- First, and most important of all, it's about security. How do you or your superiors intend to organize law-enforcement (guards)? People often state that they are going to have patrols and would send forces to trail down criminals, but barely ever get into details on how they envision to create this standing army. We know the figures ( roughly 12k players on 4 servers, 24 kingdoms, 288 duchies and 6912 countries, not to mention settlements) and people certainly won't be doing guard duty 24 hours a day. Even more so when you consider the possibility of joining an NPC duchy/county. Do you plan to ask people for their online-timeframes and how they guesstimate their PvP proficiency? How are you going to compensate for times when there are only OPC/NPC guards around?
Based on current information that we have, the Duke will be in charge of deploying armies, I myself am a Count though, so if settlements in my area are troublesome with crime, i will be seeking help from the Duke to help with filling some of the strongholds in my county with extra people. This way people can be better deployed throughout the region.
That being said, I plan to have an active Arena within my own town/city, this will allow people of a PvP nature to train and become better at what they do.
Patrols will just be handled by OPC scripting. The OPC scripting is the same as what NPC's use, and can be shared out of game as well. Through testing in the Alpha & Beta, we can see what scripts work for our needs and distribute those where needed. High priority targets will be covered by the patrols, however crime is crime, even if you prepare fully, people still find a way to commit crime, and the citizens will report crime, so my county will have whatever the equivalent of a investigators office is, so they can track down criminals and issue bounty tokens as and when required.... so people trained by the Arena can collect a bounty token and take revenge for those who have been wronged.
If your settlement is going to have walls, are you going to close the gate at specific times (and if so which ones)?
Walls are expensive and only really for Strongholds, walls will be where there needs to be secure areas, so that patrols are made easier, however i will be taking advantage of any natural barriers in the area, for example, there is no need for a wall when you have a cliff face on one side of the town, or a river...it'll be very suspicious if people are trying to cross those types of hazards besides using the main roads.
Are you going to send troops to trail down criminals and if so, are they going to cross borders (county, duchy and even kingdom)?
Troops?... probably not, it all depends on the nature of the crime. It's unlikely i'll be on the border as well, so there no need to cross borders, but i'll be sure to be in contact with the neighbouring counties, so that if a criminal escapes my area, they are still wanted in another area.... like-wise, i'd be helping to catch criminals who escape from neighbours to my area.
In terms of actually tracking people down, that'll be up to the people who take the bounty tokens, because bounty tokens should (game mechanics pending) be valid for the entire kingdom.... it will depend on the level of the reward as to whether or not they go for it. Some people will just track people down though, because bounty tokens are a legal way of combat, and players be players, so they'll have fun of legally messing someone up ;)
- And I'd love to know if you intend to treat local residents equal to 'foreigners' (trading and law specific)? What if they are of the same country/duchy/kingdom?
Game mechanics pending, but I'd treat locals better than "foreigners", but not to any extreme degree. Obviously i'd prefer people to be living in the settlements that are under my control, so locals will likely get a slightly better deal than an outsider, locals for example, might get a 5% discount. This would only be for things that are run by the county, and some things might be free for locals, like toll bridges? But this all depends on if there is a way for something like paper identification.
Does race, religion and language play a role there?
Not really in my Counties main town, because an Arena would do better with diversity, even if i have no control over what the town does in this aspect of the game, I'd control the Arena, so I'd play up to this by employing fighters from opposing tribes/religions/etc.... at least the people would be entertained :D
- How are you going to react on a delay when paying tax (e.g. if one's on vacation and the OPC script messes up)?
Tbh, a contract is a contract, if people mess up it's their own fault. An OPC might mess up, but thats human error for putting them in charge of something that important. A vacation isn't something that happens without warning, it's something that is planned. There is nothing to stop someone paying early BEFORE they go on vacation.
There might not be a way to notify people of my discord channel, but i'd have a discord channel for people to discuss anything that happens due to extreme circumstances, but this would be so rare it's not even worth making a plan for.
- What would be your preferred biome(s)/tribe and more concrete what sort of materials should I hope to find (I prefer working as a miner, lumberjack or herbalist)?
Tbh, as a Count I have little control over this. I am part of Nirath and I will be in whatever biome they are in. I'm happy to go with the flow with that one. Only preference i have is that I'd prefer to be on the coast, as it'll make transport and the "natural barrier" idea easier, but I could be just as happy land locked.
- Are there plans to increase your area of influence during KoE (and if you're willing to be a bit more concrete, which)? If you're going to work on this, are you going to try and centralize the settlements, in order to gain more of a playerbase and increase to chances of surviving in one larger settlement instead of multiple tiny spread out ones?
I am going to be part of an NPC Duchy. This means that there will be a high chance of me being surrounded by NPC Counts during KOE and the MUD.... so I'll land grab as much as the system allows me to, without becoming militaristic of course :D
- How do you plan to handle people who're going to try and replace existing crafters (e.g. somebody buys 125 'crafting material packs' during exposition with the discounted $200 EP deal, basically leaving the competition without a chance)?
It's worth noting that a lot of stock means nothing if your competition is undercutting you.
Also crafting isn't as simple a process of
raw material > crafting > final product.
There can be many different processes required before the end result is achieved. Eg
Seeds > Farming > Bakery > Cooking > Tavern
it's very unlikely that two players will conflict in such a way that it results in an unresolvable conflict within a settlement.
- What sort of law and tax are you looking for in the county/duchy/kingdom you're joining?
Depends on the laws and taces passed down from the Kingdom, which i'll have no control over.
Like everyone else, here's a discord invite for my settlement :D