Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

“When you look at the map of a single structure, you can identify what needs to be repaired,” Navigail said cheerfully. “Damaged structures are highlighted in red. This room has damaged outer walls. Focus on a damaged structure to call up the repair pane.”

The room was built against the rammed earth ramparts that used to surround Kalla Sahasi, and it had taken a pounding on that one side. There was one collapsed wall in the back, highlighted with red lines. I focused on it, and a small popup appeared.

[Stone Wall: Repair Cost - 100g or 1 Build Point]

“If you opt to have this wall repaired, the KMS will either provide you with a laundry list to accomplish the repair, or send an alert to your Steward, who will arrange for the repair themselves,” Navigail said. “Now, zoom out back to the castle view, and think 'damaged structures'.”

When I did that, the blue map nearly turned scarlet. Practically every part of Kalla Sahasi had taken damage during the Demon's takeover. The worse the damage, the more intense the red highlight was. The Gatehouse, Curtain Wall, Great Hall, and Inner Keep were the most significantly damaged. I was able to get a summary total of how much it would cost to repair the entire castle.

Kalla Sahasi

Building Type: Castle (Hill Castle)

Integrity: 5000/100,000

Damaged Components: 78%

Cost to Repair: 20,000g OR 2000 Build Points

“Two thousand Build Points?” I whispered. “Fuck me. I only got sixty for the huge quest I did for the Volod.”

My HUD chimed, and then the cost flared with a soft blue glow.

“Build Points are special points gained during the completion of Kingdom Quests, which are used to offset the monetary cost of repairing or commissioning structures,”Navigail said. “A completed quest generally rewards between 10 and 50 Build Points - BP for short. One Build Point is equivalent to 100 units of the highest currency in your nation, and represents the paid manpower you are able to command to complete a project. The more BP you use, the lower your monetary cost will be. For example: You have 20,000g worth of repairs or replacements to make on Kalla Sahasi. You could pay for that with money or BP, or both. If you were to invest 1000BP, the currency cost would drop to 10,000 olbia.”

“Uhhh.” One thousand BP was still a long way away. “Great. How can I reduce expenses?”

“There are several ways to reduce the cost of developing and maintaining infrastructure,” Navigail replied. “Time, Skills, and Renown all play a role. At full price, your castle repairs would normally take fifteen days to complete. However, you can double or triple the maximum construction time up to save money and build points. If you doubled the repair time to thirty days, you would save one quarter of your expenses. If you extended it to forty-five days, you would save one half, taking your project down to 5000 olbia and 500BP. If you have more money than BP, you can balance the right quantity of each for a given project.”

I nodded, listening along. “You trade time for money.”

“Correct. High Leadership and Renown automatically grants you savings on your construction projects. Every five levels in the Leadership skill reduces your cost by 1%. At max level, you could have a 30% reduction in expenses.”

I checked my Leadership skill. I was at Leadership 9: just below the threshold for my next reduction in expenses. “And Renown?”

“Your Renown reflects how your citizens feel about your leadership, and whether or not they will volunteer unpaid or minimally paid labor to help with raising infrastructure. Each volunteer you recruit to a project represents 0.5BP, or 50 olbia. Recruiting volunteers takes time (1 day per 100 volunteers) and comes with some special conditions.”

“Firstly, volunteers must be able-bodied adults. They are recruited per-project. Volunteers work at half the speed of a professional team of craftsmen, potentially doubling your construction time. Volunteers take a 30-day fatigue penalty after the completion of a project, and cannot be re-recruited during this time. If you have multiple projects, you must balance your recruitment needs against your population. Your Governance menu will show you how many potential volunteers you have available.”

“If you are building your reputation on Infamy instead of Renown, you can instead conscript citizens to build infrastructure. However, you must increase your security forces to be proportionate to the number of people you conscript, or else you will face escalating civil unrest.”

“Right,” I said. “How many volunteers can I have?”

“Your Renown tier determines how many volunteers you can recruit. You can see the recruitment limit (and your Renown tier) at any time in the Infrastructure menu by querying 'View Renown'.”

“Huh.” I tried it out. Sure enough, the breakout box appeared:

Renown (Dragozin Hector)

●        National - Vlachia: 1587 (Tier 4)

●        Province - Myszno: 1087 (Tier 4)

●        Duchy - Racsa: 1087 (Tier 4)

●        County - Karhad 1587 (Tier 4)

●        City - Karhad 1587 (Tier 4)

●        Special: Myszno Defense Force – 2273 (Tier 4)

Renown tiers (and maximum volunteer/conscription limits):

●        Tier 1 - 10

●        Tier 2 - 100

●        Tier 3 - 500

●        Tier 4 - 1000

●        Tier 5 - 3000

●        Tier 6 – 5000-10000

The logistics of recruiting a thousand people on each building I wanted to restore was mind-boggling, as was the fact that I could like… do that now. It cheered me up until I realized that Navigail meant I could recruit 1000 volunteers across ALL my projects, if I had multiples, and distribute them accordingly. Then it didn’t seem like quite as much manpower – but still a lot. It also drove home that, if I was going to successfully accept and complete the quest Matir had set me, I needed a lot more positive Renown to get the volunteers we’d