Dear Guildians,
As you may imagine we are all very busy these days working on version 1.0 . As I am writing these lines, all features are already in the build, the texts are out for translation and we are in bug fixing and balancing mode.
This time, we - the team - want to tell a little story from the perspective of you while you step into the city hall for the first time. We hope you don't mind :-)
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After so many years of hard work, you have finally saved enough coins and influence to acquire the title of a citizen of your home city. You follow your avatar on their way from your village, through the city gate, passing the large marketplace, until you see the hallowed city hall, where all the office holders decide everyone's future.
You step up the stairs to the solid double-door and enter the building. In front of you, a large hallway spreads from left to right. In that hallway you see the city hall clerk sitting at his desk with a partly smug and partly overworked expression on his face. He seems to barely notice you coming in, just stealing a glance at you and then getting back to his undoubtedly important paperwork.
On the right side of his desk, a large set of double doors is waiting for you. Peeking into the room behind that door, you see a heavy table with three solid wooden chairs behind it. This must be the courtroom you've heard many stories about.
You look further to the right and see a reading stand with legal texts, a large bulletin board with the office chambers and the office holders of your city, and three other, rather unadorned doors. These doors probably lead to the rooms of the lower office chambers.
The left part of the hallway holds two more reading stands, one for the Book of Dynasties and one for leasing the mines, lumber yards and quarries. And you see two more doors, leading to the richer equipped rooms of the chambers of the Mayor and the City Constables.
As you want to make your way to the desk of the city hall clerk, the leader of an opposing dynasty rudely shoves you aside and places himself in front of the desk. After a short talk, he drops a bag of coins on the wooden tabletop - oiling the wheels you assume - then turns around and with a forced smile in your direction, he leaves the building again.
Now you step up to the desk. The city hall clerk greets you expectantly and asks you what he can do for you. You state that you want to acquire a higher title and place your bag of coins on the desk. The clerk opens the bag and with a frown puts some coins aside and shoves them back in your direction. It seems to be a bit less expensive to ask for a new title directly in the city hall.
You decide to stay here a bit longer. Over the course of the day, you see other fellow citizens applying for vacant offices, members of office chambers gathering in the hallway and then entering their rooms for their meetings. And finally you see what you were waiting for: the three city judges enter the courtroom, followed by a smug looking member of a dynasty and a person in simple clothing in the colors of another dynasty. From your position in the hallway you cannot see what is going on inside that room, but in the end, the person in simple clothes is escorted out of the city hall by a guard and most likely brought to jail.
It is close to the evening hours and you decide to head home. The next step for you will be to purchase a house inside the city walls and start your first business here. And some day, of that you are sure, you will take an office seat and have a say in decisions about the fate of your home city!
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That was just a glimpse into the final version of The Guild 3 :-)
See you in the city hall!
Your The Guild 3-Team