12. What do you mean by "player owned and player managed"?
As the owner of a Kingdom, players are the monarch of these Worlds. They get to set many of the rules that govern that World and the buildings within it. Don't want people to visit your world? Lock it out. Want to setup a place for others to visit and trade? Make it public! Want to set a tax for all trade that happens there? Go for it. Want to turn on free for all PvP? No problem.
Alternatively, if you don't want to manage your own kingdom, you can always swear fealty to the Monarch of another Kingdom and be granted a domain (i.e. one or more parcels of land) within that Kingdom. If your domain is greater than one parcel, you can sub-parcel out areas within YOUR domain to other players - creating a fealty tree. This is an ideal approach for Guilds and crafters.
13. So the purpose of the Kingdom is to store trophies? I thought you said "trophies" were lame?
"Meaningless" trophies are lame. Giving a player a trophy for killing 10 rats is lame; these are similar to the "participation" trophies we give our kids for playing soccer.
Meaningful Trophies (like a Super Bowl ring, or the Stanley Cup) are much cooler. And remember, many of these trophies provide in-game benefit: they can be used to make your Kingdom stronger, or make your team more viable in other Campaigns.
Campaign Trophies include relics, artifacts, materials and rare resources - the things that are required to build structures, craft equipment, and fuel the economy in your Kingdom. It's not a lobby in the traditional sense; but it serves a similar purpose as a place that players can gather in between participation in Campaigns.
That said, players who have no interest in Kingdoms are not required to visit them.
14. But what if I choose a Campaign that allows for items, but I don't bring any? That would be unbalanced!
Well, yeah, it would be. But that's your choice.
Remember, our design goal is to ensure that players have the OPPORUNTITY to start each Campaign on roughly equal footing. We aren't going to protect players from making bad decisions.
15. Why would I choose to play in the different rulesets of Campaigns?
As they say: different strokes for different folks.
The various rules sets were also designed to balance risk vs. reward. The more difficult the ruleset, the higher the potential reward.
We also expect that players will be able to sell the rewards they bring back from the Campaigns to other players, further driving both social interaction and the world-to-world economy.
16. That means I won't have access to certain resources, if I am unwilling to play on those worlds?
You won't have direct access, but you can buy those resources from other players.
We're hoping that you might even step out of your comfort zone and try the more difficult worlds. But that's your choice.
Again, it's all about balancing risk and reward.
17. What is to prevent people from non-stop Campaign hopping?
Campaigns are not intended to be transitory. Our design goal is for players to pick a Campaign and stick with it until the end.
We have a number of ideas to enforce or encourage this, from hard rules (i.e. characters are locked to a Campaign) to soft rules (if you quit a Campaign early, you lose all rewards and pay a penalty.)
This is one that we're still debating, though - and we'd love to hear your thoughts! On the good side, it's also a decision that we can easily change, if we try something and we don't like it.
18. How many Campaigns will be running at once?
As many as we need, to support our player base!
The universe map shows ruleset bands; at any given time, each band will host a number of Campaigns, in various stages of completion. There should always be new Campaigns starting, and old Campaigns come to completion.
19. Why would I participate in a long Campaign? It seems like I would get more rewards from doing a bunch of shorter ones?
Rewards scale up based on the difficulty of the Campaign and the duration. In effect, you can earn more rewards by making the longer-term commitment - and, of course, by winning.
Again, it's all about risk and reward.
20. Are there any victory conditions other than the passage of time?
There certainly can be!
Our system allows us to make any number of Worlds, and any number of rules sets. The amazing thing about this design is that it allows for a huge degree of experimentation! Most MMOs get one chance - at launch - to find a mix of rules that appeals to the players. The great thing about the Campaign architecture is that we can be trying dozens of ideas in parallel, all the time. It's like a generic algorithm for MMO design: the good ideas can be replicated (and riffed on), the bad ideas can be filtered out.
21. How open are you guys to trying new ideas within Campaigns?
Our intention is to make this a community-driven process. We'll come up with ideas, you guys will come up with ideas - and we'll take the best ideas we find, wherever they come from, and we'll give them a shot.
If an idea gains enough traction - meaning we like it, and you guys like it - we'll try it**.
(**so long as it fits within the architecture. We just have to be careful that we don't break the game at the meta-level.)
You want to try a world with no magic? Cool.
You want to try a world where we introduce gun power? Sounds interesting.
You want to try a world where each character only has one life - meaning that if you die once, you are permanently banned from the World? (I call this idea "Campaign Permadeath"). Sure, let's try it.
That's the cool thing about this approach. We're turning our game community into a massive, game-designing hivemind.
We're game, if you are.
22. I'm not really into Kingdoms. Do I have to have one?
Nope. If you don't want to log into a Kingdom, you don't have to. Kingdoms are optional social hubs; you aren't dropped into one automatically when you enter the game - from the Character Selection menu, you choose (or create) a character and then pick a Kingdom or Campaign to log into.
You can only play in Campaigns, if that is your preference.
23. Can I craft there? And if so, why wouldn't I just stay there instead of participating in Campaigns?
Yes, you can craft there - but Kingdoms do not contain Quarries, Mines or Mills. This means that they do not produce the materials required for building structures (houses, castles, etc.) They also don't provide the rare reagents necessary to craft the best items.
Players who wish to build structures or create masterwork items within their Eternal Kingdoms will have to either participate in Campaigns, or be completely reliant on the other players that do.
Remember, though: most Campaigns heavily restrict how many items can be brought in from the Eternal Kingdoms. The best way to provide weapons and armor for a Campaign, is to join that Campaign.
24. How do I get an Eternal Kingdom?
Each player account is automatically granted an Eternal Kingdom, the first time they log into the game. This Kingdom will be shared by all characters on that account. As the owner of a Kingdom, you are the Monarch of that World. That means you get to set many of the rules that govern that World and control the land and the structures within it.
25. Does that mean the Eternal Kingdom is a personal instance? Like a housing zone?
No.
Kingdoms are unique -- you can build structures here, just like Campaign Worlds.
They are persistent -- meaning they never go away.
They are big - much more expansive than a housing instance, with monsters to conquer and lands to explore: mountains, caverns, rivers, valleys. you name it! These are fully featured Worlds (they just don't produce materials!)
They are multiplayer - if you want them to be. You get to decide how much you want to allow other player(s) to access to your Kingdom.
26. How big is a starting Kingdom?
The map for each Kingdom World is divided up into grid squares called "parcels". Each parcel makes up a single "grid square" and is roughly equivalent to 1 square acre of virtual land.
Each Kingdom starts with a grid of 3x3 parcels (9 total). This land is reserved for the Monarch, and cannot be granted to other players. It is typically used for this World's capital city and marketplace.
27. Can I increase the size of my Eternal Kingdom?
Yes. We are discussing the way we want to handle this. There will be an in-game mechanic, relying on some combination of the passage of time and/or the collection of materials.
We have talked about allowing players to buy additional land (because raw land doesn't grant any in-game benefits other than increased social interaction - you can invite people to build structures, but they still have to build those structures using materials won during Campaigns.)
Alternatively, we may only allow parcels to be added/cleared through in-game means, and charge people to increase the concurrent player capacity of their Kingdom.
We're still discussing these ideas internally. Our goal is to come up with a solution that provides players with the ability to grow their Kingdom (if they choose to), doesn't grant an in-game benefit for real world money (i.e. it's not pay-2-win), and gives us a way to pay for the ongoing cost of hosting these servers.
28. What benefit do I get, from increasing the size of my Eternal Kingdom?
The only benefit received from increasing your Kingdom is a social one -- similar to joining a guild. Having more land means that you can invite other players to take up residence or open shops in your Kingdom. They still have to build structures and pay upkeep, just like they would on their own personal Kingdom.
29. What can I do with a parcel of land?
A parcel is just an area of "raw" land, nothing more. If you want to build anything on that land, you will need to collect Materials (such as Stone, Iron and Wood). These Materials can only be found in quantity by participating in Campaigns. Materials are required to build structures, upgrade them and to maintain them over time.
30. What control do Monarchs have over the land in their Kingdom?
Monarchs have complete control over their Kingdom. They can: partition off sub-sections of land (adjacent parcels) and grant these to other players as "rental properties." These players become Vassals of the Kingdom.
Monarchs can charge property taxes for the use of land. They can charge import and export tariffs for moving goods into and out of their Kingdoms. They can set administration rights on the world (such as PvP rules, and which player(s) can log into the World.)
31. Can I attack another Personal Kingdom?
We are working on a design that allows Kingdoms to War with each other.
This idea is still very rough, and we consider this a secondary system to the Campaigns - meaning that, even when engaged in a Kingdom War, players will still be reliant on Campaign participation in order to secure materials and rare reagents.
The basic outline of the Kingdom War system is:
The Monarch of one Kingdom challenges the Monarch of another. They must agree on the duration or victory condition (i.e. how do we determine a winner?) They must both ante up a prize (in materials, items or coin) that will be placed "in escrow", meaning they can't touch it unless they win.
Once the War starts, Vassals can travel between the two Kingdoms, and there is open PvP in both Worlds (i.e. no safe zones.) The siege mechanics are enabled on those Worlds, and the buildings are destructible. The War ends either when the pre-determined condition is met by one side, or when one Monarch surrenders. The winner gets the rewards that were set aside at the beginning.
NOTE: the details of this system are still being worked out. If this sounds interesting to you, we invite you to jump on the forums and join the discussion.
32. How does being a Vassal work?
A vassal is granted a "province," meaning "a contiguous area of the Land that I control, as a tenant."
A province is a set of some number of contiguous parcels. The smallest province is 1 parcel. The largest province is the entire World (of which the Monarch is the owner.) The owner of a province can grant (sublet) up to 50% of his or her domain to another player.
These relationships can be nested. For example, if a Monarch has 100 parcels of land, he or she could grant 20 parcels to one player, 30 parcels to another, and keep 50 for themselves.
The Monarch still "owns" all 100 parcels. The sub-granted lands are basically rented out to the other players, like tenants.
The player with 20 granted parcels can then effectively sub-sublet 19 of those 20 parcels to other players, creating a "Fealty Tree", or a nested hierarchy of player ownership. A single parcel could be owned by the Monarch, granted to a Duchess, who then sub-grants it to a Baron, who in turn leases it out to a Noble.
Each of these players is considered to a be an "owner" in the Fealty Tree for this parcel.
33. Why would I want to be part of a Fealty Tree?
Technically the Monarch "owns" the land, and determines the ability of non-vassals to be able to visit the world, and to buy goods from vendors.
Every vassal in the Fealty Tree is given access to use ALL the (player-run) services (including the passive training NPCs) located on that World, as well as the ability to collect taxes and to change the administration rights in their province. They are also granted a noble title on that World.
34. Can I own multiple provinces on the same Kingdom?
No. You can be granted multiple parcels, but they must be adjacent and contained within the same (parent) province.
35. How much of my land can I grant to other players?
Within a province, you must always keep 1 parcel for yourself (to represent your seat of power.)
Of your remaining parcels, no more than 50% can be granted to a single player. This means that the number of Vassals that you can have, for any given province, will be between 0 and (N-1), with N being the number of parcels in that province.
36. Why use a nested structure?
This structure gives players the ability to self-organize, and it's a simple way of tying land ownership to political structures (like pre-existing Guilds.) Because it mirrors feudal land ownership, it's also pretty easy to understand.
37. Can I be a Vassal in multiple different Kingdoms?
Yes! There is NO LIMIT to the number of worlds in which a single player account can be a VASSAL. (This is a social mechanic - you can own land in as many Kingdoms as you can convince other players to invite you!
38. What if I change my mind, and want to revoke land that I have granted?
Province holders can revoke land grants at any time. Monarchs retain ultimate control over the administration and use of their Kingdom.
39. If I make improvements to the land, and the owner revokes my lease, do I lose those improvements?
Yes, just like modern-day tenancy agreements.
40. How does the titles system work?
Your title in a Kingdom depends on the size of your province in that Kingdom. A player with 30 parcels might be a "Duke" of that Kingdom. A player with only 1 parcel might be a "Noble". We're haven't yet locked down the exact details of how much land will be required for each title.
Smaller kingdoms, because they have fewer parcels, will only be able to support lower ranks of nobility (and fewer of them.)
41. How do I manage my Kingdom when I am in a Campaign?
This design is still somewhat in flux, because we haven't nailed down exactly how much we want to "lock" characters to Campaigns.
Our current thinking is to allow players to travel between their Campaigns and their Kingdoms freely, even during Campaigns - but to not allow ANY equipment to transfer between them, other than at the beginning and end of the Campaign (in accordance with that Campaign's Import and Export rules).
Passive training will NOT be location based; meaning your character(s) will continue to advance at the same rate, regardless of whether they are currently playing in a Campaign or in a Kingdom.
