Fief -- a manor-mangement sim

Me and you both Sister! Will give a poor poor peasants some holiday food!!!

@jasonstevanhill if you could one of the updates add to the status screen what condition the roads are in both for manor and are liege lord estate. Because I take if we both invest in the infrastructure but somehow also to manage to I guess Build there equivalency of a church which I take the Dovocate is I can see it being a huge ooh both for pious character and trade. Also would be a show of strength and honor to be able to be a patron of the church.

I think the option is to build a dovecote - ie, a home for birds (doves or pigeons). I did some googling and it used to be regulated and you had to get permission from your lord and it was a big deal. I donā€™t know why everyone was so jazzed about keeping birds but they were. Maybe it will be another source of food similar to the docks?

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What all sorts of side of status some curious how much privileges and rights could we negotiate and wrestle out of our liege right to build fortifications arete to start a market, build church?

Yes, one of the first things Iā€™m going to add is to commission a bell for the shrine. Having an actual bronze bell would be a sign of prosperityā€¦and will also help in case of bandit attacks or firesā€¦

And dovecotes are a luxury. Youā€™re not allowed to bring down game in the forest without buying the right to from a thorne. Youā€™ll be able to buy the right to hunt (the most expensive), to falcon (less expensive), and to have a dovecote (the least expensive). The dovecote would mostly just give you prestige among the gentry, because youā€™d be able to offer pigeon to your guests.

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Right to hunt his the biggest. So what would be the greatest way of showing off success in status as a member of the gentry? Since weā€™re pretty much stuck at our current office with the pinnacle of it at least in the social strata we are.

Also how much would it cost to get our families sword back on top of hoops do we have to jump through to in tomb are Father?

Havenā€™t gotten there yet. :slight_smile:

I have to work on calamities more first. And dealing with your brother and your mother.

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Would be too rude to ask how we will interactive with are closest kin?

Meaning mom and brother, or other kin?

I really like this game so far. My feedback is that the one choice a year mechanic feels a little constraining and arbitrary. I know this will likely mess with your current balance, but I feel like the MC should be able to make an estate management focus choice and a personal ā€œfree timeā€ focus choice every year. Some of those choices should be mutually exclusive. For example, if you choose to have the peasants do extra drills you canā€™t clear land. On the other hand, I donā€™t see why personally poking around the mill, or training for combat should prohibit additional land clearance.

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Meaning mom and brother but will other kin come into play as well?

Even though incredibly low on the feudal totem pole would it be possible for us to hold different offices outside of our manor?

Ok. I have the outlines of a conversation with mom, and an assignment of roles to your brother.

You can also now commission a bell for the shrine.

The next thing I think Iā€™m going to do is build out the poachers and bandits Calamities some, in part to make the bell have some more utility. While Iā€™m at it, Iā€™ll try to come up with another Judgement or two.

To answer your question Rogar, Iā€™m not sure about another office. I am thinking that down the line you maybe able to be granted a second fee, or buy one or claim one, and then appoint a steward to manage it. But thatā€™s not another office.

So, right now, I donā€™t have any plans to. But if thereā€™s a specific office youā€™re interested in, send me some links and Iā€™ll read up on them.

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I hope this is useful, Jason. If not, my apologies.

https://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%20133%20government.htm

@Carlos.R Pointed out some good ones in that link. Is a good example I feel like the highest off or something The MC could aspire too.

This is another good historical one special if you want to get close to our liege.

Keeper of Peace as well is good itā€™s the Proto justice of the peace and itā€™s mostly knight fill the role. Now I donā€™t know if our current liege has any honorary title at her court. Now the office of the sheriff and the bailiff were incredibly important because they were officers of the king. Allow them to keep check on the ambitious of nobles. Normally be coming from minor gentry. Protagonist is definitely fairly minor gentry.
Culturally They are quite few I can look at other areas to instead of Norman England I can check out France or the ever a complicated Holy Roman Empire.

@Carlos.R so, Iā€™ve seen lists like that before. The ā€œcentral governmentā€ items are right out; weā€™ll never meet the Son of Quinn, so thereā€™s no way that weā€™d join his central government. Itā€™s quite likely that the PC will never even leave the arthurne (county). The arthurne of Sturmreich is roughly the size and shape of Connecticut, and I think thereā€™s plenty to be done there.

Getting down to the ā€œlocal government,ā€ the closest thing to the sheriff is the thordain, who is the representative of the thorneā€™s will and commander of his forces. Conversely, the eorwalds are the locally elected administrator, akin to a mayor or reeve.

As for the courts, there are circuit judges and high judges, but weā€™ll get into those later in game development. That knocks out the ā€œAssize Courtsā€ item.

The coroner is a position beneath the gentry; I imagine thatā€™s more the domain of a burgher looking to launch some sort of political career.

That leaves ā€œJustice of the Peace,ā€ but between the circuit judges and the thordain, Iā€™m not convinced I need them.

As for bailiffs, I read bailiffs as being stewards: a freeholder appointed to govern a fee on behalf of an absentee title-holder. So, if you do inherit/purchase/start a second manor, you would appoint a bailiff/steward to manage it for you, since youā€™d still be managing your own. Or, if you somehow came into such riches that you could buy a townhouse in Ulmheit or even Sturmreich, you could (theoretically) appoint one to manage your home fee. But the larger point is, I donā€™t think the PC would aspire to be someone elseā€™s bailiff/steward.

As for a high sheriffā€¦that would entail becoming the thordain for the arthorne of Sturmreich, I suppose? I just donā€™t see the PC relocating to Sturmreich given the current scope of the game.

Does that make sense?

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It all makes sense but outside of the daily survival on maintaining the manor. What would be appropriately ambitious for knight of are station along not counting marrying up course. I wonder if thereā€™s any type of lay positions in the church That would be appropriate for station. At the same time too you can groom your brother to become a priest. I guess most we could do is invest in infrastructure and beautify the matter build monuments etc. maybe if we build up the road enough we could start to form a town what is the process of getting a permission to build church or even more with the cathedral.

At least during the hundred years war. Merchants of London that weā€™re transitioning to the gentry other words investing in land him money and building up a country house/manor somebody even by knight fees. Work incredibly hard to gain this license? It be possible to get in this license from our liege if not thier? Not just as expensive is a huge more of pride and prestige.

Interestingly enough to a lot of them were knights of are statues. No thatā€™s of course if are Manor not already fortified. Acworth these licenses or also a sign of status they would build useless fortifications just to show that they had the ability to build fortifications. That does going to another question how fortified is our manor?

Iā€™m thinking youā€™re right most appropriate office for us to aspire to would be the Thordain. Tell me tenuously as another question goes how much wealth can be made doing tournaments?

That with another knight fee yeah huge sign statues but by that point what would be the MC goal?

Played through again. I love all the research thatā€™s gone into it; the game is very convincing (not that I know much about the era, but it feels very other-age).

Notes

Comfortable with linen wraps and poultices, you lept to the task.

*ā€˜leapedā€™ or ā€˜leaptā€™ both work; ā€˜leptā€™ is archaic.

-The lore pages would be much easier for me to read if there were a blank line between entries. Also, the line breaks arenā€™t correct here:

-I can choose ā€˜statsā€™ from the stat screen menu even when Iā€™m already on the stats page; itā€™s not greyed out.

-I love the naming conventions so much. And the lore.

-It was a bit odd having an incident before I even had my chat with Sirid and my first bout of manor-management, since it felt like an incident without a framework. I suppose thatā€™s because then we jump into the tasks for the year?

-I also wasnā€™t quite clear on whether the rats-in-grain would be automatically sorted during the course of this year, merely removing grain and time from my resources, or whether Iā€™m supposed to be taking some sort of active course (and if so, what).

-I absolutely adore the conversation with Sirid. Thatā€™s perfect. Plenty of background and useful details for anyone who wants to know it all, right now. Yay.

That said, Iā€™ve long thought tha*, with the proper care, we might be able to improve both the birth rate and the survival rate of calves.

-*that

-I wonder if an eventual achievement for asking Sirid about everything would be any fun? I like those kinds of achievements, myself.

ā€œThe reason why dairy cows are a luxury is that they canā€™t be put out to pasture if theyā€™re being milked. Therefore, unlike the rest of our livestock, we have to store enough hay every fall to feed the dairy cows through the whole year. To give you an idea, five acres of meadow can support four cows for a year.ā€*

ā€œOf course, when a dairy cow gets too old to foal, we cull them. Dairy cows live for about ten years.ā€

-Stray close quotes.

"Bulls are breeding male cattle. Theyā€™re basically useless except as studs; theyā€™re to* aggressive to be yoked.

-*too

ā€œAs with bulls and rams, boars are male breeding swine. We put ours out to pasture for most of the year, and only bring him* in during the winter.ā€

-*ā€˜themā€™?

Itā€™s at just the right elevtion* to both be flooded and then dry enough to produce hay; we just have to mow the hay in the late summer, before we begin on the harvest proper.

-*elevation

ā€œOf course, you are also charged with defending the forest from poachers. It is forbidden for commoners to take game of any sort from the forest, and you are charged with punishing such crimes harshly.ā€

-How harshly, I wonderā€¦and how much leeway do I have in law enforcement?

-I would have been interesting in asking Sirid if she has any general advice for meā€¦sort of the way one might ask an experienced elder, just even in the interests of feeling a bit less adrift if nothing else. Something more relational than only data, I suppose.

"You have no choice. I did not raise you to shirk your duty. ā€œ*You must have a spine of iron to bear this burden. You must carry you the history of your phare, the needs of your family, and the well-being of your tenants until it is time for someone else to take up this burden. Can you do that?ā€

-*extra inverted commas

The heat of the summer is just a little too long and a little too hot. You do everything that you can to mitigate the damage, but thereā€™s only so much that can be done.

There were a lot of page breaks in this section (that was one page, for instance, and there was also a one-paragraph page just before and after).

You are going to keep 1 new oxen*. You are going to keep 1 new dairy cows*.

-*ox/cow

-Seemed like that should have paragraph breaks maybe?

ā€œShe was pious and her faith inspired her sheildmates*.ā€

-*shieldmates

-Iā€™m having a ball playing as a very devout PC. Super fun.

Itā€™s the smell that draws your attention. Youā€™ve smelled it before. Slipping deeper into the barn, you turn a corner and accidentally kick a sack of wheat. When you do, several rats go skittering away across the floor.

-I got to this page from looking at the market, somehow.

The grain stores have been infested with rats, again. The serfs try to sort the good from the ruined wheat, but in the end, you have to burn a significant portion of your stores.

-Iā€™m thinking the option to sort this, or try to, doesnā€™t exist yet? Or am I just blessed with constant ratsā€¦

-I like the holding court segment a lot.

-Could I get Mordain to train my squire, or is that not acceptable? Iā€™m playing someone who intends to commission on (or whatever the term is) a knight, and whoā€™s never seen combat and doesnā€™t wish to. (In fact, my PC wishes to trade places with the brother and garner a proper education, but ah well.)

-I already commissioned a bell, but the option is on my options list again.

-Hit a bug: ā€˜annual_hub line 1629: Bug: not enough Fish!ā€™

Thanks Fiogan! All those bugs (except the Fish one) are fixed and the new draft is posted.

Iā€™m getting on a plane in a bit and will be working on it most of the day.

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We should be only able to build only one bell in the tower right?

Whatā€™s your main point of research to I got some good books lying around I can help you with