Topic: Crypto Kingdom - 1991 Retro Virtual World(City) - page 233. (Read 632671 times)

At the latest meeting of the town council, d"Armagnac brought an imposing set of parchment - it had keep him busy for the previous weeks.

"Dear councillors, you know that I have some affinity with the art of building, maintaining and destroying castle, the art of poliorcetics. Since the construction of the citadel is closer to inception, I decided to share my knowledge in a practical way with you and His Majesty.

D'Armagnac points at the parchments.

"The incanubulum per se will be in royal hands and so will not be available for you to read. So are some other documents containing sensitive information. Still, here is a brief summary of the plan I humbly suggest for the citadel. Here for you perusal. His Majesty will decide if it even worth reading, let alone discussed."

---

Treatise of poliorcetics applied to Crypto-Kingdom

Dear council members,

This treatise was written by His Excellence the Right Honourable Earl David d'Armagnac in the year of our Lord 1462. This extensive volume is meant as a general guide to build and defend the capital of Crypto-Kingdom against invaders of any kind. It draws upon d'Armagnac's extensive knowledge of poliorcetics (the art of attacking and defending a castle) and is written in a deliberately pragmatic way. It is not a monograph or a general consideration on the building of castles, but a guide in building and defending this very citadel.

Below is a summary of the Treatise.

Terminology

• Donjon: the main building, reminiscent of ancient stronghold, not large enough for withstanding full-fledged, month-long sieges. Still symbolically, architecturally and defensively important, since it is impressive and testify for the power of the castle-owner, can host a lot of people and, by virtue of its height, allows one more line of defense to retaliate against the besiegers
• Castle: an extended fortification made of a donjon plus a court and building and surrounded by one or more walls/ To be considered a castle, a building must fulfill these requirements, (according to Schwabenspiegel.
  - a ditch deep enough that one cannot displace earth out of the ditch just  with a showel
  - a wooden or stone building of more than three storeys with wall ending with a parapet (the parapet doesn't not need to be crenelated)
  - a bailey surrounded by either by a curtain wall high enough to prevent a horseman to touch the top or by a curtain wall with a parapet (crenelated or not)
• Palace: a large building with no defensive purpose. A lot of castles became palaces with time.
• Citadel: a fortified city

The "citadel" of Crypto-Kingdom is not a citadel per se. Instead, it is a castle lying deep inside (although not geographically at the center) of the fortified city of Crypto-Kingdom, the actual citadel with city walls. Still, by virtue of its widespread use, the word "citadel" will be used for describing what is technically the castle of Crypto-Kingdom (the Royal Palace is not - and had never been - a castle).

Overview



The citadel doesn't benefit from any topographical advantage, such as a narrow entrance, a mountain on its back or water access. It thus follow the traditional motte-and-bailey architecture, the motte being a raised earth mound built with the earth extracted from the construction of the moat.

It is entirely made of stone and, with the exception of the donjon, all towers are horseshoe-shaped, so that the external side better protect against projectiles, which rip off the curvature of the towers, while the rectangular internal side gives more internal space and a better battling platform

The citadel is a concentric castle. That is, it uses an onion-like structure, with two layers of wall before reaching the donjon

Layers

• layer I: six-storeys pentagonal donjon, atop the motte. It has an elevated entrance[1] at the second floor, accessible though a wooden, easily destructible, staircase and is surrounded by a chemise, which makes it very difficult for a sensible amount of soldiers to attack at the same time (similar to Thermopyles). Place of last-resort defence, very thick walls, food reserve in the dungeon, small rooms. Behind and protected by the donjon is the palas, place of residency.
• layer II: inner bailey (higher court) with a well and premium dwellings
• layer III: inner curtain wall (2.50 meters thick, 12 meters high), with some posterns for sorties or escaping. The base of the internal curtain wall and the donjon may be built - this would not help the attackers much and would provide substantive incomes in times of peace.
• layer IV: outer bailey (base-court), with workshops, livestock stalls and stables; storage facilities such as barns, sheds and granaries, brewery, bakehouse, cistern as well as quarters for servants such as maids and farm workers. Should the besiegers arrive here, they would be in a killing zone, since defenders would attack from both the inner curtain wall and the hollowed outer curtain wall. Plus, reaching the entrance in the inner curtain wall require following a chemin de défilement meant to maximise exposure to defenders' attacks.
• layer V: outer curtain wall (6 meters thick because of inside corridors, 7 meters high, lower than the inner curtain wall, itself lower than the donjon so that the three structures can retaliate at the same time) with a gatehouse including an ankle breakers-equipped flooring on the drawbridge[2]. The base of the wall is free of any construction or noticeable vegetation, to ensure a clear view for the defenders and also given a stone skirt around its base to deter undermining. The walls are particularly thick because they are hollow: they host soldiers who can flank the besiegers should they enter the outer bailey (the arrow slits are only in the inside-facing wall). Like the inner curtain wall, the outer curtain wall as posterns, none of them giving access to the "wall tunnels".
• layer VI: water-filled moat[3], to prevent further undermining as well as to make it difficult for siege weapons to come close enough. The scarp and counterscarp (respectively inner and outer shore of the moat) are filled with semi-immerged trous de loup and caltrops to hinder enemies. Additionally, a tunnel runs below the counterscarp, allowing soldiers to shoot attaquants - only small doors communicate with the outer bailey, rendering an intrusion from the counterscarp particularly challenging and these tunnels are only used in time of war, since they are unpleasant and humid. Fish living in the moat are usually hardly edible, because of the poor quality of the water - the latrines empty here.
• layer VII: barbican[4], if deemed necessary. It could benefit from a bent entrance[5], a complex, chicaned entrance meant to hinder the progression of troops but it would be at the expense of some real estate and would only make sense it the citadel is not supposed to be used much in peace time, as the bent entrance makes daily traffic difficult.
• layer VIII: wooden stockade.
• layer IX: open-ended jousting area, making any besiegers an easy target. In peace time, the jousting area is used for jousting, celebration and as a marketplace.

Curtain walls
The tops of both curtain walls includes battlements with crenelated parapets (with mantlet-protected arbalestinas on 0,48 cm thick merlons), chemins de ronde (walkways) and full-lenght closed machicolations (other example and another) as well as gargoyles to evacuate the rain. The curtain wall ended up in a glacis, to make approaches and ladderscaling harder and to increase the lethality of stone thrown from machicolations) Corner towers (the castle is too small for flanking towers) have embrasures with cross-shaped arrowslits (arbalestinas) with oillets (a larger opening at the bottom to allow a better observation when not shooting) as well as a bartizans for reducing dead angles. Straight staircases large enough for two persons lead to every courtine (example)

Both curtain walls have a single entrance, a heavily guarded gatehouse with two projecting towers, one on each side of the entrance, to prevent blind spots. The entrance itself is a long corridor with a portcullis at each end; the corridor itself sports meurtrières – a pierced ceiling where defenders can throw stone and fire-heated sand - as well as arrowslit on the wall. Provision is made for accommodation of a rotating team of soldiers.

Projectiles
Out of arrows and particularly bolts (crossbows are better at defending a castle than bows and have a range of 150 m, source)), projectiles (from murderholes and machicolations) include stone, boiling water (rare, boiling oil being almost non existant); quicklime and even beehive (Blâmont, 1475).

Staircases
Every inside staircase is a counterclockwise spiral staircase. Spiral staircases are the most dense and being counterclockwise (from the point of view of someone going down), they make it difficult for right-handed attackers to fight

---

Here stops the summary of the Treatise. The full treatise goes into much further details and also address the topic of military tactics and sensitive information.

For the betterment of Crypto-Kingdom,
d'Armagnac

1. Examples of elevated entrances
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/1c/be/dc/way-in-up-the-stairs.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Warkworth_Castle's_keep,_2007.jpg
http://l-atelierdemaminette.blog50.com/images/medium_donjon_et_chemin_de_garde.JPG
http://gailingis.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Keep-details-full-page-at-Dover-castle-England.jpg
http://www.crdp-strasbourg.fr/data/lcr/chateaux/images/big-donjon1.jpg (show that the dunjon is located at ground floor, with the entrance of the donjon is at first floor)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Donjon.Chateau.Gaillard.png/440px-Donjon.Chateau.Gaillard.png (particularly high entrance)

2. Examples of drawbridges
http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/195460/108116621/stock-photo-drawbridge-at-an-medieval-italian-castle-108116621.jpg (small)
http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20110217/Castle-Drawbridge-1787698.jpg (large with swipe-beam)
http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/lookandlearn-preview/M/M815/M815849.jpg (how to raise a drawbridge)

3. Examples of water-filled moats
http://www.exploring-castles.com/image-files/beaumaris_castle_autumn.jpg
http://masonmyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/canstockphoto3921322.jpg

4. Examples of barbican
http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/castles/pics/carcpicchateau02.gif
http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images/arts-architecture/architecture/castle.jpg

5. Example of bent entrance
http://carneycastle.com/Dinefwr/model1.jpg

More about Services payouts

I tried to have a loan auction to determine the going interest rate, but it happened that I set the XMR loan rate to 0.6% per year. (36% per real-month).

For fun, I checked how much the different establishments are making money currently, the results for the some are as follows. First is taken the services pool payout, costs subtracted, and then divided by the value of the building if built now. Values per year, so that daily is 2x as high.

Zechariah's Guesthouse = 2.68%
The Grand Hotel = 2.55% (ROE)
The North Gate (Roopatra's) Tavern = 2.37%
Leila's Guestroom = 2.02%
Monero House = 1.85%
Town Hall = 1.41%
The Hung, Drawn and Quartered = 1.23%
Behind the Wall (tavern) = 0.92%

It should be noted that
1) Zechariah's place is expressly designed to provide maximum cash flow.
2) The Grand Hotel is financed 50%+ with loan. The ROI is 1.53%.
5) Monero House is not even finished yet, and also was not designed to be a hotel at all!
6-7) Town Hall and HD&Q contain lots of rooms that are not in commercial use, which lowers the apparent ROI.
8 ) This tavern lost its appeal for a variety of reasons some time ago. It may come back when the east side of N L St. is developed.

Anyway, all make better than the loan rate, which should mean that taking some loan would boost the returns on equity.

Definitely! Done

I am humbled by the King's generosity

Thank you

Whoops! Good to know I am not completely bare, haha.

Can I purchase one of His Majesty's green suits for 10,000,000 m please?

Ah, that puts a name on the weird looking guy we were all laughing at since few years

Welcome back!

Sorry to say that the tailors left 14 years ago, come back in 36 year and nobody ordered reserves...  

...except the King, and just a few (in Character/trade clothes tab). Hopefully you find a suitable one!

(no you are not naked, you are dressing in a grey servant or brown peasant suit, with the style they wore in the 1300s)

Pardon my absence, I have just realized I am *naked* - please can someone furnish a suit for me? 

A simple green artesan suit will suffice for 3,000,000 moneretos.

This was the last subscription, and then...


Yes, the Grand Hotel is established and built in 1464  We are able to do quite marvellous things seemingly... What is next - a bigger Cathedral?

The designs are stored whereever the Building Registry says. The "HM/build" is a laarge excelsheet with 2000 rows, which contains all my buildings and dozens of cost calculations.

The multi-level plans should come in online version 4-6 sometime next year. Before that, this is what we've got.

Grand Hotel Corp. is now the first stock with secondary market. You can buy them at 1.15 and sell at 0.95 now

Looks like the Grand Hotel has now been funded!  

Would love to see the full design in the CK Building Editor!!!

Will all the detailed multi-level plans for city structures be available to see?

50 mil for Grand Hotel shares please.

Lord Luigi is most grateful for HM's gracious promotion!

Edit: Lord Luigi is also extremely impressed with how much land Lord K.H. has managed to acquire!

The Services in the Town (and planning more of them)

The services pool has proliferated commerce. First came the rental rooms and taverns, later guesthouses, now the shops, restaurants, soon hotels, and later on also office space. Karl has had incity stables for travellers, which have also proven to increase his income (typically the countryside takes care of animals, but convenience is prized among travellers who don't have so much of it in this century..)

If you want to get involved to reap these rewards, let me introduce how to start offering services and how much of the Services pool they can milk:

Guesthouse

* (one star)

This is first, because the Services payout of 100% is defined as being a decent room for rent. In practice, "decent" means 9 sqm with a window, in anything but the most crappy locations (eg. back of the stables). If the location is nicer, more air, more light, larger room, etc. the percentage goes up, and also down if the contrary is true.

Note that the typical servants earn 100k per year and the Services payout has been about 85k. The servants do not therefore have the means to live on their own, so the rooms may be populated by multiple servants/visiting peasants/other NPCs. Having more of the entry-level accommodation would be beneficial to our economy because then the peasant/servant income that originally went 0% to the Services pool, and currently goes 50% to it, would gradually be more and more absorbed to our economy and the money kept in town.

** (two stars)

To qualify as a 2-stars guesthouse, the place must have 10%+ luxury level, minimum 3 rooms, and some kind of lobby or reception. Often these have a tavern that serves also as a lobby, but it is not mandatory. A two-star place gets 50% more income from the rooms, but typically needs to employ (at least) someone to take care of the business.

Hotel

*** (three stars)

Three stars is the entry level for a Hotel. The luxury level needs to be minimum 30% if the rooms are 3+ meters high. With 2 meter high rooms it needs to be 60%. The hotel needs to have a restaurant or tavern with kitchen, and be all-around suitable for its purpose. The license to operate a hotel is granted by the Town Council (for 2 mil), and it may be denied if the profitability is deemed too low, or the establishment is not proper.

The location of the hotel is important. To assess the desirability of rooms, realistic criteria are used, leading to on average 100% better price per sqm compared to one-star guesthouse.

**** (four stars)

A four-star Hotel rooms need to be at least 3 m high, and 60% luxury. Otherwise the requirements are the same as in the three-star level. The license is a little more expensive (4 mil) and even more care is exercised to give the charter only to hotels that are glory to the city (outside finishing, lobby and restaurant quality (Restaurant, not Tavern), ...). The price is on average 200% better than one-star, but varies greatly based on many factors.

***** (five stars)

A five-star Hotel rooms need to be at least 4 m high, with 100% luxury, or 3-meter high with 150% luxury (this much luxury is hard to get). The building must feature impressive public areas, indoor toilets, even bathrooms, lots of and big windows with actual views, etc. The license costs 10 mil and is very hard to get, since only a few such establishments are deemed necessary in the city. The price is on average 300% better than one-star, and is surprisingly less dependent on random events than that of a 4-star, since the rich always have money.

Four- and especially five star hotels require a breathtaking number of staff. Due to not having hotels until now, it is likely that when the first ones are opened, at least in the beginning they will be full.

Tavern w/o Kitchen (Bar)

A tavern can be had in almost any place that would otherwise be a shop locale. Taverns require some staff, and have a specific formula that determines their income, based mainly on location. All the groups (commoners, nobles, servants, army, tourists, visiting nobles) are considered. It is impossible to know exactly in advance, how well a particular tavern would perform. It also changes over time: new places are frequented by chic people, and worn places by the not-so-chic but nevertheless profitable ones. Taverns have been very profitable and this is expected to continue until there are too many of them.

Tavern with Kitchen

With Kitchen, the tavern can derive extra income from food. A separate kitchen room and more staff are needed, but until now, it has been a profitable investment.

Restaurant

Restaurant is defined as a fine-dining place where meat, even foie gras is served. We currently have the Monero House and Town Hall restaurants in town, and compared to their significant costs, they are not doing as well as they would as taverns. The fine dining culture in our town is not well-rooted yet, since the Earls and higher all have their own kitchens in their Palaces, and the Experts and lower eat rather in Taverns. There have not been that many high-ranking visitors yet, since there are no hotels. Having a restaurant increases the prestige of the whole area, though, therefore large developments should consider having one to boost the income of the other units.

Rental House/Apartment

The idea that characters could directly rent from other characters, has been abolished, and it will not be implemented in the online version until Economy. Via this pool it is possible, though. Any apartments that are larger than what could be classified "rooms", are given a rating based on their market rent. Per sqm this is the lowest profit, but it does not entail costs or problems.

Basement Shop

As monetary economy progresses (we only started using moneretos 32 years ago!) the peasants are bringing goods to the market, so are the merchants. Artesans need workrooms and shops. These are in great need in our city, and the area where people are looking for them is now convincingly the Town Hall, where they appeared first. The Liberty Street side is the current shopping arcade of the city, and people coming from the west gate and the Citadel are also searching for shops (in vain, sadly) on their way to the centre. After the Town bureaucracy took over the offices in the 1st floor in the Town Hall, and the warrior monks took the side chambers of the Cathedral (which had been serving as souvenir stores), the dearth of commercial space is great and the rewards for providing it commensurately good.

Meeting/Conference Hall

Large halls in prestigious locations are something that everyone just wants to have. Their utility rate, however is quite low, and the return on investment is not that high. But otoh, you cannot call a building Great if it does not have a hall, can you? The actual business hotel with small shared conference rooms is waiting for itself for another 500 years or so...

Special

If you have special services to provide to the town economy, such as Karl has his horse tending complex beside the tavern, these will be evaluated based on their suitability and the need.

Your own businesses

It is proper to have a shopfront office if you do anything at all in the city, like the King's Coinshop does.

Extraordinary announcement of Noble Promotion outside the normal schedule A.D. 1462

Karl Hungus is promoted Baron. "Lord Karl has taken a role of an economic engine in our growing city, and we raise him to nobility to acknowledge his position."

Mr. Luigi Romano is promoted Baron. "Lord Luigi's stone dealership has greatly helped in the smooth development, furthermore he made a daring and expensive land grab in the most central area of the town, purchasing the land facing the Town Hall over the New Liberty Street for 750 million."

Both were already awarded "King's Favor" Badge last year. Now they receive 100 gold + are entitled to a haw as well as other Nobles.

Lord Marquess Joseph of New Liberty has been Knighted in the Ancient Order of the King (AOK-K). This honor is given only to the most outstanding pillars of the gameplay, and has been awarded only once before (The (now) Bishop in A.D. 1434). The chain weighs 100 gold.

I will donate 150k stone towards lots L37, 38 and 39

Land grab in full force

The auction of roadside places in the yet-totally-undeveloped West chapelry fetched barely the minimum 10 million per quadrat. One would think that the market is sluggish, but that was not the issue: When we listed the prime properties in the C chapelry for sale, it took no more than 30 minutes for a 750,000,000 moneretos deal. 10 quadrats of the best lands changed owner at the prime price, 75 million per quadrat, as opposed to 10 million only 100 meters away!

Meanwhile, the L lots' price has been lowered to 7 million per lot (the price of stone is temporarily down so this better corresponds the 50k stone).

The newest deal is that the King has given control of the central properties to the Town, which tries to sell them at a high price and spend the money in the online version development. 10% of the proceeds are raffled weekly among every character (the pot is currently 75 million!)

Check the many new "Buy Me Now" prices from the sheets. If you want to list your property for sale, just inform the administrator.

Now would finally be the time to have a building inspector apart from me, who could check the buildings, calculate the costs, update the various databases, and basically earn both as an architect and the inspector, because it's a one-stop-shop giving a distinct usability advantage.

You are not yet in the game! 

"One L5, please!"

Hey guys, I am offering you a 6.2% yearly profit, which is 12.4% daily. And what you need to do is to reply with the following magic words:

"One L5, please!"

Even if you don't care to refund the account after purchase, it does not matter since this generates so much more income (overdraft rate is 1%).