Holdings in Dark and Light
Exploiting natural resources
I - The technical aspect
1 - Natural resources
There are six kinds of natural resources: wood, stone, metal, crystals, water/gas and animal products. They are used in the building and maintenance of a fort as well as maintaining Mana fountains. Each resource has its own purpose. For example, animal products (strings, leather and others) are used for tents, water for the survival at the castle, etc...
The resources can be found all over Ganareth but you will have to find the suitable areas for the resources that you are looking for. As example, on a mountain, you will gather mainly stone and metal and not much wood.
2 - Holdings and their maintenance
Anyone can place a holding wherever he/she likes as long as some conditions are fulfilled:
- The player must have an appropriate SXP and CXP level. This amount is variable depending on the kingdom and on the type of holding. For example, with a certain given level, the player may put a county holding in the 1st kingdom and the same level might only be enough for the player to place a barony holding in the 3rd kingdom.
- The holding must not be on an exploited area. The holding’s influence covers a 500m radius around itself.
It is possible to have a Dark holding in Light territory and the opposite as well. However, you will learn later in the text that the trading will be far more difficult especially for transport in enemy lands and for high financial implications.
Just like forts, holdings are organized into brotherhoods. The player who places a holding is automatically the manager. Then, the player is free to organize the brotherhood into ranks which will be important for SXP gains (cf. the article about axes).
Hierarchies are found within holdings just like forts. There are kingdom holdings, duchy holdings, county holdings, barony holdings and basic holdings. Greater holdings will be able to contain a greater number of extraction buildings and the maximum number of members allowed in its brotherhood will be greater.
Holdings cannot be attacked by an enemy. You won’t have to worry about their defense.
To maintain your holding, you will have to pay a fee in Goths. As long as the chests are filled by the sales’ income or by the owner’s personal purse, the holding will remain. If ever the moment comes to pay and the chests do not have enough, one of the extraction buildings will be sold to compensate. If no more buildings are left, the holding will be destroyed.
3 - Extraction
Once a holding is placed, the owner can start extraction. To do it, the owner has to buy the desired extraction buildings and place them in the holding. There is a different extraction building for each kind of resource, a sawmill for wood, a mine for metal, etc... The building will be more or less efficient depending on the location where it is placed. A mine for metal in the woods might not be very productive.
Besides these extraction buildings, the holding manager also has the possibility of buying miscellaneous buildings that improve the general productivity of the holding by decreasing the erosion rate of a building or increasing its storage capacity, for example.
There is a maximum number of extraction buildings that you can have on a single holding as well as a maximum of storage capacity. However, you are totally free to manage the holding as you wish. You can have it, specialized in the gathering of one specific resource by placing many buildings of the same type or you can have it more diversified by extracting several kind of resources.
You have the option to adapt your holding to your needs. For example, if you have the maximum number of extraction buildings, you can sell a building of one type to buy one of another type.
II - The commercial’s aspect
1 - The trading of resources
The holding manager who has extracted many resources will have to trade them to turn a profit and pay the maintenance costs of the holding. It is only possible to trade with players of your alignment.
First of all, the price of the extracted resources is chosen by the owner. It’s the owner’s duty to stay informed about the market and determine the best price to turn a profit while remaining attractive to potential customers.
The principal resource of the consumers will be fort owners who need them to develop and maintain their defense. The fort owners can place orders with the holding managers. To do this, they will have a list of holding managers in their HUD as well as the quantities, the prices and the distances of the holdings.
With this information, the fort owners can place their order to the holding manager of their choice. The contract is made with the quantity and price. Once the order has been made, the money of the fort’s order is held in a deposit box. The holding manager can see the orders for their holding in their HUD and decide to accept them or not. If the holding manager doesn’t accept, the order is deleted in both HUDS. If the holding manager accepts it, a cart is created in the holding as long as the requested stock is available and can be transported to the fort.
The holding manager has to deliver the cargo to the customer by leading the cart to the fort. When the cart arrives at the fort, the amount of money inside the deposit box will be transferred to the chests of the holding.
Transportation is not safe, the cart driver (who moves around freely just like on a mount) can be attacked and have the merchandise stolen. Thieves can take the cart to the fort of the opposing alignment which makes the merchandise free for the fort and gives no income to the holding manager. If the cart (and not its driver) is attacked and destroyed, the cargo will be lost. It is recommended to plan an escort for this kind of convoy.
Another option is for the purchase to be made directly with the holding manager. The manager has the possibility to put one or more resources for sale “over-the-counter.” If the manager decides to do this, all players from the manager’s alignment will be able to go to the holding and buy resources and a cart to carry them. If this type of transaction is made, the buyer must drive the cart back to his fort.
2 - The link between raw materials and refined materials
This commercial’s link doesn’t require a direct intervention from players but it’s very important anyway. Raw materials can only be bought for a variable price. This price will be directly linked to the County’s production. For example, in a barony where raw iron is extracted in great quantities, merchants will sell iron powder for a good price. Since this iron powder is an important resource for crafters, it affects the global economy. A blacksmith operating in an area with very little or no iron powder might have to increase the price of forged weapons to reflect the high price of iron powder.
3 - Exploiting taxes
The exploitation of territories is opened to everyone but it has a price. The holding manager who settles on a territory has to pay taxes to the person that owns that territory. This cost is different from the maintenance cost. The holding manager of a basic holding pays a tax to the barony holding manager and so on, until it reaches the kingdom level.
Besides basic exploiting, higher leveled holding managers get the tax paid by lower leveled holding managers. The amount is sent to the next level but the holding manager keeps part of it as a salary for the members of his holding brotherhood.
Here’s an example for a county with fictitious amounts. Let’s take a county holding five barony holdings and five basic holdings in each barony. Each of these basic holdings pays a 100 Goths tax to the barony holding manager. The barony holding manager gets the 500 Goths, keeps 100 for the members’ salaries and gives the rest to the county holding manager. The county holding manager gets the 400 remaining Goths from each of the 5 baronies for 2000 Goths total. The county holding manager keeps 400 for the members’ salaries and sends the remaining 1600 Goths to the duchy holding manager and so on, until the kingdom holding manager is reached. The kingdom holding manager keeps the whole sum for his holding’s brotherhood. Beware, this can only be applied if all holding managers are from the same alignment! Let’s take another example. A light duchy is made of three counties but one of them is fully controlled by dark holding managers.
Let’s use the same amounts from the other example:
- 1st and 2nd counties are Light, the holding managers get 2000 Goths, take 400 of them and give the rest (1600 Goths) to the duchy holding manager.
- 3rd county is Dark, the holding manager gets the 2000 Goths but the chain stops there since the duchy holding manager is Light. So this county holding manager keeps the full sum of Goths.
- The Light duchy holding manager only gets 3200 Goths instead of 4800. Thus, the duchy holding manager has less money as salaries and also gives less to the kingdom holding manager.
