I understand what you're getting at, but I think the game's already designed to be egalitarian. As someone who's paying up front, I'm more or less accepting of losing my title within the first year of gameplay. It's less likely on the less-populated Oceania server, but it's still entirely possible. I think most nobility are prepared for it, because the devs have stated repeatedly that these benefits are not intended to be permanent, and that new players will be able to dethrone them as they grow in status themselves.

A nobody has a lot of potential paths to nobility. You can go from a hobo to a landowner fairly quickly if you play well, from where you can gain power in your town to become a mayor, and then you're already part of the aristocracy and capable of plotting with other mayors against your count, if you want to dethrone them.

There's also the thing that people don't remember - that the majority of the nobility will be NPCs at launch. Regardless of the AI quality, they will always be less difficult to unseat than players. So there'll be a whole wealth of easier victories at launch for people who are more sensible with their money.

I be wanting to build my Bloodline from the ground up from me keeping it going to other people marrying into my Bloodline keeping it going. Making it stronger say a player wants my second born cause they want to have those skill. So i go hey sure as long you carry my family name.

Also If some how you become a underling vamp (which is very very rare as it should be) well if i make a underling will they carry my bloodline. Royal Vamp a prince of Darkness nice ring to it

Hate to burst your bubble, Snowhawk, but that is just not true. Some of us took advantage of the layaway. If you want something enough, you can always find a way.

You see snowhawk, unlike me, you are financially responsible. LOL. Of course there was no sane reason for me to plop a $1000+ down on a game that wasn't even in production yet. But what I did to "lessen" the sticker shock and "falsely" justify doing it was I pledged at lower levels and gradually increased the pledge over time to the next level. Also, I put it on several different cc. In that way it "seemed" far less than what I actually pledged.

So I am far from rich but more creative in how I pay for big ticket items. As to the rich getting the better things in life. I am said to say it but welcome to the real world. That being said, I am not really sure the headache of running any level settlement over just going out as a peon is the better thing. There is a very good chance that someone like you may be actually running my county and I act more as a figure head.

If your heart is set on running a settlement but don't want to spend the money, why not offer your services to run the settlement for someone who really dosn't want to? Maybe work out an arrangement were you marry the person so you have some actual claim to it?

Besides purchasing a standard noble pledge [which is no longer in the store] or wining a modified pledge from a contest there are at least 8 different methods of becoming a king in game.

• Casus Belli from Favor

Requires obtaining favor from your peers and/or the peers of the title above you. This is the standard Dance of Dynasties.

• Casus Belli from Fame

Requires reaching at least a level of fame just below the targeted noble title if not [preferably] higher. Attempting to be king requires at least Exalted level if not Legendary.

• Casus Belli from Wealth

Required to accumulate some, yet to be defined amount of wealth based on play-testing, to buy a Casus Belli against a targeted title.

Of course, you still need the land to claim as your own, you still need an army to invade/defend your new title, and you would still have to learn how to dance the Great Dance.

• Tribe-Specific Casus Belli from Culture

See each Tribe write up for the details.

• Inheritance

If you inherit from a PC or NPC (with Favor), you become a Noble.

• Mariage

An external Marriage contract which grants a title equal to or below the highest titled spouse.

• Appointment/Assignment from another noble

A noble can remove their subordinates from power and appoint another lesser noble in their stead if and only if there's a vacuum or power struggle. This generally happens during the death of a noble without an heir, or if a title is revoked due to treason.

A noble can use an external contract to assign a title equal to or below their own. Such contracts are how knights, barons, mayors, sheriffs, judges, and many other titles are achieved. A noble can will away their titles using this method. The inherent contract of the noble's Ring of Nobility is overridden by the external contract until it is somehow broken.

The final standard method is mentioned in Down-the-rabbit-hole as part of the use of Story Points in Character Creation.

"All characters you create will require some amount of story points, even if that's zero. The more famous/powerful the character you want to create/take control of, the more Story Points they'll require"

This means that if you have the required number of SP to be a noble you can create a character with at least one of the following options:

• the required level of fame or wealth for Casius Belli for the title
• membership in the royal family and earning the title from parent or gaining the title by standardized inheritance laws. While most noble families will be locked to prevent this, there is still the possibility of more distant relatives gaining the title.
• fulfilling a destined story line which might include finding a long lost Ring of Nobility or other Relic of Nobility [similar to pulling the sword from the stone].

During VoxElyria and Kingdoms of Elyria there will apparently also be certain activities and events in which Gentry may earn a title up to possibly Count.

Yeah, as people have pointed out. The rich getting the good shit in life is just the way the cookie crumbles. That's life. However. In CoE, nobles will not always be nobles. Some may be assassinated. Others will be born into their families while nobles decide to be reincarnated into a lesser born civilian. Some may be overthrown. The possibilities are endless, and you have a huge number of ways to become nobility. But again, as others have pointed out being a noble isn't all it's cracked up to be.

We know that for a standard player, if they become incapacitated that detracts two rl days of the characters lifespan. For a noble, the number of rl play days taken away per incapacitation goes up exponentially. Thus greatly reducing your character's lifespan. So not only is there the huge headache of leading a territory as a noble, but it's also incredibly dangerous too. About as dangerous as being an adventurer, though arguably being a noble is less fun. Unless you enjoy the headache of politics.

And to be quite honest, if you can't afford a pledge package we the community do have a solution for that. Don't know if anyone wants to link it, but there are those in the community who have just been buying EP to help support the game. Instead of just throwing that money away, they want to put it to a good cause. Namely helping someone buy the game or make their pledge. There are plenty of people who would be willing to help you make your pledge, so long as it's not super expensive. Then again, some people are super generous. Someone gifted me Proprietor, which is far above the pledge package I was personally aiming for. It wouldn't hurt to ask. Worst someone can say is no.

But...but it took me six months to save up for my pledge. 😢

In addition, the Free Kingdom is running in NA-E as an example where inspiring leaders can become nobility with limited expenditure.

I agree with your first statement, wealth cultivates wealth, so those who were able to put down the most money into the game will naturally be those who start out with the most. This is unavoidable due to the nature of the game needing founding from willing investors, so a more true egalitarian approach won't be possible before after launch.

However, if it's any comfort we will start out blind in regards to how the market of this world works, making investments potentially more costly and risky in the beginning. Those who build themselves up from scratch instead will be able to observe (and perhaps learn from) the circus of people wasting their fortunes chasing goals that turns out to not be very profitable endeavors.

Also, a community is more than an individual and will thrive according to the overall opportunities found within it. A noble that will try to hog all land and industry for himself will harm and eventually destroy any community that exist in his domain. Thus if the leadership isn't incompetent in your area, then you should be able to find plenty of opportunities to build yourself up.

In regards to titles however, they come with responsibilities, and aren't meant to be something you claim just for bragging rights. It should be hard enough to claim a title that it proves someone is resourceful and determined enough to function in the position. I expect that a lot of the initial nobility won't be sufficiently dedicated due to many getting the title on a silver plater instead of through true effort and proves.

Also, your suggestion is too military focused for my taste, it would devolve the world of CoE into a PvP combat focused Game of Thrones realm, rather than a society sim. The current weight on a persons resourcefulness, diplomacy, wits and charisma in acquiring a title is more fitting in regards to testing the qualities that actually makes for a good leader. If your strength lies more in combat PvP than political PvP then you should probably aim for knighthood or a military rank or something instead.

We're predicting most launch nobles to lose power in the chaos that will be the first few months.

Though there's still the edge of NEETs having the time advantage, as always.

Posted By elesk at 08:45 AM - Tue Dec 19 2017

how do you attack that? even if by a miracle you manage to win and take a duke position the next day you will be attacked by 7 dukes and the king inorder to return the position to their friend

Not necessarily. If you came into the game day one as a mayor or baron and took a duchy (which can't happen due to the restriction of moving up one class at a time), then yes, they would take it back. You are forgetting about the dance of dynasty. You need to gain power, fame and/or popularity to move up through the various levels nobility and aristocracy. Through hard work and patience, over time you may gain the favor of fellow Counts and/or Dukes; in which case they may aid your cause to overthrow a County or Duchy. It won't happen overnight.

Those who pledged a higher dollar amount are why the game is funded and being made.

Those of use who pledged during the kickstarter are the reason (one of them anyway) why SBS had the initial funding to take the game from Caspian’s fever dream and pull it into reality. The faith shown during the KS should be rewarded with something. We had little more than Caspian’s honeyed words to go on back then.

The reason the prices were set were they are is because the packages are where SBS is drawing their capital to produce the game. Lowering the prices means fewer resources to pull off a finished product.

To allow their backers to start from nobility only seems fair. Given we have zero special protection and because we have an investment to defend/protect those with the Duke/monarch pledges are the ones building communities and helping to attract other folks to the game.

In short while it may look like haves versus have-nots but it’s more those who were here first and believe more in the ‘vision’ than those who want to wait and see.