This post has been edited in order to reflect considerable changes brought on by map N being the winner. Originally, I wanted to place Kheg County in the mountains, but the lack of actual mountains makes this problematic. Therefore, I've looked for other hilly or rocky terrain for the many elevation changes that it would bring throughout Kheg County.
Kheg County is placing biome selection above kingdom selection.
Looking at the length of this post, I had a lot more thoughts about this than I knew and wanted to make sure that all were communicated.
Doing what the title says undoubtedly has it cons, but that is the direction I'd like to take.
I'm looking to place Kheg County in the Broad Leaf or Arid Desert biomes. Limited mountains have pushed the Rocky Mountain Biome to a tertiary with the Alpine biome my fourth choice now.
With that said, I'm now switching from Plan A to Plan B.
It seems that the Kingdom of Vornair has the mountains in a lock. That's not a bad thing. It's actually quite perfect except for the fact that I'm not completely in Vornair. I imagine my 2.5 year hiatus has put me the outside. I plan on applying again to one of their duchy's, but thought I should take the opportunity explore the possibility of finding willing and able people; see what their interests are and then go about researching other kingdoms and duchies so that we can find a duchy together while building both a bond as well as a county in the mean time.
- Plan A. Kheg County is looking for people from barons/mayors on down who want to locate in the mountains and hopefully find ourselves being accepted by a Vornair duchy. Which duchy though? That is dependent on the one that we choose as a group to try and woo.
The only issue with Plan A is that there is the obvious lack of a guarantee that this duchy will end up in a mountain biome Personally, I like Vornair, but the terrain I work and manage is of ultra importance to me. I read that the develops figure that most people will never be more than 30 km from their home. With these new maps, we can determine exactly how far this distance is. It is equal to the average biome diameter. From one edge across to the other is +/-30 km. If things go according to the developers plans it sounds like the average player will likely never need to venture beyond the adjacent biomes. However, knowing that most resource gatherers, producers, and traders will likely not have the need to fully travel clear across any of the adjacent biomes really puts things into perspective. With equipment wear being a factor, I wonder if those that do make regular trips out of this 30 km range will end up loosing money and draining time that could have been better spent working a different plan. My fear is that Kheg County could easily end up in Vornair's talga biome and due to the 30 km best practices range we seem to have, I'd hate to spend the vast amount of my game time in that biome.
- Plan B is to look for a different kingdom with our eyes on a different biome. My desire for a mountain county came from the need for lots of stone since I planned on doing mainly stone masonry. The other reason – and just as important -- was the interesting backdrop that mountains provide. Rocky/hilly terrain makes for an interesting place. I imagine it would get very boring laboring away on a flat terrain biome such as a swamp or marsh and thought the desert and shrub type biomes wouldn't be much better. However, with these new detailed maps that show how much terrain elevation can change and how often in an area of 3 km x 3 km (what we have been told would be the average size of counties) gives the desert and shrub biomes a much, much, much greater appeal. So much greater that Plan B could be called Plan A.02.
The only change to plan B is nixing the shrub biomes. They lost a lot of there erosion in Map N and are now pretty flat. In place of the shrub biomes is the Broad Leaf Forest.
In short, Plan B is a search for a duchy/kingdom in either the broad leaf forest or in the arid desert.
Originally, I was dead set on the mountain biome, but I'm liking our options.
My own personal game play plans are to build infrastructure and as I said earlier, I wanted to do it in stone so the mountains became a logical desire as a place to establish Kheg County. I'm not into PvP and as the county's count I'd like to see Kheg County become a very trade oriented place. It was this vision that lead me to the idea of building infrastructure because it would help businesses conduct commerce and trade. I may have to ditch stone masonry for carpentry, or perhaps mud bricks and sandstone, but the basic plan to build infrastructure in order to support commerce is still there.
If you are looking for a county and don't mind not having a duchy as of yet, consider what I've said. Aside from one other county resident – a Brudvir carpenter named Timbar – Kheg County is at stage one. The only thing written is stone so far is the county's name and that we're commerce oriented. Help Timbar and I chisel the rest in via a committee(s). If you have sound, coherent ideas you'd like to see implemented to help you in your own game play, but don't have any other means to implement them, you are highly encouraged to join us.
I'm very open to the thoughts and concerns of others who are interested, but have reservations. Kheg County is way behind all others in development plans and recruitment so your thoughts on how to turn all of this around is truly appreciated.
As far as culture goes, I see a lot of kingdoms and duchies and even some counties are creating their own cultures from scratch. I don't know if the masses are really concerned with having this, but if we find that it is something beneficial it can be written over time and therefore a project we can do as a group as opposed to myself dictating it and hashing it all out in a single night.
Let's build this county together and if we can't do it in stone, bring a sharp axe so we can chop down some trees. I imagine it will be slow recruitment until we are picked up by a kingdom and/or duchy, but if you have the patients and drive; and possess the ability to leave the drama in your mama's basement we can get it done.
Speaking of drama, I reminded myself of griefing. It needs to be stabbed in the jugular or it will turn a solid foundation into a wet paper bag due to its butterfly effect. I'm a firm believer that people who have a tendency to create grief aren't going to be worth what they can bring to a county's economy. That's my opinion of course, but a committee can tell me I'm wrong if/when the griefers head out in their gem encrusted carriage looking for attention.
One last thing
In addition to mayor/barons all the way down to laborers, I think having viscounts (read as vice count) would be beneficial. I'm looking for them and can offer free land to the right individual(s). This person(s) would be level-headed, diplomatic, mature, articulate, easy to work with and have the ability to bring coherent ideas to the committee table in a productive way. In short, the right person(s) would demonstrate professionalism in all aspects. This is not to say you can't be yourself, but rather have a good sense of when and when not too.
If you're interested either post here or send a private message. Let's buckle down, roll up our sleeves and hammer Kheg County out.
Kind regards,
Count Zii Ryph