Dear all NPCC competitors,


W1634F in quantities of 1500 have been served to all NPCC accounts. There have been sales approx. in range of 60k to 20k, so to compensate this, there will be reductions in the daily allowances for the remainder of the competition. Please take this into account in planning your strategy for the final push.

EDIT: This new wine is also consumable for 1 pt.

Some may have heard about an investment round that is bringing in new deposits. The first such investments from this round will be recorded in 1640. When this has happened, and possibly changed the prices of the major investment products (CKG, CON), it is time for:

Stock Market Wizard Investment Contest
(rules subject to changes upon feedback)

The aim of the contest is to prove that ingame semi-passive investing can generate profits, and how big they can be. Other objectives are fun, and activation of the ingame stock market liquidity.

The investment account size is 200 mil, so that anyone can participate. The participant funds the investment account (ingame corp) with 200 mil himself in the beginning.

The contest will end at the end of 1660 (20 years max). At the close of the year, the account is evaluated at bid prices of the assets.

Participation fee is 10 mil. It is possible to participate with at max 3 accounts at a time. An account can be abandoned by sweeping its contents to the owner. New accounts can be created until end of 1650, no later.

Only products eligible to be bought are securities. Therefore, no items with level >0 will be eligible. The list of eligible securities does not include all K0 items though, the companies will need to have a CEO and mission statement, with a report of "things that must be considered before investing". This is to prevent insider info being the deciding determinant of success. Also the security must be widely owned (can be checked by OWNS item_id).

The competition is long-term because it is not intended to be foremost a daytrading contest, but rather a semi-passive pick-the-winner contest. Buying and selling of shares is restricted by the following rules:
- All trades must be done on the marketplace;
- Even via the market, a person must not buy from or sell into an order that he has placed (no matter via which character or a proxy) until 24 hours have passed from the placing of the order;
- One person (through all his investment accounts) must not control more than 10% of the marketcap of a security;
- Transfers to the account and from it, in the middle of the competition, are forbidden (excluding the lawful sweep, terminating the account).

The results are according to the value of the account in the end, in M. Assets are at their bid prices. Blatant price manipulation in the last year will be detected (price jumping/crashing from the last few years' average with no reason), and the price adjusted according to GM decision. Disqualification happens if violation was purposeful.

The prizes come from the participation fee, to which the King adds a 200 mil bounty.

- 35% of the total is divided equally among the best half of the participants.
- 25% of the total is divided to the best 25% of the participants
- 10% of the total is divided to the best 10% of the participants
- 15% goes to the winner
- 8% goes to the 2nd place
- 4% goes to the 3rd place
- 2% goes to the 4th place
- 1% goes to the 5th place

The "% of participants" is always rounded up and money to the nearest m. All is cumulative.

For instance, if 6 accounts sign up, the prize pot is 260 mil (200 + 6*10).

1st gets 35%/3 + 25%/2 + 10% + 15% = 140.8 mil
2nd gets 35%/3 + 25%/2 + 8% = 83.6 mil
3rd gets 35%/3 + 4% = 40.7 mil
4th gets 2% = 5.2 mil
5th gets 1% = 2.6 mil
6th gets 0%

When the number of players is larger, the numbers get more even.

The prizes can also be given according to a continuous formula, achieving the same distribution but without gaps and undue difficulty in calculation:

#shares = 1 (1 + place) - 1 (2 * number_of_finishing_participants)

Prize = #shares shares_total * prize_pot

With 50 participants, all finishing, this will give 113 to winner and at least money back to 34% of participants
With 25 participants, all finishing, this will give 91 to winner and at least money back to 48% of participants
With 10 participants, all finishing, this will give 87 to winner and at least money back to 90% of participants

Changes to ART items

Art is a major achievement of a civilization. We currently have 39 Items of Art, of which most are movable paintings. Some are other art forms, and some are immovable as they have been painted on a surface.

Art can be created from IC and there have been 4 price points: K7 (100 IC), K8 (200 IC), K9 (500 IC) and K10 (1000 IC). Art never qualifies to any discounts.

Upon Coronation, a new era is opening, so the Art will reflect this as follows:

- K7 will be discontinued in 1640, and the new level K11 (2000 IC) will be opened immediately
- Before the actual event of coronation, the Art may be dated for any year 1600-1639, with normal backdating rules
- After the coronation, it may only be backdated to the official coronation year 1640 the earliest
- Backdating cost will remain 3% per year, simple calculation.

DeptStore has made bids on most pieces of Art existing. Not that they would reflect the true value but they are there as a conversation piece and seed for the Art market.

Contact Syksy (138) for your wishes especially now if you still want K7 and/or backdating to the earlier years of Reconstruction.

The Syyskuu Representation in 1640


The Syyskuu family will be represented in the coronation and the accompanying parties and competitions as follows.

Lord Syksy Syyskuu the First, Earl of Petrichor, will attend the coronation in person wearing the newly forged Syyskuu-coronet. He will be dressed in ancient unique blue suit (100 CKS embedded) with an intended 200-250 CKG coronet with pearls, TOPX and the family symbol shaped using the magical CP1300E-coin as a source in its forehead.

Syksy Jr, the Second (32 yo in 1640), will be the Syyskuu family contestant for the upcoming contests. He will be participating in the following categories:
- Sharpshooting (for which 20 SCI was consumed in 1639)
- Galloping
Some characteristics: Ordinary pistols (2x), Horse to be announced, Ancient unique suit, Wine amount to be announced

Unfortunately as we did not have the appropriate army ready, we will not participate in the Half-Section competition.

Other aims for the Syyskuu family during the Coronation year:
- Acquire a Battle Aquila by fortifying Petrichor and dedicating the troops to be there until 1650 as outlined in HM's post.
- Appropriate try to increase the family's prestige, hoping for a future promotion above Earl (i.e. Marquess).
- Arts and poetry to the max.
- Syyskuu family is considering an oath to the Majesty's family. However, it is still unclear what this oath of allegiance specificly requires, so it yet to be through-outly considered so that it may be whole-heartedly given with a clear conscience.
- Have a good time.

Your Majesty,

I am honoured by your kind gift of a topaz. I hope to wear it for your coronation, if finances allow me.

As the prices of the various production from Pada manor have been in continuous decline, I find myself in the unenviable position to be expending both time and money to manage the manor's sales. As a result, unless the terms are revised to allow at least break even, I would sadly be unable to continue in the job at a loss now that the rent is up.

Well, that kinda sucks because most, if not all, of the manor lords have been sustaining losses with the hopes of something good to come out of it in the future.

Good to know! Sorry for misunderstanding there.

Count Sir Crichton in--definitely would like to be part of the last challenge. 

The spoiling of veg, will be delayed to the last hour in Wednesday.

Feedback from a new signup:

1. Registration  easy – nice. Character age was the only confusing part. It’d be nice to have a mouseover or something to explain that this is not necessarily the user’s age + pros and cons of choosing lower or higher age values as a game age, so that the player doesn’t regret it later on if it is something crucial.

2. First login problematic due to the browser using email instead of character name. Proposal: Make both email and character name valid logins – or explain that nickname is required

3. First screen: https://cryptokingdom.me/billboard

That’s like a bad quality spampage – definitely not game material that people want to see. Too confusing for a new player, too all over the place, too spammy, way not too cool in terms of appearance. The first screen is enough for many players to just not give the game a second chance.

4. My first move is to click on the higher right pic of a guy… it seemed to be something like an online-assistance type of avatar, and I was not really sure what it was. I clicked and realized it’s “my profile”. A more generic picture needs to be used for that.

5. Uploading new image is an easy process. On the left hand of the screen two buttons, right and left of the photo, don’t seem to do anything.

6. I’m next onto the dashboard trying to see how to find a “main” game menu. I’m seeing 2 items. I can’t click to see what they are.

7. As I’m trying to find what to do next, I click the 3 line button right of the Crypto Kingdom label (upper left). This button needs more highlighting as it’s not so intuitive that it’s a central button in terms of functionality. At least to me.

8. I try the map. The index on the left is not very well designed. I am at https://cryptokingdom.me/land/chapelry/1:C  then click north-north, I get a ...white screen. Total white. (huh?)

9. I click to go back to Main Town. I’m trying to figure out how to navigate around. I click on a button on the upper right “explore...” and it says Find lot with ID: 4-W-W14 in Town map and take your reward. Yeah, well, how do I do that? I can't seem to find any move buttons.

10. I return to the map. On the left side it says: “Explore different lots informations”. Syntax is somewhat messed up and I kind of understand the meaning, but ...not clickable. Still no idea how to move around.

I'll give it a rest for now and revisit it later perhaps.