I would like to be the first to put in my order for both a Blue and Red suit from North Face Tailors. Their quality has been rumored to be of the highest, and I need to see this firsthand. I will be away in foreign lands for the next 6 months or so, but I should be back by 1604, perhaps earlier. I will be sending messages via merchant ship, however. If you are able to sell some of these suits, please let the nearest merchant vessel know the price so I may make a decision on purchasing.

Regards,
Sir noms, Earl of White Cross.

The search for RME has been completed. SUCCESS!


Shamefully the adventure did not interest competing teams, so the only team was deemed winner and they can tell the story themselves if they like

But they did receive a good payout for their efforts, as follows:

3,000 * RME "Methuselah" Rum
(product is not graded yet because only the King knows how it should taste)

The costs were as follows:
450 IC   for acquiring the merchandise, die decided that it was cheap!
480*W1600   since if you take wine with you to a voyage, for sure it is consumed
80 mil    for various costs and salaries
300 mil    for Town import tax

No more of this Rum will be able to be brought to the Kingdom.
(both the product and the costs have been added/subtracted to Earl noms account, who will distribute them according to the team contract)

* - *

Tavastia and his party had too many business going on with windows to make it to the year-long journey to strange lands. But he fulfilled his threat to go to Amsterdam and have a nice time there. So his result is:

1,000 RUM "Rum"

Costs:
135 mil, which is mostly tax

Tavastia is offering his teammates, Knight serje and Ale of Nassau, the option to redeem up to 300 bottles each at cost = 135,000/bottle.
Others including restaurants may purchase it at 200,000 for some time at least.
All the dignitaries of the town have been gifted 2 bottles, and the King and Town 10 bottles each.


Perhaps a more important discovery were some green herbs that Tavastia chewed there. They made him feel Ancient again, with clear and lucid thoughts. There is now a possibility for a new voyage that might bring the seeds of these plants to the Kingdom, which might result in a whole new consumable, potentially useful for all!

Jacket's North Face Textiles Produces 1st Clothing in the Kingdom

The rumors and whispers have been heard throughout the Kingdom for the past few years.  After over 50 years of research and experimentation with the production on textiles and clothing techniques, the craftsmen were finally confident enough in their skills and the 1st suits made in the Crypto Kingdom are now ready and available for sale!  Many years of labor cost and training went into the establishment of the Textile Production capabilities and we are now ready to accept new future custom orders for Suits!

The 1st suits were made from Noble Blue and Red imported ancient cloth from the year 1551.  There is limited availability on ancient cloth so the pricing on Ancient Suits differs from that of Suits constructed of newer material made in the Kingdom.

Wearing quality clothes is a must for anyone aspiring to advance in ranks and be successful in the Kingdom!

The Red and Blue Suit inventory is available at the following pricing:

Red Suit made from 1551 Ancient Cloth - 36M
Noble Blue Suit made from 1551 Ancient Cloth - 46M  (Similar imported Ancient Suits have sold for 5x this)

We are also ready and able to provide quotes on suit orders of various Precious Metal content woven into the designs.  
The pricing on these depends on the cloth type and amount of precious metals to include.

He is the base pricing (in M) for Ancient Suits (includes the material in the pricing):

Discounts are given if you provide the cloth for construction.

A-Green    -   13
A-White    -    19
A-Orange  -    28
A-Red      -    36
A-Blue      -    46

Here is the base pricing (in M) for new material Suits (includes the material in the pricing):

Green       -    10    
White        -    13
Orange      -    17
Red           -    21
Blue          -    26
Purple       -   52

Contact me via PM or IRC with your requests and I can provide you with an time estimate and cost quote!  
Looking forward to seeing some finely dressed citizens in our town!

We just submitted a proposal for 3 Royal Purple suits order.     /EDIT: which came back swiftly as accepted. These will probably be the first suits with silver in them, in the whole Kingdom!

Perhaps it is good to remind the newer citizens about the color codes and elaboratenesses of the suits:

According to the very ancient custom, cloth is produced in 6 colors (+2 non-colors), and these convey a meaning:

- Purple is very elaborate, and is reserved for Royal characters (the only one of such is currently the King, meaning that others may not order purple clothes for themselves, but may wear purple with royal permission)

- Blue is most elaborate, and is reserved for Noble characters (Jungherr/Knight and higher - it is considered a serious shame if nobles do not have any clothes (especially now as they are available) and somewhat of a shame if they do not possess and wear Noble clothes). Silver goes well with blue color so is expected to be a hit in the new season. It is completely fine to not have any ornaments in your blue - nobility is after all sometimes egalitarian for their members - but if you wear gold/silver, make sure to have a proper amount that suits your position, age and wealth.

- Red is most elaborate, and traditionally a color of merchants, because it is striking and expensive, and merchants have the reason to be both. It is considered proper to wear red if you have money, and if you don't, you can't wear red anyway. Rogue barons who are self-made men may wear red during workday as a sign of "still being in business" but for sure they have many blue suits as well for the King's parties and other Noble events. Ancient red suits carry some of the largest loads of gold in them.

- Orange is elaborate, and the festive color for all common people. Because suits will start to get worn based on their use, and an everyday use will reduce the suit to zero in about 10-15 years, the poorer folks want to have a separate better suit for festive occasions, and a more basic suit for everyday use. Using red is a signal that "I have the means to wear red every day" but orange is more the sign of "I don't have much income but I am wealthy enough to own a festive suit". And since these are not much used, they are inherited over generations. They are often heavily gilded with attached silver items as well. Nobles should never wear orange.

- White is elaborate, and historically the color of academics, "whose clothes do not get dirty from physical labor". New nobles who have been promoted based on their learning (and do not have too much money) are accepted to continue to wear white some time after ennobling. Artesans, merchants, laborers etc. should not buy and wear white, since it is not fitting. Gold/silver are most often small amounts, for the reason that academics tend to be not rich - if they were learned and rich, they would be merchants and soon nobles, and not wear white any more.

- Green is not elaborate, and is rather cheap to produce en masse. It cannot be embellished with metals, and is an all-purpose suit for many trades, and all commoner levels from as early as you can afford, all the way to Master. (Wizards have the eccentricity to wear whatever they like, save purple/blue.)

- Grey is the uniform for heavy duty and is not elaborate. It is much favored among NPCs, soldiers, stonemasons, King's and other servants, poor people who cannot afford even green, etc. Unless your work especially demands to wear grey, you should try to buy a green or higher suit as soon as possible. Then the next aim should be an orange suit for occasional use.

- Brown "suit" is a collection of clothes made in the countryside and not dyed etc. While it may serve the purposes there, in the city it is considered woefully inadequate and immediately reveals your poor situation. Even peasants commonly have orange suits for visiting CryptoTown (it is rumored that the one going to visit will even rent one if needed). Only the lower level church people use brown, to show their piety or something. (Brown is not even considered a suit in the health etc. calculations)


The North Face company has the monopoly on dyes. Grey is not considered a dye, so the import of grey suits to clothe the most urgent needs is possible, and the Town has organized a stream of grey suits to be sold to the most needy. At 1.2 mil each, they are not competing with the North Face Spring Collection 1603, and are rumored to have shoddy workmanship which makes them last less than the NF Brand Quality Produce. Wearing them while waiting your order to fill in NF is still better than not having any clothes at all!

TL;DR: If you do not have a suit, and do not plan to order yours from Jacket NF Company very quickly, you should spend the token amount of 1.2 mil to buy your gray suit (GREY10, col "QI" inF_OWN) latest when Ultima opens. This is a good way to try out the Agora Market exchange functionality!

Oh, that is a very interesting story.

The tasting of the rum reveals for certain that we are talking about the same stuff. Had 15 RME for starters and bought a few more. The quality is quite uneven - some bottles are (only) good, others quite excellent. This is the reason for the wide grading, 14-18 (will be focused more if it happens that the first bottles were not representative of the whole lot.

Sir noms has listed some bottles for sale at 0.380 mil each. Of course this is no CLXII in quality, but the price is also much lower. As the first of its kind (rum), fine addition to anyone's liquor stash.

We hope that this drink would be distributed widely and actively. As a first of its kind, its enjoyment goes to waste if there is no opportunity to acquire it for everybody!

The list of Royal Monopolies, other granted Monopolies, and Corporations in Monopoly Market Position

...and the Call to Establish New Such Ones!


The Ultima development project has the end state of Ultima Version (V.U). It is a very fundamental way of economic implementation of the world, and has the following principles:

- Each character has Time, which he can convert to Labor (which is Time accompanied with Skill)
- Production requires Labor to be used, as well as (some or all of) Materials, Buildings, and Tools
- Production is defined such as new Items are created or existing ones change form to more refined ones

- Characters require food, drinks, clothes, etc. to sustain their life and therefore Labor-producing capacity
- These items are consumed in the process (food, drinks) or deteriorate over time (clothes, buildings)

- Money is a means of facilitating exchange, and can directly buy needed items as they are imported, but this will become less and less wanted as the domestic production takes over. This is a resource-based economy, with money relegated to its proper roles as a unit of account and means of exchange, where the store of value role is dependent on the character's wishes but CKG, M, UB and land being possibilities among others.

BUT

We are still far from the situation where all the production chain from wandering in the forest shooting pheasants until the finished hat is sold to the noblewoman, is properly mapped, implemented and balanced.

To bridge this gap, Monopolies are started to produce the needed items and conduct research that will lead to their dissolution.

RWWC has successfully started the making of windows, and will greatly expand its selection in the following years.

NewCorp is a cartel formed by landowners to produce stone, although anyone can start to compete with it once 1605 brings the new land available yet again.

North Face Cloth Industries has the grant to make suits in green, white, orange, red, blue and purple traditional colors. They have conducted research how to make them the best.

Royal Mint completed the itemization of the Kingdom's gold a year ago, and will be the only place to mint new coins, and round objects of existing gold, silver and other metals.

Church is tasked to make beer available to all and they get the tax revenue, which income is used for the poor.

The Town is in somewhat of a monopoly position regarding mead and strong drinks, because their price is mainly town tax, and imports regulated.


In the Villa Rotonda, we the staff have pondered over the needs of the people, and once V3.9U is soon here, and we have first time the option to enlarge the number of items ordinary people have, there are many needs:

- Printing Press. This would be a great and expensive purchase, but would enable making books and other prints in large runs, so that the per-unit cost is insignificant. The marketing is important because not everyone can read and the Kingdom is small. Probably many of the products will sell badly for decades even, until the latecomers realize their collectible value and the reward is gained after patient waiting.

- Hat and Boots manufacturing. It is time to get the latest fashions from the other countries to here as well, with both modest and magnificent head and footwear.

- Horse breeding and sales. Most nobles don't have the skill to "make" good horses but nevertheless demand them.

- Carriage manufacturing. These most important and expensive items need a maker, who can process and fulfill orders. There is a new 6-horse type technically available but it requires very trained horses and skilled carriage makers, artesans and artists to decorate the wonderful piece of wealth.

- Sword and other PPG manufacturing. It is about time to get our prowess to the level of the other countries, otherwise what is the possibility of subduing the countryside?!

- Wood items. The population of commoners that is flocking to the town soon, needs basic living stuff for their houses.


Proposals about how to handle these are received in the Villa Rotonda registry. SCI points spend is in many cases required.

HSH The Prince of OZ wishes to announce that he is most eager to contribute towards the Town Printing Press & associated Literary Society and can contribute 5,000 SCI towards making these noble goals a reality!

Yes, we hope that even the non-depositing new players can soon break away from the inadequate quality Grey clothing. On the other hand, the developments add the welcome distinction even to Green, which now compares favorably to the lower (non-)colors. It also has to be noted that the NF produce lasts twice as long as the emergency clothing provided by the Town!

Buy your stone at a discount!

After some experiments with the stone piles in people's front yards, everybody had found the idea stupid. So the stone was carried back to borough-wide depositories where it can be redeemed by showing a deposit card. This also facilitates trade better than before.

NewCorp has produced a record amount of stone, but the buyers are not there because building is paused. We remain committed to provide the stone to all the building needs, and want to offer a 3.3% per year discount for buyers. Buy your stone for the next year project now and get it at 145 instead of 150, the normal price! Thanks to NewCorp, the price of stone has been brought from 180-200 to 150!


NewCorp seeks financing from its members

NewCorp nominal share capital is 22.8 bil. We are seeking new financing for the quarries and purchasing of new land. Only the Members are eligible to give new money. The valuation is 111 mil/share, same that King used in his last capital injection to get the salaries paid last year. We need ~5 bil now. If there is too much or too little interest, the valuation will be adjusted.

The Members of NewCorp are:
King
HH of NF
Soul
Tavastia
Thud

Version 3.9U release schedule updated

Version 3.9U Reconstruction will be released for existing players on Sunday, 2015-9-6.


Hopefully I am not the only one who is waiting the new software like a child is waiting for Christmas...  

The project started with a very intense 18/7 bootcamp in the lush grounds of the Royal Palace of Malla. Now it has been a little disappointment that stuff is not happening as fast as there, even though it is rather obvious that 60 hours per week is not the same as 120 hours.

I am sorry for not updating the progress estimates to reflect reality sooner. Fact remains that the new software needs to be more functional than google DB before the migration is useful, and the versatility of google DB is hard to beat. The command line is an attempt to enable power use.

The daily sneak peek to the new features:
- Town Map shows all the 9 boroughs, and each chapelry by the number of lots in that chapelry.
- Chapelry Map shows graphically the lots inside the chapelry (as we remember, lots are not confined to quadrats any more, but may be any size and shape). It has 3 layers, of which you can select Land Usage (street, park, unbuilt, built, ...), Building Density (greyscale) or Lot Division (emphasizing the different lots).




Stone has been re-added to Items, so the next post will enable building once again, for the rest of the year. The year will change to 1604 a bit ahead of schedule already on Saturday.