Chatrealms Help
[Chat Help] [Ruler Taxes] [Longboats] [Map Areas] [Buildings] [Ruler Assignment]
Ruler Taxes: Taxes are paid to rulers for each region they control. The tax paid is based on the total number of citizen aliases registered in each region which is multiplied by the Tax rate. There is no variation for titled aliases but no taxes are paid for those with the title of "Slave". The sum is paid directly to the rulers profile account and a record is filed on the Public records board.

The amount paid in tax is met by the system and not the citizens and the ruler may set the tax rate in the rulers STATUS editor. If no rate has been set the system uses the default rate of $30. Thus, 10 citizens yield a tax of 30 X 10 = $300. Taxes are paid automatically every 30 days real time.

Overlords can claim duty from their vassal subjects. Vassals are rulers who own regions where another ruler is Overlord. Generally this would be an Emperor or Empress. The Overlord can set a Duty rate which is imposed on the vassal when their taxes are paid. The Overlord can claim duty on the number of aliases in the region and the number of charters granted by the vassal ruler. Because the Overlord can impose this duty the vassal ruler must set a Tax rate that will cover the charge and still leave enough revenue to run their realm. If the Overlord sets a Duty rate of $20 then the vassal should likely set a Tax rate of double the Duty rate at least and probably more.

Setting a high Tax rate can affect resource output so the ruler should keep this in mind. To set the Tax rate the ruler needs to go to their alias editor and find the STATUS link. This opens the ruler's editor which contains a link button, UPDATES. Open the page and scroll down to find the Tax Rate form. If the ruler is an Overlord then a Duty Rate form will appear also. The system uses a default Tax rate of $30 if one has not set as mentioned above and a default Duty rate of $10. These rates can be changed at will and take affect at the time of the next tax collection.





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Longboats: Currently, aliases with the status of Ruler may create one longboat for each region of their realm. This is done by clicking the link, STATUS in the ruler's editor and then clicking the link, UPDATES when the Management window opens. Scroll down to the Longboat form and enter a Sea_Captain's name and a name for the boat plus select from the drop-menu an area and region where the boat will be launched. The boat is then recorded in the region region of choice but the Sea_Captain may be a citizen of any region the ruler controls. No resources are required to build the boat and the sea captain is assumed to be the builder so it is expected that S/he will role play the building of the boat in chat or ICM before the boat's official creation and launching to activate it.

Once the longboat has been launched the Sea_Captain may post in chat and use special keywords which include /board on and /board off but the sea captain must be in the region on profile and at the area where the boat is located in chat for these keywords to work. To find the boat goto chat and move to the area it was launched at then post /look and you will see a message in your personal msg box which gives a view of the area. You should see the boat with no captain on board. See next example for boarding on and off the boat:

Enter...
/board on BOAT_NAME

If there are no mistakes and the post proves valid then the chat thread should look like this...

Captain Alias_Name : boards the longboat, BOAT_NAME as the captain

In the personal message box the Captain will see a message which confirms the captain is on board the boat and offer some information such as; "Captain is on board the longboat, BOAT_NAME. Up to 3 passengers and 1 army captain with a military unit can now board the longboat too. Note: Military unit must have no more than 40 NPC troops with archer or infantry training."

No passengers or military captain and NPC troops may board a boat if the sea captain is not on board and the sea captain may not leave the boat until it is fully unloaded. As might be expected, the opposite of "/board on" is "/board off" but, while /board on requires a boat name to be added to the post, this is not necessary for /board off as the name is already known. For example:

Enter...
/board off

If there are no mistakes and the post proves valid then the chat thread should look like this...

Captain Alias_Name : steps from the longboat, BOAT_NAME


With the sea captain on board up to three passengers of any none-military title may now board the boat too using the same "/board on" keyword. The passengers are then recorded as on board and will loose their ability to change location in their alias editor. The reason is that all aliases on board a boat are automatically moved with the sea captain so if the captain uses the keyword "/move" then the area of both the sea captain and the passengers will change. If the sea captain changes location then the passengers will change location too. In effect, this is equivalent to the common "/follow" command of other chat systems.

Apart from three none-military passengers a boat can carry one army captain as mentioned above as well as an NPC troop unit provided the unit has no more than 40 NPCs and is recorded as archers or infantry. The unit does not need to be named in a "/board on" post. It is enough for the army captain to use the keyword and the name of the boat. The system will detect information about the captain's unit assignment and add the information provided the conditions are met. The army captain will not be able to board a longboat with out a unit assignment.

As mentioned, passengers loose their ability to change location while they are onboard the longboat and, whereas the army captain is normally relocated by the General of the division to which the unit belongs, the General too will loose this power while the army captain and unit are on the boat. Everyone and everything onboard the boat is moved by the sea captain as they move.

When the sea captain opens their alias editor and attempts to change location they will find the options of where they may move is different than if they were not on the boat. The system checks the current location intelligently and discovers if a boat could possibly move to another region. For example, a boat cant move to another region unless an accessible coast, shore, beach, river or sea is detected and the connections must favour entry from the existing location. You would not expect a boat to be able to cross a mountain range! Thus, the system will scan each possible region the captain may move to but only allow those options that are valid. Generally this means following coastal regions but inland rivers that cross the region may still permit access.

Finally, all aliases boarding on or off the boat, including the sea captain, can only do so at an area with "shore", "beach", or names like "coast" in the area name. As keywords can't be used on the ICM board it becomes clear that all actions involving longboats must be done in chat rooms.

Longboat Rules When a sea captain enters a region where his/her ship may be located they must /move to a valid area. Thus, a ship may be located in any region with a coast, river and sea areas but in order not to infringe on the rights of the local ruler the area a captain moves to should always be a sea area unless they have safe passage to make landfall. The local ruler can not justify an attack on a longboat provided the captain stays in a sea area. In any event, a boat at sea can only be attacked by another boat at sea unless the boat makes landfall and the captain would still need to do that if they are to land an NPC army unit and engage them in combat.

Longboats can never carry cannons but other ships to be intoduced eventually, can and the longboats can be fired upon provided the attacking ship is at the same location and area. Sea battles between longboats follow the same location/area rule where both must be in the same place and the system does permit this. Combat follows the same Turn-based rules as for all other aliases except that the captains must descibe their actions as between two boats and/or between rival NPC troops on board. If there are no troops on board with an army captain then it is invalid for a captain to fight as if there were, S/he may fight as if there was a small crew but the outcome ulimately is determined as single alias action.


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Map Areas Rules: All chat rooms (regions) have their own local map with up to 16 areas named. These names appear in the chat room on a drop-down menu and aliases may move to any area that does not contain "sea" in its name unless they are officially on a ship or longboat. They can move to areas with "coast" or "river" in the name and may engage with a boat found there as an attack from land such as archer attack. In any event a longboat must be at a shore area if a passenger wishes to board it.

The local map has references that form a 4 X 4 grid over it and these named areas will be seen on the chat room menu. The grid forms Rows, A to D and columns 1 to 4. This gives 16 named locations on the map. Example square grid...

|A1|A2|A3|A4|
|B1|B2|B3|B4|
|C1|C2|C3|C4|
|D1|D2|D3|D4|

If an area contains a castle or other property then making a /move to the area in which the castle stands places the alias either in the castle or out side it. To determine if an alias is in side or out side a castle while in the area can be a role play choice, however, if the castle gate is closed according to the map icon then they are always out side. If, in role play those who arrive at the castle first claim to enter the castle an close the gate then those arriving after must remain outside. An exception would be an invading NPC army unit; The army captain could role play the battering of the gate as a full challenge to those within but the rules of military combat must be applied. In brief, military combat is turn based thus the battering of a gate must take at least 3 turns and the nature of the response would still decide if the gate was open. But, if the defenders fail to meet the challenge before the day change then the attacker can claim to enter. This applies to chat but should the same take place on the ICM board then the challenge must be met by the end of the following day.

Generally, the rule for any chat room is that for role play to be valid then an alias must /move to an area where any engagement is to take place and they must be in the region according to their profile. Thus any one to one combat would be invalid unless the opponents share the same area at the time of the challenge.

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Buildings: Every realm has its main map and local maps seen within chat rooms which are segments of the main map. When you view the local map from the MAP button link in the chat room you may see property icons in the form of small gif images such as castles, taverns and other buildings. Some of these icons are active links and some, from time to time, are not. When you click on an active icon which depicts a castle you are taken to the chat room for that castle.

All properties do have a chat room but the owner may lock it up from time to time so that is one reason why a link may not be active. Usually, however, the icon link is not active because you must use the keyword /move in the local region chat to move to the area in which the property stands. If you are in the region according to your alias profile then the system will remember when you have moved to an area so you may find, on return, you don't have to move to the area again unless you have moved elsewhere recently. You will also learn that you can move to other regions and still use the /move post to go to its areas and enter its properties even though you are not in the region on profile. However, the system does not remember these actions but it will still remember the area of your profile location.

Rulers are the only aliases that can start a building project and they do it by filling a form in their alias editor which sets it up, adds a name and type of property. To begin with the property icon on the map is none-active (there is no chat room) and the icon depicts a property under construction. This lasts a minimum of 14 days real time, in which time the owner needs to engage a Stone Mason who collects stone and timber from Land and Mine owners and uses the keyword /drop load to deposit the resources on the site area (see Extended Keywords link and Stone Mason). The Stone Mason may have to get resources from more than one Land and Mine owner because properties need a lot of materials to complete.

Because the system can read chat threads it will record what the Stone Mason is doing and, as part of the process of getting resources, S/he is expected to role play the act of building at the site area. It is important to remember this because the property can not become active until all conditions are met. A slow Stone Mason would not please the ruler if they took too long, and, if the property is a castle it may be very important because the realm might face war!

Each property serves as a chat room but also each type will serve special purposes too. A castle is the most dynamic and the owner can lock its gate, deposit gold in its vault and store a limited number of weapons and supplies in its store room which allows the owner to own more objects other than those they have in possession. Most importantly, a castle is a defensive building and special rules apply if it is to be attacked and captured. Castles have a defense value which must be broken down with serious role play in order for it to be captured so the upkeep of a castle should never be neglected. We also have a plan to eventually activate a guard bot who will challenge visitors, greet friends of the owner and generally be around to show a regular presence.

Taverns have some of the features of a castle but not all and their defensive level is much lower. However, gold can be stored there along with supplies and a limited number of weapons, horse, etc. They do have another special function though which involves profit! Every time an alias enters the tavern they are automatically docked a small some of gold which the tavern owner can set. But remember other taverns may set the charge lower so business will depend upon price - just as in the real world. We also have a plan to activate a barmaid bot in the taverns who will serve drinks, take messages and generally greet the visitors.

Ports also have a chat room and must be build just the same as other properties. They can be used to store greater numbers of objects and even resource quantities. Most important, a port is needed for operating the system of shipping that we have planned.

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Ruler Assignment: Here I aim to explain how I decide if a member should be granted rulership of a chat region in the Dark Forest Realm...

1. If a new member asks to become the ruler of a vacant chat region then I will ask the member to put some role play time into the room and I will monitor this activity. I will not be looking for something as simple as making a claim to the region but a claim can be made none the less. What I'm interested in is reading the member's commitment to the region as if they had a family history there. ie, references to the alias' personal history and family history within the region It makes no difference to me that it is an invented history. What is important is that the member shows imagination and flare which tells me that they are going to make a good ruler in general and will be a good player in particular.

If there is a claim to the region from an established ruler in a bordering region then I am duty-bound to consider that claim too in which case I may advise the new member to work on a different region. However, if the new play proves to be a strong claimant then I may (A) Offer the new member vassal status under the Overlordship of the established ruler and thereby granting primary rulership to the Overlord but actual rulership to the new member. The new member can access all privileges but they will be liable to pay realm duties to the Overlord unless they formally break the Overlord treaty and effectively ignore the treaty and play as sole ruler regardless - which they can still do. (B) I may, of course, choose to grant the rulership to the new member anyway and disallow the established ruler's claim.

If a claim is made for rulership of a region from an existing ruler and no new member claim is made as well then I will consider the claim and advise the claimant to role play activity by one or more aliases either in the region or the bordering region. I will monitor this activity and will be looking for actions that tell me the claimant has serious intent. They role play with army captain and unit setting up an outpost and making reports to the ruler. I will be interested to see the ruler hold court in their capital region and state their intent and desire to add the new region to their realm or empire, perhaps even promising to make one of their subjects a vassal ruler. If a chat room doesn't exist but the region is named on the main realm map then I will look for activity related to any claim in the existing regions of the claimant's realm.

General Note: I take the view that rulers are prime members and expect them to instigate role play and story lines within their realm for the benefit of the local aliases. I expect all rulers to hold formal court meetings from time to time and to attempt some form of interaction with other rulers be it positive or negative. I am keen to see trade between realms and royal weddings to form alliances, etc. There are so many good story line ideas to be gained from the interaction between rulers and given that Dark Forest is a medieval setting then would expect to see much in that direction.

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