Ingame general chat won't be able to reach across the map(family chat and backer chat will) but I'm sure anything really important people will use discord for it.

I've seen some guilds set up a courier service for general purpose..Like a UPS or Fedex..I think you would get more gameplay out of the general population vs doing it for a king. That is just my opinion. If you do try to do this for a king, I would look for a king right now. Trust will be the biggest factor when handling important information.

I love the idea of a courier service; the pie delivery quests in the Shire on Lord of the Rings were some of the most fun in the whole game.

That said, I tend to agree with Deftly that for anything important or timely, players will bypass the game and be it will done by Discord. The reason for this is time in the game. Pick up a message and stop off at a pub for a bit of light roleplay on the way, and before you know it a couple of months of time in the game have passed, which is just too long for an important message. Get lost on the way and the message won’t get delivered for a year of in game time.

I feel that a Courier Service is a need that will need to be filled, especially from a Count or a higher nobility. I will have no way to communicate with the Duke, fellow Count, or even the King himself, and I am not about to travel great distances unannounced. Now whether it will be a trade that has enough business to support a player or not has yet been seen, as I see the courier having a separate main job, such as part of the military (for fighting training) which can come in handy while on the roads. I don't think there will be messages sent every day, so local couriers could be on a list to contact when a job arises but I do see them as a invaluable job for the nobility.

Yeah discord would make sense you make a valid point. I had a feeling it would be more of a role play thing and as much as I would love the thought of chronicles of Elyria playing out like a book, there will just be too much in the way of competition that instant information via discord that an actual courier just couldn't compete with. It would probably be more flavor than profession. I might see if I can enlist the employ of a noble and then consider giving it a shot. I'm mainly just really excited for this game to be everything I'm looking for and missed my window for buying a count package. I just want to do something that matters, be something. And a courier doesn't have to be royalty but can still be crucial

A courier service is going to be one of the most important things in the game. The reason I think of the general population is a better target at least to me. Think about all the people who want to be merchants, who want to be just like you and help in their own way. They want to craft, cook, provide services, etc. If a royal needs something delivered there will be tons of people trying to get on their good side..It will get delivered..Setting up a network for everyone is helping the kingdom from the inside out. Instead of traveling ,people can get stronger at their craft, more time is spent growing and producing..

Well spoken, you may be on to something. I will definitely be putting some thought into this. I wish I could have gotten the resources of a counts package to help fund such a venture but it could still be quite possible. I'll type something up in the NA forums tomorrow and see what kind of support I can get from the community as far as willing hands go. As you said, trust is everything and I would need as many trustworthy supporters as I can find for an undertaking such as this.

To counter the above discord argument actually, there are at least three major factors as to why we can't necessarily rely on outside communication.

The first is due to the contract system. We might be able to handle our business dealings over third party messenger apps, but there's a great deal of value on the mechanical elements of in-game contracts concerning how they interfaces with players and npcs alike.

Secondly, there's the fact that information itself is a commodity. This has been mentioned in regards to The Weard and my example might not be perfect, but let's say you're knocked out and robbed by a bandit. If someone witnesses the crime, they're able to give that information to say a guard and perhaps get an investigation underway via bounty tokens.

And lastly, while you can certainly use discord to collaborate with the people you're working with, how do you reach the people you don't know? If you're running a business, settlement, duchy, etc, it will be necessarily to communicate with people you can reach over Discord or even the CoE forums. This problem is a bit unheard of now concerning the entirety of Elyria exists in these spaces, but that won't always be the case.

To sum it all up, forums and third party chat will absolutely be a part of the game, but SBS is doing a great job in making sure the communication within the world is integral to game play.

Couriers of some sort will be necessary to transmit messages to delegated NPCs and OPCs. Not all delegated responsibilities will be held by player characters, and NPCs by definition cannot participate in Discord. Players cannot be responsive to game events at all times, even via Discord.

Will couriers be usable in the above instances? For contracts and dealings with npcs. Are contracts physical objects like that? Something that someone could or even want to send in the mail so to speak. Or some sort of npc quest, can you even use a third party? I'm sorry for the barrage of questions, I just want to know as much as possible. Information is wealth after all

Posted By OprahFTWinfree at 2/13/2018 11:28:50 AM

Will couriers be usable in the above instances? For contracts and dealings with npcs. Are contracts physical objects like that? Something that someone could or even want to send in the mail so to speak. Or some sort of npc quest, can you even use a third party? I'm sorry for the barrage of questions, I just want to know as much as possible. Information is wealth after all

Contracts are physical objects. If you check out that EP Kit Projection thread it has that you can buy stacks of them.

Posted By OprahFTWinfree at 2/13/2018 11:28:50 AM

Will couriers be usable in the above instances? For contracts and dealings with npcs. Are contracts physical objects like that? Something that someone could or even want to send in the mail so to speak. Or some sort of npc quest, can you even use a third party? I'm sorry for the barrage of questions, I just want to know as much as possible. Information is wealth after all

Contracts are physical objects. If you check out that EP Kit Projection thread it has that you can buy stacks of them.

That part I knew, i just wasn't sure if it would be something someone would want to send via courier or done in person. Still unsure of all the exact mechanics

Your character will have both an inventory of items, and an inventory of knowledge. There will be game mechanics (the legal system, cassus belli, etc), that will rely on the right characters having the necessary knowledge in their inventory. So I definitely think that a courier service will be useful regardless of whether players are using discord or the in-game ooc chats.

Posted By OprahFTWinfree at 07:51 AM - Tue Feb 13 2018

Posted By OprahFTWinfree at 2/13/2018 11:28:50 AM

Will couriers be usable in the above instances? For contracts and dealings with npcs. Are contracts physical objects like that? Something that someone could or even want to send in the mail so to speak. Or some sort of npc quest, can you even use a third party? I'm sorry for the barrage of questions, I just want to know as much as possible. Information is wealth after all

Contracts are physical objects. If you check out that EP Kit Projection thread it has that you can buy stacks of them.

That part I knew, i just wasn't sure if it would be something someone would want to send via courier or done in person. Still unsure of all the exact mechanics

I know in a one of the QnAs, Caspian said players wouldn't be able to give npcs contracts, that the process would only work in reverse, but I'm not entirely buying it. I think npcs won't be able to accept your run of the mill player-made contracts for fear of exploiting those behaviors, but contracts aren't all "I need 10 bundles of wheat". Laws and land policy fall into a system of contracts and I believe there will be a way for npcs to interact with those sorts of things.

Personally, I'm really hoping to see a system where a contracts can dictate at least the minimum of giving (let's say...) npc guards more direct orders for specific situations (assuming there isn't another way to drive those commands).

Caspian has amended the npc contract thing in discord:

[12:53 PM] Caspian: You can initiate a contract with an npc.

[12:53 PM] Caspian: They just may decline.

[12:54 PM] Caspian: There are several contract types, some they will accept, some they wont.

[1:05 PM] Caspian: We had said you couldnt. But asnwe formalize certain contract types its clear there is a lot they can agree to.

[1:06 PM] Caspian: Its really the non-standard ones they wont sign.

[1:09 PM] Caspian: Contracts come in different types - similar to how there are different types of weapons.

[1:10 PM] Caspian: But, like other equipment they can be altered

[1:10 PM] Caspian: Npcs likely will be able to evaluate non altered versions of the standard types.

I don't think people would use couriers for contracts if we are talking about important messages..We'll need couriers for the day to day but if we are answering his question about important message transit I think discord will win every time.

1. Contract system - We know will the deviant skills that we can forge documents. I doubt a king would want to send a courier with a pre-signed contract out . Most of the people kings would be sending something like that to are in their discord ,known, and not an npc.

2. information commodity - I agree with your reasoning here but I don't see this being a paid service. This is something that is more of an emergency where running to a guard to tell him something important has happened. We will need that to happen. If the guard is a human yelling at him via discord to come to the area will speed up the process..

3. collaboration - I agree with this point for day to day but again falling back to important messages speaking to someone you can give exact instructions would almost always beat out sending a message and waiting for a reply. For example, the captain of your army is fighting but not in discord and you need to tell him to fallback. If there is a soldier in discord it would be faster to tell the soldier to tell the captain to retreat than to tell a courier, wait for travel time, hope he makes it, then he needs to find the captain, and finally give him the order.

Just for another point, making yourself more accessible via discord is something that anyone who wants to be important does. Most of the deliveries wouldn't be to npcs if there are important messages.