Shamstone and I (Brother) are intended to be neighboring counts on the mountain / fertile border (EU). We plan to build small estates from the ground up as you've mentioned, but don't expect any major issues. As we're the local counts, we can ensure the land is zoned and connected. We don't plan to do anything massive on the small estates, but want to invite a few other people across to get them off to a good start if it's their sort of thing. We don't really want to be running the seperate settlements either so will look for players that want to manage a small farming settlment and others that want to managed a small mining settlement.

Best advice - speak to the local count. They will in most cases be more than happy to accomodate. Many players have different dreams for Elyria. It's nice to help try to shape that.

For the estates, what any alt does will depend on what local players want to do. I do want some bee keeping locally. Hopefully Elyrian Bees are no exception but they are very nice creatures. I've fished a fair few out of puddles and bird baths in summer months and occasionally taken out sugar water and fed them when it's hot. They will sit on your hand, eat, clean themselves off and fly off quite happy.

Posted By brownmat000 at

There are many different factors when choosing to build a settlement from nothing, land, location and recourses to say a few. What problems do you guys see with creating a settlement from scratch, or solutions to these problems?

I think there will be no hardship in creating very small hamlets or villages but once you start to grow into a town or city, I believe that land is going to be the hardest of the requirements to grow. because the landowners around the city will know that it is trying to grow and will charge inflated prices on the land or not even sell it at all.

I actually think that getting it past the hamlet stages will be harder than anything else. You still need to regularly eat food in a hamlet as if you were in the wilderness, unless a tavern has been erected and has access to food stores.

And actually I don't see land owners squashing people to keep them from building up their city for 2 reasons.

1. If the city grows, they benefit too. If the city stays small or stagnant then the current land owners can never expand their influence.

2. You don't have to buy land from other land owners, or start a lease on their property in order build your own house. You can simply buy a unowned piece of land, which you purchase from the county seat if I'm not mistaken, and the other land owners have no say in the selling price of that parcel of land.

More or less - "Unowned land" after launch is managed by the Count. They can release it, effectively zoning the region, manage road networks and supply etc. If you go to the local county land table you can take up a contract for the plot (and pay tax as standard). You could alternatively attempt to squat but then risk being turfed out. Other than owning the land in the manner you can rent parts of plots from other owners.

I think the biggest issue when makes something from scratch in my opinion will be recruiting / keeping people. With all money we can spend now and EP we can spend later, I think it will be hard to find people that wants to start from nothing since we have kings, dukes, counts, barons, and mayors that are throwing incentives left and right for people to join them.

An answer that's closer to your question would be, I believe being close to any resource should do for a starting town. Being near a resource should attract people that can use it. When it comes to getting food, I think you will have a lot of people willing to go out and hunt, fish, or gather due to the nature of CoE. I doubt food would be a problem. Water could be an issue until you can get a well though.

Like Oracle suggested the best thing to do right now is to make friends and let them know of your plans. If you want a farming or fishing city there could be a count that wants exactly that, he/she could help you grow.

Posted By Oracle at 2:41 PM - Mon Dec 03 2018

Shamstone and I (Brother) are intended to be neighboring counts on the mountain / fertile border (EU). We plan to build small estates from the ground up as you've mentioned, but don't expect any major issues. As we're the local counts, we can ensure the land is zoned and connected. We don't plan to do anything massive on the small estates, but want to invite a few other people across to get them off to a good start if it's their sort of thing. We don't really want to be running the seperate settlements either so will look for players that want to manage a small farming settlment and others that want to managed a small mining settlement.

Best advice - speak to the local count. They will in most cases be more than happy to accomodate. Many players have different dreams for Elyria. It's nice to help try to shape that.

For the estates, what any alt does will depend on what local players want to do. I do want some bee keeping locally. Hopefully Elyrian Bees are no exception but they are very nice creatures. I've fished a fair few out of puddles and bird baths in summer months and occasionally taken out sugar water and fed them when it's hot. They will sit on your hand, eat, clean themselves off and fly off quite happy.

I see what you are saying. Im in the Royal County, in the Royal Duchy, in a Kingdom, so in my case I wont expect to have opposition

Posted By Labbe at 2:47 PM - Mon Dec 03 2018

Posted By brownmat000 at

There are many different factors when choosing to build a settlement from nothing, land, location and recourses to say a few. What problems do you guys see with creating a settlement from scratch, or solutions to these problems?

I think there will be no hardship in creating very small hamlets or villages but once you start to grow into a town or city, I believe that land is going to be the hardest of the requirements to grow. because the landowners around the city will know that it is trying to grow and will charge inflated prices on the land or not even sell it at all.

I actually think that getting it past the hamlet stages will be harder than anything else. You still need to regularly eat food in a hamlet as if you were in the wilderness, unless a tavern has been erected and has access to food stores.

And actually I don't see land owners squashing people to keep them from building up their city for 2 reasons.

1. If the city grows, they benefit too. If the city stays small or stagnant then the current land owners can never expand their influence.

2. You don't have to buy land from other land owners, or start a lease on their property in order build your own house. You can simply buy a unowned piece of land, which you purchase from the county seat if I'm not mistaken, and the other land owners have no say in the selling price of that parcel of land. If the land is still owned by the Count then yes, its simple, but lets say most of the land is owned by players/AI and they don't want to see their city row for political reasons. that's when the problem arises, because you have to buy land boarding one of the plots in the city, you can skip a parcel to go around a headstrong landowner

It shouldn't be all that difficult for about half a dozen Gentry to pool their resources to start a town (minimum 25 parcels) from scratch, during Exposition. This is going to be much easier if the location is in a relatively underpopulated area. I don't think there is any rule against a town containing farming land, so some of the founding Gentry could be farmers.

A village (9 parcels) is even easier, and is within the capacity of a single Gentry character with a wad of extra EP, or an Aristocrat character who cannot find a suitable pre-existing settlement. Purchasing extra EP also increases IP, so such a player is more likely to have a better choice of land to buy.

It is of course good to know the neighbors. If they already own some land near where you want it, then they probably had more IP than you, and you want to be careful about messing with them. On the other hand, neighbors who move in on you after you've selected might be well-advised to be careful about messing with you.

We may see some restrictions on land purchases, such as maintaining contiguity of multiple-parcel purchases. This might be done to prevent checkerboarding parcels to keep out unwanted folks until one's own friends can purchase. On the other hand, checkerboarding or pooling may be encouraged to promote the foundation of new settlements or the expansion of old settlements.

I predict that we'll see a huge amount of activity on domain Discords among Aristocracy and Gentry, once domain & pre-existing settlement selection are done, to fill up and expand existing settlements and look into establishing new ones. I also expect Counts to be active in promoting the foundation and expansion of settlements. Without the active support of a Count, it will be more difficult to do either.

Personally I think the hardest part would be growing it to begin with.

It won't be hard with a group of friends to found one, but I don't foresee a niche hamlet to be very attractive to NPCs or lone players.

Players especially as we can be very distrusting of each other. The residents will be worried the incoming player is a griefer or criminal, which will in turn create a hostile environment that drives the incoming player away.

The same thing happens in Ark all the time.

If I was you, and this is a count speaking, I would talk to the a landowner. He can give you protection and permission to build it. If you just place a house in the wilds, you will never be sure that you are welcome. Building without permission has it's perils.

It's easier to go and live in an existing settlement and work your way up. At least you know that you are not ousted by the local nobles.

Posted By Jakeman at 3:55 PM - Tue Dec 04 2018

if your joining from another game with a nice sized guild it shouldnt be to hard to start a settlement i think. what will be super annoying is though say you finally manage to get your town set up and here comes a powertripping player who bought a baron/count package and starts wanting taxes from you/other stuff when they never helped you

Yes, that is the risk you take. Imagine doing weeks and weeks of building, and the local "noble" or goon waits until you have a nice place for yourself, and suddenly he comes to you and asks a 1000 gold a week on backward taxes. Seems like a nice start of some PvP RPing. All you have to do is to show them who's boss. That is the nature of a sandbox game :)

Posted By Jakeman at 06:55 AM - Tue Dec 04 2018

if your joining from another game with a nice sized guild it shouldnt be to hard to start a settlement i think. what will be super annoying is though say you finally manage to get your town set up and here comes a powertripping player who bought a baron/count package and starts wanting taxes from you/other stuff when they never helped you

So your contention is that you do not owe taxes if you build your settlement yourself? Is it considered to be "powertripping" for a count to fulfill his duty to collect taxes for his duke and king? Who is it that you have to buy the land from that your settlement sits on? Who is it that has to approve your charter so that your settlement can grow large enough to even be called a town?

Posted By Jakeman at 4:27 PM - Tue Dec 04 2018

and now your a criminal for standing up to some asshole who only has his/her power because they forked over some money

Seems a little like P2W, but in the long term the little guy may win, if he manages to lay low and learns to play the game as intended. If the local "goon" wants to extort you, try negotiate with him, fight him, move away or talk to the higher-ups. Nobody is forcing you to start a settlement from the bottom up. Before you do that, get to learn who might live there and what their opinion is about newcomers wanting to start a new settlement. I haven't met anybody here who deliberately wants to make life hard on you, but remember that the roads you are traveling on to sell your wares somewhere are also built by someone, and that person might even protect them and fights the bandits who otherwise may attack you. Your settlement is not an island. You are part of a world where the majority consists out of nice people.

Play the game as intended, and over time you can slowly learn to play it as you want it.