It's good to update every once in a while...
pre-pre-ANN: Concerning the changes that shall happen in A.D. 1600
New gold will not be generated to HM_The_King after there is 1,000,000 gold in the game. This ends in 1598.
Happened.
The online version gold generation will not start until the 1,000,000 gold is first generated. From then, new gold will be generated prorated to the playing time at a rate of $0.025 per hour. No fractional gold, rather it is some kind of a lottery. (Currently about 1 CKG == 90 minutes of play.)
Will happen, although the rate is now 1 CKG per 10 hours of play.
Stone will not be generated as a result of gold staking in 1600 or later, ie. 1600.1 is the last year to get stone. Quarries will continue operating as before.
The remaining stone staking was paid as a lump sum long ago. New stone will be able to be generated in V.5, or perhaps V.4.1 if the existing supply dwindles fast.
The passage of time is slowing. This is not yet fixed, but one option is that 1 real-day will correspond to 1 month (probably a month having only 24 days for ease of interface). Therefore, one real-year will be approximately 30 game-years.
1 real-hour will be 1 game-day, but game-months have only 24 days. This will make 1 real-day equal to 1 game-month, and 1 real-year about 30 game-years.
Any bonds that extend to over 1600 are given such that their payback is in real-days. The loans the bank will give expire at 1600 the latest, until more information is known.
Will happen as promised.
The online version schedule is changed so that Economy (subgames, pools) comes before Sandbox (user-customizable trollboxes, casinos). This bridges the gap between online and googleDB that is currently quite wide.
The V.4 will have most of the Economy,
and also many aspects of Sandbox.
Complete Items management (coins in 3 metals, gold items, other items) will be implemented for the Ancient characters but will be hosted in a google DB as an owner registry only, with no ingame effect. (If payment for trades is not in kind, it must be done as a "gift" ingame, for the DB will not have moneretos balances, which are transferred to the game).
The people will start eating and drinking for sustenance, and operating restaurants becomes even more interesting with the new subgames of securing the cheapest and/or best food supplies, with periodical low availability.
This is postponed to V.5.
Currently all Nobles will need to have their primary town residence in the Old Town. This will probably be relaxed so that the main residence (the main palace in a haw) can be in any borough, as long as a Nobleworthy townhouse (such as Earls' Street-King's Park style) is in the OT.
The King will ennoble whomever he sees fit, but this will be among the criteria.
Nobles Earl/Countess or higher will receive fiefs (taxing rights) in the countryside. So the produce from there is divided between the King and the Nobles, with the peasants getting some also. Once small farming subgame comes (probably not yet, since it requires lots of commoner PC) they will also enjoy the produce. To get fiefs to work properly, significant investments in the land castles and roads may be needed. In these times, taxes were not withheld from salary but needed to be collected with a (show of) force yearly. Keeping standing armies in the countryside becomes thus helpful in the collection of taxes that each noble is rightfully entitled to, and training them or at least the leaders in the City in advance is not necessarily a bad idea.
This is postponed to V.5. Army will have a subgame with other uses meanwhile.
The people (PC and NPC) will start to get sick and eventually, die. This is a new subgame including formulas how to get sicknesses, how to cure them, and what kind of living is most supportive for longevity. The physical age of the PC is set to their starting age, and it will advance 30 game-years per one real-year. The Nobles who have access to best food, healthy living and medical care, can expect to live approx. 60-80 years old. The commoners and NPC with no such means die in 40-50 years of age. Both groups may die accidentally in any age, or in wars or jousts.
This is postponed to V.5.
The buildings will start to be taxed by the town. Borough councils will at some point be opened to spend this tax for the public works in the Borough.
Taxing will happen. Tax will be earmarked for public works.
Building maintenance
The buildings will also start to require maintenance. The maintenance (unlike tax, or guarding that's already implemented) is a one-time event in a form of a building project. During maintenance, the structural damage may be repaired, additions/changes done, luxuries adjusted, and the whole building becomes "new" for the purposes of some formulas, while retaining the "old" bonuses of the others.
Buildings will have a repair% indicating their state of repair. It will affect the uses of the building. The % will go down with time. With a Renovation Project, it is possible to restore the repair%. Renovation is labor-intensive, no new stone is needed.
The ancient buildings that have stood for up to 168 years at that point, are assessed for structural damage and given the "repair need" slip.
This will be included in the repair%, with the most unfortunate ones suffering "collapse" event triggered by too low repair% caused by the earthquake.
The collapsed buildings must be built anew. 90% of the stone is recovered.
Structural damage is caused by the following factors:
- age of the building
- width of the low-arch (la-4 is slightly more susceptible than the harmless la-2/la-3)
- large windows (any windows wider than 1 are more susceptible, also if height is 3 or more, on the other hand, repairing windows is cheap, only the window need to be repaired)
- roof gardens (since these rest on the roof, the water leaks can easily deteriorate the roof beneath)
- height of the building (obviously, the taller, the more strain the lower levels get)
- columns (when done correctly, immense vertical load can be concentrated on them, but one crack can lead to a danger of collapse threatening people's life - if such is found, often the whole roof supported by the column needs to be replaced in the process of changing the column. Only recently the "strong columns" started to be made from solid blocks of stone)
- maybe others
- excessive height of the rooms
The following are not as susceptible, or even helpful:
- Colonnades/arcades (Town Hall) they protect the facade somewhat, and are easy to repair
- High-arch (this is constructed at a much higher proficiency than the low arch. If it is supported by walls and not columns, or if they are good, this lasts centuries)
- Pilasters and buttresses (protruding elements of stone from the facade are not only beautiful, they also serve a support function
- Pedestal (serves in keeping the floor dry, and not only that but the foundations of the walls as well)
These, as well as the building age, are taken into account in the initial "earthquake" grading of the buildings.
It is not yet decided how this will take effect, but since the matter is of a great financial importance, we give the estimate that on average the repair cost of 50% of the building cost value of the buildings may be assessed (heavily weighed towards the old and/or risky buildings above). The repairs in most cases are not urgent, and given the new rate of the passage of time, they may often wait for real-months, even years. The purpose is to make the old buildings conform to the new scheme of building deterioration.
50% average loss will not be reached due to the following factors:
- Repair does not affect stone, even Collapse affects it only little
- There are few very old buildings in town suffering the most (only 24k sqm from 1400s)
- Buildings 1580 and after are exempted of all damage (28k sqm)
There is no special hurry to repair anything, since the effects will be felt in the formula and when to repair is a normal business decision.