Guild 2 Venice Manual

EpilEpsy Warning

Please read this caution before you, or your child, commence play of a videogame: Certain people are susceptible to epileptic seizures or lose consciousness after exposure to flashing lights or light patterns in our daily lives. Such people may have a seizure while watching particular televised images or when they play some videogames. This phenomenon may appear even if the subject has no previous history of seizures. If you or a member of your family has ever had symptoms related to epilepsy (seizures or loss of awareness) when exposed to flashing lights, please consult your doctor prior to use. We advise parents to supervise their children when playing videogames. If you or your child experiences any of the following symptoms while playing a videogame: dizziness, blurred vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, any involuntary movement or convulsion IMMEDIATELY discontinue use and consult your doctor.

Standard Precautions When Playing Videogames:

• Do not stand or sit too close to the screen. Position yourself as far away from the screen as possible.

• Play videogames on a small screen (preferably). • Avoid playing if you are tired.

• Make sure that the room in which you are playing is well lit. • Rest for 10 to 15 minutes for every hour you play.

ContEnt

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navIgatIngthemenu . . . . 7

game controlS . . . . 11

ProPertIeS . . . . 15

develoPment . . . . 18

your home . . . . 19

actIonS . . . . 19

Inventory & equIPment . . . . 20

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& t

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buSIneSS . . . . 20

trade . . . . 24

goodS . . . . 26

F

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Favour . . . . 27

dIPlomacy . . . . 27

FamIly & chIldren . . . . 28

P

& l

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the town councIl . . . . 31

rIght & wrong . . . . 33

F

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about lIFeand death . . . . 35

arm yourSelF . . . . 36

duelS . . . . 36

t

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guIld maSter . . . . 37

K

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c

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t

S

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P

w

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introduCtion

My Dear Friend,

Many a year has passed since we last sat together in the back room of my abode plotting

intrigues, and it has indeed been many winters since we last saw one another. Blessed with

my trust in thy skills and thy wisdom, I am but certain that thee have done thou very best

with the enterprises that I have left to thee to manage. Yet now, in the calm evening hours

of a land bathed in autumn, I would like to tell thee how I am faring here in Venice.

Indeed, Venice! City of the Lagoons, wrested from the seas by the hard work and skill

of the Venetian builders, a trading city of no compare, where the possibilities will have

thy heart rejoicing. The glaziery here, which has grown into a blossom that none had

expected, overshadows everything that I had considered to be craftsmanship at home.

Trade flourishes, exotic wares from the farthest reaches of the East arrive and the events

put on by society leave nothing to be desired in their splendour and extravagance.

Truly, even the politics are different here - more a country than a state, for Venice has its

own fleet that could even dare to defy the Ottoman Empire. And here, the word of a doge

is as much law here as the that of a prince within the empire or even of the Emperor

himself. Powerful houses devote themselves to trade, politics and, of course, scheming -

schemes that are only all too similar to those we know of at home. But a keen ability to

persuade often provides hired mercenaries offering their own services here. He who hath

seen the Swiss warriors in battle will know why many a noble enlists their services.

Yet at its heart, life here differs not hugely from the life under our native skies. With

honest work and good trading, I have been able to procure a permanent position within

the city’s guilds, even if it has cost me some years. Many a competitor hath beheld my

successes with jealousy in his heart, but thus far I have been successful in making all

attempts at sabotage in vain. And who knows, perhaps I shall find myself moving into

the doge palace one day...

Fare thee well, old friend, and I send thee greetings from afar.

Vero von Carnstein.

The Guild 2: Venice

is a trade and life simulation that takes place during the Middle Ages. This curt phrase may indeed be a short description, but it can in no way capture the level of fascination that “The Guild” offers. You can quite literally experience medieval Europe, step into the shoes of a single character or an entire dynasty, acquire businesses and properties, produce goods and trade them, involve yourself in politics and society, court women or men, love, hate, bribe, fight and live through good times as well as bad. We hope you enjoy this game!

thE tEChniCal part

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ystEm

rEquirEmEnts

Your PC must fulfil the following minimum system requirements in order to be able to play The Guild 2: Venice :

DirectX9 capable system with Windows XP or Windows Vista Processor with 2.2 GHz, 1 GB RAM (Vista 2 GB)

We recommend that your system fulfil at least the following requirements: • 2.8 GHz Processor

• DirectX9 capable graphics card with pixel shader model 2 • 1 GB RAM main memory (Vista 2 GB)

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nstallation

Place The Guild 2: Venice DVD-ROM into your DVD-ROM drive. If the autorun function for your drive is activated, the Setup program will start automatically. If it isn’t, you will have to start the installation program manually. To do this, double-click the “My Computer” icon on the desktop and then the icon for your DVD drive. Either double-click the file autorun.exe or the file setup.exe and the start menu will open. Click the button labelled Install and follow the instructions on the screen.

To play this standalone product, you do NOT require The Guild 2 or Pirates of the High Seas to be installed beforehand!

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tart

gamE

Make sure that you deactivate any virtual CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives before starting the game!

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dVd

When placing your The Guild 2: Venice DVD-ROM into your DVD-ROM drive, the DVD’s start menu will open. Click the button labelled Play within this window.

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If the DVD start menu doesn’t open automatically even though you have already inserted your The Guild 2: Venice into your DVD-ROM drive, you can also start The Guild 2: Venice manually. To do this, open the start menu on your desktop, open Programs and then The Guild 2: Venice. Select the option Play.

thE gamE bEgins

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aVigating

thE

mEnu

The mouse is used to navigate the menus. The keyboard is only used to enter words and figures.

m

The main menu appears whenever you start The Guild 2: Venice or quit a game in progress.

singlE playEr

Clicking this button once allows you to start the tutorial for The Guild 2, begin a single player game or load a single player saved game.

options

This allows you to access the game’s options menu.

CrEdits

You can find out about all those involved in making The Guild 2: Venice here.

quit

Clicking here ends The Guild 2: Venice and returns you to the desktop.

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Three options are available to you when starting a single player game.

start gamE

If you decide to click Start Game please read the information under Starting a New Game.

tutorial

This option provides you with an introductory game of The Guild 2: Venice. Here you will receive an explanation of the basic controls and most important features.

load gamE

You can use this to load a previously saved game and continue playing it.

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The options menu offers you a wide range of options to adjust the graphics and sound within The Guild 2: Venice as well as a number of settings that affect the game itself.

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You can change the image quality, screen resolution, brightness, contrast, various detail levels and more within the graphics options menu.

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The game options menu offers you the chance to adjust the game speed, camera speed, tool tips, tips & tricks, switch automatic save on and off and more.

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You will find all of the settings affecting music, sound effects and speech within the sound options menu.

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When creating a single player game, you will start within the Select World menu.

The Select World menu is broken down into several parts - on the upper-left, you can select the map that you would like to play on. Below that is a brief description of the selected map.

The representation of the map shown to the right of the top half shows you the towns on the map. You can now set your home town. To do this, simply use the mouse to select one of the towns by clicking on it. If you do not select one, one will be selected randomly for you.

On the right, in the bottom half of the window, you can select a Game Mode and Goal. The Goal option will vary depending on the game mode that you have selected. The modes you can choose from are:

Dynasty Mode Win power & influence for your dynasty!

Extermination Exterminate all of the opposing dynasties.

Time limit Select a time limit. Once this limit is reached, the points are compared. (*)

Contract is awarded Select a contract. Each team must fulfil this

contract.

(*) The points are calculated based on the family property, titles acquired,

offices achieved and opponents defeated. Adjusting the Number of Players allows you to set the number of computer-controlled dynasties that you will be competing against for dominance of the map.

Adjusting the general Difficulty Level means that you make the game more difficult for yourself, but not for the computer dynasties. The Difficulty Level of the Contracts, however, also affects the computer dynasties.

Finally, you can select one of sixteen family crests. This crest represents your dynasty throughout the entire game.

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rEating

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haraCtEr

Here you can create your initial character and define their name, gender, appearance, class, profession, talent points and abilities. Remember while doing this that you are not just creating an irrelevant character in the game, rather you are bringing to life the very founder of one of the most successful family dynasties of all time.

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The surname of your character is the foundation of your family dynasty - the dynasty will bear the name and honour as long as it exists. You should also select a suitable forename to go with the surname.

The gender of your character hides a number of unique characteristics, but there are certainly no disadvantages to either - a male character cannot flirt with men, while a female character cannot read poetry to another woman in order to win favour with them. It is also only possible for a man and a woman to marry - after all, you do want successors to continue your dynasty...

The selection of your religion affects whether your character will form part of the Catholic or Evangelical communities. Your characters will always receive a lower favour rating with people of other faiths. Of course, it is also possible to change religion during the course of the game.

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In The Guild 2 you can select between one of four character classes. Each class covers a number of professions that you are free to follow with your character during the game. You can find a more precise description in the

chapter The CharaCTer.

Character class Professions

Patron Baker, farmer, innkeeper, fisher

Craftsman Blacksmith, tailor, joiner, glazier

Academic Alchemist, priest, medicus

Crook Thief, robber, pirate, mercenary

Z

Each zodiac sign provides your character with a talent bonus. You can find

A summary of all the zodiac signs can be found under Tables & sum -maries.

t

Depending on the character class you select, your character will demonstrate

strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) in learning his or her ten talents. A

strength means that your character will find it easier to improve his or her talents with experience points (EP), whereas a weakness means the opposite.

Generally speaking, all talents can be raised to a value of ten points, regardless of whether your character is strong or weak in learning the specific talent.

You can find a summary of the talents under Tables & summaries. At the beginning, your character will receive a number of extra experience points. You can spend these on your talents. The EP costs for the next level for a specific talent can be found alongside the plus and minus signs.

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Each character possesses specific abilities. Some may be able to carry particularly heavy loads, others may be excellent speakers.

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Are you looking to play a well-off patron on whom you can see that he has enjoyed his fair share of delicious and nutritious food? Or are you thinking more of an agile thief, sneaking stealthily like a cat through the grated windows of a magnificent manor? You decide what you would prefer. The following settings can be changed to make your character look just as you want:

Facial features, physique, hairstyle, hair colour, head covering (*), voice and beard (*).

(*) only selectable with male characters The colour of the clothing is selected based on the family crest selected

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ontrols

The Guild 2 has been designed for use with the keyboard and mouse. While a mouse

wheel is not required, it makes controlling the game considerably easier if your mouse has one.

The left mouse button is used to select characters, buildings and carts and to carry out actions when clicking a button or icon. You can select multiple char-acters and carts at the same time by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse.

Holding down the right mouse button provides you with more detailed informa-tion if the mouse pointer is located over an icon. Clicking the right mouse button once allows you to close windows that have been opened and deselect objects that have been selected.

A more precise overview of all of the keyboard commands and shortcuts can be found under Tables & summaries at the end of the manual.

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The user interface of The Guild 2 offers you many useful functions. The most important functions are detailed below.

1) g

Here you will find your dynasty’s crest, the name of your active character, the current date and the time.

2) p

In The Guild 2 you can take up to three characters into your group and control them. Your dynasty can, of course, consist of far more characters than this, but only three of them can be controlled by you personally.

A simple left-click on the character’s portrait will suffice to select one of the characters within your group. Double-clicking with the left mouse button will make the camera jump to that character.

3) l

This list shows you all of the buildings owned by your dynasty, as well as the town hall and marketplace of your currently active character’s home town Moving the mouse pointer over one of your own buildings will show the characters, employees and carts residing within the building.

Keep the mouse pointer still over a building in the list for a moment to view the characters working or living within the building or the carts located within the building.

Clicking a building icon, character or cart in the building list once with the left mouse button allows you to select the building, character or cart in question. Double-clicking with the left mouse button will make the camera jump to your target.

If you have selected one of your own characters or carts, you can send it to a specific building by right-clicking the appropriate building in the building list once.

4) a

This bar shows you all actions that you can carry out using the currently selected character, cart or building.

For example, you can open the inventory of your own character or view the extensions made to one of your own buildings. You can also access special actions here, for example TalkTosomeone or aTTack.

The special actions are broken down into groups and have a colour-coded background depending on the type of action. For example, social actions are coloured turquoise and aggressive actions are displayed in red.

Moving the mouse pointer over an action symbol will show you all of the actions belonging to that group.

To make use of the action, click the action icon using the left mouse button. For some actions, a target must be selected. This needs to be done after clicking the action icon by selecting the target with the left mouse button.

You can abort an action in progress by clicking the X symbol in the actions bar.

5) i

Information on actions with the currently selected character, building or cart is shown here. For example, if you want to execute an action with a character for which a target must be selected, a message will appear in this bar asking you to select the target.

6) m

Whenever you receive a message, it will appear in this bar as a small icon. Left-clicking a message once will open it, allowing you to read it. Right-clicking the message icon once, however, deletes the message permanently.

Particularly important messages are shown as a flashing icon. You should open them quickly, as the events described within may be something important that you cannot afford to miss.

Some messages are displayed with a time bar. In these cases, you are usually required to make a decision. If you do not make this decision in time, the question will automatically be answered with “no”.

Clicking the message icon once with the left mouse button opens the message, clicking it once with the right mouse button deletes it.

If you no longer wish to receive certain types of messages, you can use the letter icon below the message bar to filter all incoming messages. For example, you can have all messages affecting your business blocked.

Using the message filter, you can decide for yourself which types of messages you wish to receive and which you don’t.

7) g

You can find the general functions on the left and right of the lower edge of the screen:

o

This brings you to the opTionsmenu.

m

Clicking the globe icon once opens the map of the surrounding area.

Double-clicking an object on the map moves the camera to it. If you have selected one of your own characters or carts, you can move it to an object on the map by clicking it with the right mouse button.

d

This icon provides you with access to information sheets on your own characters, family tree, dynasty and a summary of the most

important people.

You can increase the number of talent points for your character via their information sheets using the experience points gained and obtain new skills when levelling up. You can find all important information on this in the chapter The characTer.

You can use the information sheets for your characters to improve their talent point levels and select particular skills.

Your dynasty’s family tree shows you all family members and the relation of the characters to one another.

Select a family member within the family tree using the left mouse button to add the character to or remove it from your character group.

Select a family member in the family tree to include it in or remove it from the character group.

You can find all of your family members, friends and enemies in the summary of the most important people. You can also find information on all competing dynasties here.

If you wish to select a character as the target of an action, e.g. for the action TalkTosomeone, you can simply select one of

the characters listed here as a target.

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You can use the diary to not only read about the latest events, but also read your character’s appointment calendar, containing court appointments, arrangements for duels and more, the evidence book, in which all of the evidence you possess against your competitors is entered and the contract book, in which all contracts are listed.

You can read about the latest events and your current appoint-ments in the diary, as well as read about all of the evidence collected against your competitors and your current contracts in the game.

p

This icon brings you to a summary of all towns and cities on the map according to the authorities.

As with the summary of important people, you can use the authorities summary to select a character as the target of an action.

statistiCs

This summary provides you with information on your dynasty’s fortune, score and more.

The statistics contain the value of the dynasty’s fortune, the statement of accounts, your dynasty’s score and more.

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You can use the camera in The Guild 2 to view the world from both a bird’s eye perspective and zoom in to a close-up shot of characters and buildings. With a view from far above, you have a good overview of what is going on, but a close-up shot allows you to eavesdrop on conversations between characters and view their facial expressions and body language in the process.

You can use the mouse and/or the keyboard to control the camera. Hold the right mouse button down and move the mouse. The camera will follow the movements of the mouse. Holding both mouse buttons down at the same time and moving the mouse allows you to rotate the camera freely and zoom in and out. It is also possible to use the mouse wheel to zoom and rotate the view by holding the mouse wheel down.

Hold the right mouse button down to move the camera. Holding both mouse buttons down at the same time allows you to rotate and zoom the camera freely.

If your mouse has a mouse wheel, you can use it to zoom in and out and even rotate the camera by holding the mouse wheel down.

If the camera is located inside a building, you can still hold the right mouse button down to move the camera and rotate it by holding both mouse buttons down. You are only prevented from zooming while in interior spaces.

You can move and rotate the camera freely while you are inside a building. It is not possible to zoom here.

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You can select and move your own characters by selecting them with the left mouse button and selecting the target with the right mouse button. The target may be a building or a particular point on the map.

Select a character or cart with the left mouse button and use the right mouse button to click a spot on the map or a building.

You can also use the character and cart icons in the building list to select a particular character or cart. If the destination is a building, you can also select it by right-clicking it in the building list.

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ropErtiEs

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In The Guild 2, each character belongs to one of four character classes. Depending on the class that a particular character belongs to, the character will be able to execute particular actions and follow any profession within his or her class.

Dynasty characters, i.e. all of your own characters - can also build and manage any business that follows a profession in their class, as long as they have the necessary character level.

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Patrons ensure that food is available. They can pay your employees a bonus or put pressure on them to work to improve their short-term productivity. They are also permitted to take out loans at a bank.

As a farmer, you provide the raw materials that bakers and brewers process into food and drinks. The farmer also provides wool needed by the tailor. The brewer can also rent out beds in his tavern and set up a bathtub for his guests.

Profession Building level 1 Building level 2 Building level 3

Baker Baker’s shop Bakery Confectioner’s

Farmer Farrier Farm Estate

Brewer Bar Tavern Inn

Fisherman Fishing Hut Smokehouse Fisher shack

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Craftsmen form the commercial backbone of any town or city. They can - just like the patron - pay their employees a bonus or put pressure on them to work. They are also permitted to take out loans at a bank.

Depending on the speciality that a blacksmith might select, his focus might be on jewellery and trinkets or on weapons and armour. The tailor manufactures all kinds of garments, both beautiful and useful, and the joiner offers his services in the manufacture of torches, walking sticks and wooden weapons.

Profession Building level 1 Building level 2 Building level 3

Blacksmith Foundry Forge Goldsmith’s forge

Weapons smithy Armour smithy

Tailor Weaving mill Tailor’s Deluxe Tailor’s

Joiner Joinery Turnery Fine joinery

Glazier Glass works Glass blower’s Crystal producer’s

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Academics are able to put pressure on their employees to work, threaten people and take courses at the university to educate themselves.

The priest is able to influence his congregation during his sermons and win over new believers by preaching fire and brimstone at the marketplace. The alchemist can, depending on the speciality he selects, either decide to develop useful devices as a honest inventor or hold-off dark incantations as a mistrusting, watchful sorcerer.

Profession Building level 1 Building level 2 Building level 3

Alchemist Apothecary Alchemist’s shop Inventor’s workshop

Sorcerer’s shop Magician’s guild

Priest Chapel (cath.) Church (cath.) Cathedral (cath.)

Medicus Healer’s Infirmary Hospital

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Crooks earn their living from the suffering of honest citizens through stealing and blackmail. Crooks are also born fighters, unlike any other character class. They can also threaten someone to reach their goals, rob an opponent defeated in battle and even break bones. Robbers can also regenerate their life points in their own camp.

Thieves can not only pickpocket and break into properties - they can also blackmail people by kidnapping and demanding horrendous sums. Robbers can lurk on the wayside and pick off passing individuals and transport carts as well as plunder buildings.

Profession Building level 1 Building level 2 Building level 3

Thief Smuggler’s cove Thieves’ hideout Thieves’ guild

Robber Robber’s den Robber’s camp Robber baron’s camp

Pirate Pirate sanctuary Pirate den Pirate quarters

Mercenary Mercenary camp Mercenary quarters Mercenary fortress

t

Each character in The Guild 2 possesses 10 talents, with each talent possessing a value between one and ten. This values indicate how good a character is at this talent, with one meaning little skill and ten meaning absolute mastery. The talents affect a character in particular ways. For example, the talent Constitution is used to calculate the number of life points - the health level - of a character.

Some talents can be made use of for certain actions. As a rule of thumb, simple actions are often successful even if the talent values are low, difficult actions are often only successful if the talent values are high.

With some actions, the talent values of two characters are compared with one another to determine the victor. This is the case for battles, for example, where the talent values for the fighting skills of both fighters are compared with one another. The fighter with the higher talent value is more likely to be successful in striking their opponent and will thus land blows more frequently than his or her opponent.

Z

A zodiac sign provides a character with a talent bonus. You can determine your first character’s zodiac sign yourself. The zodiac sign of your offspring will be determined based on their date of birth.

l

A character’s life points are calculated based on his or her constitution and character level. These values determine by and large how long a character will live - should he not meet a violent and premature end.

Life points are always reduced whenever the character takes damage. If the number of life points drops to 10% of their maximum value or less, the character will fall unconscious and sleep. The exceptions to this rule are the non-dynasty characters of the crook class, who will fight to the death.

While a character is sleeping, he can regenerate his life points up to the maximum number of points possible. Characters can only sleep in their own abode or in

a rented bed in a tavern. Your characters can also Takeabreak at camp fires,

benches, statues etc.

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EVElopmEnt

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A character gains experience by carrying out actions. This experience is represented by experience points - otherwise known as EP. EP allows you to improve the talent values of your character.

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The character level shows you how experienced a character is. The more experience points a character has received, the higher his level will be. The number of EP you have invested in a character’s talents is irrelevant here, as the character level is always determined by the total EP.

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Special abilities provide a character with advantages against others. For example, he may be able to carry particularly heavy loads and thus has an additional inventory slot available, or may be particularly good at learning things and so will receive more experience points for actions carried out.

You can select certain special skills once your character has reached a specific

characTerlevel. Once again, the skills depend on your character class.

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A title reflects the social standing of a family dynasty. It also provides additional privileges and allows the character to own grander properties. You can purchase further titles for your dynasty in the town hall of your home town.

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our

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Your character lives in this property with his family. The home cannot - providing the building condition is over 30% - be entered by fighting units not belonging to you (crooks, henchmen), with the exception of the town guard. Your characters can also not be attacked here.

Within their own home, your characters also have the advantage of being able to lay down to sleep, which allows them to regenerate their life points. You can also train your talents in your home and - assuming you are married - produce offspring together with your spouse. More on this in the chapter Favour, diplomaCy & CourTinG. If you wish to have one of your characters apply for office somewhere, the character in question must have a home in the appropriate town. Court hearings also only ever take place in the home town of the petitioner.

If you have built, purchased or conquered a further home, you can assign it to one of your characters as a home. To do this, send the character into the building and click

alloCaTe buildinG in the actions bar for the character. However, this will not work if the character is an official in another town.

To assign another home to a character, the character must have entered the building. Then simply click the action allocaTe building.

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Extensions are objects that you can fit to one of your own buildings. Each extension has a positive effect on the building. For example, you can extend a home with storage areas, objects to prevent break-ins, as well as objects that unlock other possible actions.

As the level of the building rises, you will have even more extensions at your disposal. You need to possess the appropriate title to be able to level up a home. You can find out more about titles further back in this chapter.

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Henchmen are mercenaries that you can hire for your character’s home and who belong to the crook class. You can use them as an escort for your characters, to watch your buildings or maybe even spy on someone. If you have installed the appropriate extensions in your home, your henchmen can even commit sabotage. You can, however, simply attack your foes or even conquer or destroy the buildings of your opponents.

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Ctions

Whenever you select a character, building or cart, you will find a list of all of the actions that you can execute in the action bar.

Special actions are sorted into groups with their own colours. For example, actions

such as TalkTosomeone or makeacomplimenT belong to the social actions group

with a turquoise background. To display all of the actions within the same group, simply move the mouse pointer to an action in the action bar.

To carry out an action, it is enough to simply click the icon with the left mouse button. Some actions also require you to select a target.

For example, if your character should TalkTosomeone, you must first select

your character, left-click the action and then finally left-click the person you wish to speak to.

As soon as you have selected an action that requires a target character, an icon matching the action appears above all characters within reach that can be selected as a target for the action.

Left-clicking the X symbol once in the actions bar is sufficient to abort an action in progress.

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nVEntory

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EquipmEnt

Each character possesses an inventory, in which objects can be carried around. They also possess four equipment slots each. The number of inventory slots depends on the talent Constitution and certain skills that the character may possess.

A limited number of any raw materials, consumer goods and artefacts can be stored in the inventory slots. It is thus perfectly conceivable for a single character to buy iron on the market and bring it to your blacksmith personally. However, characters can carry little of the material and so a transport cart is always a better choice. You can find more information on raw materials, consumer goods and artefacts in the chapter

Production & Trade.

When you have stored an artefact in your character’s inventory, it will show up as an icon in the action bar. You can now use it just like an action. The only difference is that once an artefact is used, it is consumed.

As mentioned at the beginning, each character has four equipment slots. You can insert armour and weapons into these slots, and the character will equip them immediately. You can find more detailed information on weapons and armour in the chapter FiGhTinG.

produCtion & trading

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usinEss

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Employees are the heart of a business, for without them, nothing works - unless you want your character to do some hands-on work.

Each employee receives a certain wage per round, which depends on his level. Employees start at level one and can rise up to level six.

The higher the level, the more effectively an employee works. The levels rise while an employee is working.

You have two ways of hiring employees for a business: either select the business and then select the action Employ random jobseeker or select a jobseeker directly and select the action Employ jobseeker while he is selected before clicking the target business.

If you wish to fire an employee, select him and click the action Fire employee.

With the exception of businesses run by the crook class and henchmen of the home, employees only work for a certain number of hours per round. They appear for work in the morning and go to the tavern or straight home in the evening. Employees of taverns and churches begin their shift later in the day and finish work later accordingly.

Businesses open if at least one dynasty character or one employee is in the building. They are closed if everybody leaves the building.

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Each business has a storage area where raw materials and products can be stored. The storage area consists of a number of so-called “slots”, in which a certain quantity of a single good can be stored.

You can view the storage area of your business by selecting the building and clicking ProducTion & sTorage within the building actions group.

In addition to storage slots, businesses also have a “sales storage area”. Any good that is stored here can be purchased by other characters not in a feud with

your dynasty - more information on this in the chapter Favour, diplomaCy &

CourTinG.

To the right of the storage area, you will find the transport menu, in which all of your carts and characters located within reach are listed. You can use this to move goods into the building storage area and from the storage area to your carts and characters. It is possible, of course, to move goods from the carts to your characters and vice versa.

Left-click a slot once to pick up one unit of the good stored within. Double-clicking picks up all of the goods from that slot. Hold the left mouse button down on the slot and increase or decrease the desired quantity manually by moving the mouse up and down.

To put the goods that you have picked up back down, you should simply left-click the target storage area, the cargo area of a transport cart or a character’s inventory once.

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As already mentioned above in this chapter, a business requires at least one employee to be able to produce. You can, however, send your own characters into the business and have them work.

The production menu, which you need to adjust production, is located in the left

half of the menu produCTion & sToraGe. The main part of the production menu

is taken up by the business’ product range. Here you will find all products that the business can produce. To the right of this, you can see the raw materials necessary for the product, represented by smaller icons.

You can call up the production menu for your business by selecting the building and then ProducTion & sTorage in the building actions menu. If a raw material is in stock for a particular product, its icon will be displayed in a green frame. If not, it will be displayed in red. If all of the raw materials required for a product are available in sufficient quantities in the storage area and there is storage available for the product, the product icon will be displayed in a green frame, which shows you that you are able to manufacture the product.

You can see all of the characters available for production displayed above the product range. Click one or several of these characters using the left mouse button to select them. Now click one of the green-framed products in the product range using the left mouse button to commence production.

To commence production, you must have first selected a character from the production menu with the left mouse button and then clicked the desired product icon.

You can stop ongoing production by clicking the small X in the upper-left corner of the product icon.

You can reassign any character producing products to another product by either selecting him in the list above the product range or by clicking the product icon. He can now be reassigned.

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As with the home, you can build extensions within any of your own businesses, which will have particular effects. Some extensions create new jobs, larger storage areas, protect against break-ins or improve the productivity of your employees. Others are more specific, as they unlock particular products and sometimes other actions.

More extensions are available when a building is at a higher level. However, your character needs to be at a particular character level to be able to level up your business to a higher building level.

You can obtain the building extensions by selecting your business and then clicking exTend building in the building’s action bar. To set up an

exten-sion, you should simply left-click the desired object.

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In the advanced stages of the game, you will notice that it can become quite a chore to take care of several businesses at the same time. This is why you have the opportunity of automating each one of your businesses individually.

To do this, select a business and click manaGe buildinG in the building action

menu. Here you can allocate a budget to the building that the automation function can work with. This budget is reallocated at the beginning of every round - so if the business makes a profit, you will receive a surplus. If the business makes a loss, it is balanced with money from your dynasty.

The automation function can take control of the entire administration of your business - employees, carts, purchasing, sales, renovations, extensions etc. - as well as only individual elements of the administration. What the computer should take care of for you is entirely up to you.

If you want to automate one of your businesses, select the building and click manage building in the building actions bar.

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The marketplace is the trading centre of every town, for it is here that all the raw materials and local products come together. The marketplace is open at all times of year, at all times of day.

To open the market menu, you simply need to left-click the market icon on the right edge of the screen or click one of the market stands directly.

The market consists of five individual stands - raw materials, food, metal products, textiles and mixed. Each stand contains various raw materials and/or products. You can use the tabs in the top half of the market menu to switch to individual stands.

In the market menu, you will find a large number of storage slots, larger than your home or business. You can sell any of your goods without further delay. However, you can only purchase what is offered to you.

The two prices in front of the goods icons are the price that you must pay when buying and the money that you would receive when selling.

If the upper price is green, you have to pay less than usual. If the upper price is red, however, the product has become more expensive.

If the lower price is green, you receive more than usual when buying. If it is red, traders don’t want to give you much for the product.

To the right of the market menu you will find the transport menu, in which all of your carts and characters within reach are displayed. From here you can sell the goods held by your carts and characters at the market, and you can also store goods that you have purchased on the cargo area of your carts or in the inventory of your characters.

Left-click a slot once to pick up one unit of the good stored within. Double-clicking picks up all of the goods from that slot. Hold the left mouse button down on the slot and increase or decrease the desired quantity manually by moving the mouse up and down.

To put the good that you have picked up back down, simply left-click the target storage area, the cargo area of a transport cart or a character’s inven-tory. Clicking with the right mouse button, however, places the good back in its original slot.

If you place a product from your cart or character in a market slot, you will receive the sales price of the product. If you pick up a product from a market slot and place it on the cargo area of one of your carts or in the inventory of one of your characters, you have to pay the purchase price.

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Carts are there to transport raw materials from the marketplace to your business or sell the products from your business at the marketplace. You can find out

how loading works by reading sToraGe & TransporT menu and markeTplaCe

further back in this chapter. Here we’ll be covering transport in its own right. There are two ways of sending out a cart. The first is simply to select it and then set a destination on the map by right-clicking it.

Possibility 1: Select carts and right-click on the map to set a target point or click a building in the building list with the right mouse button.

The second way is to have the cart in direct proximity of your own business or the marketplace. Open the appropriate transport menu, select the cart in the list and click the wheel icon in the lower half of the menu. This opens a map of the surrounding area, where you can select the destination by clicking a building or the marketplace once with the left mouse button.

Possibility 2: Open the transport menu, select the cart and click the wheel icon in the lower half of the menu. This opens a map of the surrounding area, where you can select the target building for the cart by left-clicking it once.

The trade routes can be very dangerous, especially if a robber camp is nearby or your dynasty is in a feud with another dynasty. This means that one of your carts can be unexpectedly plundered.

To prevent this, you can hire up to four mercenaries for each of your carts. They do cost money, which in turn reduces your profit, but the investment will pay off as highwaymen and your opponents’ fighters will think twice before attacking a well-guarded transport.

To have a cart escorted by mercenaries, you can use the icon with the crossed halberd in the transport menu. Left-click here once to hire a mercenary. Clicking again adds another mercenary to the escort. If you have already engaged four mercenaries, clicking once more has the effect of releasing all of the mercenaries again.

The mercenaries will escort the cart until you release them. The escorts’ pay will always be deducted from your dynasty at the beginning of a round.

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These two business produce metal from ore and wooden boards from logs. It is thus sometimes advisable when playing as a blacksmith or joiner to go to the mine or woodcutter’s hut and purchase the raw materials on-site instead of waiting for a new transport to arrive at the marketplace with new stocks. Purchasing directly from either business is cheaper than at the market.

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Raw materials sources are locations on the map where raw materials can be extracted. Raw materials sources include the fields and pastures of the farm, the lodes in the mines as well as plants and vermin dwellings, from which alchemists can extract their ingredients.

So, if you are the proud owner of a farm, chapel or apothecary, you can send your employees to these locations to fetch raw materials.

Holy water fountains are a special type of raw material source, as the water gained from them can, in addition to production, also be used to purify fountains poisoned by an alchemist.

Raw materials sources have a limited number of raw materials units. Once this quantity has been used up, it takes a while before the stock can replenish itself.

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Raw materials are defined as being any goods needed to produce high-quality products. They include iron, gold, precious stones, oakwood, barley, wheat, fat, various plants and even vermin.

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With the exception of the thieves’ guild and the robber’s camp, every business has their own palette of different products. Some products are pure consumer goods with no special effect.

Consumer goods may be, for example, food, tools and construction materials- Weapons, armour and clothing are also counted as consumer goods.

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Artefacts are special products that can be used by a character. Not including the farm, thieves’ guild and robber camp, each building produces a number of different artefacts.

Artefacts appear as an icon in the character’s action bar once you have stored them in their inventory. An artefact can be used by left-clicking it, just like an action. However, unlike actions, they are consumed once used.

faVour, diplomaCy & Courting

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Favour is defined as the reputation of a character in the eyes of another character. Favour covers entire dynasties, this means that all members of a family dynasty all share the same favour. A good level of favour means that a character or family dynasty is liked by someone, whereas a bad level of favour means that the situation may even degenerate into hatred.

When clicking a character not belonging to you, you can see the favour bar below his or her name in the character portrait. This represents the favour that your dynasty has with this character or with the character’s dynasty.

You can recognise the favour of a character not belonging to you has towards your dynasty’s characters from the favour bar. You can find this bar below the name in the character portrait of a selected character.

If your dynasty has a low favour towards another character or another family dynasty, various social actions may fail and thus have negative consequences. You will certainly not be able to count on the support of these characters during official meetings and court sessions.

Favour can only rise above 75% for team members, your own dynasty characters and lovers. This means that it is not possible to reach a mutual assistance pact with all dynasties (more information is available further below in this chapter).

Favour can only rise above 75% for team members (multiplayer game), your own dynasty characters and lovers.

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There are various ways at your disposal to improve the reputation of your

dynasty. For example, you can makesomeoneaComplimenT or bribesomeone.

However, you should remember that with each of each actions, there must be a certain minimum level of favour for the actions to have a good chance of success.

You can also make use of particular artefacts that have a positive effect on the favour of characters not belonging to you towards your dynasty.

You can make use of various actions and artefacts to improve the favour of your dynasty in the eyes of other characters.

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Diplomacy is used by the larger dynasties. This provides them with an extremely simple way of managing their relationship to one another.

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Depending on the relationship that you have with an opposing dynasty in terms of favour, various diplomacy states can result:

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Feuds between two dynasties are much like war. In times of feud, all of the characters belonging to the dynasty with whom you are in a feud - including employees - are considered to be potential enemies. Characters of the crook class in particular will put everything into eliminating their enemies.

A feud is declared if the level of favour is particularly low.

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This diplomacy status does not contain any special arrangement. The two dynasties simply live side-by-side.

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The non-aggression pact represents an agreement that characters of both dynasties will no longer attack each other. Part of this pact is also that thieves and robbers will leave owners and characters from the other dynasty alone.

The non-aggression pact applies as soon as the favour rises above two-thirds of the favour bar.

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With this pact, both dynasties swear to no longer attack one another and even lend support to one another if it comes to war. This includes kidnapping attempts and sabotage conducted by enemy dynasties.

This pact is made if the favour is practically at its maximum value.

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Below you’ll find a few tips on how you can marry and ensure that you have a successor.

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In order to prevent your dynasty ending with the death of your first character, you should act quickly to find a suitable spouse. Select your character, click the action courTsomeone and select the lady or gentleman that your character

should court as a target.

Select your character and click the action courTsomeone. You should then

left-click the person that your person should court. To do this, you can make use of the imPorTanT Persons summary.

A window will now appear that shows you the likes and dislikes of the person. If they appeal to you, you can begin courting by pressing OK. Your character will then run to the selected person and speak to them.

Once your favour with the person being courted is enough, she or he will let it be known that they are interested in your client and will consent to the courtship.

The person being courted now appears in the summary imPorTanT Persons

and can be selected easily as a target for actions.

If you select the person being courted during the courtship process, you can view the progress bar for the courting in addition to the normal favour bar.

Your goal is now to fill this progress bar to maximum quickly before the person being courted loses interest in your character or – worse yet - even surrenders to the advances of a competitor.

In the character portrait of the person being courted, a progress bar for the courtship is displayed in addition to the normal favour bar.

When courting, there are several different social actions that you can make use of. You will have already had the chance to read about which actions you should carry out in which order from the likes and dislikes of the person being courted.

To win the heart of the person being courted, you can make use of various different social actions. Be careful that you don’t use the same action again and again too frequently.

As soon as the progress bar has reached the maximum value, your character will

be able to propose to the person by using the action askForhand.

You can also enTerinToaliaison with the person, which provides you with

a faithful ally.

If the progress bar has reached the maximum value, your character will be able to marry the person by using the action askforhand.

You can now include your character’s spouse in your character group and control them yourself.

To include the spouse in your character group, you will have to open the family tree of your dynasty. Now click the character and then the action includeingrouP.

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Those who wish to marry can continue to do so in public on the street. If this is too public, however, you can opt for a ceremony in the wedding chapel. This does take a little more time and costs money, but for the young couple it makes for an unforgettable experience and will thus bring ample amounts of experience for both. It is also possible to get an engagement ring in the wedding chapel from an orphan.

It is possible to give this ring to the subject of your adoration during the courtship. The engagement ring provides considerable progress in the courtship process. It is also possible to adopt an orphan here if you are already married. With the last action, you should remember that the orphans are only around during the day.

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As soon as your character is married and both partners are in their home at the same time, a new action will be accessible for your character - spendniGhT ToGeTher. This action will cause the married couple to retire and entertain each other for a short while in the privacy of their bed chambers...

When both partners are in their own home at the same time, the action sPendnighTTogeTher will be accessible.

Depending on the age and health of both partners, a child may result from this night spent together.

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Once the children reach the age of 3, you can pay the school fees and send your characters’ children to school. If they do not quit school early, the children will gain a number of talent points and will also receive the right - assuming they belong to the academic character class - to go to university.

Children can go to school as soon as they reach the age of 3.

Once the children reach the age of 7, you can send your characters’ children for an apprenticeship if you pay the fees for them. Assuming the children do not cancel their apprenticeship, they will receive talent points at the end of it as well as the character class of the profession that they have learned.

Children can begin an apprenticeship at the age of 7.

Children who have not experienced the joys of an apprenticeship inherit the character class of one of their parents. Boys inherit their father’s character class, girls inherit the character class of their mother.

As soon as a child reaches the age of 11 and if he or she is part of the academic character class, he or she will be able to attend university. Here the child doesn’t just receive more talent points - he or she also receives the right to continue with another course. Upon completing the second degree, the child receives a doctorate together with all of its advantages.

At the age of 11, children of the academic character class can do a degree, followed by a second degree at a university.

As of the age of 15, the child is considered to be adult and can be accepted into the character group. To do this, open your dynasty’s family tree, click the young

adult and then the button inCludeinGroup.

At the age of 15, children are considered to be adult and can be accepted into the character group. To do this, open your dynasty’s family tree, click the character and then the button includeingrouP.

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For one of your characters to be able to apply for office, three requirements must be fulfilled: 1. The character must live in a home in the town where he is looking to apply for office. 2. The character, and as such, the entire dynasty - must have at least the title of Citizen and 3. The office in question must be vacant at the time of application.

Send your character to the town hall. Then click the action aPPlyfor office.

Remember: when applying for office, each character has to work his or her way

up. You can find more information on this below in this chapter.

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Each town has a council. The number of offices in the council, as well as the privileges linked with office are dependent on the town level. The level of a town depends in turn on the number of its inhabitants. If the number of inhabitants rises, so does the town level and thus also the number of offices.

A summary of all the town levels and offices in towns can be found under Tables & summaries.

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The political offices are broken down into seven ministries, whereby each ministry is only represented by a single office holder per town.

An overview of the ministries can be found under Tables & summaries. As soon as the town rises by a level, the current office holders move up to the next highest office in their ministry.

Whenever the town rises by a level, the current office holders move up to the next office up within their ministry.

The offices within a town are broken down into five levels, with the first representing the lowest and the fifth representing the highest level. As you will see in the table below, a village offers up to two levels, whereas a free town offers up to five.

An overview of the political office levels can be found under Tables & sum -maries.

A character must always work from the lowest level upwards. So if he were a bailiff, he couldn’t just jump straight to the post of marshal or supreme judge. Instead, he could only apply for the “former level”.

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Any office holder enjoys a range of privileges from his time in office. Some of the privileges are passive and provide the owner with particular advantages that do not require the owner to get involved directly. The remaining active privileges of political office can be used just like actions.

Each holder of office also receives remuneration for their time in office, calculated based on the level of their office. He can also apply for the dismissal of another member of the council and, of course, he can surrender his office voluntarily.

In addition to the privileges that office provides, each office holder receives remuneration and may apply to have members dismissed as well as leave office voluntarily.

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Official meetings are called when a decision regarding a dismissal application and/or application to enter office needs to be made. Each participant in the meeting is informed and receives an entry in his diary.

Prior to the meeting, a message is sent with a request for the participants’ presence. There is also an indication of whether the character will be able to make it on time.

For decisions made during official meetings, the decisions made by the computer characters are dependent on the level of favour. The decision is also influenced by the rhetorical skills of the applicant and the level of empathy of the decision maker.

You will have a moment during the period of reflection after the candidates are introduced to make use of particular actions and/or artefacts so that you can influence the level of favour during a meeting.

Decisions made by the computer characters are dependent on the level of favour. You can make use of actions and/or artefacts during the meeting to influence the decision-makers among the council members.

It is certainly possible that votes may come to a stalemate or that no officials authorised to adjudicate are present. Should such a case arise, the decision is always left to chance.

If no result is achieved during an official meeting, the decision is left to chance.

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All of the officials on the council discuss applications for dismissal. The applicant faces-off against the person to be dismissed.

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During council elections, the council members of the next level up from the office in question and the highest official on the council decide upon the council seat to be awarded. If the highest office on the council is to be awarded, everyone is involved in the decision.

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Whenever your dynasty characters or their employees commit crimes, all those observing can collect evidence against your dynasty.

When a crime is committed, there is a chance of all observers receiving a piece of evidence against the offender.

Crimes are considered to be any actions that harm other persons, for example sabotage, attacks on decent citizens (all except characters of the crook class), break-ins, kidnapping, highway robbery, threats, blackmail etc. Bribery and the use of concoctions to harm someone also count as crimes.

Each crime has a particular level of seriousness and a “quality”. In this respect, lesser crimes such as bribery and wallet theft are of less importance than, for example, kidnapping and murder. The “quality” provides information on how many people have passed the evidence down, meaning whether the crime was witnessed personally or whether the evidence was heard as a rumour.

The level of seriousness shows how severe the crime is. The quality shows whether the crime was witnessed personally or whether the evidence was heard as a rumour.

The higher the quality of the evidence, the more likely a conviction. The higher the seriousness, the more severe the punishment if the person is found guilty.

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You can make use of your henchmen to find evidence for crimes committed by your competitors. This provides you with two possibilities, provided that the

appropriate extensions are fitted to your home - lisTenTo rumours and spy

on someone.

If the first action is selected, the henchmen will speak to passers-by randomly and so will discover low-quality evidence. Other characters also find out about crimes in this way.

When carrying out the action lisTenTo rumours, henchmen ask passers-by

at random and so receive evidence of low quality.

You can use the second action to have a henchman keep hot on the heels of a character. Depending on the henchman’s talents in Empathy and the offender’s Stealth talent, the henchman may discover crimes himself and will find evidence of particularly high quality for his client.

When sPyingonsomeone, a henchman keeps on the trail of a character and

is thus able to find evidence of particularly high quality.

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As soon as you have enough evidence against your competitor, you can bring the crook to justice before a judge. You can find and view the evidence you have found in your diary on the page Evidence Book.

Send your character to the town hall. Then click the action indicTsome -one.

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The court hearing essentially requires five people to be present - the defendant, the accuser, the chairman (judge) and two observers (randomly chosen people).

Prior to the court meeting, a message is sent with a request for the participants’ presence. There is also an indication of whether the character will be able to make it on time.

During the discussion, both the accuser and the accused court the favour of the judge and his two observers. The decision of the judge and the two observers is also influenced by the rhetorical skills of the defendant and plaintiff as well as their own empathy.