Messages

[+1]

edit: Changed my vote

>Grant audience to Sir Kevin of Axemont. Ask our military advisor Sir Lancelot to stay for advice during the audience.

+1

Do we have a counsel? Who are they?

[+1]

>Allow Dennis to commission new seals and ask him whether there's anything else about the trader's guild we need to know.

+1

I don't do buyer's remorse. A bad game can teach you a lot.

You wouldn't say that if you had purchased Vampire Rain for full XBox prices. Yup, I bought it. I was bored and wanted a game to play, yet for some reason didn't think to check online ratings with my phone while in the store. Worst purchase ever. Even at $1 I would've regretted it (at $50-60 I was almost determined to invent a time machine to warn myself - yes, it was that bad!).

[+1]

Oh.. for some reason I didn't know of Dennis being the head of trader's guild. He would've been more suitable for Jib to meet with instead of Mandarb.

I guess we need to figure this emergency out first, then afterwards perhaps have him catch up with Jib.

>SUMMON Dennis and the town guards;

+1

[+1]

> Don't accept the offer;

+1   AND summon MANDARB to meet with JIB (the southern merchant) to see if he has any wares to sell him

I agree that the census is still a good idea, but we should be very specific in its design before delegating its execution.  I think Ryan could handle drafting that up for us. 

All I can think of is what I've written in my post above, do you have any other suggestions?
Edit: I suppose religion is a big question. I'd like to know how many religions and churches we have in our kingdom.

[more guards/soldiers]

I too believe that we need more guards/soldiers and I believe Baron and me wanting for a census of our kingdom to on early posts. We could then find out how many unemployed fit men could be trained by Lancelot.

I completely agree. I definitely would've +1'd that command if I were part of this game in the early stages. We'll certainly need to address it at another point. Not only do I want a population census, I'd like to know what crops or livestock we have, how many forgers, if we have any mines and what kind of metals they have, if there's fish in the river or anything else that's worth collecting, is it salt or fresh water, how many boats we have (fishing or military), etc.

Spoiler

There's always peace Miguel, I don't mind a differing opinion

[close]

Then again, why prepare for war unless you plan to have a war?

Oh, I am not eager to prepare for war, simply just looking to defend our kingdom. A kingdom without guards and knights and sufficient men for militia is no kingdom at all (at least not for long).

Baron: That's awesome! I had only joked about you creating this and you completely surprised me! Good stuff. I like!

Also: sorry, but there is no such thing as "downvote" in this game

Dang diddly dang-it!

So the numbers of guards guarding the castle is a small fantasy scale number? Five certainly wouldn't be enough to even guard a house let alone a castle (night rotation, guarding king, treasury, armory, any valuables during a raid or theft, etc), which is why I assumed we should amp up the amount. Hmm, so you're saying that if an enemy attacks, it won't be in waves of a 1000+ knights/soldiers as I imagined it would be, but instead it'll be small numbers like 50?

[> Ask MERCHANT his name, where he was born, and who he's related to, and what does he know and think of the surrounding KINGS]

Woah, slow down my fellow people! I down-vote all that was commanded. WHAM said that simply talking with an ongoing audience doesn't count as a major event advancing the day (unless we were to ask him eventful things such as asking him to draw us a map of what he knows).

Then again, if you have an ongoing audience, you may take several actions WITH that audience, such as ask questions (How's the wife?), give orders (Dance for me!), make requests (Would you mind bringing your hot daughter over tomorrow, she's of age, right?) etc, and the audience still only counts as one major action for the day.

We need to take advantage of this. We need to ask him more questions. Also to take advantage of what he has said: "Additionally, I am willing to buy any valuable artifacts your craftsmen might have produced, as well as found treasures, herbs and potions of all values."

We already have Lancelot's men mapping out the East, I say we use this MERCHANT a little more before dismissing him. First I suggest we ask his name and where he's from, or who he's related to (it may be important, if only for reference) and what he thinks of the Kings he knows of, which is the most IMPORTANT question. Then after that, have him draw us a map from memory of any of the surrounding area he knows of (if it's wrong, we can always change it later with professional scouts). Then have him meet with Mandarb to purchase anything we have.

> Ask MERCHANT his name, where he was born, and who he's related to, and what does he know and think of the surrounding KINGS (especially the King in the south whom I'm assuming is: Grand Emir's Turbanistan)





On a side-note I'll mention a few things for reference and let you all know what I'm thinking:
Do we have a treasurer? We need to check on our tax rates, make sure that every purchase is being taxed properly. And we also need to find out if there are any gold mines nearby and have some miners harvest as much as we possibly can. If we can't quickly 'earn' more golden coins, we can always make more (even if it's just to stockpile the newly made coins in our treasury). We'll need to find out if we have a royal mint. We also need to have the Churches tithe coin for the kingdom; perhaps we can squeeze more coin from peasants through their faith. Of course only a percentage though, some of that money (sadly) needs to go towards the church.

We need guards. I'm assuming we're sitting there on our throne without a single guard around us, or WHAM hasn't included them in the pictures. We also need adequate guards on the treasury where no one is to enter without record and of what they've taken or added, and they should be watched while they're in there. These guards will know that they'll be spending one year in the dungeons for each gold coin that goes missing.

Spoiler

Would it be possible to have a list of people or things we know? It certainly would make it easier to know everyone's names, what positions we have filled, what positions we don't, etc. I vote Baron to keep track of this information and to host it on a site for reference. Why Baron? Well, simply because I don't want to do it and I know that my good buddy Baron is a pushover eager to help. (it doesn't have to be Baron, I jest)

[close]

@Renodox - Santa Clause?

Santa Claus     (don't let the Tim Allen "Santa Clause" movie fool you) 

[certainly]

Jesters traditionally are untouchable.

That's the main reason why I absolutely dislike the idea of him prancing around giving advice and acting as your royal counsel. I would never take a king seriously if their (only) counsel was a fool. Also you saw the way he interrupted Lancelot just to suggest to you that the kingdom should be renamed; a matter such as that should be brought up behind closed doors, not in front of your court or guests.

@WHAM: Without you addressing the woke-up-suddenly-as-king-but-we-don't-remember introduction, I can only assume the worst. No amount of drinking or drugs over a 2 day period could wipe your memory of leading an uprising against your own brother. And I'd prefer not to use a command to ensure it was just an introduction to the game "> Look into your memories to see if what the Jester tells you is true" etc, which is why I'm just asking the dungeon master if it was just a convenient way to have a proper introduction, or if we simply don't have any memory of this (if we don't, then we're best to simply run and run again - we're a fool being played by a fool who suddenly has us believing we're a king. Run and hide and throw down your crown). Or we simply still are the evil king but were given a potion to forget everything and now we're told we're his brother; which means the fool certainly has a reason to aspire against us or even regicide.

In my view, the first thing we need is MONEY and INCOME. Therefore, I would suggest offering an audience to the MERCHANT and ARTISAN.

I will +1 that.

But don't forget, if what we're being told is true, we just took siege against the kingdom and claimed ourselves as the new King. I'm assuming we're the rightful heir when your brother had died (unless his kids were all butchered). There will be people who oppose us or have plans to usurp us from our new-found claim while we still have our pants down adjusting to the new seat of rule. ROBINA THE RANGER and her archers sound like the first crew we should be hiring after looking to secure ourselves a new merchant and artisan. A good set of walls (albeit they're wood and easy to storm and burn) is better held with archers and catapults than they are by foot soldiers with swords - we still need both.

This should be our queue of commands (sneaking a few in when it's needed):
Merchant > Archers > Rebuild stone walls > Find yourself a counsel and Hand > Retire jester > Look to secure your rule with an heir and blood ties > Fix dungeons (where else will we keep our POWs?)

I certainly don't think he should run any commands without at least one vote from other players (or unless WHAM strongly agrees with the command), but seeing a command that received a few votes being dismissed due to another command with only one extra vote is quite disappointing. If two commands were given in a turn, one being to hire a herbalist and the other being to send sellswords to search a newly discovered magical cave, all the attention will be on the magical cave and it's likely we'd NEVER see the herbalist being mentioned again (until we need one, but by then it'll be too late).

I agree he's doing a fine job with this, I only offer the suggestion to help improve and speed things along. A LOT of things can and do happen in a kingdom, and depending on how long and detailed WHAM decides for this to go, if it's going to take us two real-world weeks to do trivial tasks this game will certainly lose steam.

[> SUMMON Sir Lancelot, then INQUIRE privately to whom is the most knowledgeable, trustworthy, well-known and well-liked person in the Kingdom]

Alright, the Jester is the first to go. The previous king had him held in the dungeon (which is destroyed and should be a HIGH priority to fix, unless there's a backup). Why was the Jester in the dungeon? Was he too annoying, or did he attempt to overthrow the king and was awaiting punishment before the battle broke to throw the old king.

I do not trust his counsel, it would unwise for us to have him find us a wise trustworthy person to replace him as ADVISER; he may have a hidden agenda or appoint you someone who is easily malleable to his will or some halfwit that won't serve you well. This is what we need to do ASAP!

Also, even if the JESTER is trustworthy, a good Kingdom wouldn't have someone who's so unprofessional and giddy, greeting the guests and acting much above his duties. I still strongly believe he shouldn't be promoted, he should probably be placed back in his cells. He definitely shouldn't be anywhere near the king, and if he's a threat to the kingdom he shouldn't be allowed to flee.






My FIRST command and most IMPORTANT:
> SUMMON Sir Lancelot, then INQUIRE privately to whom is the most knowledgeable, trustworthy, well-known and well-liked person in the Kingdom

• We need someone who is familiar with war and battle strategies. Someone who can counsel you and act as your Hand. We shouldn't be spending our time treating to "guests" seeking our attention unless our Hand feels it's something worthy of our personal attention. He should report to us each day with what he has done, and what has happened.
  I recommend we ask Lancelot, obviously because he's familiar with this kingdom and because he sounds honorable and trustworthy.

Secondly (after hiring this person as your HAND & ADVISER):
> Ask your new ADVISER about the JESTER; also asking WHERE he feels the JESTER is better to serve (or imprisoned in dungeons)


Third, and MOST importantly after finding our HAND & ADVISER:
> Have your HAND notify a powerful and well-liked family within the kingdom, offering an incentive to wed their attractive, maiden and fertile daughter - HAVE BABIES IMMEDIATELY!

• They should be thrilled to have family wed into royalty, so not too big of an incentive - perhaps Lordship and Land to her parents or siblings if her parents are already Lords
  Having children will give you blood ties to other kingdoms or with surrounding Lords within your Kingdom (I wish we knew more about the surrounding kingdom). It prevents wars.

Finally:
> ORDER DUNGEONS to be FIXED!



Next we should locate any of our blood family, assuming they aren't as evil as our twin brother, the former king, and have them Lorded and given land, taking Lordship and Land rights from any opposing Lords in your kingdom. Marry them and/or their children to any Lord families tying everything together.




DO NOT RENAME THE KINGDOM as the Jester suggested. It is bad counsel in my opinion. Peasants are generally satisfied with their king unless he was absolutely terrible and gave them reason to be hated. You're a King ruling over many towns and villages under other Lords who are basically like Kings in their own right, just one step below you (I'm assuming this isn't just a tiny Castle we're a king of with the surrounding land and cities/towns all ruled by other kings). If you rename the kingdom it won't change how peasants do their daily duties, how they feel, etc; it might just anger them, or give them a reason to start getting upset with things that normally wouldn't bother them, but now it does only because they're expecting things to be better.


I'm also not happy with this whole "woke up and forgot everything" scenario. Either it's just a poorly written introduction idea, or it's even beyond what it appears. My immediate reaction was that there was never a war, and you and your king brother had been switched, with the Jester orchestrating everything - but all the guests seem to be saying otherwise and that there really was a war (or none of them are even trustworthy and they're lying about the whole thing as well). Wham, I would like you to address this. Is this just a convenient and poorly written way to have the Jester explain to us, the players, what has ACTUALLY happened, or is it far more than that? Do we remember any of this, or is it completely fake. I do not like it at all.

Edit: Also Wham, I suggest you allow for more actions per turn, ones that you feel mature and appropriate, or at least ones that have been chosen by other players (instead of JUST one each and every time); otherwise this game will stagnate and grow boring; and often or not, only the entertaining commands will be chosen. We might get 3 great commands per turn, but since the 2 didn't get enough up votes, it will likely never be repeated again due to frustration, or players just dropping the game or idea completely (this happened in your other games with me - I like how Stranded was played by VWG having him choose multiple commands per turn.

I'm running out of things to do with Gumby Ponch.

You make it dance like his avatar.

Oh dear. DBoy certainly would be in love with this movie!

Seriously? Is there really no one else's dog that goes absolutely nuts over that song I posted above? I can't believe this. She sounds like Timmy fell in the well every time it's played. It's like she's trying to communicate or sing. I should likely record it perhaps.

[adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums]

But I've just discovered how many BigBlueCups links there are in this thread! Holy crackers! This may have to wait until this weekend.

Copy/paste into notepad and just Find & Replace adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums to adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums. The games page one is slightly more difficult, but just copy/paste and manually retype the ID:

www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1371
and change to:
www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1371/

Even a cow could do it!

Everything looks absolutely wonderful.

I so hope you plan on adding reflections from the characters in those shiny floored areas - the first moment I looked at the screenshot it immediately pulled me away. It's about as distracting as a trumpet to the head.

I've always wanted to make an Oceanspirit game. I had even started working on one but gave up; I usually get distracted by other shiny things. Perhaps one day I will.

(On a side-note: I'm surprised this thread has lasted as long as it has in the Adventure related)