After I first read Caspian’s announcement about the Free Kingdoms, I still had a bunch of questions, so I decided to put together a Q&A post to answer as many of them as I could.
If you have additional questions that I haven’t answered, please let me know and I will add them to the list.
1. What are Kingdom Tokens?
They serve three purposes in COE.
First, they grant the purchaser 100 EP.
Second, they may be gifted to someone and the person receiving the Kingdom Token gets 50 EP.
Third, they are the method of voting for which community members will be given the option of taking nobility titles for the last kingdom on the NA-E (North America East) server (“The Free Kingdom”). The person with the most tokens at the end of the contest can become King / Queen of the “Free Kingdom”. The next 6 highest totals, have the option to become Dukes, and the next 144 highest may become Counts.
You probably have a lot of questions about the details of those statements … I will try to answer them below.
2. Why is Soulbound doing this?
Well there is a Kingdom on the NA server without a King … it is better to fill that Kingdom with people that want to actively play than to have a bunch of NPCs at every level of the Nobility.
It is also functionally an EP sale which should raise some more funds for the game.
Lastly, it is a way to help build community involvement.
Plus it is very cool …
3. How do I purchase a Kingdom Token?
They are in the Merchandise section of the store. On the left tab, there is a heading called “Tokens”, click on it and you will see Kingdom Tokens as one of the options.
4. How much do they cost?
$10
5. Can I buy more than 1?
Yes.
6. What do I get for it again?
Well, to start with you get 100 EP. This is the same amount of EP you can currently purchase for $10, so there is no reason to purchase the $10 EP package during this sale.
And you get to give someone else in the community 50 EP!
And you get to give someone (hopefully worthy) a chance to be part of the Nobility on NA-E.
The next set of questions are mostly about EP, jump to the next section (question 17) if you want some answers about the Nobility Contest for the “Free Kingdom”
7. Do I want EP? What can I do with it?
Well if you are bloodline and above, you can purchase lots of things to improve your lot in life at the start of Exposition. This posting is the best write up of what you might do with EP.
8. Wait, what if I am don’t have a bloodline or higher package, do I want EP?
You won’t be able to spend EP if you are not bloodline+, it will be converted to Story points at some unspecified (and most likely small) conversation rate.
9. OK, now you lost me, Story Points?
Story points are awarded to your character over their lifetime based on the amount of activity your character performed to help advance the overall story for everyone. They can be used to purchase more sparks, and/or determine the starting position of the character that you begin with in your next COE life. An active player should generate enough Story points during their life to be able to easily come back as their heir (in the same position as they previously played) or move laterally to an equivalent type of NPC in another place/tribe, etc. This mechanism has not been fully described, and obviously is not that important until the game is well underway.
The main purpose of this mechanism is too keep inactive players from permanently sitting in the Nobility.
The important point is that your extra EP aren’t entirely lost, but also that Story points aren’t of a great deal of immediate use to you.
10. So, this promotion is really only for people pledged at bloodline and above?
Not necessarily, there are still some good reasons that Adventurer pledges might still want to purchase a Kingdom token.
First, they can gift them to the a person that they intend to work with - A mayor, baron, count, duke or king. This will help the recipient by giving them more resources to build up their lands, and provide more advantageous starting point for your local area, which may well benefit you as a citizen of their domain.
Second, we haven’t covered the whole voting for Nobility thing, which we will get to shortly. But there are many reasons why you might want to help a particular person gain a Noble title …
11. Is this a good deal for EP?
This is a tougher question, yes and no. There are volume discounts on EP if you are purchasing it in bulk. There are not volume discounts for purchasing Kingdom tokens. So in the absence of trading tokens, it is just the standard deal for EP.
Of course, trading tokens changes things quite a bit. 100 EP for the purchaser and 50 for the recipient. That is 150 EP for two characters for $10. This is the best discount that has been offered. It was previously offered at this rate during the anniversary sale at 300 EP for $200.
But I only have one character … ok, find a friend that also wants to take advantage of the sale. Each buy a token and trade it to each other. Poof. 150 EP for $10. It is now a very good deal for EP.
12. Can I just make a second account and just trade with my other character?
Sure, but remember each of the accounts needs to be pledged at Bloodline+, so it is probably not that economical to make a second account just for this sale.
13. No problem, I can just merge my two accounts …
Nope. One of the rules of this contest is that no account can be merged with any account that it has donated Kingdom tokens to.
DO NOT DONATE KINGDOM TOKENS BETWEEN ACCOUNTS THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO LATER MERGE
14. So what you are saying is that I need to make 3 accounts and …
I guess. So to my knowledge SBS hasn't outlawed all the strange combinations of accounts that are currently going through your head. It clearly goes against the spirit of this promotion, but to my knowledge it hasn’t been specifically outlawed (possibly yet).
However, if you are going to buy three or more bloodline accounts and then a bunch of Kingdom tokens, why don’t you just upgrade your pledge to the Courtier level …
15. Do I have to be on the NA-E server to buy and trade tokens?
Nope. Nothing about the EP part is specific to NA-E.
16. Do I get to keep the EP from the tokens I receive if I am not a winner of a nobility title?
Yes. This EP has nothing to do with the rest of the contest. It is yours.
17. OK, so wasn’t this whole thing about a contest for ruler of the Free Kingdoms?!??
So from one perspective this is a sale on EP. But more importantly this is also a community vote for which community member gets an offer to be the ruler of the last Kingdom on NA-E.
The person who receives the most tokens wins the right to rule the Free Kingdom!
Well, to be fair the right to rule at the start.
In practice, we shall see whether the voting or the EP purchasing is the larger of the two initiatives, but regardless of what happens, both things will be going from now until 12/31, and quite a few people will get the option to be the starting Nobility on NA-E “Free Kingdom”.
This is a chance for the community to decide upon some of its’ leaders. We can take advantage of it, or not. It is up to us.
18. Wait, they get to be King or Queen?
Yep. It is a very cool opportunity, and you get to participate. There are a ton of campaign postings in the Luna Domains forums. Go check them out. They are summarized elsewhere, so I won’t try to cover that in this post.
Donate a token to whomever catches your fancy. Best idea, prettiest art, most competent, least competent, best one liners, most fun to play with or against, best hair, most likely to set the server on fire … whatever criteria you pick.
19. Are there any restrictions on the offer of Monarchy?
Some important ones …
First, they can’t be an existing Monarch or an existing Duke.
Second, they must be the ruler of the sixth kingdom in NA-E, and presumably it will be very late (probably last) in the choosing of tribes and lands.
Third, they get a random assortment of runners up to be their “loyal” dukes. I am sure than none of the dukes will begrudge the winner in any way, and all of them will be totally onboard with the King’s plans.
20. Sounds great, can they turn down this honor?
Yep, but they can’t turn in the Monarch package for anything. It is all or nothing. Well ok, they get to keep the gifted EP from the tokens, but nothing from the Monarch package.
21. How about the various other nobility runners up, do they have to accept?
Nope, they can also turn down the honor of ruling, but again, they don’t get anything from the Nobility package if they decide not to accept.
22. Can the Nobility take their package to another kingdom or server?
Nope, NA-E “Free Kingdom” or nothing.
23. What prevents an existing monarch from making an alternate and taking this kingdom as well?
Well, first of all SBS. Second, everyone is already pretty darn busy trying to get their own lands in order. So in theory, they could do exactly that, but in practice it is pretty likely to destabilize their current kingdom or dukedom.
Well, what if they just want to cause more chaos in the Free Kingdoms? Shrug, given what I have seen so far, I am not sure how I could tell the difference. The candidates seem to be already doing a pretty good job of that on their own, but I digress.
All snarkiness aside, the Free Kingdoms are going to be a pretty chaotic place for quite awhile given the nature of this contest, so I doubt that it is worth that much of the other rulers time help destabilize things. I suspect it might in fact be the opposite where the other rulers might initially wish to help stabilize things so that they have a less unpredictable land on their border. This is of course, pure conjecture on my part.
24. Well what about Adam, he seems to collect kingdoms, wouldn’t he want a third?
I am not Adam and I don’t speak for him, but he has very clearly said that (a) he is tired of this question and (b) he has absolutely no interest whatsoever in having another kingdom. There is no game without other players. It is in his best interest to have an independent and worthy individual sit on the throne of the Free Kingdoms.
A quick search of the forums will find his more eloquent post on the subject.
25. Do I have to be on NA-E to donate a token to one of the campaigns?
Nope, feel free to get involved. Whatever sounds like the most fun to you …
26. Can candidates offer me something in return for my votes?
Sure, there doesn’t seem to be any restriction that I know of about campaign promises.
Off the top of my head: positions of power and influence, hours of entertainment, blind hope, terrible threats, great inspiration, awful puns, in-game help, a debt of honor, kind words, doodles, and many other things ought to be all in play.
Maybe you can get them to sing a song for just for you …
If nothing else, the campaign should offer quite a bit of entertainment … think of it as another perk of your existing pledge and enjoy it.
27. So what happens if a Nobility offer is turned down? Who fills it?
It goes back to being an NPC in that slot. So if the top 151 token recipients are all planning on playing on the European server, well, we are just back to where we started, lots of NPCs in the “Free Kingdom”
Somehow I doubt this will end up being the case, as there are already a lot of very active and interesting campaigns underway.
28. Is there a leaderboard?
No. That would influence the campaigns.
29. Will there be announcements about progress during the campaign from SBS?
There has been no indication of that so far …
Be a part of the “Free Kingdoms” campaign. Take advantage of this opportunity to help shape our community.
Hopefully this has been helpful to you someone. If you have any other questions that I can answer, add a comment and I will try to add them in to the list.
