Node taxes

Alpha-2 Node treasury work-in-progress advanced node taxes UI.

As the node levels up, you're gonna get access to deeper controls on the taxes, so that you as a Mayor can incentivize players to come to your node to do certain things. If you're a node that loves smithing, you're probably going to want to lower your taxes on artisanship to incentivize players to be here. But then you might want to drive up taxes on other avenues that players aren't necessarily coming to your node for, but are using out of convenience. – Chris Justo

Alpha-2 Citizenship dues and node taxes work-in-progress UI.

Mayors are able to set a generalized node tax rate as well as overrides for different activities within their node. Mayors gain additional taxation controls as their node advances.

• Amenities tax override.
• Artisanship tax override.
• Commerce tax override.
  • This may include taxes that apply to tavern games.
• Property tax override.
  • Freehold property taxes scale according to the number of freehold building permits issued for that freehold.
• Citizenship dues and property taxes scale based on the stage of the node when a player became a citizen.
  • The goal is to exert financial pressure on node populations by making taxes increasingly expensive as nodes advance, rather than putting in place hard population caps.
• Node tax rates will be visible on the world map by hovering over a node location.
• Tax revenue only goes toward funding node development. This cannot be withdrawn by the mayor or any other player.

Regent nodes take a cut of taxes from various activities that occur within their vassal node structure.

• This tax doesn't necessarily impact the individual citizen, because citizen's tax levels are determined by their node, but the node's finances are affected by the taxation levied by its parent nodes.

Housing taxes

When a node reaches stage 3 (Village) and a player run government has formed, all player housing will pay taxes.

• A player's tax charge will be determined by the number of structures built on their plot.
• Freehold taxes are calculated based on the number of permits issued for buildings on a freehold.
  • Buildings that require permits will have additional upkeep costs.

Maintaining businesses requires licensing and payments to the node your Freehold is associated with. This permitting system allows for a certain number of buildings to be constructed on a Freehold. Permits can be obtained from the same node the Freehold was certified from, and buildings that require permits will have an additional upkeep cost.

• Housing foreclosures result from failing to pay property taxes or other fees.

Housing foreclosures

Housing foreclosures result from failing to pay property taxes or other fees.

• Non-payment of taxes will put the housing into a default status. The player will have a period of time to settle the debt before the housing is foreclosed.

• The developers are considering allowing pre-payment of housing taxes and/or allowing auto deduction of tax from a designated location, such as their personal inventory or warehouse.

• Materials and resources (such as livestock) that were stored on foreclosed freeholds will be included in the auction for the deed to that freehold. Stored and placed props, such as furniture will be returned to the previous owner.

If you don’t pay taxes and other fines, your Freehold property will be foreclosed. When a Freehold is foreclosed on, stored and placed props like furniture are returned to the previous owner. Materials that were stored on a Freehold will be included in the auction for the Deed to that Freehold.

• Non-payment of the game subscription will also result in loss of player housing.

Vassal nodes

Vassal node structure.

This vassal mode structure tells you what it looks like for a sovereign at a level six metropolis stage; and what it can control at a maximum vassal network is two level five nodes, of which a level five node can control one level four and one level three as direct vassals; and then the four can control a three; and every three can control a one or a two. Now if the three gets removed through siege, the one or the two is removed as well. So that's an important distinction between the three's vassals, which technically isn't really a vassal relationship because there's no citizenships possible. Those vassals don't exist between three and X, but they do exist between four and three, five and four, and six and five. And what this also allows is that because there are 85 nodes that are within the world, we have a buffer zone of about 20 nodes that lives in a max server state. So if you had maximum five metropolises form in a world, you will have a number about 20 nodes that can live alongside those metropolis networks; and when or if a metropolis falls, that extra cushion of nodes around the five metropolis structures allows for the map to be redistricted in a way that is unique. It doesn't mean that one of the fives is just going to pick up where the last six left off and form the same exact metropolis structure. From a territory perspective it has ancillary nodes to play with and expand towards that redistricts the map, so that if a metropolis falls there's a significant difference in the layout of the world and the layout of these almost nation-like territories. – Steven Sharif

Village (stage 3) or higher nodes enslave nearby nodes, converting them into vassal nodes.

• A Metropolis (stage 6) can control up to two City (stage 5) nodes. A City (stage 5) can control one Town (stage 4) and one Village (stage 3) node. A Village (stage 3) can control an Encampment (stage 2) or an Expedition (stage 1). If the Village (stage 3) gets destroyed through a siege, its dependant Encampment (stage 2) and Expedition (stage 1) nodes are also destroyed.

There is a layer of intricacy between how the neighboring nodes advance and what potential parent structure they have in the vassalship tree. – Steven Sharif

• Vassal nodes gain benefits from their regent node (also referred to as sovereign node or parent node) even if the node type of the parent is different to the vassal.
  • Metropolis (stage 6) node superpowers apply to the vassal nodes of that metropolis.

It is not a bad thing to be vasseled, it is a good thing to be vasseled. It brings many benefits from the Sovereign, which is the ultimate parent of that vassal network down to the vassal node itself; and it allows that vassal node to even live outside of its normal mechanics. You get to adopt some of the benefits that the node type of your sovereign is, even if your node type as a vassal node isn't the same. – Steven Sharif

• Vassal nodes must remain capped at least one node stage below their regent node.
  • Neighboring/Adjacent nodes from Expedition (stage 1) upward block the growth of their immediate neighbors. This was intended to be tested in Alpha-1.
  • If the regent node advances, the vassal is once again able to advance.

• Vassal nodes may have their own vassals; so long as the vassals fall within the parent node's zone of influence.

• Nodes do not receive experience from their vassals until the vassals have reached their cap.
  • Vassal nodes first apply any experience (from themselves or their own vassals) to their own atrophy deficit. Any excess experience beyond the cap is then applied to their parent node.

• Vassal nodes can extend across seas, and also include islands.

• Regent nodes collect taxes from their vassal nodes. These taxes cannot be taken by the mayor or other players.

• Vassals are subject to the government, alliances, wars, taxes, and trade of their parent node, and are able to receive federal aid from them.
• Vassal nodes cannot declare war on their parent node or any of their vassals.

Q: During phase two testing you are hoping to test vassals. Would you be open to test the game implications of vassal sieging their parent node?

A: I don't think that that's something we necessarily need to test at this stage. I think what we what in testing the vassaling system- what we are getting feedback on is: what is the relationship between the parent node and the vassal node, and the benefits that they provide the citizens of each, and how is that looked upon by the player base through this testing. Is it being looked at as a negative relationship, and if so then probably we need to talk about the intent: what is the intent? The intent is that it should be reflected upon positively, so then how do we start tuning the knobs and levers in order to make that relationship feel better for the players. So that's where we would start, is if we get negative feedback from that relationship of the parent to vassal node then we would start by tuning the levers and the knobs around how to increase the benefit for that reciprocal relationship between those two, before we thought about, 'oh okay well players don't seem to like being vassals of a parent node, let's just let them kill the parent node', because that has much wider architectural design concerns; and we wouldn't go to that step unless we just come to some determination that like, no matter what knob and lever we turn, players just don't like being a vassal. Okay then, let's talk about how players can stop being a citizen of one node and go become the citizen of another node if it's just not their cup of tea to be a vassal citizen, regardless of the benefits that we offer. – Steven Sharif

• Citizens of vassals are bound by the diplomatic states of the parent node.

If a Node is a Vassal Node and is capped from advancing further, it first applies any experience earned to its own deficit (see Node Atrophy section), and then applies excess experience earned to its Parent Node. If the Parent Node advances and the Vassal is able to grow, it becomes uncapped. If a Node is capped and is both a Vassal and has its own Vassals, any experience earned from itself or its Vassals is first applied to their own deficit. Any experience beyond that is then sent to its Parent Node. – Margaret Krohn

Visuals

• 2023-09-19
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  2023-09-02
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  2023-09-02

See also

• Nodes
• Taxes
• Economy