All of this being said, what is to say the Kingdom doesn't research better farming practice and utilize their vast coastline for expanded fishing/trade operations. Sure they will have a difficult go of it but Riftwood has some great minds at work down there.

I wouldn't count them out yet.

Posted By Tarvald at 08:59 AM - Fri Sep 13 2019

All of this being said, what is to say the Kingdom doesn't research better farming practice and utilize their vast coastline for expanded fishing/trade operations. Sure they will have a difficult go of it but Riftwood has some great minds at work down there.

I wouldn't count them out yet.

I won't say it's certain to turn out like I'm predicting. (It's a prediction; they can be wrong, afterall) But I think there is a good chance it will turn out that way.

Posted By Pham at

There are too many large capital cities in too small an area. There won't be enough population to support all of them. There are gonna be a bunch of ghost cities. Maybe they'll have enough NPCs, but in this game the players drive the economy and there won't be enough players for each when they're so close to each other.

I predict this will put a damper on their economy and economic growth will be very slow for this kingdom. They'll limp along in a constant state of economic depression (unless all of the people just gravitate towards one or two capitals and the rest become metaphorical ghost towns), devoid of real people.

If they don't come together into one or 2 main cities, then the majority of players will probably start to seek out more well-established/maintained cities with healthy player populations and migrate away from this area, which would essentially result in the collapse of the kingdom due to not having enough players to defend it against invaders.

There is even precedent for what I'm predicting will happen. Look at China (the most populated country in the world) - they have dozens of ghost cities which are populated by virtually no one. Because there was no need for them. It was a case of China's government thinking "If we build it, they will come". But they didn't. And it is looking like the same thing may be getting its start, right now, in Riftwood.

You should see Vornair in NA-E, it's even worse, and in an even worse biome. At least the Tropics can provide a lot of food.

Posted By zimmah at 08:06 AM - Fri Sep 13 2019

You should see Vornair in NA-E, it's even worse, and in an even worse biome. At least the Tropics can provide a lot of food.

exactly what I was thinking when I was reading this post lol

One thing I will say for Riftwood is that they will be well insulated from war if they are friends with Tyria - partly owing to their geography, ofc, but also due to the fact that Blackheart is essentially surrounded by the 2 other kingdoms and wouldn't dare risk a war against two separate allied fronts.

So they have that going for them.

I'm optimistic (and biased since I'm in riftwood) as both pc management and npc management will be imperative for our success. And we have quite a bit of talent in terms of management capabilities at all levels of the kingdom

It's also possible people underestimate how many players are in Riftwood, as well as underestimate how much NPCs can sustain the economy, not to mention an underestimation of how fruitful that biome is. Like yours, mine is just a prediction; I could be wrong. But it looks to me like Riftwood is in a very good spot,

Vornair however, is going to have an uphill battle feeding its people, as has been mentioned. That's not to say they won't be able to. With good trade with the breadbaskets of the server, and if they maximize the use of the land they have, I could see them pulling through. They do have the population to leverage for such.

At least you'll have of drones to do mindless tasks. You might even have less drama lol. Having a capital full of random people might be harder to manage than a capital full of npcs.

The capital density is not like the north on Luna, but it's still pretty dense. And it is in an area without farmland. That said, most of the capitals are in the only rich duchy on the map. They might be well set up to supplement their necessities through trade -- at least for a while.

Also, remember that four of the capitals in that cluster are over the border in Blackheart. Those might actually have a harder time, even though they have farmland.

On Luna, not only is the north a land of capitals, but the south is, too -- at least by Angelica standards. Acrium has as many capitals as Ksana, also without farmland, but also without being rich. I'm not sure that Luna can trade its way out of shortages if there are shortages everywhere, meaning there is nothing left to trade.

Good morning,

Interesting perspective that you believe a capital heavy location would "RIP Hard".

There's a few points. Some are things people have already said, but they really need to be said again. The Tropical biomes, specifically the Tropical Wetlands have quite a large food producing capability.

What is built already comes with population. It's not a hope that population comes, but one filled with NPCs. Correct interaction and maintenance of those NPCs are going to be the deciding factor.

EP - Every multi-count that dropped in Ksana, the only Rich duchy on the map, was a a first day count drop for the most part. Meaning it's all high influence and high EP people, all planned, all aware of what was going on. It's an organization and a community that exists, interacts, and works well as a team to reach common objectives. I know this because i'm part of said community.

Some of the capital cluster is indeed in Blackheart but it too was aware of what it was doing. It's headed up by Sellayne a Duchess who is aware of the intricacies of need regarding it. Who also has the EP, and has a community who supports a trade environment.

At the end of the day this set up actually pushes a heavier economy and trade objective, although it's interesting that you'd compare Riftwood to China. I think if you are saying players might not show up, I don't think they're needed. The NPCs have needs, imagine a world where you want to be a tailor, or a shoemaker, or anything that provides necessities you have access to all of that population who needs those common, everyday items. Will importing food be hard? Perhaps but I would say that the Tropical Wetlands have plenty of answers to your concerns and every location has needs that require resolving.

While it's likely that in the end some capitals will not be able to support themselves and survive, it's fairly ridiculous to assume an entire kingdom would fail due to that.

There are many reasons however that this might not be such a large problem as it looks...

1. The capitals in the area isn't called NA-W whale row for nothing. These people have a lot of EP, like upwards to 50k and more.

2. The jungle sustained itself entirely without farms before, relying on hunting, forage, and fishing mostly. The jungle can however have farms if need be if the overgrowth is cleared from a parcel.

3. Capitals are a result of a lot of bonus parcels that will contribute to the sustainability at a later time (e.g. the facilities that will come with these are not included in the current sustainability calculation).

4. The lack of open flat plains like the temperate zone does mean it will never be farmland heavy, which might be a beneficial obstacle to ensure enough jungle is retained to preserve the wildlife and foraging. Still, the farmland it will have should have bigger yields and longer growth seasons than farmland in the colder biomes.

5. The northern half of Riftwood is almost devoid of capitals, so it's not like the entire kingdom is capital heavy. Thus this one half of the kingdom can help sustain the other half by growing and trading food southwards.

6. It's one of the wealthier regions, which includes the only duchy on the server that is rated rich, the region thus probably have the economic flexibility to trade for larger amounts of food if need be.

7. Riftwood is a kingdom with an overall mercantile focus that is also a very politically stable region (i.e. little internal and external conflict), thus it have a rather good foundation to get stabilized on.

And so forth with various other conditions and measures...

From my understanding, right now, when you upgrade the settlements you get people with it. The problem won't be that the cities won't have people, the problem is that there won't be enough food. Most mayors/counts will have to hurry up to produce food to sustain the city. I am in a pickle myself. No matter what city I pick for my capital, the self-sustainability will drop drastically. If they upgrade all their cities, there won't be food for everyone.

Low population growth in high-income countries is likely to create social and economic problems while high population growth in low-income countries may slow their development. International migration could help to adjust these imbalances but is opposed by many. Drawing on economic analyses of inequality, it appears that lower population growth and limited migration may contribute to increased national and global economic inequality. -Source-Sage Journals, Author: E. Wesley F. Peterson, University of Nebraska

The south will live and die with the basic principles of the GDP.

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