I think time management will be a big part of this game. You wont be able to be good at everything, so players will naturally tend to specialize. They will focus on doing things they enjoy and doing things that are needed in their local community. If you look at the Dev journal on skill progression, you'll see that the Devs intend for only a certain percentage of players to advance to high ranks in any skill over the course of several lifetimes.

For contracts in particular, my understanding is that raising your skill will allow you to write new kinds of contracts, but also allow you to write more complex contracts. So you wouldn't be limited to writing laws to raise your skill. You should have an edge over the competition in most fields.

With regard to OPC's, I believe that they will not be able to increase your skill. They will be somewhat limited in the actions they can perform. With regard to skills, they will be able to practice, or to take actions that the character has mastered, which no longer give EXP but do prevent deterioration of skills.

I really want to hear more about scribing, too. I'd like to open a bookstore, so it's something I am very interested in.

So you're saying that even if other players did invest a bit in basic contracting, the players needs would eventually exceed simple agreements and would require a specialist regardless due to their own skill limitation or focus on other skills trees? That makes a good bit of sense to be fair.

It comes down to enforcement.
Public contracts are excellent for providing a place for neighbors to make deals and prevent prior arguments.
However, an unfulfilled contract doesn't teleport the offender to jail.
The contract turns into a bounty, and if you have an active bounty on your neighbor, you're going to have no problem finding your combat buddy and kicking in the devious sod's cottage door.

However, major traders who come from out-of-town or much further would need an agency dedicated to fulfilling contracts.
If a Notary were to be established and offer cutting edge contracts that allow for more complex configurations such as layaway or escrow, these notaries would earn some minor business from the occasional deal-seeker. However, the true powerhouses of the contract facilitation organizations will be those who have in-house bounty hunting.
If you're a caravanner and are looking to sell a large quantity of goods to a major manufacturing organization, you're not going to let that deal happen any other way than a long-standing contract facilitation organization that have an established presence within the region.

I think that all players can write basic contracts which are one to one. Now if you want a one to more (Will) or more than one transaction then you will need to seek out a Contract Specialist. These specialists are also capable of writing law and will work hand in hand with the nobility to craft the laws of the land. I think they will be a small group at the Kingdom level, a few less for a Dutchy, and possibly one or two for each County and possibly one per to be shared between a few Towns/Strongholds.

However my fear is that once these laws are crafted there probably will little change over time so the need for these specialists by the nobility may dwindle over time. But the need for their services will continued to be utilized by traders for larger transactions.

We know little about scribing as a skill. We know basic contracts for buying selling won't require much skill but the more complicated ones will require quite a bit.

Personally as a count I'd like to have someone who is a scribe living in my county seat to handle the more complicated contracts.

So I see a market for scribes but you will need to live where the work is. Not much adventure in a scribes future.

Posted By Traiten at

i cant see it being realistic for any and all players to come looking for a contractor, when the nearest one might be a days travel away. This would lead me to believe most people will invest time in being able to make their own contracts for efficiency sake, which in turn would make the role i would hope to play obsolete or difficult because i would lack contracts to create, to further my own skill. So how would this be dealt with?

This statement makes me think you are looking at CoE in the wrong way. You don't need to be the one that EVERYONE in Elyria goes to, your aim is better to be the one that everyone in your local area goes to. If it's just a village, you'll get plenty of business being the only scribe because other surrounding villages will go to you also, potentially being the scribe for 50-100 people/NPC's. If you want to be better, set up shop in the nearest town for more business, progress more then setup in the main city.... then progress to the kingdoms capital.

There won;t be just 1 ultimate person to go to for any one profession, but there will be the best person in the local area. Players are not going to want to travel far to find a scribe, same as they aren;t going to go far to buy a table for their house, as a scribe, if you set up shop in a place where lots of people go (eg a City), then you going to get plenty of people visiting you because they happen to be in the city and need a scribe at that time, it's extremely unlikely that anyone will travel across many kingdoms just to see the best at one profession for 5-10 minutes and then make the journey back home straight away after.

Posted By Traiten at 10:50 AM - Thu Apr 13 2017

So you're saying that even if other players did invest a bit in basic contracting, the players needs would eventually exceed simple agreements and would require a specialist regardless due to their own skill limitation or focus on other skills trees? That makes a good bit of sense to be fair.

Exactly. For example, I want to copy and sell books. If I'm in a town without a dedicated contract scribe, it would make sense for me to write some contracts on the side. Since that's not what I want to specialize in, some contracts would be beyond my skill level, so a potential customer would have to seek out someone more specialized in another location.

Another factor is that improving your skill level does not automatically give you additional crafting recipes or techniques. It merely allows you to learn or research at a higher level. You will need tutors, books, the example of a more learned colleague, or significant time invested in research to learn new techniques. This makes the knowledge of skilled users valuable, and a second possible source of income and EXP in addition to the higher quality products they produce.

As a Count, I have too much to do and too much to focus on to make my own contracts, hence why Counts 99.9% of the time need a Scribe in their Capital to make contracts for them.

Biggest contracts Count's need are land settlement contracts, and laws.

Posted By Nagash at 4:55 PM - Thu Apr 13 2017

Posted By Traiten at

i cant see it being realistic for any and all players to come looking for a contractor, when the nearest one might be a days travel away. This would lead me to believe most people will invest time in being able to make their own contracts for efficiency sake, which in turn would make the role i would hope to play obsolete or difficult because i would lack contracts to create, to further my own skill. So how would this be dealt with?

This statement makes me think you are looking at CoE in the wrong way. You don't need to be the one that EVERYONE in Elyria goes to, your aim is better to be the one that everyone in your local area goes to. If it's just a village, you'll get plenty of business being the only scribe because other surrounding villages will go to you also, potentially being the scribe for 50-100 people/NPC's. If you want to be better, set up shop in the nearest town for more business, progress more then setup in the main city.... then progress to the kingdoms capital.

There won;t be just 1 ultimate person to go to for any one profession, but there will be the best person in the local area. Players are not going to want to travel far to find a scribe, same as they aren;t going to go far to buy a table for their house, as a scribe, if you set up shop in a place where lots of people go (eg a City), then you going to get plenty of people visiting you because they happen to be in the city and need a scribe at that time, it's extremely unlikely that anyone will travel across many kingdoms just to see the best at one profession for 5-10 minutes and then make the journey back home straight away after.

Hi, no i had no expectation of being the one contractor to rule them all ha, the situation i find myself in is that in my kingdom, there will be one place dedicated to contracts and all things scribe, my concern was that if it was out of the way of any village, why would people make the effort to come to my location, if they could draft up their own contracts themselves, but it seems now from the others posts, that there are things we will only be able to do that even basic contracting cant cover.

As mentioned above, you do not need to be the best scribe/contract writer in the kingdom, be the go to guy for your local neighborhood. Then advance from there. Or latch on to a Count or Duke who will need to have contracts written and not have enough time to do it themselves. There are several routes open here. If your area has to many scribes consider moving to a village/town that doesn't have any or just a few. You do not have to be the best in game, just the best against your immediate competition.