann was $1,250.00. (all of the legendary taverns are the same price, AFAIK)

Count Zimmah IX: Legendary has nothing to do with quality in CoE. However quality may affect public opinion.
Epicface :evergreen_tree:: That's untrue, according to the EP store post unless I misunderstood it

Snipehunter :cloud_lightning:: The 13 are legendary quality taverns as well as legendary in reputation. However prime the tavern, the shifting wants and interests of the populace will be what deems them legendary in reputation.

Caspian :cloud:: @ Snipehunter :cloud_lightning: A lot of what makes them legendary will be the lore available about them. When people jump into the game, they're going to head to what they know... including the taverns we've written about.
That won't change. But people may find the owner has run the legendary tavern's business into the ground. :confused:

Snipehunter :cloud_lightning:: Oh yeah, I didn't mean to imply the 13 would lose their historical significance! I just wanted to call out that history alone won't keep them popular - you have to run the place well, too.
Continued...
Rhaegys: place it in the middle of the desert away from all oasis... so when they burn your tavern they die trying to get away from the desert :smile:
Caspian :cloud:: @ Rhaegys Its pre-placed.

Count Gin [Fortuna]: Question if I have the tavern am I forced to pick a county in borderweall?

Caspian :cloud:: @ Count Gin [Fortuna] No. You just own the deed to a tavern in someone else's domain.

Count Gin [Fortuna]: Will they be able to take it from me? Via bull taxes? Or through attacks?
Caspian :cloud:: @ Count Gin [Fortuna] Not legally.... But that doesn't mean they can't. Bad stuff happens.

04.08.2019#Legendary items & Relics

(NA-E) Gravev: But really @ Snipehunter :cloud_lightning: weee talkin about legendary items and relics and how much of a diffeeence there is and what makes em that way?

Snipehunter : That's an interesting topic, @ (NA-E) Gravev - at the most basic level, what sets a relic apart from an item, even when they are both legendary, is that a relic is a piece of a bygone age and perhaps functions in ways that mann doesn't quite understand. (Especially when they're literal relics) They can appear to perform miraculous feats.

A legendary item can sometimes be a relic too, but generally a legendary item is a legendary item because it has a history attached to it and that history is in some way inspiring, or renown, or infamous, in a way that is passed on to its wielder. That might be as a simple as "this is a perfect weapon forged by the world's best smith using bright iron found in the heart of a dead volcano, and anyone who possesses it obviously someone of caliber" or it could be more like, "that is the mace of Augathyn, slayer of giants, who once held that very weapon when she stood in defense of bas'tyranth, alone against the horde. Only a hero could possess such a weapon!"

04.19.2019#Settlement Land Ownership

Caspian :cloud:: Ok folks. I'm sure this has been stated here in Discord before, but I'll go ahead and state it again.

When you incorporate into a settlement, land is transferred from the owners over to the settlement. It becomes the property of the settlement to do what it likes with. The settlement owns the land.

The leaders of the settlement, generally a village or town council, can vote on stuff, with voted weighted by how much land was contributed to the settlement. Like stocks in a company. The more land you contributed to the settlement, the more your vote is worth.

The settlement can choose to sell the land back to the owners, to other people, or to hold onto it as settlement land. If they sell it back to others, it's still incorporated, but is now privately owned. The settlement has no control over what happens on that land, but can collect taxes based on the sale of the land back to private owners. This private property can be used by the settlement as a source of income through property taxes.

If the settlement wants to grow, it must either purchase the surrounding land directly from the count as incorporated land, or must purchase it from private individuals who own the land in order to annex. If they purchase the land, then those new land owners potentially also get a vote in how the settlement is ran.

As to "Mayor" titles. They have a controlling interest in the settlement as though they owned a certain % of the land before it became a settlement. But all land in a settlement is, by default, owned either by the settlement itself, or has been sold back to NPCs as privately owned land. Any land owned by the settlement can, at the desire of the settlement leadership, be sold back to the mayor or councilmembers.
. mayor sadamune: ah so technically as mayor i can actually buy all the land myself Caspian :cloud:: @ mayor sadamune You can, but it would be pointless. That's how the settlement generates revenue. If you're just selling land to yourself, um, there's no revenue.

Duke Nimb Zephyr Ⓥ:moyai::sunny:: @ Caspian :cloud: can land ever be unincorporated or a settlement dissolved?
Caspian :cloud:: @ Duke Nimb Zephyr Ⓥ:moyai::sunny: There's no plan at the moment to do that, no.

Governor Kynlo Accardi - "Caspian :cloud:Oggi alle 01:10 @ mayor sadamune You can, but it would be pointless. That's how the settlement generates revenue. If you're just selling land to yourself, um, there's no revenue.
I mean, you could buy it all back to guarantee control, then just rent it out instead of selling."

Caspian :cloud:: @ Governor Kynlo Accardi In order to "buy it all back" it cannot be owned by NPCs, etc.

04.25.19#The Waerd

Snipehunter :cloud_lightning: : You know, as I review the meme channel this morning, I am reminded that one of the things that always makes me shake my head is "The Waerd have no property rights." That's just a gross misunderstanding. If your neighbor borrows your lawnmower, you didn't lose your lawnmower. If your family members use your dishes, you didn't lose your dishes.
It's not the rights to your property that is shared - you still own what you own - it's just that you give your family permission to use your stuff when they're hanging out with you... and your family is really big.

Ikkerens: An example I thought of earlier is Amsterdams community bikes. You can take them, but there is a reasonable expectation that you return them.
Snipehunter :cloud_lightning: : Yeah, good example. In our case it's even more explicit. They can't take it off your property. Like, your neighbor can't even borrow your lawn mower unless they want to use it to mow your lawn. :smiley:

Tarvald: Snipes are you tellin me the Waerd are basically 1950's America suburban lemme borrow some sugar plz. Because that would reaaaaallly mess with Anatar Snipehunter :cloudlightning: : lol kind of Tarvald? Not really though, it's just a close example: If I'm a waerd in a waerd settlement, and I want to learn blacksmithing. I can go to the forge, use the forge, use the tools there, etc. But I can't carry those tools away from the forge without explicit permission.
. Tarvald: Snipes, I do believe the concern though is that since anyone in the settlement can walk up and use it that a player is likely to just walk away with the tools, and you wouldn't be the wiser as to who did it unless you specifically had some Weard NPC's watching
napødyn: So when you go in a store and take their money and buy something in the store with it, as long as you don't leave with the money you good aye :wink:
Snipehunter :cloudlightning: heh, exactl-- wait.... :HrothiThinkElsy: No, not really - You set rights for stores explicitly, so they're an exception to the default rights settings.

Marovec V'ralt (Finn) Ⓥ: Snipehunter :cloudlightning: Since you happen to be on the subject of "rights", have you all hashed out whether the leader of a settlement will be able to "filter" who benefits from the settlement perks like food and water? I.E. Only "citizens" get the free food.
Snipehunter :cloudlightning: :rage: Marovec V'ralt (Finn) Ⓥ At the moment it doesn't work that way. Those benefits are provided to the incorporated parcels within the radius of the structures that provide them. If you're on one of those parcels, you would receive the benefit. Explicitly reserving those benefits for citizens is an interesting idea though; it's just not how we have it designed presently.

Ikkerens: Out of curiosity, how would the waerd deal with it if another tribesman broke the item whole using it?
Snipehunter :cloud_lightning: : @ Ikkerens At the moment, that'd be up to the folks involved; there's no explicit mechanic to handle "hey you borrowed my ladder and broke it you jerk!"
(Though if you break an NPCs [thing] they're not going to be happy about it or you.)

05.01.2019#Qindred Lore#

Protey: In the past you have said that Sanguinis made Aiden's mother. Did Sanguinis do this alone, with Luna, or with someone else?

Caspian: Heh. Ok. Then I'll just say - Sanguinis created her on his own. Much the way Terra created Selene.

Caspian: And still nobody has picked up on the subtle hint of trouble there....

Protey: Well, you mean besides Daemon having a kid with his sister? Daemon is the kid of Sanguinis is he not?

Caspian: Yeah. Oh, you mean because Sanguinis is his father.... Strangely, Sangunis is his father, but his wife is not his sister... there's no "blood relation" between himself and Daemon's wife....

Caspian: Now we're getting dangerously close to an important secret....

Protey: strange that you said "Daemon's wife" instead of "his wife"

Caspian: With respect to Sanguinis. Daemon's wife was created by sanguinis... but she is not his child. Just like Selene was not Terra's daughter or sister....

Caspian: Ok..... I suppose you guys have waited long enough....

Caspian: Who is the Qin of Life?

Rinkuji: Ao

Caspian: Right. Ao was given the ability to create life from his maker Angelica. All beings who are children of Ao have that ability.... hence why Terra, Kernos, etc. have the ability to create life. But Torra, Daemon, etc. only had the ability to change things... not create things. So if only the descendants of Ao can create life... how did Sanguinis do it?
Caspian: In the affair between Ao and Luna, who were the two people most impacted?

SirApetus: Mann and Angelica.

Caspian: Close.... Angelica and Sanguinis.
Caspian: Angelica unleashed her wrath upon the world. She cast Mann out of Haven and took away the sun.
Caspian: But Sanguinis..... Sanguinis had always felt inferior to Ao... and when Ao took his wife, he felt it right to take something in return.... Something from Ao.
Caspian: Heh. I've given you enough for now.... but there are more origins in the affair of Luna and Ao than just Mann.

Protey: Didn't Luna create Sanguinis by herself though?

Caspian: Yes. But Sanguinis isn't strictly speaking "alive." Luna lacked the ability to create beings the same way Angelica could. So it's her own darker version. Sanguinis is, after all, the Qin of Death. He's essentially the Grim Reaper.

Protey: Thank you for humoring me Caspian.

Caspian: No problem. :smiley: You guys are getting very close to some important, although orthogonal creation lore.

waerd#164: Who participated in the first and second God's war?

Caspian: To answer your question, the first Godswar was largely fought between the first two generations of Qin, and was largely a battle between Angelica and Luna, along with their offspring. The first godwar began unofficially with the affair between Ao and Luna, but officially when Angelica took away the sun and the heat of the world. I believe the third generation was also involved, but not all of them. Some were too young. I'd have to check my notes. Collectively though, these three generations were the antepyrovians - those who existed before the fire.
The Second Godwar was started when Aiden began his attempt to gather the primal relics from his ancestors. It was quite some time later as the world had become far more populated by the Children of Mann.
Caspian: Remember, Aiden was not a child of Mann, and was thus timeless and ageless, as are all the other ancients.

5.24.2019#Sister-city monuments

Snipehunter :cloud_lightning:: It's in the statues. When you build a sister city monument you specify the sister city. If said sister city also builds a monument and specifies you, the bonuses take effect.

Snipehunter :cloud_lightning:: "city" in this case just me being lazy with terminology, there isn't a size requirement on your settlement.

8.12.2019#Military Settlement Designations

Snipehunter: You we were all talking about the military designations a bit ago, just FYI:
Hamlet ...becomes... Outpost
Village ...becomes... Garrison
Town ...becomes... Fort
City ...becomes... Keep
Capital ...becomes... Stronghold
(These designations changed recently)

8.16.2019#D&SS Goals

Caspian: I don't have any particular interests from the perspective of someone picking. In terms of the maps as a whole, I have a ton of things I want to see as a designer.

• I want to see resources distributed around the map in an interesting way that encourages trade and conflict
• I want to see as diverse a set of professions and settlement focuses as can be created in a single duchy to encourage more choice
• I want to see a reasonable distribution of tribes across counties and settlements to encourage more variety, where possible, to again provide people with as many options as possible
• I want to see counties of varying sizes to cater to people who want to take on more or less responsibility
• I want to see counties/duchies that, when combined/merged, will help create a diverse and attractive set of domains and holdings
• I want to see a diverse range of sustainability across biomes and within biomes that allow people to pick their difficulty level during D&SS

I think the long delay tends to color peoples' perspectives. But in a very short time we've built a set of systems that allow us to create entire worlds - worlds larger than any MMORPG out there (non-space procedural), complete with resource generation, sustainability calculations, trade balance, fresh water sources, and more. And we're giving people the opportunity to change the way we approach an MMO launch. Instead of a "Monopoly", where there's a land rush all at launch, it's more like "Risk", where the board is pre-determined and everyone takes turn trying to raid and invade each other. D&SS is that part of a Risk or A&A game before the game begins when everyone places their pieces on the board. It's a very strategic part of the game. And this is, as far as I know, the first time this type of strategy has even been done on the scale of thousands of players. It's really, truly pretty epic. And I'm excited to see it finally restart in earnest.

08.14.19#Settlements Merging

Grand Count Rayyy: Casp if i buy some counties on a alt account during reverse auction, is there a way to merge them during expo? 🧐
Caspian: Not during Expo. Merging domains is very hard to do. Not quite impossible, but it's essentially an advanced mechanic requiring the agreement of many, many people involved. Consider what it would take to get two countries in Europe to agree to become one country. It's that hard. But it is possible.

The Collector (EU): lets say i have an extra mayor title wich adds 9 parcells, do these parcells include food production/farmland?

Caspian: No. They bring in 9 additional parcels, including the resources on them, as well as new buildings/NPCs. But they don't create resources that don't exist.
They do have professions and workplaces. But the resources available in the region may not be enough to sustain the settlement as-is for very long without additional work in-game to stabilize the economy.

Pteroguin: Anyway to tell what those extra parcels and population will focus on?

Vye: Depends on the biome.
Caspian: I’d say "More of the same." But you might be able to get an idea by looking at the surrounding area.
Caspian : To put "multis" and "merging" in perspective:
If the game were being played normally, then you'd gradually add in new parcels, NPCs, and resources over time by negotiating resources with your count, or by creating trade agreements with neighbors, sister-cities, etc. This gradual process of growing your settlement gives you the ability to control your growth rate, ensuring you're never at a point where your settlement is unsustainable. Sort of like playing a city-sim where you need to make sure your settlement has water, electricity, etc. for all its neighborhoods before expanding.
. Caspian: With multis and merged titles, people are expanding the settlement size "As-if" it had grown organically, but without that organic development. In some cases the settlements are able to sustain themselves even with the increased size. But in most cases, its going to require players to quickly put those trade agreements in place shortly after Expo begins or the settlement may begin to fall apart.

This would be a lot like pausing a city-sim game, dropping down a bunch of houses without adding water or electricity and then hitting play. It's do-able, but if you don't add water, sewage, and electricity shortly after starting the sim, the buildings will fall into disrepair and your citizens will leave to find a better lifestyle.

In short, multis and merged titles do not free you from the obligation of increasing sustainability to the point where it can support your settlement size. It just allows you to do those things AFTER your settlement has already achieved a certain size.

Trug: Question on settlement names, I noticed that most of the names for now look to be Neran-ish, in that they looked like normal English words. Makes sense, particularly given that most of them will be changed by the players anyway. But once things are set, do we know whether a place might be called different things in different regions based on the language there, like how Beijing became Peking to English speakers? Just a language nerd question.

Snipehunter :cloud_lightning:: The names are in english on the map during DSS as a convenience for folks since the language system doesn't exist on the website, but in-game you will see the names in their native tongue.
Caspian: To clarify - you'll always see the name in English if your character knows the language.
. Xef: When doing so.. Placing a merged account into a town and upping it to a capital. It has been mentioned that it could swallow up surrounding settlements.. What happens to those settlements.. Do the NPC's from those settlement migrate.. OR do they just poof into the void?
Caspian: If your settlement grows large enough that it would consume an unclaimed neighboring settlement then we assume their population went to the growth of the settlement that expanded.

Xef: Also.. to expand on charters. If someone does a charter to create a hamlet on AL, and does not push to a count to make it an official settlement. Does it keep it's AL status, or is the charter alone enough to remove AL?
Caspian: I think the confusion is around the term charter. A hamlet or village can be created by any group of individuals on any land they own. There is a contract that they sign that establishes any taxes, as well as the distribution of responsibilities among them, identifies the Chief Elder, etc. But this isn't a "charter" per say.

A town charter is required to be filed with a county as part of the process of moving up from a village to a town, and to gain access to county resources.

08.19.19#MMORPG vs. MEOW

Caspian: RPG = You play an adventurer role within a game.
MEOW = You become any economic role you can think of within a simulated world.

The differences are subtle, but important. The adventurer role vs. economic role speaks to the inherent flexibility, and the diversity in roles people will fill. Every character plays a role in the economy and in the story, even if they don't play a role in a party. Also, RPGs are typically stat based, while CoE is more skill based - both character and player, which blurs the line between RPG and Action-Adventure anyways.

The Game vs. World part is important as it highlights the chaotic nature of Elyria and the that fact that many of the mechanics assume the world is "fair but not equitable," and lacks the symmetric and finely tuned balance you find in most "games."

8.19.19#Faedin Religion

Caspian: The Faedin are a different play style - one steeped in spirituality, but lacking in anything that asserts a "correct" way to demonstrate their faith. At least on a global level. The various Faedin aspects certainly have their own "correct" way of being Faedin, but that's something else entirely.

The Faedin are an animist religion and incorporate principles of various animist religions of Earth. As such, they do have spiritual leaders, shaman, etc. but are otherwise intentionally distributed with no central organization that governs them. This is in contrast to the Al'tifali that have a central authority figure (Prophet/deity), the Virtori that have a central governing body (church), or the Qindred that have a shared, singular history and lore (mythos).

10.1.2019#Invitation to Adventure

Caspian: Not at my desk so my reply will be slow, but I wanted to take a quick second to elaborate on the Invitation to Adventure, and how it relates to the Seed stretch goal. To understand the two, and how they differ requires an understanding of how the story engine creates your personal destiny and how you trigger a story arc.
First, your personal destiny is a random set of potential story arcs based on your birthdate, location, etc. But these story arcs must be triggered by you being in a place and time that matches the requirements for that story arc.
So the Seed Your Destiny gives you some control over the types of conflicts or story arcs that you could potentially encounter, giving you a bit of control over your story. The Invitation is designed as a Push method of delivering a story arc to you, generally more adventurous and dangerous than the typical story arc, that doesn't require any specific circumstances to trigger it. It will be pushed upon you at some point in the character's lifetime. It's up to you to heed the call, but it is the story engine giving you an opportunity you might not otherwise have.
I don't know those details, but I don't think it'll be something you can ignore. You can opt out, but it'll likely present itself in a way that forces you to engage in the decision.
Caspian: As far as I know there's no difference between the adventures a mayor receives or a count or a Duke. That said, it's likely possible to will the adventure to someone else, much like Bilbo willed his next adventure to Frodo. I'd need to double check with the designers however.
Heh. Sorry folks, on my phone so I can't answer questions really. They come too fast and I can't reply quickly enough on my phone.
But, I saw the conversations so I wanted to help clarify. The Seed and the Invitation serve different roles. One helps determine the types of story arcs you might encounter, the other guarantees an adventure pushed upon you at some point without any indication of its type, complexity, or difficulty. But these adventure invitations are, I believe, more high adventure than the typical story arc.