Xena stood impatiently in the town square, shifting her weight from foot to foot. These starter shoes suck, she thought with a grimace. Maybe I should see Clyde about some new shoes after all.
Turning her attention back to her surroundings, the entire council had shown up. It seemed silly at this point to have to wait another two minutes, but it was what it was. The other townspeople were gathering in the square as well, and it was starting to feel a bit crowded.
She had worked tirelessly the last few hours, and as it had turned out, the Corey guy hadn’t really done anything to try and win the bid for mayor. It was like he’d just logged off or something.
Honestly, it made her feel like she’d wasted a bunch of time since she could have been doing other things, but looking at her quest log, it was nice to have all eight council votes. Besides, the stuff she’d done would help the town, which was now her town, so it hadn’t been a complete waste.
She watched her game clock as it got one minute closer to the appointed time.
[5:59 pm]
“One more minute,” Xena said, crossing her arms.
“Yes,” Anna said. “It’s almost that time.” The other council members nodded along.
Anna’s quest had been one of the worst. She’d had to find someone to go hunting farther into the woods for deer or other game. After the negotiations she’d mediated between Anna and the sell-sword archer guy, Davidson, that she’d found in the inn’s common room, Xena had gained the barter skill. She supposed it would be useful, but it had been a royal pain to get them to come to an arrangement.
Anna seemed to be offended that she should have to pay the guy anything for hunting for meat for her, but with Xena’s help they came to an arrangement that offered him premium meals, a suite, rather than a simple room, and a much lesser amount of money then he’d been asking.
Quite frankly, Xena thought that Anna was the most insane NPC ever created, but with Anna’s vote Xena finally had not just the majority, but the entire council on her side.
[6:00 pm]
“Congratulations!” the council cheered in unison as her game clock finally made it to 6:00. The time also sued the in game sun to finish setting behind the large mountain, casting twilight across the town. “All hail the new Mayor!” the council added.
“Hail the new Mayor!” the townspeople cheered.
With the darkness and all the cheering, Xena was almost a little creeped out.
It didn’t help that the group cheering and raising their fists in the air almost looked like an angry mob in the now darkening town square. The iron lamp posts had been lit though, so it wasn’t too dark, but it was still a bit disconcerting.
[Quest Complete: Mayor Indeed. You have won the race for becoming Mayor of Butteville. You will now have options to make some one-time changes with Town Establishment Points. You have been given the base 100 Establishment Points.
Congratulations! You have been unanimously voted in, and have gained an additional 50 Establishment Points, and the titles, Mayor, and Undisputed Mayor. You will now have a Town Sub-Menu within your Main Menu. Please finish the one-time Establishment Setup within the next hour, or the defaults will be selected for you. Good luck!]
“That will be all!” Brian the blacksmith yelled. “The Mayor has some important work to do.”
Everyone in the square had been chanting her name, but fell silent at Brian’s words, and all disbursed soon after.
The entire council again congratulated her and shook hands with her as they left, expressing their desire for her to succeed.
It had been like a whirlwind, but now Xena was left standing alone in the square.
“Freaky game,” she said, shaking her head. “Oh well, let’s see what these establishment points are all about…” She had been surprised with the bonus points for being unanimously voted in, but whatever they did it was nice to get something for all the effort she’d put in.
She opened her menu and saw all the regular options, but at the bottom, there was another option simply labeled Butteville.
I had to become mayor of a town named Butt-ville, she thought.
Reaching out and tapping Butteville with one finger, a whole new menu opened up.
[One-Time Establishment Options]
[Town Structures and Placement]
[Town Experience Gains and Missions]
[Town Experience Assignment]
[Town Recruitment Center]
[Town Defense]
[Town Special Characteristics]
[Town Quest Creation]
She opened the one-time establishment options, not wanting to be stuck with the default assignments.
[Establishment Points: 150]
[Town Name: Butteville]
[Town Type: Medieval]
[Medieval Special Characteristics]
She was curious what the town’s Medieval Special Characteristics were, so she selected it.
[Knights Requisition]
[Longbow Mastery]
[Military Mining]
[Catapult Discount]
[Purchase Additional Special Characteristics]
She tapped each one and saw that they were pretty straight forward. Once she unlocked the ability to train knights, the cost of the horses would be covered by the perk. Longbow Mastery would make any of her soldiers or guards proficient with them automatically, without the need for training. The catapult discount saved her construction time and cost, which didn’t seem all that useful for early game, but could be later.
The military mining though, that was a strange one. It removed the penalty associated with having her guards or soldiers perform mining operations. None of them seemed all that great aside from maybe the longbow perk. She wasn’t ready to purchase more perks yet either.
She went back to the town menu and selected town name.
[Would you like to change the Town name for ten Establishment Points?]
[Yes] or [No]
“Oh yeah,” she said, tapping yes with her finger.
[Please select a name for the town.]
She entered Athens into the dialogue box and tapped on the select option. There was also a cancel option, which was nice to know, but she’d made up her mind. Selecting the name had returned her to the previous menu, which now listed the town name as Athens and showed her establishment points now being at 140.
Worth it, she thought.
She selected the town type, hoping that there was something that would fit her name choice.
[Changing your town’s aesthetic from Medieval will remove your current Medieval Special Characteristics, but gain the characteristics for the motif that you select. Would you like to change your town from Medieval to something else for 40 Establishment Points?]
[Yes] or [No]
She tapped yes, unable to stop herself. She rubbed her hands together in excitement and browsed the list that popped up. There were options for every era and nationality that she could think of.
She debated changing her towns name again and picking something else, like the Tokugawa aesthetic, mostly because samurai were awesome and were sure to have great special characteristics, but she decided against it. She loved ancient Greece, which was why she’d gone with Xena as her own name choice, and been role playing as a warrior princess from the start. The game even validated her choice with the whole blaxendorf backstory. Determined to find something that matched, she kept looking.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Found it!” she said, selecting Classical Greece.
[Classical Greece: This will change your town’s aesthetic to more closely resemble Ancient Greece in the Classical Era. Special Characteristics: Phalanx Proficiency, Spear Proficiency, Short Sword Proficiency, Mighty Shield. Would you like to select Classical Greece as your aesthetic?]
[Yes] or [No]
She knew from history that the phalanx had been devastatingly effective, so if all her soldiers could make use of it, which was what she assumed the characteristic did, it would make her guards and soldiers very powerful indeed. She had no idea what the mighty shield could mean, but it had to be awesome. She selected yes.
She glanced up from where she stood in the town square, mesmerized at the changes taking place before her.
The town’s buildings were morphing into ancient greek works of art before her eyes.
The iron lamp posts melted and reformed into large marble braziers, giving off the same light, but in a more elegant form.
The well in the center of the town square also started to change. The well’s walls, and wooden roof all sort of melted into a large lump. The color changed to an off white, then it re-shaped into a beautiful three layered cascading circular fountain.
Way better than a well, she thought, giving a nod of approval.
It was awesome, and she could hardly contain her excitement. When the transformation had finished, the entire town had the same layout, but other than the placement of the buildings, you couldn’t recognize it as what it had been.
“Yes!” Xena yelled in triumph. She added in a giddy voice, “This, I can live with.”
She glanced back to her menu floating in front of her and returned to the town menu. It now displayed that she only had 100 establishment points.
All that was left to investigate were the additional special characteristics. She was about to pull them open, when a new prompt appeared. This one was positioned the same as all the other prompts she’d received, being off to the side of her vision until she focused on it. But, unlike previous notifications, this one was colored red with white lettering.
[Athens’ West Gate is under attack. Report to the Guard Tower to alter defensive protocols. If you are not present, the senior ranking town guard will handle the defense of the town.]
“Crap,” she said, closing the prompt and sprinting toward the west gate. As she ran she noticed a new little icon of a clock in the top right of her vision. She assumed it was for the time limit to spend her town improvement points, but she had to see what was happening at the gate first.
As she neared the gate, she saw that it had thankfully already been shut. The gate and walls also seemed a bit out of place, as they were still the same wooden gate and palisade from before.
Some of the guards were bracing the gate with crates and anything they could find. The crossbar was already in place, but the whole gate was rattling. Other guards were atop the towers on either side of the gate shooting down arrows at the attackers. There was also a pounding sound each time the gate reverberated with an impact.
“What’s going on here?” Xena demanded.
“Wolves,” came the simple reply from atop the left guard tower. She looked up to see that it was Guard Captain Gary that had spoken. “It’s best if you see for yourself,” he added, beckoning her up the tower.
She nodded and hurried over to climb the ladder on the outside of the small tower.
As she got to the top of the tower a new prompt appeared in the corner of her vision, this one colored orange. She ignored it momentarily though, opting to take a look over the edge of the wall. Three level two wolves were snarling and ramming the gate. One of them had been hit in the side with a few arrows, and it was down to about half health according to its health bar. The other two didn’t look hurt at all yet.
She opened the prompt.
[Would you like to take control of the Town Defense?]
[Yes] or [No]
She was confident that the town guards could handle a few wolves, but she was curious how it all worked, so she selected yes.
A new menu panel didn’t open like the one to change the town. Rather, the prompt simply closed.
“What are your orders?” Gary asked.
Ahh, so it’s like that, she thought. It seemed that it put her in charge, but there wasn’t an extra interface for being on the tower. Then she thought of the town interface and how there had been a town defense option. That was probably where you did bigger changes like troop positioning or placing catapults or whatever once they were unlocked. She would check it out later.
She saw an icon of a face that looked like it was yelling or yawning, and when she focused on it a prompt appeared.
[Commanding Presence: You can shout and be heard by all of your town guards, as they are looking to you for direction. Shouting, however, will also be heard by enemy forces sieging the town, so use it with discretion.]
“Can they break in through the gate?” she asked.
Gary responded with a shrug, “The gate is a weak point, to be sure, but it still has a decent amount of durability with its sturdy construction, if not as much as the walls themselves. The gate will probably hold against these wolves for a couple hours. Though with the increase of roving monsters in these dark times, we are likely to have more than just these three wolves to deal with tonight.”
She looked more closely at the gate and saw that it had a yellow bar above it, much like the red health bar that the players, NPC’s and Monsters had, only it was for the gate’s durability. It was still practically full.
“What would you do if the gate was destroyed?” she asked.
Gary gave her an approving nod and replied, “With the new special characteristics we received,” he said, “I would suggest we form a phalanx at the gate and stem the invasion while ranged support attacked from above.”
“That seems like a good plan,” she said. “Let’s do that if the gate ever breaks, but let’s kill those wolves quickly so they don’t damage the gate any more than necessary.”
Gary gave her a nod, and he started shouting orders to plan for just that.
Xena had a thought, so she asked, “Is there any way to repair the gate?”
“You can normally only repair it when the town is no longer under attack,” he said. “Also, you can only repair up to 50% durability from the inside.”
She assumed that to repair it fully it would need repairs done to both sides, which obviously couldn’t be done while the gate was closed, so that made sense.
“What do you mean normally?” she asked. “Is there another option?”
Gary shrugged. “Not unless you have town improvement points to spend. If you do,” he said, giving her a pointed look, “I would recommend spending at least a few of them on making the town more defensible. If the town hall gets destroyed, you will lose your mayorship, after all.”
She did have some to spend, 100 of them. And, she certainly didn’t want to have her town taken from her by a bunch of monsters, which she assumed would get stronger as time in the game progressed. However, she didn’t want to spend them all on defenses that might be good short term if there were better long term options, or options that could help the town as a whole. She hadn’t even looked at the list of special characteristics available yet.
The guards continue shooting at the wolves, killing the first one and then moving on to focus their arrows at the second. It was a bit unrealistic that wolves would slam themselves against a gate while being shot at, but this was a game after all.
While the guards kept shooting the wolves with arrows, she opened her Wiki and looked up the town development points and special characteristics posts to see what information was available. There hadn’t been any worthwhile posts by players yet, but the developers had released a bit of information.
Town improvement points were not only awarded at the establishment of a town, but could also be earned as the town leveled. Each time the town increased its level, it would gain 25 town improvement points. It looked like it would take a while to earn another hundred of them, so she didn’t want to waste them.
She focused on the little timer icon that had appeared when she closed the town alteration menu.
[You have 38 minutes to finish using your town Establishment Points. Unlike future town Improvement Points, Establishment Points are on a time limit. Please allocate your points, or the points will be spent automatically on the default selections. Would you like to spend them now?]
[Yes] or [No]
She selected yes, not trusting the developers to have made the best choices as the defaults.
Looking over the window that showed up, she saw that it wasn’t a list at all. There were three categories, and they were laid out much like the skill trees she’d seen in other games.
The first tree was military might, the second was economic expertise, and the third being political power. Glancing them over, they all looked interesting, but what caught her eye was the military might tree. Each perk tree had three starting options on the first tier, and all the perks below were greyed out and unavailable. Presumably, they would be unavailable to choose until she selected the prior perks.
Under military might, the first three available options would increase her guard’s levels, wall and gate durability, or allow combat repairs.
The first, named military prowess, could be invested into five times for 25 points each, just like the other two options. Each time Military Prowess was invested in, the guards would gain an additional level beyond their base level.
The guards were currently level one, which when she looked up on the Wiki it turned out was controlled by various things. The guards gained bonus levels from improvements to the guard barracks, training yard, and armor and weaponry, but they also shared a group experience pool that leveled all the guards as they gained enough total experience. The group experience pool required a massive amount though, so she figured that they would need to upgrade the barracks and stuff soon.
The special characteristic she was looking at seemed to give bonus levels, so they would still level up as she developed the other town buildings, but would always have additional levels higher than what they would normally. Her brain was calculating the different methods to have truly overpowered guards, but she just didn’t have enough information. It did seem like a good way to go though.
Returning to the characteristic tree, she looked over the other first tier options more closely. Sturdy Walls would improve the town walls and gates base durability, granting an additional 10% durability per investment, which scaled with wall upgrades, which was separate.
Combat Repairs allowed for the gates and walls to be repaired while under attack, but the first rank only allowed it to be repaired up to 10%.
Xena assumed that investing into it five times would allow it to be repaired up to 50% while in combat, which would be very handy indeed. She imagined ogres or something pounding on the gates and her guards repairing the inside of the gate, keeping stride with the attackers while her guards atop the towers peppered them with arrows or magic. Did her guards have magic? It was probably something she had to unlock.
Then, she realized that upgrading the wall durability or being able to fix it would all be pointless if her guards weren’t strong enough to inflict damage to quickly kill attackers.
Looks like it’s a balancing act, she thought. There were also some really cool options in the other two trees, but for other reasons. They didn’t help with combat at all, so she figured she could use later town improvement points to unlock those.
She selected guard prowess four times, spending all 100 of her points. Closing the menu, she looked around and saw all the normal guards were level five with grins on their faces. Captain Gary was level six, looking at her and giving an approving nod.
They had already killed the second wolf, but with the added levels, the final wolf died almost instantly. As it was shot from both sides, the arrows sunk deep, much deeper than the previously shot arrows.
The last wolf now lie dead, and had only needed five arrows to kill it rather than the twelve or more that the other two had.
“Oh yeah,” Xena said with a grin of her own.