townforge/MANUAL.html
2020-08-25 13:20:15 +00:00

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<html>
<head>
<title>Townforge player's manual</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1> Basic gameplay elements </h1>
<h2> Overview </h2>
<p>
Townforge is a blockchain based game where you create buildings which will provide you with income.
<br>
Buildings and land cost a one off sum as well as regular maintenance costs. Payout is earned at every
game update, which happens every 360 blocks. A portion of the block rewards go to the game, to be
redistributed to players. A research "tech tree" allows players to improve their buildings' efficiency.
Peer to peer trade allows players to exchange goods and money. A 3D world view allows players to
bring their buildings to life, and a decentralized chat is available in game.
<br>
Every game action is stored on a blockchain, ensuring that what you own cannot be taken away from
you unless the game rules allow it. No exit scam, no central database corruption, no rules change at
a whim without notice. The game state is stored on every game user's copy of the blockchain.
</p>
<h2> Player </h2>
<p>
Any wallet may create a game account. Game accounts are linked to the main wallet address.
For anti spam purposes, there is a 1 coin account creation fee.
<br>
The game account may be deposited to (from its associated wallet or any other) and withdrawn from.
Withdrawal is automated, and player controlled. Money deposited into the game is still under the
wallet owner's control, not under a third party's control, so you can use your own keys to withdraw
at any time. This protects against an exit scam by the game author.
<br>
A player may own any number of buildings in the game, in one or more cities. Note that a player can
manage only up to 12 buildings before management staff is required (for a fee). This is intended to
encourage richer players to go for large buildings rather than many smaller ones. Above 12 buildings,
one staff is required for up to four extra buildings. A management staff is also required for every
team of up to four staff.
<br>
A decentralized chat is available, using transactions in the txpool. They will not be mined, so are
transient and therefore not suitable for information you want to be preserved. Notifications about
new buildings, new discoveries, etc will also be placed in the chat.
</p>
<h2> Cities and treasury </h2>
<p>
The world of Townforge is a large grid, upon which cities may be founded. At the start of the game,
there is one single city. Every city is founded by a player, who becomes its mayor, and starts off
with a town square. New cities can be bought from the game, with their price depending on the current
number of cities and the total economic activity. The more cities currently exist, the higher the
cost of a new city. The larger the world's total economic activity, the lower the cost.
<br>
Each city has a treasury. This is the amount of money in the city coffers. This treasury is managed
by the consensus rules, and can only be used by the automated game update. Every game update
(every 360 blocks, so roughly 4 times a day), about 9% of the block rewards for the last 360 blocks
gets awarded to city treasuries in proportion to their economic strength. About 10% of each town's
treasury gets distributed to players based on their buildings' economic strength. The city mayor
receives 0.1% of the treasury. The game account receives 0.05% of the treasury. The game account
will be used for storytelling purposes (prizes for participating in role playing or similar events),
expenses like VPS hosting, and other reasons I deem appropriate.
<br>
The treasury also receives money from players buying new land or items directly from the game,
land tax, etc. The higher the treasury grows, the more attractive it is to build in a city, since
that treasury will flow back into player's pockets.
<br>
Cities may be bought and sold on the open market.
<br>
Cities reach new levels upon reaching a certain size (but do not downgrade if they drop below this
threshold). Reaching a new level allows players to build new building types in this city. Here are
the building types which become available at various levels:
<table>
<tr> <td> Role </td> <td> Level </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> Commercial </td> <td> 2 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> Military </td> <td> 3 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> Affluent Residential </td> <td> 4 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> Cultural </td> <td> 5 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> Research </td> <td> 6 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> Luxury Residential </td> <td> 7 </td> </tr>
</table>
</p>
<h2> Flags and buildings </h2>
<p>
Each city is placed at a point on the world. Players may buy land from the game, from tiny 8x8 plots
to the largest allowed, 256x256. Those plots of lands are called flags for historical reasons. A flag
is empty when bought, and may be bought and sold on the open market. Flags are always rectangular.
<br>
Flags pay land tax every game update. Land tax is based on flag size as well as the flag's economic
power. Economic power is a measure of the quality/strength of the building one builds on that land.
An empty flag is tax as if holding a basic 100% economic power building. Land tax also increases very slightly
with distance from the town square, to avoid people building things at preposterous distances.
<br>
Buildings may be built on flags. There are a few types of buildings. Some buildings qualify for payouts
from the city treasury, while some others produce materials instead. Yet others don't do either, but
provide bonuses for other buildings. Every new building is assigned an economic power, which is its
relative output. It can range from the baseline 100% to a maximum of 300%. A 300% building will yield
3 times the income of a 100% building (at least for buildings getting treasury payouts, it's a little
more complex for producing buildings). However, they cost more than 3 times as much to build.
<br>
Buildings have prerequisites to function effectively. Most buildings require being in the influence area of an agricultural
building. If they are not, they will not be active, and thus not provide income. Some other prerequisites
are softer, and only give bonuses and penalties.
<br>
Current building types are:
<table>
<tr><td> Role </td><td> Payout </td></tr>
<tr><td> Agricultural </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Craft </td><td> 1.2% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Industrial </td><td> 1.5% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Commercial </td><td> 1.2% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Basic residential </td><td> 1.2% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Affluent residential </td><td> 1.3% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Luxury residential </td><td> 1.5% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Military </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Cultural </td><td> 0.6% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Stonecutter </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Sawmill </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Kiln </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Smelter </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Workforce </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Road </td><td> 0.8% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Research </td><td> - </td></tr>
</table>
Some of those (industrial, luxury residential, kiln, smelter) are not available just yet, and will be
made available following a progressing storyline.
<br>
For example, if a city consists of two craft buildings only, identical in all respects except one
has twice the other's economic power, and the city treasury contains 1000, then the buildings will receive
a payout of 1000 * 1.2% * 2 / 3 = 8 and 4 respectively at every game update.
<br>
Producing buildings (stonecutter, sawmill, kiln, smelter, workforce) do not get treasury payouts.
Instead, they consume some resources (stone, wood) and produce more resources. Those resources are
needed to build other buildings. While it is possible to buy those resources directly from the game's
supply, those prices are dear, and players with those producing buildings will offer better value.
<br>
Buildings may be demolished. Demolishing a building removes all blocks from its 3D representation,
and resets the type to none. Another building may then be constructed on the flag. The owner recovers
20% of the blocks in the original budget (whether they were used in the 3D representation or not).
<br>
If a building owner does not have enough money to pay the tax for a plot of land, this plot of land
will disappear, along with any building on it. The land is then free to be bought by another player.
Similarly, if a building falls to 0 repair condition, it will disappear (the land remains the owner's
property). It is therefore in the player's interest to ensure buildings are repaired in time, and to
keep enough balance to meet land tax requirements. Repairing a building costs labour and materials.
If a building's repair level falls below 70%, its efficiency starts decreasing. Above 70%, no ill
effects apply.
<br>
Some building types have restrictions on size, depending on economic power. This should be kept in
mind when buying land. The following table lists the minimum size of a plot for building types. The
first value is the minimum size of a 100% building, the second value for a 300% building. For other
economic power values, the minimum size is interpolated and rounded down.
<table>
<tr><td> Role </td><td> Min size at 100% - 300% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Agricultural </td><td> 48-120 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Craft </td><td> 16-40 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Industrial </td><td> 40-180 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Commercial </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Basic residential </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Affluent residential </td><td> 24-80 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Luxury residential </td><td> 96-140 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Military </td><td> 24-80 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Cultural </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Stonecutter </td><td> 20-60 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Sawmill </td><td> 20-60 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Kiln </td><td> 28-80 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Smelter </td><td> 28-80 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Workforce </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Road </td><td> 8-36 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Research </td><td> 24-60 </td></tr>
</table>
<br>
Some bonuses apply:
<ul>
<li>
Buildings of type cultural, affluent residential, luxury residential and commercial get
an extra bonus of up to 0.15% for each square touching the town square, up to 15%.
</li>
<li>
Buildings of type cultural, affluent residential and luxury residential get extra bonuses
if their owner owns gemstones (the rarer the gemstones, the better the bonuses).
</li>
<li>
Some building types benefit from elevation relative to their surroundings. The base elevation
bonus is 2% per block of the flag's average elevation compared to its surroundings (measured
as 250% of its width/height), up to 50%. Most buildings are not affected by this, but those
in the following list are, with varying weights:
<table>
<tr><td> Role </td><td> Percentage of the base bonus </td></tr>
<tr><td> Commercial </td><td> 10% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Affluent residential </td><td> 25% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Luxury residential </td><td> 100% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Military </td><td> 100% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Cultural </td><td> 20% </td></tr>
</table>
For example, an affluent residential building on a flag with an average height of 40 and
average surroundings height of 35 is an average 5 blocks higher than its surroundings,
so gets 10% base elevation bonus. From the table above, affluent residential buildings
get 25% of the base bonus, so the final elevation bonus for this building is 2.5%.
</li>
<li>
Stonecutters benefit from direct access to exposed rock, so get a production bonus based
on how much bare cliff face lies within their extent, to a maximum of about +42%.
</li>
</ul>
</p>
<h3> Shares </h3>
<p>
Shares are the way payouts are calculated. Every building has a number of shares based on its characteristics,
and that number acts as a weight when the treasury pays out.
<br>
The basic number of shares for a building is its area in squares multiplied by its economic power.
<br>
Other things come into play: if the repair level of a building falls below 70%, its share count will
start going down. Similarly, if a building's requirements are not met, this building will be inactive,
and its shares zeroed until requirements are met.
<br>
The number of shares is used to apportion treasury income within a city and pricing new cities.
<br>
Roads and discoveries (see below) also affect shares.
</p>
<h3> Gemstones </h3>
<p>
Gemstones are rare precious stones.
They can be unearthed randomly as quarries extract stone from the ground.
They bring prestige to their owners, who get a bonus amount of shares to some of their buildings:
<table>
<tr><td> Gemstone </td><td> Effect </td></tr>
<tr><td> Amethyst </td><td> +1% cultural </td></tr>
<tr><td> Sapphire </td><td> +2% cultural +2% affluent residential </td></tr>
<tr><td> Emerald </td><td> +5% cultural, +5% affluent residential </td></tr>
<tr><td> Ruby </td><td> +10% cultural, +5% affluent residential, +5% luxury residential </td></tr>
<tr><td> Diamond </td><td> +20% cultural, +10% affluent residential, +10% luxury residential </td></tr>
</table>
The probability of finding a gemstone depends on the area of the stonecutter, its economic power
and its age (older stonecutter have reached deeper into the ground).
</p>
<h3> Food and heating </h3>
<p>
Buildings need food in order to be productive. Different building types have different requirements for
food, as shown here:
<table>
<tr><td> Role </td><td> Relative requirements </td></tr>
<tr><td> Agricultural </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Craft </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Industrial </td><td> 50 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Commercial </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Basic residential </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Affluent residential </td><td> 130 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Luxury residential </td><td> 200 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Military </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Cultural </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Stonecutter </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Sawmill </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Kiln </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Smelter </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Workforce </td><td> 200 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Road </td><td> 0 </td></tr>
<tr><td> Research </td><td> 100 </td></tr>
</table>
If a building does not have enough food to consume, it will be disabled until enough
food is available.
<br>
Food is produced by agricultural buildings. There are three main types of food:
<ul>
<li>vegetables are very nutritious but spoil fast</li>
<li>grain is least nutritious but keeps very well</li>
<li>meat falls in the middle</li>
</ul>
Agricultural land produces vegetables from early summer, grain from midsummer, and meat in autumn.
<br>
Similarly, buildings need heating. Heating is obtained by consuming burnable material,
currently only wood. The amount of heating a building needs per surface depends on the
current temperature, which fluctuates along seasonal variations.
</p>
<h3> Farming </h3>
Agricultural buildings produce food, which other buildings need in order to stay active.
Vegetables and grain may be sown at the right time of the game year, and harvested later.
The more time a crop stays growing above a temperature threshold, the more food will be
produced when harvested. However, temperatures below the damage threshold will cut that
yield. Growing a crop on agricultural land depletes that land's nutrients base for that
particular crop, so growing the same crop over and over again will lead to diminishing
returns. Nutrients recover yearly. If the building catches fire, any crop is destroyed,
but the nutrients will not deplete.
<table>
<tr><td> </td> <td> Vegetables </td> <td> Grain </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Sowing season start </td> <td> start of march </td> <td> start of may </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Sowing season end </td> <td> mid may </td> <td> mid june </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Harvest season start </td> <td> start of may </td> <td> start of august </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Harvest season end </td> <td> end of june </td> <td> end of september </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Damage temperature </td> <td> &lt; -2&deg; </td> <td> &lt; 0&deg; </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Growth temperature </td> <td> &gt; 2&deg; </td> <td> &gt; 5&deg; </td> </tr>
</table>
<h3> Hunting </h3>
Moose and bears roam the wilderness. They can be hunted for food. The higher the population,
the more meat a hunt will yield, but the lower the population, the more time it will take for
it to grow back. Moose popoulation is larger, and thus moose hunts yied more meat, but if
the moose population goes too low to support the bear population, hungry bears will start
venturing into town in search of food, causing damage and eating what they can find.
Players with military buildings have a large bonus when hunting bears attacking a town,
and a small one for hunting bears and moose otherwise.
<h3> Influence </h3>
<p>
Some building types have an influence over the surrounding land. Influence is a prerequisite for
many other buildings. For example, most buildings need to be within the influence area of an agricultural
building, and a residential building takes a penalty from being within the influence of an industrial
building. Military buildings are even more complicated: most buildings receive a bonus from being under
the influence of one military building, but a penalty if the are under the influence of three or more.
<br>
<table>
<tr><td> Role </td><td> Agr. </td><td> Craft </td><td> Ind. </td><td> Com. </td><td> Bas. </td><td> Aff. </td><td> Lux. </td><td> Mil. </td><td> Cul. </td><td> Stone. </td><td> Sawmill </td><td> Kiln </td><td> Smelter </td><td> Work. </td><td> Road </td><td> Research </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Agricultural </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Craft </td><td> N1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Industrial </td><td> N1 </td><td> </td><td> B2 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> B2 </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Commercial </td><td> N1 </td><td> N1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1P3 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Basic residential </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> P1 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B4 </td><td> B2 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1P3 </td><td> B2 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Affluent residential </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> P3 </td><td> N1 </td><td> </td><td> B3 </td><td> B1 </td><td> B1P3 </td><td> B2 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Luxury residential </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> P99 </td><td> N1 </td><td> P1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1P3 </td><td> B4 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B2 </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Military </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Cultural </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> P99 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> P99 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Stonecutter </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Sawmill </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Kiln </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Smelter </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Workforce </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B4 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> B1 </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> P2 </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Road </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
<tr><td> Research </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> </tr>
</table>
<p>
Legend: <br>
Nx: needs x buildings of that type <br>
Bx: gets a 5% bonus from every building of that type up to x of them<br>
Px: gets a 5% penalty from every building of that type up to x of them<br>
BxPy: gets a 5% bonus from every building of that type up to x of them, except if there are y or more, in which case it's a 5% penalty per such building<br>
</p>
The larger a building's plot and the higher a builing's economic power, the larger its influence will be.
</p>
<h3> Production and potential </h3>
<p>
Some building types don't get treasury payouts, but consume and produce resources instead.
Production goes up faster than consumption with economic power.
<br>
Currently, only stonecutter (producing stone) and sawmill (producing wood) are available.
Kiln (producing bricks) and Smelter (producing metal) will be available later on in updates.
</p>
<p>
Potential has a substantial effect on production. Potential is an inherent property of the
land a building is built upon. Some land lends itself well to quarrying stone, some other
to wood felling, etc. Building a stonecutter on land that has good stone potential will see
better returns. For buildings which generate materials, potential is used to determine the
quality mix of the materials. Low potential will yield cheap materials (though in larger
quantities) while a high potential will yield smaller quantities of more expensive materials
Potential also applies to agricultural land, and stability (which controls how fast a building needs repairs).
</p>
<p>
Each of stone and wood has three different types. The mix of stone or wood a building produces
depends on the building's economic power. Higher economic power skews towards the more expensive
types of each. Keep this in mind since building requirements depend on role (basic residential
buildings only need the cheapest basic wood type, while affluent residential buildings will
also require some more expensive wood type) and on economic power, so it is possible that the
market gets a glut of one type of wood and scarcity of another. A canny businessman will see
the trends to know what to build.
</p>
<p>
New buildings have to be built close enough to existing resource generating buildings. For
instance, if a new building requires some type of stone, it has to be built close enough to
a stonecutter (such proximity rule is waived if building at the center of town, since there
are no such building yet). The resource availability distance is the furthest away from a
resource generating building that can be built without incurring extra labour cost for
resource transportation. Beyond 16 times that distance, you cannot build at all without
first building intermediate stonecutters or sawmills.
</p>
<h3> Roads </h3>
<p>
Roads are simple building types meant to link other flags. They provide bonuses to buildings
they touch, and get their own bonus from them. The more buildings a road connects, the higher
its return will be.
<br>
In order to connect to a building, a road must touch it flush. If the length of the connection
is smaller than 8 squares, the connection will be more fragile and the bonuses will fall.
Commercial buildings get more bonus if they have more connection length with the road, up to
20 tiles, since window browsing space attracts more customers. Residential buildings get a
slightly better bonus if they're on the north side of the road, as the world is in the northern
hemisphere, so free space on the south side to let the sun through benefits them.
If the difference between a building's economic power and the road's economic power is larger
than 50%, then a connection will not be made, even if they two flags touch each other.
<br>
Different building types contribute more less to a road's shares, from 40% for agricultural
buildings to 150% for commercial buildings. Otherwise, the shares a building contributes to
a road is proportional to its area and economic power.
<br>
Roads connecting to other roads get a bonus based on the surrounding roads' bonuses.
<br>
Different building types get more or less affected by road bonuses. Commercial buildings get
the most effect, while agricultural ones the least:
<table>
<tr><td> Role </td><td> Bonus </td></tr>
<tr><td> Agricultural </td><td> 30% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Craft </td><td> 110% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Industrial </td><td> 50% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Commercial </td><td> 150% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Basic residential </td><td> 100% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Affluent residential </td><td> 115% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Luxury residential </td><td> 140% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Military </td><td> 80% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Cultural </td><td> 120% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Stonecutter </td><td> 80% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Sawmill </td><td> 80% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Kiln </td><td> 80% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Smelter </td><td> 80% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Workforce </td><td> 80% </td></tr>
<tr><td> Road </td><td> - </td></tr>
<tr><td> Research </td><td> 85% </td></tr>
</table>
</p>
</body>
<h2> 3D world </h2>
<p>
Townforge allows players to give a shape to their creations. A block based 3D world show the
city and the buildings it contains. Players may freely build on their flags using the budget
they already paid for when they setup their building. This is intended to provide an outlet
for creativity, and is not needed in order to participate in the economic game. It is nonetheless
encouraged, and may be involved in some kind of voting/competition mechanic later on.
<br>
To help different buildings keep a similar scale, a block is meant to be about a foot (30 cm)
in each direction. Thus, a typical residential door will be 7 blocks high.
<br>
Building is done by pressing Q to place a block where the turquoise cursor is or E to remove a
block where from red cursor is (move the mouse to move those cursors). It is not possible to
remove a block that's already mined. The block type to use can be selected by clicking on the
player or flag inventories, pressing TAB (if the GUI is not focused), or by pressing X to open
the material selection HUD and using the arrow keys to navigate, releasing X when done.
<br>
Key bindings may be changed in the options menu.
<br>
While building, all blocks are kept locally, and will only be submitted to the blockchain once
"Approve build" is clicked. All new "in progress" blocks are displayed with a ghost effect to
distinguish them from already mined blocks.
<br>
You can move and look around the world using the arrows keys, WASD keys, page up/down and by
moving the mouse while the right button is pressed. Pressing control slows down movement speed,
while pressing shift speeds it up.
<br>
Placing a block incurs labour cost as well as the block placed. The higher the block, the more
labour cost is incurred. There are currently no architectural/structural rules, so building
hovering blocks is possible. It is not encouraged.
<br>
Models in the vox format may be imported and exported. This format is from Magica Voxel, which
runs on Windows. Note that if you build a model with Magica Voxel, you should match the colour
indices to the Townforge material indices (ie, pine is 1, oak is 2, teak is 3, sandstone is 4,
granite is 5, marble is 6).
<br>
To find your (or others') buildings, you can double click on a building in the player info
dialog or the game update events dialog. The camera will automatically switch to a free camera.
<br>
</p>
<h2> User interface </h2>
<p>
The UI is contained in a shadable widget that can be moved around by dragging it around and
resized by clicking on the bottom right corner when it is opened. While some of it can be
used in spectator mode, you will need to have a game account before being able to use much
of it. Among other things, the camera mode can be changed to a free camera by selecting the
desired mode in the Commands menu. The UI's contents may be panned with the mouse if they
extend past the size of the actual widget.
</p>
<p>
Control is by mouse and keyboard. Right click with the mouse to rotate the view, left click
to select tiles. Left click on the sky to deselect.
<br>
Key mappings:
<table>
<tr><td> Mouse </td><td> Look around </td></tr>
<tr><td> Page up </td><td> Move up (in free camera mode) </td></tr>
<tr><td> Page down </td><td> Move down (in free camera mode) </td></tr>
<tr><td> W </td><td> move forward </td></tr>
<tr><td> A </td><td> move left </td></tr>
<tr><td> S </td><td> move backward </td></tr>
<tr><td> D </td><td> move right </td></tr>
<tr><td> Escape </td><td> close dialog, or open options </td></tr>
<tr><td> ~ </td><td> open/close in-game chat </td></tr>
<tr><td> F </td><td> switch to free camera mode or back to walker mode </td></tr>
<tr><td> O </td><td> switch to orbit camera mode or back to walker mode </td></tr>
<tr><td> TAB </td><td> cycle through available building block types </td></tr>
<tr><td> Q </td><td> Place a block at the blue mouse cursor location </td></tr>
<tr><td> E </td><td> Remove a block at the red mouse cursor location </td></tr>
<tr><td> P </td><td> Select material from the tile under the cursor </td></tr>
<tr><td> X </td><td> Open the material selection HUD </td></tr>
<tr><td> Z </td><td> Add blocks on selected tiles</td></tr>
<tr><td> C </td><td> Remove blocks on selected tiles</td></tr>
<tr><td> V </td><td> Remove top level blocks on selected tiles</td></tr>
<tr><td> B </td><td> Toggle Minecraft style build mode </td></tr>
<tr><td> Shift </td><td> Decrease motion speed while held </td></tr>
<tr><td> Control </td><td> Increase motion speed while held </td></tr>
</table>
</p>
<h2> Research </h2>
<p>
Research allows a player to make discoveries. Discoveries have a variety of effects, but
a tpyical effect is to provide a bonus of some sort. For example, the "improved plough"
discovery gives a 2% bonus in harvest yield for all the player's agricultural buildings.
<br>
Many discoveries yield a patent. The patent takes the form of an item that is freely tradable on the open
market, and it is this item which provides the benefit. So if the player making the
"improved plough" discovery has no agricultural buildings, they may decide to sell the
patent to their discovery to someone for whom it will be much more lucrative.
Upon a discovery, the discoverer receives 10 patent items. Anyone in possession of one
of them will benefit from the discovery. Possessing more than one item for a given
patent gives no benefit over possessing just one.
<br>
Discoveries are made by paying towards research on a particular subject. Every discovery
has a difficulty, which represents an estimation of how much research will have to be made
before the discovery is made. Paying towards research gives you a certain chance of making
that discovery. The more is paid for research, the higher the chance of discovery. The
higher the difficulty, the lower the chance. The difficulty of a discovery goes down with
time, as well as with money already spent on research. So if a discovery seems too dear
to research, waiting will bring it down to affordable levels, if someone else doesn't beat
you to the punch.
<br>
Patents last a limited time. After 15 game years (105 days in real time), though this might change in the future), everyone gets the benefit of
the discovery for which a patent was awarded. This will prevent the first discoverer from
obtaining an advantage leading to a snowball effect, leaving others unable to ever catch up.
<br>
Research buildings provide a bonus to research, essentially making discoveries cheaper
for the owner of those buildings.
<br>
More discoveries will be added later on, possibly in conjunction with storytelling.
</p>
<h2> Special events </h2>
<p>
Special events are temporary alterations to game rules which happen randomly at a game update
boundary. Some events have good or bad effect, providing interest and potential hooks for storytelling.
Special events include fire (there will be new discoveries providing protection against
fire), time limited bonuses for some types of buildings (bumper harvest increase influence
of agricultural buildings), epidemics causing lower payouts for some building types, strikes
causing labour shortages, social unrest causing damage to buildings not near a military building,
festival increasing cultural building payouts, etc.
Special events are localized to a particular town. To see whether a special event is currently
active in town, see the "Town" section in the UI. If a special event is active, there will also
be a "?" button to get more information about it. There cannot be more than one special event
active in a given town at the same time.
</p>
<p>
Fires are a particuarly special kind of special event. When a fire breaks out, military buildings
act as firefighters, and can attempt to put a fire out. If a burning building is within 250% of
a military building's influence, a fire fighting can be paid for by anyone. The larger and the
more economic power a military has, the stronger its fire fighting capability. The larger a burning
building, the harder the fire is to put out. Once a military building has tried to put a fire out,
whether succesfully or not, its firefighting efficiency drops to 20%, and will grow back to 100%
over a period of almost a game update cycle. If a fire is put out for a building, that building
will not burn again until the end of the fire event.
</p>
<h2> Items </h2>
<p>
In addition to construction materials such as stone and wood, various types of items exist in
Townforge. Most are predefined, but players may also define their particular choice of items.
Those can then be used, given, traded as other items. Possible uses for these player defined
items include in-game company shares, lottery tickets. Note that since player defined items
are custom, any promise made by players which does not rely on game mechanics relies on trust
in that player (for example, if Alice creates a new "Alice Corp" item with 100 instances,
then game mechanics ensure no more than 100 instances will ever exist, that players may trade
these items. But if Alice says she will pay monthly dividends from her in game "Alice Corp"
company, the game cannot and will not enforce payment of these dividends.
</p>
<p>
A player may define items groups. Item groups are items themselves, but with no actual instances
created. Any player defined item may optionally be set to belong to a group created by the
same player. This may be used to group similar items, for instance to create non fungible items
(ie, create a "Animal figurines" group, then two non group items "Cow" and "Pony", each with
just one instance). Grouped items may have an amount greater than one, to enable collections.
Note that the number of items in a group can go up, even though the number of items of a non
group type cannot, since new item types may be created in a group. Item groups may be private
of public. If public, anyone can create new items in this group. If private, only the creator
of the group may do so.
</p>
<p>
Collectible coins are a special type of item. New coin designs are created to mark various
game events and any player may mint one or more by supplying the gold necessary for the item.
Collectible coins are available for minting for a period of one game year (a real week) after
they are first introduced. After this period, the only way to obtain this coin is the peer to
peer markets. A collectible coin may be smelted at any time to recover the gold (but if the
minting window is over, may not be turned back into the original coin).
</p>
<h2> Badges, levels, role playing and attributes </h2>
<p>
Badges are a way to track a player's progress through the game. Badges track a particular metric
(for instance, the number of buildings a player has) and have a level from 1 to 5. The better
you score in a particular badge's metric, the high level you will obtain for this badge.
<br>
Badges are what determine a player's level, giving a numeric value to the player's progression
through the game. As a player obtains more and higher level badges, the player's level will
increase. At each level, the player may allocate a point to an attribute of their choosing.
<br>
Attributes are role playing style facets of the player, which are dynamically defined by the
game account which runs role playing events. These are intended to add some extra interest in
the game not stemming directly from the economy mechanics. Those attributes are in turn used
in role playing events to influence outcomes of storylines.
<br>
While most badges are managed by consensus, the game account can create new badge types, which
will be awarded to players who participate in optional role playing sessions.
<br>
Attributes currently have no effect on the game mechanics.
</p>
<h2> Leaderboards </h2>
<p>
Leaderboards track various statistics. It is possible that some small amount of the
treasury will be distributed to those at the top of at least some of them.
</p>
<h2> Blockchain </h2>
<p>
Townforge is a blockchain based game. The entire game state is stored on the chain. This
brings advantages (protection against exit scam, against abuse of power by the game author)
but also drawbacks (the need to wait for a block for every action to be recorded on the
blockchain).
<br>
The blockchain is based on Monero, so a lot of things will be very similar to Monero.
In particular, non-game transactions benefit for Monero style privacy. In game transactions
are public, however. Everyone will know that game character Alice just built a new house
on that location, with those settings, etc. However, Noone knows who plays Alice, since
gameplay happens through blockchain transactions. However, Alice might have more than one
character, and nobody will know, assuming she does not do things like giving all of a
character's money to the other. It is what the Internet was meant to be:
somewhere you can live in without having to constantly show papers.
<br>
Note that the daemon the game connects to will know which player the game controls. As with
Monero, you are supposed to use your own daemon.
<br>
Technically, the block target time is one minute. The emission curve is similar to Monero's
starting off at about 35 coins per block and decreasing till a floor of 1 coin a minute,
where tail emission starts. This makes the tail emission about 50% higher than Monero's.
<br>
Game transactions are much smaller that normal transactions. 100 bytes is typical, compared
to 2.5 kB for out of game transactions. This is what you get for eschewing privacy (after
all, you need people to see your buildings to build a city). Note that in game transactions
do not compromise the privacy pool of normal out of game transactions since the in game
accounts are balance based, not output based.
<br>
Townforge might be merge mined with Monero, or separately. This is not decided yet.
<br>
The decentralized marketplace is implemented by transactions which get publicized on the
txpool, and mined when they're matched with another.
<br>
A huge number of consensus changes were made: all the game specific rules are consensus
changes. These changes have not received anywhere near the scrutiny a Monero consensus
change would receive. Since markets allow items, buildings etc to be turned to and from
money, this means that there is a non trivial chance that there may be a bug which affects
balances. Money supply looks unlikely to be affected, though. This is a game first, and
a currency second. Treat is as such.
</p>
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